How to answer the question "Do you want to be my business partner?"

Over the last few weeks a number of clients and readers have asked a similar question:

I’ve been approached by company X to partner with us. Do you know them and what do you think we should do?

Since many startups, especially technology firms, partner for the wrong reasons and end up having failed or suboptimal relationships I thought I’d give as simple an answer as possible for partnering.

BioPharma

BioLabs Pegasus Park Cultivates Life Science Ecosystem

Gabby Everett, the site director for BioLabs Pegasus Park, offered a tour of the space and shared some examples of why early-stage life science companies should choose North Texas.

There are of course a number of reasons you’d want to partner with someone but if you’re focused on sales and marketing (revenue generation) then you should consider the following questions.

Will working with the partner:

Generate or accelerate the generation of new sales leads? How many?
Help close existing deals faster? How many?
Close any new deals simply because you’re working with them? How many?
Accelerate revenue recognition? By how many days?
Reduce sales costs? By a significant amount? How much?
Reduce implementation timeline? How much?
Reduce implementation costs? How much?
Reduce support calls / cost? By how much?

If there’s not a solid “yes” for some, many, or all of the questions above (followed by appropriate metrics), don’t spend the time considering the partnership.

A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma

A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.

By PurpleLab