

Are APIs making Biz Dev obsolete? - ariannahsimpson
http://davidzhang.me/post/31482404157/apis-are-just-bizdev-2-0?hn

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sanj
_By looking at the API, Instagram immediately knows that they indeed can post
a picture on someone’s timeline,_

Today. At this very moment.

And tomorrow, without an actual contract, that mechanism could be taken away
from you.

~~~
DavidZhangToGo
Good point. APIs can speed things up, but ultimately you'll need bizdev people
to close the deal.

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colinsidoti
For my site in the travel industry, I need a bizdev guy to get me _access_ to
the APIs.

Also, not really. There are a ton of biz dev relationships that require more
than just an API. Making a public API where "The constraints, the terms,
everything is all there" probably isn't worthwhile if you don't plan for many
to use the API. In the cruise industry, not many players want access to the
cruise API, so they negotiate usage costs and commission individually.

~~~
DavidZhangToGo
APIs definitely won't replace bizdev, but you have to admit, for a lot of
industries, it's making the process a lot more efficient.

Look at all the companies that are opening up APIs. The New York Times just
opened up an API to their entire catalog of articles, definitely wasn't
expecting that. These APIs are making the cost of doing business a lot lower.

~~~
answerly
The NYT example is a bad one because any commercial use of of the API is
forbidden per the Terms of Use [1]. It seems like the API would be a pretty
bad starting point if you were a business that wanted a relationship with the
NYT.

[1] e. YOU SHALL NOT: (i) use the NYT APIs for any commercial purpose or in
any product or service that competes with products or services offered by NYT.
(from: <http://developer.nytimes.com/Api_terms_of_use>)

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bryanh
I guess someone remembers pg's tweet:
<https://twitter.com/paulg/statuses/171840230373081088>

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EGF
After reading this I went to find the post from Caterina Fake about Bizdev 2.0
(dead permalink here: <http://caterina.net/archive/000996.html>) but Chris
Dixon summarizes it well by saying that good BD cannibalizes itself sometimes
in this post: [http://cdixon.org/2010/08/28/good-bizdev-cannabilizies-
itsel...](http://cdixon.org/2010/08/28/good-bizdev-cannabilizies-itself/)

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ibagrak
Huh? This is gross oversimplification of both APIs and the role of business
development. The author somehow conflates deals with API integration. Not all
deals (and not all deals are term sheets, whatever) result in APIs
integration. Not all API integration coincides with business development
activity.

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kevinconroy
No, APIs won't make Biz Dev obsolete.

Yes, APIs will cause the role of Biz Dev to evolve to the next step in it's
business function in the same general direction that the Internet has forced
sales people to evolve.

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dmor
APIs do not eliminate biz dev, but they do make it easier and faster to get
deals done. I get the impression that the author might not have a firm grasp
of what business development people actually do ("they do deals" is not a
sufficient explanation).

I know that biz dev people love self-service APIs - and that they're no longer
the gatekeepers of API keys, and can instead focus that time on creating
unique partnerships and closing more deals.

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tyrionlannister
This would be much more insightful perhaps if the author had any actual
experience either developing an API or doing business development. He appears
to have none.

Nonetheless, as others have said, APIs facilitate and accelerate true business
development.

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ananddass
Actually no imho. Who defines the goals from the relationship? So 2 APIs talk
to each other seamlessly and then what? What's the go to market plan to get
both companies noticed in the marketplace? What milestones are we going to set
to measure the success of working together? I think APIs have made things more
productive in general; less engineering time spent, less contract negotiations
etc but has increased the amount of thinking that has to go into what makes a
successful partnership between the companies working together. Earlier the
definition of success used to be-"integration go-live" but now it's more like
"what next?".

~~~
zzimbler
What about the 1000's of people that use an API that a bizDev person could
never spend time talking to. Sure an API will never replace a human that is
needed to do a big time deal, but for everything else it's radically changed
bizdev.

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dawernik
APIs make deal execution much easier, but there will still be a place for
negotiating distribution within an application or through other channels for
anyone that is not a completely (or almost completely) open ecosystem.

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bcx
An API is only part of a relationship. Even when the relationship is based on
an API. For example, anyone can build an App for Shopify's app store. But,
some apps are featured more than others, some apps are blogged about more by
the Shopify team, and some apps are promoted by Shopify staff in the forum.

Yes, anyone can integrate with the easy to use API, but it's bizdev that turns
an integration into a channel to acquire more customers. (This may apply more
to B2B software than consumer)

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dantiberian
I'm not sure why this title was chosen, the article itself says >So now the
million dollar question - have APIs made BizDev obsolete? Definitely not. The
articles own title APIs are just BizDev 2.0 is far better.

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dataisfun
If the point is more nuanced (i.e., APIs simplify the bizdev cycle in some
cases) why use this linkbait of a title?

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kika
Electric starter motors made car drivers obsolete.

