The Founder’s CVC Playbook: Maximizing Value From Your Corporate Venture Capital Relationships

“The Founder’s CVC Playbook: Maximizing value from your corporate venture capital relationships,” a collaborative research report conducted by TDK Ventures and 6Pages, is a playbook designed to help founders take an action-oriented stance in navigating their CVC relationships and maximize value from those relationships.

The report – the third in this series – builds upon prior reports that set the stage around the state of venture and CVCs and explored the return of high-quality due diligence in venture investing.

Key Report Findings:

• While no two CVCs are alike, there are some commonalities across the range of CVCs and how they operate. It’s important for founders to be aware of the broad patterns so as to understand what motivates CVCs and develop a gameplan for engaging with them.
• CVCs tend to provide the most value to startups that operate close to the CVC parent’s industry and core markets. CVCs can be compelling investors if they bring credibility, expertise, and relationship networks to help accelerate commercialization – but those qualities may not be transferable across industries and markets.
• Founders need to dig deep and identify the key challenges their business will likely face and the gaps within their current team. What are the areas where the startup could use support from a CVC? Examples could include brand credibility, feedback on product development, sharing industry research, introductions to suppliers and potential customers, collaborating on pilots, and access to sales channels.
• The most important considerations are often the “softer” aspects to working with a CVC. As one founder put it, the ideal investor is “proactive but not obstructive.” Successful startup-CVC engagement will rely on engaging with the right stakeholders for each initiative.

Taking Action

In addition to providing insights on how CVCs typically operate, the report provides specific guidance – including a checklist of questions to ask potential partners – for founders looking to be more action-oriented in their CVC relationships.

This report series aims to provide value to founders and investors during challenging times. Keep an eye out for the next report on how CVCs should organize and operate.

For further insights and details, please download the complete report.

TDK Ventures is the corporate venture arm of TDK, investing globally in early-stage hard-tech projects. Our mission is to serve entrepreneurs and add strategic value to startups as they work to build a better tomorrow.

6Pages is a market intelligence service for far-reaching market shifts in business and technology. Their deep, clear briefs help senior executives, investors, and strategists get up to speed and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at 6Pages.com.