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Inside the Mind of a Partnerships Leader: Why the Best Partnerships
Are Built, Not Sold
Brett Kubik
Partnerships Manager, Funlab
8 min read | 8th July | John Kouimtzis
“Once you agree to a partnership, you're effectively becoming an extension of their brand, and they're becoming an extension of yours”
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Brett Kubik has spent nine years inside Funlab learning when to push, when to wait, and when to walk away. Across sales, bookings, programs, community outreach and now partnerships, he has worked through practically every customer-facing function in the business.
Before that, almost ten years at iSelect built a different instinct, high-volume selling, fast decisions, and constant pressure for the quick win. The transition between those two worlds has defined how he now approaches growth, opportunity and risk.
Today, Brett helps build partnerships for Funlab, the business behind entertainment brands including Strike, Holey Moley and Archie Brothers, operating more than 50 venues across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
In this conversation he shares why the best partnerships are built, not sold, what it takes to unlearn short-term thinking, and how AI is changing the way deals are prepared, without changing what actually makes them work.
01
The Unlearn
You spent four years selling at iSelect, where the whole model is built on volume and conversion. Funlab partnerships operate differently, slower cycle, relationship-first and built over longer timeframes. What's that one habit from those iSelect years you had to consciously unlearn to succeed at Funlab?
I spent almost ten years at iSelect, around seven in management roles, but I was still in a selling environment, still responsible for driving outcomes through the people around me. One of the habits I had to unlearn, and it’s probably stating the obvious, is that constant need for instant gratification.
That type of environment is built around get on, get off, get the sale, celebrate the sale. It’s a real sales floor style of setup, and it can wire you to look for short-term wins rather than long-term thinking.
In that kind of rhythm, there’s a lot happening around you. Sales are coming through, people are celebrating, and you almost feel like you need to be on the board just to be part of it. Over time, that can shape how you approach the work, sometimes pulling you toward quicker outcomes rather than stepping back and doing it properly.
“That environment taught you to value momentum, but partnerships teach you to value progress over time.”
The shift for me now is how I define a win. Some of these relationships in partnerships can run for six months before anything really happens. When you’re dealing with large organisations, there are people reaching out constantly, so just getting time on the calendar is progress in itself. I remember my first partnership in this role was with Rugby Australia. I got a call with the head of community rugby through a mutual connection, and I was genuinely excited just to have the conversation. At that point, I didn’t care where it led. The experience itself felt like the win.
Archie Brothers
02
The Inside Job
In nine years at Funlab you've moved through sales, bookings, programs, community outreach, and now partnerships, practically every customer-facing function in the business. What does having sat in all those seats let you do in a partnership conversation that someone who's only ever worked in partnerships couldn't?
The first thing worth saying is what Funlab does well across the board. Regardless of what role you come into, you’re expected to spend time in venues and learn the core of the business. That applies to everyone, because the venue layer is the majority of the organisation.
I remember starting out and doing my first shifts at a venue, before I even properly stepped into an office role. It was part of the induction, and it sets the tone early. You understand very quickly that this is a venue-led business. That mindset is reinforced consistently, whether it’s onboarding or even things like Christmas periods where everyone gets involved, from leadership through to support teams. For me, having moved through sales, bookings, programs, community outreach and now partnerships, it means I’ve had exposure to a wide range of how those venues are actually used in practice.
“I don’t need to stop the conversation and say, let me check with the venue teams. I just know it, because I’ve spent time there.”
We work across community groups, corporate partners, inclusivity programs and accessibility initiatives, and I’ve had direct experience in many of those spaces. I’ve helped run those events, I’ve worked with organisations like What Ability, and I’ve seen firsthand how different groups engage with the venues.
That gives you something quite practical in partnership conversations. Instead of saying “I think this would work well,” you can say “I’ve seen this work before, here’s how it was set up, and here’s what the outcome looked like.” It becomes reference-based rather than theoretical.
Earlier in my career at iSelect, I saw that same benefit in a different way. I started when the business was around 30 people and left when it was several hundred. Being part of that growth gave me a feel for how organisations evolve, and what it means when something scales and starts to formalise.
