Let's say you're Airbnb (except brand new, read not that many users in your system) and you meet a company that has 20K+ new users and this company wants to license your brand/platform so they can use it for their audience of 10K who is already doing roughly what you're doing but using other platforms rather than yours. How does one structure a licensing deal with this new company? ie. you can use our platform and we take X cut? What does the person bringing the 20K new users to you get in return? How does a company like say Paint Nite structure their licensing arrangements?
I've negotiated a bunch of license agreements over the last 15 years. Each one is different, obviously. You really need to get experienced counsel to help you articulate the deal and, thereafter, paper that deal. Using templates from other companies invariably ends badly, though it is unfortunately very common in the tech industry.
Licensing deals are all about leverage. Make sure both sides are getting something out of the relationship, both now and down the line. When it comes to platforms, you want to make sure some portion of the license is for use of the platform only, whether or not they make any money using it.
Happy to have a call to discuss in more detail.
Answered 4 years ago
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