A partnership with a major company looked like an obvious win.
The reach was there. The brand was there. The market opportunity was there.

What wasn't obvious was the amount of education, alignment, and execution required after the agreement was signed. What looked like a growth engine became a slow-moving operational challenge that continued to absorb time, attention, and momentum long after the excitement of the deal.

In this episode, Kevin Shtofman shares what happened when a partnership that made perfect sense on paper took far longer to gain traction than anyone expected, how leadership kept extending the timeline, and why some risks are difficult to name while you're still inside them.

Guest:

Kevin Shtofman, COO of REBA and former Global Head of Corporate Development at Cherre.
Connect with Kevin:
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinshtofman/

If you recognized something in this episode — joesteele.com.

Follow Decision State on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

CHAPTERS
00:00 The Partnership That Looked Like A Sure Thing
02:21 The Revenue Bet Behind The Deal
05:08 Why Partnerships Mattered So Much
08:47 From Corporate Development To COO
11:49 The New Pace Of Work
15:35 Context Switching And AI
19:17 The Commitments Nobody Defined
21:06 The Game Of Thrones Problem
23:02 The Story The Team Kept Telling Itself
23:49 When Friction Became Risk
25:09 We Saw The Vision Clearly
26:42 The Cost That Didn't Show Up
27:28 Why Naming The Problem Didn't Fix It
29:51 Everyone Has The Same Tools Now
33:09 Moving Fast Without Losing Control
34:29 The Right Amount Of Breakage
38:26 Two Eyes, Two Ears, One Mouth
39:20 Four Term Sheets Out Of Fifty-Six
41:20 The Risk Nobody Could Describe