5 tips for startup partnership success

Mathieu shared these recommendations on how enterprises and startups can ensure early excitement and enthusiasm for the partnership leads to ongoing success:

• Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of the collaboration and regularly review progress.
• Celebrate achievements and share the results within the organization to encourage further collaboration with startups.
• Large enterprises have a wealth of experience and industry knowledge that can be invaluable to startups. Offer mentorship, advice, and guidance to help startups refine their products, services, or business models.

Build beyond the basic partnership model

CIOs and startup founders should also look beyond their partnership objectives to consider the follow-on benefits of establishing an ongoing relationship with one another.

For example, CIOs should take advantage of the startup founders’ networks and seek introductions to venture capitalists and other startup founders. To reciprocate, Mathieu suggests CIOs help the startup expand its reach and build credibility by connecting founders with other potential customers, partners, and investors.

Frank Diana, managing partner and futurist at TCS, says startup partnerships are just the beginning of a more open operating model. “The future of partnerships centers around horizontal ecosystems,” he says. “Organizations must view themselves as composable building blocks that can be organized and reorganized around emerging disruptors and opportunities.”

CIOs with a systems architectural background understand the appeal and value of composable building blocks and architectures. The implication is that the enterprise can start with a basic or commodity capability, then consider replacing it and experimenting with a differentiating and innovative option developed by a startup.

Diana continues, “Enterprises should prepare to unbundle themselves and work across an ecosystem of startups, educational institutions, and governmental entities to compose organizations around internal and ecosystem assets. Startup partners can fill the gaps in these services by providing specialized capabilities traditionally delivered by internal portfolios.”

Consider the career enhancement opportunities

Beyond the benefits to their businesses, CIOs should view startup partnerships as learning and career-expanding opportunities.

“The CIO can become a startup investor, expand their visibility to new technologies, and learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff through due diligence,” says Puglisi. “The CIO can also become a startup advisor, learn how to sell the benefits of technology in a highly competitive market space, and sharpen their business acumen and communications skills.”

In a world where emerging technology capabilities become mainstream far faster than enterprise velocities, startup partnerships are a significant opportunity for CIOs to drive benefits for their organizations and themselves.