🚀🤝 🏢 Startup–corporate collaboration: still treated as an experiment.
But the real problem isn’t speed. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧.
What actually works when companies stop “piloting innovation” and start operationalising it.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) makes one point painfully clear:
Most collaborations fail not because startups are immature or corporates are slow but because 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 instead of being structurally embedded.
What shifts the odds?
🔹 𝐷𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑑𝑠, not ad-hoc project teams
🔹𝐶𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝, not “innovation theatre”
🔹𝐷𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑥𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, not buried under governance layers
🔹𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑘 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑜, not as a reputational threat
In other words:
Speed vs. scale is a false dichotomy.
↔️ The real tension is 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐯𝐬. 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥 and control usually wins by default.
That’s why platforms like BRAIN CONNECT Prague matter.
Not as matchmaking tools.
But as 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 between startup logic and corporate reality:
🔸aligning incentives
🔸setting realistic time horizons
🔸and creating space where failure produces learning, not blame
Startup–corporate collaboration shouldn’t be a gamble.
𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲.
📌 We’ll share the WEF article in the first comment for those who want to go deeper into how venturing squads are changing the game.