Inside Outside Innovation

Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, talks with Max Fergus, Founder and CEO of LUM, a music streaming app rooted in the discovery of emerging music. Brian and Max discuss disruption, entrepreneurship, trends, content creation, building a team, and corporate startup collaboration. Read the interview transcript at insideoutside.ioBrian Ardinger: Inside Outside Innovation is the podcast that brings you the best and the brightest in the world of startups and Innovation. I'm your host Brian Ardinger founder of Insideoutside.IO a provider of research, events, and consulting services that help innovators and entrepreneurs build better products launched new ideas and compete in a world of change and disruption each week will give you a front-row seat to the latest Thinking, Tools, tactics, and Trends and collaborative Innovation. Let's get started. Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host Brian Ardinger. We are excited to be live here from Milwaukee at Fall Experiment today. We have another amazing a guest Max Fergus. He is the founder and CEO of a company called Lum. Welcome to the show Max. Max Fergus: Thank you so much. Brian looking forward to it.  Brian Ardinger: Let's get started. You've just got off stage to talk a little bit about your business and some of the new disruptions that are going on in the music industry. Let's start there. Tell me a little bit about Lum and what are you seeing in this crowded space of music? Max Fergus: You know the truth is that when most people talk about music disruption, they write it off right away. There's a lot of corpses in the music industry, especially when it comes to emerging music. We've seen a lot of companies over the last five years try to create what a lot of people would call Spotify clones that just focus on emerging music. But the truth is that for the large part corporate and mainstream music is better than emerging music. If we are just trying to give these emerging artist a better chance to survive, if we give them the average fan or the end user the same experience that they're going to get on Spotify and try to compete with algorithms that none of us can compete with, we're not going to be able to do anything for the fan and we're surely not going to help the artist. So the truth is and what Lum is rooted in is looking at the technology that exists all around the world that's currently empowering content creators. That use streaming technology and putting that technology into music streaming for the first time, and that's really what Loom is all about.  Brian Ardinger: Let's talk a little bit about your background. So as a Founder, it's always interesting to me to have an interview with entrepreneur and say how did they get to this space? I know you have a diverse background you spent some time in China, I did as well, and I'm interested in finding out a little bit about how that nugget of the problem that you saw out there and and the experiences that you brought to the table, gave you the decision to say, let's start this company. Max Fergus: Yeah, the truth is that most people think that when you start a company in college you either start it around booze or music? And so we already had a little bit of a disadvantage there because people automatically assume that we were starting another College startup, especially coming from a place like Madison in which case booze and music are both very prevalent. But the truth is that we didn't start Lum. With the understanding that we were going to do music right away. We looked at industries that were growing rapidly like streaming like music streaming and made our decision based off the ones that were the most likely to be disrupted and music streaming was really powerful because it hasn't just been growing really really far in the past. But it's growing exceptionally fast right now and it's going to grow even more so over the next 10 yearsRead the interview transcript at insideoutside.io

In this episode, Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder talks with Flavio Lobato of Ikove Capital. Ikove is a venture development company founded to pursue early-stage investments with an emphasis on technology commercialization. Brian and Flavio discuss investing in the Midwest, identifying and validating high-impact technologies, bridging the gap between R&D and VC funded rounds, and innovation talent. Read the interview transcript at insideoutside.ioBrian Ardinger: Inside Outside Innovation is the podcast that brings you the best and the brightest in the world of startups and Innovation. I'm your host Brian Ardinger, founder of insideOutside.IO a provider of research events and consulting services that help innovators and entrepreneurs build better products launched new ideas and compete in a world of change and disruption each week will give you a front-row seat to the latest Thinking, Tools, tactics, and Trends and collaborative Innovation. Let's get started.  