Three questions for your corporation to answer before working with startups

At UBI Global, we’ve held events with universities, corporations and startups to come up with cohesive ways to work together to achieve goals on both sides of the innovation processes. One thing we’ve observed over the years is that to gain the maximum benefits from working with business incubators and accelerators, corporations must have a pattern, plan and goals.

With this in mind, we advise our corporation partners to answer these three questions before coming to the table with a startup. This article should be thought provoking and inspiring for your future innovation and growth, so let’s get started.

1. What is our objective?

Asking your innovation team what the corporation hopes to achieve from collaborating with a startup is one of the first steps to deciding on goals for the program. Working with startups creates a new mindset in the corporate culture; it makes the team more innovative, more willing to learn and take risks as well as creating more awareness of new market trends and technologies.

Objectives can include solving a problem, better brand awareness, innovation, or expansion to new markets, just to name a few.

2. What types of collaboration programs are there?

A couple of important factors play into which type of program is right for the corporation; what industry is the main focus is one factor while the objective or objectives of the program is another. While one-off events are one of the core strengths of what UBI Global offers our corporate partners, we also support accelerators, incubators, innovation labs, investments, partnering and acquisitions. The right program makes all the difference in the effectiveness of your collaboration.

3. What resources should be devoted to the program?

Resources such as cash, technology investments or services are tangible ways of investing in the collaboration program. Startups can also benefit from employee time and mentoring as well as market access, supplier and customer networks as well as work space itself.

The best startups are attracted to corporations that understand their requirements and resource needs. While some resources are difficult to put a cost on, they are also low risk in terms of investment by the corporation.

Developing innovative solutions to solve problems or creating dynamic new products to fill a market need are exciting ventures for corporations and for startups. The best outcome from a collaboration program such as an accelerator or incubator is for a renewed sense of excitement for the brand. UBI Global has connected many corporations and startups for successful collaboration. Instead of considering a startup collaboration for yet another fiscal period, let our experience staff work with you on an exciting new path for your corporation.

Source: http://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/winning-together-guide-successful-corporate-startup-collaboration