The Corporate Venturing Podcast

In this episode, I'm joined by ⁠Stefan Peintner⁠, CEO and Managing Partner of WhataVenture and lead author of the New Business Building study (50 leaders, 36 organizations, DACH region).

This is not an episode about which corporate venturing tool is best. It is about why some new business teams keep their mandate and budget when the core business weakens, and others disappear in the next savings round.

A year ago, 21% of venture builders expected a budget cut. This year, 39% got one. Stefan calls it a recalibration. Fewer bets, smaller teams, more pressure to prove impact. The data points to strategy, governance and real commitment at the top, far more than the instrument.

In this episode, Stefan shares insights on:
🧭 Why 17 of the 22 teams that rate themselves more successful take their ideas from corporate strategy, and only 2 of the 11 weaker ones do
📉 Why CVC is both the best rated instrument and the one most likely to face cuts
🤝 When venture clienting builds new revenue, though 20 of 25 users focus it on the core
⏱️ Why most ventures die of latency, and the one governance rule Stefan would set on day one: fixed decision dates
💶 The "justified investment" math: €100M in new revenue can require €100-150M invested today
🏛️ How top management involvement differs from commitment in the board room

The episode closes with a practical move. Look at your portfolio, check what each project pays into in the company strategy, and stop the ones with a question mark next to them. Cutting your own projects frees resources and earns credibility. It is also how a new business unit keeps a seat at the table instead of ending up on the menu in the next budget round.

Resources:

• ⁠Open Road Ventures Newsletter⁠

• ⁠The State of New Business Building Study 2026⁠
• ⁠Justified Investment Calculator

🎧 Follow the podcast for grounded conversations on what actually shapes innovation and corporate venturing, beyond the frameworks, beyond the hype.

In this episode, I'm joined by ⁠Steve Rader⁠, who spent 36 years at NASA's Johnson Space Center and built its open innovation capability, leading the Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation and the NASA Tournament Lab.

This is not an episode about the famous NASA crowdsourcing story, the one where an outsider beat the physicists at predicting solar radiation storms. That story gets told at every conference. This is an episode about what happened inside the building, when a team had to turn one lucky result into a repeatable capability across an agency of engineers who considered themselves the experts.

Steve's argument is that the crowd was never the hard part. At its peak, NASA's program ran around a hundred challenges at a time across an ecosystem of roughly 50 crowds. Finding solvers was solved. What broke things was upstream and downstream: engineers who had never framed their work as a problem to be solved, and the unglamorous plumbing of legal, procurement and implementation authority.

In this episode, Steve shares insights on:

🛰️ Why NASA never used the solar flare winner's solution as delivered, and what it took instead

🔍 Open innovation as a discovery mechanism, and where it sits in the funnel

🧩 The problem analysis step most teams skip, which resurfaces later as failed implementation

🚫 The ownership filter: NASA turned down challenges from people who could not implement the result

💰 How budget picks the tool, from a free internal challenge to a $20 million prize

🤖 What the crowd is still for once most submissions are AI-assisted

Steve closes by redefining expertise. A subject matter expert is not the person with the best ideas. It is the person who understands the problem best. That reframes what open innovation actually threatens. It does not replace your experts. It tests whether they know their own problem well enough to recognise a solution when it arrives from another industry.

Resources:

• ⁠Open Road Ventures Newsletter⁠
• ⁠Steve Rader on LinkedIn⁠
• ⁠Crowdsourcing, Jeff Howe⁠
• ⁠Open Innovation, Henry Chesbrough⁠
• ⁠Michael Tushman on ambidextrous organizations, Harvard Business School⁠

🎧 Follow the podcast for grounded conversations on what actually shapes innovation and corporate venturing, beyond the frameworks, beyond the hype.

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 structure made it inevitable.

In this episode, Eric shares insights on:

⚖️ Why FedMart was destroyed by the exact customer trust it spent 20 years building, and the A/B test that produced Costco

🏛️ The governance fortress Jim Sinegal built at Costco to protect Sol Price's ethos from investors, and why it still holds 40 years later

🧲 Financial gravity: the unconscious force shaping middle management decisions before any leader notices

👁️ Mary Parker Follett's invisible leader (1920) and why the most consequential decisions get made when no manager is in the room

🏦 The culture bank: why trustworthiness compounds like a financial asset, and why intentional withdrawals are always an error regardless of short-term ROI

💡 Why Eric redefines profit as the maximization of human flourishing, and what that means for the Groupon-style decisions corporate teams face every quarter

We close on one concrete action: adopt the culture bank rule. Clay Christensen said doing the right thing 100% of the time is easier than 98%, because you never have to have a meeting about it.

Resources:

• Open Road Ventures Newsletter
• Incorruptible — Eric's new book
• The Eric Ries Show Podcast
• Eric Ries Newsletter
• Eric Ries on LinkedIn
• Eric Ries on X

🎧 Follow the podcast for grounded conversations on what actually shapes innovation and corporate venturing — beyond the frameworks, beyond the hype.

