In today’s business world, we see that corporate-startup collaboration has emerged as a popular way to innovate. This partnership is a good illustration of the win-win situation – startup becomes a valuable source to foster innovation by providing their product to the corporate while the corporate becomes a startup’s greatest growth hack. Oracle – one of the best-known IT companies is shaking hands with startups and helps them to supercharge their journey towards scaling in the enterprise world. Andrius Skunčikas – Oracle’s Country Manager in the Baltics is sharing his thoughts on why the cooperation with startups is worthwhile for both sides and advises what to consider when choosing a technical/ infrastructure partner.

Lots of corporates are still struggling to work with startups and do not cooperate due to various reasons. We see that Oracle is very active in reaching towards startups. Why did you decide to partner with startups as B2B partners?

Startups - especially enterprise-focused ventures - recognize that Oracle has the cloud technology, business-building resources, and the customer base they want. And Oracle's customers are ready for that engagement. 

With our startup program we are creating a virtuous cycle of innovation by blending startup ingenuity with enterprise resources to deliver transformative solutions to customers—a winning formula for all (startups, customers and Oracle). This means Oracle stays at the competitive edge of innovation with solutions that complement its technology stack while driving startups’ business and solving pain points for our global customers.

Why it is worthwhile for startups to partner with big companies like Oracle?

Startups who want to sell into the enterprise need to be ready (from infrastructure as well as business perspective) to scale fast and handle bigger-than-expected workloads.

Oracle for Startups not only provides startups with access to Oracle’s technology (ensuring lower costs, better performance, and security standards) but also dedicated technical support and 1:1 mentorship from experienced industry leaders. Arguably no one sells better to the enterprise than Oracle. We are using that expertise to benefit startups.

Plus, by partnering with Oracle, which has more than 40 years of enterprise expertise, startups gain that additional level of credibility when talking to prospects and working with customers. 

How does the collaboration between Oracle and startups usually begin? Are there any hints for the startups to prepare?

Startups can sign up at oracle.com/startup to receive free cloud and 70% discount from day one. From there, they gain access to a members-only portal, which offers detailed descriptions about the program’s services, hands-on development labs, and other how-to assistance for migrating an existing instance or spinning up new ones.

Startups will also discover what we call our ‘Market Connect’ section of the Startup Portal, which is where they can validate their readiness for benefits. Qualifications include submitting a customer reference and accompanying reference architecture, uploading a pitch video, and finalizing their Startup Portal profile. Startups can complete this part of the portal at any time but we recommend doing this as soon as possible as this unlocks the full benefits of the program such as marketing and events exposure, customer engagements and meetings and VC introductions.

What is important to consider when choosing a technical / infrastructure partner?

Today’s startups are born in the cloud. That means their choice of cloud provider is of the utmost importance. Value, performance, and security are some of the most crucial factors.

In terms of value can your cloud provider help you save money by avoiding spending on unused infrastructure? The cloud allows companies to scale up or down to meet fluctuating customer demand, paying only for the resources they use. Startups on Oracle Cloud can do so reliably, with performance, availability, and manageability backed by enterprise service-level agreements, saving them money which they can reinvest back into their business.

The cloud also allows startups to compete against large enterprises in fields that involve the storage, processing, and analysis of massive amounts of data. Think biomedical research, video streaming, and advanced engineering. But not all clouds are equal when it comes to HPC. Startups in the Oracle for Startups program, such as analytics platform provider Kinetica, which joined in August 2019, have chosen Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to meet their heavy HPC demands.

And finally, as you know modern developers rely on a variety of platforms, languages, and services to build their applications. If their cloud of choice doesn’t support their tools of choice, it can cause major headaches. Openness and open source support are important factors for startups that have migrated to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

What benefits and opportunities can Oracle provide to a startup?

Oracle for Startups enables mutually beneficial business-building partnerships for startups, our customers, and Oracle.  Without taking equity, we offer access to a complete stack of Oracle 

Cloud solutions, marketing and mentoring resources, and access to a global base of customers.

• No equity taken
• Free cloud credits and 70% discount for 2 years
• Marketing and events resources
• PR/media and analyst engagements
• Access to Oracle’ global customer base
• VC engagements

Why is Oracle team is interested in fintech startups and how they can support them?

Oracle’s expertise and relationships across financial services provide rich opportunities for fintechs joining Oracle for Startups.

Oracle Cloud, combined with Oracle Banking Open APIs, provides the perfect ecosystem for Fintechs and Oracle customers, combined with the added benefits of the program.

