Hardware Partners
Hardware partners are device / edge-hardware makers whose product ships running, and certified for, FlowFuse — bringing a device to market with FlowFuse fleet management built in. This is a technical, gated partnership: prove the device works, then take it to market. It is run from the Partner Workbook.
The partnership process
It runs through five stages, each with entrance and exit criteria (see the Partner Stages). Every stage produces or executes a portion of the Partner Workbook.
The single most important rule: prove the technical first. Whether FlowFuse runs on the partner's hardware is the roadblock — until it's confirmed you have a gate, not a schedule. Only once feasibility is certified does the partnership move into execution (stages 3–5).
1 · Qualify & Fit
Decide whether there's a real partnership here, and set it up to succeed. The goal is to agree the "better together" thesis and the value exchange — what each side gives and gets — and to put accountability in place: a single owner + exec sponsor and an economic buyer on both sides, plus a forcing function (a named end customer that pulls the partnership forward). A partnership without a buyer, a sponsor, and a customer to aim at will drift. Produces: the workbook's Overview and Fit & Use Case tabs.
2 · Feasibility & Certification — the gate
The roadblock stage: prove FlowFuse actually runs on the partner's hardware before anyone invests in offer, pricing, or GTM. This is where partnerships most often die, so it is a hard gate. The goal is a FlowFuse-certified device — the agent installs and runs, survives an uplink drop, the data path works, known blockers are resolved, and the reference architecture and integrator roles are documented. Clearing it is "technical confirmed" — the trigger that lets execution begin. Produces: the workbook's Certification tab.
3 · Joint Offer & Commercial
Turn the proven integration into something you can sell together. The goal is a repeatable joint offer (an MVP kit / Quick-Start flows + a demo that doubles as a sales asset) and a commercial model agreed once — pricing, licensing, revenue split, procurement, and support. Deciding these once, together, is what stops pricing and packaging from looping. Produces: the workbook's Overview → Joint Offer + Commercial Model.
4 · Legal
Paper the partnership: execute the NDA and the partnership agreement, and clear any outstanding commercial or legal blockers so nothing stalls the launch. Produces: the commercial / legal status on the workbook.
5 · GTM Launch
Take it to market. The goal is to ship the launch — narrative, enablement, and co-marketing — and land a first reference customer that proves the motion works and seeds the next deals. Produces: the workbook's Plan → post-launch section.
What good and bad look like
- Good — a strong champion, a genuine "better together" fit, fast technical validation, and a concrete shared demo that doubles as a sales asset. The risk is sprawl: run it to the gates so pricing, certification, and GTM don't loop.
- Bad — a technical blocker owns the relationship; a single engineer contact with no economic buyer or exec sponsor; no commercial track; no customer forcing function; and every call ends "reconnect next week." That's how a promising partnership quietly stalls.
Certification
Hardware partners get their device FlowFuse-certified. The Certified Device Requirements define what a device must meet; certification is the exit of the Feasibility gate (stage 2).