For many young startups, a large corporation looks like the ideal client. It seems that if a startup has managed to interest a major bank, an international industrial company, or a well-known brand, then the main goal has already been achieved. Money, reputation, and the opportunity to scale follow.

However, in practice, collaboration between startups and corporations turns out to be far more complex than is commonly believed. Helmut Kranzmaier, Senior Advisor for Corporate Innovation at Vali-Entrepreneurship Hub at ESMT Berlin, spoke about this in an interview with NEWS.am Tech at Seaside Startup Summit 2026.

According to him, aspiring entrepreneurs often view landing a large corporation as the main criterion for success. But it is precisely at this stage that serious problems can arise.

Startups and corporations operate at different speeds

A startup's main advantage is speed. A small team can make decisions quickly, test hypotheses, and change product direction. This flexibility is what allows young companies to compete with larger players.

However, when working with a corporation, a startup has to adapt to its processes.

Kranzmaier explained that as a startup, you get drawn into the corporation's pace of life, gradually losing some of your flexibility and entrepreneurial spirit because you start living by the rules of a large organization.

He offers a simple example: a startup founder walks into a meeting where twenty representatives from different corporate departments may be waiting. Discussions become longer, approvals take more time than before, and the process itself demands significant resources from a small team.

Why corporations are interested in startups at all

Corporations, according to the specialist, look to startups for new technology, agility, and fresh ideas that large organizations often lack. But a corporation usually doesn't come to a startup with a ready-made decision to buy its product — first, it wants to understand whether the startup can actually solve its problem and whether the proposed solution works in its environment.

As a result, collaboration between a corporation and a startup typically begins with numerous meetings, joint sessions, and technical discussions. Throughout this process, the corporation tries to answer several key questions: can the product scale, is it reliable enough, does it meet security requirements, and can it be integrated into the existing infrastructure?

The biggest problem is integration

This is especially acute in the tech sector. Kranzmaier suggests imagining a large bank with decades of accumulated IT infrastructure and a young fintech company offering a fundamentally new approach to solving a problem.

On paper and in conversation, everything sounds great. But whether the solution can actually integrate into the corporation's existing infrastructure is a completely different question.

Many large companies run on systems that were built and developed over decades. So even a promising technology can run into a huge number of technical limitations. It's at this stage that it often becomes clear that the gap between a great idea and actual implementation is far longer than either side expected.

The danger of losing your own product

But the most serious risks arise on the startup's side.

According to Kranzmaier, it's important for a young company to remember that it's building a product for the market, not for a single client. The problem is that a large corporation almost always wants a solution tailored as closely as possible to its own needs.

The specialist explained that the risk is that product development begins to adapt to one client rather than to the market as a whole.

In the early stages, a startup is usually still in the process of creating its product. Many features are only being tested, and the strategy is constantly evolving. If the entire team focuses on one large client's requests at this point, the startup may gradually turn into a developer of a custom solution for that client's needs. As a result, the product becomes a perfect fit for one corporation but becomes less interesting to all other potential customers.

A startup must know how to say "no"

According to Kranzmaier, this is where one of the most important entrepreneurial traits comes into play. A founder must be open to compromise and collaboration, but at the same time stay true to their own course.

He noted that it's necessary to understand where you can compromise and where you need to say no, adding that this is something you won't do.

This is especially difficult when dealing with a large client with a serious budget. However, sometimes without such decisions, a startup risks losing its own development strategy.

He added that as a founder, you must keep your compass and understand what fits your product and what doesn't.

Otherwise, the company could end up in a situation where it has one big client but no business beyond that.

When a startup stops being a startup

Many entrepreneurs dream of landing a major bank or international corporation as a client, seeing it as the pinnacle of success. Kranzmaier, however, suggests looking at the situation more broadly.

If a product is completely tailored to one client and is of little interest to anyone else, the startup is no longer building a scalable business. It becomes a provider of a specialized solution for a specific organization. There's nothing wrong with that — such a business can also be profitable and successful and may fully satisfy its founder. But it's no longer quite what we typically call a startup.

Kranzmaier believes that if you have one large client and you're making good money, that's still a success — it's just not quite what's usually meant by a startup.

So, collaborating with corporations can be both a powerful growth accelerator and a serious test for a young company. Everything depends on whether the founder can maintain a balance between the interests of an important client and the long-term development of their own product.