#TheStartupShow: The Power Of Partnerships With Rose Lewis & Kate Tancred – #AWEurope Special

Unruly’s series #TheStartUp show was back this week with a jam-packed Ad Week special! In the episode, Unruly co-CEO Sarah Wood chatted with Collider co-Founder Rose Lewis and founder of The Smalls, Kate Tancred.

The show runs on live streaming app Blab, where Sarah regularly chats with startups, entrepreneurs and academics about the challenges of setting up, and scaling up your business.

This episode is number #5 of #TheStartUp show – previous week’s conversations have covered fighting the confidence gap, defining your idea and executing on it, and skilling up for success by building your team.

In this week’s show Sarah and her guests talked about the power of collaboration and partnerships for startups. Sarah Wood and Rose Lewis also discussed these topics earlier in the week, when they were both featured on an Ad Week Europe panel called ‘Start, Grow, Scale: Mentoring a Digital Scale-up‘ – which you can watch here.

Rose Lewis, co-founder of startup accelerator Collider, answered questions on the company’s processes and how they choose which startups to work with. She said that it was “always about the people, and the combinations of people, involved”. She also reiterated the importance of personality and positioning, saying that “if you can’t sell the tech, it doesn’t matter how good it is” and in the same vein declared that every startup needs a ‘hustler‘ who understands the product inside out and can sell it with confidence.

The guests also spoke about how startups should choose who they work and collaborate with. Sarah Tancred, founder of social video start-up The Smalls, spoke about working with legacy brands and said that “big clients move slow, which can be frustrating for startups”, but that this “can work in your favour” as the project takes on a more considered approach.

Before the end of the chat, the guests gave their top tips for startups looking to collaborate with bigger brands and companies:

1. Kate: “Collaboration is great, but you have to make sure you’re renumerated for your time”. She expressed that cash flow is of utmost importance for startups, and that often agreeing fees upfront is a definitive way to avoid being “left out in the cold”.
2. Rose: “Know what success looks like for your partner, agree on that upfront, and define what the brand wants from your time“.

But don’t worry if you missed the episode- you can catch it here!