Reseller or Referral: which Sidekick partner model fits your practice

Two ways to partner, deliberately different

There are two ways to partner with Sidekick Lab, and the right one for your practice depends almost entirely on what you want to own in the client relationship. The models are intentionally distinct. One is built for practices that deliver the work themselves. The other is built for firms that want to introduce Sidekick into client conversations without taking on delivery.

Both come with the same protections, the same access to the platform, and the same support during a first engagement. The difference is commercial structure and where your value sits.

The core principle: Sidekick exists to create work for partners, not to compete with them. Whether you resell or refer, your named accounts are protected and the services revenue Sidekick surfaces stays with you.

The two models at a glance

	Reseller	Referral
Who leads the client	You do	Sidekick does, after introduction
Who delivers the work	You do	Sidekick does
Commercial structure	20% discount off list price	10% of ARR for 24 months
Your upside	Platform margin plus services revenue	Referral fee plus downstream pipeline
Best for	Practices with a data or AI delivery team	Advisors or specialists without delivery capacity

The Reseller model

The reseller model is built for practices that already deliver data and AI engagements and want Sidekick to become part of that delivery. You lead the client relationship from the first conversation through to go-live and beyond. You sell Sidekick as part of your proposal, you run the Proof of Value alongside your team, and you handle the implementation and remediation work that follows.

Sidekick is sold to you at a 20% discount off list price. You sell to your client at list price or above, and you keep the margin. On a typical first-year engagement, that platform margin alone is meaningful — but it is not the main commercial story.

The bigger opportunity in this model is the work that Sidekick surfaces. Every data quality issue it identifies is a remediation engagement. Every use case it flags is a candidate AI project. Every compliance gap it surfaces is a governance scope. Most reseller partners find that the platform itself pays for itself quickly, and the real revenue comes from the work it creates downstream.

This model suits practices that:

• Have consultants who can run a Proof of Value, provision credentials, set up a pair of virtual machines, and translate Sidekick's outputs into client conversations
• Can hold a credible data governance or data engineering discussion with a CIO or CDO
• Serve clients in data-heavy or regulated industries — financial services, healthcare, mining, telecoms, logistics, insurance

The Referral model

The referral model is built for firms that have the right relationships but do not want to take on delivery. You introduce the client, Sidekick runs the engagement directly, and you earn 10% of annual recurring revenue for 24 months from the date the contract is signed.

There is no implementation overhead, no delivery risk, and no requirement to build a Sidekick competency inside your team. The trade-off is that you do not own the engagement commercially — Sidekick does — and the upside on services revenue belongs to whoever delivers the downstream work.

This model suits firms that:

• Have trusted relationships with CIOs, CDOs, or CEOs in mid-market or enterprise businesses
• Want a clean revenue stream without taking on delivery
• Do not have the technical bench to run a Proof of Value themselves
• Want to test the waters before committing to a reseller relationship later

Your client relationships are protected

One thing worth being explicit about: in both models, your named accounts are protected. Sidekick will not approach, pitch, or enter into commercial discussions with your named accounts without your written consent. That protection is written into every partner agreement and holds for 12 months after termination.

The intent is simple. Sidekick exists to create work for partners, not to compete with them.

How to choose

The clearest test is this: do you want to deliver the work that Sidekick creates, or do you want to point it at someone else?

If your practice already does data and AI work and is looking for a way to scope projects faster, win more competitive bids, and create new pipeline inside existing accounts, the reseller model is built for you. If you are an advisor, an agency, or a specialist whose value to clients sits in the relationship rather than the delivery, the referral model is cleaner and quicker to start.

The two models are not permanent states. Several partners begin as referrers, build familiarity with the platform through a couple of joint engagements, and move into a reseller relationship once they are confident in their ability to deliver. There is no penalty for starting small.

Getting started

The fastest way to work out which model fits is a short introductory conversation. From there, the path to a first joint engagement is typically four steps over 30 days: an intro call with the Sidekick team, signing the partner agreement, identifying two or three target accounts, and running a joint Proof of Value.