Selecting the right opportunity is probably the most important thing in an engagement with a startup. This framework will help you to identify the startups with the best fit and quality for the problem that you are currently trying to solve.

This framework will consider different types of variables that will be fundamental in the decision making process, however their respective weights should be evaluated depending on how to align the selection process to the overall corporate-startup program mission.

Who could use this

Teams in a corporate set-up could use this tool to better understand if they are selecting the startup with the best fit. On the other hand this could also be useful for any startup that is seeking an engagement with a corporate in order to understand how to better position themselves.

Framework explanation

There are several different considerations that you should think when selecting a startup for any given program. At the very high level there are three main considerations:

1. Fit
2. Product
3. Execution

Each parameter will have multiple different variables to help in the decision making process and you can go through their definitions bellow:

Fit

• Fit to the problem statement
• Quality of the application (if you are running a challenge)

Product market fit

• Product stage (Concept, MVP or deployed)
• Number of customers (consider different thresholds for B2B or B2C)
• Revenue buckets (also to consider different thresholds, similar to the number of customers)
• Customers on the industry / problem space that you are working on
• Funding

Execution

• Founding team time together
• Experience in the industry
• Geographic outreach

This framework is trying to identify the most important variables that you should be thinking about. Needless to say that you and your team should consider weighing those parameters in order to better guide the selection and opportunity to your current problem statement and the overall mission of your program.

All the above mentioned considerations could, and should, be expanded and adapted depending on what you are trying to achieve with your program and with regards to the problem space that you are working on.

Slide

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