We specialize in facilitating engagements between corporations and startups or technology companies. At the top level these engagements can be summarized as open innovation activities, even though the purpose and the model of engagement often unique for each customer. There are many moving parts such as:

• Objective of the corporation
• Open innovation maturity or entrepreneurship prowess of the corporation
• Stage and business model of the startups
• Business units and other stakeholders involved in engagement

There is also the question of whether the startup is a corporate venture.

Accordingly, our proven methodology of "scope development" à "engagement qualification" à "engagement management" steps needs to be adapted for every project.

It’s best to structure our references as per corporation objectives and startup engagement maturity.

When starting out with startup engagements

Corporations at this stage typically try to answer the following question: “What is the value that we can extract from startups and how can we achieve that?” Our approach is design to give a comprehensive answer to this question by incorporating:

• Identifying corporate innovation demand
• Benchmarking startup programs of like corporations in the global scale
• High level scouting to provide inspiration and motivation
• Creating a custom roadmap based on findings

Our purpose is never necessarily to upsell new services but to make sure our clients can paint a clear and unified picture of what they want to achieve and how. Most of the times though, we do stay with the corporation for the later stages of startup engagement.

When achieving startup engagements

Corporations at this stage have a clear agenda at least for the short-term horizon. Most want to start engaging with startups in a meaningful way straight away. In such case we perform a deeper and purposeful scouting and directly move on to engagement facilitation with the objective of initiating an PoC project.

For more information about our projects with Borusan ENbW and Borusan CAT you can view our detailed case studies.

Other corporations’ objective is to supplement the deal flow. The deal flow can be towards unstructured and opportunistic startup engagements or towards other programs such as the cases of Workup Acceleration program or Habitat.

For more information about our project with Anadolu Efes you can view our detailed case study.

In many ways, our projects at this stage leads to higher engagement programs, most frequently with regards to strategic investments with or without a corporate venture capital firm being incorporated.

When mastering startup engagements

At this stage, we more often provide our services to the accelerator or corporate venture capital function rather than the operational parent organization itself. The goal is still to facilitate engagements and our approach is modified accordingly.

For more information about our project with Brisa you can view our detailed case study.

The evolution of Workinlot’s services with respect to the evolution of our clients is clear in the case of Deniz Akvaryum, Deniz Ventures and Neohub. Workinlot was initially tasked with the design and setup of the accelerator program (Deniz Akvaryum) and once the program was up and running and delivering value, our focus shifted to investment deal qualification for Deniz Ventures and accelerator program advisory for Neohub.

We have written extensively about bank led and corporate accelerators:

• Bank Corporate Accelerator Part 1 - Why?
• Bank Corporate Accelerator Part 2 - How?
• Why corporations shouldn’t run just another corporate accelerator – a startup’s perspective
• What makes a great corporate accelerator

Being industry and scope agnostic

Workinlot has always strived after and succeeded in staying agnostic by a strong commitment to the process and founder mindset.

Admittedly, working directly for corporate innovation demands, we have specialized in enterprise solutions and industry solutions. And aligned with the technology trends, we have a strong base in artificial intelligence applications, telematics, and software.

The industries we served ranges from industrial manufacturing to financial services and more. Our scope of work ranges from new business models to investment opportunities to industrial digital transformation.

We are ready for the next challenge in corporate innovation demand.

At Workinlot we design process frameworks that enable companies to collaborate with technology firms and startups. To ensure these designs are optimally developed, we provide iterative project management support in partnership with the organization.

 

Through this collaborative and iterative knowledge transfer, we have helped establish corporate venture capital funds, open innovation platforms, and venture builder structures.

Let's connect and collaborate to identify and validate new opportunities.