A strategy which helped TEBS to create market fitting B2B products in multiple countries while bootstrapping

With a team of experienced techies and no fail mindset we were not in a mood to stop. We pivoted further, and this time rather than changing product changed the execution style. Started reaching out to medium and large corporate with our existing solution where we thought supply chain problems exist. Some of our mentors and organizations helped us to reach out to corporate including

Attended multiple Reverse pitches and finally got a chance to partner with an O&G major and customised our initial offerings to solve their business problems

Results

That corporate partnership changed our story. After 3 years we are in the market with 4 products working in India and abroad

Pulz Yard –Optimize large terminal by managing 4000+ trucks and equipment to reduce dwell time of trucks and ship

Pulz Tranz :Double digit saving in downstream distribution with demand prediction , planning and deviation management

Pulz OnDemand :Ready to deploy infrastructure for OnDemand delivery, already working in multiple countries

Pulz MOC –Rule engines and workflow management tools which optimize management of change in a large organisation

While TEBS solved our initial hiccups with this partnership, we found that Corporate also solve many of their inherent issues especially in

This blog is about to share our learning from that partnership which probably can help few new businesses

However it is not a cakewalk to partner with a corporate and here are few tips to start and keep running it healthy

Protect both companies interest

While modifying an existing product(Our old product ) to create a new product (final product) by using domain knowledge and experience from another company (Corporate), it is very common to have a dilemma on who owns the final product.

Discussion/decision on this is very strategic and sensitive. If you try to do it in the very beginning the chances of you get stuck in the initial stage is very certain. Some times in beginning you don’t even know what will be your final product. So rather than think about ownership Try to observe and understand the problems and opportunities.

Many times corporate want a product not for reselling but for their own betterment. While you learn about business problems you will also get to know the decision makers and their vision and goals. Contact them convince them about the benefits of the product. Look for corporates constraints (budget, approval time) and tell them about how you as a start-up can find a solution for them. Sometimes it may be creating product with less profit. You as a visionary should know where you can make profit

Marry SAAS

If your product is a software try for a SAAS model. Which is a perfect fit in the above scenario. Make sure custom screens and data resides in the corporate control and you can have custom algorithms. Figure out which services you can create proprietary, believe me it is going to help you while growing.

Protect Data and business confidentiality

Make sure that you are aware and respect data privacy and business confidentiality. For a corporate most of the time there will be a problem in sharing data with a start-up company . you need to work on bringing that confidence

You may be working with operation/sales/logistic team however when it come to data privacy and confidentiality it will be monitored and reviewed by it/safety/hseq teams. Make sure that you have strategies to convince them.

Fail fast and expect delays

Even though entrepreneurs think that they have solutions for every problems, one thing what we need to realize that we don’t have time for building all that solutions. Even though your are partnering with a biggie It is very important to have a vision about our company and its growth. Believe me, once you build the confidence every manger will have some thing to solve and everything will be urgent. It is all about how politely reject ideas or fail fast not worthy experiments. Make sure you provide logical ,valid reasons why you are not taking it

Define and Share success

While you are working with a team from a different company for building a product, make sure that you know how they define their success and it need not be your success. Helping them to win and makeing them more powerful help you in longrun . As an entrepreneur you should be knowing how to share the credits and make your counterparts succesful