The recent innovation ‘wave’ (let’s not call it a fad) of corporate-startup collaboration has spawned all kinds of ‘new’ practices, and commentary. This article highlights some of the issues (myths) and promises (wisdom) with the current corporate-startup collaboration wave. To start, the author claims
best practices for leveraging startups in corporate innovation’ are not working: despite all the best intentions, ambitions are not being fulfilled
Some statistics back this up (although the author’s citing the fact that 19% of corporates have no goals for startup engagement in place means that 81% do – a pretty good number). This makes the foundational claim somewhat suspect but the main value of the article is the list of ‘myths’ and ‘wisdom’.
| Myth | Wisdom |
| We want to drive internal cultural transformation by adopting startup tools & methodology | We need a proof of concept or pilot tests |
| We want to increase brand awareness within the startup community | We want to better understand customer or tech trends |
| We want to invest in startups to generate a return on investment | We want to be an early customer through licensing or buying (startup) technology |
| We want to identify, recruit and hire innovative entrepreneurial talent | We want to support the local entrepreneurial ecosystem where we are based |
| We want a potential acquisition |
The article suffers from translation issues (could use a good editor) and from confusion about point-of-view. Sometimes the points being made are from the startup’s side, sometimes from the corporation’s side. Despite this, it provides a nice, concise list of what to expect (and not) from your corporate-startup collaboration efforts.