How to find the ideal startup for my company?
Let’s not lie: the relationship between dinosaurs and unicorns is not easy to come by. When large companies and startups decide to collaborate to co-create solutions, one side may get frustrated. And the fault is far from open innovation, but the search and selection of the best partner for that business.
For this reason, today the market has several business models that help solve the problem. The trick is then to find the best one for your company. Here, let’s explain a little about each of them to help you make that decision:
Accelerators
They are programs and tools that aim to accelerate part of the life cycle of a startup, that is, to connect A to B more quickly and effectively. Generally, these models involve mentoring, training and even corporate investment in startups chosen through annual or semi-annual processes. Large companies can bet differently, especially as investors or customers, and usually participate in the process of approaching startups actively. Some examples are ACE, Baita and Wayra.
Incubators
Very similar to the accelerators, here the difference is that the startups stay in the incubator space — hence the name — and are generally more embryonic, the result of university or scientific projects. Here the most common practice is for large companies to finance the prototype of the startup, and then, when it “chooses”, have the option to buy. Some examples are Cietec and Samsung Next.
A similar format is the Labs, almost like an incubator of the great company, where entrepreneurs test their products with access and support of machinery, technology and personnel of the corporation.
Coworkings / Hubs
With new offices opening every week, this model has been quite successful. Large companies are able to assimilate the startup environment by breaking new ground, putting teams in coworking and / or bringing startups to their office areas (hubs), hoping to spread the word with their ideas. There is also the possibility of investing in coexistence spaces such as the Cube or the Google Campus.
Scouts
Some companies choose not to overstructure the investment in open innovation and therefore hire scouts to visit entrepreneurial ecosystems and report good business opportunities.
Matchmaking
Even when investing in a structure or specialized personnel, some companies have concluded that open innovation needs to become part of the company’s DNA, where each employee performs their search according to the challenges they face in their day-to-day life and then personally meeting those startups that are most interesting. The 100 Open Startups makes this matchmaking through an app (https://app.openstartups.net/#/login) and face-to-face events. Company executives register as appraisers and are presented every day with startups that meet their demands. The most attractive in the corporate market view are invited to Oiweek , the world’s premier open innovation event, to hold individual 20-minute meetings with their matches. In addition, startups that close contracts with major companies appear annually in the Ranking 100 Open Startups .
Today, more than 1000 major companies are betting on this connection format. Interested? Get in touch and schedule a call .
