The VentureFuel Visionaries

The collaboration of David and Goliath. How upstart disruptors can collaborate with large corporations to drive mutual benefit. Pedro Earp is the Global Chief Marketing Officer for Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer company in the world: $55bn in sales, 170,000 employees in 50 countries, 7 of the top 10 beer brands. Additionally, Pedro is head of ZX Ventures, the brewer's global innovation uni...

Ronan Dunne leads the teams responsible for providing wireline voice, data and TV products and services with wireless connected experiences to more than 100 million consumers every day. In addition, his teams are building the first 5G technology network that will redefine how customers live, work and play. We talk about Verizon’s multiple touchpoints for startup/corporate collaboration, the opport...

The Rogue Women conference brings together the next generation of female leaders, celebrating the trailblazing women who have forged new paths, to make the impossible, possible. It is produced in partnership with the Rogue Ventures Women's Fund and features execs from SeeHer, Comcast LIFT Labs, Estee Lauder Companies, Soul Cycle, Whole 30, the W Fund, 5th Century Partners and much more.

In celebration of our Rogue Women on March 25th @ 12 EST we want to go back to the origin, to where the Rogue Women event series started to Caroline Lewis – Partner at Rogue Ventures, Managing Partner of Rogue Women's Fund, and Kauffman Fellow. We talk about being fiercely female and always rogue. Caroline shares why investing in women is good business and how we can build our innovation muscles t...

As part of our celebration of Women’s History Month this episode takes insightful clips from the visionary women that have appeared on the podcast over the last few months. From VC Samara Hernandez talking about diverse portfolios and what she looks for in founders, to CEO Whisperer and Sunday Dinner Founder Lindsey Slaby discussing self-worth and ROI. Futurist Cathy Hackl does a speed round on ne...

LG invested nearly $80 million dollars into TV data and measurement company Alphonso in January 2021. The plan is to leverage Alphonso’s software, data analytics, and media activation capabilities across LG’s home entertainment products, mainly smart TVs. Raghu Kodige, the Co-Founder of Alphonso, shares his thoughts on corporate/startup collaborations, the journey from garages and mattresses to bu...

How will retail evolve? We asked Ross Neumann, Head of Partnerships for Lowe’s Innovation Labs; David Matthews, Managing Director at RevTech Ventures; Richard Schwartz, President and CEO of Pensa Systems, a leading innovator in autonomous perception for retail inventory; and Ben Conway, Co-Founder and COO of VNTANA, the world’s first 3D Collaboration Platform. This is a live recording from our Wha...

The potential symbiotic relationship between big and small companies + the opportunity that collaboration between emerging startups and established multi-nationals holds. Brigette Wolf, The Global Head of Snackfutures at Mondelez shares the details of their new startup engagement platform for early-stage, well-being snack brands…COLAB. We discuss how getting this collaboration right can push the b...

I started VentureFuel 7 years ago to shake up the status quo with new solutions fueled by diversified thoughts and perspectives of visionary leaders. This episode celebrates a few of those visionaries that have appeared on the podcast over the last few months. From Adrian Parker, Global Vice President of Patron, to Erika Parkins, (formerly) Head of Strategic Partnerships at The Estee Lauder Compan...

Two trends accelerating at the same time – LIVE + GAMING – intersect at OS Studios. As the world went remote, esports and gaming had to migrate their large-scale tournaments to virtual, talk shows and events had to be shot from distributed locations and the fanciest of studios gave way to live streams from couches. OS Studios Co-Founder, Ian Packard, shares how emerging technology is enabling next...

Visionary Investor of the Year Mel Strong, Brand Visionary of the Year Jackson Jeyanayagam and Venture of the Year Xiaoyin Qu of Run The World come together to share their secrets on Revolutionizing How We Connect. This recoding of the live event on 1/28/21 covers D2C (direct-to-consumer), hyper personalization, human optimization, virtual serendipity and cutting the innovation cycle to keep up wi...

One of the most influential futurists on the planet, Cathy Hackl specializes in how emerging technologies like AI, AR and 5G will impact our lives. We talk about Direct2Avatar, the Metaverse, Cybercrimes, EX, startups and Air Jordans + The Future of Cereal. Cathy has worked at Magic Leap, HTV Vive and has been named a Top 10 most influential women in tech, she is a 2x LinkedIn top Technology Voice...

