

Inside Outside Innovation
Brian Ardinger, Founder of Inside Outside Innovation podcast, InsideOutside.io, and the Inside Outside Innovation Summit
Inside Outside Innovation explores the ins and outs of innovation with raw stories, real insights, and tactical advice from the best and brightest in startups & corporate innovation.
Each week we bring you the latest thinking on talent, technology, and the future of innovation. Join our community of movers, shakers, makers, founders, builders, and creators to help speed up your knowledge, skills, and network.
Previous guests include thought leaders such as Brad Feld, Arlan Hamilton, Jason Calacanis, David Bland, Janice Fraser, and Diana Kander, plus insights from amazing companies including Nike, Cisco, ExxonMobil, Gatorade, Orlando Magic, GE, Samsung, and others.
This podcast is available on all podcast platforms and InsideOutside.io. Sign up for the weekly innovation newsletter at http://bit.ly/ionewsletter. Follow Brian on Twitter at @ardinger or @theiopodcast or Email brian@insideoutside.io
Each week we bring you the latest thinking on talent, technology, and the future of innovation. Join our community of movers, shakers, makers, founders, builders, and creators to help speed up your knowledge, skills, and network.
Previous guests include thought leaders such as Brad Feld, Arlan Hamilton, Jason Calacanis, David Bland, Janice Fraser, and Diana Kander, plus insights from amazing companies including Nike, Cisco, ExxonMobil, Gatorade, Orlando Magic, GE, Samsung, and others.
This podcast is available on all podcast platforms and InsideOutside.io. Sign up for the weekly innovation newsletter at http://bit.ly/ionewsletter. Follow Brian on Twitter at @ardinger or @theiopodcast or Email brian@insideoutside.io
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 6, 2019 • 15min
Ep. 159 - UM Worldwide’s Oscar Allain on Brand Innovation Through Cultural Conversations
Oscar Allain is Vice President of Cross-Cultural Strategy and Research at UM Worldwide. He focuses on reaching the rapidly changing multicultural audiences in the US. Oscar talks with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, about brands being part of the cultural conversation and doing it the right way.
Key Points
- WAVE is UM’s annual study to gain a better understanding of the digital world. This year they decided to quantify the Remix cultures.
- Remix Culture studies the movements within cultures that are being influenced by ethic or minorities such as Hispanics, Asians and LGBT communities. They want to understand what the implications are for certain businesses.
- ReMix’s four cultural pillars - Resist, Retrograde, Re-globallize, Recreate
- Latinos have changed over past 20 years from need to assimilate to amping up on sense of identity.
- Ethnic Cultures are part of movement/generations that speak up against things that don’t align with values, ability to retro-culturate, have a cultural mindset that impacts mainstream culture, and maintains an entrepreneurial spirit.
- Quantify Remix mindset - Not generational. In Nigeria it’s 16-24 year olds, in China it’s 25-34 year olds, and in US it’s 16-44 year olds. These are groups leading the conversation and are the agents of change.
- How do brands play in conversation? - eg - Nike (Resist), Netflix (Retrograde), Uniqlo (Reglo), Starbucks (Recreate)
- Brands are encouraged to be a part of the cultural conversation and doing it the right way.
- Best Brands are true and authentic to the brand and consumer. Need to recognize new movements like LantinX and keep focused on changing cultures.
For More Information
For more information on Oscar, Remix Culture, and UM Worldwide check out umww.com
For similar podcasts, check out:
Ep. 134 – Paramount Pictures’ Futurist Ted Schilowitz on VR, AR & Mixed Reality
Ep. 130 – Canopy Insight’s Victoria Gerstman on Culture’s Influence on Brands & Semiotics
Ep. 122 – Jeff Rohrs, Yext CEO and Author of Audience: Marketing in the age of subscribers, fans and followers
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