Welcome to another episode of inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host Brian Ardinger. And as always we have another amazing guest Flavio Lobato. He is a co-founder and principal at Eco of capital. Welcome to the show  Flavio Lobato:  Hey, Brian, thank you very much. Thank you for having me. Brian Ardinger: Hey, I'm excited to talk to you because, couple different things. You've been in the space for a bit of time and this new model around Venture development rather than a kind of venture capital. I really wanted to dig in on this particular episode. Maybe for the audience, let's start with a little bit about your background and a little bit about Eco Capital. Flavio Lobato: I'm originally from Brazil. I've been in the states for 35 plus years really begin my career in Investment Management Investment Banking back in the 90s after business school, working at places like Goldman Sachs, Credit Swiss. And then really my career focus quite heavily on alternative Investments and hedge funds. I launched a very successful alternative investment shop in Switzerland called Swiss Capital Group, which was a part of a very sizable fund of hedge funds Liongate Capital that eventually sold to a large insurance company. Really after 25 plus years in both traditionsal and alternative spaces. Me and my partners Adolpho Balazi, Rodolfo Bellesi, John D'Orazio, Dr. Rob Lee and David Moritz decided to put together IKove Capital to take advantage of what's happening in technology commercialization and adventure as a whole  Brian Ardinger: Excellent and my understanding is you're five years old. You probably invested in 14 startups in the Stem, Medtech, Agritech vertical and you’re based in the Midwest where we are as well. I want to talk a little bit about investing in particular markets Like the Midwest is different. Obviously investing in particular markets like med tech or ag tech and that are different. So what are some of the things that you're seeing that set you apart and set the ecosystem apart in the Midwest versus some of the tech hubs. Flavio Lobato: What we do is we actually go directly to the source of innovation and we partner with research institutions like Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio where we identify and vet technology that's been in development through their research programs. And once we identify a technology that we really like and that and go through that process we go out and build teams around IT technology and spin them off as independent companies. What's unique about what we do is that we identified and we saw that about 25% of the US research budget, which is about 70 billion dollars invested each year to universities to front their R&D.  Very little of that less than 1% of that amount is actually invested in commercialization of these Technologies. Read the interview transcript at insideoutside.io

Dr. Nada Sanders is a Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at Northeastern University and co-author of The Humachine: Humankind, Machines, and the Future of Enterprise. Dr. Sanders talks with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, about Humachines and the implications for the future of business. Key Points: - Humachine - Emerging forms of enterprise. Combines human qualities (creativity, judgment, and intuition) with machines (economies of scale, AI, artificial processing, etc.). What are the capabilities? - The key difference is the human resource element in the tech era. Some will wait and see what tech is doing. Others are using tech as plug and play. Neither will work. Move towards superhuman enterprise management. The interplay between tech, people, and processes. - Tactics: How can you determine where AI can help? Don’t need all tech. Understand your strategy. Who are you and what are you trying to do. - Data: People don’t know what to ask of it. What questions do you need to answer? - AI is about how do you use it, not the tech. - Smaller companies leverage human resources and leverage the questions asked. Walmart was an industry leader. - Capabilities in silos. Systems need to be linked together. - How can organizational leaders see the human side? Period of lifelong learning. We will see repetitive jobs go away. Important areas need human communication. Cultivate in the workforce. - Systems Thinking: Coders don’t always thrive in systems or with communication. For More Information For more information about Dr. Nada Sanders connect with her on LinkedIn or go to the https://thehumachinebook.com. Check out Dr Sander's book on Amazon.   For similar podcasts, check out:  - Ep. 145 – Laura Anne Edwards, DATA OASIS founder, NASA Datanaut, TED Resident & SheCanHackIT on Sustainable Innovation and Big Data - Ep. 135 – Nara Logics CEO and E.N. Thompson Lecturer Jana Eggers on Artificial Intelligence’s Past and Future - Ep. 107 – Azeem Azhar, Author of “Exponential View” Find this episode of Inside Outside Innovation at insideoutside.io. You can also listen on Acast, iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, and Google Play. FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER Get the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HERE For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Ben Yoskovitz is the Founding Partner at Highline BETA, a startup co-creation company. He is also Co-Author of Lean Analytics and a former VP of VarageSale and GoInstant, which sold to Salesforce. