02/26/2026
Every business should be exploring strategic partnerships to grow 🤝
Here’s a story of how Pokemon became the world’s most valuable intellectual property (estimated to be worth over $100+ billion dollars).
We interviewed the former Chief Legal Officer of Pokemon Don McGowan (an advisor to Crowdcreate) to share insights on how companies can leverage strategic partnerships and brand licensing to grow.
Here’s the origin story.
2014 - Google & Pokemon collaborated on the “Pokemon Challenge”.
2015 - After the success, they pitched it as a full-scale game.
2016 - Pokemon Go hits peak all time high with 1 in 4 smartphones using it. 232 million daily active users.
2025 - Pokemon Go/Niantic sells it’s gaming division to Scopely for $3.5 billion dollars.
The game was merely a ‘pet project’ and they used the idea of Pokemon to get people moving and socializing outdoors.
The lesson?
When it comes to growing your business...
Opportunities arise just from talking to other companies and asking:
“How can we collaborate together?”
Step 1 - Have a partnership mindset, win-win.
Step 2 - Talk to as many people as possible.
Step 3 - Attend networking events as possible; message people on LinkedIn and do cold email outreach
Step 4 - Setup a fair partnership agreement that benefits both sides
We have a saying at our company, strong alone, unstoppable together...
Message us how you’re exploring partnerships at your company, and to chat all things go-to-market.
