I often find myself advising entrepreneurs to be cautious when predicting sales volumes through distribution partners or sales channels, so I thought I would reproduce my thoughts here. In my experience these distribution deals where small company does deal with big company to sell small company's product disappoint more often than they deliver. ...

Tags: Advise and Tips / Partnerships / Sales / Share:

Via: The Equity Kicker Written by Nic Brisbourne I'm a VC in London

There is a lot of focus on investment deals and negotiating with venture capitalists but bootstrappers prosper closing deals with customers and partners. Here are some tips if you are new to making deals. ...

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Via: Sean Murphy Written by Sean Murphy New Technology Product Introduction Focused on Early Custome

Often times when I see two teams going after a very similar market opportunity I look at the founders and can easily envision a great combined team. One start up has been founded by a marketing professional with ten years experience in a major consumer technology company, another by a tech whiz with a newly minted Masters from MIT, and a third by a born saleswoman. But each continue to struggle to ...

Tags: Mergers / Opinion / Partnerships / Share:

Via: On Startups Written by Ken Smith 13 start-ups, 10 exits, and counting.

There has been a lot of recent conversation about services built on top of a platform, and the problems that follow when that platform changes its strategy. Companies change their strategy all the time. The problem is when you exclusively rely on one platform to build the foundation of your service, and that platform no longer sees services like yours as useful. Or worse, it starts seeing such ser ...

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Via: Rashmi’s blog Written by Rashmi Sinha CEO & Cofounder - SlideShare

If there's only one passionate party in a relationship it's unrequited love. Here's how I learned it the hard way. ...

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Via: Steve Blank Written by Steve Blank Customer Development & Secret History, Teaching at Stanford,

It seems to particularly prey on solopreneurs and micro-businesses. It's only natural. We have fewer resources. We have to wear more hats, so we're more susceptible. The problem? We're riding the revenue rollercoaster. See if this sounds familiar... ...

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Via: Carol Roth Blog

Most people claim to not want to deal with the hassles of negotiating. I think most of us feel this way, really. But it's not a reality in business. While you may be able to offer a price ...

Tags: Acquisition / Negotiation / Partnerships / Share:

Via: Both Sides of the Table Written by Mark Suster 2x entrepreneur. Sold both companies (last to http://salesfo

At yesterday’s Startup Riot I enjoyed talking with a number of entrepreneurs. One item that kept coming up was partnership opportunities that entrepreneurs were excited about. Here are some example partnership opportunities: Invite to be on someone else’s app store-like marketplace Desire to white label or OEM the product by a bigger company Exclusive reseller [...] ...

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Via: David Cummings Written by David Cummings 10-20 tweets per week. Tech entrepreneur who enjoys family,

Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Non-organic growth would include OEM relationships, finding strategic partners, “coopetition,” as well as acquisitions. This initial focus is ...

Tags: Acquisition / Partnerships / Scaling / Share:

Via: Hot Sauce! Written by Marty Zwilling Veteran startup mentor, executive, blogger, author, tech pro