Addressing Innovation Needs for Corporate Members
Smart City Works Venture Studio is membership based, and there are three levels of membership. Large companies know they must adapt to a world changing at an increasingly rapid pace. To do that, they must have:
- Innovation that helps them adapt business models and remain current and competitive
- Line of sight into curated startups that can provide meaningful innovation
- Line of sight into relevant emerging technologies, proven methods and practices and emerging business models
- Ability to curate talent and infuse certain cultural aspects of entrepreneurism into the broader company culture
- Participation of selected staff in studio operations
- Access to studio team, extended advisors, professors, and consulting services
- Ability to successfully take intrapreneurial ideas and commercialize them
- Run them through as a startup in the studio instead of as an internal process
61% of companies use open innovation, a decentralized approach centered around collaborating with other companies that have the knowledge and/or the capabilities they need to innovate. (2017 PwC Benchmark)
Addressing Needs for Entrepreneurs
The “Holy Grail” for startups is access to capital, access to markets, and especially access to talent. Smart City Works Venture Studio provides all three to the top qualifying startups accepted into the studio. Specifically:
Access to Capital
Comes in the form of access to seed investments, if needed, for founders during the projected 18-month studio process; deferred capital requirements for staffing because the studio team fills that role with no additional capital requirements while in studio; and access to the studio network of corporate and venture investors to make the Series A funding cycle as frictionless as possible.
Access to Markets
The three levels of corporate members create a network of corporations expressly aligned with and invested in innovation for Infrastructure and Construction. Relationships with member companies are established and can provide an on-ramp for early customers and market validation.
Access to Talent
The studio team becomes the immediate extension of the startup that reflect the experience the startup would likely never find, much less afford. This is further augmented by the studio process continuously curating “bench strength” and helping the startups hire additional key management needed before funding or acquisition, as well as helping the entrepreneurs in hiring the best possible fit for those positions. Hiring the wrong people is one of the key areas where inexperienced entrepreneurs suffer their greatest setbacks, and the studio team will play a very supportive role in helping avoid such costly mistakes.