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside innovation Founder, talks with Ben about corporate-startup collaboration. Ben started his first company in 1996 during University, where he got into tech and entrepreneurship. Since that time, he founded several other companies, ran products, and started one of the first accelerators in Canada called Year 1 labs. Ben applied the Lean Startup methodology to the companies they invested in, then wrote the book Lean Analytics. Soon he began angel investing and finally launched Highline BETA. Highline BETA Highline BETA believes by working with big companies, they can build better startups. Their service arm works with big companies to identify opportunities. Their fund arm finances them. This strategy can share risk. The corporate side realizes the big model is unlikely to survive. They must diversify. Outside the valley, startups think more about the business model and problems, which makes this collaboration an excellent fit. Highline BETA doesn’t assume they have all the ideas. Uses signals from inside of big companies of what they need, and has startups use this talent and resources from big companies. Coming to IO Summit. Speaking on Startup + Corporate Collaboration. What are the trends? Highline BETA is a commercial deal accelerator. Big companies with little companies in pilots. When they see pilots scaling, that’s a good sign. How do you navigate startups working with Corporates early? If startups need product and market and aren’t established, it’s tough to partner with corporates. Have to be ready for the relationship. Accelerators can provide the right interface with deal terms and expectations. Corporate Venture Capital - pros and cons. What’s the exchange of value becomes very important - Data, customers, co-marketing. Corporates work more slowly than startups. Future Trends Companies are starting to take a portfolio approach to everything they do. Building ventures organically - internal or external. Separating themselves from the core, or having an accelerator and investing in startups or co-creation. Not all will win but gives a nice balance. Difficult to disrupt when incentivized to keep core going. Must do everything, a balance. Don’t innovate on your own. Inorganic and organic. How do you streamline processes in working with startups? For More Information For more information or to connect with Ben Yoskovitz, check out Highline BETA. Find this episode of Inside Outside Innovation at insideoutside.io. You can also listen on Acast, iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, and Google Play. FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER Get the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HERE For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Derek Chin is Head of Innovation and Product Strategy at Nerdery, a business consulting company. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, talks with Derek about corporate innovation, adaptability, and financing innovation projects. With the heart of a serial entrepreneur, Derek is fascinated about how to bring ideas to life. After working at a startup in college, Derek started his own business and learned the importance of design thinking and bootstrapping. He eventually went to law school and had the opportunity to work for United Healthcare, analyzing new laws and regs to discover new business opportunities. Derek continued at United Healthcare after law school, as their entrepreneur-in-residence, and was humbled by the challenges of corporate innovation. After a few years, Derek left to help start a new company called BrightHealth, with a former CEO of United Healthcare. In 5 months, they raised $80 million, in Series A, as a small startup trying to replicate a huge insurance company. Selecting the best staff and supplementing with consultants, was an important stratetgy to move fast. BrightHealth raised another $160 million in Series B and then was at a point of scaling. Now at Nerdery, Derek helps other companies think like entrepreneurs and accelerate their growth by creating MVPs and selecting the right staff. He’s worked with dozens of Fortune 500 companies, including businesses like Google and Purina. He thinks a key obstacle to innovation is resourcing and staffing. Companies are building teams before they know what they are doing. Derek believes small corporate innovation teams partnering with agencies like Nerdery, to find market fit, is the best approach. Innovation teams are able to integrate the project back into the business, and the agency team goes away. "Team -as-a-Service" model.  As for innovation trends, Derek sees an evolution of how companies are financing innovation projects. Many are acting like VCs, looking for results from small bits of money, blurring the lines between VCs and Corporate Capital. For More Information For more information, connect with Derek W. Chin on LinkedIn. For similar podcasts, check out:  Ep. 150 – Sylvain Labs’ Alain Sylvain on New Idea Creation for Business and Consumer Needs Ep. 140 – Melissa Perri, Escaping the Build Trap Author and Produx Labs CEO Ep. 119 – Voltage Control’s Douglas Ferguson on Inside Innovation Find this episode of Inside Outside Innovation at insideoutside.io. You can also listen on Acast, iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, and Google Play. FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER Get the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HERE For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

This week's podcast features RSM’s Kevin Depew and Matt Wolf talking with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, about RSM's unique industry eminence program. They highlight the collision of ideas that brought this program to life and how it has enabled RSM to deliver an enhanced, differentiating client experience.   For More Information For more information, check out RSM at RSMUS.com/IO Find this episode of Inside Outside Innovation at insideoutside.io. This podcast is sponsored by RSM: Audit, Tax and Consulting Services to help Middle Market Leaders Succeed FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER Get the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events.  SUBSCRIBE HERE

