Corporate Entrepreneuring: Criteria Used by Corporations to Determine Start-up Funding

Ideas involving employee initiative from within large corporations which are out of sequence with the normal funding cycle often encounter significant resistance. In order to identify the critical factors, a multi-company intervention was developed. Start-up funding from $60K to over $1,100K was obtained for 20 of the 34 projects at the end of the 12 week intervention. Choosing a project with high strategic fit, developing a comprehensive business plan and being capable of sustained effort all ranked high in importance, but did not discriminate between funded and unfunded projects. Selecting the right executive champion who has influence and power over the resources and developing a compatible relation proved to be the most critical factor. Unfortunately, the executive champion does not believe their role is critical. Choosing projects where the corporate entrepreneur had a good understanding of both the market and customer and requesting low initial funding were also found to increase the probability of success.