What is Your Advice to Students on Partnerships?

I'm going to Tufts this evening to talk to a group of young social entrepreneurially minded students to discuss partnerships.  I've learned a few things along the way that I'd like to share, but I'd love to hear anyone else's advice.  Feel free to leave a comment or just tweet out your favorite piece of advice.

Lessons I've learned in Partnerships:

1) Share Common Goals

Whether you're just doing a simple link swap to raise awareness of your project and your partner's, make sure you have common goals. If you're not actually sharing similar visions, your audiences are unlikely to be related enough to make that a net win and if you're doing something bigger, you'll find that you and your partner are pulling the project in different directions.  It's best to lay out your hopes for your engagement with a partner from the beginning so you can understand each others goals and make sure both sides are working towards the same (or at least related) goals.

2) Know What You Bring to the Table

The basis of any good partnership is a grouping of people who all bring different strengths to the table. When you first start out in a new partnership, make sure you know what you bring to the table. Play to your strengths; what is easy for you may not be easier for others.

In the case of Greenhorn Connect, our power is our audience and promotion capabilities. Because we have thousands of entrepreneurs coming every week to our site, we have the ability to dissemenate a message much wider than many other organizations.  It is often a key asset in any partnership we form.

3) Partner with Complimentary Organizations

So once you understand your value proposition, you should think about what your potential partners bring to the table.  The most successful partnerships are ones where the two groups have complimentary skillsets.

An awesome example in Greenhorn Connect's history is the D8Event we did with thoughtbot; they were excellent at handling the speaker recruitment and coordination as well as building a great site and registration for the event. This allowed us to focus on recruiting great students and finding great companies to exhibibit.  In both cases, one side's strength, was the other's weakness.  That's the basis for many great partnerships.

4) Make Sure It's a Fair Trade

A sure-fire recipe for disaster in any partnership is when one group brings significantly more value to the table than the other.  Try to be objective with your own value to make sure you're bringing the best you can, but also take stock of what your potential partner is really agreeing to do.  Misplaced expectations can very quickly frustrate both parties and derail an otherwise productive partnership.

5) Protect Yourself

Partnerships are generally very public affairs; the whole point of them is to often bring greater visibility to both groups. Because of this, you need to be careful that you're not setting yourself up for disaster.

Now, this is not to make you paranoid. It just means that it's best to spell out clearly from the start the expectations for both sides. This avoids confusion down the line when something doesn't go to plan and acqusations start flying from both sides.

6) Put it in Writing...But Keep It Simple

Simple agreements (like link swaps) do not need a formal agreement, but if you're taking on a major project with a partner and there's any risks to you, you should protect yourself by putting a simple agreement in writing.  Don't involve the lawyers unless you think it's absolutely necessary. A simple memorandum of understanding can very easily spell out an agreement in a page or less.

The key to putting it in writing is to spell out what each group is agreeing to do (and in some cases not to do).  This makes it abundantly clear then when one side is not holding up their end of the bargain and can quickly settle what would otherwise be a hearsay dispute.

What is your advice for partnerships? What would you advise students?

Leave a comment or just tweet @greenhornboston with your advice. We'll retweet the best and be sure to share them with the students tonight.