Click
The Startup Accelerator for Corporate Partnership
Fix your IP plan, learn your tech readiness level and tune your strategy to match what corporates want!
Join anytime! Subscription-based advisory and mindshare for startups.
About the program
Click: That’s the sound you hear when two well-fitted components interlock just the right way to produce effects more powerful than either could make alone. It’s the sound you hear in your mind when you’ve found just the right partner to move your business forward.
In a world where infrastructure belongs to large firms, we want to see lots of powerful symbiotic relationships between corporate giants (with all their resources and weight), and nimble startups (with all their speed and lightness). If you’re a startup who needs the scale and power of a big sibling to bring your brilliance to the world, you know what we’re talking about.
You need to click with corporate partnerships to get things done. Why is it so hard? We know exactly why, and we can help you make it happen!
Click is an acceleration experience specifically for startup leaders seeking corporate partnership.
- Expert coaching weekly. Lightweight upskilling.
- Readiness evaluation and presciption
- Access to our network of entrepreneurs and innovators.
- Several models of participation
- Intimate conversations with speakers twice per month.
- Subscription-based access to unique content.
- Try it now free of charge!
Upcoming Online Sessions
Join bi-monthly online sessions with subject-matter experts. Get a glimpse of how our startup community nurtures the next levels of your growth.
Free, online fireside chats twice each month with corporates, experts and startup founders. Register to attend live or receive the recording!
Who should come to speak at an upcoming Fireside Chat? Recommend A Speaker.
Session format
Each session we host a fireside chat with a subject-matter expert.
Each time you will meet a different specialist sharing their unique experience and know how.
After a Fireside Chat there will be a Q&A session open for all participants, with an option to ask your questions live and discuss with our guests.
Up your game with real-world info from an experienced startup or expert:
Free open session, 40-50 min
10-20 min
Q&A session open for all participants, with an option to ask your questions live and discuss with our guests.
Mindshare with corporates and ecosystem partners, bring your own case to the table.
Why join now?
Discuss your individual case with our expert.
Is it still possible to build a great startup in your garage, a’la Jobs & Wozniak? Yes, if you’re B to C, don’t require existing specialized equipment, and have all the expertise you need among the founders. The rest of us, most of us, need an ecosystem to thrive. One key relationship is especially important, and especially hard to tackle: The corporation. If you need large firms as investors, customers, vendors or research partners; if you need large firms to help you access key users, channels or supplies, there are some steps you need to take to get ready. We can help you.
Why join now?
Is it still possible to build a great startup in your garage, a’la Jobs & Wozniak? Yes, if you’re B to C, don’t require existing specialized equipment, and have all the expertise you need among the founders. The rest of us, most of us, need an ecosystem to thrive. One key relationship is especially important, and especially hard to tackle: The corporation. If you need large firms as investors, customers, vendors or research partners; if you need large firms to help you access key users, channels or supplies, there are some steps you need to take to get ready. We can help you.
Testimonials
You help me advance my thinking and I get there faster when I talk with you.”
Why should you participate?
If you’re a startup founder with an idea of any significant complexity, you probably need a corporate partner — to invest in you, to buy your products or services, to help you access supply chains and channels, to collaborate on scientific research, to advise you, or even just to sell you materials in a way that helps you thrive.
Guess what?
Large firms need startups too! But even with all the good will in the world, forging a partnership isn’t easy. Big companies need you to be ready before they can dig in, and you need to understand what they expect and what they’re capable of and not. We’ll help you understand what your partners are all about, and we’ll help you prepare so you can land the collaborations you need!
Membership options
Basic package
All fireside chats plus:
PRIVATE Readiness evaluation and prescription for your next steps
Weekly mentor access (compare to consulting at $300/hour)
Two Mastermind sessions per month with corporates and other ecosystem players (compare to mindshare groups at $1200-2000 per month)
Meet startup founders who have been there and will share what they’ve learned the hard way, corporates who will reveal what they’re looking for and what’s going on behind the scenes, and authorities on the mysteries of IP strategy, equity decisions, macroeconomics, and more.
Up to 8 hours/month total.
In & out privileges — join when you need us, take a break when you don’t
Not satisfied in the first 30 days? Cancel for a full refund.”
Club package
We’ll create non-competitive, time-zone-suitable accountability groups of 5-10 members, with one facilitated session per month. We’ll help you track & share your progress and get timely feedback. We charge you only when we’ve found a cohort for you.
Register now!
Program Leaders
Diana Joseph
CEO Corporate Accelerator Forum | Learning scientist, corporate innovation leader in Silicon Valley
Corentin Cremet
Founder @Orka Fwd | Partnering with companies building better products faster
Margarita Quihuis
Persuasive Tech | Founder | CEO | Peace Innovation | PeaceX
Network
Nathan Horner
CEO Nictavi, LLC | Patent-holding inventor, Artist
Jonathan Tan
CEO + Co-Founder at Coreshell Technologies, Inc.
