Building Out Loud #17: The most valuable thing a corporate can do for a startup
A message for the leaders of big companies
You’re approached by startups all the time. You listen politely. Maybe you sponsor a pilot. Maybe you write a cheque through the corporate venture fund. Maybe you even set up an innovation lab.
But if you’re serious about transforming your business — and playing a meaningful role in shaping the future — you need to go further.
The most valuable thing a corporate can give a startup isn’t money.
It’s trust. And it’s sweat.
Trust: Share the Real Stuff
Startups don’t need more high-level meetings or vague encouragement. What they need is specificity. Inside access. The real stuff.
Trust means saying, “Here’s how we actually operate.” It means opening up about the details: infrastructure, supply chains, sales architecture, customer relationships. It means being honest about the hard parts — the awkward processes, the underperforming segments, the messy edge cases that don’t make it onto slides.
Because that’s where the opportunity is. Startups aren’t afraid of complexity. They’re designed to thrive in it. But they can only build meaningful solutions if they have access to the real materials.
That’s trust.
Sweat: Plan Like You Mean It
Startups run fast because they have to. Time is runway. Certainty is fuel.
If the collaboration feels like a side experiment, it won’t survive. What startups need is evidence that there’s something bigger down the line — if they deliver.
Sweat means investing time and energy into building a roadmap together. Not just a proof of concept, but a staged plan with real commercial outcomes. Conditional, yes — but clear enough that the opportunity is visible from the beginning.
Even better: base the plan on data. “If you can improve this metric by X, here’s how it transforms our P&L.” Now you have a strategy. Now the startup knows why it matters.
That’s sweat.
The Role of Venture Capital: Building the Bridge
This is where venture capital can help.
A good VC doesn’t just write checks. They translate. They help both sides see the full picture — where the risks are, where the leverage is, and how the relationship can evolve.
Venture capital also unlocks funding where a corporate may be constrained. Capital that is early-stage, speculative, or strategic can be deployed through the VC — giving the startup the fuel it needs to meet the conditions of the long-term plan.
And when the VC is involved from the beginning, it ensures that everyone — startup, corporate, and investor — is aligned on the opportunity and committed to getting there.
Don’t Play It Too Safe
Too often, both sides hold back. The startup doesn’t want to show its cards too early. The corporate doesn’t want to make promises it can’t yet commit to.
So nothing happens.
Or worse — it drags on for years, going nowhere.
The antidote is clarity. Specificity. Shared ambition.
The startup says, “If we had access to this data, this infrastructure, and this sales channel, we could create a $100M business together.” And the corporate says, “If you can show us that traction, we’ll scale it globally.”
Everyone leans in. Everyone builds.
What Happens When You Share a Plan
When a startup has access to a high-fidelity, specific, at-scale plan from a corporate, everything gets stronger:
Fundraising becomes easier (investors see the path)
Talent acquisition improves (people want to join high-certainty missions)
Focus sharpens (less noise, more signal)
Product roadmap aligns to real-world outcomes
Confidence increases across the team
Risk-taking becomes more disciplined
Time-to-impact accelerates dramatically
That’s the power of trust and sweat.
Not everyone can provide it. But the corporates that do will shape the future — not just observe it.