After opening to much fanfare three years ago, Coca-Cola is shutting down The Founders program, according to a published report. Under this program, the company nurtured young startups, hoping to siphon some of that entrepreneurial energy and pass it along to the big lumbering corporation.
Over the last several years, companies have recognized the need to innovate, and the larger the company, the more difficult it is. David Butler, who, according to the report, has left the company, ran the program as VP of innovation. The company launched the program with the idea of giving startups with cool ideas some seed money — a million or less — along with access to the vast resources only a company the size of Coca-Cola could provide.
Butler would scout the startups, then connect the ones he liked with an advisor, who could help them navigate the big company. These types of programs have popped up at large companies over the last several years, including such well-known and varied brands as McDonald’s, CVS, Fidelity and GE.
As Butler told me a couple of years ago at Web Summit in Dublin, when it works, the startup-corporation combination can be a powerful one: “Most large established companies have scale but lack agility. Startups have agility, but they’re looking for scale.” Put the two together and something beautiful could happen, or at…
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