We recently ran an online event specifically for the Fintech community in the Baltics, if you are interested, why not Watch the replay? The Oracle for Startups team shared their top growth hacks for fintechs, plus there was a great discussion between the global Oracle team, ModularBank, and NOIA Network on how to supercharge your fintech’s growth.

A nationwide quarantine period has encouraged many companies to think about the specifics of their activities and, if necessary, reorient the direction of the company's operations by maximizing their processes. Although we constantly hear in the public sphere about the new startups' development and the innovative solutions they create, and this time, corporates with a long time experience in traditional solutions still remain in the shadows.

And even though we have more than 1,000 startups in Lithuania and really developed startup ecosystem, there is still a huge lack of collaboration between corporates and startups.

Why does collaboration should make sense for each party? What are the benefits of it?

Everybody speaks about collaboration but what makes it really beneficial for a startup and a corporate? It is worth spending some time understanding one’s motivations, as well as on the other side’s interests and constraints.

Let‘s clear out, so what are the benefits for corporates?

External innovation and disruption | As internal innovation is often hampered by protecting the core cash „donors“, collaboration with or acquisition of a startup may also facilitate the necessary disruption of one’s business model, which is difficult to achieve from within.

More innovative suppliers | If corporates work only with established tech providers, they risk missing out on potential new sources of revenue: buying from an innovative startup may give a corporate a competitive edge. Startups may also outperform existing solution providers to corporate clients because they have less overhead costs and a stronger innovation focus.

Customer focus | Startups tend to innovate closer to customer needs as they are not as standard process-driven as established corporates. They can adapt and customize solutions more easily, allowing the corporate to serve its customers better.

Also, entrepreneurial and more agile culture, staying on top of market developments and new revenue streams and business lines.

Just in a few words, the corporation’s benefits are seen - they get the latest technology available while avoiding the inflexibility they might encounter when doing this by themselves.

Sure, the benefits for corporates are clear. So, what is good for startups?

A success story for future sales | Large corporate customers enhance the reputation of startups and serve as reference cases for future sales. The transformation of the sales process from an innovation pitch into reference selling may become a key success factor for a startup.

Revenues and independence from external capital | As big corporates can invest considerable amounts of money, corporates can free startups from the need to seek outside investments. Corporates can also have a long-term interest, which may stabilize a startup and help it to reach profits very early.

Scalable customer base | Large corporates can be an ideal target customer as they have enough people, budget and opportunity to scale.

Riskless internationalization | Working with corporate offers the possibility to expand into other countries by partnering with the corporate’s local subsidiaries, if it has ones.

Access to proprietary assets | Partnering with a corporate can enable a startup to exploit underutilized corporate assets such as data that would otherwise not be accessible.

Market knowledge and mentoring | At the very beginning of business development, startups often do not have the proper knowledge for business expansion. So, startups can tap into the knowledge and long-term experience of the corporate in the form of mentoring.

To be short, what then is gained by the startup? They will have unlimited funds to finance more projects for better innovations, better organization, increased motivation, better equipped to take more risks, and to be able to challenge the status quo.

All the mentioned benefits have a great impact on the two parties. So what are the key things you need to know before starting the collaboration?

Currently, the leading areas in Lithuania among the startups are cloud-based software (SaaS) and e-commerce areas, and the biggest demand and development opportunities for products and services are currently found by startups in the areas of cybersecurity (CyberTech), health science technology (HealthTech) and financial service technologies (FinTech). That means that the corporates have an extremely wide range of startups (and even more than these mentioned) from which to choose and the solutions that are relevant to them to grow their business success.

If you, as a corporate have previously asked yourself questions like "How can we solve key business problems in a quicker and more cost-effective way?" or "How do we make our organisation more innovative and willing to take risks?", take heart, because you are not alone. These are the problems that most executives have to solve for their companies. Working with startups has proven for many to be an excellent way to tackle these challenges from a new and productive angle.

It is very important to clarify the corporates objective before making a partnership with a startup. One of the most relevant and common objectives for corporates when collaborating with a startup is solving corporate problems and challenges. Developing new innovative solutions and products with startups rather than internally is often much quicker, and less risky for your core business. Startups bring new technologies, business models, and talent to the table.  So why not to use it?

Finally, startups and corporates alike can't expect both parties to be at the same speed, speak the same language, or have the same challenges and goals. But it's important to note both sides.

That is why “Startup Lithuania” presents a project for corporates and startups and called it “Corporate Challenge”. The goal of the project is to increase the collaboration between young innovative Lithuanian tech companies and traditional businesses who face different day-to-day operational challenges.

So, if you are a corporate that have challenges to solve, contact us!