Aviad Stein is the Director of Client Partnerships at Alpha, a consumer insights company. He has worked with Tumbler, Bloomberg, Nordstrom, and Dun & Bradstreet on customer-centric innovation strategies. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, talks with Aviad about his experiences with experimentation and digital transformations. Podcast Highlights: - Aviad has taken many companies of different sizes through digital transformation. Created an innovation incubator at Nordstrom. Built online and mobile ecosystem for users engaging in-store and online. Bloomberg Digital team developed Audio/Video digitalization. Bringing content to consumers and creating partnerships. - Advice for working in large companies? Take one challenge at a time. At Nordstrom, identified acquiring new users. How can tech support them? Bring teams together to solve this goal. The business wanted to leverage tech. Customers wanted tech to engage with the company. Gathered customer feedback, then took to tech to create those services and create value. - Alpha Platform: Helps corporations manage products: feature, functionality, and target audience; Runs experiments based on hypothesis or assumptions on ideas at speed and scale to get directional input, and understand market opportunity. Smaller teams can get the same knowledge, as larger teams, and move faster. - Alpha works with one-third of Fortune 100 companies. $900 billion on experimentation is going to waste this year. Need the test and learn methodology. Alpha is a collaboration tool that enables teams to move much faster, based on input from their target audiences. - Mistakes of product people - Can't take action on relevant data. Can they identify business goal and objectives? Need to measure the success of what you've been validating. Must be able to execute successfully. - The Alpha Team is coming to the IO Summit with the Alpha Bar. Helps companies test different assumptions about their business. For More Information For more information, check out alphahq.com to request a demo or connect with Aviad Stein at aviad.stein@alphaux.com For similar podcasts, check out:  Ep. 20 – Lisa Kay Solomon with “Design a Better Business” Ep. 34 – Laura Klein w/ lean startup for product design Ep. 48 – Founders of Nex.tt This week's podcast is sponsored by RSM - Audit, Tax, & Consulting Services for the Middle Market Find this episode of Inside Outside Innovation at insideoutside.io. You can also listen on Acast, iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, and Google Play. FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER Get the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HERE For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

After working at Nike for 20 years, Lorrie Vogel founded ImagineNOW, an Innovation consultancy. She talks with Brian Ardinger, Founder of Inside Outside Innovation, about building an innovation portfolio. Lorrie started her career at Nike working in industrial design, then led innovation and sustainability, and finally served as Vice President of Material Science and Innovation. Today, Lorrie leads an innovation consultancy, where she helps others with emerging science and tech, systems, and innovation teams.  Key Points - Nike’s approach is very systematic. Every team has a process. Nike does early prototyping. - As we brought new innovation into the portfolio, we became more systematic when looking at tech. If it was successful, how would it impact our business? - If you work in innovation, you need a filter. Evaluate - Does it drive revenue, decrease cost, reduce environmental footprint, strategic IT, new better performance, and brand value? Look at it from different perspectives, which innovations are below this line. Does it add value? Look for the game-changer. But sometimes, specific teams want to elevate various activities for different reasons. - Make sure portfolio is broken up across business teams so every team benefits. If your company is committed to reducing enviro footprint, you need to have some key components to address this. Bulk of your innovation should be revenue focused. - How do other companies address? Google makes sure value is there in new innovation, but they can do almost anything. Think about what stage are you in your company. Don’t do it in a vacuum. Sometimes it’s around can I make this happen, but is the marketing team excited? Need to have all teams engaged. - Even by having a system, need to think about the budget. The more you learn, need to continue to evaluate. Dynamic portfolio. Monitor the market because sometimes the market is not ready for the newest innovation. - Innovator Traits - Be alright with ambiguity. Every group that performs well are reaching out to others. Open to collaborate. Design boards help others understand. For More Information For more information, go to imagineNOWinc.com or find Lorrie Vogel on Linkedin. This week's podcast is sponsored by Husch Blackwell   For similar podcasts, check out: Ep. 123 – Gatorade’s Xavi Cortadellas on Breakthrough Innovation Ep. 81 – Jack Elkins with Orlando Magic Ep. 77 – Renata Policicio with ESPN Find this episode of Inside Outside Innovation at insideoutside.io. You can also listen on Acast, iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, and Google Play. FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER Get the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HERE For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

