About Anthony Liu

Anthony Liu is the founder of New Ventures at Swire Properties, which sources and funds innovative tech solutions across 17 business units. He is also co-founder and board member of Urban Lab, China’s first PropTech corporate accelerator, launched with JLL and Ping An.

What We Cover

• Why innovation culture starts with accepting the culture that’s already there
• The three pain points: time, knowledge, and money
• New Ventures’ four-step process: Study, Source, Trial, Adopt
• What “internal product-market fit” means and how New Ventures achieves it
• The origin of Urban Lab: 12 startups, 3 months, 100% POC conversion rate

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction and guest background
(02:30) Why innovation culture starts with what’s already there
(07:30) New Ventures’ four-step process
(15:45) Building trust over knowing the tech
(24:00) What is PropTech?
(28:30) Urban Lab: China’s first PropTech accelerator

Key Takeaways

1. Don’t fight the existing culture. Connect innovation to what people already care about — their KPIs, their promotions, their teams.
2. Remove the three blockers. Time, knowledge, and budget. Once you do, people are willing to try almost anything.
3. Real-world POCs beat lab experiments. Lab experiments give you data; real deployments give you buy-in and genuine learning.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Swire Properties New Ventures — search “Swire Properties New Ventures”
• Urban Lab — China’s first PropTech accelerator (JLL + Swire + Ping An)
• Airlite Air-Purifying Paint: airlite.com

Where to Find Anthony Liu

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anthony-liu-swire

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

What We Cover

• Why academia turns money into knowledge and industry turns knowledge into money — and why they speak the same language backwards
• How BioMedX launched without venture capital or public funding
• The global crowdsourcing and local incubation model: 200–600 applications, 15 finalists, a five-day bootcamp
• Why four nights without sleep is the selection mechanism
• How BioMedX is approaching pandemic preparedness with the Rapid Antiviral Response Platform
• The three types of scientists: academic, industry, and entrepreneur

Timestamps

00:00 – Why academia and industry speak the same language backwards
02:00 – BioMedX: the origin story and the Merck partnership
05:00 – Launching without VC: how three sponsored projects made it work
07:00 – The crowdsourcing and bootcamp model explained
09:00 – No sleep, no ego: how BioMedX selects its researchers
12:00 – The Rapid Antiviral Response Platform and COVID-19 research
16:00 – Three types of scientists and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

Key Takeaways

1. Great research institutes need to bridge the gap between exploration and commercialization — BioMedX was designed to live in that gap.
2. Trust between collaborators is built under pressure, not in a normal assessment center — sleep deprivation reveals character faster than any formal process.
3. Before becoming an entrepreneur, figure out which of the three types you are: academic, industry, or entrepreneur. Knowing yourself early saves years of friction.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• BioMedX Institute: bio.mx
• Merck Innovation Cup (referenced in episode)
• Rapid Antiviral Response Platform (referenced in episode)

Where to Find Christian Tidona

Website: bio.mx
Search Christian Tidona on LinkedIn

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

About Adrian Rubenstein

Adrian Rubenstein holds degrees in biology, pharmacy, and epidemiology. After working as a medical advisor at a pharmaceutical company, his passion for technology led him to his role as Innovation Manager for Argentina and Latin America at Merck Group.

What We Cover

• Why most innovation ideas die before they get a chance to fail properly
• The role of purpose-alignment in getting stakeholder buy-in
• How to influence without authority inside large organizations
• Adrian's structured innovation process: discovery, journey mapping, ideation, prototyping
• Using video instead of PowerPoint to get executive attention
• How to measure innovation success beyond launched products

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:35 – Adrian's career path: from biology to innovation management
05:00 – Why corporate innovation fails: the misalignment problem
10:00 – How to align stakeholders on purpose before anything else
15:00 – Influencing without authority
20:00 – Discovery, Five Whys, journey mapping, ideation

Key Takeaways

1. Start with purpose, not the idea. Before pitching any innovation, align every stakeholder on a shared purpose. Without it, everyone pulls in different directions — and the best idea becomes a turf war.
2. Influence through understanding, not conviction. You have no formal authority as an innovation manager. Influence comes from deeply understanding what each stakeholder needs and showing how your solution helps them get it.
3. Go deep before you go wide. Use the Five Whys to get to the real problem, not the symptom. Most teams jump to solutions too early. Real diagnosis is where the leverage is.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Merck Group: merckgroup.com

Where to Find Adrian Rubenstein

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrianrubenstein

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

About Oded Barel-Sabag

Oded is a serial community builder and innovation ecosystem architect based in Jerusalem. After four and a half years helping grow SIFTECH into Jerusalem's leading accelerator, he joined Jnext — the Jerusalem Development Authority's startup ecosystem program — to scale what the community had built from the institutional side.

