Behind the Handshake: Rishita Patel
Behind the Handshake is an ongoing short-form interview series and today's post features Rishita Patel, a friend of TfT who brings a depth of deal-making experience to this conversation. Rishita has structured first-of-their kind partnerships agreements at Google, Amazon and Adobe. Most recently, she took an exciting step into a new leadership role she mentions below.
I’ve turned to Rishita for advice in the past so I wanted to share her perspective with you here…
Tell us about yourself?
I’m a mom of two. A techie. I was born and raised a Texan and developed the mindset of a San Franciscan (10+ years) but I am really a New Yorker at my core. So I moved back to NYC last year and it has been great.
How would you describe your company and your role if we were sitting next to each other on a flight?
Describing my job is always a fun exercise, and I often resort to “I close deals between companies, but I’m not a lawyer” (much to my parent’s disappointment). I’ve spent the last 15+ years across consulting (Deloitte S&O) and tech (Google, Amazon, Adobe) building partnerships and scaling products and I’m now stepping into a leadership role at CrunchLabs, an educational STEM toy company created by Mark Rober, a NASA engineer turned creator. This opportunity is one of a kind - I’ll get to bridge my domain experience - BD, retail, tech, and education - and apply what I have learned to an an organization with a fantastic mission focused on helping kids get excited about learning.
What is an unpopular or contrarian view you hold?
Too often I see high-growth companies turn to advertising as their next “new business venture.” Instead of doing the hard work required to understand their customer’s real willingness to pay, they default to standard monetization models. While this may boost profits in the short term, it is a race to the bottom for CPMs and doesn’t build CLV (customer lifetime value).
Tell me about a partnership that you are proud of and a lesson you carry with you today from that deal.
I co-led a deal with Disney to bring Frozen voices to the Google Assistant. I learned that you get one opportunity to walk away from a partner during a negotiation. In this particular instance, an accidental hit of the “end call” button instead of “unmute” was the perfect antidote to the rising tensions on the call. Taking a 10 minute break in a live negotiation may actually be the fastest route to alignment (pro-tip: this also works with children under five).
There is one opportunity in every deal where you can issue an ultimatum or threaten to walk away. It can be really effective to draw that hard line. It shows where you will not budge. But you need to choose that issue and pick that moment carefully.
What is an insight that is core to how you approach relationships and build partnerships?
Be genuinely good as much as possible, but at all times, be genuine.
What is one thing you have found to be true about negotiations but is often overlooked?
Most people overlook how much homework is involved in getting a deal done. People tend to think of the cool or sexy aspects of BD and partnerships - the negotiations and networking. In reality, there is so much background that goes into a deal - evaluating the partner landscape, building a business model, understanding the internal and external stakeholders, tracking progress, and holding everyone accountable to actual milestones - that is where the real work is.
What advice would you offer to someone early in their career that you wish someone had given you?
Your greatest asset is the cross-functional people you work with.
What do you read or listen to that makes you smarter?
How I Built This (podcast) - these episodes get into the actual grit and day-to-day work of creating a new business. It it refreshing to hear about the process of “figuring it out” versus just the glory of the growth phase.
What is a book that changed your perspective?
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. It only takes 21 days to form a habit. Keeping that knowledge tucked away has made every new challenge less intimidating - I became a runner, finally start flossing 2x a day, and learned to love to cook.
