How hard would it be to linear led light Factory fund an Internet start-up that had a development contract with Disney? The experience of Pixar in providing animation for Disney movies suggests that this would be easy to do.
What if you do not have the appeal of Disney? How can you find always-win, no lose options?
Partners will probably not be willing to fund your development and start-up costs, but you can certainly emphasize projects where those costs will be quite small. After you find many low-cost projects, you can then evaluate them for how hard it would be to recover your expenses.
Some opportunities will pay off in a few days, others in decades. Go for those opportunities with the fastest benefits. You will probably have a long list at this point.
Now compare the choices for the size of the long-term benefit, net of any on-going costs you will have. Here are some categories that should emerge. Any program that builds the recognition of and reputation for your enterprise should be near the top.
This means that existing customers are more attracted (making them easier to retain), plus you get new customers. Anything that enhances your proprietary advantages in knowledge about your customers should also be attractive.
Eventually, marketing, products, and service will be totally unique to each customer. But you cannot create the right individual solution that unless you know what is uniquely attractive and useful to the customer.