What We Cover

• How Oded discovered SIFTECH through a letter to the mayor about a co-working space
• The community initiatives that extended SIFTECH's reach: hackathons, Creative Mornings, and more
• Why Oded left SIFTECH after four and a half years — and what he learned from the transition
• What Jnext is and why only Jerusalem has something like it
• How the Jerusalem Development Authority shifted from grants and industrial zones to ecosystem thinking
• The three ingredients of a thriving startup ecosystem: capital, know-how, and rebellion culture
• Why ecosystems are rainforests — organic, not over-planned
• The generosity mindset institutions need to adopt — and where tension still shows up

Timestamps

(02:35) Community initiatives beyond the accelerator: hackathons and Creative Mornings

(07:01) What the Jerusalem Development Authority does — and how it evolved

(11:16) The anatomy of a startup ecosystem — people, bottom-up energy, and institutions

(16:00) Three ecosystem ingredients: capital, know-how, and rebellion culture

(18:02) How Israel built its VC industry by identifying what was missing

(21:36) Generosity vs. control: what governments need to get right

(23:12) Why conflict and misalignment can be healthy

Key Takeaways

1. Ecosystems need rebellion, not just resources. Capital and know-how aren't enough. A culture that challenges the status quo is the third — and often missing — ingredient.
2. Government's job is to enable, not control. The JDA's most effective move was backing community-led initiatives rather than imposing top-down programs.
3. Build platforms for collision. Hackathons, meetups, and informal events aren't soft activities — they're the mechanism through which ecosystems compound.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Rainforests: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley — Victor W. Hwang & Greg Horowitt

Where to Find Oded Barel-Sabag LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/oded-barel-sabag-b442736/

Listen to Part 2 open.spotify.com/episode/1GuqfP8b7c7p4DMxIgv7yD

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystems.io

What We Cover

• Why organizations don't suffer from a lack of ideas — they suffer from cultures that kill good ideas
• The three-team model: Explorers, Scalers, and Optimizers — and why the Scale team is always missing
• Why innovation fails internally, not in the market: incentives, politics, and "not invented here"
• The flywheel diagram: small wheel → chain → big wheel, and why it mostly goes one way
• What makes a great Scaler: persuasion and negotiation over design thinking
• What happens to innovation teams during downturns — and why that's when disruptors emerge

Timestamps

00:00 – Innovation is a baton race — and the baton keeps getting dropped
03:00 – What every institutional innovation program gets wrong
05:00 – The missing Scale team: your best entrepreneurs, in the middle
08:00 – Why scaling is the hard part — even inside large corporations
10:00 – What makes a great Scaler: "Getting to Yes" over Double Diamond
14:00 – The flywheel diagram explained: Explore → Scale → Optimize
20:00 – Failure rates, learning culture, and the distance hypothesis

Key Takeaways

1. Organizations aren't suffering from a lack of ideas — they're suffering from ways of working and cultures that kill good ideas from within.
2. The missing piece in most innovation programs is the Scale team: entrepreneurs who can navigate internal politics and hand innovation off to the core business without dropping the baton.
3. Every recession creates disruptors — because established companies over-grip on the short term while someone else is taking bigger bets on a shoestring.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Nobl: nobl.io
• Nobl Academy: nobl.io → Resources → Academy
• "Getting to Yes" by Fisher & Ury
• Article: "What Every Institutional Innovation Program Gets Wrong"

Where to Find Bud Caddell

Website: nobl.io

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449
Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io
For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

What We Cover

• What social innovation is and how Dan defines it
• Why Australia has a strong social innovation culture — and the "tall poppy syndrome" paradox
• What Stone & Chalk does: the five buckets of value for startups
• How to build community with introverted founders who don't want to talk to each other
• The corporate-startup relationship challenge: why innovation departments get bypassed
• Why decision-makers deeper in the org matter more than innovation managers

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:30 – How Dan defines social innovation
03:00 – The Australian Centre for Social Innovation: "Families by Families"
05:00 – Dan's role as UN Youth Ambassador for Australia
06:00 – Stone & Chalk: what it does and who it's for
09:30 – Building community with introverted founders
13:30 – Corporate-startup relationships: the real challenge
18:00 – Community vs. culture: what's the difference?
22:00 – Why the best communities are a little bit like cults
26:00 – Australia's startup ecosystem: Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne

Key Takeaways

1. Community is not geography — it's knowing what each other does and why it matters. Dan's litmus test: ask one startup what another startup does. If they can't answer, you don't have a community yet.
2. The innovation manager is often not the right person to sell to. The people who champion startup adoption through to procurement and legal are usually deeper in the organization — building those relationships is how you avoid the deal dying at the last step.
3. In innovation hubs, the connective tissue between people has to be actively managed. Founders won't naturally talk to each other. Someone has to make the introduction — and create enough shared rituals that people keep coming back.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Stone & Chalk: stoneandchalk.com.au
• Australian Centre for Social Innovation: tacsi.org.au
• Techstars / Startup Weekend: Give First philosophy

Where to Find Dan Ryan

Search Dan Ryan on LinkedIn
Twitter: @danmanryan

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

About Andrew Maxwell

Andrew Maxwell is a Professor at the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University in Toronto, teaching technology entrepreneurship, Renaissance engineering, and technology commercialization. His career combines business experience, economic development, and academic excellence.

