Strategic Partnerships with Graham Wong

Speaker 0: no. too many startups try to go it alone and don't establish partnerships that they need. strategic partnerships like the government one you have is a game changer. what advice and, you know, obviously, the strategic partnerships you have with your landlords and the different locations is something unique. what advice would you have for building strong strategic collaborations?

Speaker 1: that's a great question. so i think many businesses, they look at partnerships, but they look at it only from the perspective of what they would get out of the partnership. so they say, hey, you know, let's build a partnership because you're gonna give me this. right? you're gonna give me x. and i believe a true partnership is where you, you're you're going in with respect and trust. right? like, so you say, i respect the problem that you're trying to solve. right? and i'm going to demonstrate that you can trust me to respect that, but also bring a solution to the table. and i think if both groups are doing this, that's what a true strategic partnership is. and so for us, when we first started, if you think about, you know, we launched in retail as an example in a shopping mall in newmarket. what we acknowledge is that retailer our property partner at the time had retail space, and retail was facing back in twenty seventeen. we launched in december of twenty eighteen in our first shopping mall. ecommerce was just accelerating. right? like, so you had these spaces that were underutilized in a shopping mall. so that's a problem. how do you create a heartbeat? how do you create a buzz? so we went in and we said, hey. we can really solve this because we're gonna bring workers in, and we're not competing with your tenants. but what you're gonna help us solve is we need a touch point. we need a location. we need validation. we need to be beside those brands that you have in the mall. right? and so they helped us solve a problem in terms of market fit, like, in terms of the validation of our brand existing next to, you know, in one of our, locations, we were right beside nike. right? as a start up brand, to put your store right next to nike, all of a sudden when a client is in the mall, they're saying, oh, you're a brand that's just as established as nike. right? i i say all of that because i think in strategic partnerships, you have to first look at the problems you're solving. you have to be able to say, what's our problem, what's their problem, and how do we collaborate and, you know, show each other enough respect that we're both working on the problems that we have? my advice would be and that's what we've been lucky enough to do over the years. that's what we continue to do. right? you know, we always approach a partnership and say, okay. what problems are we trying to solve? and then we sit down at the table and have a very honest discussion about what we can each bring to the table for that versus, you know, just saying, hey. this is a partnership, but we're the only ones that are winning. doesn't make sense.

Speaker 0: i often talk to start ups and founders who do exactly the opposite where they don't look at what's in it for your partner.

Speaker 1: yeah.

Speaker 0: like, they don't think about that beforehand. they just say, hey. you know, we should do this together. and it's like, well, great. that's i get approached for this all the time. hey. we should do this. great. that sounds like a lot of work for me. right. you know, what what am i getting out of this? what does my company get? like, how does this work? and without thinking like that, you're gonna fail all the time. if you're not absolutely. leading with, hey. you know, i think together, we can do this thing that's gonna give you more business, it's gonna give you more traction, build your brand, a thousand different things, give you better pr because we're doing the charity event, whatever it happens to be. you've gotta lead with that. and, otherwise, you know, what's in it for them? that yeah. it's just you being self serving, and they're not gonna pay a lot of attention.

Speaker 1: yeah. and, you you know, listen. like, this this this happens in everything. right? like, not just in terms of your partnership, but, you know, this applies to your personal relationships, your professional relationships in your organization. right? it's like, okay. what are we aligned in trying to solve here? like, you know, how are we solving this problem? right? and if you do that, i think, really, what you're able to do are you're able to really build some great connection, right, over time. so i agree with you one hundred percent, chris.