Brenda Spoonemore - A biz dev playbook for startups: Why, when and how to do deals to help your...

A BIZ DEV PLAYBOOKFOR STARTUPS

WHY, WHEN AND HOW TO DO DEALS TO HELP YOUR BUSINESS WIN

WHAT IS BIZ DEV?

Business development means establishing relationships and doing deals to help your company.

Sales

• Revenue• Establish

model

Licensing

• Revenue• Client base

Distribution

• Audience• Intelligence/

data• Shared

revenue

Branding

• Brand alignment

• Partner dependencies

BIZ DEV FOR EARLY STAGE STARTUPS

Your unfair advantages:• Cutting edge tech• Nimble dev iteration• Optimization and focus

Your key challenges:• Getting to scale• Little or no cash• Limited time and resources

HOW BIZ DEV PLAYS ARE DESIGNED

Three case studies:

• Yardbarker and FoxSports.com

• BigDoor and NFL.com

• Fantasy Moguls and CBSSports.com

YARDBARKER

The challenge: Substantial amount of unique user generated content and a core community.

Need more traffic to destination site to increase ad revenue and market position.

YARDBARKER AND FOXSPORTS.COM

YardBarker:

• Access to large base of sports fans• Provide new fresh content• Distribution needed to drive revenue

FoxSports.com:

• Get fresh content at low or no cost• Access to a user gen sports content community• Generate incremental revenue

YARDBARKER AND FOXSPORTS.COM

YARDBARKER AND FOXSPORTS.COM

Quid pro quo:

Distribution

Revenue

Branding

Unique, low cost content

Revenue

Community

BIGDOOR MEDIA

The challenge: Unique customer loyalty/gamification tech but success dependent on reaching a passionate, engaged audience—the larger the better since only a % will convert.

Monetization accelerated by leveraging existing sponsors and products.

BIGDOORAND NFL.COM

BigDoor:

• Access to users and usage data to prove product model• Provide unique technology and expertise• Must support NFL to ensure successful deployment• Generate revenue via partner

NFL.com:

• Get unique functionality to drive core site metrics• Increase store of personal user data• Drive usage of other NFL goods and services

BIGDOORAND NFL.COM

BIGDOORAND NFL.COM

Quid pro quo:

Prove model

Distribution

Revenue

Unique tech

Revenue

Data

FANTASY MOGULS

The challenge: Fantasy Moguls runs social games with well established virtual goods revenue stream but untapped secondary sponsorship revenue stream.

Engagement in games high but growth constrained by size of Moguls’ ad spend and audience.

FANTASY MOGULSAND CBSSPORTS.COM

Fantasy Moguls:

• Access to a sales force and sales revenue• Brand alignment• Marketing to targeted customer base

CBSSports.com:

• New and creative sponsorship inventory for clients• Ability to tap into virtual goods revenue stream and learn

social games business• Test theories about untapped value of existing and new

customers

FANTASY MOGULSAND CBSSPORTS.COM

FANTASY MOGULSAND CBSSPORTS.COM

Quid pro quo:

Distribution

Branding

Ad revenue

Virtual goods revenue

Ad revenue

Access to new model

THE SECRET OF A WINNING PLAY

If both parties don’t win, you’ve lost.

A BIZ DEV PLAYBOOKFOR STARTUPS

BRENDA SPOONEMORE

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, DWELLABLE

BRENDA@DWELLABLE.COM

YOUR PLAYBOOK

STEP ONE: DRAW UP YOUR PLAY• Define your needs

• Know what you want, assign a metric• Create spreadsheet of target partners

• Who is best positioned to deliver? • What do you have to offer in return (value)?

• Find the right contact

• Network and research• Cold calls are a last resort

STEP TWO: RUN THE PLAY• The pitch

• Email or call to generate interest• Do pitch live or in person• Adjust on the fly

• The proposal

• Follow up with answers and proposal• Have term sheet in mind• Write out structure, model before sending

STEP THREE: FINISH• The negotiation

• Don’t try to win every point• The negotiation sets the tone for the relationship

• The term sheet

• One page• The agreement

• Legal, contracts vs letter agreements• The relationship

• The only thing that really matters