When you’re a startup or an early-stage business, every pound counts. While you’re building out your own product or service and growing your customer base, there’s a powerful and often underused revenue stream that can help fill the gap: partnering with other businesses.

Rather than waiting months (or years) for your offering to mature, you can start monetising your traffic, audience, and network today—simply by offering complementary products and services from other companies.

Let’s dive into how you can do this without derailing your own sales process.

Why Partnerships Work

Startups often attract an audience that has a wide range of needs—some of which you can’t (or shouldn’t) fulfil yourself. Instead of letting those visitors go, you can guide them to trusted partners and earn a referral fee, affiliate commission, or share of revenue.

This is not only great for your cash flow—it helps your audience too. You’re pointing them in the direction of a vetted solution, saving them time and making their lives easier.

Two Smart Partnership Models

1. Affiliate or Referral Partnerships

Earn a commission every time someone in your audience buys a product or service you’ve recommended. This is ideal when:

• You don’t offer that specific product/service.
• It complements your own offering (e.g., a CRM recommending an email marketing tool).

2. Reseller or White Label Partnerships

In some cases, you might re-sell another company’s product as part of your own service, or even white-label it. This works well if you’re in a service-based business and want to offer more value to clients without the overhead of building it yourself.

Where to Place Partner Links (Without Being Pushy)

The key to effective monetisation through partnerships is timing and relevance. Here are some high-impact, low-disruption places to include partner links:

✉️ Newsletters

Share curated tools or services that relate to the content you’re sharing. Example: “Tool of the Week” with a trackable affiliate link.

📖 Blog Posts

Naturally recommend partner services in educational content. A blog about “Best Tools for Remote Startups” could feature your favourite project management platform—with your referral link.

✅ Post-Application or Sales Process

Not every lead will be a fit for your service. Instead of letting them go, refer them to a partner who can help. Example: “Not ready for our services yet? Try X, our trusted partner.”

🛍️ Thank You or Confirmation Pages

After someone signs up, submits a form, or books a demo, you can present relevant offers from partners. It feels helpful, not pushy.

🧰 Resource Hubs or Toolkits

Curate a page of recommended tools, software, or providers your audience might need—with affiliate links built in. This works especially well if you’re seen as a trusted voice in your niche.

Choosing the Right Partners

Pick companies that:

• Solve a problem your audience has.
• Don’t directly compete with your product.
• You trust and believe in (your reputation is on the line).

Look for affiliate programmes (many SaaS tools and service providers offer these), or reach out directly to businesses to propose a referral partnership.

Real-World Examples

• A freelancer platform could partner with invoicing tools, insurance providers, and co-working spaces.
• A marketing startup could recommend copywriters, CRM tools, and webinar software.
• A tech recruiter could refer developers to training bootcamps if they’re not quite job-ready—and earn a fee.

Final Thoughts

Revenue partnerships are not about squeezing money out of your audience—they’re about adding value and creating win-win scenarios. Done right, they become a reliable, passive income stream that helps you fund growth without distracting from your core mission.

If you’re not ready to build it, partner with someone who already has—and get paid for the introduction.