How Startups Can Find The Right Corporate Partner From an enabler to driver, technology is becoming core to every business and transforming business priorities.
By Sangeeta Devni •
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You can make a peacock dance, but not an elephant. One is nimble, yet fragile, while other is strong but rigid. Seems like the perfect match; ones' weakness is the others' strength. Imagine the possibilities if both of them can live harmoniously, and depend on each other to grow.
These are the current realities and trends in the innovation ecosystem.On one hand, corporates are exploring how they can bring the start-ups to make their R&D efforts agiler and on the other hand start-ups are looking to partner with the big brother to best help their businesses mature and grow. Though this looks like a no brainer, many corporates and startups still struggle to work effectively and collaborate productively with each other.
Corporate scenario in India
Apart from many home grown big organizations & MNCs, India is also a host to over 1400+ Global In-house Centers (GICs) many of whom are looking to establish R&D centers in India. From an enabler to driver technology is becoming core to every business and transforming business priorities.
Many of these corporates are looking at optimizing traditional legacy IT spending to fund new digital-age initiatives and make their own IT systems ready for digital.Corporates are integrating deeper into the Indian ecosystem by forging partnerships with start-ups, universities and service providers to help achieve this objective.
There are 4 models in which Corporates are engaging with startups-
- Corporate Venture fund (SAP, Qualcomm, IBM Watson venture capital group, Microsoft Ventures, Google Venture, Intel capital are some of the active venture funds)
- Corporate accelerator (Microsoft Accelerator for Azure, PayPal, Oracle, Citrix accelerator and Cisco Accelerator are some of the other well-known start-up accelerators formed by MNCs)
- Platform Evangelism (Microsoft BizSpark program, Google cloud platform, Bluemix, AWS, IBM, Oracle, Rackspace, Salesforce etc.)
- Ecosystem Collaboration - Other engagements in this category widely falls under Hackathons, Startup competitions, conferences, meetups, thought leaderships etc.
While corporates today are more open to doing the pilot, lightweight integrations, investment and eager to carry out the acquisitions, the onus is really on the start-ups to find the right match for themselves. For that, you need to be clear on what is it that you are looking for? Is it
- Market knowledge,
- Market access,
- Corporate as customer
- Technical expertise,
- Business expertise,
- Customer data, an existing customer base,
- Distribution network or
- Funding
Startups in different stage need different things.
Corporates will rate you based on the maturity and market readiness of your product, whether your product or technology will easily find commercial application and customers, taking into account the regulatory environment and current innovations in the field.
Excerpts from the report - A Framework for Deep-Tech Collaboration by BCG & Hello Tomorrow
- Entrepreneurs must think not only about the technological development of their product but also about how to jump-start nascent or non-existing markets.
- Anticipate and understand customer needs that don't yet exist, as well as a detailed strategy that addresses the challenges of industrialization and scaling up production.
- Deep-tech start-ups need sharply honed business skills to work through such challenges as procurement, manufacturing, and achieving scale.
- For large companies with big innovation ambitions, picking the deep technologies to support depends on strategic priorities and a strong market assessment.
Your enterprise selling success depends on how you approach value based solution selling as a startup, identify your customer's key pain point, other stakeholders in the company, solution direction, and use that to build a strong case for your product?
Few other things to consider while partnering with a corporate
- Align your product offering with the clear value proposition and proof of concept.
- Define the relationship right from the beginning, including agreeing on vision, business, knowledge, and HR objectives
- Before formalizing the partnership, spend some time dating and getting to know each other :)
- Iron out potentially thorny issues—such as intellectual property (IP) rights—and test the viability of the partnership, achieving some quick wins, working on mutually defined projects, and building momentum through a short but intense period.
- Be in the know of the complex corporate decision making processes and timelines.
Time is ripe for the corporates and start-ups to become BFFs to drive the next wave of digital revolution.
