How to partner and scale with the big four in tech (Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple)

From IBM and General Motors in the 1970s to General Electric in the 1990s, the US has always produced behemoth corporations that bestride the world. Interestingly, in the last three decades the shift has moved from offline to digital, from services to subscription based revenue models and from an ambition to own customers to tools that farm their data. Today’s “big four” of technology - Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook are growing at breakneck speed and dominating the market. We know instinctively that partnering with them can lead high growth businesses to success. But for those startups, what does it actually all add up to? What is the secret sauce to building and scaling successful partnerships with Nasdaq’s blue chip heroes?