Early-stage start-ups often depend on venture capitalists for their financing . Venture capitalists invest in promising start-ups that fit into their portfolio and closely monitor the progress of their investments. 'Internal start-ups' that arise within corporates naturally do not have to deal with an external venture capitalist very quickly, but they will have to find an internal investor and discussion partner. A venture board can provide this.
The venture board is a compact group of senior directors, including CEO, CFO and business unit manager. This group functions within the corporates as the first point of contact for the internal start-up teams. On the one hand, this role is critical and they can stop projects as soon as there is no confidence in a successful outcome. On the other hand, the Venture Board is also a rock-solid sponsor for fragile innovation projects. As soon as (unjustified) critical noises arise from the core business about an internal start-up, the venture board has the authority to protect this club.
In the early stages of an (internal) start-up, the focus should be on measuring what could emerge in the future, rather than what has happened .
3. Measure the right things
Venture capitalists know better than anyone how to assess the growth potential and progression of start-ups. It is clear that the ultimate goal in most cases is financial success. However, in the early stages of a start-up, there is (usually) no profit yet and non-financial ratios are also important. Think of the conversion rate of a test campaign. The conversion rate does not immediately translate into financially interesting figures at this stage. But it does help to estimate how successful the product can be in the long term.
In the early stages of an (internal) start-up, it is therefore important to measure what could arise in the future, rather than what has been . Corporates work in principle the other way around and focus largely on the finances that have already been realised. It is therefore important that corporates assess their own internal start-up along the axis of predictive growth metrics rather than just historical financial metrics. You can find more about this subject in the unparalleled book ' Lean Analytics ' (aff.) by Croll & Yoskovitz.
4. Follow an innovation process
To guide innovation in the right direction, it is important to follow a well-considered and lean innovation process. A phased route from the first idea to the actual rollout. An innovation process could include the following phases.
Ideation sprint (1-3 weeks): initial idea generation, definition of promising areas.
Customer discovery (10-13 weeks): understanding customer needs and possible solutions.
Growth (12-15 weeks): research into the right market approach.
Launch (13-26 weeks): launch, grow and decide uk telegram data on organizational model.
Such a process must on the one hand provide room for creativity and experimentation and on the other hand bring structure and discipline to the approach. The absence of a formal innovation process can result in projects with few prospects being tinkered with for too long. Even more important, certainly in the corporate environment, is that a clear process can protect promising projects and give them a fair chance to come to fruition.
5. Create the right mindset
Corporates that want to work intensively on disruptive innovation, often have to deal with change management. Not only the existing processes and methodologies need to be critically examined, the mindset of employees and management can also need a new impulse.
One of the things you need to address is the speed at which decisions are made (in a substantiated manner). Start-ups are usually very adept at fast decision-making . This is different for corporates, which have much more complex and sometimes 'sluggish' decision-making processes.
How do you break through this? As always with change management, there are many ways to make adjustments. It is essential to employ strong sponsors and ambassadors who ‘sell’ the innovation projects internally and communicate it clearly to the rest of the organization. In addition, it may be necessary to hire new employees, with specific experience in the field of disruptive innovation, to further accelerate the growth path.
