The offer
Your reseller channel in Asia, from partner fit to signed agreements.
A 90-day pilot for Series A and B B2B companies. Partner fit assessed against an established set across South Asia, Southeast Asia and China, Korea and Japan. You sit on every partner call. I negotiate the commercials and take the reseller agreements to close. £30,000.
Where this usually goes wrong at your size
The expansion plan and the expansion decision are not the same document. Most companies arrive with the first and need the second.
The channel
One partner per territory, not a database
Four established technology and services groups, each with its own client base in its own market, currently being brought into formal agreement. The assessment starts there because it is the fastest honest answer available.
South Asia
Digital transformation, managed services and e-commerce delivery
SE Asia & China
Engineering and technology group with public sector and enterprise reach
Korea
Services and integration business with a domestic enterprise base
Japan
Services and integration business with a domestic enterprise base
If none of them is right for your product, that is the answer the assessment gives. A partner who cannot carry you costs more than no partner at all, and the point of starting with a known set is to reach that conclusion in weeks rather than quarters. Where the answer is no, the search widens.
What sits behind this is fund and partnership work across the region, not a fixed list. The four are where it starts, not where it ends.
Fit
What your product needs from an Asian channel
Channel structure is decided by what you sell and what a deal is worth, not by which country looks biggest. Pick the two that describe you.
A starting read, not a recommendation. The pilot tests it against real partners.
The 90 days
What is committed is the work. Signed reseller agreements are where the work goes.
01Days 1 to 15
Fit assessment
Your product, pricing, margin structure and support model tested against the partner set. You get a written read on which partners can actually carry you and which cannot, with the reasoning.
02Days 15 to 45
Partner calls
You are on every call. No partner moves forward without you in the room and satisfied with the fit. This is where most of the shortlist falls away, which is the point of doing it early.
03Days 45 to 75
Commercial negotiation
I lead. Margin, territory, exclusivity, minimum commitments, reporting and termination. You keep the decision at every point and see every term before anything is agreed.
04Days 75 to 90
Agreements to close
Drafted, negotiated and taken to signature with the partners where both sides are ready. Where a partner is not ready, you get the reason and the gap rather than a signature that will not hold.
You hold the relationships. Every partner contact is yours during the engagement and yours if it ends. This is not run as a black box.
Commercials
What it costs, in full
Published here because almost nobody in this category publishes any of it. There is nothing on top of what is on this page.
The 90-day pilot. Everything in the section above.
Ongoing channel management, if you continue after the pilot. Six-month blocks, renewing automatically, 30 days' notice before each block ends.
Per signed reseller agreement, credited against commission. No commission is owed until earnings exceed it.
Of net revenue you earn through agreements originated under the programme, for 24 months from each signature.
The retainer covers the work whether or not revenue arrives. The commission means I carry risk after the retainer ends, which is the only reason a six-month block is a fair ask rather than a lock-in.
One interest to declare. Some of these reseller groups also retain a separate partnership I am part of, on their own side of the table. Where that applies to a partner you are being placed with, you will hear it from me before you meet them.
Fit, plainly
Who this works for
This works
- Series A or B, with the cash to fund a channel and no regional team yet
- B2B, selling to businesses rather than consumers
- A product that ships and is already working in at least one market
- Someone internally who will own the channel once it exists
This does not
- Pre-product, or still deciding what the product is
- Consumer businesses at scale
- Companies already running their own team on the ground in region
- Anyone wanting introductions without a commercial structure behind them
Who you get
Elliot LaCour
One operator on the account, from the first call to the signed agreement and after it. No delivery team, no handover, no account manager between you and the decision.
- Founding General Partner, Brain-Too-Free Ventures, an early-stage fund in Singapore
- Early-stage investing, M&A and commercial partnership work across APAC
- Based between Singapore and the United Kingdom
Thirty minutes. Your product, the markets worth testing, and whether the partner set can carry you. If it cannot, you will hear that on the call.