How start-ups can build effective partnerships with global brands

Although we are launching our direct-to-consumer product in a few weeks, we just launched on Interactive Brokers as part of our business to consumer partnership strategy. It is with the latter in mind that I thought I would share our thoughts on how start-ups can build effective partnerships with global brands, given we have direct experience of this. It may seem daunting as a start-up to think that a leading firm would entertain you, but it happens often now. For example, recently we were on a panel hosted by the Findr Collective, where we also heard the views of other leading brands. It was encouraging to see how these big brands were open about wanting to build partnerships with start-ups and inviting positive dialogues. First, here are our own thoughts: • You need to be very specific about the business you choose to partner with so filter your list down to one which fits you best • You need to find an internal champion who will help you navigate the organisation. This may not be the first person you contact but it will be the person who is as enthusiastic about your product as you are. They will be the ones who are staking their internal reputation on championing you, so bear that in mind regarding progress. This was key for us with respect to our launch with Interactive Brokers. • Large organisations typically require multiple decision makers at several levels. One mistake is to go to the very top and hope they will buy into your story. However, those people are sometimes far removed from the day to day and will often defer decisions to people in their organisation who are closer to the ground. • Because there are multiple decision makers, you need your champion to help you pitch internally the way you want to be represented. So, provide them with a very high-level overview as that is what is going to be read first. • Regarding the overview, the starting point should be how this benefits the brand first, then what challenges their customers face and how this benefits them and finally how you deliver those benefits. For example, we start off our partner pitch with the tag line: How to make your platform stickier? • If you have a B2B2B product, i.e. you have a product where the global brand is reselling your product to their business customers, then don’t think that their sales distribution will automatically turn on and start spinning the sales wheel. When I was at Bloomberg and LSEG, we would partner with fintechs but the reality was we are also selling our own native products so those typically take priority. The best fintech partnerships were when the fintech itself would join or lead the sales pitch and actively engage with our salesforce to get introductions to warm accounts after combing through the client list. • Persistence. If one door stalls or closes, reach out to others in the organisation. I remember very early on in my career, winning a large deal by contacting a dozen people in the firm. In the end, it was a secretary who reached out to me, and they liked what I said, said they would help…and they did! • Politeness. All these big firms are just corporate entities filled with people like you and me. So, treat them like you would a friend and be polite. It goes a long way. Regarding the Findr panel, here are some key points from what the other panellists said: Brand Partnership Group “...research your target to understand how you can add value - personalise your approach to be relevant to their needs” eToro “...find similarities between your businesses, many of our partnerships are based on joint audience rather than product” Mastercard “...find your champion, a partner who believe in you solution and will actively help your partnership progress” Hope the above helps and happy to answer any questions.