{"id":46949,"date":"2023-10-20T15:51:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/awards-a-friendly-way-to-get-corporates-engaging-with-startups-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:51:52","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:51:52","slug":"awards-a-friendly-way-to-get-corporates-engaging-with-startups-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/awards-a-friendly-way-to-get-corporates-engaging-with-startups-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Awards a friendly way to get corporates engaging with startups – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Patrick Crooks was trying to pitch his mobile payments startup to a big bank three years ago he was \u201chorrified\u201d by the barriers in place and the unwillingness of  corporates to collaborate.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI really, really battled,\u201d Crooks tells StartupSmart.<\/i><\/p>\n


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\u201cI realised there was a massive cultural problem here with how to deal with startups.”<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was quite a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Three years on, he says things have \u201cchanged massively\u201d, but there\u2019s still work to be done.<\/p>\n

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Awarding best practice<\/b><\/p>\n

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That\u2019s why Crooks, who is now CEO of Fusion Labs and a director at Fishburners, has launched the Startup Friendly Awards to showcase the corporates that are doing it right.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s chalk and cheese from three years ago,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s a massive willingness to engage with startups and successfully attract the talent.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut people are still making a lot of mistakes along the way and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to solve. We want to make it more streamlined and more robust, and take out a lot of the friction.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Focusing on openness, transparency, delivering on promises and mutual respect, the awards aim to be beneficial for both the corporates and startups \u2013 with a register also being establishing to help out the early-stage companies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt will be a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs to know who they can target in a corporate,\u201d Crooks says.<\/p>\n

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Driving this sort of collaboration was a \u201ckey aim\u201d of the $1 billion innovation statement, assistant minister for innovation Wyatt Roy says, and the awards are a \u201cfantastic initiative\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am thrilled to see industry taking up the challenge through its involvement in the Startup Friendly Awards,\u201d Roy says.<\/p>\n

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The eight award categories will include \u2018most startup friendly corporate\u2019, \u2018most open and transparent\u2019 and \u2018most respect for entrepreneurs\u2019.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s an issue that StartupAUS has also signalled it will be turning its attention to next year<\/a>, with efforts to bring corporates further into the innovation debate.<\/p>\n

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A recent report from the peak startup body<\/a> found an urgent need for this if Australia has any chance of transforming into an \u201cinnovation hub\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Educating both sides of the equation<\/b><\/p>\n

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Many factors lead to startups being unable to work with corporates, Crooks says, and it\u2019s not always the big businesses at fault.<\/p>\n

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\u201cStartups were to blame as well, myself included,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEven at the simplest level you\u2019d have startups that would discount their products to try to get into the company, not understanding that a bank values sustainability over the immediate price.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If startups can\u2019t sell their products to businesses, many will be forced to relocate overseas, he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA lot of our best international success stories are B2B,\u201d Crooks says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey rely on being able to sell into organisations to succeed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn those days there was a fear or naivety about dealing with startups, so they found it easier to go overseas and sell into Europe or the US. We were losing a lot of talent by people not being able to sell into their local companies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat still exists but there\u2019s been absolutely tremendous progress over the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Fusion Labs is now taking candidates for contestants, sponsors, judges and commentators. Nominations will be open in early 2016 and the awards will take place mid-way through next year.<\/p>\n

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While final location hasn\u2019t been chosen yet, Crooks says the focus will be squarely on corporates and startups around the whole country.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt can\u2019t just be for a state \u2013 you have to make things national,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on<\/i> Facebook<\/i>,<\/i> Twitter<\/i>, and<\/i> LinkedIn<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  When Patrick Crooks was trying to pitch his mobile payments startup to a big bank three years ago he<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,9,28,11,22,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}