Corporate Venture Building Powered by PoCs

Early Attempts at Intrapreneurship: A Flawed Recipe

Many large companies have experimented with launching intrapreneurship programs. Initially, the focus was on transforming employees into full-fledged entrepreneurs through workshops and internal startup competitions. The underlying vision was to leverage employee creativity and innovation while maintaining the stability and control of a large organization. In simpler terms, this approach aimed to have its cake and eat it too.

However, time has revealed the limitations of this strategy. Converting an entire workforce into intrapreneurs within a short timeframe proved unrealistic. The complex shift in mindset and skillset requires a more nuanced approach.

A New Approach: Embracing the Ecosystem

Recognizing this challenge, companies are gradually moving away from this mentality. Instead, they're adopting a strategy of cross-pollination, seeking to integrate external entrepreneurial expertise with their existing talent pool. This shift acknowledges the value of fostering a supportive ecosystem where internal and external ideas can flourish. (Workinlot Ecosystem Design)

Corporate venture building is a newer approach where a large company partners with a venture builder to co-create a startup. This allows big companies to innovate faster and avoid disruption by collaborating with agile startups. Corporate venture building benefits both sides: large companies gain market knowledge and resources, while startups get access to established networks and brand reputation. As a result, corporate venture building is becoming a key strategy for companies to diversify and stay competitive. (3 Reasons why we love venture building)

PoC projects with B2B startups can be highly beneficial for corporate venture building (CVB) initiatives. Here's how PoCs align with the principles of disruption theory and support CVB goals:

How PoCs Support Corporate Venture Building Goals:

• Reduced Risk: PoCs mitigate the risk associated with investing in early-stage startups. By testing the solution in a controlled environment, corporations can make more informed decisions about potential investments.
• Access to Innovation: PoCs give corporations exposure to cutting-edge technologies and solutions developed by B2B startups. This allows them to stay ahead of the curve and potentially integrate disruptive technologies into their core business.
• Building Relationships: PoCs foster collaboration between corporations and startups. This can lead to future partnerships, acquisitions, or even joint ventures, accelerating the development and commercialization of disruptive solutions.

By strategically utilizing PoCs with B2B startups, corporate venture-building initiatives can leverage the power of disruption theory to identify, validate, and nurture groundbreaking ideas that have the potential to reshape industries and drive growth. (How PoCs Help Businesses Unlock Startup Potential)

Success stories local and global:

Amiral Technologies leverages IIoT data processing for critical, complex, and high-value-added industrial sectors. Their unique AI algorithms help make decisions about possible downtimes, maintenance, or repair needs. Thales a global leader in new technologies for the aerospace, space, defense, security, and transportation markets, conducted a PoC with Amiral leading to a predictive maintenance solution on the Herakles Radar business. (Amiral Technologies - AI@Centech Alumni Season 3 - Thales)

Matching renewable energy generation with demand in real-time is a challenge. Existing systems lack the detail (granularity) needed to meet corporate sustainability goals. Turkish startup Blok-Z 's blockchain-based solution, Greenlink, solves this by providing a transparent and verifiable way to track real-time renewable energy use, allowing energy providers like Enerjisa to differentiate their services and contribute to a sustainable energy future. At Workinlot , we recognized the potential of Blok-Z early on and explored collaboration opportunities yet failed several times when corporations were not willing to collaborate. Their success with Enerjisa showcases the value partnerships between startups and established companies can bring. (Blockchain-based 24/7 Renewable Energy Matching SaaS for Energy Providers)

I can share some of our own venture-building experiences as well.

Assistbox and a heavy machinery customer integrated their products creating a Webrtc channel with the end customers, Wyseye automated the damage assessment processes of insurance and fleet customers integrating with the client's solutions. Workinlot started out as an open innovation platform and with that expertise, we built two open innovation platforms dedicated to our customers which are still operational.

In all cases, using the objective and trust-building power of PoCs helped corporate customers validate the impact before committing to it with their own resources.