Now is the moment of corporate venturing. So thought many of the near 300 people who converged on London’s Russell Hotel last month to discuss where this flourishing discipline is headed at our third annual symposium.
The conference atmosphere was electric, with my high-light being a master-class in public speaking by Al Gore, the 45th vice-president of the US. Gore set down, in his speech and in his recently published book, The Future, the challenge with which all our readership grapple – how do we avoid a dystopian future? He touched on mind-boggling issues that are shaping our lives, such as climate change, population growth, and how the long admirable US leadership of the world economy is in decline as other powers rise. To have someone of his stature and intellectual capabilities discuss such big-picture challenges was formidable to behold. The corporate executives in attendance, whose task it is to seek investments in the successful companies of tomorrow, were understandably enthused.
What is clear is there are no easy answers. Population growth remains on a seemingly relentless march upwards, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has now gone past 400 parts per million, and US power appears to be in decline. Yet many in the audience felt they were in a position to help solve such problems. Corporate venturing will become far more than just a management fad, if investments that are made in the next few years are able to propel start-ups with a meaningful impact on any of the issues discussed by Gore.
The bull case for corporate venturing came out strongly in the conference. Global Corporate Venturing has tracked approaching 1,000 corporate venturing units worldwide. Given the number of delegates who said they were looking into setting up a programme, it looks like this number will grow significantly. The amount of money being accumulated by the world’s corporations has to be invested, and start-ups, which are booming, are a sensible target for some of this capital.
Of course, some warned that there is overexuberance in corporate venturing. Ahead of the conference, Intel Capital’s head of western Europe and Israel, Marcos Battisti, framed this sceptical view in an interview with Global Corporate Venturing, saying: “We are starting to hear corporate ven- turers are here. They will save the ecosystem. I fundamentally disagree. Historically they have been the last in and the first out. They have previously come in when the bub- ble is about to burst. When it bursts they walk away.”
Yet if the current wave of enthusiasm propelling many into corporate venturing is more than just cyclical excess, corporations will become important shepherds of young companies. This trend will have important ramifications for the future, with greater resources being made avail- able to smaller companies, providing support for more entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs have proven throughout history they can shape a different future, sometimes a better future. That the world’s largest companies are moving from a strategy of being inward-looking to embracing interaction with such entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship should become easier.
Perhaps for the first time, it may be that corporate venturing will move from being an interesting niche pursuit to a driver of change in innovation and the economy.
It is a true privilege to be working in an industry that can transform or even simply affect how future generations live their lives. Seize your chance now, as this may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for corporate venturing to make a mark.