How Startups Should Think About Partnerships and Channels When founders strike out to build the next great company, most assume they’ll adopt a direct sales model. But it’s worth thinking about partnerships and channels, too. Utilizing partnerships and channels can enable effective go-to-market activity. It can also improve your product’s scalability, increase customer engagement and ultimately provide the highest levels of service. Channels exist across all verticals in our economy—channel companies take a cut of revenues in exchange for providing smaller companies with a route to market. 25