Natalja Laurey is an anthropologist in business, and ethnographer in design; and an academic in practice. Natalja works as an innovation strategist at Strategiemakers in Amsterdam.

Navigating the In-Between: Ethnography & Innovation

Most innovation content is junk food: flashy, addictive, and nutritionally empty. The School of Innovation is the opposite. Think less TED Talk, more operating manual. This podcast dissects how innovation actually works — inside accelerators, corporates, venture studios, and research labs — not how keynote speakers pretend it works. Because the uncomfortable truth is that most “innovation programs” aren’t engines of growth. They’re theater. Budget justification wrapped in sticky notes. Each episode features founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem builders who have the scars to prove they’ve done the work. Together, they unpack why good ideas die, why incentives matter more than vision, and why culture eats strategy, then hires consultants to explain the meal. You’ll hear conversations about: • Why most accelerators optimize for demo day, not outcomes • Why corporate innovation teams often exist to protect the core, not disrupt it • Why translating research into startups is less about technology and more about power, timing, and narrative • Why founders don’t need more inspiration — they need better systems This show is for people who build, fund, or manage innovation and are tired of motivational posters masquerading as strategy. Because innovation isn’t magic. It’s capital allocation, incentives, and execution — with a thin layer of storytelling on top. If you want inspiration, there are thousands of podcasts for that. If you want to understand how innovation really works, welcome to The School of Innovation.

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Entrepreneurship

Most innovation content is junk food: flashy, addictive, and nutritionally empty. The School of Innovation is the opposite. Think less TED Talk, more operating manual. This podcast dissects how innovation actually works — inside accelerators, corporates, venture studios, and research labs — not how keynote speakers pretend it works. Because the uncomfortable truth is that most “innovation programs” aren’t engines of growth. They’re theater. Budget justification wrapped in sticky notes. Each episode features founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem builders who have the scars to prove they’ve done the work. Together, they unpack why good ideas die, why incentives matter more than vision, and why culture eats strategy, then hires consultants to explain the meal. You’ll hear conversations about: • Why most accelerators optimize for demo day, not outcomes • Why corporate innovation teams often exist to protect the core, not disrupt it • Why translating research into startups is less about technology and more about power, timing, and narrative • Why founders don’t need more inspiration — they need better systems This show is for people who build, fund, or manage innovation and are tired of motivational posters masquerading as strategy. Because innovation isn’t magic. It’s capital allocation, incentives, and execution — with a thin layer of storytelling on top. If you want inspiration, there are thousands of podcasts for that. If you want to understand how innovation really works, welcome to The School of Innovation.

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Navigating the In-Between: Ethnography & Innovation

Navigating the In-Between: Ethnography & Innovation