This is our presentation from the 2015 Sandbox Summit at MIT this year. We delivered a workshop on establishing and managing business partnerships that should be applicable to most small businesses. We covered how to know if you need a partner, how to find and qualify those partners, and how to successfully manage the relationship.
2. Who is this guy?
Jay Powell
● Began career as an agent in 1998
● Business Development and Licensing for 16 years
● Ten years as an agent
● Bootstrapped a production company for three years
● Powell Group is in it’s third year.
● 100% growth year to year with a century’s worth of
experience
3. Partnership Overview
● Do you really need a partner?
● Finding a partner
● Qualifying the partner
● Structure an agreement
● Manage the partner relationship
5. Find a Partner
● Understand what you need in the end
○ Funding
○ Design
○ Development
○ Marketing
○ Distribution
○ Other?
● Identify your pain points and weaknesses
● Understand your budget and limits
7. Find a Partner
● Start building a list of potential partners
○ Industry specific site such as Gamasutra
○ Google search
○ Trade show attendees
○ LinkedIn
○ News
8. Find a Partner
● Research everyone on your list
○ Company websites
○ Powerpoint decks
○ Phone calls
○ Email exchanges
9. Find a Partner
● Record relevant data in a big Excel spreadsheet for easy
comparison
○ Examples of relevant data: years in business, number of games
worked on, specializations in game genre or platform, etc.
○ PRICE!
○ Create your own grading scale if needed
○ Prioritize this based on your own KPI’s
10. Find a Partner
● Narrow down your list
○ Research data
○ Track record
○ Reputation
○ Budget
○ Cultural fit
○ Strategic fit
12. Qualify the Partner
● Ignore “References”
○ Research their past projects and partners
○ Use LinkedIn for clients and individuals
● Ask the right people the right questions
○ What did you REALLY do?
○ How do they approach specific problems
○ What tools do they use
○ How will they fit into the existing pipeline
○ Who specifically will be on the team
13. Qualify the Partner
● Do a deep dive on the team
○ Research individuals
○ Talk to people they have worked on at other companies
● Go outside the box
○ Talk to other vendors as well
○ Review scores
○ Don’t overlook the traditional press
15. Structure an Agreement
Your agreement should cover these deal points at minimum:
● Game(s)
● Platforms
● Languages
● Price (Guarantee, Back-end, Maintenance)
● Stores or Territories
● IP Ownership
● Milestones or Payment Triggers
● Net Receipts or Revenue Share Trigger
16. Structure an Agreement
Some tips and pointers:
● Know your client
● Clarify deliverables very clearly
● Don’t hand over rights that won’t be used
● Know your margins
● Identify important and unimportant points
● Don’t be a dick
● Be responsive
● Explain why certain points are important to you
18. Manage the Partner Relationship
● How involved do you (personally) need to be?
● Manage Expectations What to expect at each stage of
development
○ “No, the first playable will not look like a finished game.”
● How to define various deliverables in the agreement
● Set regular meetings
19. Manage the Partner Relationship
● Manage the tactical as well as the strategic
● Don’t loose your cool
○ Explain why
○ Look for the “real” reason
● Communicate!
20. Bringing It All Together
Getting it done in less than 20 hours a day
21. Bringing It All Together
● Use a cost / benefit analysis to determine your true needs
● Use true needs to define your target
● Use your task breakdown from your partner search to
define deliverables
● Use your deliverables to define your contract terms
● Use your terms, deliverables, and milestones to define
your project tasks and goals
● Check them off, get them done!