All of that adds up to a bit more confidence in conversations now. If something comes up that’s operationally focused, I don’t need to pause and go back to venue teams. I already have enough context from having been in those environments to keep the conversation moving naturally.
03
Where the Edge is
You've built relationships with Commonwealth Bank, Hockey Australia, headspace, and What Ability, commercial, sporting, mental health and disability organisations. Have you ever walked away from a partnership that looked good on paper because it didn't pass that test, and what was it about that one that didn't sit right?
I try to give everyone an opportunity, sometimes to my own detriment, because something that doesn’t look particularly strong on the surface can turn into something really valuable over time, and the reverse is also true.
Commonwealth Bank is a good example of the first one. What started as something relatively small, a staff offering, has grown into a much broader relationship. We’re now a sponsor of their Kit Cares Community Program, and we also work with CommBank Yellow. None of that was obvious at the beginning. A lot of it came from staff experiencing the venues, then opening up conversations internally over time.
There are also times where I’ve had to step away from opportunities, or been advised to step away, when the alignment just isn’t quite there. We see that clearly in sport when sponsorships are pulled if something happens that doesn’t reflect well on either side. It’s the same principle here.
“Once you enter a partnership, you’re effectively becoming an extension of each other’s brand”
For me, a key factor is guest experience. If we’re looking at a consignment-style arrangement, where someone is representing or reselling our product, it has to feel consistent with how we show up ourselves, whether that’s in venue, on the phone or on the website. That consistency is a big part of what we offer.
There’s also a point where you have to check whether you’re responding to a genuine long-term opportunity, or just reacting to something that looks strong commercially in the short term. That’s usually the moment where you slow down and reassess whether it actually fits the direction you want to take.
And just as importantly, it comes down to the relationship on the ground. I’ve seen situations where the structure made sense, but the connection between the people working on it wasn’t quite right for the scale or direction it needed. In one case, I’ve seen that same opportunity go on to become something much larger when the right people were involved.
So I think of it less as a simple two-way relationship. It’s not just Funlab and a partner. It’s Funlab, me, the partner, and the person on the other side. All four of those need to line up.
Holey Moley
04
The Data Gap
When you're building the right perks package for a corporate partner, what does good data actually look like, and what's the one piece of visibility you still don't have that would change how you pitch partnerships tomorrow?
Good data, for me, starts with understanding where we sit relative to a partner’s existing employee benefits or reward ecosystem. When a business comes to the table looking for a staff offering, I’m always interested in what else they already have in market, so we can position Funlab based on value and experience, not just price.
The challenge is that level of visibility doesn’t really exist. Most reward and loyalty platforms are closed, so you’re not always benchmarking against a clear competitor set. That means we tend to focus on what we can control: the strength of the experience and the outcomes we consistently see when people actually use the venues.
Internally, we track things like average spend per guest, and that becomes a useful reference point. It helps guide how we think about offers for partners and staff programs.
For example, we might offer something like a discounted activity for a corporate partner or a free entry for community programs. On the surface, it can look like a significant concession, but it’s designed with usage patterns in mind. When people come in with friends or family, their overall spend tends to lift through food, drinks and additional activities.
So even when we’re offering a reduced entry point, we know from historical data that the total guest value usually sits above our target averages.
“It’s less about discounting for its own sake, and more about creating a pathway that brings people into the venue in the right way”.
There’s a clear commercial logic to it. If someone comes in on a partner offer, enjoys the experience and stays longer than expected, that creates a stronger long-term outcome than a transactional visit ever would.
05
AI and the Human Room
Partnerships have traditionally been won on relationships and instinct, not data and automation. As AI starts doing more of the prospecting and personalising work for partnership teams everywhere, what happens to the parts of your job that have always relied on reading a room and building trust the slow way, does AI strengthen that or quietly erode it?
I’m a massive embracer of AI. I think it strengthens everything, if we use it well. What it isn’t going to do is replace the emotional intelligence that happens in a room of two, three, four or five people when you’re presenting. That human interaction doesn’t change, and I wouldn’t want it to.
