\\ 19 5. Surviving the Desert of Procurement & Approvals The procurement process can be a bear — you feel like There are also different purchasing processes for different you’re so close to the finish line, but it’s a mirage. You can scales of spend. Building up engagement with a large get stuck in limbo. enterprise partner through a land-and-expand model also changes a startup’s initial experience in procurement. Startups need to have realistic expectations about speed, and plan ahead for sales cycles so they don’t run out of [The purchasing process] depends on the dollar value. resources before they show progress. Enterprises, on the “ Something under $50K is quick, over that it’s a substantial other hand, need to create pathways for the business to decision-making process.” —Jay Dominick, CIO of Princeton University push through important innovations fast. To accelerate their sprint through the procurement and legal desert, startups should find internal champions, arm those buyers with the right business case and other support, and arrive prepared with mature contracts. One of the challenges working with them (technology “ innovation companies) is the difference in the level of agility. The challenge for the enterprise companies is to manage risk management, legal contracts, information security, etc. to work at a pace which fosters innovation while focusing on only the key controls that matter.” —Anuj Dhanda, CIO of Albertsons Startups Serving The Enterprise