I met a great entrepreneur from Australia who was still in the midst of working on the product who taught a great lesson that I think more startups need to embrace. It was a lesson about vision, inspiration, and collaboration. This is a story about Partnerships.
Because at VenturX, we work so many technology-based startups, we often get hit with the question “How can I build more of the business when the product is not ready?” The key to any founding team is divide & conquer. When this startup came to us and was very early, they were not looking for investment or referrals or anything. Instead, they heard about us from our content via Medium, Twitter, and Facebook and wanted to form a partnership.
Here are 3 great tips:
1. The business founder should be building partnerships when the product is still undergoing development. It is never too early for those relationships.
2. When you don’t have your product ready yet, offer to help your partner first. Eg. Our new partner, Intribe, offered great support via social media awareness. This was a great lesson about giving before asking. Because it is increasingly common for startups to be asking from everyone (please follow me, download this e-book, do you want me to get you more followers, etc..) It is refreshing and rare to meet those new partners who are giving before they ask. It makes them stand out. Another important aspect of this is to be realistic about how startups can give/help one another when they are small and starting out. We were given realistic expectations of what support we will be receiving via social media because it is what they could offer at the time. It yields an honest and authentic relationship right from the beginning
3. Keeping partners in the loop on your progress. Because we work with 300+ startup clients to get their financing, we do understand the pain of delays and various obstacles. When our partner schedule update calls every few months to give realistic updates and have a clear “call to action” for their partners, it is really appreciative. It shows that both sides do want to help each other and that each of their time is valuable.
Partnerships are a great way to open up your audience channels, penetrate the market quickly and co-brand. In our case, not only did this example broaden our marketing field but it also gave us an inspiring lesson to share as more startups come onto the field every day. These tips are great steps to building out those lasting relationships that can sustain through the life of your company.
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About VenturX
VenturX is a web platform that helps entrepreneurs through their journey from idea to launch and beyond. VenturX uses data-driven analytics to score and connect startups and investors at Seed and Series A financing.
