Why Corporates are f**king Startups

I was CIO of a corporate — responsible of ICT and e-business — as they call it — 13 years ago. worldwide active. 17.000 employees. 5 divisions. 20+ managers at top positions.

So, I understand corporates.

Now I am working for and with startup s— a complete different experience.

So, I understand startups.

What I thought all the time is that corporates and startups could benefit from each another.

But that is not the case. And I know why.

Corporates are f**king startups. All the time.

There is no reason why they should NOT do it.

They have nothing to loose. Maybe in the future. But not now.

And nobody cares.

There is no public interest in startups. There is no interest by politicians because most of the voting people are old or in the surroundings of public institutions. So, all the effort in direction of startups is because of not loosing some votes and to do something for the image.

Politics for startups is activism with some show elements. Nothing more.

Corporates have 5.000 people versus 5 people in a startup.

Corporates have people for legal issues, project setup, value discussions, steering, slide preparations, meetings and some more meetings, presentations and some more presentations, showing some interest and showing some more interest, doing some events and some more events, having discussions with media and the public and some more discussions, having startup challenges and some more challenges with public and media and politicians.

But the overall aim is to get some more time to overcome these situations. They need time to murder startups by not feeding them and by binding them in senseless meetings and discussions.

The overall aim of corporates is not to have a change at all.

So, I really believe that every startup has to be very careful with corporates. They are normally not your friends!