What We Cover

• How Andrew's engineering and business background shaped his approach to innovation
• The role academia plays in driving entrepreneurship and commercialization
• How to bridge the gap between academic research and industry needs
• Building an entrepreneurial mindset inside a university environment
• Key lessons from working across academia, government, and business

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:24 – Andrew's background and path to innovation
05:00 – Innovation at the intersection of academia and business
10:00 – Teaching entrepreneurship: what works and what doesn't
16:00 – Bridging academia, government, and industry
22:00 – Key lessons for aspiring innovators

Key Takeaways

1. Innovation requires institutional bridges. The most impactful breakthroughs happen at the intersection of academia, government, and business — not in any one sector alone.
2. Entrepreneurship can be taught. Courses in technology commercialization help students and researchers translate ideas into real-world ventures.
3. Start with the problem, not the solution. The most successful innovations begin with a deep understanding of unmet needs, not with a technology looking for a market.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Lassonde School of Engineering: lassonde.yorku.ca

Where to Find Andrew Maxwell

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrewmaxwell

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

What We Cover

• What it means to be a "pricing nerd" and why pricing is often overlooked in innovation
• Why SaaS companies price too high early and what they should do instead
• The psychology of switching costs, inertia, and why free doesn't always mean adoption
• How to use personas and buyer journeys to figure out pricing
• Why you should price for what customers value — not what the product costs you
• The difference between the buying value proposition and the using value proposition

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction: what is a pricing nerd?
01:30 – Money left on the table: pricing and the innovation strategy
03:00 – The SaaS pricing mistake: pricing too high, too early
05:00 – What to price for: value drivers vs. arbitrary limits
07:00 – The persona as a pricing tool: do a buying journey
08:30 – Why free doesn't guarantee adoption
09:00 – Enterprise SaaS: buying vs. using value propositions

Key Takeaways

1. Pricing is part of the user experience. The way you structure your price shapes how customers onboard, engage, and deepen their use of your product. Calendly is a masterclass in this — the pricing makes people want to use it more, not less.
2. Do a buying journey, not just a user journey. Personas are great for understanding behavior, but map that same persona through the purchasing decision — what drives them to click "pay," what holds them back, and what makes switching feel too costly.
3. The biggest SaaS mistake is putting too many price points on the product. Understand your top two or three value drivers and price for those — make the rest free to maximize adoption.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• DYDX: dydx.digital

Where to Find Nevo Hadas

Email: nevo@dydx.digital
LinkedIn: Search Nevo Hadas on LinkedIn

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

About Oded Barel-Sabag Oded Barel-Sabag is a serial community builder and innovation ecosystem architect based in Jerusalem. He co-founded and sold a startup, opened a neighborhood bar, helped launch SIFTECH — Jerusalem's first startup accelerator — brought Creative Mornings to Jerusalem, and now serves as Executive Director of Jnext, the high-tech and entrepreneurship program of the Jerusalem Development Authority.

What We Cover

• Why Oded's superpower isn't hustle — it's trust
• The difference between picking your team and getting lucky with people
• Why entrepreneurship is always a team sport
• Jerusalem's identity problem and the "negative migration" narrative
• The origin story of SIFTECH — born underground, literally
• How early community events like Off the Record created the social glue for an ecosystem
• The tipping point when Jerusalemites went from doubters to believers

Timestamps

(00:00) Opening — on building ventures for fun, not money

(01:16) Oded's background and the Jerusalem ecosystem

(03:51) Trust as the foundation of every partnership

(06:10) How Oded establishes trust: gut feeling vs. process

(07:42) Running multiple ventures in parallel — and washing dishes

(10:08) Jerusalem's startup identity and what was missing

(12:28) The origin of SIFTECH — two founders, one mission, floor minus one

(14:50) Off the Record events and the startup social layer

(16:00) Critical mass, Made in Jerusalem, and the shift from doubters to believers

(17:10) SIFTECH moves to JVP Media Quarter and formalizes

Key Takeaways

1. Trust before tasks. Every venture Oded built started with people he already had a relationship with. The project comes second.
2. Ecosystems need social glue, not just infrastructure. Jerusalem had VCs and universities — what was missing was people talking to each other.
3. Community initiatives are ecosystem infrastructure. Meetups, intimate events, and shared spaces aren't nice-to-haves. They're what tips an ecosystem from potential to momentum.

