3:00
Juan MC Larrosa
3 Things You Need To Know About Entry-Level Business Development and Partnerships at Startups
Alexander Taub, Contributor - Forbes
Roles in BD and partnerships are some of the most sought after non-technical positions at startup companies. But what exactly does someone do in this department? Here are three things you need to know:
What does someone in Business Development and Partnerships do?
In my experience, BD and partnerships consists of three main things:
The first is the process of marketing, selling, and developing strategies for your company. This means doing whatever it takes to grow the business side: working on user acquisition, figuring out what is wrong (or right) with engagement, working with partners to launch an integration, and various other tasks. The person in a BD or partnership role may even be as ingrained and invested (time-wise) as the founders of the company.
The second facet of the role is to strengthen ties with existing partners and to create new ones, which helps build, grow, and maintain your network. If you need to get someone from Twitter on the phone in the next 48 hours, but don’t know anyone who either works for Twitter (shout out @ellen) or knows someone who works at Twitter (and can connect you), then you are in big trouble! Making sure you are one degree away from reaching each company is critical for BD and partnerships.
The third, and probably most important, is getting to the point of transaction and turning it into repeat occurrences. Every startup is looking to find a way to build a scalable business. In BD and partnerships, you should be looking for that moment of transaction and trying to repeat it as many times as possible. If you do that, then it turns a business development role function into a sales role, which is then passed on to a capable individual to scale out.
Difference between different types of BD
There are a few different types of business development. Phrases like B2C, B2B, B2D, B2B2C, are thrown around constantly. What do they mean?
Business To Consumer (B2C)
B2C refers to consumer-facing companies. Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, and Tumblr come to mind. In this scenario, a business development and partnership role is typically taken on by a founder. There usually isn’t another business role for another 10-20 hires (typically engineers, product, and design roles are more important). On top of that, B2C companies build an API that other companies can leverage. While it doesn’t completely replace the need for BD positions, it replaces the need of a big BD/Partnership team.
Business To Business (B2B)
B2C refers to consumer-facing companies. Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, and Tumblr come to mind. In this scenario, a business development and partnership role is typically taken on by a founder. There usually isn’t another business role for another 10-20 hires (typically engineers, product, and design roles are more important). On top of that, B2C companies build an API that other companies can leverage. While it doesn’t completely replace the need for BD positions, it replaces the need of a big BD/Partnership team.
Business To Business (B2B)
B2B is when you are a business selling to other businesses. Companies like Salesforce, Box, and 37 Signals are good examples. In the B2B scenario, you have a product where your target market is other businesses. Industries considered B2B are enterprise, government, and institutions. I’ve seen people doing BD/partnership (it’s typically sales though) for B2B companies make millions for and help grow their company to billions in value.
Business To Business To Consumer (B2B2C) or Business To Developer (B2D)
B2B2C or B2D typically is when a company “powers” a feature on a third-party website. They typically need to sell the product team or a developer of the company. Some people call it the “powered by” solution. Some great examples are Aviary (my old stomping ground, doing some pretty awesome things these days), Twilio, and others. The trick with B2B2C and B2D is to build a scalable product and developer portal so that interested parties can easily get what they need and integrate as quickly as possible.
B2B2C or B2D typically is when a company “powers” a feature on a third-party website. They typically need to sell the product team or a developer of the company. Some people call it the “powered by” solution. Some great examples are Aviary (my old stomping ground, doing some pretty awesome things these days), Twilio, and others. The trick with B2B2C and B2D is to build a scalable product and developer portal so that interested parties can easily get what they need and integrate as quickly as possible.
Roles in BD and partnerships are some of the most sought after non-technical positions at startup companies. But what exactly does someone do in this department? Here are three things you need to know:
What does someone in Business Development and Partnerships do?
In my experience, BD and partnerships consists of three main things:
The first is the process of marketing, selling, and developing strategies for your company. This means doing whatever it takes to grow the business side: working on user acquisition, figuring out what is wrong (or right) with engagement, working with partners to launch an integration, and various other tasks. The person in a BD or partnership role may even be as ingrained and invested (time-wise) as the founders of the company.
The second facet of the role is to strengthen ties with existing partners and to create new ones, which helps build, grow, and maintain your network. If you need to get someone from Twitter on the phone in the next 48 hours, but don’t know anyone who either works for Twitter (shout out @ellen) or knows someone who works at Twitter (and can connect you), then you are in big trouble! Making sure you are one degree away from reaching each company is critical for BD and partnerships.
The third, and probably most important, is getting to the point of transaction and turning it into repeat occurrences. Every startup is looking to find a way to build a scalable business. In BD and partnerships, you should be looking for that moment of transaction and trying to repeat it as many times as possible. If you do that, then it turns a business development role function into a sales role, which is then passed on to a capable individual to scale out.
Three types Of partnerships
I have encountered three types of partnerships in my career.
The first is product partnerships, also known as integration partnerships. This is typically when one company integrates another company’s product. An example of this would be something like crowdfunding charity website, HopeMob, integrating Dwolla’s payment API to accept donations (disclaimer: I work in business development at Dwolla).
I have encountered three types of partnerships in my career.
The first is product partnerships, also known as integration partnerships. This is typically when one company integrates another company’s product. An example of this would be something like crowdfunding charity website, HopeMob, integrating Dwolla’s payment API to accept donations (disclaimer: I work in business development at Dwolla).
The second is brand partnerships, also known as co-branded partnerships. This is typically when two brands come to together to do big things together. An example of a brand partnership would be Bravo and Foursquare. Early on in Foursquare’s existence, Bravo was one of the first to promote them on-air.
The last is a distribution partnership, also known as a network partnership. This type of partnership happens when one side promotes the other to their userbase. A good example of a distribution partnership would be Facebook and Skype. Facebook put a lot of muscle behind the Skype partnership, one of the very few platform integrations on Facebook (typically you have to build a FB app and work on getting users).
The three topics above are just the beginning of your introduction to the BD and partnerships world. If you are interested in BD and partnerships, start reading, researching and networking in the space you are interested. Start building your network and go forth!
Entradas
