Why Most Startups Get Partnerships Wrong

Every startup wants a Square x Afterpay moment.

But for most startups, partnerships end up as a logo swap, a blog post, and a quiet fizzle. Here’s why: too many teams confuse activity with impact. They chase logos instead of leverage, overcomplicate instead of validate, and close deals without a plan to activate them.

Over the past decade, I’ve helped scale partnerships at companies such as Affirm, Adyen, and now through my consulting firm, Interweve. The pattern is clear: the biggest mistakes always start early.

Here are a few mistakes I see most often:

🔸 Chasing big logos too early

Founders get excited by the idea of partnering with Fortune 100’s, but they often don’t realize that if your product is not ready for prime time, the deal will stall or die in procurement limbo. Big logos don’t mean big traction.

🔸 Treating BD like sales

Sales is about convincing. Partnerships is about alignment. The fastest way to kill a deal? Pitching a partner like they’re a prospect.

🔸 No internal ownership post-close

A signed deal means nothing if there’s no product support, no marketing handoff, no exec sponsor, and no one accountable for results.

So what works?

→ Start small. Think warm intros, co-marketing, referrals, lightweight integrations.

→ Align incentives early: what’s in it for them and what’s in it for you.

→ Get cross-functional alignment before you sign anything.

→ Measure impact, not activity.

If you’re building or scaling a partnerships function and want help avoiding these traps, and getting results faster, I'd love to connect!