Jul 30, 2019 • 19min
Ep. 158 - Amy Radin, Author of Change Maker's Playbook: How to Seek, Seed and Scale Innovation in Any Company
(Replay of Nov 20, 2018 episode)
Amy Radin is the author of The Change Maker’s Playbook: How to Seek, Seed and Scale Innovation in Any Company. She was previously a Senior Executive at American Express, Citi, and ETrade. Amy’s experience includes leading the digital transformation of Citi’s credit card business ($5b bottom line). Today, Amy enjoys being on the outside of big companies and startups, to help connect the dots between growth aspirations and outcomes. Amy and Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, discuss startup and corporate collaboration, measuring innovation, and the future for financial services.
Key Takeaways in Brian Ardinger’s Interview with Amy:
- The human condition is set up to stop things that haven’t happened before.
- Big companies have everything they need, but can’t see the near-term value of innovation. Startups bring speed and agility but lack understanding of scale. Magic is when they can work together.
- To “seed” ideas, take concepts and put them out to potential users. Then use the project to translate user reaction into a business model. The mistake is trying to predict too closely what people will do.
- To kill innovation is to apply traditional metrics to ideas. Can’t expect results immediately. Instead ask, what are assumptions to get x% of market share. As you move forward, refine your benchmarks and results.
- To be customer-centric, understand needs that make economic sense. What’s the problem we want to solve for the people we want to serve?
- Basic business model for financial services hasn’t changed. Innovation is happening on the front end, but little is happening on the back end. Finance companies are asking the same questions as 15 years ago.
- Innovation is solvable. It’s not a pipe dream, even in the most complex organizations. It’s all about execution.
- Utilize the Seek, Seed, Scale framework.
BONUS: DOWNLOAD FREE TOOLS at www.amyradin.com/insideoutside, including concepts from her book, an infographic on Seek, Seed, Scale framework. and take a quiz about your innovation readiness and ideas where you can personally focus.
If you liked this podcast, you might also like:
Ep. 148 – Francesca Gino, Harvard Professor and Author of Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break All the Rules in Work and in Life
Ep. 138 – Mural’s Ajay Rajani on Building a Portfolio Career
Ep. 123 – Gatorade’s Xavi Cortadellas on Breakthrough Innovation
GET THE LATEST RESOURCES
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

Jul 23, 2019 • 19min
Ep. 157 - Harvard Business School’s Thales Teixeira, Author of Unlocking the Customer Value Chain
Thales Teixeira is an Associate Professor at Harvard Business School and Author of Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Consumer Disruption. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, talks with Thales about innovation, consumer disruption, and decoupling. They also discuss Thales new HBR article titled Disruption Starts with Unhappy Customers, Not Technology.
Key Points
- Economics of Attention - To help companies understand consumer attention - Where, how and why. - www.economicsofattention.com
- Understanding Digital Disruptors - Customers Disrupt Markets.
- Startups are just faster at delivering needs and understanding customers.
- Why do large companies think they KNOW and adapt to their customers.
- Large companies are obsessed with their competitors, but should be focused on their customers.
- Inside Outside Innovation Summit - Oct 2-22, 2019 - www.theiosummit.com
- Customer problems might not be big enough for large companies. This creates an opening for startups.
Unlocking Customer Value Chain - New Book
- Wave 1 - Unbundling products
- Wave 2 - Disintermediation - Startups cutting out the middleman
- Wave 3 - Startups are looking at customer value chain and breaking up links and taking one activity at a time - Decoupling - e.g. - Best Buy moved to price matching & charging manufacturers for shelf space. Supports show rooming activity and doesn’t fight Amazon.
Decoupling is happening as a result of consumers looking for lower costs of goods and services. Startups, with new business models and tech, are reducing costs. To improve relationships with customers: create value, reduce value eroding activities or reduce value charging activities.
For More Information
For more information or to connect with Thales, check out Decoupling.co
For similar podcasts, check out:
Ep. 151 – Jeff Dyer, Author of Innovation Capital: How to Compete–and Win–Like the World’s Most Innovative Leaders
Ep. 148 – Francesca Gino, Harvard Professor and Author of Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break All the Rules in Work and in Life
Ep. 112 – Ralph Welborn, Author of Topple on Corporate 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

