The VentureFuel Visionaries

Corporate innovation programs often generate activity but struggle to produce measurable business impact. Ronja Stoffregen, Director of Corporate Venturing at REHAU New Ventures, shares how venture clienting can bridge that gap by turning startup partnerships into operational outcomes. Leading REHAU’s corporate venturing efforts across mobility, manufacturing, medtech, and the built environment, R...

Scaling innovation inside a global legacy brand isn’t about ideas — it’s about execution, alignment, and measurable impact. Manasa Nalla, Associate Director of Product Innovation & Strategy at The Duracell Company, explores how enterprise leaders can move from innovation activity to scaled business growth. With nine years at Duracell spanning engineering, R&D, and product strategy, Manasa shares h...

With a data engineer career spanning telecom (AT&T) and global banking (Barclays), Monika brings a pragmatic perspective on what it really takes to move from experimentation to production-grade AI at massive scale for large enterprises. From embedding governance and control by design, to having process clarity and investing in AI literacy; from the importance of unified data to humans-in-the-loop;...

AI is no longer a future bet — it’s a board-level mandate. But for corporate innovation leaders, the real question isn’t whether to invest in AI… it’s how to turn AI from experimentation theater into measurable enterprise value. Taylor Black, Director of AI & Venture Ecosystems in Microsoft’s Office of the CTO, works at the intersection of AI strategy, venture ecosystems, and internal venture buil...

In this special episode, we recap the Startup City Info Session held on February 18, 2026, spotlighting Tomorrow. City USA, the U.S. edition of a premier urban innovation conference connecting city leaders, investors, and industry partners. We break down what makes Tomorrow. City USA a must-attend event for urban tech startups and why it’s a powerful platform for driving real-world impact. Learn h...

Innovation leader Mark Treiber breaks down how corporates can stay ahead of platform shifts—from mobile and OTT to the creator economy and AI—and why the biggest mistake companies make is not making enough bets. From his experience at Nokia and CBS Sports to Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media, Mark unpacks the collision of sports, media, culture, and technology, and how leaders can turn emerging platforms...

Adèle Yaroulina, global co-innovation expert and author of the new book “Collaborate to Innovate: How Startups and Established Organizations Create Breakthrough Success Together,” joins Fred Schonenberg, Founder of VentureFuel, to unpack what it really takes for large organizations to turn startup partnerships into scalable growth engines. They challenge the myth that startup collaboration “isn’t...

This episode decodes the real signals shaping the future of food and beverage innovation. Fresh from the Winter FancyFaire* Food Show, Alice Ponti, Senior Vice President of Innovation & Strategy at VentureFuel, shares firsthand insights into what is emerging as scalable, defensible, and strategically relevant for large enterprises. The conversation explores themes gaining traction across founders,...

In this episode, Joe Rotondo, founder of Smearcase, shares how a post-marathon training run led to the creation of the FroCo category, a bold reimagining of frozen dessert made with cottage cheese, real protein, and clean ingredients. What began as a Brooklyn kitchen experiment has grown into a category-defying brand that's challenging expectations around what ice cream can be. Recorded at the 7th...

Jeff Barry is simplifying complexity inside one of the most operationally demanding supply chains in the country. As Head of Innovation at Dot Foods, the nation’s largest foodservice redistributor, Jeff shares how enterprise innovation moves faster and more accurately when it’s centralized, CEO-aligned, and always tied to real business outcomes. Jeff breaks down innovation as a four-lap relay race...

Rainer Struck is helping Mars see around corners, test the edges and create lasting value through mutuality. In this episode, Rainer shares frameworks and learnings from 6 years of studying and applying innovation at one of the world’s most iconic companies. He breaks down why legacy strengths become barriers, the need for adaptability and how leaders can shift from reducing risk to building evide...

Lou Shipley has led multiple startups to breakout growth ($100M+) and major acquisitions to companies like Citrix and Synopsys. He has taught some of the most in-demand sales and GTM courses at HBS and MIT. In this episode, we dig into the core traits behind Unlikely Entrepreneurs — the title of the new book he co-authored — and why unconventional founders so often win through curiosity, ambition,...