Chingona translates to a woman who is intelligent, fearless, and can get things done. Founding Partner of Chingona Ventures, Samara Hernandez is as Chingona as it gets. Samara launched the Chicago based early stage VC fund in 2019 and has made 18 investments and received part of a $50m investment from PayPal Ventures. She is focused on investing in overlooked, massive and growing markets. We talk...

Company history, the founding story, and the why of your organization can anchor your decisions and make clear where to innovate. Often you need to go back before you go forward. Chris Cummings, CEO & Founder of Pass it Down, helps institutions transform their archives and history into interactive digital storytelling experiences. We chat about the importance of history, the future of museums and...

The Internet of Things (IoT) industry has quickly transformed from a futuristic idea to the next massive evolution (McKinsey predicts IoT will deliver $6 trillion in economic impact by 2025). Greg Kahn is the President and CEO of the Internet of Things Consortium, a trade association focused on frontier technologies across IoT including home automation, smart cities, connected healthcare/wellness,...

Steven Wolfe Pereira, the CEO and Co-Founder of Encantos, and award-winning bi-lingual edtech company (which I invested in). Encantos is rethinking education through a mix of physical and digital tools grounded in play. Steven is one of the top rated voices on LinkedIn, named by Adweek as one of the "50 Most Indispensable Executives in Marketing, Media and Tech". He has served as the Chief Marketi...

Mayur Gupta, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer for Gannett, has an incredibly strong track record as a growth and content marketer at big CPGs like Kimberly Clark, as well as disruptive start-ups like Spotify and Freshly that re-shaped their categories. 40 under 40, Forbes’ Top 50 CMO, profiled in Harvard Business Review and the Economist, Mayur is the real deal. We talk about comfort in chaos,...

2 of the 4 finalists for the upcoming NY MilkLaunch share their origin stories and how they have accelerated their breakthrough products. Meet Pursue Happiness Cold Brew Cowffee an innovative dairy-based, shelf-stable coffee drink with high protein, low sugar and added CLA Plus for increased health benefits. Meet Karviva Gold Sage: Inspired by ancient wisdom, backed by modern science, this wellnes...

Meet Superfrau - An alpine-inspired electrolyte elixir made of upcycling surplus whey and infusing it with unique flavors like cucumber lime, lemon elderflower and peach mango. A hydrating, protein and nutrient-packed recovery drink that promotes sustainability in the dairy industry. Meet Slate Milk - a low sugar, higher protein line of lactose free vanilla and chocolate milks for everyone, not ju...

Commercializing Serendipity. As we work remotely and major conferences and networking events have morphed to digital, the biggest complaint is lack of serendipity. That moment where the ultimate connection is right next to you, hiding in Plain Sight, and you strike up a conversation. That’s why James Chapman created Plain Sight, a localized, social networking platform that connects you with the ty...

$605bn – that’s how big snacking is globally. What if you could tap into that with a combination of emerging entrepreneurs, industry mentors and one of the ultimate super foods? The Real California Milk Snackcelerator does just that, and their finals air live on YouTube on Nov. 19th @ 5 PM PST. Here is a sneak peek of the experience from the 3 architects of the program: John Talbot CEO of CMAB, Bo...

Decadent French chocolate mousse? Organic flavored paneer. Meet 2 of the 4 finalists for the upcoming Real California Milk Snackcelerator as they introduce you to their products and the mentors helping them accelerate their businesses.

2 of the 4 finalists for the upcoming Real California Milk Snackcelerator introduce you to their products. Learn how an accelerator can actually grow your business, why California Dairy is different and meet delicious premium cheese made easy and decadent ice cream filled with hidden veggies.

“Building Better Marketers” that’s the north star for Lindsey Slaby, Founder of Sunday Dinner, who is often called the CMO Whisperer. Lindsey is part orchestrator, master networker, creative power-house. That helps marketers rethink strategy and deliver by orchestrating new approaches to organizational design and external partner relationships. Lindsey was just named to AdAge’s 40 under 40 list fo...

DTC is one of the all-time great disruptions, but was seemingly impossible for the alcohol industry due to the prohibition laws in the US, until. Speakeasy Co. They enable craft brands nationwide to sell directly to consumers from their websites without disrupting the three tier system; giving brands the opportunity to fuel their own growth through lean DTC practices embraced by startups across ev...