Co-founding a business is often harder than a marriage, yet receives far less diligence. The probability of two individuals maintaining perfect alignment on effort, finances, and vision over many years is incredibly low, making solo ventures statistically safer.

To make your startup indispensable to a corporate giant, propose a contract value high enough to require CEO-level sign-off. This elevates your project from a minor expense to a key strategic initiative, ensuring top-down support and embedding you in their transformational change.

Getting a partnership deal done requires more than a good pitch; it requires an internal advocate. Leaders should leverage their network to identify and cultivate a champion inside the target company. This person is critical for navigating internal bureaucracy and pushing the deal over the goal line, as "there's a million ways for deals to die."

True channel transformation is impossible without unwavering support from the entire executive team. This alignment should be a primary filter when a channel leader evaluates a new role, as its absence guarantees failure and a taxing, unwinnable battle.

Don't treat partnerships as a magical fix. They are a scaling mechanism. If your core sales process, messaging, or product-market fit is weak, a partner channel will only magnify those problems across a wider audience, just as it would with your successes.

High-profile CEOs from large corporations frequently struggle as LBO operating partners. They are accustomed to vast resources and being the sole boss, a mentality that clashes with the mentorship and resource-constrained environment of smaller portfolio companies.

A product change that seems universally positive, like increasing partner revenue, can have unforeseen consequences. At Google, the sales team's involvement was crucial for managing partner communications and mitigating risks, proving alignment is needed even for "no-brainer" launches.

An internal incubator’s biggest mistake is acting like an external startup. Finding product-market fit is insufficient. Lasting success requires achieving "product-company fit" by deeply understanding and aligning with the parent company's internal business units, strategic goals, and unique challenges.

To justify risky, chasm-crossing bets, the entire leadership team must agree that inaction is an existential threat. This alignment is the most difficult step; once achieved, the organization can focus on finding the right solution, knowing the risk is necessary.