Inside Microsoft’s Innovation Engine: How Ed Essey Built a Scalable System for 20,000+ Ideas

What does it take to turn ideas into real business outcomes, at the scale of Microsoft?

In this episode of Beyond the Core, Marcus Daniels sits down with Ed Essey, Director of Business Value at Microsoft Garage, to unpack how one of the most iconic internal innovation programs in tech got started and how it’s still evolving.

From building the Garage Growth Framework to running the world’s largest corporate hackathon, Ed shares how Microsoft empowers intrapreneurs, aligns ideas with executive sponsorship, and avoids innovation theater by focusing on business value above all else.

Plus, Ed gives us a sneak peek into his upcoming book, The Inside Job: The Intrapreneur’s Toolkit to Mastermind Meaningful Change and Innovation, and explains why corporate innovators need to act more like heist masterminds than rule followers.

—

⏱️ Timestamps

0:00 – Intro: Blending intrapreneurship and innovation

1:45 – What is Microsoft Garage and its mission?

3:30 – How Satya Nadella helped launch the first hackathon

4:50 – From 12,000 to 80,000 participants: scaling Garage

5:50 – Where the Garage Growth Framework came from

7:30 – Beating innovation theater with real validation

9:00 – Moving from hackathons to full venture coaching

10:30 – Why Ed changed his title to “Director of Business Value”

12:00 – The triple bottom line of cultural, customer & business value

13:45 – The 4-tier coaching model that scales innovation

16:00 – Why 3 hours of coaching = 85% sponsorship success

17:00 – The “puppy pitch” metaphor & what most teams get wrong

20:30 – How to start a mini-Garage in a mid-size company

23:00 – The 5 types of innovation & why each needs its own path

25:00 – Why shutting down ideas is easier than you think

27:00 – The Venn diagram of great intrapreneurs

29:00 – The most underrated skill of successful innovators

30:50 – Getting sponsorship requires less validation than you think

32:00 – Sponsor development = the forgotten stakeholder

34:00 – Ed’s upcoming book: The Inside Job

36:00 – Why innovation is like a heist (yes, really)

40:00 – Organizational hacks to encourage calculated rule-breaking

42:00 – Recognition as a culture-building tool

44:00 – Why AI is speeding up innovation, faster than reorgs can keep up

45:30 – Hackathon muscle memory meets executive urgency

46:30 – Where to find Ed & follow his workSubscribe for more conversations like these.

#corporateinnovation #intrapreneurship #microsoftgarage #venturebuilding #growthframework #beyondthecore #innovationtheater #leanstartup