April 06, 2022

Elisa Vlerich: 9.5 Ventures the VC for corporate venturing

34 minutes

On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Elisa Vlerick, a partner at Ninepointfive Ventures, the Venture Capitalist dedicated to Corporate Venturing. Elisa loves removing syntax complexity from the proverbial crap, applying creativity and execution to everything she does.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Corporate Venturing differs from traditional VC activity in that you have the power/leverage of a corporation to scale faster and gain what we call an unfair competitive advantage in the market. That really attracted me to Ninepointfive.

Often, there’s a lot of resistance within companies to cannibalize their own business or start new ventures that are often very small. For billion-dollar companies, it’s hard to start something new that doesn't fully fit into the existing company. They also don’t always have the skills or the right people to implement a new business model, and there’s sometimes not the appetite because the new business would be so small compared to the main business, so it wouldn’t get the attention it deserves.

We built the venture with the corporation because it aligns with the corporation's strategic interests. What we want to build together with them is a successful company with financial returns. If the strategic interests are not aligned with the financial objective we have, we’re usually not the right partner.

The assumption is that tech-y people aren’t female. It’s like doctors, 20-30 years ago, 90% of doctors were male and 90% of nurses were female, nowadays it’s 50/50, if not more female doctors. I think it’s a matter of time, 1-20 years, and it will even out in our industry. It’s said women are more risk-averse or less daring – and maybe there’s something in that – but once this idea that it’s really challenging and daring to start a startup is gone, I don’t see a reason why this wouldn’t go up to 50/50.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Our team is very interesting because we come from different angles and that makes our decision-making and investment processes more interesting and, hopefully, better.’

‘Taking the whole activity outside the corporate, with our knowledge of building startups, fuelled by the resources from the corporate, makes a startup better placed in the market than a regular startup.’

‘The key to our success is finding the right people to make it happen. You can have a great financial plan, but it needs to happen, and it can only happen if the team is there.’

‘Surround yourself with people that are better than you and will dare to go against the tide, or criticise the prevailing opinion, they’re going to make better decisions.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

When complexity threatens to get the upper hand, Elisa picks up her pen. With that pen, she cuts through the proverbial crap and to the bone. Elisa is resolute in her belief that strong business ideas can only prosper when ambiguity and prejudice are left at the door. When things are clear, creativity can flourish. From there onward, she’ll tell you: “le bonheur est dans l’action”.

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

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By Sabine VanderLinden

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