Innovation Pipeline Desk / Corporate Venture Desk
CORPORATE VENTURE AND VENTURE BUILDING TEAMS
Deal Flow Screening for Corporate Venture Teams: Startups a Business Unit Will Pilot
Deal flow is full. The investment committee likes three companies, but when the venture team asks which business unit will run a pilot with them, nobody raises a hand, and the strategic case for the deal goes quiet.
The Corporate Venture Desk screens your deal flow against problem statements your business units have signed, so every startup that moves forward comes with a business unit owner, a success test and a pilot brief.
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Corporate Venture Desk
What the Corporate Venture Desk works on first
These are the problems this desk hears most from corporate venture and venture building teams. Your Mandate Brief sets the real list; each one gets a named owner before any candidate is scored.
| Problem the desk hears first | What the desk returns |
|---|---|
| Strategic fit for investments | Each startup mapped to a signed business unit problem, or marked financial only. |
| Venture client pilots | Pilot briefs with success test, cost ceiling and kill date, ready for the business unit owner. |
| Internal venture building | Internal ideas scored against the same eight rules as outside startups. |
| Reporting to the parent company | A monthly count of startups by stage, pilots started, pilots killed and pilots turned into contracts. |
Same four parts on every desk
How the Corporate Venture Desk works
PART 01Mandate Brief
Your mandate rewritten as three to five problem statements, each with the business owner who asked for it, the budget line it draws on and the date it matters by.
Check: every problem statement names an owner who agreed to it in writing.
PART 02Scout Sweep
Startups, vendors and internal ideas found against each problem statement, each with a dated link to public evidence that it runs in production somewhere.
Check: every candidate row has a source link and the date it was read.
PART 03Screen Scorecard
Every candidate scored against the eight rule rulebook below and marked pass, hold or drop, with the rule and the evidence behind each mark.
Check: every mark cites a rule number and a source.
PART 04Pilot Briefs
The strongest candidates written up as one-page pilot briefs: the success test, the internal owner, the cost ceiling, the security path and the kill date.
Check: each brief has a success test the business owner can mark yes or no.
What correct looks like
The Screen Rulebook: eight rules every candidate has to pass
Named owner of mistakes: Mike Rodgers. If a row marked pass fails a rule on facts that were public when it was scored, it is rescored or replaced within five business days at no charge, and the miss is counted in the next monthly report.
- It maps to one written problem statement with a named business owner.
- It has public evidence of production use, such as a named customer, a case study or a filing, dated within the last 24 months.
- Its pilot cost fits under the ceiling the owner set before scoring began.
- Its data path is known: what data it touches, and which team reviews security.
- It has a success test the business owner can mark yes or no when the pilot ends.
- It has a kill date, set before the pilot starts.
- Someone inside is named to run it after the pilot if it works.
- Every mark cites its source and the date it was read. Nothing passes on a vendor's say-so alone.
What stays with you
What your people keep owning
- Your innovation leader owns the mandate and signs off the problem statements.
- Your business owners decide which pilots start and which get killed. The desk recommends; it never decides.
- Procurement, legal and security run their own reviews. The desk hands them the brief and the evidence, not a verdict.
- You own every vendor relationship. The desk never contacts a vendor in your name without your written OK, and every file is yours to keep.
Not included
- Not a venture fund. The desk does not invest in, or take equity or fees from, any company it scores.
- No pay to play. No vendor, startup or platform pays to be listed, scored or recommended.
- Not an ideation workshop, a hackathon or an innovation lab you have to staff.
- No build. The desk does not build, integrate or run the solutions it scores.
- No legal, security or procurement verdicts. Those teams run their own reviews.
- Not a startup database subscription. Output is documents and a board in your own tools.
Straight answers
Questions corporate venture and venture building teams teams ask.
- Does the desk make investment recommendations?
- No. The desk screens for strategic fit and pilot readiness against your business units' problems. Investment decisions, terms and diligence stay with your venture team and investment committee.
- Can we use our existing deal flow sources?
- Yes. Your CRM, databases and inbound pitches become sources for the Scout Sweep, and every startup is scored against the same eight rules.
- Do you take fees or equity from startups?
- No. The desk takes no fee, equity or referral payment from any company it screens.
Start with one mandate
Request a Pipeline Health Check.
The Health Check report is yours to keep whether or not you go further. Sign the Sprint within 30 days of the report and the $2,500 comes off the Sprint in full.
Health Check $2,500. Pipeline Sprint $12,000. Then $3,500 a month.
The Health Check is a fixed price, returned 10 business days after the kickoff call. The Sprint runs six weeks. The Run is month to month with 30 days notice, and covers 10 new scored candidates a month, board upkeep and the monthly report.