Partnerships with Techies

This is the book I wanted to have before going into partnerships myself.

It’s also the book I would like to have given to my previous partners. We would have been more successful and saved a lot of time.

This is the book’s current outline—expect it to evolve as we refine and expand its content.

You can get access to all our resources after subscribing to my email list.

I’ll also try to document every piece of content on my YouTube channel youtube.com/tillcarlos and on linkedin.

Do you want to share a story that’d help other people with successful partnerships? Send me an email!

Part 1: How to find and vet a technical partner?

0. Where to search in the world?
1. Remote or local?
2. Mindset: How to attract talent? Who do they want to work with?
3. What are interesting problems?
4. How to check references?
5. How to decide on a stack? (Because that will define the search)
6. What do you bring to the table? How can you enable them to win?
7. What if they have a job already?
8. Start with why. What does the partner want in their life?
9. Communication is part of the job. How to find a great communicator?
10. What are red flags to look out for?
11. Choose someone who has done a similar thing already.

Part 2: How to make a deal?

0. What is the exact thing you expect from them? (Devs don’t design)
1. What will your contribution be?
2. How much tech do you need to understand?
3. How to plan for success: Do you have all the resources (devops + customer success)?
4. How much should you pay? And in what intervals?
5. Incentivization: Can you have them participate in success?
6. Give out shares? (Nick Huber: we don’t do shares)
7. IP Ownership: Who owns what? How can you de-risk a technical lock-in?
8. Code is a liability, not an asset.
9. Vesting: Idea by Seth Godin.
10. Exit strategy: What if someone doesn’t want to continue?
11. Psychological Contract: The Unspoken Deal
12. Testing the Partnership with a Trial Project

Part 3: How to work together?

0. How often do you meet? (Chesky: Sundays)
1. How much project management to do?
2. How to spot bright shiny objects that distract us?
3. How to control quality? What do you measure?
4. How to know they are doing a good job? (You know when you test it)
5. The minimal devops / error logging setup.
6. About perfectionism (Ask Marco)
7. How to define the product? Who is defining the product?
8. Setting Up Knowledge Sharing and Documentation Practices
9. Handling Time Zone Differences in Remote Teams
10. How to Give Feedback That Developers Actually Find Useful
11. Pressure and deadlines

Part 4: How to succeed: Conflict resolution and pivoting

0. Principles: The partnership is always better than being right.
1. Contracts
2. Most startups fail. What to do in that case?
3. Worse than failure: a neverending project. How to deal with this case?
4. How to prepare for tech debt.
5. How to reinvest, and how much?
6. What if it takes longer than expected?
7. Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement
8. When to Bring in External Help: Consultants, Coaches, and Advisors
9. My partner wants a pivot - but I disagree. What to do?
10. What to do if the tech sucks?
11. What to do if the sales are not there?