How can mobile start-ups forge relationships with carriers? What are carriers looking for? How do they find out about young companies? How can you get in the door?

Moderator: Tim Chang, Gabriel Venture Partners

Panelists:
Verizon – Ray Taylor
Vodafone – Peter Barry
Sprint Nextel Ventures – Anurag Khaitan
QUALCOMM – Arvin Chander

Points made:

1. Do your research. Which group at the carrier is most likely to want to work with you? Understand which (geographic) market you need to be in and focus.

2. Selling too high will put you in the black hole. Utilize developer/partner programs instead as they are “open for business.”

3. Make sure there’s money in it and everyone can win. Will it drive traffic? Make money?

4. Be persistent in explaining your value proposition. How are you different than other competing products?

5. Edge services will have shorter due diligence than infrastructure plays.

6. You need to educate the carrier about your value proposition so your message is well understood.

7. Start with the big carriers not the little guys. Then you’ll get traction much faster.

8. Carriers are looking for what’s going to move the needle in a big way. It’s a competitive market. Again, do your research and illustrate value.

9. There may be more value in _not_ talking to other carriers perhaps – especially if you really have something. See point 8.

10. M&A = n/a. Think more about partnering that drives revenues in existing services. Carriers really think about buying other carriers.

Quote of the day: “Open the handset. Open the network.”