4. THE FOUR QUESTIONS
1. Why am I here?
2. Who is this guy?
3. What did he do?
4. How do I do it?
5. What’s the Problem?
• I have big ambitions but limited resources.
• I’m awesome at doing some things but not awesome at doing other things.
• I am tiny speck of sand in an infinitely vast universe and no one pays attention to me.
6. Partnerships are the Answer to All Life’s Problems
• Attract money and resources to your cause
• Win access and influence among people you respect
• Create value for your organization and industry
7. Uh…… and who are you?
Jonathan Rechtman in 7 Bullet Points
• New Yorker → Beijing 11+ years
• Chinese-English interpreter
• Presidents, celebrities, no big deal
• Never had a job
• Fascinated by the power of institutions + communities
• Pretty good with the humans
• Project-promiscuous
8. What about all these other people … ?
Take 60 seconds to introduce yourself…
• What’s your name?
• Where are you from?
• What do you do in Beijing?
• Pick an oversimplified dichotomy!
○ ideas vs action?
○ technical vs business?
○ creative vs process?
9. Jonathan’s
5 Steps to Negotiating
Awesome Partnerships
1. Identify a problem
2. Articulate a vision to solve it
3. Construct a value proposition for each partner - aka The Pitch
4. Align incentives and expectations
5. Make it happen
10.
11. The Vision
• Build a network of trust between donors
• Win access and influence to the leaders of cool organizations
• Intellectual, spiritual, and culinary stimulation
• Make the world a better place, etc
Alignment
Value Propositions
• A philanthropy club for young professionals to learn,
engage, and support worthy non-profits in their community.
• All members commit to donate 1% of their annual income +
their time and talent to a jointly selected charity.
• People are sensitive about their money
• High-performers have busy schedules
Make it Happen
The Problem
• Charity is broken
• Young donors feel anonymous and disengaged
• No upside: no access, no learning, no peer reinforcement
• 10+ donors, 1 restaurant partner, 2 beneficiary
orgs, 4 advisory orgs, employer matching
• Over $20k raised
• Programs flourishing / friendships enduring
15. The Vision
The Problem
• I know there are small things I can do that will make me
happy, but I lack the discipline to maintain positive routines
• Most peer support groups require big time commitments
• Identify a simple routine that makes people happy
• Form a small group to encourage peer reinforcement
• Use low-friction digital tools (chat) to engage regularly
with barely any effort/time commitment
16. State your project’s problem and vision.
5 min
Independently, write out the problem and vision for your project (3 min) . Then, share with a peer.
Highlight one partner you want to focus on and how they fit in to achieving your vision.
Get feedback from your peer.
19. The Partnership
• Make a good first impression: dress well, high-energy
• Frame the opportunity: what are the reference points that matter?
• Research / collateral
• Articulate the unique value proposition
• Brainstorm and subtraction.
• Close the deal (and sign a contract!!)
Challenges
Pitching to Corporates
• They make you work for that money.
• Things go wrong. People get disappointed.
• The Context: Shape China brings 200 Shapers from 50 countries
for an epic youth conference back-to-back w/ Summer Davos.
• The Problem: we have no money, no keynote, no PR resources.
• The Vision: a “Mobility Partnership” with Ford Motors
22. The Partnership
• A champion to convene. is disinterested + respected
• An advisor to share experience. has built an alliance before
• A shepherd to… shepherd. puts in work to drive
forward
• Principles + objectives
• Framework (governance, approach, structure, commitments)
• Iterative consensus loops spoiler: it takes a long time!
Challenges
Aligning
• The Context: a bunch of startups with similar products that
many clients could use, but most don’t know exist.
• The Problem: we’re all competitors with limited resources
fighting for visibility and credibility in a crowded niche
market
• The Vision: Pool resources for the common good; form a
pre-competitive alliance to invest in PR and cultivate demand
in new, larger mainstream markets.
• Building trust / aligning interests
• Dispute resolution?
• How to deal with freeloaders?
• How to scale?
23.
24. Partnership Scenario
10 min
Imagine you are the good-looking diesely organizers of a
series of community skills-sharing workshops.
Let’s call them…… oh, I don’t know, “Shpaper Trainings”
You’ve got a cool replicable model, a burgeoning local rep, and a lot of goodwill.
You’ve gone from 0-1 and want to scale -- but you have limited time and
resources that you can devote to this. You’re going to need partners.
1. Articulate the vision: are you scaling the
model in terms of geography, brand, impact?
2. Who are the partners, and what’s the pitch?
3. What risks exist in terms of misaligned
incentives and expectations? And how will you
manage those risks?
25. Step 4 & 5: Bring it together.
20 min
Independently, write out the pitch talking points for a meeting with your target partners (5 min).
With the same partner you shared your vision with, share your talking points (4 min) . Listeners
give feedback (4 min). Switch.
Rules:
Pitchers – Don’t worry about getting it right the first time you tell it. Help explain anything crucial your
partner should know before they give the pitch.
Listeners – Pay attention to where a pitch loses you or where you might have issue. Take note.
If you have feedback, Share the positives first, and share areas for change second.
