The Corporate Venture Dilemma: Spin-Off vs Business Unit
Business unit or spin-off is not a legal formality. It sets how fast your venture can move, how easily it can use the corporation's assets, who you can hire and how you can pay them. This report compares the two across six dimensions.
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18 pages · PDF and online- A definition of each structure, and what actually separates them
- A side-by-side comparison across six dimensions, from governance to tax
- The four success factors to weigh before you commit to one
The structure is the first constraint your venture will hit.
A business unit stays inside the parent's legal structure. A spin-off is a separate company with its own assets and operations. The choice decides agility, how the venture uses corporate assets, what contracts and incentives you can offer a founder, and what the market sees.
It is made once, early, and it is expensive to undo.
Two structures, six dimensions, four factors.
Written with Cresco Law, so the legal, procurement and tax comparisons are specific rather than general.
See exactly where the two structures diverge
- 1Strategy and governanceWho decides, and how quickly
- 2Legal and procurementWhat the venture can sign, and how fast
- 3People and operationsWho you can hire, and on what terms
- 4Finance and taxHow money moves, and what it costs to move it
- 5Branding and marketingWhat the market is allowed to see
- 6Other considerationsThe things that only surface later
Choose for the venture, not the org chart
- 7AgilityCan it pivot at the speed the market needs
- 8Unfair advantageCan it use the corporate assets without inheriting the brakes
- 9TeamCan you attract and incentivise the right people
- 10FocusCan it stay on one thing long enough to work
Built to make the choice once.
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Business unit against spin-off, compared across governance, legal, people, finance and brand. Free, and in your inbox in a minute.
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