Rubrik Expands Project Hourglass as Selling Costs DeclineRubrik, Inc. Class ABATS:RBRKKalaGhaziRubrik (RBRK:NYSE) is increasingly leaning on partners to support its artificial intelligence security push, expanding a key alliance as its sales and marketing expenses continue to fall as a share of revenue. On October 9, at its GSI Summit in Goa, India, the company announced an expansion of Project Hourglass, adding AHEAD, Trace3, and World Wide Technology to an alliance that already includes Deloitte, Cognizant, Wipro, and NTT DATA. The move reflects Rubrik's strategy of broadening its reach through channel partners rather than relying solely on its own direct sales force, which could help the company continue improving its sales efficiency over time. The expanded alliance will support Rubrik Code Guardian, a tool designed to red-team an isolated copy of a customer's code to identify chained attack paths. The product remains in private preview with select design partners, meaning it is not yet generally available to all customers. Code Guardian is intended to help organizations adopt AI-assisted coding without exposing themselves to new security risks, a concern that has grown as more companies integrate AI tools into their software development workflows. What the Partners Get Code Guardian runs on Anthropic's Claude Mythos 5 and tests an air-gapped clone of a code repository, never live systems. By working on an isolated copy rather than the production environment, the tool allows security teams to probe for vulnerabilities without risking disruption to live applications. It sits alongside Rubrik Agent Cloud, which puts guardrails on AI coding agents, creating a broader framework for securing AI-driven development. Partners in the alliance receive joint go-to-market resources, certification tracks, and direct access to Rubrik engineers, giving them the technical support and sales backing needed to bring Code Guardian to their own customers. AHEAD's Steven Sorensen put the pitch simply: "Customers want to adopt AI coding without inheriting AI-speed attack surface." The quote captures the core value proposition behind Code Guardian: as AI accelerates the pace of software development, it also accelerates the pace at which vulnerabilities can be introduced, and Rubrik is positioning itself as a way to manage that risk. By bringing in established channel partners, Rubrik can extend that message to a wider audience without bearing the full cost of direct sales. Rubrik's Selling Costs Are Falling as a Share of Revenue Rubrik spent about 98% of its revenue on sales and marketing in fiscal 2025, a year swollen by stock compensation that kicked in after its 2024 IPO, according to its annual report. That figure was unusually high, reflecting the one-time impact of IPO-related equity awards rather than the company's underlying sales efficiency. In fiscal 2026, revenue grew 48% to $1.32 billion while sales and marketing fell 11% to $770 million, cutting that share to about 58%. Over the last 12 months, it's down to about 54% on $1.54 billion in revenue. The trend suggests that Rubrik is gradually becoming more efficient at generating revenue relative to what it spends to sell, though the ratio remains elevated compared with more mature software companies. Partner selling is one way to keep that ratio moving down. By shifting more of the sales burden to partners, Rubrik can reduce its own direct selling costs while still reaching new customers. Partners bring their own relationships, expertise, and sales capacity, which can be especially valuable for a company trying to scale quickly in a competitive market. If the strategy works, Rubrik could continue to grow revenue while keeping sales and marketing expenses from rising proportionally, improving profitability over time. What Rubrik Hasn't Shown Yet The nine-partner alliance could broaden Rubrik's reach, but the announcement does not quantify Code Guardian's revenue contribution or any selling-cost savings from the expansion. Without those numbers, investors and analysts have no concrete way to measure whether the expanded alliance is actually translating into financial results. The expansion makes sense for a company still spending more than half its revenue to sell, but the strategic rationale alone is not enough to prove the initiative is working. The proof comes later: a general-availability date, then partner-sourced deals big enough for Rubrik to call out on an earnings call. Until those milestones are reached, the market has little to go on beyond the company's stated intentions. For now, the 54% figure is the number to track. If that ratio continues to decline while revenue grows, it would suggest that Rubrik's partner strategy is paying off. If it stalls or rises again, it would raise questions about whether the expanded alliance is delivering the selling-cost savings the company is hoping for.