---
title: Open innovation for SMEs
canonical: https://openclienting.org/de/venture-clienting/sme-open-innovation
updated: 2026-04-15T15:58:58.013Z
---

# Open innovation for SMEs

Open innovation is usually associated with large corporates who can afford a dedicated innovation team. But the underlying idea — tapping into proven external solutions instead of building everything in-house — works even better for small and mid-sized companies, because SMEs have leaner procurement and fewer internal legacy constraints.

## Why SMEs benefit more, not less

- No legacy CVC arm to protect, no multi-year strategy committee to convince.
- Peer-validated templates let one or two people run a rigorous pilot without a dedicated innovation department.
- Paying for a working solution is cheaper and faster than building it in-house at SME scale.

## How an SME runs venture clienting in practice

An SME does not need an innovation team, a venture arm, or a dedicated budget line. What it needs is a defined problem, a short list of candidate startups, and a structured pilot. Specifically:

- One internal owner — usually the person who feels the problem most, not a dedicated innovation manager.
- A peer-validated problem template — fork one that another SME in the same industry has already published.
- A short pilot — 6 to 12 weeks, with a fixed budget and pre-agreed success criteria.
- A go/no-go decision meeting — scheduled on the calendar before the pilot starts, not negotiated after.

## Frequently asked questions

**Q: Do SMEs have enough leverage to attract good startups?**

Yes — and often more than corporates, because SMEs close faster. A well-defined pilot with a real budget and a 4-week decision window is more attractive to an early-stage startup than a corporate procurement process that takes six months.

**Q: How do SMEs find startups in the first place?**

On OpenClienting, startups propose solution approaches directly on published problems. The company does not have to run its own scouting — the platform routes matched startups to matched problems.

**Q: What about confidentiality — can SMEs publish without exposing themselves?**

Per-submission anonymity is built in. You can publish a sensitive internal problem without your company name being visible to other users or startups; identity is only stored server-side for moderation.

**Q: Is this just outsourcing under a new name?**

No — outsourcing hands a function to a service provider. Venture clienting adopts a specific product or technology from a startup, keeping the function internal. The distinction matters for cost, control, and how the contract is structured.

## Quelle

- **Kanonisch:** https://openclienting.org/de/venture-clienting/sme-open-innovation
- **Lizenz:** CC BY-SA 4.0