1. A BIZ DEV
PLAYBOOK
FOR STARTUPS
WHY, WHEN AND HOW TO DO DEALS
TO HELP YOUR BUSINESS WIN

2. WHAT IS BIZ DEV?
Business development means establishing
relationships and doing deals to help your company.
Sales Licensing Distribution Branding
• Revenue • Revenue • Audience • Brand alignment
• Establish model • Client base • Intelligence/data • Partner
• Shared revenue dependencies

3. BIZ DEV FOR EARLY
STAGE STARTUPS
Your unfair advantages:
• Cutting edge tech
• Nimble dev iteration
• Optimization and focus
Your key challenges:
• Getting to scale
• Little or no cash
• Limited time and resources

4. HOW BIZ DEV PLAYS
ARE DESIGNED
Three case studies:
• Yardbarker and FoxSports.com
• BigDoor and NFL.com
• Fantasy Moguls and CBSSports.com

5. YARDBARKER
The challenge:
Substantial amount of unique user generated
content and a core community.
Need more traffic to destination site to increase ad
revenue and market position.

6. YARDBARKER AND
FOXSPORTS.COM
YardBarker:
• Access to large base of sports fans
• Provide new fresh content
• Distribution needed to drive revenue
FoxSports.com:
• Get fresh content at low or no cost
• Access to a user gen sports content community
• Generate incremental revenue

7. YARDBARKER AND
FOXSPORTS.COM

8. YARDBARKER AND
FOXSPORTS.COM
Quid pro quo:
Distribution Unique, low
Revenue cost content
Branding Revenue
Community

9. BIGDOOR MEDIA
The challenge:
Unique customer loyalty/gamification tech but
success dependent on reaching a
passionate, engaged audience—the larger the better
since only a % will convert.
Monetization accelerated by leveraging existing
sponsors and products.

10. BIGDOOR
AND NFL.COM
BigDoor:
• Access to users and usage data to prove product model
• Provide unique technology and expertise
• Must support NFL to ensure successful deployment
• Generate revenue via partner
NFL.com:
• Get unique functionality to drive core site metrics
• Increase store of personal user data
• Drive usage of other NFL goods and services

11. BIGDOOR
AND NFL.COM

12. BIGDOOR
AND NFL.COM
Quid pro quo:
Prove model Unique tech
Distribution Revenue
Revenue Data

13. FANTASY MOGULS
The challenge:
Fantasy Moguls runs social games with well
established virtual goods revenue stream but
untapped secondary sponsorship revenue stream.
Engagement in games high but growth constrained
by size of Moguls’ ad spend and audience.

14. FANTASY MOGULS
AND CBSSPORTS.COM
Fantasy Moguls:
• Access to a sales force and sales revenue
• Brand alignment
• Marketing to targeted customer base
CBSSports.com:
• New and creative sponsorship inventory for clients
• Ability to tap into virtual goods revenue stream and learn
social games business
• Test theories about untapped value of existing and new
customers

15. FANTASY MOGULS
AND CBSSPORTS.COM

16. FANTASY MOGULS
AND CBSSPORTS.COM
Quid pro quo:
Distribution Virtual goods
Branding revenue
Ad revenue Ad revenue
Access to new
model

17. THE SECRET OF A
WINNING PLAY
If both parties don’t win, you’ve lost.

18. A BIZ DEV
PLAYBOOK
FOR STARTUPS
BRENDA SPOONEMORE
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, D WELLABLE
BRENDA@D WELLABLE.COM

19. YOUR PLAYBOOK

20. STEP ONE:
DRAW UP YOUR PLAY
• Define your needs
• Know what you want, assign a metric
• Create spreadsheet of target partners
• Who is best positioned to deliver?
• What do you have to offer in return (value)?
• Find the right contact
• Network and research
• Cold calls are a last resort

21. STEP TWO:
RUN THE PLAY
• The pitch
• Email or call to generate interest
• Do pitch live or in person
• Adjust on the fly
• The proposal
• Follow up with answers and proposal
• Have term sheet in mind
• Write out structure, model before sending

22. STEP THREE: FINISH
• The negotiation
• Don’t try to win every point
• The negotiation sets the tone for the relationship
• The term sheet
• One page
• The agreement
• Legal, contracts vs letter agreements
• The relationship
• The only thing that really matters