PoC Procurement Best Practices for Venture Clienting Teams

PoC Procurement

Once the PoC scope is set, it’s time to get the startup officially on board - which means getting procurement involved. The key here is to make it as easy as possible for your procurement team to approve and process the purchase order.

What’s the procurement team’s role here?

In PoC procurement, your procurement team is not doing a competitive vendor selection - that work has already been done through your sourcing and selection process. Their role is to:

• Review the offer from the startup (based on the agreed PoC scope)
• Process it into a purchase order (PO)
• Possibly support final negotiations (if required)

How to make procurement smooth

1. Present a complete package
   • Include the startup’s offer
   • Attach the PoC scope from your RFP (Request for Proposal)
   • Make it clear that the startup has been chosen after rigorous analysis and is the best fit
2. Address pricing early
   • Ask the startup for two prices:
     1. PoC price (based on the defined scope)
     2. Indicative subscription price (so you can avoid startups whose long-term fees would kill the business case)
   • Many corporates negotiate that PoC costs are deductible from the first year’s subscription if implemented
3. Offer non-monetary value in exchange for a lower price
   • Public case study with your logo
   • Press release or joint marketing
   • Testimonials
   • These perks can make startups more flexible in pricing.
4. Negotiate strategically
   • Sometimes procurement likes to handle this - but often, you as the innovation manager can do it more effectively, since you have the relationship with the startup
   • Agree internally who leads the negotiation before engaging the startup
5. Move fast to PO
   • Once terms are set, procurement should issue the purchase order quickly
   • Stay in touch with procurement - ask for status updates until it’s sent

Why procurement relationships matter

Procurement is a critical partner in Venture Clienting.

• Build the relationship early - explain what Venture Clienting is, how it’s different from standard procurement, and why speed matters
• Be ready to answer the “Why can’t this just be done by procurement?” question - make clear that Venture Clienting involves identifying and validating innovative solutions, not just buying known tools

Side note: The future of Venture Clienting and procurement

Some companies may eventually embed Venture Clienting into procurement functions - blending innovation scouting with sourcing and buying. It’s not the norm yet, but it’s a possible direction for the model as it matures.