What kind of strategic partnerships helped you grow your startup?

Discussions
#1

I think partnerships are one of the most overlooked strategies for growth. Personally I had great success with them, I’ve made only 2 partnerships but both were strong, one is still running:

  1. They integrated my product with their platform. Their users would have access to my tool from their dashboard without paying anything. The partner paid me instead their users, monthly per number of accesses…I also offered them a good deal + personalized experience and co-branding. This helped me a lot to get the first bucks and drive word of mouth. Support was not a big deal so the ROI was great.

  2. A JV where I get 25% of each sale. I get full sales individually from my channels and also get that % from the partner’s product, which also have better distribution. This partnership is still running, it’s a great win-win-win example. Besides sales it also helped me with exposure, increase in word-of-mouth and the perceived value of the product.

Another good examples: http://blog.getvero.com/online-marketing-strategies-partnerships/

What are your partnership examples?

If you haven’t done any partnership so far, please state the reason?

#2

Hi Virgil, I can only agree with you. Partnerships can give you a nice boost in growth. I saw a lot of traction thanks to the guys from Zapier.com who recommend mailparser.io to their customers as a complementary feature to their platform.

However, I also tried to integrate with another platform which didn’t move the needle at all. Still, I think trying to find a strategic partner is worth the effort.