The Operating Partners
I need a guy… who has another guy… who can do that…
What’s an Operating Partner
Launching multiple ventures, especially near the same time, might take a decent amount of planning and execution. Once you have an existing audience, you’ll also have a certain product quality expectation that comes with it. Enter the Operating Partners. Operating Partners (OPs) are experienced business strategists, project managers, and industry experts who specialize in supporting creators with operational execution. Unlike traditional managers or agents who focus on securing deals and partnerships, OPs take a more hands-on approach to venture building. They provide strategic guidance, operational frameworks, and executional support to bring a creator's ideas to life.
Types of Operating Partners
Independants
Contracted and independent individuals that have experience in:
- Identifying New Business Ventures: Leveraging market trends and individual creator insights to discover opportunities that align with a creator's brand.
- Creator Talent Collaboration: Navigating the unique dynamics of working with creators and their teams to optimize creative and operational synergies.
- Audience-Centric Launching: Ensuring new projects or businesses launch effectively by tapping into an existing audience with tailored strategies.
- Pitching and Fundraising: Representing creators and their holding companies (HoldCos) or subsidiaries to potential investors or partners to secure resources.
Distributive Partners
- Incubators
- Focused on nurturing early-stage business ideas for creators by providing resources such as funding, mentorship, and strategic guidance.
- Typically designed to help Creators test and refine business concepts while aligning them with their personal brand and audience.
- May offer co-working spaces, technical resources, or networking opportunities to accelerate growth.
- Product Studios/Brand Studios
- Specialists in designing, developing, and launching creator-led products or brands.
- Responsibilities include product ideation, manufacturing, branding, and go-to-market strategy.
- Often act as a full-service agency for creators looking to diversify their revenue streams beyond content.
- Examples include launching skincare lines, merch brands, or tech products with streamlined execution.
- Merchandisers
- Partners that help creators design, produce, and sell strictly merchandise.
- Offer turnkey solutions for creators looking to monetize through merchandise.
- Manage logistics, from design to fulfillment.
- Examples: Shopify, Spring (formerly Teespring), or Fanjoy.
- Licensing Partners
- Partners that help monetize intellectual property (IP) and NIL through licensing deals.
- Identify opportunities for licensing content, merchandise, or branding rights.
- Negotiate agreements with manufacturers, retailers, or media companies.
- Examples: Collabs with major fashion retailers or franchise deals for existing brands.
- Venture Studios
- Collaborate with creators to co-create businesses from scratch, sharing ownership and operational responsibilities.
- Provide strategic guidance on idea validation and market entry.
- Offer operational infrastructure, funding, and experienced teams to launch and scale businesses.
- Examples: Founders Factory, Atomic, or bespoke creator-focused venture builders.
Roles of an Operating Partner
Venture Development
OPs help creators turn abstract ideas into fully-fledged business opportunities. From ideation to market validation, they work on building businesses that align with a creator's personal brand and audience.
Operational Frameworks
Creators often lack the time or expertise to structure their ventures effectively. OPs design organizational systems, develop business plans, and create roadmaps for execution.
Financial Strategy
Managing cash flow, raising capital, and projecting revenue streams are critical to any creator-led venture. OPs provide financial oversight and assist in securing funding when necessary.
Product Development
Whether it’s launching a merch line, a tech product, or a direct-to-consumer brand, OPs ensure the product development cycle is optimized—from prototyping to launch.
Go-to-Market Strategy
Leveraging a creator's audience is a great advantage, but it’s not enough to guarantee a successful launch. OPs craft marketing strategies, distribution plans, and partnerships to amplify the creator's ventures.
Scaling and Growth
Once a venture is launched, OPs focus on scaling operations, optimizing processes, and building long-term sustainability.
Why Creators Need Operating Partners
Creators are builders in their own way. They build audiences. They build communities. But building businesses is different. It requires another type of thinking—one that creators rarely have time to master because they’re too busy doing the thing that made them successful in the first place: creating.
The best Operating Partners are specialists at this kind of building. They know how to take an idea—“What if I launched my own skincare line?”—and break it down into a series of solvable problems: Who manufactures it? How do you distribute it? What’s the pricing model? Who’s the target customer? Creators don’t naturally think in these terms, and they shouldn’t have to. Operating Partners fill that gap.
As always, if you have any particular questions, feel feel to reach out to em@pre-founder.com.
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