Startups Don’t Just Want Your Money — They Want Your Problems

[KEYNOTE] I had the pleasure of moderating a roundtable at the Future of Work Conference 2025, hosted by Lyreco Group — a forward-looking event that brings together innovators exploring the evolving relationship between people, organisations, and technology.

My session focused on a theme that’s increasingly resonating across corporate innovation teams: Venture Clienting. In contrast to passive investing or never-ending pitch sessions, Venture Clienting is about turning your company into an early client for startups — not a cheerleader, not a sponsor. A real customer, with real stakes.

Over the course of the discussion, we explored practical barriers to startup purchasing inside large companies, shared examples of PoCs that technically succeeded but failed to scale, and debated whether Venture Clienting needs its own structure or can live within existing procurement frameworks.

One key idea kept coming back:

Startups don’t need your guidance. They need your demand.

Buying from startups — even in early form — is often the most effective, fastest, and most honest way to collaborate. It’s not about funding innovation from the sidelines; it’s about letting it transform you from the inside.

I ended the session with a simple challenge: If your team can approve a €20K internal spend in under a week, why not apply the same logic to a startup solving one of your real problems?

If this idea resonates with you, feel free to reach out — I run keynote sessions and workshops based on my book Corporate Venturing, a Framework, and I’m always open to conversations that shift innovation from theatre to action.