Navigating the big fish vs. small fish partnerships
Episode on Nearbound's Howdy Partners podcast, partnerships as a path to acquisition, and OpenAI's App Store
What an exciting week for the world of partnerships!
OpenAI announced they’re launching their version of the App Store next month, which marks their path toward a true platform economy. This is a big channel opportunity for any company looking to reach millions of users in the OpenAI ecosystem. And a great example of investing in ecosystem strategy early as a foundation of your GTM strategy.
On the same day, Elad Gil and Stripe hosted Microsoft’s Satya Nadella for a fireside chat. When asked how to think about tools like M&A and organic growth, Nadella shared the following insights about the importance of a good organic partnership (transcript and recording available here):
When I think about most of the big hits and most of the big revenue generators, those are quite frankly partnerships. And organic partnerships are something that people don't talk about. I admire the Gates Grove model, where Intel and Microsoft's collaboration created the PC ecosystem.
In other news, I had the chance to sit down with Will Taylor and Ben Wright to record an episode for their podcast Howdy Partners.
We talked about the ‘big fish vs. little fish’ dynamic when it comes to startups partnering with big tech.
Building your startup in an ecosystem and partnering from day zero can potentially even lead to an acquisition, as I’ve gotten the chance to see with Slido’s acquisition by Cisco a few years ago.
But this dynamic can be also pretty tricky to navigate so here are 3 things I’ve picked up along the way.
For those who want to listen to the podcast, you can listen to the entire episode here:
Work backwards: pursuing a partnership merely for the sake of associating with a well-known name or logo is a frequent discussion point in the 'big fish vs. little fish' dynamic. One way you can be more mindful about this is to work backwards from your (product) strategy and tie your decisions to how you build the actual product. To go the extra step, try getting vulnerable and ask how you fit into your partner’s roadmap.
Say no more often: not every company can or should build a platform like OpenAI or Apple, but they can for sure leverage their distribution. In the more common scenario where you’re building on top of someone else’s platform, I find that it’s helpful to practice the art of saying no and only focus on the parts of your customer’s workflow where you want to invest in terms of partnerships and product integrations.
Recurring revenue comes from recurring impact: think bigger than building a relationship with the Partner Manager. I suggest mapping out your customer journey to see where you may want to engage a partner, even before you start working together on the actual product of your partnership. Partnerships are all about building relationships and trust, and that takes time. Even more so when it comes to large organizations. Something like inviting them to speak at your customer meetup is a great example of how you can start embedding your partner in other parts of your customer’s world early on.