Where to Find Oded Barel-Sabag LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/oded-barel-sabag-b442736/

Listen to Part 1 open.spotify.com/episode/5QtbdMntWoqZYIHPMu0CDI

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystems.io

About Jenny Wu & Roland Osborne

Jenny Wu and Roland Osborne work at 500 Startups, one of the world's most active global venture capital firms and startup accelerators, with over 35 batch programs and a portfolio spanning more than 75 countries.

What We Cover

• What makes startup-corporate experiments succeed or fail
• How to design a POC with clear success criteria
• The role of internal champions in driving experiments forward
• How 500 Startups supports startups in navigating corporate partnerships
• Tips for startups on managing expectations with large organizations

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:00 – Jenny and Roland introduce 500 Startups
05:00 – Why startup-corporate experiments fail
10:00 – Designing a great POC: success criteria and structure
18:00 – The internal champion: why they matter
25:00 – Advice for startups entering corporate pilots

Key Takeaways

1. Define success before you start. The most common reason POCs fail is that success criteria were never clearly agreed upon by either side at the outset.
2. Find your internal champion. Every successful corporate-startup experiment has an internal champion who is personally invested in its success and can navigate internal politics.
3. Time kills deals — and experiments. Startups operate on a different timeline than corporates. Explicit milestones and review dates keep experiments from dying a slow death of inaction.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• 500 Startups: 500.co

Where to Find Jenny Wu & Roland Osborne

Jenny Wu on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jennywu
Roland Osborne on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rolandosborne

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

About Marcel Botha

Marcel Botha is an entrepreneur, engineer, architect, and investor. Through his firm 10X Beta, he has helped medical professionals develop and commercialize products ranging from electronic stethoscopes to surgical instruments. He holds a master’s from MIT’s Media Lab.

What We Cover

• Marcel’s path from architecture in Cape Town to MIT’s Media Lab
• The product development philosophy behind 10X Beta
• How Marcel selects which ideas to pursue — and which to pass on
• Building a ventilator in 30 days during COVID
• Why if you can’t ship at scale, your contribution doesn’t count

Timestamps

(00:00) The satellite phone call that changed everything
(03:00) From Cape Town to MIT
(14:00) Idea selection at 10X Beta
(18:00) Validose: an intranasal drug delivery device
(23:00) The SpiraWave ventilator project
(33:00) Shipping 3,000 units: why scale matters

Key Takeaways

1. Overnight success takes 10–15 years. SpiraWave was built in 30 days because the team had decades of shared experience.
2. If you can’t ship at scale, your contribution doesn’t matter. Delivering 3,000 units is the actual achievement.
3. Build wrappers, not replacements. Validose wraps existing drug packaging — that’s how you bypass IP barriers and reach market faster.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• 10X Beta
• SpiraWave / SpiroDevices
• New Lab

Where to Find Marcel Botha

Email: marcel@10xbeta.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marcelbotha

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

What We Cover

• What Julia's role at Bayer involves and how she got there
• Why large companies struggle to innovate internally — and what to do about it
• How the Catalyst Entrepreneurship Program develops entrepreneurial mindset inside Bayer
• What Lifehub Berlin is and how it connects corporate teams with the startup ecosystem
• What makes a successful corporate-startup collaboration
• How to measure culture change inside a large organization

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction

01:00 – Julia's path to innovation at Bayer

04:00 – What open innovation means inside a 100,000-person company

07:30 – The Catalyst Entrepreneurship Program: building intrapreneurs

12:00 – Lifehub Berlin: co-working, incubation, and startup connection

17:00 – What makes corporate-startup collaborations succeed or fail

22:00 – Measuring culture change and what success looks like

Key Takeaways

1. Culture change at scale requires a portfolio of programs. Bayer combines structured entrepreneurship training, physical spaces like Lifehub Berlin, and open innovation partnerships to create multiple entry points for the innovation mindset.
2. The best corporate-startup collaborations start with a clear problem. When a corporate comes to a startup with a vague mandate to "innovate," it rarely works. When they come with a specific, unsolved problem, both sides have something real to work on.
3. Intrapreneurs need protection, not just support. Training and permission aren't enough if incentives still punish failure. Creating genuine space for experimentation means protecting people from the consequences of trying something that doesn't work.

Resources & Links Mentioned

Bayer: bayer.com

Lifehub Berlin: lifehub-berlin.de

Where to Find Julia Hitzbleck

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/juliahitzbleck

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.

Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL

Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

What We Cover

• What Carl means by "the great acceleration" and why this crisis is different from 2008
• The 50-50 physical-digital model as the resilience playbook for retail
• What Carl learned from studying innovation labs around the world
• Why the best labs are the ones you don't know are labs
• How to build a more affordable, realistic innovation lab inside an actual store
• Why the manager's willingness matters more than demographics in choosing a test location

Timestamps

00:00 – One word for retail right now: panic
02:00 – The great acceleration: what's different about this crisis
07:00 – The resilience playbook: heading for 50-50 physical-digital
10:00 – Context: the McGill University retail innovation lab
12:00 – What Carl learned from studying labs around the world
16:00 – Why the best labs don't look like labs
18:00 – Building affordable, realistic labs inside actual stores
22:00 – The store manager factor: why openness beats demographics
27:00 – What's next for the innovation professional

Key Takeaways

1. The best retail innovation labs are the ones you don't know are labs. When technology runs in the background and optimizes invisibly, the lab serves customers instead of showcasing itself. The goal is a real transactional environment, not a showcase of cool stuff.
2. Innovation needs to ROI across multiple time horizons. First-generation labs went too far into the future without delivering near-term value. Balance short-term pilots in actual stores with longer-horizon exploratory work.
3. In choosing a test location, the store manager's openness matters more than demographics. If the manager isn't a champion, the experiment will fail regardless of the market data.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• McGill University retail lab (in development at time of recording)
• Explorium Shanghai (referenced in episode)
• Kyle Nel / Lowe's Innovation Labs (referenced in episode)

Where to Find Carl Boutet

Search Carl Boutet on LinkedIn

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449
Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io
For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

What We Cover

• What EU-funded R&D consortia are and how they're structured
• How the Socios project brought together IBM, Google, Deutsche Welle, KU Leuven, and others
• The citizen journalism use case and how crowdsourcing was applied to media production
• How to manage eight partner organizations with different cultures and incentives
• Face-to-face vs. remote meeting tactics in large consortia
• What Kostas has learned about social analytics and AI deployment at the edge

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:30 – Kostas's background: from computer science to EU research projects
05:00 – How EU-funded consortia work: structure, partners, and funding
09:00 – The Socios project: citizen journalism and social analytics
14:00 – Managing eight partners across multiple countries
19:00 – Face-to-face meetings vs. remote coordination in consortia
23:00 – AI and edge computing: Kostas's current research
27:00 – Lessons for anyone managing complex multi-stakeholder projects

Key Takeaways

1. Face-to-face meetings are non-negotiable for complex multi-party alignment. Remote communication handles execution — but real alignment on direction and trust only happens in person.
2. In large consortia, the work of managing relationships is the work. Technical execution matters, but the real challenge is keeping eight teams with different institutional incentives moving toward the same goal.
3. Crowdsourcing works best when the task is clearly scoped. Vague crowdsourcing mandates produce chaos. Breaking contributions into specific, concrete tasks is what makes the crowd useful.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Harokopio University of Athens: hua.gr
• Socios project: socios-project.eu

Where to Find Kostas Tserpes

Search Kostas Tserpes on LinkedIn

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

Leonard shares the origin story of Fung Academy, how they partnered with MIT, Stanford, and Singularity University to transform 1,500 leaders, and the counterintuitive decision to hire a supply chain expert — not an L&D professional — to run the whole thing.

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction and guest background
(01:30) What is a corporate academy?
(03:00) The strategic context behind Fung Academy’s founding
(05:00) How the academy is structured and what a “typical day” looks like
(07:30) Preparing for 3.8 billion new Asian consumers and what that meant for talent
(09:30) The whitewater kayaker metaphor for navigating complexity
(11:15) How to influence the business when you’re a separate entity
(13:30) Reporting to the Group Chairman: why top-level support is non-negotiable
(15:00) From cost center to investment model — the three-part funding structure
(17:30) Reframing the conversation from “cost” to “investment”
(20:00) Inside the MIT and Stanford programs — content vs. context
(23:00) Singularity University and preparing for exponential change
(25:00) Why offsite, immersive programs beat in-office learning
(26:00) How to get started: step-by-step advice for building your own academy
(29:00) Who to hire: why Leonard isn’t a traditional L&D person — and why that’s the point
(31:30) The Chief Catalyst: bringing the head of IDEO Shanghai inside
(33:00) Knowledge management: “putting knowledge into the flow of work”
(35:00) Mentoring, reverse mentoring, and the apprentice model
(36:30) What’s next for Fung Academy and corporate academies globally

Where to Find Leonard Lane

Email: llane@uci.edu
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leonard-d-lane-3490061

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

What We Cover

• Why Enel chose commercial partnerships over venture capital investment
• How the Enel innovation hub network was built, starting in Israel
• What a hub manager actually does day-to-day
• How to identify and prioritize startup opportunities from across a global business
• The push vs. pull dynamic: scouting startups vs. being found by them
• How hub managers manage the handoff from ecosystem to business divisions

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
02:11 – What Enel does and how the hub network works
04:13 – Why Enel doesn't invest in startups — and why that's a competitive advantage
07:54 – The startup perspective: why no equity is a feature, not a bug
09:50 – The global hub network: seven locations and counting
13:19 – The role of the hub manager: connector, scout, and translator
17:14 – How Enel prioritizes innovation needs across business units
21:48 – Push vs. pull: scouting startups vs. being found by them
29:00 – How COVID changed the hub's operations

