The VentureFuel Visionaries

Avra van der Zee is the COO of Elemental Excelerator, a global climate technology accelerator started in Honolulu with over 150 portfolio companies that have received over $8B in follow-on funding. We talk about using entrepreneurship for social change, catalytic capital, how to scale new technologies and the role of corporates in solving the climate challenge and the economic benefit of societal...

Philipp has over two decades of expertise catalyzing the evolution of Fortune 500s, like Deloitte and Vontier, to drive transformative impact. We discuss Corporate Venturing and its various iterations, from Accelerators to Venture Studios to Pilots to Partnerships to Hackathons, and why insights from this work not only inform strategic decisions but can make future growth like “selling ice cream o...

Originally recorded at our 2024 Rogue Women event earlier this spring, Kathleen Carbone, Principal, Director of Advisory, and a Senior Family Advisor at Parcion Private Wealth, led a panel discussion featuring founders from three startup companies. On the panel were Jamie Norwood & Cynthia Plotch, the dynamic duo behind FemTech startup Stix, Isoken Igbinedion, Founder and CEO of Parfait, an AI-pow...

Originally recorded at our 2024 Rogue Women event earlier this spring, La Keisha Landrum Pierre, General Partner & Co-Founder of Emmeline Ventures shares insights from her journey in venture capital, featured in the documentary "Show Her the Money." She talks about how the film is helping to rewrite the narrative on women and fundraising. Before starting at Emmeline Ventures, La Keisha was the MD...

On today’s show we have Kyle Basler-Reeder, who designed and leads ExxonMobil’s corporate-wide Open Innovation program. We discuss how the exponential growth of PHDs and startups enables Exxon to tap into external resources for Exploration, Acceleration and to solve stubborn problems. We talk about the importance of problem definition, declaring your “Innovation Ambition” and how to create organiz...

To celebrate our 200th episode, we put host Fred Schonenberg in the guest chair to find out what his biggest unlock, the best corporate innovation models, his favorite episodes, the best startups on the show and how the guests have evolved his thinking around innovation. From Venture Studios to Venture Capital to Venture Partners. From Sonic Branding to Darth Vadar. From Voice Cloning to Generativ...

Catherine Gray is a Producer, Keynote Speaker, Author, and the Founder of She Angel Investors. She's dedicated her career to empowering female entrepreneurs and addressing the underfunding of women in venture capital. We discuss her documentary "Show Her the Money," her TED Talk "Fund Women, Save the World," and her vision for the future of gender diversity and inclusion in the venture capital lan...

Ken Evans is the Managing Director of the Accelerator Program for Emerging Tech Startups at Tampa Bay Innovation Center. With a background in venture-backed startups and Fortune 50 companies, Ken is key player in Tampa Bay's tech ecosystem, co-founding the region's first full-time coworking space and leading initiatives to support local startups. Our conversation centers around their new Climate T...

Maria Rodriguez is the Executive Director of the Valiente Fund, a donor and funder collaborative addressing the lack of investment of philanthropic funds for Latine leaders, organizations, and communities. They just launched the Valiente Accelerator to support emerging Latine groups with grants and operational capacity to accelerate their growth. We discuss why critical moments demand innovation,...

Join us as we honor the 2023 Visionary and Venture of the Year. Nominated and voted on by their peers, these are the change agents embracing new opportunities to drive outsized results. They are intent on blazing new paths, discovering inventive solutions, and powering the future. Visionary of the Year: Marty Guay, Vice President of Business Development, Stanley Black & Decker With over three deca...

Disruptor, Founder, Envisioneer Mike Pell leads The Microsoft Garage in NYC, the company’s worldwide innovation program. Mike Invented PDF and Acrobat at Adobe and has been granted over 20 US Patents. We talk about why going fast is the only way to protect your business, the evolution of ai Co-Pilots, the art of hacking, the ROI of Innovation, why you can’t sit on the sideline as the pace of busin...

Sokwoo Rhee is the EVP at LG Electronics and the Head of LG's North America Innovation Center, LG Nova. From serving as a Presidential Innovation Fellow at the Whitehouse to leading groundbreaking IoT and smart city initiatives, Sokwoo brings a wealth of experience driving innovation forward. Today, we discuss why external innovation is important for a $60B+ revenue company, how to justify externa...

