"Strategic alliances" count for anything in CorpDev?

Everyone,

I am part of a CorpDev team at a technology unicorn ($5B+ valuation). The company did plenty of deals in the past and was a fairly active in M&A and investments.

But the company has had a cash crunch, valuation markdowns etc and the deal appetite has substantially reduced, though we have raised a rather large round recently (in the $100s of millions).

Unfortunately for me, I joined as the deals had started drying up and I don't see any pipeline of deals, much less actively working on one. I have literally only seen 1 IM in my 3 months here. To be candid, I am not even sure why I was recruited.

Any deals we do would most likely be "acquihires". We may do a larger transaction/investment, but there no certainty about it.

Currently I am working on: a) "Commercial deals" aka strategic alliances i.e where we tie-up with another firm for "strategic reasons" and not from an M&A standpoint. These are boring to say the least given the program management involved.

b) Working with various business on their 'strategic roadmap' and help shape their strategy.

My questions to you folks is:

1) Is there any value to what I am doing - if I wish to switch to a VC after an year or two here. Is this counted as "operating experience"?

2) If I end up doing no deals in 2 years, how screwed am I?

Background: 3 years of IB experience at the country's leading tech IB. Have 5 closed transactions under my belt.

Cheers!