Key Takeaways

1. Commercial partnerships beat equity for startup collaboration. Enel's decision to not take equity removes friction and competition concerns — and makes it a more attractive partner for startups and the VCs that back them.
2. A hub's real value is the relationships it maintains. With lean teams of one or two people per location, the hub's job is to build and maintain deep relationships with local ecosystems and connect them to the right business division at the right time.
3. Timing is everything. A great technology at the wrong moment gets killed. The hub manager's job includes knowing when — not just whether — to introduce a startup to a business unit.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Enel Open Innovability: openinnovability.enel.com

Where to Find Luca Seletto

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lucaseletto

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

About Tom Chi

Tom Chi is a founding member of Google X, where he worked on Glass, self-driving cars, Project Loon, and the glucose-sensing contact lens. A named inventor on 75 patents, he is also founder of At One Ventures, a deep tech fund investing in companies that make humanity a net positive to nature.

What We Cover

• Why Tom launched At One Ventures and what "at one with nature" means in practice
• How rapid prototyping outperforms discussion-based decision-making
• What corporates get wrong about experimentation
• The Four C's: creativity, compassion, community, and critical thinking
• Radical Harmony and the future of the industrial economy

Timestamps

00:00 – Every experiment can be small, but ambition shouldn't be
02:06 – Deep tech investing and rebooting polluting industries
05:07 – Google X: Glass, self-driving cars, Project Loon
08:39 – Prototype thinking: design science in practice
12:56 – Why corporates resist experimentation
26:37 – The Future Skills Toolbox and the Four C's

Key Takeaways

1. 95% of ideas don't work — so stop debating and start making. Prototype thinking skips the argument phase because three hours of building reveals more than two months of discussion.
2. The Four C's are the future of human work. Creativity, compassion, community, and critical thinking are the skills robots won't master soon — they're the foundation of most future jobs.
3. Culture is observable behavior, not a slogan. To change culture, identify specific behaviors you want more or less of, then run experiments to shift them.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• At One Ventures: atoneventures.com
• Tom Chi's website: tomchi.com

Where to Find Tom Chi

Website: tomchi.com
At One Ventures: atoneventures.com

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.

Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL

Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

About John Carter

John Carter is an innovation consultant, author, and board member at Cirrus Logic. He spent years working with Dr. Amar Bose at MIT and later helped Apple build a scalable product development process. He consults worldwide through his firm TCGen.

What We Cover

• What it was like working with Dr. Bose as a true apprentice
• How Dr. Bose approached radical focus — and what he refused to pay attention to
• How active noise cancellation was invented — and the unexpected selling point
• What Apple asked John to do — and why he refused to start with metrics
• Why context switching kills productivity in product development

Timestamps

(00:20) Introduction and John’s background
(02:00) How John became Dr. Bose’s teaching assistant
(08:00) Dr. Bose’s superpower: radical focus
(10:00) Building active noise cancellation
(19:00) John’s work with Apple: refusing to start with KPIs
(27:00) The cost of context switching

Key Takeaways

1. Focus is a skill — and a discipline. Dr. Bose worked on one problem at a time and hired for everything outside his focus.
2. Don’t buffer your innovators from customers. Direct user exposure reoriented Bose’s entire research program toward noise reduction.
3. Context switching has a real cost. Every time you pull someone off deep work, you lose more than the time — you lose the state of mind that made progress possible.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• TCGen — John Carter’s consulting firm
• Cirrus Logic

Where to Find John Carter

Website: tcgen.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johncarter-tcgen

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

What We Cover

• Natalja's journey from academic anthropologist to innovation strategist
• What ethnography is and why it's more powerful than user interviews
• How Natalja conducted her study at Fjord (acquired by Accenture)
• What liminality means and why innovation is a liminal process
• Why designers are "liminal beings" — and why that matters
• The connection between the hero's journey and the role of the designer

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction: in-between fields and identities
02:00 – Natalja's background: from anthropology to innovation
06:00 – Why innovation is a people process, not just a method
08:00 – Ethnography at Fjord: studying designers from the inside
14:00 – What ethnographers actually do: tools and methods
22:00 – What is liminality? The concept explained
28:00 – Designers as liminal beings and guides through uncertainty
34:00 – The hero's journey and the role of the mentor

Key Takeaways

1. Ethnography reveals what user interviews miss. Interviews capture what people say — ethnography captures what they actually do. Observing people in context produces richer insight than any survey.
2. Innovation is a liminal process — and that discomfort is normal. The in-between state innovators experience has a name, a history, and a body of knowledge around how to navigate it. Recognizing this reduces the panic.
3. Designers are not the hero — they're the guide. The real skill isn't generating ideas, it's creating the conditions in which other people can generate ideas and move through discomfort.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• "Design Thinking Coming of Age" (HBR, 2015 — referenced in episode)
• Strategy Makers: strategymakers.nl
• Fjord (design and innovation consultancy, acquired by Accenture)

