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:

The early days of mobile security, iPhone 1, and starting Bitzer

The definition & value of a 'design partner'

Major categories of design partners

Navigating through the org. structure of design partners

Should US-India B2B startups enter the US via a channel partner model?

Dealing with friendly vs cold/ outside-network design partners

Generating US design partner leads

Qualifying potential design partner leads

Prioritizing between SMB vs mid-market vs enterprise design partners

Reasons why founders’ and investors’ POVs on the business direction often diverge

Most useful social media platforms for 0-to-1 founders

Are offline events & conferences useful for early-stage founders?

Approaches & frameworks for building B2B software MVPs

Approaching pricing conversations with design partners