Navigating Brand Partnerships for Startups

Ramp is one of the few companies that does this ⬇️ They have a perks page offering discounts and direct savings on a wide range of tools their customers use. This creates stronger ecosystem stickiness and positions you as the central hub for your customers. I won’t belabor why this is valuable. The question is… How do you replicate this for your business? Can you offer these same deals if you are less established? 1) Start by directing customers to existing startup or promotional offers. For example, for Amazon AWS credits, you could link them to AWS Activate. Your customers still get the benefit, but there’s no additional lift required from the larger brands. This is often a good way to get your foot in the door. Having a polished perks page featuring offers from top brands also helps when you reach out to others: “We have deals from Amazon, UPS, and Asana for our customers. We’d love to add Notion to the mix. Would you be interested in contributing a unique offer to this page?” 2) Pitch someone whose role is building partnerships like this. One of the big challenges with partnerships, especially at larger organizations, is reaching the right person. The affiliate manager won’t focus on opportunities outside affiliates. The VP of enterprise alliances is only chasing whale deals. While titles vary by company, starting points for something like this are likely titles like: Head of Partnerships Channel Partnership Manager Head of Strategic Partnerships 3) Run an awareness campaign tying your brand to the partner. I’ve seen this work well for partnership deals at companies I've worked like Bonjoro and ActiveCampaign. Here’s how: -> Identify customers who use both your product and your target partners. Let’s use Shopify as an example. -> Email those customers and encourage them to share on LinkedIn why they love using Shopify + [Your Company], or include both in a “favorite tools” list. Put some paid budget behind these posts to get them in front of your target partner’s team. -> When you reach out to the partner, their contacts will be more likely to recognize you, and you’ll have a strong icebreaker. Don’t lead with a pitch; instead, share customer love for both your brands. Even top executives almost always respond to this type of DM.

Working in partnerships teaches you that strategy looks very different depending on where you’re standing. At American Express, partnerships were all about being selective and strategic. With Amex’s brand reputation, we attracted a steady stream of potential partners. But every opportunity was rigorously evaluated to ensure it aligned with our brand’s high standards and operational scale. Partnerships with major retailers and airlines was about keeping pace and elevating the brand’s value across multiple customer segments. Now contrast that with my time at SumAll, a scrappy startup trying to make a name for itself. The challenge wasn’t filtering through partner interest, it was generating it. I vividly remember the hustle it took to position ourselves as an indispensable partner to industry leaders like Square. Success wasn’t about being a household name, it was about aligning OUR solution to THEIR customers’ needs, like helping small businesses measure the impact of social media on their sales. In both cases, the foundation of partnerships is the same: Deeply understanding your partner’s needs and finding ways to create mutual value. Whether you’re at a global giant or a nimble startup, building partnerships requires adaptability, creativity, and a relentless focus on solving problems for your partner. Start by creating a simple “Partner Value Map.” List your potential partner’s goals and pain points, then align your strengths to how you can help them succeed. This clarity will make your outreach and partnership conversations more compelling and strategic.

My 5 rules for brand partnerships on LinkedIn that put my audience AND values first. I’ve seen creators asking if sponsored posts would turn their audience off. The general consensus was "no, if done right". But what does "done right" mean? Well, good news - this is also an area where I've fudged up A LOT in the last year and iterated until I found a good system. It all comes down to these 5 guardrails: 1) Content relevancy If you are known for posting about a specific topic, then the partnership has to be related to that topic. In my case, that's landing pages or running a niche consultancy. Companies or products that can tie into this make the perfect marriage. 2) Creative autonomy I have a specific voice, tone, and style. I also know what content works and doesn't. I usually drive the ideation and content creation. No one writes for me. I also do a hard pass on strong rewrites (no buzzwords, jargon, or straight-up infomercial-type demos, etc.). 3) Audience benefit No matter what, the reader needs to be able to derive some value from it - whether it be tactical knowledge, an idea, or even just a laugh. No straight sells. 4) No "banded" campaigns You know the kind - where a bunch of creators post about the same thing. This is great for brands, they get a lot of visibility. But I feel like it dilutes the creator's brand. I've done these before and they never felt good so I decline those partnerships now. 5) Transparency Making sure all paid posts are marked as "brand partnerships" per FTC rules. Bonus rule: even if everything lines up but the vibe is off then it’s an automatic Bye Felicia. --- Examples of a few partnerships: 1) Goldcast - Video Content Platform We did an entire content series around event landing pages. - Audited 5 event landing pages from Goldcast customers  - Ran a live webinar to go over findings and tips  - Shared an event landing page template  - Did a landing page masterclass using their platform 2) Landing page audits - Tofu and HockeyStack  Even if the companies aren't related to what I do, there are other ways to tie in. Like doing public audits of their landing pages. These got really good feedback about the partnership itself even more than the content. 3) Typeform Transferred my free Hubspot forms into Typeforms and did a live demo of me moving them. 4) Unbounce - Did a podcast episode on Google's landing page update  - Created a landing page kit for the new requirements  - Did a walkthrough of an old landing page and how to change it to fit the new requirements  - Added a Tas Bober template to their landing page library  - Sharing a product landing page template (coming soon) --- Does it work? So far so good (see results below). Will keep iterating. But I can confidently say: You can do both - be authentic, create valuable content, AND partner with (the right) brands.