Partnerships in a Product-Centric Company

In this episode of SaaS Connect by the Cloud Software Association, Emily Litwin, then from Strategy and Partnerships, and now Head of Business Development at Squarespace, discusses how the company, an all-in-one website building platform and product-centric company, thinks about and executes partnerships. Emily explains some of the best practices they learned along the way and how they consistently adhere to three key principles which drive all their business decisions, from Product Marketing to Development to Partnerships, and everything in between: All-in-one: the founder of Squarespace built a platform he would have liked to have used as a customer; at that time, an all-in-one solution was not available. Product centric: the company makes decisions based on the context of how the product will be received by their customers. Design forward: their original target audience were creative people with an eye for good design; the brand has permeated that value throughout their business so that all branding is the same monochromatic theme. And when Squarespace decides to offer a solution that is not their core offering, they utilise partnerships. Inclusion criteria for their apps panel: Holding dear Squarespace’s three key principles (where it makes sense), plus Product fit, demand, market size, monetization, and strategic interest. Partnership tips for startups: Have a clear product strategy from the get-go that outlines what you care about owning, be that data, functionality, or something else. And then for everything that doesn't fall into that very privileged set, look for a partner. Trust that if your core product is as sound as you think it is, people in companies in adjacent technologies will want to align and build to you. Resources Mentioned: WordPress Wix G Suite Stripe PayPal Zola MailChimp Acuity GoDaddy Weebly Website Builder Thank you to our amazing podcast team at Content Allies. Want to launch your own B2B revenue-generating podcasts? Contact them at https://ContentAllies.com