2. Who am I…
● Founder of multiple startups with a few exits (Google, Blackberry)
● Ran Exchange business at MSFT (helped create Emerging Business Team)
● Board member at Startup Weekend (now Techstars) - corporate
partnerships
● EIR at Providence Healthcare - corporate innovations and partnerships
● Managing Director - Pioneer Square Labs (startup studio and venture fund)
I love B2B and B2E SaaS companies...
3.
4. Startups are really hard...
Many early stage, enterprise startups fail due due to;
● Incorrect alignment on ideal customer -- value proposition
● Slower and costly enterprise sales cycle (they run out of money)
● Death of 1000 cuts (too many features, too early)
● Misalignment of funding and company milestones
So, enterprises are left having invested a bunch of time, lacking a solution and
needing to start all over again…
We can all help this situation improve...
5. 10+ things enterprise can do to help
1. Identify a real economic buyer, champion -- empower them
2. Create the ROI case, share it with the startup (3X is a good one)
3. Radically reduce the overhead to get to deployment (e.g. legal, compliance,
insurance…) for a “pilot” (have a startup concierge, reports to the CEO)
4. Don’t call it a pilot (spooks the future investors) - just be a customer
5. Pay full price, but for limited deployments
6. Scale slowly - don’t blow the company up
7. Engage in their “sprint” process (give constructive and relevant feedback)
8. Help them get more customers, make intros, be a good referral
9. Stay focused - protect them from feature creep
10. Align success milestones and with fundraising (be a good reference)
11. Tell them about other problems, let them bring you more solutions
6. Big benefits to you (and the company)
Early stage companies will come to you first
Investors will show you the best new companies
You will get spillover effects around innovation (team, new technologies…)
It’s just more fun
