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 differentiates from traditional VC activity in the sense that you have the power/leverage of a corporate to scale faster, to have 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 start cannibalizing their own business, to start new ventures that are often very small. For billion-dollar companies, it’s hard to start something new that is not totally fitting 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. 
• The reason we build the venture together with the corporate is because this provides alignment with 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 that we have, usually we’re 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”.

https://www.ninepointfive.vc/ 

 

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew, a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers & accelerating over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. 

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