Can your startup collaborate with a big company? 5 Signs that indicate yes

In a world where innovation is accelerating daily, collaboration between startups and large companies is no longer an emerging trend, but a strategic necessity. This dynamic is known as open innovation, and it can be the springboard your startup needs to scale, validate your solution in real environments and access new markets.

But how do you know if your startup is ready to collaborate with a large corporation? Let's start at the beginning...

What is open innovation?

Open innovation is a model that promotes collaboration between external organizations (such as startups, universities or research centers) and established companies. Instead of developing everything internally, companies access existing solutions, accelerating the transformation of their processes, products or services.

From Tetuan Valleywe have been promoting this type of connections for more than 15 years, acting as a bridge between technology startups and corporations that are committed to a more agile, applied and collaborative innovation.

5 signs that your startup is ready to collaborate with a large company

1. You have a validated solution in the market: Corporations are looking for concrete solutions, not ideas on paper. If you have already conducted pilots, have active users or already have first customers, you are one step closer to being an attractive partner.

2. Your technology solves a relevant challenge: Does your proposal respond to a real challenge in the energy, financial, logistics, industrial or sustainability sector? Companies are looking for solutions aligned with their strategic objectives. If you know their context well, your chances multiply.

3. Your team can adapt to corporate processes: Startups move fast, but collaborating with companies means understanding different rhythms, compliance processes and more complex decision making. Flexibility and clear communication are key to successful collaboration.

4. You have a co-creation mentality: Open innovation is not just about selling. It involves building together, iterating, learning from the other party and being willing to adapt your solution to create mutual value.

5. You have started to build relationships in the ecosystem: Participating in programs, events or shared spaces with corporations can open doors. From Tetuan Valley, we facilitate these environments through open innovation programs specifically designed to generate meaningful connections between startups and companies.

How is Tetuan Valley accompanying you?

In Tetuan Valley, we apply our methodology in open innovation projects for companies seeking to connect with the entrepreneurial ecosystem and access disruptive technologies. We do it from 2 angles:

• Intrapreneurship: we help internal teams to think like startups.

• Open innovation: we connect startups with corporations to validate and scale their solutions.

We create spaces for real collaboration between both parties, helping to identify strategic needs, map opportunities and activate pilots with high impact potential.

"This synergy allows us to combine the speed of entrepreneurs with the resources of large companies, generating a positive impact for both parties." - Agustina MilaniniHead of Innovation, Tetuan Valley

Real cases, concrete results

Throughout these years, we have worked with companies that today integrate open innovation into their strategy, developing real pilots with startups that emerged from our programs. If you are interested in learning more about these cases write to us at and we will be happy to tell you more.