Open source partner - revenue streams

[yadu tekale]

what kind of revenues can a start up partner to an open source software vendor expect in its first year of operation? the background is

- the open source software vendor is a well established one
- the partner delivers training, support and consulting services on the vendor's products
- the partner has just commenced the first year of operations

[David Locke]

Doesn't that depend on how you intend to make money, and the release schedule? You should have figured that out when you signed your partnership agreement.

[Joanna Lees-Castro]

Lots of factors that will impact the answer to your question...

- does the open source software vendor also have other partners providing the same type of services, or will you have a unique offering?

- what type of lead generation, marketing & sales help will you get from the open source software vendor? If they are well established, this could make a big difference to you as a startup.

- what type of "training, support & consulting services" and what is the pricing? It's not possible to answer questions about revenue without knowing what types of services you provide. Do you just do installation & ongoing phone support.... or significantly more value-add services that that?

- what is your sales & marketing model? how are you planning on acquiring customers?

There are lots of other areas of dependency... these are just a few that came to mind first.

Joanna

Joanna Lees-Castro
http://www.software-marketing-advisor.com
"Providing marketing, sales and business planning guidance for software and services vendors"

[Mark Dalgarno]

Is this the first time either of you have had such a relationship? If so, then expect some teething problems.

Does the vendor already have prepackaged training, support and consulting services or will you have to create your own? Expect less income if you need to create these - you'll have work to do that doesn't immediately bring in business.

How will the vendor promote your partnership? Do they already have too much business and have recruited you as a partner to help deliver it or are there no existing leads in your target market...

[Thibaut Rouffineau]

I believe it will depend very much on what your open source software vendor does on its own and what he'd rather see partners doing?
Based on this I would also look at how partners are organised? Is the vendor managing them? Are they self regulating? Is there no organisation?
More questions indeed...

[Charlie Bailey]

Yadu,

I'm just getting up to speed on this thread, but the question is really interesting. I agree with many/most of the replies, especially those that use the phrase "it depends". :-)

I think that one other factor to consider is the relationship between the vendor and the partner - what is the expectation on either side of that connection? If the vendor is getting a piece of the partners revenue, they would be much more motivated to help insure the success of the partner.

[Girish Bellalcheru]

Like the others said it depends on what value you bring to the table, which I assume has already been discussed during the agreements. On the other hand if you are asking a generic question, then your revenues would depend on how much penetration you can achieve in your target market. In other words I have no clue :) its something only you can know.