Helping the world's best organizations commercialize innovation to ignite change

In this podcast episode, we sit down with Ted Graham, Head of Open Innovation and Principal of GM Ventures, responsible for evaluating investments focused on the electrification ecosystem, connecting the customer, the autonomous experience, and the digital enterprise. GM Ventures focuses on critical technologies that can be implemented in GM’s vehicles, manufacturing facilities, and operating businesses. They have made 54 investments with 22 exits and 24 still active startups – those are stats any VC would drool over.

We talk about open innovation, the power of collaboration between industry leaders and startups, and the path to electrification and autonomy.

How do you bring the entrepreneurial mindset to a large organization to drive change and unlock growth from within?

Meet Elizabeth Bieniek – she pioneers internal startups for Cisco's multibillion-dollar Collaboration & Security business using her expertise in building empowered teams that effectively navigate internal corporate workings to operate like a startup & deliver bleeding-edge products & solutions inside of the parent company.

In this podcast episode, we sit down with her to talk about intrapreneurship and the Metaverse.

In this podcast episode, we sit down with Hannah Jones, CEO of The Earthshot Prize, a platform founded by Prince William & The Royal Foundation in 2020 to search, spotlight, and scale solutions that can help repair and regenerate the planet in this decade.

Hannah is a social and environmental advocate who believes in entrepreneurism, innovation, and collaboration to affect systems change. The Earthshot Prize will award five £1M prizes each year from 2021-2030 to provide 50 solutions to the world's greatest environmental problems.

She is also a non-executive director on the board of Oatly, a sustainability advisor to UCB – a global BioTech company, an advisor to the Queen's Gambit – an all-female SPAC, and a mentor for the Unreasonable Group.

Every week, our team does an internal huddle where we share the most disruptive and exciting startups and emerging technologies from around the world. The only rule is that they can’t solve a current client challenge directly. This way, we retain our superpower of spotting creative adjacencies and disruptive outer-horizon solutions. Below, we share a selection of those startups and technologies with you!

This month we looked at startups targeting the alcohol industry. Check out our list inside!

Why do household names like Hertz, Brooks Brothers, Blockbuster, Sears or Gold's Gym go bankrupt, while less resourced companies in the same space thrive? The question becomes more and more urgent as we see how fast and how often incumbents are displaced by up-and-coming competitors. 

Are these fates inevitable? Some industry leaders, tied to outdated business models, squeeze out incremental gains to appease Wall Street every quarter only to lose relevance with customers every year. While other, more future-forward entrepreneurs discover emerging customer needs, re-imagine solutions, and seize market opportunities with speed and agility. 

This week we had the opportunity to sit down with the Godmother of the Metaverse, Cathy Hackl - our visionary of the year, and chat with her about all things media, metaverse and Web 3.0.  During this session we discussed the implications of this emerging world for businesses and brands.

Below is a quick overview of what you ought to know, along with a few thoughts about entry points for your business or brand, as well trends to watch as consumers navigate - from influencers to mass adoption - and take their place in the metaverse.