I agree. Once an affiliate reaches a certain level there is not really a “need” for a partner unless they just enjoy working alongside another person.

Depends on the type of project, of course, but I doubt many of them would take on a partner. If you’re a top level affiliate, you know what it takes to succeed. So you simply put together a project plan, and pay people to do the stuff you don’t want to do along with the stuff you suck at doing.

Having a partner (with capital) to help pay for outsourced work is also another way to get a ton of stuff done in a very short amount of time. Although this is a rare situation.

How many baller affiliates do we know that would go in with another big affiliate on a project instead of just outsourcing all of the work and keeping all of the profits?

With that setup, you get the personal interaction you’re looking for (though it’s on a different level), you’re not locked into splitting profits 50/50, and you don’t have to deal with the trials that often come with “splitting the workload”.

That being said, I’ve been in a pretty successful partnership for 5 years now. It can be done, but it’s no cakewalk by any means.