Momentum

Win-Win Partnering

Every Monday afternoon Momentum teams gather at Grand Valley State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation to discuss the relevance of Guy Kawasaki’s book The Art of the Start and meet with area start up gurus. Momentum’s Art of the Start discussions are facilitated by Mike Morin, Momentum Team Director and SVP at MediaGuide .

Win-Win Partnering

Most partnerships will fail. How do you create one that will succeed? It takes work, business savvy, great relationships, and a lot of trust.

Tips for Start-Ups:

Network your socks off. Good partnerships always begin with good relationships.

Always, always, always do your due diligence. 2+2 rarely equals 5.

Set up those spreadsheets. If the numbers just aren’t there, don’t waste your time.

Don’t stretch – if it is not a good fit, it’s not a good fit. Don’t contort yourself. Look elsewhere.

Look at the numbers, then look at the numbers from the other party’s perspective. What unique needs do they have to motivate them to partner with you?

Only win-win partnerships are sustainable.

Partnering with large organizations can seem lucrative – make sure it makes sense and that your organization has the time to manage such a partnership effectively.

Always have goals, milestones, and deliverables – and try to tie these to incentives. If you don’t start out with goals, any road will get you there.

You have to have a champion on the inside, someone who is willing and able to do the heavy lifting to make it work.

Before you get lawyers involved, whiteboard it. Set up your contracts verbally and really enhance that relationship. You pay a lawyer to think about every possible down side – thinking like that from the very start can kill your partnership before it begins.

Creating partnership agreements is difficult because you hope that the partnership will be a huge success, but you must write the agreement as if the partnership will fail.

If you’re not willing to sue over it don’t put the clause in the document. Things like that usually become hindrances later.

Partnering takes a long time, and it’s always going to take longer than you think.