❌Not all POCs are equal❌ Some are your first steps to a 9 digit multi-year contract. Others are a waste of resource. Before you sign your first POC with a major corporate, here are my 3 key takeaways: 😱A rushed small/free POC for your green/blue tech 3 months before an AGM could signal a customer using you for PR rather than real business. You might break your back rolling it out in time for very little revenue, and no long term prospects. 🤝Know who you are talking to and if goals align. Ideally, your success aligns with their KPIs (and year end bonus). For example, usually R&D teams want to showcase your technical prowess, sales teams want to add revenue, and management want to see lower costs. 🏆You NEED an internal champion. To backchannel info, inform you where things are at exactly, key considerations of each stakeholder, etc. Even Paul Atreides needed an internal champion in Stilgar to go “LISAN AL GAIB!!!” for N times. It’s counterintuitive to turn away business. But the only thing worse than having no revenue is having no revenue while spending lots of your startup’s scarce resource. A big appreciation to Vanessa Ho for an expertly moderated panel, and thank you Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, PhD and River Venture Studio for having me.
A very diverse panel came together at River Venture Studio successful deep tech demo day to discuss open innovation and how corporates and startups can work together (effectively, not for PR). Here are key takeaways from the panel I moderated with the wonderful panellists, Varun Parmar, Remi Choong, Marco Placidi, Renzhe Bi and Akshay Chaudhari, Ph.D.. 🚀 Strategic alignment between a startup and corporate is the most important in any program, partnership or acquisition. 🚀 Setting the right success metrics, ensuring they are broad enough for short and long term goals, and reviewing them quarterly ensure milestones are achieved post-partnership or acquisition. 🚀 It's important that the long term vision and goals of the open innovation initiatives are trickled down from the top, and that they impact the KPIs of employees across levels. Congratulations Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, PhD and team on the demo day and thank you for having me. Viveka was also NUS Alumni Ventures (NAV) first joint demo day in early 2023 where we brought industry 4.0 leaders and startups across both parties together. Truly walking the talk of partnerships and tapping on external resources! #deeptech #openinnovation #demoday #panel
Thanks for adding more expert insights to my vision for River Venture Studio , Remi Choong
Ding Jie Tan
3mo
Good reminders!
Head of Business Development - EMS Group
3moThen be mindful never to get ripped off no matter how big or small the potential deal is… stay hungry but never desperate