This episode goes in-depth into the key operating aspects of finding & working with US design partners as a US-India cross-border founder. 

We cover everything from correctly defining who a design partner is, major categories and personas on the B2B side, discovering, qualifying, convincing & engaging them including navigating their organization structure, partnering with them to build early versions of the product, tension between direct sales & channel partner models, how to approach pricing discussions and finally, a rapid-fire round of questions sourced from An Operator’s Blog founder community. 

Joining me for this discussion is Indus Khaitan, Founder & CEO of Redblock, a cybersecurity startup that provides identity security for disconnected apps using Agentic AI. Before this, Indus founded Quolum in the SaaS spend management space and also founded Bitzer, which was an early mobile security platform and was acquired by Oracle. He is a long-time champion, advisor & investor in the US-India venture corridor.  

TIME STAMPS:

(02:10) The early days of mobile security, iPhone 1, and starting Bitzer

(04:39) The definition & value of a 'design partner'

(08:25) Major categories of design partners 

(11:29) Navigating through the org. structure of design partners

(15:04) Should US-India B2B startups enter the US via a channel partner model?

(19:02) Dealing with friendly vs cold/ outside-network design partners

(23:36) Generating US design partner leads

(27:57) Qualifying potential design partner leads

(30:20) Prioritizing between SMB vs mid-market vs enterprise design partners

(38:03) Reasons why founders’ and investors’ POVs on the business direction often diverge 

(41:53) Most useful social media platforms for 0-to-1 founders

(45:14) Are offline events & conferences useful for early-stage founders?

(53:41) Approaches & frameworks for building B2B software MVPs

(59:54) Approaching pricing conversations with design partners

(1:03:06) Rapid-fire round

Connect with Indus - https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaitan/ and follow him on X - @1ndus

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Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on Startups, Investing, and Life.

I am a venture investor focused on the US-India corridor. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumitrasharma5/) and follow me on X (@soumitra_sharma).