What it does change is how prepared you are going into those moments. It allows you to make presentations far more personalised, more relevant, and more grounded in the business you’re actually speaking to.
We’re all time poor. If I’ve got a meeting in two weeks, I’m not spending those two weeks building every element of the pitch manually. I’ll use AI to help me understand how a business operates, where our offering might align with their values, and what angles are worth exploring. It doesn’t replace the thinking, but it accelerates the preparation.
“It’s not going to change what happens between human beings in a room. But it definitely prepares you much better going in, and it gives you more time to become better at the important things.”
Once you understand how your product fits within a partner’s world, the conversation becomes sharper. You still tailor it yourself, but you’re starting from a much stronger base.
It also frees up time. Things that used to take days can now be structured in a matter of minutes, which means more time is spent on the parts that actually matter, reading the room, building trust, and understanding the person across the table.
But it’s not a magic wand. If you use it lazily, you get a lazy outcome. You still need to challenge it, push it, and guide it to be more critical of your thinking rather than just agreeing with you.
06
The Unlearn
If you fast-forward five years and walk into a Funlab venue, what does the technology layer look like? Is it invisible and seamless, or part of the entertainment itself? And as the person responsible for bringing partners into that world, how do you future-proof a partnership today for a venue experience that might look quite different tomorrow?
It’s all three. Invisible and seamless where it needs to be, and part of the entertainment itself where that makes sense.
If technology makes the booking and pre-arrival experience easier, we’ll absolutely embrace it. We’re already in the middle of a full rebuild of our guest experience online with a global partner, so that thinking is very current for us.
There’s also a shift happening in how discovery works. If someone is in the car between school drop-offs and asks an AI assistant for a last-minute activity or gift idea, you want that system recommending your business. The way people find and compare options is changing, and you need to be thinking about that layer as well, not just traditional search or advertising.
In venue, though, the priority never changes. The guest experience comes first. Technology can’t come at the expense of that.
A good example is how we think about friction points like check-in. In some venues, we’ve introduced faster, more seamless entry options for guests who are ready to go, while still keeping staffed reception available for people who want that interaction. It’s about choice, not replacement.
We’re also careful about where data sits in that journey. We want it to improve the experience and operate quietly in the background, not interrupt it. Data is critical, but guests don’t want to feel like they’re being processed.
Hijinx Hotel
07
The Long Bet
As the person responsible for bringing partners into Funlab Venues, how do you future-proof a partnership today for a venue experience that might look quite different tomorrow?
The honest answer is you can’t lock in against every technological change, because the pace is too fast. What you can do is stay aligned on the fundamentals: guest experience, brand integrity, and how people actually feel when they’re in the venue.
“You can’t future-proof a partnership against every new technology. You future-proof it by staying aligned on guest experience".
There are plenty of competitors people can choose from at different price points. The reason they come back to us is because the experience feels different, and that’s where technology plays a supporting role rather than a defining one.
A lot of that difference comes down to things technology won’t replace. The team, the service, the design of the spaces, and the way people move through them all matter just as much as the digital layer.
We think about experiences in a very layered way. Every mini golf hole is themed, not just functional. Venues like Archie Brothers are designed so you’re inside an environment the whole time, not just moving between games. Even sensory elements like scent play a role in reinforcing that identity.
It’s that combination of physical design, human interaction and supporting technology that creates the point of difference. The tech will evolve, but the job stays the same: make the experience better, not more complicated.
Final Thoughts
For Brett, the strongest partnerships start well before any agreement is signed. They begin with alignment, shared intent and a clear understanding of what a good outcome looks like for both sides.
Technology is making that process sharper. AI is improving how teams prepare, how they personalise conversations, and how quickly they can get to the right insights. But it hasn’t changed the fundamentals. Relationships still sit at the centre. So does judgement. So does knowing when something is the right fit.
What stands out most is how consistent that thinking has become across nearly a decade at Funlab and years before that in high-volume sales environments. The tools have changed, the pace has changed, and the channels have changed. But the core idea hasn’t, the best partnerships are the ones built with care, clarity and the confidence to back the right opportunities when they appear.
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