The VentureFuel Visionaries

10% of America is hungry, and 37% of Food made ends up as waste, equal to 140 billion meals of Food. Upcycled foods use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and positively impact the environment. We discuss renovation vs. disruptive innovation, radical collaboration, and turning pineapples into Nikes.

Bob shares how to unleash innovation in a successful, established industry. From close-in innovations to category-changing, game-changing, consumer behavior-changing transformations. Bob shares some of the successes as well as announces the return of the 5th year of the largest dairy innovation competition, The Real California Milk Excelerator, Powered by VentureFuel.

How do you scan for future growth? Is now the time to build? Where is VentureCapital heading (based on their Q1 2023 VC Benchmark report) and what does that mean for founders and corporations partnering with startups? We ask Laura who is the Founder & CEO of The Venture City and is also the General Partner of their Fund with over $145M under management. They have invested in over 100 seed to Series A startups across 14 countries. Her team is made up of founders who have been in the trenches and now not only deploy capital but help their startups build by focusing on data and execution. Laura was the first employee of Facebook in Spain and later led the Growth, Mobile & Partnerships team in Latin America for 9 years. Before Facebook she held management roles at eBay, Siemens and Ogilvy Group as well as being a founder herself.

How can corporates and startups collaborate? Is it possible for Enterprises and Entrepreneurs to drive mutual growth? Originally recorded live in Silicon Valley as part of the Angeles Investors’ Q2 Pitch Night, during this episode, we host Daniel Grubbs, Chief Venturing & Investment Officer at PepsiCo, and Bob Carroll, the VP of Business Development at the California Milk Advisory Board, to discuss startup and corporate partnerships, the different on-ramps for collaboration and the benefits to each – from expertise to insight – that make these partnerships not just viable, but critical to each for future growth.

Founder Stories from three high-growth entrepreneurs whose unique perspectives and experiences help them rethink status quo solutions to some of industry & society's most pressing challenges. Featuring Nicole Schmidt, CEO of Source; Chekesha Kidd, Founder & CEO of Kinumi; and Tara Fung, Co-Founder and CEO of Co:Create. Moderated by Shira Averbuch, VP of Innovation at VentureFuel.

Discover how investors are rethinking traditional strategies and structures to build new onramps to funding. Featuring Allison Goldberg, SVP & Managing Partner at Comcast Ventures; Shila Nieves Burney, Founding and Managing Partner at Zane Venture Fund; and Jenny Fielding, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at The Fund; with Rogue Women's Fund Managing Partner, Caroline Lewis.

Clair Casey is the new President of AARP Foundation, the charitable affiliate of AARP focused on a future without senior poverty. She shares how the Foundation’s approach to innovation: leveraging empathy and experimentation to understand people's needs and find new, scalable solutions to complex issues.

Authentic innovation, seizing the right opportunities, and understanding when to strategically go Rogue – featuring Lesley Folensbee, Director of Marketing, Neuropsychiatry Franchise at Biogen; Joan Ondala, Director of Business Development and Corporate Strategy at Winnebago Industries; and Kristen Gendron, Director of VF Venture Foundry. Hear personal stories of triumph and challenges faced from these trail blazers guiding enterprise transformation at their organizations.

The evolution the premier global corporate startup partnership program, the Comcast NBCUniversal’s LIFT Labs Accelerator. Laura Plunkett and Luke Butler, executive directors of Startup Engagement for Comcast NBCUniversal share why they now offer multiple programs throughout the year, open to various stages of startups and all aligned to strategic areas of interest for the core business. We go deep on the value to startup founders, the value to Comcast and what other corporates can learn from the opportunity.

110 years of progress and counting, the General Manager of L’Oréal Paris shares how the company has embraced everything from AR to Sustainability to the Empowerment of Women. From Skin Genius to Virtual Hair Color Try-Ons to pioneering science in products, innovation is in the DNA of the organization. Eli shares her 20 years of experience leading multinational consumer goods companies from AB InBev to Mars to Pedigree in the US and Europe and why L’oreal Paris continues to evolve to better serve their customers.