Jul 16, 2019 • 23min
Ep. 156 - Jeff Gothelf, Co-Author of Lean UX, Sense & Respond, and Lean vs Agile vs Design Thinking on Building a Culture of Innovation
Jeff Gothelf, Co-Author of Sense and Respond, Lean UX, & Lean vs Agile vs Design Thinking talks with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, about building a Culture of Innovation.
Key Ideas
- Shifting from outputs to outcomes.
- Changing incentives.
- Find the person and team with the political capital to prove out the validity and scalability.
- Reward learning in a way that focuses on ideas that are likely to succeed.
- Incentivize learning and being transparent.
- Story telling and marketing of efforts.
- Overcoming National Cultural Traits.
- Language and ideas are universal, but hard to implement.
- Failure of the Corporate Innovation Lab. Create an innovation path.
For More Information
For more information, check out Jeffgothelf.com.
If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also enjoy:
Ep. 37 – Josh Seiden & Jeff Gothelf, authors of “Sense and Respond”
Ep. 90 – Teresa Torres w/ Product Talk
Ep. 103 – Andi Plantenberg on Entrepreneurial Capabilities in Teams
Ep. 140 – Melissa Perri, Escaping the Build Trap Author and Produx Labs CEO
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

Jul 9, 2019 • 20min
Ep. 155 - Valuer.ai’s Taylor Ryan on Startup-Corporate Matchmaking through Data & Crowdsourcing
Taylor Ryan, CMO of Valuer.ai, talks with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, about Startup-Corporate Matchmaking. Valuer.ai matches startups with corporates, accelerators, and investors based on AI and crowdsourcing.
Key points
- Valuer.ai - HQ in Denmark. Taylor Ryan, from the US, is a six time co-founder, writer, growth hacker, and startup junkie.
- Corporate/Startup matchmaking new to Europe.
- Customized searches on Valuer.AI combines Crowdsource and data collection to find the right startups both locally and internationally.
- Uses qualitative data of founders to determine if startups are investible.
- Finding different skill sets of founders - data, block chain and finance are skills corporates are looking for.
- Internal corporate innovators can use to find new ideas.
- Need more education on looking to startups as long-term solutions for problems within corporations.
- Trends in startup world - Different European hubs have different flavor.
- Drift in European Tech to go after 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - Corporate Social Responsibility.
For More Information
For more information or to connect with Taylor, check out Valuer.ai
For similar podcasts, check out:
Ep. 131 - Sean Moffitt of WikiBrands & Author of WikiBrands: How to Reinvent Your Business in a Customer Connected Marketplace
Ep. 142 - Neil Soni, Author of The Startup Gold Mine and Estee Lauder Innovator
Ep. 152 - Acceleprise’s Olivia O’Sullivan on Investing in Corporate/Startup Collaboration
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

