Think about two companies:

• The first one has 50+ employees, many years of know-how in the market, and thousands of dollars in annual revenue.
• The second one has 3 employees, few years in the industry, and no revenue.

One of them is about to change the whole market. On which one would you place your bet?

If you answered the second one, you know we’re talking about startups. But think again: How can a company in such a big disadvantage take on the big enterprise?

The answer is simple: they can move faster.

Maybe you already thought about that, but now I want to talk about the other side of the coin: Almost every company needs to build some kind of relationship with other companies, but those companies will likely move slower than you.

Sometimes, those companies will take a year just to start discussing something you told them about! And the funny part: most startups don’t last a year.

The faster you start developing partnerships, the more likely you are to survive.

So here are some useful tips:

1. Identifying your partnerships or customers (in case you are B2B) should be one of your first goals.
2. Don’t wait until you have a product to start talking with them. Show you exist!
3. Think about the size of those companies. The bigger they are, the earlier you should talk to them.
4. Be pessimistic in your business plan about everything that involves those companies (buying your product, advertising your product and so on).