MassRobotics is the largest independent robotics hub that accelerates robotics innovation and adoption, and they are launching their first Accelerator program, led by Director Marita McGinn. The unique, equity-free program combines funding, mentorship, and a collaborative community. We talk about the future of robotics, from Cobots to Ag Tech, as well as how equity-free accelerators enable a wider...

On today’s show, I am honored to have Pedro Antonio Guerrero, CEO of Guerrero - an executive advancement company at the intersection of media, professional networks, and executive search. Pedro specializes in executive advancement and corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives – utilizing Guerrero Search and Guerrero Media to deliver on his mission. We talk about the intersection of di...

This is quite simply a master class in collaborative innovation to solve meaningful challenges. Dr. Simon is a practicing cardiologist, the President of Academic & External Affairs and Chief Scientific Officer for the University Hospitals Health System (UH). We discuss the unique non-profit, for-profit model of The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre’s Therapeutics Accelerator. The Accelerator i...

On today’s show we have Andrew Merinoff. Andrew is the founder of Dispact Ventures, which is disrupting industries with impact investing. What started off as a small fund to assist his close friends and confidants eventually grew into a 16-venture portfolio. Andrew is also a seasoned entrepreneur and the Co-founder and CEO of Chinola Liqueur. With a passion for building companies, particularly in...

How can you create a system of innovation, that becomes a membrane to attract the best transformational technologies to collaborate with your organization? Markus Bohl, the Managing Director of Intel® Ignite, which is Intel Corporation’s global startup accelerator program for early-stage deep tech startups shares his insights. Markus has a phenomenal track record as an entrepreneur, corporate inno...

Does innovation drive market value, and do investors pay more for innovation? Brenda O’Connor Juanas is a Senior Vice President and Financial Advisor at UBS International and is an industry thought leader on financial markets, frequently speaking across CNBC, Bloomberg, and Fox Business, to name a few. We talk about R&D to Sales Ratios, the delta in valuations from innovators like Tesla and Airbnb...

Jeff Allyn is the CEO of StudioX, a first-of-its-kind open innovation studio powered by Shell that brings a collaborative approach to reimagine energy exploration and break down the silos of traditional R&D - they call it “open exploration.” We talk about their new model and how it is accelerating the pace of innovation in climate tech and the energy industry's transformation.

What is the future of product development in an increasingly complex and fast-paced world? How can organizations keep up with rising consumer expectations, accelerating timelines for new features and products, while also increasing the amount of personalization and the fit to emerging market needs without skipping a beat? Who will help enterprises better leverage the vast and disparate unstructure...

What is the future of celebration? How can the industry-leading global spirits company co-develop the next generation of digital products to elevate consumer experiences? Sallie Jian is the Director and head of Ventures North America at Diageo, where she oversees Diageo’s venture capital activities, including minority investments (lead, co-invest, partnerships, JVs) and Distill Ventures in North A...

This is a masterclass in why large corporations invest in startups. The value, the challenges. Why the core must focus on exploiting competitive advantages of today, while the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm must focus on exploring the future. The balance of exploitation and exploration, of strategic and financial opportunities, why the power law means you need to unlearn the distribution law,...

Angela Lee is an award-winning professor and former Chief Innovation Officer at Columbia Business School, where she teaches venture capital and leadership courses. Angela started her career in product management and then moved to McKinsey. She has started 4 startups and is also the founder of 37 Angels, an investing network that has evaluated over 20000 startups, invested in 100, and activated new...

Blooming Health announced on Sep 6, 2023, they raised an over-subscribed $4.2M seed fund to enable service providers to engage older adults and their family members. This episode was recorded almost a year before the raise, on Sep 9, 2022, and is a conversation with AARP Foundation and Blooming Health in which we walk through the innovation program's success between the two firms. It's the perfect...

UWM is the #1 overall mortgage and purchase lender in the nation, where Lee Jelenic leads Client Experience, Innovation, Government Affairs, and Investor Relations. From Professional Hockey to Wall Street, from Ford to UWM, Lee has led tangible growth by embracing innovation. Today, we talk about being Productively Uncomfortable, the value of entering the “Uncomfort Zone,” challenging the why, mea...