The Secret Sauce of Innovation 🌶🚀: Recent Episodes
Dan Dsouza
Welcome!! We are on a journey to discover the secret sauce to successful corporate innovation and startup creation. Together we will tear into the real reasons why innovation is important, how to achieve best practice and how to nurture it.
With these chats, we will reveal all of the ingredients that blend to make this sauce with the help of my guests, we are looking into:
- Innovation Strategy
- Corporate Innovation
- Startup and Venture Creation
-
Early-Stage Startup Investments
Get in touch with me here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dandsouza/
What does a day in the life of an entrepreneur look like? What are the harsh realities of being one, and what is the risk-reward of going out on your own?!
Rick Lowe is a ​​Serial Entrepreneur, Mentor, Founder, Public Speaker & Author. Currently, he is a dynamic and goal-oriented entrepreneur in the world of licensed fashion products. He is Managing Director and co-founder of Brands In Ltd, the leading supplier of licensed fashion to major retailers such as; Sports Direct, ASOS, BooHoo, Amazon, Disney, Warners Bros, and Bravado.
Entrepreneurship is a mainstream topic, whats the reality? An established Entrepreneur spills the real-talk about creating new startups.
Judy is the Master of the Company of Entrepreneurs 2021/22, she is also a founder of multiple start-ups, and whilst giving back to the Entrepreneurial community, she gets involved in so many extra-curricular activities.
Corporate employees are becoming internal entrepreneurs using Corporate assets and capabilities, how does this work in reality?
Andy Binns is a co-founder of Change Logic, a Boston-based strategic advisory firm. He works with CEOs, boards, and senior teams as they lead significant business change. His goal is to help organizations liberate their potential to excite the world with innovation. Andy has 25 years of consulting experience as both an external and internal consultant for McKinsey & Co., the IBM Corporation, and Change Logic. At IBM, Andy was deeply involved in the Emerging Business Opportunity program, for which he received an award from IBM’s vice chairman.
Corporates are always chatting about Innovation, which is great! But do they really mean what they say? How can they be even better?
Troy Norcross is an international speaker, educator and strategist on Blockchain as an enabler for transforming business models. Troy has provided blockchain training and strategy support to high street banks across Europe, Asia and India. Troy specialises in enterprise-scale business model transformation projects where Blockchain technology enables business models, strategies and efficiencies which previously were not considered possible. Troy runs his own strategy consultancy SER Team and is Co-Founder of Blockchain Rookies. He has a 25+ year career covering multiple market verticals including agriculture, aerospace, IT infrastructure, telecoms-media-technology (TMT), digital music, healthcare service innovation, eCommerce and most recently Blockchain business strategy for enterprises, industries and business ecosystems.
International Startup Founders with diverse backgrounds are creating amazing businesses! Are they the most promising for a VC?
Note: This episode was recorded before the war in Ukraine.
Lyubov is a Founding Partner at Blue Lake VC investing and supporting the UK's early-stage immigrant founders with a global vision. Tech Nation Global Talent Visa Ambassador.
How does a large Corporate start investing into Startups? Traditionally, they don't fit together.
Alex is an experienced venture capital professional with more than 17 years of experience in industry (Air Liquide, Solvay, Shell) and Venture Capital (Partner at Truffle Capital and Managing Director of Solvay Ventures). He has a track record (cash on cash) of 2.56X and 15% IRR and is specialized in deeptech and life sciences startups. He has a hybrid experience as a pure venture capitalist but also in corporate venture. He has deployed over 125 MEUR in capital and in over 60 transactions. He has a strong network in European VC and has performed investments in most European countries and North-America. His sweet spot is early-stage investments (Seed, Series A, Series B) and has scaled companies to IPO or exits. He has excellent experience in scouting throughout Europe and has performed many syndicated deals in his career as a lead investor. He's a hands-on investor and likes to work with company founders/management to build their businesses. He has sat on more than 15 company boards in his career. Alex is a Franco-Canadian chemical engineer (McGill University) and moved to France in 2006. He has two kids and is also a board member of a non-profit (Sur les bancs de l'école in Paris, France). His hobbies include playing ice hockey, WWII history, cooking, politics, martial arts and playing with his kids.
What are the best practices for Corporates wanting to innovate with Startups?
David Eden is a versatile and results-oriented Innovation and product consultant with 30+ years of achievement building international cross-functional teams and creating a dynamic, energetic workplace culture that rewards innovation, creativity and execution. Working in multiple industry sectors, David has experience in defence, telecom, video conferencing and semiconductors, all of which are brought to bear in his innovation roles. Â Expert in delivering hardware and software technology projects in accelerated timeframes, and in innovation program delivery for corporations looking to take advantage of start-up technologies. Has built and led a talented global Rapid Evaluation and Development teams of internal and external developers, innovators, product and marketing professionals. He eliminates barriers to success by creating innovation program structures which provide incentives, connecting corporate goals to measurement of progress via innovation dashboards, and platforms which promote idea gathering. Â David has delivered multiple MVPs in short timescales, produced apps, and worked in collaboration with universities, corporations and start-ups in a blended environment to produce the best products, fit for market.
Startup Founders and Corporate Entrepreneurs, why is maintaining a strong Mission, Vision and Values so important to success?!
Mark Huxley is an entrepreneur who has navigated the insurance sector his entire career, in particular the globally iconic Lloyd's Insurance Market. With a long track record of starting and leading many successful ventures, his efforts were recognised when he was admitted to the Company of Entrepreneurs; one of the City of London's younger and vibrant aspirant Livery Companies. He is en-route to be its Master in 2023 and currently spends the majority of his time advising and mentoring a range of organisations upon innovation and growth strategies. He is also a NED at the insurance division of Altus Consulting Limited.