Author: Dan Schoenbaum / Source: Entrepreneur This is the story of a small, innovative startup that fought above its weight class, built a
This is the story of a small, innovative startup that fought above its weight class, built a meaningful relationship with several multi-billion dollar industry leaders and achieved a spot on center stage.
Yep, that startup is the one I lead. It’s called Redbooth, and we make task and project management software for teams.
But, those successes didn’t happen by accident. How did we do it? In a nutshell, we followed three simple rules. And if you follow them too, you’ll increase the odds of partnering your small business or growing startup with a heavy-hitting Goliath.
But first, let’s look at what partnerships are — and what they’re not. Here in Silicon Valley, it seems like there are thousands of companies all trying to partner with large, public companies with deep pockets. This creates a lot of noise and confusion. Quite frankly, it makes it harder every day to rise above the noise.
The internet is flooded with announcements touting new products, integrations (“our product now works with theirs”) and — let’s be honest here — completely meaningless partnerships. I like to call them “Barney partnerships,” as in “I love you, you love me . . . ” Nothing is as meaningless as the dreaded Barney partnership! Yet, these are announced every day.
So, the challenge we faced is the same as the one that you may be facing now: How can we break out and score a win with an industry giant? By using the techniques I’m about to describe, our small company was able to land a multi-million dollar licensing deal with a Fortune 100 company, appear in the keynote address at an industry conference in front of thousands, and become the leading task management solution for a sales force of several thousand sales representatives.
1. Understand that it’s not about you.
This first rule is by far the most important one. Before you try to partner with a company, you must seek first to understand them.
Countless meetings still begin with entrepreneurs telling a potential partner how great their product or technology is — only to have the message completely miss the mark, or fall on deaf ears. As you would imagine, this is about as effective as emailing your resume to an HR department: everyone does it, and nobody stands out.
The most important thing you need to do is to work really hard to understand their business. It’s not easy. But, it’s essential. What are their challenges? What are their business priorities for this year? How is the executive you’re talking to measured? What does success look like for the company as a whole?
If you don’t completely understand the answers to these questions, stop, go back, and do not waste your time with any further discussion about what you do or how you think you can help. Your message will not likely be heard, and…
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