The Corporate-Startup Relationship Nobody Talks About (And Why It's Different in Asia)

There's a VC video that went viral on Facebook a while ago. The guy was basically saying that startups should never ever work with corporate accelerators. According to him, it's a waste of time. Corporates don't have real interest in helping you. It's wishful thinking to believe otherwise.

And here's what stuck with me about that: It's a lazy argument. It's the kind of sweeping statement that sounds wise but isn't actually true.

I recently talked with Joyce Tay, the Chief Strategy Officer at StartupX in Singapore. She's literally in the middle of these relationships—working with both startups and corporations, trying to make partnerships that actually work. And what she's discovered is that these relationships are possible, but they're not just hard. They're hard in completely different ways depending on where you are in the world.

"It's more of the fact that you just need to educate both parties to help them understand that they are not each other and they can't expect each other to behave in the same way," Joyce said.

That's the whole game right there.

The Blame Game (And Why Both Sides Are Right)

When I asked Joyce what the most misunderstood thing about corporate-startup partnerships is, she said it bluntly: Both sides are convinced the other side is the problem.

Startups think corporates are bureaucratic, slow, risk-averse, and full of people who don't actually want innovation—they just want to look like they're innovating.

Corporates think startups are irresponsible, overpromise, lack discipline, and don't understand that you can't just move fast and break things when you're managing millions in revenue and thousands of employees.

And here's the part that makes Joyce laugh: Both of them are right.

A startup founder living on ramen and running on fourteen cups of coffee absolutely cannot operate at the same speed as someone trying to maintain a complex organization with multiple departments, regulatory requirements, and existing customer relationships.

And a corporation trying to innovate absolutely can't move at startup speed if they're trying to do it with corporate processes.

So the first thing that has to happen in any meaningful corporate-startup partnership is honesty. Not the kind of honesty where you pretend to be okay with something you're not. The kind where you actually admit: "Here's how we work. Here's what we can actually do. Here's where we're going to drive you crazy."

Because if you don't have that conversation first, you're going to waste six months and then blame the other party for wasting your time.

The Southeast Asia Difference (And Why It Matters)

Here's where it gets really interesting. Joyce brought up something that most people talking about startup ecosystems don't want to touch: the conglomerate problem.

In Southeast Asia—Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia—there are massive family-owned conglomerates that essentially control large portions of the economy. And when these conglomerates decide they want to "invest in startups," something interesting happens.

They come in with money and a take-it-or-leave-it offer. And the offer is usually: "I'll give you $500,000 for 80% of your company."

It's not really an investment. It's an acquisition disguised as an investment. But a lot of founders take it because, as Joyce pointed out, they're living barely above the poverty line. When a conglomerate offers you half a million dollars, it's not an opportunity cost calculation. It's a life-changing amount of money.

"I've seen so many examples of startups just selling out," Joyce said. "But effectively what you're doing is really just cutting off the founders. And that's not a good way to support startups in an ecosystem."

But here's the part that makes Joyce hopeful: It's changing. The second generation of conglomerate leaders—the kids of the family business owners—they're starting to think differently. They're not just trying to own everything. They're thinking about impact. About building something.

That shift, Joyce thinks, is going to make Southeast Asia incredibly interesting in the next decade.

The Real Conversation You Have to Have

Joyce described StartupX's process for working with corporates, and it's way different from what most corporate innovation programs do. They don't start with the startup. They start with the corporate.

And the first conversation is simple: "Why do you want to work with startups? Is it a vanity thing? Do you want to look innovative? Or do you have an actual problem that you think startups can help solve?"

And here's the crucial part: Both answers are okay. It's fine if a corporate just wants to be seen as startup-friendly. It's fine if they just want to invest in good companies. But you have to be honest about which one it is.

Because if you're pretending to want innovation but what you really want is low-risk capital returns, and then you bring in founders who think you're going to help them build something revolutionary, there's going to be a collision.

Joyce said: "Establishing that first objective and being able to clarify that objective helps make the rest of the conversation a lot easier afterwards."

Once you know what both parties actually want, you can start thinking about whether it's a fit at all.

The Expectation Question

The biggest mistake both corporates and startups make is overestimating what's possible in the honeymoon phase.

A corporate comes in thinking: "We're going to mentor this startup. We're going to invest in them. We're going to see amazing results in the next six months."

A startup comes in thinking: "This corporation has unlimited resources. If we can just prove our concept works, they'll fund us to the moon."

And six months later, both are disappointed because they didn't talk about what actually matters.

Joyce is direct about this: "It's not always the case of knowing something and you'll get there. It takes both sides to sort of figure each other out. And sometimes there may be nothing tangible, even after you have that discussion."

The key insight here is the word tangible. You might have a great conversation. You might feel connected. But that doesn't mean there's an actual business opportunity. And that's okay. You keep the relationship warm. You stay in touch. And six months or a year down the road, maybe something emerges.

But you can't force it. And most corporate-startup partnerships fail because someone tries to force it.

The Transparency Requirement

One thing Joyce kept coming back to was transparency about limitations. Not optimism. Not best-case scenarios. Actual, honest limitations.

She told me about a startup founder who promised too much because they wanted to land the contract. "I think it's something that founders tend to do because you want to get that contract in. So they over-promise and they thought, you know, we'll try and rush everything out for you."

And Joyce's advice was blunt: Don't do that.

"Whether it's the fault of the corporate or the fault of the startup founders, you just have to be transparent with each other. If it cannot be done, if you need a little bit more time, if you need a little bit more help even, it's always good to voice it out because at the end of the day, you're going for a long-term partnership."

This is the difference between a one-off transaction and an actual relationship. In a transaction, you hide your weaknesses. In a relationship, you get honest about your constraints and figure out together how to work within them.

Why This Matters

You're probably not a founder looking to partner with a corporation, and you're probably not a corporate looking for startup partnerships. But you've probably been in a situation where two groups with different cultures had to work together.

A startup mindset and a corporate mindset. A creative team and a finance team. An old division and a new one.

And the thing that determines whether that works is exactly what Joyce described: Do you actually understand how the other person thinks? Do you have real conversations about what you each need? Are you willing to be transparent about your limitations?

Most cross-functional partnerships fail because people are trying to get the other side to be like them instead of understanding how to work with who they actually are.

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Want the Full Story?

Listen to Yaniv Corem's conversation with Joyce Tay on The School of Innovation podcast. She goes deep into how StartupX actually operates, why Southeast Asia's startup ecosystem is about to explode in interesting ways, and what it actually takes to build a partnership that lasts instead of blowing up.

Because here's what Joyce knows that most people miss: Corporate-startup partnerships aren't impossible. They're just impossible if you don't have the hard conversations first. And most people would rather pretend everything's fine until the whole thing falls apart.