Instead of a large upfront equity investment, strategic partners can use warrants. This gives the corporation the option to earn equity later if the startup achieves specific milestones, often through their joint partnership. This approach de-risks the initial investment and directly rewards successful collaboration.

Unlike standard corporate M&A, an innovation incubator's acquisition criteria are different. Cisco's Outshift ignores a startup's revenue and business metrics, focusing solely on the technology, talent, and cultural fit to accelerate its own strategic objectives.

A robust M&A strategy isn't built in a vacuum. Snowflake's CorpDev team continuously gathers intelligence from three sources: VCs (capital flow), entrepreneurs (innovation), and internal product leaders (strategic needs). This triangulation allows them to form a holistic and actionable market view.

Beyond customer metrics, Snowflake’s corporate development lead looks for three key founder traits: hunger, hustle, and humility. Humility is especially critical as it indicates a founder who can appreciate other perspectives and engage in constructive debate, even while maintaining strong conviction in their own vision.

Oshkosh's CVC team is a hybrid, not siloed in one department. It includes members from corporate development, a venture lead in a tech hub (Bay Area), and a counterpart in an engineering business unit. This structure ensures that strategic goals, technological feasibility, and market deal flow are constantly aligned.

To win highly sought-after deals, growth investors must build relationships years in advance. This involves providing tangible help with hiring, customer introductions, and strategic advice, effectively acting as an investor long before deploying capital.

To stay relevant, tech platform companies must obsessively follow developers and startups. They are the primary source of insight into emerging workloads and platform requirements. This isn't just for partnerships, but for fundamental product strategy and learning.

Assessing cultural fit can't be done in a formal, time-crunched diligence process. Snowflake approaches M&A like dating, building relationships with companies over time. This long-term engagement allows for genuine discovery of values and operational style, de-risking the 'cultural diligence' aspect of a potential acquisition.

Oshkosh evolved its corporate venture capital from focusing on financial returns to prioritizing strategic innovation. This "CVC 2.0" approach emphasizes direct partnerships and technology integration to supplement in-house R&D, making innovation the primary goal, though financial returns are still a factor.