CORPORATE VENTURING

At the heart of every successful venture is a passionate entrepreneur armed with a great idea, the wits to express it and the guts to follow a dream. Sometimes that great idea hatches within a major corporation. At Smaby Group, we advise corporate executives that are shepherding new 'intrapreneurial' ventures through the critical creation stages. Should it stay within or should we spin it out? How big is the market opportunity? What resources will it take to be successful? Who are the incumbent competitors? What new entrants will likely emerge?

The process of building a barebones start-up is often foreign to corporations unfamiliar with the scrappy entrepreneurial landscape. We know that terrain and can help turn a promising idea into reality.

We bring a personal commitment as well as a keen awareness of business and technological trends to the corporate venturing experience. Our tailored strategic advice is geared to help forming a solid foundation for a high-growth business. We help the founder's team set and acheive goals on key formation elements such as business model definition, corporate positioning, partnership strategies, valuation and fund raising. In short, Smaby Group has the experience and strategic resources to help get a corporate venture off the ground and out the door. And we have the knowledge to instill the new venture with the competitive agility to safely pilot through often treacherous early stages of growth.

We pick our engagements carefully, evaluating each opportunity to insure a good fit with our skill set. Each project is unique but it is not uncommon for us for us to take combination of professional fees and equity stake in exchange for the strategic advisory services we provide. On occasion, we may even invest our own capital side-by-side with our corporate client through our Square One Ventures arm.

To get the process started, please send a short summary of the intrapreneurial idea and any background information on the key personnel likely to be involved in the new venture to info@smaby.com.