Corporate Startup Collaboration (CSC) is fast becoming a centrepiece of modern day innovation. A collaboration between startups and corporates, when successful, can be a win-win, combination for both. However, because corporates and startups & scale-ups operate in two drastically different worlds, the road to successful collaboration, often poses unique challenges. This year, we have developed and tested several new propositions aimed at tackling the challenges of CSC. To further unearth the pain-points surrounding the topic, we’re hosting a series of monthly Roundtable sessions on both internal and open innovation topics, as well as specific industries.

1. CSCReadinessScan
-FindingsandAnalysis-

2. The purpose of the CSC Readiness Scan is to explore
the Corporate Startup Collaboration behaviour of
startups and corporates and the challenges they face
before during and after the process of setting up
successful collaboration. The respondents of this
survey are high level innovation professionals
engaged in various industries and with previous
corporate startup collaboration experience.

3. Our findings show that there are two main goals that
companies pursue through working with startups
● Running PoC’s and integrating validated solutions
● Accelerating the company’s growth
Factors such as learning about new business models and
enhancing the company’s internal innovation scored lower
in this section. The results of the survey also revealed that
for the participants, getting insights in startup-,
technology- and market trends was not a reason for
establishing CSC. This can be related to the fact that almost
all of the companies surveyed are already searching
/planning to search for the right startups and scale-ups to
collaborate with internally.
1.MainGoalsforCSC
Get insights in how
startups operate
and innovate
Be involved in
startup ecosystems
Get insights in
startup-technologie
and market trends
Learn about new
business models
startups use
Fuel your own
innovation ideation
Run PoC's and
integrate validated
solutions
Accelerate our own
growth
Corporate
Venturing
Get access to talent
0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00%
Maingoalsorganisationspursueworkingtogetherwithstartups

4. In every business the notion of success can be defined
differently. We asked our participants to describe their
definition of success in working together with startups. The
majority indicated that successful collaboration should be
based on a mutual agreement between the two parties that
delivers sustainable advantages, collective revenue,
efficiency and profit. This shows that the companies strive
towards a mutually beneficial and balanced outcome for
both the startup/scaleup and corporate.
Measuring success is undoubtedly linked to specific metrics
that provide an overview of the status of successful
collaboration between two parties. More than 70% of the
companies taking part in our research indicated that they use
predefined measurable metrics to evaluate their CSC
initiatives. However, when asked to describe the metrics, they
were more ‘general’ than measurable - e.g: efficiency metrics,
commercial targets, user satisfaction and engagement.
2.“Success”inCSC
3.Measurablemetrics

5. Furthermore, the analysis of our data shows the
importance of predefined measurable metrics, as they can
be used to guide future company development decisions.
The average extent to which companies use predefined
metrics to drive investment decisions in working together
with startups/scaleups is 7.8 out of 10. This further
enhances the importance of having well defined,
comprehensible and measurable metrics on which to base
the success of all CSC projects.
Percentageofcompaniescurrentlyusingpre-defined
andmeasurablemetricstoevaluateperformance
workingtogetherwithstartups/scale-ups
Yes
No
71,4%
28,6%

6. The results show that the average current performance of
companies working with startups is not very high: scoring a
6 out of 10. This indicates the need for further improvement
and future development of the corporate startup
collaboration process within big companies.
Additionally, only 42% of all companies distinguish the
difference between startups (fast growing companies with =
< 50K revenue per month and < 500K funding) and scale-ups
(fast growing companies with =>50K revenue per month and
> 500K funding). An important factor to take into account
before engaging in CSC is how startup and scale-up needs
and expectations may differ significantly.
From our analysis we find that within big companies the
Corporate Startup Collaboration activities are a main
responsibility of the high management level of the
organisations. Primarily C-level (57%) and senior
management level (43%) take full responsibility and
ownership of activities related to collaboration with startups
and scale-ups and no specific business units are being
actively engaged into the process.
4.CurrentCSCPerformance

7. In most companies more than 5 departments are actively
engaged in CSC and the main department responsible for
the execution of all Corporate Startup/Scale-up
Collaboration activities is the innovation department.
However, only about 43% of companies recognise CSC as a
significant part of the company’s innovation strategy. Also,
28% of companies still rely on only 1 department to take care
of their CSC activities. This shows that CSC is not yet seen
as a major innovation opportunity within big companies.
More than 57% of the companies that took part in the
research organise their Corporate Startup Collaboration
activities on a Global level. Another 14.3% focus their
efforts locally and in multiple countries and the final 28.6%
are only active locally in one specific country.
5.Organisationlevelinvolvement

8. Our findings further show an equally high interest towards
product process and business model innovation. Additionally,
based on the different levels of innovation( Horizon 1, 2 and 3) on
which the corporates are planning to work with the
startup/scaleup teams, the interest towards each is almost equal.
Horizons 1 (Maintaining and defending the core business) and
Horizon 3 (Creating genuinely new business) each score 36.4%,
where the middle level of disruptive innovation, namely Horizon 2
(nurturing emerging business) scores slightly lower with 27.3%
Corporate Startup/Scale-up Collaboration
organisation level
Levels of innovation the companies are (planning on) working
together with startups and/or scale-ups the most
Maintain&defend
thecorebusiness
36,4%
Nurtureemerging
business
27,3%
Creategenuinelynew
business
36,4%

