How to Grow Revenue by Partnering with Startups and Scaleups, According to EarlyBirds

EarlyBirds, the company operating a business to business (B2B) open ecosystem for innovation that brings together innovators, early adopters, and subject matter experts (SMEs), wants to emphasize how businesses can grow their revenue by partnering with startups and scaleups. This is because startups and scaleups are better equipped in adapting to change and they are able to take advantage of low barriers to entry, business models, and emerging technologies because they are much nimbler compared to other companies.

Startups and scaleups have the technology, speed, talent, and enthusiasm often missing in large or established businesses. Businesses who partner with startups and scaleups are able to create synergies between the previously mentioned advantages of these relatively new companies. They come with the domain expertise, brand, assets, and the resources of established companies that can result into real innovation, that in turn brings more revenue.

The increasingly competitive and dynamic nature of current businesses operating environment has actually made it necessary for businesses, whether old or young, to establish partnerships with innovative startup companies. Both need each other because established companies have to remain up-to-date with emerging technologies while startups and scaleups are faced with the challenge of survival. A partnership will offer the solution for both.

One example of a profitable partnership between an established company and a startup is the partnership between the huge US drugstore chain Walgreens with startup Pager. Pager has developed a high-tech mobile platform that can match the illnesses and location of a particular patient with available healthcare professionals, such as doctors and nurses. In addition, Pager has partnered with an on-demand startup Evolution as a way to expand its offers to 31 providers across the US. The result of the partnership was customers of Walgreen can be easily treated for common illnesses, get doctor referrals, and possibly get house calls from a Pager doctor.

Another example is Regions Financial Corp., which has bank branches in 16 states of the US, partnering with lending startup Fundation (now Linear Financial Technologies). The goal of the partnership was to better serve small businesses through online lending. The result is faster processing of lending applications from small businesses, which increased the revenues of both Fundation and Regions Financial Corp.

A third example is IBM partnering with the startup Spare5. The latter pays people to do quick tasks on their smartphone during their spare time. The result of this partnership is Spare5 developing the Watson Golf Pro app that utilises the cognitive computing technology and natural language capabilities of IBM to offer advice to golfers. By combining the app-building knowledge of Spare5 with IBM’s Watson technology, the Watson Golf Pro app can analyse golf swings and provide advice to the golfer at any place and at any time, resulting in increased revenues for both IBM and Spare5.

Meanwhile, the challenge with such a concept is that it is expensive and time consuming for an established business to look for the startups and scaleups that match their specific needs. This can be solved by using the EarlyBirds platform and open ecosystem for Innovators, which are mostly startups, scaleups and mature solutions; Early Adopters, which are established business; and SMEs who take on the role of consultants who can, if needed, be available to assist Early Adopters. Early Adopter businesses will find it much easier to search for and find the relevant startup or scaleup they are looking for.

The EarlyBirds open innovation ecosystem is composed of subscription self- service and the world leading Explorer and Challenger programs. The Explorer program delivers innovation to the whole organisation as a service and has several features: weekly webinars to help stimulate innovation in the organisation; a nominated SME for the business; a platform enterprise license; a focus on certain innovations; and quarterly and monthly innovation days. The Challenger program is for people and organisations who want to focus on one specific business challenge for the organisation. In the IBM example, this could be how to promote the use of their Watson technology. With Walgreens, this could be how to increase sales through better customer service by matching customers with the healthcare professional they need.

People who would like to know more about the services provided by EarlyBirds may want to check out their website or contact them on the phone or through email.