Floor 1 · Case file 012
How to find B2B design partners and pilots when you have nothing to show yet
Short answer: Pitch the destination, not the product. Find companies that badly want a specific outcome and have already spent real money failing to get there, then offer to get them there together. Qualify them with two questions: "If I get you there, what changes?" and "What have you tried so far?" Reach the risk-takers inside those companies, and expect to send a hundred messages for every yes.
Why you need design partners at all
You need the market to lead you to what it values. You fit the product to the market, not the other way round. A design partner is how the market leads you.
What you pitch when you have nothing to show
You have no product, little credibility and not much to deliver yet. So the only thing you can pitch is the vision: the transformation they're after.
They want to get to floor 37. You want to get them to floor 37. You'll invest your time, effort and creativity to get them there. In return, they'll put up with the bugs, the questions and the friction, because they want floor 37. Exactly floor 37, not floor 36.
That alignment of goals is the design partnership. You're not saying "I have a product that can do this." You're saying "I understand what you're trying to achieve, and I can get you there."
"But my product is different. They don't know they need it yet."
Then you're mixing up two kinds of creativity.
Your value proposition should be simple to understand, in your customer's own words. It's something they already want and can clearly describe. If they can't, you won't get their buy-in.
Your product is where creativity belongs. A Tesla is innovative, but its value proposition is the same as any car's: getting you from A to B. The creativity is in delivering that same outcome faster, cheaper or better.
Be as creative as you like with the elevator. Not with the floor they want to reach.
Want to sharpen your value proposition in your customer's words? The free PMF Detective plugin walks you through it.
One warning: if they're the only company that wants this, you're building for an outlier. Make sure there are more companies like them, so what you solve for one, you can solve for others.
How to qualify desire
Ask: "Say I get you there. What changes for your business?"
If they paint a clear, specific, even emotional picture, the desire is real. Ask someone who wants a Porsche what changes when they get one, and they'll tell you where they'll drive and how they'll polish it every Sunday.
If they hesitate, or say "well, we could maybe…", they hadn't thought about it before you asked. It isn't desirable enough.
"Nice, but I can't even get them on a call."
Most founders can't, at first. Getting that first conversation is its own skill: the outcome in one sentence, the right person inside the company, and a hundred messages for every yes.
It's all in how to reach them, below.
How to qualify pain
Then ask: "What have you tried so far? What worked, and what didn't?"
Dig into the cost. A team of five for six months. A consulting firm. A freelancer. Add it up together: "So you've invested about a million?" "Yes, at least."
That's a company that will invest again, as long as it isn't chasing a pipe dream.
Watch for the soft answer: "We tried a SaaS tool for a couple of months. It wasn't a good fit." They won't tell you nobody owned it. You have to ask:
- Who owned the trial?
- What outcome were you hoping to achieve?
- What did you put in to make it work?
- Why did it fail?
No owner, no budget, no real effort and no clear outcome means they're not your ICP.
If you have to fish for a different problem ("tell me about something else you tried and failed at"), you don't have a clear problem statement yet. You're still in customer discovery, not ready for design partners.
How to reach them
This is the hardest part. Accept that most people will say no. That's where real founders show up and wannabes disappear.
Expect one yes in a hundred. Send a hundred cold messages to people at companies that fit your ICP: "I want to help your company achieve [outcome]. If that's interesting, let's talk."
Frame the outcome carefully. Too broad, and you sound like you're fishing. Too narrow, and it's one in a thousand, not one in a hundred.
Find the early adopter inside the company. In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore describes innovators and early adopters. That's who you need: someone with a mandate to take risks. Nobody got fired for buying IBM. You need the person whose job isn't the safe choice.
They're placing a few chips on the table, knowing most will miss and one or two will pay off big, just like a VC. Your job is to convince them you're one of the big ones.
Look for change-makers. On LinkedIn, look for people who move roles every couple of years and are new in their current one. They were hired to make radical changes, and radical changes come with radical bets.
Check the company's need. Are they desperate to reach floor 37? For public companies, read their reports, or have AI read them for you.
Your work plan
- Write the outcome in one sentence: not too broad, not too narrow.
- List companies that fit your ICP and likely need it badly.
- Inside each, find the early adopter: new in role, changes jobs often, a mandate to take risks.
- Send a hundred messages. Expect one yes.
- On every call, ask "what changes?" and "what have you tried?"
- Sign the ones with a vivid picture, real money spent, and an owner.
Once you've landed one, here's how to run a B2B pilot that proves P/MF.