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 uncomfortable reality that most innovation efforts die not from bad ideas, but from organizational resistance, misaligned incentives, and leaders who ask for innovation then block it at every turn.

We go inside the FORTH method, built over decades of frustration in corporate environments, and explore why getting people to say yes matters as much as the idea itself. Gijs walks us through a live project in the Netherlands, from 173 customer frictions to 1,191 ideas to six business cases ready for funding.

In this episode, Gijs shares insights on:🧭 Why innovation fails before it starts, fear cascades from the top down🐘 The difference between "innovators" and "innovators," and why urgency changes everything🗺️ How the FORTH method bridges business strategy and creative thinking in five phases🔍 Why frictions are your best source of ideas, and how to surface them fast💡 From 1,191 ideas to six fundable business cases: how the convergence actually works🦾 What exoskeletons taught a team about separating real trends from hype🤝 Why empathy for the most conservative people in your organization determines your speed

We close the episode by reframing innovation not as a creative challenge but as an organizational and human one. The slowest animals in the herd set the pace. The innovator's job is to bring them along.

Resources:

• ⁠Open Road Ventures Newsletter⁠
• ⁠Gijs van Wulfen Website⁠
• ⁠Breaking Innovation Barriers (book)⁠

🎧 Follow the podcast for grounded conversations on what actually shapes innovation and corporate venturing, beyond the frameworks, beyond the hype.

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 why innovation and transformation fail even when the strategy is sound: leaders underestimate the identity cost of change.

We explore innovation not as a portfolio problem, but as a psychological, political, and narrative one — and why new ventures often trigger resistance deep inside the organization long before they fail in the market.

Together, we strip innovation down to its human core: how the brain resists novelty, how companies operate on implicit stories, and why middle management becomes the immune system that attacks anything that threatens the status quo.

In this episode, Federico shares insights on:

🧠 Why the brain is wired to resist innovation

🧩 Innovation as identity transformation, not an additive initiative

🧬 “Narrative antibodies” and how organizations kill new ventures

🏛️ The hidden political and reputation risks leaders face when sponsoring innovation

📉 Why innovation doesn’t fail on ideas or execution — but on identity

🧭 Coaching leaders through identity transition, not just strategy change

We close the episode by reframing innovation leadership as contextual intelligence — the ability to read shifting power, incentives, and stories — and why storytelling without operational clarity is one of the fastest ways to lose credibility inside a large organization.

Resources:

• Open Road Ventures Newsletter

• Federico Malatesta Website

🎧 Follow the podcast for grounded conversations on what actually shapes innovation and corporate venturing — beyond the frameworks, beyond the hype.

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 (the sticky notes and workshops) to focus on the hard metrics and methodologies that actually de-risk ventures, whether you are bending metal or writing code.

In this episode, Harsh shares insights on:

🎭 Stripping Away the Theater

🤖 GenAI: Delegate Tasks, Not Thinking

🏭 Speedboats vs. Cruise Liners

📉 Time-to-Evidence > Time-to-Market

🏗️ The "Build vs. Buy" Heuristic

🚫 The "Post-It Note" Trap

We close the episode on Harsh’s definition of meaningful work and why a lack of a concrete plan at the start is the biggest red flag in corporate labs.

Resources:• Open Road Ventures Newsletter• Bundl Venture Club

🎧 Follow the podcast for grounded stories and practical lessons from inside the world of Open Innovation and Corporate Venturing.

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 integrate external innovation into the world’s largest automaker.

In this episode, Nicole shares insights on:

💸 The $800M Signal

Why Woven Capital launched Fund 2 now , doubling down on AI and climate tech , and how in today’s geopolitical environment, corporates bring scale while startups bring the necessary speed.

🤝 Early vs. Growth Stage

The clear distinction between Toyota Ventures (early-stage "cousins") and Woven Capital (growth-stage) , and how they pass deal flow to ensure startups have support from seed to scale.

🧭 The "Portfolio Success" Superpower

Why writing the check is the easy part, and how Woven’s dedicated team guides startups through Toyota’s complex business units so they don’t get lost in the organization.

⚖️ Strategic Value vs. Financial Discipline

How to balance the dual mandate. Nicole explains why a deal must stand on its own financially first—even if the strategic story is perfect—to ensure long-term resilience.

🔋 Real-World Case Study: Weave Grid

A concrete example of how investing in Weave Grid allowed Toyota to solve the "3,000 utilities" problem while giving the startup the validation needed to unlock the rest of the OEM market.

🧠 AI Beyond the Hype

Why she sees AI not just as a buzzword, but as a foundational unlock for logistics, fleet management, and simulation—improving operations rather than just perception.