Where to Find Natalja Laurey

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=Natalja+Laurey+ethnography

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

What We Cover

• Why innovation needs its own measurement framework (and can't share one with execution)
• How vanity metrics and hockey-stick projections undermine innovation programs
• The three-part framework: identify impact, define activities, bring it all together
• The role of menu items in making innovation actionable for individuals
• How to have the conversation with senior leadership about what "good" looks like

Timestamps
03:30 – Vanity metrics, hockey sticks, and the P&L trap
07:00 – Disruptive vs. sustaining innovation — and why the spectrum matters
11:00 – The secret blend: innovation accounting meets OKRs
16:00 – The Innovation Measurement Grid explained
19:00 – Part 1: identify the impact you want to make
21:00 – Part 2: define the activities that get you there
23:00 – Part 3: bringing it all together in a matrix

Key Takeaways

1. If innovation isn't in someone's targets, it isn't their job. The biggest barrier Suzanne found was simple: nobody had innovation written into their goals. Before any framework or tool, teams need explicit, personal targets that make innovation part of their actual work.
2. Traditional metrics are built for execution mode, not exploration mode. Revenue, ROI, and P&L are lagging indicators that measure what's already been delivered. Innovation needs metrics that track learning speed and assumption validation instead.
3. The measurement grid answers the question leadership always asks. By combining what a team is doing with what they're working toward, the grid lets leadership see whether a team is moving in the right direction — without defaulting to "when will this make money?"

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Measuring Innovation and How You Can Do It Too (article by Suzanne Vos, Female Tech Leaders magazine, July 2020)
• The Lean Startup & The Startup Way by Eric Ries

Where to Find Suzanne Vos

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/suzannevos

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

What We Cover

• What XNODE does and how it bridges China with the global startup ecosystem
• How the XNODE-HiTechXL partnership was built on trust instead of contracts
• Why typical Western innovation methodology doesn't work in China
• How China's innovation culture has moved well past the "copycat" narrative
• The most common mistake multinationals make when bringing innovation to China
• Battle-tested tactics for corporate-startup collaboration in China

Timestamps
01:30 – Luuk's role at XNODE: community, services, and venture building
04:00 – Building a cross-cultural team: 80/20 Chinese-international
06:00 – The XNODE-HiTechXL partnership: built on a handshake
13:00 – Luuk's personal story: from Dutch entrepreneur to China
17:00 – HiTechXL and how the partnership came together
22:00 – China's innovation reality: beyond the copycat narrative
27:00 – Battle-tested tactics for corporate innovation in China

Key Takeaways

1. In China, relationship beats contract. The XNODE-HiTechXL partnership was started on a handshake, with no formal agreement. In China, the relationship is the contract — and trying to formalize too early often kills the trust needed to make things work.
2. Western innovation methodology doesn't translate to China. Lean startup and design thinking assume a Western customer behavior and organizational context. Chinese entrepreneurs are more horizontal, pragmatic, and short-term — programs need to be rebuilt from scratch.
3. The boundary conditions for corporate-startup collaboration are prerequisites, not afterthoughts. IP arrangements, procurement process, and ROI expectations must all be set before launching. Without them, even well-funded programs produce nothing but beautiful photos.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• XNODE: xnode.com
• HiTechXL: hitechxl.com

Where to Find Luuk Eliens

Email: luuk.eliens@xnode.com
Search Luuk Eliens on LinkedIn

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

About Christine Wang

Christine is a Managing Director, board advisor, and speaker with over a decade of experience bridging the corporate and startup worlds. She has led innovation at the Lufthansa Innovation Hub, built ventures at BCG Digital Ventures, held a leadership role at Alibaba, and served as China CEO at Meero. A native of Shanghai, Christine is fluent in five languages and operates across Europe, Asia, and beyond.

What We Cover

• What a venture architect actually is — and why the title had to be invented
• The hustler, hipster, hacker model and how it maps to venture building
• Why innovation appetite without organizational support is worthless
• The real cost of entering China: influencer economics, long timelines, and lock-in effects
• Why Southeast Asia might be the smarter bet for startups right now

Timestamps

(01:03) How you become a venture architect

(02:13) The venture architect role explained: co-founder meets strategist meets business operator

(04:16) Why corporates need venture architects — and when they don't

(08:06) Challenges and lessons from BCG Digital Ventures

(15:28) China — a separate ecosystem, not just another market

(17:24) What startups need to know before entering China

(21:05) Southeast Asia as the next frontier for growth-stage startups

Key Takeaways

1. A venture architect is a startup co-founder inside a corporate — without the freedom of one. The role only works if leadership creates the environment for it to succeed.
2. Top management support isn't a nice-to-have — it's the variable that decides whether innovation ever shows up on the balance sheet.
3. China is not just a harder market — it's a fundamentally different ecosystem. Different design logic, different customer behavior, different growth mechanics. Treat it as such, or don't enter.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Ping An — case study in corporate digital transformation
• LinkedIn's China entry strategy (2014) as a model for long-term market commitment
• ChrisRodMax.com
• Faces of the World, Faces of the Earth — Christine's documentary photography project

Where to Find Christine Wang

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christinewang0

Listen to the Episode open.spotify.com/episode/5qG1FxwKY09qh7bbgEKDrL

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystems.io

About Jesse Nieminen

Jesse Nieminen is the co-founder and chairman of Viima, the most widely used and highest-rated innovation management software in the world, with over 8,000 organizations on the platform. Before Viima, Jesse worked as a software engineer and consultant across Europe. Viima is headquartered in Finland.

