Ask the Xpert: Partnerships with Sarah Nichols

📣 Meet Sarah Nichols, Partnerships Director at Plus X 📣

Sarah spent the early part of her career working in marketing for large organisations such as Sky, TalkTalk and O2 - Sarah then jumped ship and started working for smaller boutique companies looking to partner with larger corporates.

'Prior to joining Plus X, I worked as Partnerships Director at Techstars, working with our large global clients on the startup accelerators and focussing on collaboration between the two parties. I learned a lot in that time, and very happy to be bringing that experience to Plus X and to its members.'

A strategic partnership is “an arrangement between two companies or organisations to help each other or work together, to make it easier for each of them to achieve the things they want to achieve".

There are many ways strategic partnerships can help a startup or SME grow, scale, test, pilot or simply just partner with say a corporate to build something even bigger and better. But there are challenges for startups when wanting to partner with a corporate and I can work with you to demystify some of those areas and by using a simple partnerships canvas we can unlock value from your potential future partners!

We asked Sarah some key questions:

🤝Why do you want to help SME's at Plus X Brighton?

'Entrepreneurs are the future and I fundamentally believe with the right building blocks in place, we can all benefit from better, faster, more innovative solutions if corporates and startups work together more effectively!'

💡What are some key take aways members can expect?

'Honest, practical advice on how a business can think about the power of partnerships. And a run through of the partnerships canvas which they can then go and use on any potential partnership in the future! '

🤪A fun fact about you!

'I once was in a band. Power ballads is my favourite kind of music (don't judge) and I've run 8 marathons in 5x different cities around the world!'