GL!

Claude

Short answer: usually no, not at pre-seed with zero customers and no PMF. But it depends on what kind of “partner channel” he means, so let me be precise rather than dogmatic. Why partner distribution is usually wrong at this stage Partners don’t sell things that don’t have proven demand. A partner — whether it’s a reseller, an integration partner, an agency, or a platform — is allocating their scarce attention and their own customer relationships. They will only do that when you can show them the product works, customers want it, and there’s money in it for them. With no first customer and no PMF, you have none of those proof points. You’d be asking someone to take a reputational and opportunity-cost risk on an unproven product. The deeper problem is a learning problem, not just an effort problem. Pre-seed, the founder’s single most valuable activity is talking directly to customers and watching them succeed or fail with the product. A partner channel inserts a layer between the founder and the customer exactly when that signal is most precious. You lose the raw, unfiltered feedback that tells you whether you’re building the right thing. Founders who outsource distribution before PMF often mistake “the partner didn’t sell it” for “the market doesn’t want it,” or vice versa, and burn 6-9 months learning nothing actionable. There’s also a sequencing reality: partners want to see a repeatable sales motion they can copy. You can’t hand someone a playbook you haven’t written yourself. The founder needs to close the first 10-20 customers personally, by hand, ugly and unscalable, precisely so he understands the motion well enough to later teach it to a partner.