Alastair Dorward, former CEO of Dropps and founding CEO of Method, joins us to explore sustainability, legacy brands, startups, and the future of CPG. He explains why leaders must get comfortable cannibalizing their own products before startups do, and why customer relevance is non‑negotiable. The conversation dives into corporate venture capital, startup partnerships, and how agentic search is le...

Steven Guo, Program Manager at Carnegie Mellon’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, shares how he’s helping CMU founders scale through the VentureBridge accelerator (alumni have raise over $200M and are valued at over $500M) and a thriving alumni innovation network. With a systems-thinking approach to building startup ecosystems, Steven reveals how community, mentorship, and collaboration fuel la...

Alumni Ventures is one of the most active venture firms in the world and under Mike’s leadership has reimagined the venture capital model—connecting accredited investors with professionally managed portfolios through the power of alumni communities. With over $1.5 billion in assets under management and more than 1,400 portfolio companies, Mike’s mission to democratize access to venture investing i...

John has co-founded and scaled 3 startups in consumer goods, from pioneering & creating the fresh soup category at New Covent Garden Soup Company to launching the toddler food category with Little Dish, he has spent over 30 years turning ideas into category-leading brands. Today he mentors entrepreneurs, invests in startups and helps large and small companies work together through Mission Ventures...

When Jim Weber took over Brooks Running, the company was weeks from missing payroll and $30 million in debt. Two decades later, he built a billion-dollar performance brand that outpaced giants like Nike and Adidas. As CEO and author of Running with Purpose, Jim shares how radical focus, scientific innovation, and an unshakable sense of purpose fueled Brooks’ transformation—from near-bankruptcy to...

Alexa Ryan left a decade-long career at P&G to launch Bakr, a frozen cookie dough brand built on real butter, clean ingredients, and bakery-quality flavor. What began with Alexa and her husband’s hand-scooping dough for 14-hour shifts has grown into the Midwest’s #1 frozen cookie dough brand. In this interview - originally recorded at the 2025 Midwest Dairy Pitch Competition in September of this y...

This week's VentureFuel Visionary is Ben Colman, founder of Reality Defender. It is the leading deepfake detection platform helping enterprises flag fraudulent users and content. Additionally, its enterprise-grade API and web app detect dangerous AI-generated and manipulated content across audio, video, images, and text. In this episode, we dive deep into the world of AI, cybersecurity, and the in...

Untapped markets to rising tides, Ruchi Desai career has spanned law, craft beer, and now venture investing. As co-founder of EIGHT Brewing Co. with NFL legend Troy Aikman, Ruchi scaled one of Texas’s fastest-growing beer brands before launching Rising Tide Ventures, a fund dedicated to fueling untapped consumer markets with often overlooked founders. She shares lessons from navigating industry to...

This week, we’re using NotebookLM, Google’s AI-powered research tool, to share insights from Alice Ponti’s on-the-ground experience at Shoptalk Spring in March. This conversation is a comprehensive, insight-rich overview of the conference, organized around ten core themes transforming retail. From the rise of Agentic AI and multimodal search, to the fast-evolving world of retail media, this episod...

We go inside Northwestern Medicine’s Innovation Engine to see how they are solving healthcare’s biggest challenges with Kali Arduini Ihde, Director of Ventures and Innovation at Northwestern Medicine. Kali is at the forefront of bringing emerging technologies into one of the country’s top academic health systems to help shape the future of patient care through innovation. She leads the Northwester...

In this episode, we bring you an exclusive recording from the Innov8rs LearningLab featuring Tito Obaisi, Senior Manager of Pipeline and Insights at Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs, in conversation with our Founder and CEO Fred Schonenberg. Tito shares how his team captures and socializes insights from startup collaborations across Comcast, NBCUniversal, and Sky to inspire colleagues, educate teams...

Rohit Nuwal is a Partner at TELUS Global Ventures, Canada’s largest and most active corporate venture capital fund, with over 100 investments across transformative sectors such as HealthTech, AgTech, IoT, and AI. In this episode, we explore TELUS’ unique approach to commercialization beyond capital — and how they leverage deep insights from their global businesses to provide investment partners wi...

Rikesh Shah is a visionary in public sector innovation and the driving force behind the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre at Connected Places Catapult. Rikesh shares how rethinking procurement can catalyze transformative solutions in the public sector, fostering environments where governments proactively solve pressing societal challenges. Drawing from his groundbreaking experience at Tran...