This is purely a thought at this point, but I have seen a few small companies in situations like yours be able to get some adoption by:
1. Having a product that solves a real need for the buyers (and preferably one they already know they have)
2. Getting that product "certified" with a partner, such as OpenShift.
I cannot get specific, but there are a few companies I've seen that developed a clever solution to a problem, packaged it into a Kubernetes Operator, got it certified with OpenShift, and because they had that logo they got the audience with the people with purse strings. At that point it's classic salesperson strategy.
A lot of big customers right now want to be able to point-click install stuff easily into their existing platforms/stacks, and then "check a box" in their list of requirements. If I were in your shoes, I would look at how people are already using it (OpenShift? AWS? Azure? Google Cloud?, etc and go from there. Getting "certified" is usually a mutually beneficial arrangement. It will take a bit of work with bureaucracies (which will annoy you greatly), but the payoff can be huge.
1. Having a product that solves a real need for the buyers (and preferably one they already know they have)
2. Getting that product "certified" with a partner, such as OpenShift.
I cannot get specific, but there are a few companies I've seen that developed a clever solution to a problem, packaged it into a Kubernetes Operator, got it certified with OpenShift, and because they had that logo they got the audience with the people with purse strings. At that point it's classic salesperson strategy.
A lot of big customers right now want to be able to point-click install stuff easily into their existing platforms/stacks, and then "check a box" in their list of requirements. If I were in your shoes, I would look at how people are already using it (OpenShift? AWS? Azure? Google Cloud?, etc and go from there. Getting "certified" is usually a mutually beneficial arrangement. It will take a bit of work with bureaucracies (which will annoy you greatly), but the payoff can be huge.