When it comes to entrepreneurial path, we often hear a common story: smart guy or girl has a solid, steady job, perhaps at a big company… gets an idea… really starts to believe in it… dabbles with it nights and weekends… maintains paycheck job and starts to care less about day job… does some back-of-napkin personal finances… believes it’s possible and commits to commit, and then makes the jump into full-on entrepreneurship.
For many participants in that narrative, the outcomes are still being written, but there are a number of alternative paths to entrepreneurship that often don’t get the tech blog feature love. One in particular: intrapreneurship.
The basic gist of intrapreneurship? Being an entrepreneur within a larger organization. Straightforward enough, right? Sort of. For the budding entrepreneur within a big company, it’s worth getting a sense of what the benefits of intrapreneurship are (versus following the narrative above) and how you need to operate in order to make it happen.
First, understand that in the last 15 years or so, big companies have warmed to intraprenurship. What was once viewed as threatening is now increasingly embraced. (Looks at self, Microsoft guy since college, who has done plenty of crazy intrapreneurship in Redmond.)
So why go the intrapreneurship route?
Resources
Your big company likely has significant resources that you, as an entrepreneur, may not necessarily have—especially out of the gate. From small seed funding to software and hardware to facilities to R&D and everything in between, they can really help you get your idea off the ground. On top of that, your big company can help with the back-office tasks that come with intrapreneurship. Joyous things like bookkeeping and HR stuff. Even marketing support. The hard part? Finding what you need. Big companies are just that: big. There are lots of places the resources you need can live. But the bottom line is this: a big company that embraces intrapreneurship is a treasure trove of resources that the average entrepreneur will spend a lot of time and energy assembling.
Mentorship
Perhaps the most important benefit of intrapreneurship is mentorship. This comes built-in with your big company. Your big company has lots of smart people with eons of experience and believe it or not, they’re often eager to weigh in and help out on something innovative. All you need to do is ask.
Narrowing the focus more on intrapreneurship, guiding a concept often requires someone versed in interdepartmental communication. There are people within your organization who specialize in this, either on paper or not. They’re the get-stuff-down people. Seek them out—they can move your idea forward, provide cover, buy you time, make connections… the list goes on. They’re sort of like The Wolf in Pulp Fiction except for that whole “make things and/or people disappear” part.
One more thing about mentorship: it works both ways. Your intrapreneurial pursuit may put you in the position to build a team internally. A great skill set to develop should you ever venture into entrepreneurship.
Autonomy
Autonomy and intrapreneurship within a big company may feel paradoxical. If you want autonomy, isn’t the entrepreneurial route the only way to go? Not really. Big companies are in the business of keeping smart, innovative people. And they want to keep them happy. Being an intrapreneur can mean being a team leader, building your own team, being the voice for the ideas you’ve authored. Think of it as an entrepreneurial way of climbing the proverbial corporate ladder.
In some cases, you may even be able to negotiate an arrangement where you retain creative control and even ownership of your ideas.
So How Do You Make it Happen?
If you’re buying this intrapreneurship idea and its benefits, first find out if your company has a formalized intrapreneurship program. Many do. If not, start one. (You’re entrepreneurial, right?) Then, identify what qualitative and quantitative company resources are at your disposal. (For example, the financial services company you work for may have a bunch of APIs that relate to, say, the consumer finance app you’ve been thinking on. Go explore them! In the same vein, go talk to the researcher in the global markets department who knows five languages if you’re developing a product for said global markets—he’s bound to be useful, knowledgeable, and likely willing to help.) Make some allies while you’re at it too. In the same way that an entrepreneur will pitch to anyone who will listen, the intrapreneur needs to win friends throughout the company. It will be your support system.
Now it’s not all roses. With intrapreneurship comes company politics, actual day job work, ownership questions, and a myriad of other variables. (But when you think about it, entrepreneurship comes with all that baggage too.) You need to be conscious of the company’s perspective and motivations. You also need to spend some time thinking hard about protecting yourself and your idea which is, in itself, a whole other article. The point is, going the intrapreneurship route doesn’t nullify all the question marks that come with entrepreneurship. But if you’re smart, committed to, and creative about your idea, intrapreneurship can be a great path.