In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Sara Pereda, Global Head of Partnerships at Rivo, for a candid conversation about what great partnerships look like when budgets are tighter, expectations are higher, and “good vibes” alone don’t move revenue.

Sara’s background is anything but typical: entertainment, nonprofit, finance, HR, agency, SaaS. But that unusual path made her exceptional at one thing modern commerce desperately needs: building systems, relationships, and communities that scale.

Together, they unpack:

• Sara’s unconventional path from entertainment and finance into ecommerce partnerships

• The through-lines that made her effective across every role: organization, communication, and seeing the bigger picture

• Why the best partnerships are always a two-way street and why “checking the box” kills value

• The real goal of partnerships: revenue first, relationship through value

• Sara’s rule of the Three I’s: introduction, information, invitation

• Why partner people need to stop obsessing over logos and start creating measurable outcomes

• How Smarter Ships grew into one of ecommerce’s most trusted communities

• The tools she uses to scale, from PRMs to Crossbeam to AI-powered workflows

• Why the old partnership playbook is breaking and what operators need to do differently now

This one is packed with hard-won lessons for anyone building in ecommerce, especially if you work in partnerships, SaaS, agency growth, or ecosystem strategy. Sara doesn’t just talk about community and value. She’s built both.

👥 Meet the guest Sara Pereda, Global Head of Partnerships at Rivo | Founder of Smarterships

🎙 Hosted by Aaron Schwartz, Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Orita.ai

🎧 Chapters

[00:00] What Great Partnership Operators Do Differently

[05:25] Why One-Way Partnerships Always Break

[08:03] Partnerships That Don’t Drive Revenue Aren’t Partnerships

[10:49] The Tool Stack Sara Uses to Scale Partnerships

[13:55] How Smarter Ships Became Ecommerce’s Most Trusted Community

[19:40] What’s Next for Smarter Ships

[25:36] Why the Best Networkers Always Win

[27:15] Not Every Partner Deserves the Same Playbook

[30:07] How to Build a Partnership Function From Scratch

[33:03] The Systems Behind High-Performing Partnerships

[34:09] Why Rivo Is Shopify’s Best-Kept Secret

[38:47] How Sara Enables Partners Without Wasting Their Time

[43:06] The Old Partnerships Playbook Is Dead

🌐 Check out Orita.ai for more episodes of The Orita Podcast, where we sit down with the most interesting operators, marketers, and founders in e-commerce to talk about what’s working right now. Hosted by the Orita team. Orita uses machine learning to help brands send smarter, more profitable marketing, by figuring out who actually wants to hear from you and when.

🚀 Get your free email audit from Orita, turn segments into superpowers: https://orita.ai

🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple

📩 Subscribe for more founder‑grade retention intel