The Corporate Venturing Podcast

In this episode, I'm joined by Eric Ries, creator of the Lean Startup method, founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, and author of Incorruptible.

Eric spent 20 years watching companies he helped build get quietly dismantled. His diagnosis: corporate corruption is a design problem. The system itself was built to pull organizations toward short-termism. He calls it financial gravity. Nobody ordered it. It just happened, because the ...

In this episode, I'm joined by ⁠Gijs van Wulfen⁠, founder of the FORTH Innovation Method, bestselling author, and keynote speaker named the #1 Design Thinking Thought Leader in the world by Thinkers360. His latest book, Breaking Innovation Barriers, is a practical guide to one of the hardest parts of innovation: getting management to say yes.

This is not an episode about innovation theory or design thinking frameworks.

It's about the...

In this episode, I’m joined by Federico Malatesta, executive transformational coach and author, who works at the intersection of leadership, identity, and organizational change. Federico helps senior leaders navigate moments when the old story no longer works — and a new one is trying to emerge.

This is not an episode about CVC, venture building frameworks, or innovation toolkits.

It’s about the uncomfortable reason...

In this episode, I’m joined by Harsh Wardhan, Innovation Strategist at a major Big Tech company (leading design for Search & Labs) and formerly a founding member of a Design Lab in an big automotive OEM. Harsh sits at the unique intersection of two worlds: the high-stakes, high-CapEx constraints of the automotive industry and the infinite, high-speed ambiguity of Generative AI.

We strip away the "theater" of innovation (th...

In this episode, I’m joined by Nicole LeBlanc, Partner at Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth-stage venture fund. Nicole and her team manage a combined $1.6B across two funds, sitting at the critical junction where startups need to move from "move fast and break things" to global deployment.

We explore the launch of their new $800M Fund 2, how they differentiate from early-stage investing, and what it really takes to integrat...

🎙️ AI Infrastructure, minus the buzzwords.

In this episode, Ji Hoon Kwon (Managing Director, Samsung Ventures) explains where AI data centers really choke (power, thermal, and networking) why baseload energy matters, and how a CVC can move at VC speed while creating value beyond capital. He also pressure-tests “future” ideas like floating and space data centers with an operator’s lens.

Highlights

• 🔌 Power is bo...

🎙️ Welcome to a new episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

When technology, products and even tone of voice can be copied overnight, what really makes innovation stand out?

In this episode, I’m joined by Nicolò Andreula — economist, entrepreneur, investor and strategic consultant. After a global career across the UN, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and a boutique firm in Singapore advising Google, Uber, Netflix and Microsof...

What is Venture Innovation? How can you scale it?

In this episode, I’m joined by Jelena Joffe Weil, Worldwide Leader for Venture Innovation at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Jelena and her team sit at the intersection of enterprises and startups, matching real problems with the right founders and helping both sides move from idea to impact.

We explore how collaborative innovation is changing in the age of GenAI, and what it actuall...

🎙️ Welcome to a new episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

In Venture Clienting: Lessons from the Field, I’m joined by Lisa Kratochwill (Startup Engagement, VERBUND X) and José “Pepe” Pascual (former Head, Cencosud Ventures).

Lisa runs a multi-corporate program that takes real business challenges to pilot and beyond. Pepe built a venture-client engine in Latin America with clear KPIs, budget ownership, and a b...

🎙️ Welcome to a new episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

What separates corporate ventures that actually scale from those that stall in POC limbo?

In this episode, I’m joined by Patrick Luke, Co-Founder and CEO of Zigzag: a fast-growing B2C startup born from inside Nestlé Purina and now thriving as an independent, purpose-driven B Corp.

Patrick shares the rare perspective of someone who’s lived every side of corpo...

🎙️ Welcome to a new episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

Why do so many corporate innovation programs struggle? Not because of a lack of ideas, but because their internal culture isn’t ready to embrace them!

In this episode, I sit down with Mar Serra, Global Lead for Product Application at Nestlé (and former head of Nestlé Accelerator in Lausanne), and Benjamin Lickfett, Global VP of Breakthrough Innovation at Diageo, t...

🎙️ Welcome to a new episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

How can corporates buy innovation at startup speed, and amplify their R&D budgets by tapping into billions of euros of external capital? Today, I sit down with Fabian Dudek, co-founder and CEO of GlassDollar, pioneers of Venture Clienting (aka innovation procurement). We unpack why this model has emerged as a core pillar of corporate venturing, explore hard data fr...

🎙️ Welcome to a new episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

What does it take to build a Corporate Venture Capital unit from scratch and scale it into one of the world’s most respected deep tech investors?

In this episode, I sit down with Dong-Su Kim, Ph.D., Founding CEO of LG Technology Ventures, and one of the top 2025 GCV Power List leaders. Since 2018, Dong-Su has led LG’s CVC arm from zero to nearly $9...

🎙️ Welcome to a new episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

What does it take to lead Corporate Venturing in a global organisation, when the rules are shifting, and the real challenge is not building ventures… but making them stick?

In this episode, I sit down with Patricia Kroondijk, Head of Corporate Venture Capital and Venture Building at Canon, to explore what it means to drive innovation inside a company known for ex...

🎙️ Welcome to a special solo episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

You know those meetings or keynotes where terms like Open Innovation and Corporate Venturing get thrown around like they mean the same thing? Spoiler: they don’t.

In this episode, I take a step back to clear the confusion — and properly introduce myself along the way (yes, finally… after six episodes).

We unpack:

🚪 What Open Innovation and Cor...

🎙️ Welcome to the sixth episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

How do you build new ventures inside a global corporate—and still move with startup speed?

In this episode, I sit down with Jasdeep Sawhney (Managing Director) and Dan Northover (Venture Principal) from InMotion Ventures, the venture studio of Jaguar Land Rover, to explore how they’re building successful ventures that orbit the corporate mothership&mdash...

🎙️ Welcome to the fifth episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

Proving the Return on Investment (ROI) of corporate venturing is one of the most persistent—and misunderstood—challenges innovation leaders face. It’s not just about the money. It’s about showing how innovation drives strategic growth, cultural change, and long-term value creation.

In this episode, I sit down with Peter Roeber, innovation lea...

Welcome to the fourth episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

Corporate innovation leaders often debate: Should we invest in external startups or build new ventures from within? The answer may be both.

In this episode, I sit down with Giacomo Manzoni, Head of Corporate Venture Building, and Sebastiano Silvestri, Head of Corporate Venture Capital at ⁠A2A⁠—Italy’s leading multi-utility company focused on sustainability ...

Note: We experienced a minor technical issue with the microphone during this recording, so the audio quality may not be perfect at times. Thanks for your patience—we promise the insights are worth it!

Welcome to another episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!

Startups are becoming an increasingly vital source of innovation for corporations—but what does it take to build successful partnerships? How can large enterpris...