The VentureFuel Visionaries

How will retail evolve? We asked Ross Neumann, Head of Partnerships for Lowe’s Innovation Labs; David Matthews, Managing Director at RevTech Ventures; Richard Schwartz, President and CEO of Pensa Systems, a leading innovator in autonomous perception for retail inventory; and Ben Conway, Co-Founder and COO of VNTANA, the world’s first 3D Collaboration Platform. This is a live recording from our What’s Next, Now event series and we discuss 3D models, spatial computing, the harmonization of on-line and off-line and the digitization of on-shelf.

The potential symbiotic relationship between big and small companies + the opportunity that collaboration between emerging startups and established multi-nationals holds. Brigette Wolf, The Global Head of Snackfutures at Mondelez shares the details of their new startup engagement platform for early-stage, well-being snack brands…COLAB. We discuss how getting this collaboration right can push the boundaries of what’s possible for founders and for Fortune 500 companies – all in service of providing what consumers want and improving our well-being.

I started VentureFuel 7 years ago to shake up the status quo with new solutions fueled by diversified thoughts and perspectives of visionary leaders. This episode celebrates a few of those visionaries that have appeared on the podcast over the last few months. From Adrian Parker, Global Vice President of Patron, to Erika Parkins, (formerly) Head of Strategic Partnerships at The Estee Lauder Companies, to Modi Oyewole, Sr. Director of Marketing at Capital Records, to Travis Montaque, Founder of Holler and James Chapman, Founder of Plain Sight. They share their insights on innovation, collaboration, expression, access and serendipity.

Two trends accelerating at the same time – LIVE + GAMING – intersect at OS Studios. As the world went remote, esports and gaming had to migrate their large-scale tournaments to virtual, talk shows and events had to be shot from distributed locations and the fanciest of studios gave way to live streams from couches. OS Studios Co-Founder, Ian Packard, shares how emerging technology is enabling next-gen event production, what the future holds as in-person re-emerges and how your business can take advantage of these opportunities.

Visionary Investor of the Year Mel Strong, Brand Visionary of the Year Jackson Jeyanayagam and Venture of the Year Xiaoyin Qu of Run The World come together to share their secrets on Revolutionizing How We Connect. This recoding of the live event on 1/28/21 covers D2C (direct-to-consumer), hyper personalization, human optimization, virtual serendipity and cutting the innovation cycle to keep up with accelerating change.

One of the most influential futurists on the planet, Cathy Hackl specializes in how emerging technologies like AI, AR and 5G will impact our lives. We talk about Direct2Avatar, the Metaverse, Cybercrimes, EX, startups and Air Jordans + The Future of Cereal. Cathy has worked at Magic Leap, HTV Vive and has been named a Top 10 most influential women in tech, she is a 2x LinkedIn top Technology Voice globally and she was just named to Thinkers 50 Radar (the Oscars of Management Thinking) where she was described as “the CEOs private guide to the Metaverse.”

Chingona translates to a woman who is intelligent, fearless, and can get things done. Founding Partner of Chingona Ventures, Samara Hernandez is as Chingona as it gets. Samara launched the Chicago based early stage VC fund in 2019 and has made 18 investments and received part of a $50m investment from PayPal Ventures. She is focused on investing in overlooked, massive and growing markets. We talk about spotting opportunities, diversity as an accelerant to outsized returns and why cultivating different networks improves your chances of success.

Company history, the founding story, and the why of your organization can anchor your decisions and make clear where to innovate. Often you need to go back before you go forward. Chris Cummings, CEO & Founder of Pass it Down, helps institutions transform their archives and history into interactive digital storytelling experiences. We chat about the importance of history, the future of museums and why the future often begins in the past.

The Internet of Things (IoT) industry has quickly transformed from a futuristic idea to the next massive evolution (McKinsey predicts IoT will deliver $6 trillion in economic impact by 2025). Greg Kahn is the President and CEO of the Internet of Things Consortium, a trade association focused on frontier technologies across IoT including home automation, smart cities, connected healthcare/wellness, connected cars and connected retail. Greg is also the CEO of GK Digital Ventures, which provides investor strategies, marketplace development and executive experiences, and data & technology support. He has been awarded the Business Role Model of the Year in 2020 by CEO World. Named one of the Top IoT influencers by Huffington Post, Inc. Magazine, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and The Internet of Business. We talk about the future of IoT, its impact on startups and corporations and why the future is not in some Jetsonian future but is the Now Normal.

Steven Wolfe Pereira, the CEO and Co-Founder of Encantos, and award-winning bi-lingual edtech company (which I invested in). Encantos is rethinking education through a mix of physical and digital tools grounded in play. Steven is one of the top rated voices on LinkedIn, named by Adweek as one of the "50 Most Indispensable Executives in Marketing, Media and Tech". He has served as the Chief Marketing Officer of Datalogix (acquired by Oracle), Neustar (acquired by Golden Gate Capital) and Quantcast. We talk about storyteaching, inclusion, innovation as well as how to unscale and subscribe.