‹ Back

For Corporations


Despite growing interest in sourcing innovation outside their walls, corporations have struggled to find efficient and organized ways to engage with innovative young companies.

How it works

After 4+ years working with leading global corporations, we have a deep understanding of the innovation challenges that face large corporations. Through the Corporate-Startup Challenge, we help you find partnerships that will keep your corporation on the cutting edge of innovation. Participating corporations pay a program sponsorship fee, which includes a 6-month engagement and membership with the ISTC.


Discover

Our process begins when we convene a team of decision-makers from across your organization to identify a set of “opportunity areas.” These items represent specific technologies of interest and challenges that might be addressed through partnerships with startup companies.

 

Connect

After an exhaustive screening and vetting process, we deliver a digital portfolio of startup companies that best align with your innovation needs. We provide stakeholder in your company with access to our online startup portal, where you can access highly curated data about your startup matches.

 

Engage

We will work with your team to host a Shark Tank-style demo day, with a panel of executives who will judge pitches from 8-10 startup companies. From here, we will help you evaluate, make decisions, and build relationships with the most promising companies. Our team will work with you on an ongoing basis to track and facilitate these partnerships.

With today’s relentless pace of change, it’s important for State Farm to connect early with entrepreneurs who have promising ideas and technologies. The involvement of State Farm with the Illinois CorporateStartup Challenge and the resulting demo day allowed a cross section of State Farm leaders a phenomenal early look at some of the most exciting and relevant Illinois- and Midwest-based startups.

 

Jack Weekes

Operations Vice President, State Farm Innovation Team

Get in Touch

If you are interested in learning more about corporate participation in the Corporate-Startup Challenge, please feel free to reach out.