Amanda Cashin, PhD
Former Global Head of Illumina For Startups
Shwen Gwee
VP and Head of Global Digital Strategy at Bristol Myers Squibb
Frank Hysa, PhD
Innovation Director I Generative Artificial Intelligence I Automotive & Transportation Lead I Keynote Speaker I Tech Investor I CSM, CSPO
Hareem Maune
Biotech Leader | Product Dev., Strategy, and R&D
Scott Kirsner
CEO and Co-Founder of InnoLead
Nikhil B. Gargeya
Strategic Partnerships/Connector, Activate | Decarbonization | CELI Fellow
David Smith
Counsel, Troutman Pepper
Satyam Kantamneni
Managing Partner at UXReactor | Educator | Board Member
Ryan Pletka
Vice President, Innovation and Strategy, at Black & Veatch
Mikel Mangold
Published Author • Ecosystem Orchestrator at Venture Lab • Open Innovation & Partnerships • Investments • Chemist & Agile Generalist
Michele Zilli
Head of Big Data Transformation at TUI InfoTec GmbH
Advisors
Amanda Cashin, PhD
Global Head of Illumina For Startups
David Smith
Counsel, Troutman Pepper
Want to meet someone specific? Propose a guest.
Supporters
Access Plans
Fireside Chats
Online events
- In-depth fireside chats
- Learn from experts and more experienced startups
- Recording and slides from the session you attended
Basic Membership
Guidance and events
- Online Content and Resources
- Readiness evaluation form
- Group coaching
- In-focus time with corporate, startup, and expert mentors
- Small scale conversations with corporates to build your network and your communication patterns
Premium Membership
Guidance, events & private coaching
- Private readiness evaluation and prescription
- Private Expert Coaching
- Curated, noncompetitive cohort
- Sessions on your schedule
- Milestone tracking
Cancel in the first 30 days for a full refund.
Matchmaker package
All of the above + private coaching to deliver exactly what you need, and introductions to corporate partnerships when you're ready
Private coaching: hourly rate by arrangement
Introductions: Available when we’re confident there’s a match — no additional charge!
Success fee or custom arrangement for deals that close.
Matchmaker
Success fee or custom arrangements. Pay only when you make a deal.
- Partner introductions (when we see you are ready)
Frequently asked questions
Join us if:
- You’re a decision-maker for your startup company.
- You’re hungry for corporate partnership. For example:
- You’re in a complex industry that’s highly regulated and you need a partner who can help you navigate.
- You have tricky science to sort out, so you need a partner with the capacity to run big studies.
- You need specialized equipment that’s too expensive, or maybe even impossible to access. You need a partner who can give you free or discounted equipment time.
- You’re B to C and you need to sell to large firms.
- You need components and supplies from big corporates OR
- There’s some other specialized reason why you need to work with large corporations
You’re welcome to join as a way to explore this question.
Mostly no. This is a paid experience and we’re delighted to have you as a customer. We will certainly let you know if we think we can’t help you, but it’s up to you to decide. Bad behavior is the one reason why we would show someone the door — we reserve the right to cancel your subscription and end your access. It’s our option whether to give you warnings and/or feedback first. A healthy community is paramount.
Can’t make our session times for the Basic program? Don’t worry, every session is recorded! Your subscription gives you access to our full library of talks and fireside chats. You’ll have access as long as your subscription continues.
The Club and Matchmaker programs are customized with your schedule in mind.
Innovation is an ecosystem game, we’d love for you to be part of the picture! Complete our form here and we’ll reach out!
We are especially well suited to companies in more complex industries like pharma, advanced materials or life sciences — that’s because corporate-startup partnership is especially valuable in those industries, so we’ve come to know them best. If you’re B2B, or B2B2C, you need corporate partnerships and we can help. If you’re strictly direct-to-consumer, we might recommend a different program.
We’ll help you no matter what stage you are. In order to partner with corporates, you’ll need an MVP or working prototype, or be product ready. We are stage agnostic because different corporates are looking for different maturity levels. If you’re looking for a big sale or a big corporate investment, you need to be quite advanced. If you’ve got an idea that stretches the bounds of the possible and you have the expertise to back it up, you might be interesting to a corporate partner even at an early stage. We’ll help you prepare for the types of partners you need. If you’re joining our Club program, we’ll connect you with other non-competitive founders at a similar stage, so you’re all learning through similar challenges and opportunities around the same time.
If you’re not B to B, or B to B to C, our program’s not the right one for you. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of accelerators out there who serve tech and service startups that sell directly to customers. You’ll find someone else, and we wish you the best!
50% discount if you register before July 5, 2022. Various discounts available through our free webinars offered from time to time.
Contact us here with any other discount request (including how much you need for how long and why) and we’ll consider it.
To be inclusive and have global reach
To provide a platform for multiple stakeholders who unlock value in different ways
To build relationships that result in impact and value further down the line
If you cancel within the first 30 days, you’ll receive a full refund. If you cancel after the first 30 days, your subscription ends at the close of your current 30-day term.