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
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.
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.