Do Not Partner

Here is a short and simple advice I can now tell after debating, scheduling, executing and analysing partnerships with startups. Partnerships between startups and other companies or organizations were mainly negotiated to bridge the needed puzzle pieces a startup cannot provide to fulfil product-market-fit.

If you can manage it, do not partner with anyone. The more partners your business model or product depends on, the more you have to

• split your attention
• split your learnings
• split the pie

With partners you have to fight for your point of view. The more partners you have, the more time it will take to execute anything.

Think and limit needed partnerships to learn the skills yourself, bootstrap. Then hire the right people to execute your missing pieces step by step.

If you still think partnerships are important, rethink your product. Eliminate the piece in your model the partner stands for or start to find a substitute for the partnership.

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