Venture Clienting: An Indicator of Startup Success

Based on the data set presented in this study, a preliminary assessment conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition provided promising insights.

Combining the GlassDollar data with investment and startup-level information, the researchers drew a first picture of the relationship between nascent ventures’ clienting activities with established corporates and subsequent startup performance.

These insights give rise to exploring the implications of early-stage startup collaborations with established corporates:

The probability of securing Venture Capital investment or being acquired within the first ten years after founding is significantly higher for startups with Venture Clienting relations compared to the average startup listed in Crunchbase.

Moreover, as depicted in exhibit 1 and 2 respectively, the number of listed clients positively relates to the overall investment amounts collected and the number of deals raised by respective startups, controlling for the founding-year cohort of the startups.