Partner Programme
A partnership works only when both sides know exactly what they bring and what they get back. This page states the three shapes that arrangement can take here, and the boundary each one respects.
A referral, a delivery partner, or a platform alliance.
Most partnerships fall into one of three shapes: someone who refers a client, a firm that shares delivery capacity on a joint engagement, or a partner built around shared platform depth. The right shape depends on what each side actually has to offer.
Referral partner
You know a business that needs engineering help. A qualified introduction is compensated once it becomes a signed engagement.
Delivery partner
Your firm covers work ValueCoders doesn't, or the reverse, and a joint engagement is scoped and delivered together.
Platform alliance
Shared depth on a specific platform or stack supports joint proposals into accounts neither side would win alone.
A working partnership states the boundary first.
Every shape above has a boundary worth agreeing before any client is involved: who owns the relationship, who is accountable for delivery, and how disagreements about scope get resolved.
Client ownership stays clear
One side owns the commercial relationship even in a joint delivery arrangement, agreed before the first conversation with the client.
Delivery accountability is named
A joint engagement still needs one accountable delivery lead, decided upfront rather than discovered under pressure.
Scope disagreements have a route
A short, agreed process for resolving a scope disagreement prevents it from becoming the client's problem.
A referral is tracked from the first introduction.
A referral partnership only works if the introducing party can see it through to a result, so the process is kept short and the tracking is kept honest.
01Step oneMake the introduction
A short message naming the business and the reason the introduction makes sense starts the process.
02Step twoThe lead is tracked
The introduction is logged against the referring partner before any conversation with the client begins.
03Step threeCompensation follows signature
Once the referred engagement is signed, the agreed compensation is paid, not before.
There is no application form yet, only a conversation.
This programme is still forming its own process, so the honest starting point is a direct message rather than a form that implies more structure than currently exists.
Describe the partnership you're proposing
State which of the three shapes fits, and what your side would actually bring to a joint engagement.
This works best for a firm with its own client relationships.
A partnership adds the most value when the other side already has clients or projects that genuinely need engineering help, not when it is speculative capacity looking for a use.
Agencies without engineering depth
Design or marketing agencies whose clients occasionally need software built are a common referral fit.
Consultancies scoping technical work
Firms that advise on strategy but do not build software can bring delivery capacity into their own engagements.
Platform specialists
Firms with deep expertise in one platform can pair that depth with broader engineering delivery on joint proposals.
Questions buyers ask before a first call.
01Is there a minimum size for a referral to qualify?
No fixed minimum exists yet, since the programme has not scaled to that level of structure. A genuine introduction to a business that needs engineering help is the actual bar, not a deal-size threshold.
02How is referral compensation actually calculated?
Compensation terms are agreed per referral until a standard structure exists. State what you would consider fair when you make the introduction, and it gets confirmed before the client conversation starts.
03Can a delivery partner keep the client relationship?
Yes, where that is agreed upfront. Client ownership in a joint engagement is a decision made before work starts, not something assumed by whoever spoke to the client first.
04What happens if a joint engagement runs into a scope disagreement?
The agreed resolution route from the partnership terms applies, kept deliberately short so a disagreement between partners never becomes something the client has to navigate.
05Do you require exclusivity from a partner?
No. A partner is free to work with other engineering firms, and ValueCoders works with other partners in the same category. Exclusivity has not been part of any arrangement so far.
06Is a platform alliance limited to a specific technology?
No specific platform is fixed in advance. The fit depends on whether the shared depth actually opens proposals neither side would win alone, which is a conversation, not a checklist.