How We Out-Innovated Industry Giants on a Tight Budget

Most startups are budget-conscious by necessity in the early days, if not totally strapped for cash. That’s certainly what I remember when Roof Maxx was getting off the ground. We just couldn’t afford to outspend the biggest companies in our industry when it came to product or business development.

So we didn’t try. Instead, we sought out strategic partnerships that would help us punch above our weight.

Collaborating with respected private and public organizations in our home state of Ohio lent legitimacy to our novel roof restoration solution for homes and businesses without requiring massive marketing or R&D budgets.

Here’s what I learned about identifying and approaching these entities, and how you can do the same.

How to court the right industry partners

Industry partners can provide much-needed financial support for a fledgling business. But not every business association or advocacy group is going to be right for your company.

Before Roof Maxx even had a name, I was experimenting with the idea of replenishing the asphalt in roofing shingles. I had previously licensed a formula from a Canadian company that was working on a product aimed at achieving this goal, but patent issues and missed filing dates had prevented us from being able to adequately protect the technology.

That’s when I met Barry McGraw of the Ohio Soybean Council (OSC). He and I agreed that soy-based oils were a viable way to restore flexibility and durability to shingles that had lost their natural petrochemical oils over time.

The OSC is run by a volunteer farm board, and its mission is to invest funds in products and initiatives that support soybean farmers across the state. They didn’t need to be involved in the nuts and bolts of bringing our product to market; they just wanted to support our development and testing. They provided grants and left the rest to us.

So when you’re looking for partners in the private sector, ask yourself: What do you really need? Who’s going to help you move in the direction you need to go, versus who might end up making that journey more complicated?

Why the public sector is an overlooked R&D goldmine

The private sector can provide critical funding for a new business, but public institutions like universities and colleges can give you unprecedented access to lab testing and research. For a business like Roof Maxx, that kind of academic clout can go a long way towards legitimizing your value within the industry and putting you on even footing with larger competitors.

Our partnership with the OSC allowed us to pursue product testing at Battelle Labs, one of the nation’s most prominent research and development firms. This was fundamental to evolving the soy-based formula at the heart of our flagship product. But we still needed an independent evaluation to verify its efficacy.

That’s what Ohio State University (OSU) provided. ASTM-compliant lab testing in their facilities coordinated with PRI Testing Labs, used by major U.S. roofing manufacturers, confirmed that treating asphalt shingles with Roof Maxx could improve flexibility, reduce granule loss and make them more resilient against natural hazards like high winds, moisture penetration or hail damage.

Thanks to that research, we had specific studies we could point to and prove that our product worked. When you’re trying to disrupt a legacy industry with a solution barely anyone has heard of, that’s the best way to deflect doubters and win early adopters.

Leveraging partnerships to create tangible value

Whether your partnerships are private or public, you need to know what you’re hoping to get from them to help your business grow. You also need to have a plan for what you’ll provide in return.

It’s critical to understand that we didn’t just seek out organizations with more resources than us and ask them for favors. We made offers and brought value to the table. The OSC was excited about helping us develop the Roof Maxx product because the more we sold, the more demand there would be for the soybeans their farmers produced. For OSU, our partnership provided secure funding for research and valuable industry experience for their lab team.

But the most important lesson here is this: Forging partnerships that provided mutual benefits to all parties allowed us to develop a best-in-class product without a biggest-in-class budget.

You don’t need more money than the biggest players in your space to compete with them. You just need to identify a real need in the market, find partners who can help you develop a high-quality solution and make them an offer that compels them to throw their weight behind you.

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Most startups are budget-conscious by necessity in the early days, if not totally strapped for cash. That’s certainly what I remember when Roof Maxx was getting off the ground. We just couldn’t afford to outspend the biggest companies in our industry when it came to product or business development.

So we didn’t try. Instead, we sought out strategic partnerships that would help us punch above our weight.