Here are the key insights:

1. There is no “one-recipe-fits-all” collaboration type: depending on your industry, strategy, resources and goals, you might find it more useful to collaborate with early stage startups to develop new products together, or to look for startups that can offer you an already marketed solution.
2. Put yourself in your partners´ shoes: to avoid misunderstandings, keep in mind that your partner might have different expectations, ways of working, and rules. Both corporates and startups benefit from learning about each other and fostering an open dialogue.
3. Previous corporate experience is a plus: founders and team members with previous experience in established firms enable an alignment of expectations and a better understanding of the partner´s behavior. Plus, they might find it easier to convince firms to collaborate in the first place.
4. Bring corporate attention on the strategic relevance of the collaboration: engagement from the top management enhances a fruitful collaboration and makes sure that it generates value. Sometimes it might be a challenge to get them on board, especially when the startups´ product is particularly novel. However, companies should learn to bet also on radical innovation, since this enables corporates to stay competitive.
 
We would like to thank all participants for engaging in an interesting discussion with us. Moreover, a special thank goes to Phillip C. Nell and Nikolaus Franke, as well as to our panelists Adelheid Moxon, Sebastian Jagsch, Laura Egg and Tamás Petrovics for the valuable insights on their perspective and experience about the topic.