Every startup dreams of nailing that one great deal that validates (and finances) your nascent business. But be careful what you wish for. Elephants dance to a very different drummer.

1. DANCING WITH
ELEPHANTS
A FEW STEPSTO
SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATIONS
CHRIS SHIPLEY
@CSHIPLEY

2. Unconstrained
Ideation
STARTUPS
Innovation Efficiency + Scale
Process-driven
ELEPHANTS

3. ELEPHANTS GOTTA DANCE
• To Grow
• To Innovate
• To Attract Talent
• To Stay Relevant

4. DANCE LESSON #1:
ELEPHANTS HAVETHEIR PICK OF PARTNERS
• 565,000 Startups per month
• How can you make a difference to the Elephant?
• Open new markets
• Add significant new customers and/or revenue
• Enhance capabilities
• Bring new talent
• Enhanced the elephant’s image

5. DANCE LESSON #2:
ELEPHANTS EAT FIRST
• Elephants are in business for themselves
• Align with the elephant’s goals
• Improve the elephant’s business
• Fill a gap in the elephant’s product plan
• Deliver new capability

6. DANCE LESSON #3:
ELEPHANTS ARE BIG . . .AND SLOW
• Elephants work on an entirely different
scale from startups
• Elephants are complex organism
• Elephants move slowly no matter how
excited they may seem to be
• Your life-saving revenue is a rounding
error

7. DANCE LESSON #4:
ELEPHANTS HAVE LIMITED DANCE STEPS
• Elephants don’t learn new footwork easily
• Understand the Elephant’s operating mechanism,
and work within them
• Fit your technology into the elephant’s existing
programs or plans
• Elephants don’t need to create unique deals
• Unless you can make a huge impact

8. DANCE LESSON #5:
ELEPHANTS DON’T ALWAYS SEE WHERETHEY STEP
• Understand how they move
• Approach elephants with technologies, not
broad ideas
• Elephants don’t want to know your
confidential information – at least in the
beginning

9. DANCE LESSON #6:
ELEPHANTS AREN’T AS FLEXIBLE ASYOU ARE
• Your agility is their nightmare
• Elephants have more at stake
• Reputation + Brand
• Regulation + Reporting
• Deep Pockets = Big Risk
• And more stakeholders than you realize

10. DANCE LESSON #7:
ELEPHANTS CAN STOP DANCING AT ANYTIME
• They need you. . . But not as much as
you need them
• Just when you think things are going
so well . . .
• It’s easy for the elephant to walk away
• Maintain your dance card

11. DANCE LESSON #8:
ELEPHANTS CAN DANCE FOR AVERY LONGTIME
• Know when to stop dancing
• Understand your limits and stick to them

12. BUT WHEN IT WORKS….
It can be magic.