David Bland is the Founder of Precoil and the Co-Author of Testing Business Ideas, along with Alexander Osterwalder. David talks with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, about risk, generating evidence through experimentation, and listening to customers. David’s new book is a field guide for rapid experimentation. Through tactical examples, it describes what he’s seen with various teams and testing in the market. It also describes product and backend business model testing, in addition to 44 experiments organized from low strength of evidence to high strength of evidence. Key Points - Think about risk - I have this risk. Should we do this? Can we do this? Companies need to generate more evidence before jumping to build. Learn about desirable, viable, and feasible. - What has changed in the experimentation process? Originally landing pages were it. Now we need to think about the hypothesis we’re trying to test. Experimentation terminology and processes are being adopted by product managers. - Business Model Canvas - People stop with how to address risk and making that a repeatable process. Need to connect to outcomes. Discovery isn’t a phase. It’s continuous. Look at retail and automotive.  - Need for experimentation taking hold. Need to move fast and put learning into action. Learning from customers gets you farther.  - Companies need to teach experimentation. Democratizing process. Multi-year journey. - Innovator Skills and Talent: Creative problem solvers that can deal with uncertainty and take initiative. Find and give people a chance to be entrepreneurs. Exhibit behaviors that are customer-centric, data influenced, and willing to test the status quo. - Environment for innovators is crucial.  For More Information Check out David’s new book Testing Business Ideas at precoil.com, Strategyzer.com, or on Amazon. This week's podcast is sponsored by RSM - Audit, Tax, & Consulting Services for the Middle Market   For similar podcasts, check out: Ep. 164 – Josh Seiden, Author of Outcomes Over Outputs on Being Outcome Centric Ep. 140 – Melissa Perri, Escaping the Build Trap Author and Produx Labs CEO Ep. 126 – Barry O’Reilly, Author of Unlearn & Lean Enterprise   Find this episode of Inside Outside Innovation at insideoutside.io. You can also listen on Acast, iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, and Google Play. FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER Get the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HERE For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Scott Lenet, President of Touchdown Ventures, takes a different approach to investing. With a tagline of VC as a Service, Scott helps companies set up and run their funds. Scott talks with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, about corporate venture. Corporates can be some of the best investors on the Cap table and achieve multiple objectives, from financial to strategic.They can also help themselves while helping the startup. How have corporates changed their startup investing? - There's a correlation between corporate venture success and longevity/experience of managers. Touchdown works hand-in-hand with corporations. - Companies should set themselves up for learning, but not as a tire kicker.  - Touchdown is seeing demand from every industry. It's not only from large corporations, but also from mid-market and startups in SF.   - How do we stay innovative? All companies can see disruption. Can I do learning without investing? No. Startups won't share info.   How do you help companies think beyond their existing industries?   - Corporate venture capital helps you do this - Companies should be investing, differently = Core, adjacent, or disruption. Where do we want to focus our investments? - VC investing in 1% of what you see.   - Intel capital or M12 ventures - Commitment to the program and helping startups. Good financial fiduciaries. Provide strategic value for startup and corporation. Relevant to businesses. Intel backs disruptive innovators.  What should startups think about for corporate venture? What should corporate venture think about for startups? - Need to recognize corporations are large — many decision-makers. VCs can help you work with corporates.   - Can deliver strategic benefits for startups. Engage in market. How do we maintain dominant positions and partners? - Need a change of mindset to reap benefits in this space.  For more information For more information, on Scott Lenet or Touchdown Ventures check out touchdownvc.com For similar podcasts, check out: Ep. 152 – Acceleprise’s Olivia O’Sullivan on Investing in Corporate/Startup Collaboration Ep. 133 – Drive Capital’s Chris Olsen on Investment Innovation in the Midwest Ep. 42 – John Bungert with MetLife on Working with VCs and Internal Innovation Campaigns Find this episode of Inside Outside Innovation at insideoutside.io. You can also listen on Acast, iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, and Google Play.   FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER Get the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HERE For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy