I have to admit, there is something strange about getting a lifetime achievement award. Particularly when one is still alive and kicking! I am too young for this!
My hope is that I have a whole lot of life to live, and a whole lot more to contribute. And it has always been in my nature to look forward at what is to come, rather than backward at what has been. But I want you to know that I am deeply humbled by this honour, and very grateful. Thank you. Truly.
I have always enjoyed being involved with this organisation. I have admired Jim [Mawson] for creating it, for growing it with Tim [Lafferty] and with the GCVI team into the force that it has become. For tirelessly convening us, all over the various nodes around the world.
And I am sure I join everyone here in my gratitude for Christina Riboldi, who organised this and all our Annual Summits before it… each year, richer and richer in content. We all know how indispensable her energy and work has been, and we are thankful that it allows us to benefit and learn from each other, and to celebrate with our colleagues.
And, a special shout-out to my former GE Ventures colleagues, some of whom are in the audience. Working with you guys was both a privilege and great fun! Thank you for all that you built, what you contributed towards GE’s future, and importantly, to the startups we invested in and…for your dance moves! Like a proud mama, I love seeing what many have gone on to do… whether it is working for some of the pre-eminent organisations in our industry… or creating their own organisations as general partners… or becoming established VCs of their own for the first time. I salute you and the resulting diaspora – I cannot wait to see what you do next!
When Jim told me about this award, I was hesitant to receive it for many reasons. So, I decided not to look at this award as the marker of a personal milestone but instead, as a symbol of the critical work we have all done, to operationalise this discipline, to develop it, shape it, and refine it and to deploy it on a global scale, with global impact.
So this award is a recognition of all we do, of our industry.
It is a recognition of people like Reese Schroeder, Claudia Fan Munce and Barbara Dalton, all previous recipients of this award and who laid foundational groundwork for corporate venture capital.
It is a recognition of George Hoyem and Bill Taranto and others like them, who-could teach a masterclass in building partnerships, across startups and companies.
It is a recognition of people like Wendell Brooks, Young Sohn and Bonny Simi, who have continued to blaze the trail that now brings CVC directly into the C-Suite.
Our ecosystem builders, all of whom who have provided the services and training needed to keep strengthening this important CVC discipline. And Lee Sessions, who for years helped entrepreneurs work with Intel… now brings his practitioner experience for many into GCVI for all of us to benefit – congratulations Lee.
And that is just to name a few. It takes a village to build our village, of now almost 1,900 corporations that have CVC units.
I think it can be easy in our line of work – in any line of work really – to get so caught up in the daily stress of the day-to-day that you sometimes forget to look up. You sometimes forget to remind yourself of what it all means… and what it all adds up to. I know I did.
So now, I want to remind you that it adds up to quite a bit. I know you know this but indulge me, and let me say it to you!
You are the future sensors. Future proofers. When corporations need to see around corners, you are their eyes.
You build that vital bridge between startups and legacy companies… a bridge between boldness and wisdom… a bridge between dexterity and scale.
And because of that scale, and because of your work, you are helping the world solve some of its most intractable problems. And that is true whether you are doing the work of tough tech or you are the digital infrastructure for a digitised world.
Think about the opportunities that are made possible because of your leadership. You do not just identify the entrepreneurs and technologies that are important to our collective futures. You do not just provide investment capital. You bring to bear the power of a global footprint and global expertise to turn ideas into reality at unmatchable scale.
Think of the advancements you are helping to drive – in infrastructure, in energy, in healthcare, in finance, media – and the millions of people and communities who are touched by that work.
Yours is the work of overcoming the innovator’s dilemma… which I say in tribute to the one and only Clay Christensen. May he rest in peace – and with our gratitude – for his great body of work, and its impact on the world of innovation and entrepreneurship.
I know that some of the outcomes by which you are measured are the size of your financial returns. But let’s not forget the impact beyond the balance sheet. Because taken together, what you are doing, in this line of work, is powering the fourth industrial revolution. You are the fuel. You are the conduit.
And to think, 10 years ago, this event did not exist. This discipline was in its infancy. We have come a long way.
There is now so much attention and talent and money being brought to bear in this space. We have seen our share of total VC dollars double since 2014. We have seen the emergence of CVC heads and innovation officers in the C-suite. We have seen this room grow from a few dozen people to almost a thousand strong! In short, we have seen the kind of growth that speaks to a hopeful and productive future.
This work you do is meaningful. It is purposeful. It matters.
If it was not clear before, it is clear now: This discipline of CVC is here to stay. And that, fellow travellers, merits standing tall and proud.
But that does not mean it is easy.
Sometimes it can feel less like you are a bridge between startups and corporations, and more like you are a rope… being pulled in both directions in a high stakes game of tug-of-war.
It is not easy marrying two fundamentally different cultures: the startup and the big multinational. And yet, that is the ballgame. Because no matter how good you are at scouting for the next big thing or breakthrough technology and surveying the landscape, no matter how well you manage capital flows and de-risk deals, the outcome of your work lives or dies based on whether effective partnership is possible. Outside and inside. And that can be frustrating – in part because big, self-sufficient companies are not very good at it, and in part, because the management of partnerships often feels far beyond our reach.
I hope that together, we can change that. I would like to see us, CVC practitioners, start playing a more central role in helping solve the partnership problem. I would like to see us surface best practices from our deep well of experience, and use them to develop key partnership principles that can be modelled across the board. Beyond just the legal deal structure – shared goals, aligned values, healthy and productive operating rhythms, measured and partnered progress. Measured in total dollars and total impact. It is hard to imagine something we could do of greater value.
So, thank you. Thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for your risk-taking, for your courage and your thoughtfulness, and above all, for your boldness to explore, to experiment, and to drive into the future.
Let me close with this. There is a story I love about a famous French painter who invited a journalist into his studio for a rare interview toward the end of his life. The studio was filled with extraordinary works of art, some hanging on walls, some stacked up in shelves by the dozen.
The journalist says to the painter, “You have created so many masterpieces. I have to know, which one of these paintings is your favourite?”
The painter looks at the journalist and smiles. “That is easy,” he says. “It is the one I will paint tomorrow.”
Ladies and gentlemen, I am in awe of the masterpieces you have already created. But most of all, I am excited to see what you will paint tomorrow.
Thank you.
Sue Siegel
Lifetime Achievement Award winner 2020
