Glossary: Speak like a pro
Glossary: Speak like a pro
Here are the key terms you’ll encounter in Venture Clienting. Let’s make sure we all understand what they mean. No jargon allowed.
We update this glossary regularly here: https://www.glassdollar.com/glossary
Key Terms
- Adoption: When a solution moves from pilot to full rollout across the organization.
- Business Unit (BU): A department or division within the company—your internal customers and problem owners.
- Challenge Description: A clear write-up of a specific problem or opportunity, created by the pain-point owner.
- Corporate Venture Building (CVB): When a company builds its own startup(s), either internally or with partners.
- Corporate Venture Capital (CVC): When a company invests money into external startups for potential financial and strategic returns.
- Lead: Can mean:
- A pain-point owner inside the organization,
- A startup solution, or
- A topic that might become a PoC .
- Pain Point Owner (PPO): The internal person responsible for the problem you’re trying to solve.
- Proof-of-Concept (PoC): A short test to show a startup solution works, typically 4–8 weeks and around €20k.
- Pilot: A larger-scale trial that follows a PoC, often 6+ months and with real internal users.
- Startup Scouting / Sourcing: The search for startups that could address your defined problem.
- Venture Clienting (VCL): The practice of buying and testing startup products to solve internal business problems.
- Venture Clienting Unit (VCU): The team or department that runs Venture Clienting within your company.
- Venture Manager / Partner / Associate: Roles within the VCU:
- Associate/PoC Manager: Runs individual PoCs
- Innovation Manager: Oversees a set of PoCs
- Innovation Partner: Heads up the Venture Clienting strategy
Tip: Keep this glossary handy! Whenever you see a term like PoC, PPO, or VCU, you can refer back here to make sure everyone’s on the same page.
Hi, I'm Madlen, and I lead the Venture Clienting solutions at GlassDollar. At GlassDollar, we empower corporations to quickly identify and test cutting-edge startup technology. Our outstanding team of Venture Clienting experts is committed to helping corporations harness startup innovations and drive growth at any stage. Whether you need strategic consulting, support in establishing a Venture Clienting unit, or assistance in operating and scaling it, we are your ideal partner.
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Everything you need to know about Venture Clienting
Welcome to Venture Clienting
Learn what Venture Clienting is (and what it isn’t), where the model came from, and why it’s become a fast path to measurable business impact. It also clarifies the differences to CVC and Venture Building, shows how the three can work together, and closes with practical “golden rules” to start with the right problems, win early PoCs, and build the trust you’ll need to scale.
Getting Started
A quick on-ramp into Venture Clienting: a checklist to see if your organization is actually ready, the minimum setup you need (one owner, a starter budget, and light leadership backing), plus a plain-English glossary so everyone—from business units to procurement—uses the same terms and avoids confusion from day one.
The 3 Phases of Venture Clienting Units
A practical maturity map for how Venture Clienting Units evolve over time — from START (prove the model with a few high-impact PoCs), to GROW (make it repeatable and expand reach), to SCALE (run high volume with strong selectivity, efficiency, and strategic alignment). It clarifies what to prioritize in each phase: budgets, timelines, lead volume, stakeholder setup (procurement/IT/legal), and the specific habits that drive momentum without burning quality.
The Venture Clienting Process
A practical, end-to-end guide to running Venture Clienting in real life — from uncovering internal pain points and qualifying PoC leads to sourcing startups, running focused demos, executing lean PoCs, and turning successful pilots into real implementations with measurable business impact.
Advanced Topics
This chapter covers advanced Venture Clienting topics you’ll face once the basics work: managing PoCs as a portfolio, working effectively with IT, accelerating projects through alternative contracting models, and securing lasting C-level support. It shows how to reduce bottlenecks, allocate resources smarter, and turn Venture Clienting into a strategic, scalable capability.