Strategic partners
A strategic partner collaborates closely with a startup to provide resources, expertise, or access to markets, enhancing the startup’s competitive advantage and growth prospects.
Consider the role of strategic partners in shaping a 
Whole Product experience.
By collaborating on integrations, functionality, and market access, you can create a win-win proposition turning a technology partner into a strategic partner that accelerates your go to market. This approach therefore not only results in comprehensive solutions that address customers’ needs and offers added value to both partners but it also, fosters partner and customer loyalty and joint success.
If the strategic partner is much larger than you as is often the case for a startup, then they can become strategic on many levels to the point of giving you the ability to “stand on the shoulders of a giant”.
The key to great strategic partnerships is one word. MUTUALITY. In other words making sure that each partner mutually benefits in a win win collaboration.
Startup Secret: Co-Create a Win-Win with a strategic partner to accelerate you venture and open up possibilities for your go to market and even a possible exit.
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Strategic partners are the ones who close the most important gaps in your whole product, the dependencies that would otherwise block adoption. The lesson from the smartphone, Tesla, and platform examples is consistent: the pieces you rely on but don’t own (the carrier, the charging network, the developer ecosystem) can make or break whether customers can actually use and rely on you. Choose partners deliberately around those critical dependencies, because a customer evaluates the whole solution, not just your part of it, and a missing or unreliable partner shows up as a reason to do nothing.