⚠️ This article is for Preferred or soon-to-be Preferred Sellers. Becoming a Preferred Builtifirst Seller is currently invite-only.
If you're new to Builtfirst & looking for a setup guide, refer to our Getting Started Guides for Sellers here.
How it Works
Preferred Sellers show up in our Catalog (previously Seller Library) where our partners (VCs, accelerators, business communities, banks) can discover you.
Builtfirst Partners can engage via Preferred in 3 ways:
Add your offer to their marketplace: The easiest, most-common way to partner. You create an offer broadly available to all Builtfirst Partners or certain groups and they add it to their community.
Upload a Deal: Partners can upload a deal and its details on your behalf. You'll then edit and approve the offer.
Contact: You or a teammate can be listed as a contact for partners to message directly in-platform. This contact will receive an email notification and can reply directly in-app.
See an example of Zendesk in the Catalog below.
Getting Started
This process should only take about 20 minutes. Here’s a step-by-step:
Create your account here if you haven't yet
If you're brand new to Builtfirst, select "I want to sell SaaS or Services". Your account will need to be approved, so email our vendor manager, Dalton (dalton@builtfirst.com) asking him to approve you.
Have a company account? If your company already has a Builtfirst Seller account, using your company email will auto-log you into your company account.
Create & update your deal with a few important recommendations:
Savings Amount: This is an optional but highly recommended field as it makes your offer stand out. If savings amounts range, specify the best-case scenario with an "Up to" savings amount.
Target Group: If you're not planning to target all of our partners and instead plan to target VCs inside or outside the US specifically, set it to "All Companies" for now and email our vendor manager, Dalton (dalton@builtfirst.com) letting him know your preference. The "VC" audiences won't be available until after you're live as Preferred. Once the offer is otherwise ready, he'll set that group for you as soon as he switches you to Preferred.
Landing page redemption: Keep your page generic and avoid using Builtfirst branding, as it can cause confusion for startups in a white-labeled VC marketplace.
Restrictions: You have lots of restriction/segmentation options, but we recommend typing your restrictions in the "Other Restrictions" section and not changing the "Other Restrictions" section. More details in our "Restrictions Explained" article.
For more guidance on creating & updating your deal, check out this guide here
Once you're ready or if you come across any questions email our vendor manager, email Dalton (dalton@builtfirst.com) so he can announce you to partners as Preferred.
Going Live as Preferred & Maintaining Preferred Status
Once you've notified Dalton that your offer is ready, you'll be available in the Catalog and partners will get an email notification.
See an example of that email below:
⚠️ In order to maintain Preferred status, you'll need to respond to prospective startup leads and partners within 3 business days.
Now You're Preferred: Next Steps
It's up to Partners to add your deal to their marketplace via their Catalog.
You might be wondering at this point, who will add my offer? How do I get involved in this process?
On our Preferred tier, you don't get visibility when a Partner adds your offer, only when they upload a deal or contact you directly. We offer an analytics suite as part of a paid tier and provide insight into which marketplaces add your offer as well as which startups are engaging.
Here are a few effective workarounds to determine who's partnering with you:
Add a form field (or just ask): When a startup fills out your application form add a text field asking which partner they came from. Or if startups contact you via email, ask them.
Share your partner list: Send Dalton (dalton@builtfirst.com) a list of your current partners and he'll let you know who's on Builtfirst. And as you start working with more VC/accelerator/business community partners, reach out to find out if they use Builtfirst to list offers.
Driving More Engagement
There are several crucial factors that will determine the performance of your offer — both whether a Partner or startup engages.
Brand recognition: How well-known and relevant is your offer to startups?
Partner relationships: Related to brand recognition— how much comarketing and ultimately referrals are your partners driving? We believe partnerships follow the 80/20 rule, where the top 20% of your partners often refer 80% of referrals.
Offer structure: Offers that are low-commitment and aggressive perform the best. For more insight, see our Tips on Creating Offers.
Ease of redemption: The easier it is for a startup to redeem your offer, the more likely they are to convert. Self-serve performs best, but a quick email response can also be effective. Waiting for a rep to reply and schedule a demo is higher friction and doesn't perform as well.
Our recommendation to drive more engagement is to have a dedicated partnerships manager or marketing specialist facilitate outreach to potential & existing partners to build awareness and relationships.
During outreach, ask if they use a marketplace solution like Builtfirst. If you find out a partner does use Builtfirst, let them know they can easily add your offer by searching in their Catalog.
💡 Not sure which partners will be ideal for your startup program or who to reach out to? Book a call with Dalton to learn about best practices.