Partnership Bd

# Partnership & BD - All Guest Insights

*9 guests, 11 mentions*

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## Adam Grenier
*Adam Grenier*

> "I was able to basically position and say, 'Look it, you want to work with us. Let me into your alpha, because I have five years of experience already buying mobile ads. I know the space. I know it'll work. And if you get us to work, we're a killer case study...'"

**Insight:** Securing strategic partnerships with major platforms (like Facebook or Google) requires demonstrating how your success helps them prove their own business model.

**Tactical advice:**
- Offer to be an alpha tester for new platform features to gain a first-mover advantage
- Pitch your company as a unique case study for a category the platform wants to grow

*Timestamp: 00:22:13*


## Ayo Omojola
*Ayo Omojola*

> "Very often the way to make things happen is network-dependent, not necessarily about the merit of the thing itself. So it's just like, there's companies that exist because the founders know the CEO of every major payer in the country"

**Insight:** In highly regulated industries like healthcare, business development is often driven by high-level network access rather than product merit alone.

**Tactical advice:**
- Determine if your business model is network-dependent early on.
- Be extremely crisp about your use case to lower the social capital cost for others to introduce you.
- Focus on identifying the specific person in an organization who has their 'finger on the button' for decisions.

*Timestamp: 42:23*


## Jason Droege
*Jason Droege*

> "McDonald's actually approached us and they said, 'We'd love to do food delivery with you.' And I said, 'No.'... I pushed them off for four or five months... I think it actually ended up being in net benefit because we got a great deal with them."

**Insight:** Strategic patience and the willingness to say 'no' to a major partner can lead to better deal terms and exclusivity.

**Tactical advice:**
- Don't rush into partnerships just because of the partner's size
- Use initial resistance to negotiate better deal terms or exclusivity

*Timestamp: 00:57:27*


## Jen Abel
*Jen Abel 2.0*

> "The problem with channel partnerships and why I don't believe in them is there are a hundred of you on this list and you're expecting them to sell it on your behalf. Biggest no-no, they're not vision casters, they're not visionaries, they're consultants."

**Insight:** Relying on large consultancies (e.g., Accenture, Deloitte) as channel partners is often ineffective because they lack the founder's visionary selling ability.

**Tactical advice:**
- Don't expect consultants to disseminate your product; they are not incentivized to be your visionaries.

*Timestamp: 00:44:02*


## Julia Schottenstein
*Julia Schottenstein*

> "Use that corp dev team to your advantage. It's their job to meet absolutely every company that could be potentially interested. So take that meeting, say you're not interested in an acquisition just yet, but push them to make an introduction to someone that could sponsor the deal. So usually that's someone in product or maybe a GM."

**Insight:** Corporate development teams are gateways to internal product sponsors; use them to build relationships even if you aren't ready to sell.

**Tactical advice:**
- Take meetings with corp dev teams even if you aren't currently looking for an exit.
- Ask corp dev for introductions to GMs or Product leaders who could act as internal sponsors for future deals.

*Timestamp: 00:40:12*


## Meltem Kuran
*Meltem Kuran*

> "Venture capital partners was a huge one because when you get money from a new VC, they ask, they're like, 'Okay, thank you for giving us this money, now we want to expand our team with the money you gave us. What are your other portfolio companies using? What is a platform that you trust that you would recommend?' So people go to their VCs for that kind of question."

**Insight:** The best partners are those whom your target audience already views