At Mind the Bridge, we like to catch up with the startups that have participated in our Scaleup Summits.
In particular, we’re very interested to meet the startups that have developed partnerships with our corporate partners – and so understand better what leads to successful innovative collaborations.
In this podcast, we talked with Kym (Digital Asset Manager) and Antoine (Chief Business Officer) from Braincities Lab.
Using data/behavioural modelisation & analytics, one of their main commercial products is in helping companies and public entities, such as cities, to better manage their talent and human resources.
The conversation explored the differences in a product strategy for B2B and B2G – as well as the difficulties in communicating successfully what value you can add to your partners when you’re a young company with broad and qualitative metrics of success.
Listen to the full conversation below:
As is our tradition, we leave some words of advice from our interviewees.
For startups working on developing partnerships with corporations:
Your main challenges are adapting to the difference in timeframes from both sides and identifying the right person to talk to.
Being aware of the maturity level of your product is important to know if you have all the elements needed to engage with corporations.
But since many entrepreneurs have a tendency to undervalue their role in the collaboration (as perhaps they’re intimidated by the power imbalance – do take a lead on the pre-sell phase – it can be really instrumental to a successful project.
For corporations on the other side of the table:
Be flexible and tolerant – young companies typically don’t have all the frameworks and documentation expected.
Reinforcing that point, be aware that startups and corporates tend to speak two different languages and operate in different cultures – try to not discriminate so you can make the best out of the relationship!
Thank you Kym & Antoine!
In the meantime, applications are open for Corporate Startup Stars – so if you know a corporation that is leading the way in startup-corporate engagements – recommend them to us!