StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\nGiving Menulog confidence in the startup\u2019s brand, team and experience, a vision and ability to scale with the platform was crucial, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day they\u2019ll make decisions on ensuring their brand is not tarnished,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive confidence around your overall offering.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though we were young in its current form, there was plenty of experience to ensure they were in safe hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost importantly, we had a product that really met their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Are you ready to execute if offered a trial?<\/h3>\n
Before signing any partnership deal, most big companies will want to run a trial with your startup.<\/p>\n
\u201cProving yourself in those trials is really important,\u201d says Fanale.<\/p>\n
Building a \u201cgood relationship\u201d and being transparent about where you\u2019re at and how you\u2019re tracking is vital.<\/p>\n
Fanale believes partnerships are \u201c90% relationship and 10% execution to a degree\u201d, because without a good relationship built on trust, they can crumble.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the relationship isn\u2019t there, your chance of getting past first base is zero,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Is your technology secure enough?<\/h3>\n
Despite the strong alignment, Thompson says, a heavy amount of due diligence was carried out by ANZ to ensure Employment Hero\u2019s technology is safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of Australia\u2019s largest companies needs to be satisfied regarding the security of the product,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of time was spent on security testing and user experience [and] ensuring the product was stable and the right fit for their brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Are you willing to compromise?<\/h3>\n
As in any partnership or collaboration between two separate companies, there will be times when interests clash, says Fanale.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to give and take,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cContract negotiations [are] always a bit challenging because they\u2019ve got their interests they want to protect and you\u2019ve got yours.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the individual relationships are good you tend to be able to work through those.\u201d<\/p>\n
What ANZ wanted to know<\/h3>\n
\u201c[ANZ] wanted to know whether we were aligned with their vision and needs,\u201d Thompson says.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to permanently improve the way employment is managed to make it easier and more rewarding.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom conception, we\u2019ve always wanted to get to 10,000 Australian businesses as quickly as we could. This aligned with them wanting to help their hundreds of thousands of SMEs as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe both had the same end goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Menulog wanted to know<\/h3>\n
Before Menulog partnered with Drive Yello, Fanale says his team was asked everything from how the startup had managed other commercial agreements, to its traction and growth numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted to know our history both personally and from a business perspective,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many deliveries we were doing, what sort of investments we\u2019ve had.\u00a0They wanted to ensure we\u2019re a stable company and we\u2019re going to be around \u2026 good references were valuable to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Start with the end in mind<\/h3>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a big difference in being a disruptor that actively seeks to disrupt the established players, versus one which goes out to be a partner with the big players,\u201d says Thompson.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you going to work against the big guys or go and partner with them? You need to know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Employment Hero chief Ben Thompson Collaborating with a larger company can be a great way for startups to acquire new<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}