{"id":6547,"date":"2019-02-21T12:15:25","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T17:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gutenberg-atl.staging.breakingmedia.com\/legal-innovation-center\/?p=6547"},"modified":"2019-02-20T15:48:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T20:48:32","slug":"sync-finding-industry-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2019\/02\/21\/sync-finding-industry-partners\/","title":{"rendered":"Sync: Finding Industry Partners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"No man is an island; neither is any corporate person.<\/span><\/p>\n

If your intention is to build a high-revenue legal technology software company, which it should be \u2014 if it\u2019s not, just <\/span>go farm beets, or something<\/span><\/a> \u2014 you\u2019re gonna need help.\u00a0 You\u2019ll need internal help (cofounders, employees), but, you\u2019ll also need external help.\u00a0 You\u2019ll need people outside of your organization to become invested in your mission as well.\u00a0 There will be a number of people who will be involved in the forward movement of your software company, some formally, most informally; but, you can nevertheless be sure that they\u2019ll all be motivated by the same thing: <\/span>straight cash, homie<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 People want to gets paid.\u00a0 It\u2019s why they become involved in business in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, when you\u2019re looking for any kind of partnership arrangement, just follow the money.\u00a0 And this includes industry partnerships that you develop.\u00a0 Maybe there is a company that will pay you to develop a white-labeled version of your product for them.\u00a0 Maybe you enter into a revenue share arrangement instead.\u00a0 Perhaps it\u2019s a reseller agreement.\u00a0 Perhaps it\u2019s an integration partnership.\u00a0 There might even be a combination of <\/span>revenue models I haven\u2019t even thought of<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 In either direction, a business partnership has to make financial sense, in the legal industry just like any others.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you look for vendor partnerships, there are certain factors you should consider, in addition to the main question of whether it makes sense for both parties financially:<\/span><\/p>\n

Does the other company do something you don\u2019t?<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 If you\u2019ve built a document automation company, you\u2019re not going to work with another document automation company.\u00a0 You ARE the document automation company.\u00a0 Maybe you merge, maybe you get bought out – but you don\u2019t work with your competitors otherwise.\u00a0 Aside from that obvious notion, there are certainly shades of features for software products, and the challenge is more about figuring out whether you are <\/span>indirectly<\/span><\/i> competitive.\u00a0 For example, in terms of law firm client intake: Is your virtual receptionist service competitive with your intake form provider, or can the two processes be reconciled (including potentially resulting in subscriptions for both products for a single law firm)?\u00a0 Figuring out whether somebody\u2019s gonna helps you buy your lunch or whether somebody\u2019s gonna eat your lunch might not be as easy as you presume.\u00a0 And, especially if you are a new entrant to the legal market, it may take you some time to determine who the players are, and who the players aren\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

Does the other company actually have traction?<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 It\u2019s also difficult to figure out, sometimes, just how viable your potential partner is.\u00a0 No one is stamping their financials or usership numbers across their foreheads, and blustering is a common trait among entrepreneurs, in part because it\u2019s a necessary skill of the genre.\u00a0 Not that you need to be a Svengali – but you should have some sense of how much traction your potential partner has in the market, because it will help you to determine how much effort you should put into managing the relationship and also how much revenue you can reasonably expect from an arrangement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Does the other company even want to work with you?<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 There are several factors in place that could make a relationship with an industry partner difficult or impossible.\u00a0 And you should be aware of those potential issues before embarking on this course.\u00a0 With respect to working with another software company, you should inquire as to whether that software company regularly works with other software companies, whether they commit to integration partnerships at all, or only on an irregular basis with strict requirements for doing so.\u00a0 Also, keep in mind that just because you see a fit, that might not be a mutual vision.\u00a0 Maybe your potential partner doesn\u2019t have the same understanding about how your software could work with theirs.\u00a0 If you\u2019re looking a potential reseller, it may be that their vision for sales does not align with your own.\u00a0 Fit is not a given and even plans with tremendous potential don\u2019t always come to fruition. \u00a0 Lastly, as a start-up, you\u2019ve continually got to prove yourself. \u00a0 Most startups fail, and no one (not even you) truly knows whether you\u2019ll be around in six months.\u00a0 So, a potential partner taking the (legitimate) position that you\u2019re too much of a risk to take on is a fact of business life for startups.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a new business, the world is very much your oyster; but, paring down opportunities into viable partnerships is one of the hardest tasks you might not have expected to have.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tips to consider when considering vendor partnerships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88988,"featured_media":6549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2191,2395,11],"tags":[182,3835,317,3839,3837],"class_list":["post-6547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-ideas","category-startup","category-technology","tag-legal-tech","tag-partnerships","tag-startups","tag-tech-startups","tag-vendor-partnerships"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSync: Finding Industry Partners - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2019\/02\/21\/sync-finding-industry-partners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sync: Finding Industry Partners - 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