Corporate Ventures

Why It Matters

The worst place to develop a new business model is from within your existing business model. These corporate innovation teams are far too often subject to the same governance systems, metrics, and processes the scaled organization relies on to operate the existing business. As a result, the innovation that does succeed ends up looking a lot like the existing business, not the transformation everyone hoped for.

The secret to resilience lies in creating systems that enable large-scale, big-magnitude correctness but also frequent misses. In the face of an unknown future, the best strategy for maximizing returns and minimizing risk is to run as many experiments as possible, at the lowest possible cost per experiment. Radical innovation requires learning, making mistakes, and messiness. It requires a deliberate degree of capital inefficiency, an acceptance of lower-than-possible near-term RONA. Corporations are optimized for the exact opposite: execution instead of learning, predictability instead of messiness.

The initial focus for any transformative new venture should be on finding product-market fit through rapid experimentation. This is not a capital efficient activity, by design. In the core business, it’s exactly the reverse: In a world of high knowledge and low assumptions, core business teams should be focused on execution, not learning. Yet companies often make decisions and fund these two different types of opportunities in the same way.‍

Learn More about the model

How We Collaborate

We work closely with partners to learn the distinct customer, business, strategy, or market problem(s) they aim to solve through venture building. Our approach, executed with an external venture builder, aims to identify unmet audience needs and market opportunities where a startup could fill a gap, often in the form of a new technology. This collaboration accelerates the creation of companies that address issues and themes of interest to organizations. We partner with innovation portfolio managers focused on generating results in what is oftentimes deemed the toughest area of the portfolio: building external startups. Our most successful partners are innovation portfolio managers who have a well-defined innovation mandate from corporate strategy, clarity on how they plan to close the “gap,” a hypothesis of the adjacent market on which to focus their initial innovation thesis, and a business-unit leader serving as the project champion. We partner closely with innovation leaders and portfolio managers to identify an initial external innovation gateway and refine it as we go.

From there, our process will:

‍

Combine our VC lens with partners' understanding of growth and opportunity areas
Rapidly co-generate ideas and identify latent concepts from within the organization
Develop a portfolio of concepts and triage to other corporate innovation initiatives
Rigorously vet and validate concepts through critical assumption testing
Identify investable business opportunities and make capital allocation recommendations
Launch and support startups while providing portfolio management capabilities

Rapid Venture Creation

Rapid Test, Validate & Advance

Structure & Forcing Function

A venture builder helps with end-to-end company creation: from ideation and concept exploration, to business model development and launch. This includes the creation of a dedicated venture studio for our partners to launch startups at scale.

Structure & Forcing Function

Rapid Test, Validate & Advance

Structure & Forcing Function

Corporations don't have to worry about red tape and roadblocks derailing their venture-building efforts, when they have an external venture builder with a clear framework for executing each stage of the startup-creation process, including target dates to complete each phase.

Rapid Test, Validate & Advance

Speed is where most internal corporate venture building programs fall flat. There's often no sense of urgency for those assigned to ideate and evaluate startup options to move quickly. We move lightning fast— from 100-plus high-level business ideas, to 10 or so specific company concepts, to a few finalists they can build business models around and, ultimately, present to decision-makers.

Unlocking Tomorrow’s Innovations, Today.

High Impact

Catalyze the creation of high-potential projects that can change industries and create lasting global impact.

Unique Access

Secure a front-row seat, putting you in a privileged position for follow-on investment opportunities in the next big spinoff

Direct Involvement

Shape new ventures from the idea stage, leveraging your unique expertise and influence.

Tangible Networks

Tangible (value-generating) networks created within/between National Labs, Universities and the Sponsor

Dedicated Agent

Exceptional, dedicated agent to explore all of DOE + University IP (research partnerships, insider’s access to IP landscaping, licensing opportunities and talent recruitment)

New Ventures

New venture(s) launched in partnership with extraordinary serial entrepreneur(s)

Your Impact

Your contribution will help create the next wave of innovation, translating cutting-edge research into real-world solutions. Opportunities to be directly involved in ventures that align with your philanthropic, corporate or investment goals.

Transform Innovation for Sustainability

Innovation Access

Corporations gain direct exposure to new technologies, innovative business models, and disruptive ideas that may not be present within their own R&D departments. This access to external innovation can fuel internal innovation efforts and keep the corporation competitive in rapidly evolving markets.

Strategic Growth

Innovation Access

Provides corporations with opportunities to foster strategic growth with agile & innovative companies, explore new market segments, develop & launch new products or services, diversify revenue streams & leverage the entrepreneurial spirit & agility of startups to drive growth initiatives.

Market Intelligence

Allows corporations to gain valuable insights into market dynamics, emerging trends, & potential disruptions. Corporations can identify early signals of market shifts, consumer preferences, & competitive threats. Enables corporations to adapt strategies proactively, seize new opportunities & mitigate risks more effectively.

Strategic Value

Market Intelligence

Prioritize strategic alignment with the parent company’s objectives and goals. Access to cutting-edge technologies, disruptive business models, and emerging market trends which can lead to joint product development, distribution agreements, & other mutually beneficial initiatives that create value.

Transformative Innovation

External Corporate Venture Building

Why It Matters

How We Collaborate

Rapid Venture Creation

Rapid Test, Validate & Advance

Structure & Forcing Function

Structure & Forcing Function

Rapid Test, Validate & Advance

Structure & Forcing Function

Rapid Test, Validate & Advance

Rapid Test, Validate & Advance

Rapid Test, Validate & Advance

Unlocking Tomorrow’s Innovations, Today.

High Impact

Unique Access

Direct Involvement

Tangible Networks

Dedicated Agent

New Ventures

Your Impact

Transform Innovation for Sustainability

Innovation Access

Innovation Access

Innovation Access

Strategic Growth

Innovation Access

Innovation Access

Market Intelligence

Market Intelligence

Market Intelligence

Strategic Value

Market Intelligence

Market Intelligence

Interested in Venture Building