Having only ever worked on the media buying side of marketing and advertising, I have never been in a position to negotiate exclusivity of advertising, and I have certainly never had an internet property generate such interest. However, I'm there now, and a little unsure as to how to proceed.

We've had someone approach with interest in a strategic partnership.

My initial thoughts? The correct brokerage partner could help significantly expand our reach as it would be in their best interests to do so, and also free up time that would otherwise be spent in pitches and negotiations. A strategic partnership would also gather media attention. However the wrong partner could stifle the creativity of advertising and marketing options within the site, and set a really poor precedant.

The big one? Strategic partnership could potentially take away our potential reliance on angel funding for startup, or at the very least provide a demonstration of viability to potential angel investors. This makes any deal of this type of paramount importance to us, as an error in judgement here could potentially damage what we have to offer.

Any advice from someone with experience in this area would be greatly appreciated, and even discussions would be valued. By discussing it I'm hoping to think it through. Alternative viewpoints might help me pick holes in my thinking.

Given time and money, I would obviously much rather be working on marketing and development, and putting into place the ideas we have been holding off while we wait for for funding, rather than negotiating advertising deals and pitching to media buyers...

As a zero day startup I'd always advocate going for those early deals. You just learn that much faster. Obviously the key thing here is lock in. Are they looking to tie you up?

The other thing is competition. If they're willing to do it - especially if they approached you - then you can bet that competitors would love to hear about it. Unless you have an exclusive, I would do a little shopping around to see who's interested.

Yeah. I've been thinking about competitors. I know who they're worried about and why. There aren't a lot of properties in our space, although many would argue. But we do have diferentiators, and it's those diferentiators that they are chasing. On top of that, the number of independant players in our space that don't already have their advetising sewn up? None. That puts us in a pretty good place. Whether this is a pre-emptive offer, I'm still unsure, but the reasoning so far seems sound. A little research and I can the hole they are looking to plug.

I guess the most difficult thing for us is that we were approached. This means that I cannot help but feel an obligation to investigate their offer before going further. On top of this, I'm not sure I would know who to get in touch with or how. I guess that's what I'll have to look into tonight.

I think you absolutely owe it to the company to start making calls.

Tracking down competitors is the first thing. Then you need some contacts to get through too. Happy to help out (check my linked in).

OK. Thanks for the advice. I'll start digging tonight. What will make the whole process a hell of a lot of fun is that we have not yet fully put together a press kit, so it will be fly by the seat of the pants type stuff. The basics are nutted out in preparation for a business plan, which was in turn in preparation for financing, but this is not in any way even close to the type of document I would hand out. Guess I'm going to be really busy for the next couple of days Think I'll be looking for a beer by Thursday

Just sawa this topic, and that it took place a month ago - Richard, is there any updates you'd be up for sharing with us?

apart from the fact that weve pretty much decided not to accept the offer until we launch? not really want to have everything in order before we take up anything like this. we would not want to risk offer something sub-standard and leaving a bad taste in anyones mouth. we have had offers of affiliation with several parenting magazines though, which in the long run is of potentially even greater value. again though, were holding off til we launch in late august. have pretty much given up on the idea of funding, as we need to focus our time entirely on the build, the rollout, and the publicity.

When are you going live?

All things being equal we will be launching in the last week of august. There is still a lot to be done before then, but a big part of that decision will be tied to the results of testing in the two weeks prior, the availibility of our publicist, and the timing of a couple of articles were looking to have placed. You guys will know before anyone else anyway, because once we begin proper beta testing and have our beta testing frameworks in place we will be bringing our beta testers into Tangler...

We arent even looking at releasing the final product to beta for about another 4 weeks, so I guess we'll see how many bugs come through.

Hey great. Love to have you.

give me a holler if you need any beta testers.

Yeah definitely, Id be up to test anything as long as it doesnt require me to relocate to Australia. Well that wouldnt be so bad, maybe if it were paid for.