9. As mentioned, the majority of big companies are searching for the
right startups and corporates internally. Another interesting finding
is the geographical scope of the search. 28.6% of companies focus
their startup/scaleup activities locally, where 71.4% are aiming at the
European and Global startup scene. Depending on whether you’re
looking to innovate locally or globally, It is important to note that
different strategies should be implemented.
Apart from improving their performance of working with startups,
big companies need to further improve their communication
regarding the type of startup teams, technologies and propositions,
as well as the clarity regarding the startup/scaleup stage for which
they are searching for. Our results on those topics show respectively
an average of 6/10 and 5.43/10, which shows the ambiguity and lack
of clarity in the processes that are currently in place. As a result, this
misalignment can create unclarities that may affect the
collaboration negatively.
Levels of innovation
14,3%
Locallyandonly
in1country
28,6%
Locallyinmultiple
countries
Globally
57,1%

10. 5.ProofsofConcept(POC)
More than half of the companies that took part in our research
note that they run between 1 and 5 PoCs per year. 28.6 % are
involved in between 10 and 20 and only 14.3% engage in 20 to 50
proofs of concept per year.
Number of Proofs of Concept with startups and scale-ups
the company runs per year
We observe that similar to the clarity needed in defining what type
of startups/scale-ups companies need to search for, the process of
running a proof of concept needs to be further clarified. Currently
the respondents have given an average of 5.14 out of 10 on how
clear those definitions are, showing that there is room for
considerable improvement on defining and setting the right
expectations.
1-5
57,1%
10-20
28,6%
20-50
14,3%

11. Similarly to working with startup/scale-up teams most big
companies use predefined metrics for PoCs as well. While running
a specific PoC the data shows that more than 85% of companies
use predefined measurable metrics to evaluate the success of a
PoC. These metrics have proven to be of a great value to the
companies as on average the value of how much these metrics
drive the (investment) decisions in working together with
startups/scale-ups measures at 7.7/10 amongst the companies.
Does your organisation use pre-defined and measurable
metrics to evaluate the success of a Proof of Concept?
Use of pre-defined and measurable metrics for PoCs
No
14,3%
Yes
85,7%

12. Between all companies the overall number of people engaging in 1
PoC is more than 5. However, there is considerable difference in
the number of departments that are engaging in one PoC. The data
shows that it could range from 1 to more than 5 departments
engaged in a single PoC. Stemming from this, also comes the issue
of the time taken to initiate a PoC after the initial verbal
agreement. We found that the majority of companies need more
than 2 months for this process or are unclear about the exact
timing. This outlines another aspect for improvement in the CSC
activities of big companies. Speed and agility are a necessary
element in order to not lose the momentum for both company and
startup/scale-up.
Average of how much time is there between the moment a
verbal agreement with a startup or scale-up is made, and
the moment the 'Proof of Concept' is actually initiated
Morethan2months
57,1%
Idon'tknow
14,3%
Notapplicable
14,3%
3-4Weeks
57,1%
Average time between a verbal agreement is made and the
initiation of the PoC

13. More than 20% of the companies identify the management of risk as
the main challenge organisation encounter in setting up a Proof of
Concept. Among the other challenges are misalignment between the
internal teams, heavy legal process and delivery issues on the
company side. Interesting finding is that none of the respondents
identified having delivery issues on the startup side. This would
entail a high level of trust in the startup teams performance. Other
unlisted challenges that companies face are resourcing, translating
results in concrete next steps, as well as setting priorities,
Challenges when running PoCs
MainchallengesintheorganisationsettingupaPoC
Misalignment
between internal
teams
Misalignment between
the company and the
startup/scaleup
Heavy legal process
Managing risk
Delivery issues on
the company side
Delivery issues on
the startup side
Other
Not applicable
0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00%

14. The results from our analysis show that more than 70% of all
conducted PoCs are successful. An interesting finding is that the
collaboration post PoC drops to only 42%. In such cases, there are
often no clear guidelines and structures set up, following the
completion of successful PoC. The main challenges sighted
include: management of risk, delivery issues on the startup side, as
well as change in priorities.
Average number of successful PoCs
that a company runs
Successful Proofs of Concept
25-50%
42,9%
Idon'tknow
14,3%
Notapplicable
14,3%
50-75%
14,3
75-100%
14,3%

15. Percentage of the startups/scale-ups with which the
collaboration continues after a PoC
Main challenges the organisation encounters in continuing
the collaboration with a startup/scale-up after a successful
Proof of Concept
28,6%
Notapplicable
28,6%
10-25%
14,3%
Idon'tknow
28,6%
50-75%
Misalignment
between internal
team
Misalignment between the
company and the
startup/scaleup
Heavy legal process
Managing risk
Delivery issues on
the company side
Delivery issues on
the startup side
Other
0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00%

16. Some of the main areas in which organisations can improve
on working together with startups and scale-ups are
allocation of appropriate and sufficient resources for the
projects, clear and focused deployment strategy on where to
apply startup collaboration and flexibility to avoid
bureaucratic processes, having a clear process and
improvement of the alignment between the two parties, as
well as becoming more agile in decision making and having
allocated resources to quickly test assumptions and iterate,
based on the outcome.
This report was created by Startupbootcamp, as part of our
efforts to empower successful corporate startup
collaboration. We are going to further extend our CSC
activities and will be speaking with more corporates over
the course of the next few months. If you are interested to
learn more about our CSC Readiness Scan, or our other SBC
Corporate propositions, do drop us a message.
7. Areas for Improvement