How to successfully kick off collaboration with startups?
Another Innovation Breakfast for local businesses took place in Poznań
Spring, April, a sunny Thursday… the perfect day for another Innovation Breakfast in Poznań! This time, we gathered at a brand-new location — Business Link Nowy Rynek Poznań (huge thanks for hosting us! 💙) — to talk about one of the hottest topics in corporate innovation: how to effectively start working with startups. We were joined by Maria Tyka-Majewska, who traveled in on an early train from Warsaw to share her extensive experience in startup collaboration and innovation implementation with our Poznań-based community of corporate leaders.
Innovation Breakfast…what’s it all about? 🥐
Innovation Breakfast is a format we’ve been running in Warsaw for the past few years (here’s a recap from our last Warsaw edition!). In 2023, we decided to bring the energy back to our hometown — Poznań — and create a space where representatives of large companies and corporations can connect, exchange ideas, and grow their innovation potential. As we often say, building a strong innovation culture is key to long-term business success. That’s why we keep creating platforms like Innovation Breakfast — to bring together corporate leaders and innovation practitioners who want to stay ahead of the curve 🚀
And once again, during our Poznań Innovation Breakfast, we had the pleasure of partnering with Sense (high-five! 👋). What’s more — for the very first (but hopefully not the last!) time, we were also joined by Business Link as our venue and event partner.
Startups and corporations. We want to work together… but don’t always know how 👀
Let’s be honest: most corporations today want to work with startups. In today’s world, innovation is not a “nice-to-have” — it’s a strategic must. According to BCG 83% of business leaders claim that innovation is their top priority, but only 3% turn those words into measurable results. The takeaway is clear — talking about innovation is not enough. It requires structure, focus, and — most importantly — people who know how to lead the process. As Maria emphasized in her talk, people are the real drivers of innovation. Leaders need to shape teams, design strategies, set goals, define KPIs, and ensure those innovation activities serve the actual business objectives. She shared that a good starting point for shaping an innovation strategy is identifying the “bottlenecks” in your processes — places where time and money are slipping away. That’s where your innovation efforts can bring the most tangible results.
Maria also walked us through the four most common models of startup-corporate collaboration ⤵️
📌 Acceleration Programs — Multi-week programs that allow both startups and corporates to test cooperation and prepare for long-term collaboration. These can vary in structure and focus.
📌 Startup Competitions/Events — A fast-track method to identify relevant startups already on the market that address specific corporate needs.
📌 CVC (Corporate Venture Capital) — Internal VC arms that invest in startups aligned with the corporate’s strategic direction. Often, these startups are also piloted internally, bringing direct business value.
📌 Innovation Labs — Internal teams focused on identifying innovation needs and scouting or developing solutions that address them.
Of course, we didn’t skip the risks and common pitfalls on both sides of the collaboration. These are real — but manageable, especially when the organization is committed to building innovation maturity.
Until next time…
It was a pleasure to host such a curious and engaged group of professionals! Thanks for joining us, sharing your challenges, and exchanging perspectives. We’re continuing these Innovation Breakfasts as a regular initiative, so if you’d like to join us again in November — either in Poznań or Warsaw — just reach out to Magda or Maryla for details.
PS
If you want to develop your future-proof skills and grow as an innovation leader, we’ve just opened recruitment for our newest program — Innovation Management School by Huge Thing.
It’s a hands-on educational program for professionals from mid-sized and large companies who want to develop innovation culture and effectively manage innovation within their organizations. With two tailored tracks — beginner and advanced — the program aligns not just with your organization’s innovation maturity but with your personal experience level as well.
🔍 Sound like something for you? Check it out here!
