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WORLD LEADING BUSINESS SUPPORT
Success doesn’t happen in a vacuum – especially for early-stage ventures. These lessons introduce a core insight: strong partnerships are as essential as strong products. You’ll explore how collaboration reduces risk, expands your influence, and accelerates growth. Learn to reframe what “partnership” means, tap into hidden assets, and connect strategically within your ecosystem. From mapping your network to crafting offers that attract allies, these lessons will help you place partnerships at the heart of your startup strategy.
Successful ventures are rarely built in isolation. This lesson introduces the fundamental concept that for an early-stage founder, building partnerships is as critical as building a product.
• You will learn why collaboration is the most way to test your assumptions and reduce risk.
• We will broaden your definition of a ‘partner’ to include the entire ecosystem around you—from suppliers and academics to regulators and mentors.
• Finally, you will learn to identify the powerful assets you already possess to create compelling, mutually beneficial partnership offers.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to adapt your startup development strategy to place partnership development at its core.
A powerful network is not built by accident; it is built by design. This lesson provides a practical framework for strategically mapping and growing the ecosystem your venture needs to succeed.
• You will learn to map your existing network across four key categories (regulatory, corporate, investment, and research).
• We will then explore how to leverage your current relationships to forge new, vital connections through warm introductions.
• Finally, using a SWOT analysis, you will learn to prioritise your networking efforts to focus on what matters most to your business right now.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to identify potential partners from a range of ecosystem categories and develop a plan to connect with new partners using existing relationships.
Moving from a promising contact to an active collaborator requires a clear, professional, and persuasive proposal. This lesson provides a practical, step-by-step guide to designing partnership offers that get noticed and create real value.
You will learn how to define and align the goals for a potential partnership, how to structure the “offer and ask” so that it is mutually beneficial, and how to define the specific activities that will make the collaboration a success. We will introduce the Partnership Canvas as a key tool to structure your thinking and build a compelling proposition.
Key learning points:
• Successful partnerships begin with a clear alignment of goals and motivations from both sides.
• A partnership proposition must be a balanced, two-way exchange of value, with a clear “offer” and “ask.”
• Defining the specific activities (how you’ll work together) and outcomes (the value created) makes a partnership tangible and manageable.
Intended learning outcome:
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to create a partner offer, using the MIT D-Lab Partner Canvas as a tool, to describe the desired assets, activities and outcomes for both sides of a partnership agreement.
Latent Drive
Follow the real-world story of Frazer Ely, founder of the pioneering green hydrogen company Latent Drive.
This case study explores how he built a complex, multi-layered partnership strategy to take a revolutionary technology from concept to a major demonstration project.
You will see how Frazer managed a technical collaboration with five different partners, leveraged the institutional ecosystem for support, and made a critical strategic decision to bring commercial expertise onto his board. This case provides a practical example of the different forms partnerships can take and the roles they play in a deep-tech venture.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to evaluate the different roles that technical, strategic, and ecosystem partners play in the development of a deep-tech company.
Ecomar Propulsion
Follow the real-world story of Eugene Bari, founder of the zero-emission marine technology company, Ecomar.
This case study explores how he built his company by making a series of unconventional partnership decisions, long before taking on major investment.
You will see how he built a world-class advisory team by trading equity for expertise, used academic collaborations as a vital source of market intelligence, and made the tough decision to pivot away from his personal passion to follow a more scalable industrial market.
This case provides a practical example of how a blended partnership strategy can be used to de-risk and accelerate a deep-tech venture.
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