Jul 2, 2019 • 16min
Ep. 154 - Brock Blake, Co-founder and CEO of Lendio on Financing Entrepreneurs at Scale
Brock Blake, Co-founder and CEO of Lendio on Financing Entrepreneurs at Scale
Interview with Brian Ardinger, Founder of Inside Outside Innovation
Inside Outside Innovation is the podcast that brings you the best and the brightest in the world of startups and innovation. Brian Ardinger, founder of insideoutside.io, a provider of research, events, and consulting services helps innovators and entrepreneurs build better products launch new ideas and compete in a world of change and disruption.
Each week Brian Ardinger gives you a front-row seat to the latest thinking, tools, tactics, and trends in collaborative Innovation. In this podcast, Brian interviews Brock Blake, founder and CEO of Lendio the largest online marketplace for small business loans in America.
For more information and a transcript of their talk, check out http://insideoutside.io/the-feed/
Inside Outside Innovation Summit - Talent, Technology, & The Future Of Innovation
Mark your calendars for October 20th -22nd, in Lincoln, NE. Experts from the world of Disney, Facebook, American Express, and Nike, will talk about innovation, disruption, startups, and the world that we live in today.
Check it out at the theiosummit.com For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Jun 25, 2019 • 19min
Ep. 153 - Mike McDerment, FreshBooks Co-founder/CEO and Author of Breaking the Time Barrier on Building and Scaling a Company
Mike McDerment is Co-founder and CEO of FreshBooks, the world’s number one cloud accounting software for self-employed professionals. Mike talks with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, about building and scaling a company, product development, and his free e-book called Breaking the Time Barrier.
Mike built a simple tool to solve his accounting problem, and now 20 million people have used the tool. He could see the value of the tool, but he hadn’t built and scaled a company. It was the great unknown which excited him. Suddenly, Mike saw the value of the tool for everyone. He wanted to bring it into the world. After building the first version for himself, he soon added a software designer. They worked on the product for nine months to a year, then added another co-founder and hired employees. Mike’s team became very connected to their customers, always showing the product early in development. They started to understand the market and the most impactful parts of what to build.
Bootstrapping the Company
- Raising capital is not success. A better strategy is to find customers and fund yourself
- Over ten years, FreshBooks de-risked the market, product, team, and model.
- The first round of venture money was $30 million.
Obstacles and Things That Almost Killed FreshBooks
- Check out Blog post: https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/7-ways-ive-almost-killed-freshbooks
- Listen to advisors, but trust yourself.
- Sometimes you move fast, but some areas you need to slow down, especially with product-market fit. Don’t Rush.
Breaking The Time Barrier
- Breaking the Time Barrier, Mike’s book for his customers doing client services work explains how to price services.
- Focus on value-based billing instead of on the number of hours worked. Understand how big the problem is and how expensive it is.
- Nobody cares about tech. They care about the value they get from tech.
Product Development
- Better to focus on building benefits like time savings, revenue generation, or performance. Brings more value for your customer.
- Frame pricing on value. e.g., $50 a month will save 20 hrs, or for less than a cup a coffee, you can have this service.
What’s different for a company at scale?
- Culture - How does a company respond when challenged with something?
- Customer-obsessed
How do you maintain the freshness of a company?
- Combo of direction and constraints for motivation.
- Creates a condition for taking chances.
For More Information
For more information on Mike McDerment or FreshBooks check out freshbooks.com.
If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also enjoy:
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

Jun 18, 2019 • 20min
Ep. 152 - Acceleprise’s Olivia O'Sullivan on Investing in Corporate/Startup Collaboration
Olivia O'Sullivan is the Head of Corporate Engagement at Acceleprise, a B2B SaaS accelerator. Accelerprise invests in early-tech companies building enterprise technology. Olivia's focus is on mid-market and enterprise companies interested in collaborations with startups. Her background includes work in advertising and on product and innovation teams for McDonald's and Dow Jones.
Olivia spoke with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, about corporate/startup matchmaking, trends and Acceleprise's future.
Key factors in selecting startups include:
- Understanding the founding team. Can they solve the challenge?
- Traction and product market fit. Want to accelerate growth.
- Thresholds and levels of expectations.
- Collaboration on the product.
Emphasis on the initial period where you make introductions. The missing piece is how to transition into providing impact.
- Make sure two groups of people are set up to participate with each other and engage in a partnership.
- Provide long-term strategic support.
- Innovation doesn’t happen in a silo. Need a long-term strategy. Participate in the ecosystem before you see change.
Corporations are in different places in innovation
- Companies wanting roundtables and market intelligence.
- Companies with established processes and venture teams.
New Trends
- Ten years ago, there were lots of corporate accelerators. Now a lot of established independent accelerators doing great work.
- Now more meaningful partnership doing co-collaboration with startups.
- Financial services companies are partnering with startups.
- Health tech - Unlocking the power of data in the health world.
What are the core skills for entrepreneurs?
- Long-term vision and steps to get there.
- Someone who will get the work done to get over hurdles.
- People who are connectors on the corporate innovation side.
What’s next for Acceleprise
- Kick off upcoming programs in SF and NY
- Investing in another 20 companies. Already invested in over 100.
- Opening office in Toronto.
For More Information
For more information on Acceleprise or to connect with Olivia check out https://acceleprise.vc
If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also enjoy:
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

