From Pitch to Partnership: Startup Engagement Strategies for Securing Corporate Interest

This paper examines the early formation stage of corporate–startup collaborations (CSCs). Using fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we uncover four collaboration‐enabling configurations: Plug‐and‐play, targeted co‐development, and emergent. Each configuration is contingent on the corporation's goals (need‐driven vs. discovery‐driven) and involvement preferences (transactional vs. developmental). Our findings show that corporate interest in a startup is not determined by a single factor in isolation; instead, it is shaped by specific configurations of pitch style, collaboration opportunity, and characteristics of the technology being presented. Taken together, this study advances a configurational approach to early‐stage CSC formation, moving beyond assessments of a pitch detached from its substantive content.