Advice on partnership with a large firm.
callmeed: I'm not a fan of partnerships with large companies.In my last 2 startup companies, I've had 2 partnerships with large, publicly-traded, tech firms in the valley. Other than a few nice, free dinners and the temporary ego boost of having their logo on your website, both were a complete waste of time and resources.Big companies like to throw their size and influence around as incentive to partner with them ("we have XXX customers", "do $X million dollars in Y industry", etc.). In reality, they really don't care about your success, they will always call the shots–or they're simply "too big to move".Our best partnerships have come from connected individuals in our industry. Influential bloggers, other entrepreneurs and industry/regional experts can go a long way if you let it.If this partnership is the only way to get into Africa quickly, I would say proceed with caution. I wouldn't do anything exclusive unless it was tied to a performance quota and short timeline.Just my $.02