Jun 11, 2019 • 21min
Ep. 151 - Jeff Dyer, Author of Innovation Capital: How to Compete--and Win--Like the World’s Most Innovative Leaders
Jeff Dyer is the author of Innovator’s DNA, Innovator’s Method, and Innovation Capital. He talks with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, about innovative leaders and how they generate creative ideas.
In Innovator’s DNA, Jeff identifies characteristics of innovative entrepreneurs, including questioning, observing, networking and experimenting. In Innovator’s Method, Jeff identifies a process to test ideas for investment: 1) Generating idea, 2) Is someone willing to pay, 3) Rapid prototyping, and 4) Find right business model. Finally, in Innovation Capital, Jeff interviews innovation leaders and how they secure research and support to move on innovative ideas.
Innovative Leaders are Judged on Three Things
Human capital, social capital, and reputation capital (track record).
Forward thinking, problem-solving, and persuasion.
Innovation Capital can De-risk Innovation Leadership
Innovators paradox: You have to take novel risky ideas forward. Look at INC 50 each year. What are new companies, with new business models, doing?
Social Capital
Most people think your strongest 150 ties are most important. Your weak social ties are likely to be much more important. How do you connect to those weak ties?
Human Capital
Innovation skill sets are becoming more important because it’s critical to know how to move ideas forward and create value.
For More Information:
For more information about Jeff or Innovation Capita, check out https://innovatorsdna.com/
If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also enjoy:
Ep. 137 – Deloitte’s Michael Frankel on Growth, Hybrid Talent & Corporate/Startup Collaboration
Ep. 136 – Simone Ahuja, Author, Disrupt-It-Yourself: Eight Ways to Hack a Better Business
Ep. 124 – Amy Radin, Author of The Change Maker’s Playbook & FinTech Guru
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

Jun 4, 2019 • 20min
Ep. 150 - Sylvain Labs' Alain Sylvain on New Idea Creation for Business and Consumer Needs
Alain Sylvain is the founder of Sylvain Labs, a strategy and design company helping corporations like Google, Spotify and Nike, think about their future. Alain Sylvain talks with Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, about how to create new ideas that solve for business and consumer needs.
Innovation is evolving
- The fetishization of innovation. Define what innovation means within the corporation - e.g., transformational, new products?
- Innovation groups within large companies are outsourcing their innovation needs.
- Innovation is the creation of new value.
What are good or bad practices of innovation?
- The company wants to be "sprint" focused. Not possible if the company doesn't have that spirit. Look at how the company changes to be more innovation focused.
- When do you bring in design? Early.
Is it essential for companies to look outside and work with startups?
- Necessary to look for external points of view. Innovation in a silo will not get game-changing innovation.
- Founders mindset vs. corporate mindset. At Patagonia, innovation comes from the founder's perspective of the end user.
How essential is the C-Suite vs. individuals within the organization?
- Both perspectives are important. Low appetite for risk. Can you create a culture of innovation where all ideas are valid
- Create an open culture of ideas. Enable people's side hustles to thrive.
- Acceptance of failure. Pull out what worked. Fear of risk is internal perception. The test is in the marketplace.
For more Information
For more information or to connect with Alain, check out sylvainlabs.com
If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also enjoy:
Ep. 136 – Simone Ahuja, Author, Disrupt-It-Yourself: Eight Ways to Hack a Better Business
Ep. 120 – Digital Intent’s Sean Johnson talks Corporate Innovation Strategies
Ep. 86 – Carie Davis, Your Ideas Are Terrible
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
Find this episode of Inside Outside Innovation at insideoutside.io. You can also listen on Acast, iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, and Google Play. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy


