The Partnership Playbook: Strategies for Product-led Growth | Cristina Cordova (Partner at First Round Capital)

Partnerships are one of the most incredible flywheels to develop and where your Product meets the ecosystem it lives in. In this episode, Cristina Cordova will share her experience with us on how to start the conversation about partnerships internally, evaluate their potential return and how to get this flywheel spinning and accelerate your company's growth.

Cristina is a partner at First Round Capital and the former Head of Platform & Partnerships at Notion and Stripe. She started and scaled their Partnerships teams and worked hard to build relationships with companies such as Shopify, Squarespace, and Apple.

Partnership & product-led growth
1. What were some of the three common characteristics or superpowers that you believe made them successful?
2. What do you think of partnerships in a product-led growth context? How much can partnership influence your growth? Can it be one of your main growth levers?
3. Do you think there is a specific product type for which the partnership could or could not work, and what are the core differences?
4. What do you consider when integrating with other platforms on a more technical level? 
5. When is the right time to bring a partnership hire on board? How to evaluate if partnerships can impact your business and hire a full-time person to drive the efforts?
6. What do you think about growth and marketing for horizontal, built-yourself-type products? What are the biggest challenges you have seen? 
7.  What's your recommendation for more customer-built products to become more proficient in what they do? How can they challenge themselves to get more “technical"?