Book a Call

Lean Scaleup LLC
Grillparzerstr. 4
D-65187 Wiesbaden
(Germany)

Legal.

©2022 | All Rights Reserved

Design a BU-Aligned Venture Clienting Pilot

This page shows how to design a Venture Clienting pilot that starts from a business pull, not a technology push. It aligns with BU priorities, proves ROI within 6–12 months, and sets a clear path to adoption and scale.

Home ›
Solutions ›
Venture Clienting Pilot

Most startup pilots fail because they start from technology curiosity instead of business priorities. A Venture Clienting pilot flips that logic. It begins with a business pull, solves a BU challenge, proves ROI in 6–12 months, and builds the foundation for scaling startup collaboration.

The Problem

Across industries, corporate startup pilots produce learnings, not results. The cause is weak alignment between Innovation, BUs, and Finance.
  • Pilots are defined by Innovation, not by the BU that owns the problem.
  • Success criteria are technical, not financial.
  • No BU sponsor commits resources for adoption.
  • Results stay anecdotal and never become evidence for scaling.
Outcome: promising proofs that never reach implementation and growing skepticism from the business.

The Fix

A Venture Clienting pilot starts from a business pull. It identifies a real BU pain point and sources startups to solve it under measurable business conditions.
  • Select a BU problem with a clear owner, budget, and urgency.
  • Define success in business KPIs such as revenue, margin, cost, or risk reduction.
  • Engage a BU sponsor early with defined roles and a regular review cadence.
  • Time-box validation to 12–16 weeks with pre-agreed go/no-go criteria.
  • Prepare the adoption path before the pilot starts, including integration plan, funding logic, and the next milestone.

The best Venture Clienting pilots start from a business need, deliver ROI fast, and create adoption paths from day one.

Make It Work for You

If you’d like to:
  • Identify one or two BU challenges that fit the Venture Clienting logic
  • Design a pilot that shows ROI within a year
  • Build the internal case for scaling startup collaboration

You are welcome to book a short call. No pitch. Just clarity on how to design a BU-aligned Venture Clienting pilot that delivers measurable results.

Here’s What Your Peers Say:

Once we focused on BU-defined problems, startup pilots became business projects, not experiments.
(Head of Open Innovation, Global Industrial Company)
We moved from scouting startups to solving real BU challenges. Adoption and ROI doubled in six months.
(Director of Digital Transformation, European Manufacturing Group)

PS: Learn about the Lean Scaleup framework or explore how peers secure business impact from startups here.

Related reading:
What Venture Clienting Is and Is Not,
and
Measure ROI from Startup Collaboration,
and
Scale Venture Clienting Across the Enterprise.

Let Us Get Started

Let us discuss one of your BU challenges. You will get a red-yellow-green view on business fit, ROI potential, and adoption readiness.