We close the episode on Nicole’s personal view: why corporate venturing is "not a 9-to-5 job" and why, despite the massive scale and deep tech, success ultimately comes down to human connection.

Resources:• Open Road Ventures Newsletter• Bundl Venture Club

🎧 Follow the podcast for grounded stories and practical lessons from inside the world of Open Innovation and Corporate Venturing.

🎙️ 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 bottleneck #1. GPU draw jumped to ~1–1.2 kW per chip; racks push ~120 kW, and lost power turns into heat.

• 🌡️ Thermal follows power. More watts mean more heat; rethink electrical and cooling together.

• ⚙️ Next wave: power electronics. Efficiency in conversion and distribution becomes the lever.

• 🔋 Baseload beats intermittency. 24/7 AI favors SMR nuclear and geothermal over variable-only supply.

• 🧪 Diligence that saves time. Run technical and financial checks in parallel; decide fast or pass fast.

• 🤝 Value after the check. Open doors across BUs—manufacturing, customers, and design-ins—not just capital.

• 🛟 Future formats, reality check. Floating and space DCs have promise, but corrosion, maintenance, connectivity, and launch costs are tough.

• 📈 What makes a “good” CVC deal. Strategic fit matters, but financial returns still keep the engine running.

Resources:

• 📬 Open Road Ventures Newsletter

• ⚡ Bundl Venture Club

🎙️ 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 Microsoft, Nicolò came back to Bari to build Disal Consulting, write books like Flow Generation and co-create ABCD – A Bari Capitale Digitale. 

Together, we explore how storytelling can make or break innovation: inside companies, in the market, and even at city level.

In this episode, Nicolò shares insights on:

🧠 Scarcity in the age of AI – why the rare asset isn’t information anymore, but human touch, empathy and the ability to filter and frame meaning

⚗️ How stories hit the brain – from amygdala “fight–flight–freeze” reactions to dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins, and why people remember stories more than slides

🚗 The Toyota family-car example – how a safety campaign built around emotion, not crash-test numbers, can create trust without ever saying “trust us”

💉 What vaccine campaigns got wrong – and what that teaches corporate innovators about talking to fears and emotions, not just rational arguments

🚠 Funicolare Vesuviana & the power of a jingle – turning a scary new transport system into a joyful collective experience through music and narrative

🤖 Humanizing AI and chatbots – the story of a “younger colleague” bot that asks for help instead of pretending to be perfect, and why that drove adoption and ownership

📩 Internal storytelling for transformation – why one-size-fits-all corporate emails fail, and how to segment employees by emotions and attitudes to change

🧍‍♂️ Selective vulnerability in leadership – from the “pratfall effect” to the Starbucks example, how admitting the right flaws can bring people behind a new strategy

🌍 ABCD – A Bari Capitale Digitale – how a “crazy” vision, a name, and a story turned Bari into a magnet for talent, companies and digital nomads

We close the episode on a personal note, looking at the moment that most shaped Nicolò’s view on storytelling, strategy and innovation, and how he turned the shock of COVID into a new way of working and living. 

Resources:

• Open Road Ventures Newsletter

• Bundl Venture Club

🎧 Follow the podcast for grounded stories and actionable insights from inside the world of Open Innovation and Corporate Venturing.

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 actually takes to make these partnerships work at scale.

In this episode, Jelena shares insights on:

⚙️ What venture innovation really is

How AWS Venture Innovation helps enterprises de-risk and scale innovation, while giving startups the one thing they value most: access to decision-makers, not more credits.

🤖 Why AI is forcing “outside-in” innovation

How the shift from “move to cloud” to “AI at the core” pushed corporates to accept they can’t build everything alone—and need the right partners instead.

🎯 Picking use cases that matter

The three filters she uses to choose where to start: a clear problem, measurable business impact, and a real team with budget behind it. 

🏭 A concrete Next-Gen Lab example

How a global CPG company aligned 20+ leaders, met five pre-qualified startups in one day, and moved four of them to next steps—with one becoming the chosen partner for lab automation. 

📌 The “never start without” rule

Why her team refuses to begin without three basics: a sponsor, a focused theme/use case, and actual decision-makers in the room—otherwise you just create another pilot that goes nowhere. 

📈 KPIs for both sides of the table

How she separates business KPIs (time saved, costs cut, revenue uplift) from internal ones focused on ecosystem health, startup growth, and depth of relationships with business leaders.

🚀 Access = right person × right need ^ now

Her formula for startup go-to-market: getting founders in front of the right person, with the right need, at the right moment—and why building customer trust is the real secret sauce of “matchmaker magic”.

We close the episode on Jelena’s personal “why”: using emerging technology to make this world a little better by matching the work of courageous founders with the resources and scale of large organization.

Resources:

• Open Road Ventures Newsletter

• Bundl Venture Club

🎧 Follow the podcast for grounded stories and practical lessons from inside the world of Open Innovation and Corporate Venturing.