What We Cover

• How standard decision-making processes break down for innovation
• Why “improvement” sometimes works better than “innovation” as a term
• How to de-risk innovation: shared understanding, a simple plan, the right stakeholders
• The three-horizons model for a balanced innovation portfolio
• What Viima’s in-product surveys revealed about organizational barriers

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction — Jesse Nieminen and Viima
(06:00) What Viima’s surveys revealed
(14:30) The two types of innovation champions
(22:30) Why “improvement” can beat “innovation” as terminology
(35:00) Low-hanging fruit vs. big impact
(38:00) The three-horizons model

Key Takeaways

1. Stop calling it innovation. If the word creates skepticism, use “improvement” and build from there.
2. Distribute ownership. One team can’t carry the entire innovation agenda. Get champions across departments to own their own processes.
3. Balance the portfolio. Use the three-horizons model: most work incremental, a smaller percentage aimed at larger bets.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Viima: viima.com — free basic plan for unlimited users

Where to Find Jesse Nieminen

Email: jesse@viima.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jesse-nieminen

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

What We Cover

• What visual collaboration is and why it works better than describing things in words
• What "Enterprise Transformation Manager" actually means — and how it differs from traditional customer success
• How to identify transformation champions in your organization using usage data and social media
• Why COVID-19 accelerated adoption of digital collaboration tools by years
• The signs that an organization desperately needs to transform
• How global innovation management differs from regular innovation management

Timestamps

00:43 – Introduction — Wout Hermans and Mural
01:00 – What Mural does: visual collaboration explained
04:30 – Breaking down the Enterprise Transformation Manager role
09:50 – What makes organizational transformation hard — and what actually works
10:50 – Vision + tools + repetition: the three-part formula
12:00 – Champions: how to find them, why they matter, and how to use them
15:00 – Signs that an organization needs to transform
17:00 – Why global innovation management is different
22:15 – How IBM, Selena, and Mural each shaped Wout's approach

Key Takeaways

1. Visual communication closes interpretation gaps. If two people describe a chair in words, they're imagining different chairs. Show it instead.
2. Transformation is a multi-year effort. Don't set a "transformation year." Set a transformation direction and invest in it continuously.
3. Find the champions and use their energy. Don't exhaust yourself trying to convert the resistant. Let the enthusiasts lead the way.
4. Millennials leaving is a data point. If younger people aren't staying, the organization probably isn't transforming fast enough.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Mural: mural.co — visual collaboration platform

Where to Find Wout Hermans

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/wouthermans

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

What We Cover

• What innovation theater is and why it's become so widespread
• Why organizations default to it — and why it's tempting
• The seven practical ways to avoid putting on a show
• How to identify your minimum viable audience (MVA) before you start
• Why authenticity and vulnerability matter more than spin
• Why actions — even small ones — are the only real antidote to theater

Timestamps

00:00 – What is innovation theater? Three examples
02:00 – Why organizations default to theater
03:00 – Way 1: Have a plan — and keep it simple
05:00 – Way 2: Figure out your minimum viable audience
07:00 – Way 3: Be authentic — find your voice, share your mistakes
08:00 – Way 4: Know thyself — run an honest audit of your capabilities
10:00 – Way 5: Find the right talent
12:00 – Way 6: Get help — inside influencers, accountability, professional development
12:30 – Way 7: Actions speak louder than words

Key Takeaways

1. Innovation theater thrives where there is no plan. The organizations most likely to end up with an empty lab are the ones who started with enthusiasm and no strategy. A plan needs a vision, goals, metrics, people, activities, timeline, and a budget.
2. Your minimum viable audience matters more than your total audience. You need the right people — your boss, your champions, your business unit heads — to understand what you're doing and why. If they don't, the project is already in trouble.
3. Actions are the only antidote to the theater label. One small pilot, one real case study, one thing you've actually done — that's what sticks. It is always better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• CB Insights: "Corporate Innovation Theater in 8 Acts" (2015)
• CB Insights: "A Guide to Corporate Innovation: 19 Strategies" (2018)
• Seth Godin on minimum viable audience (referenced in episode)

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

About Christine Outram

Christine Outram is an award-winning entrepreneur and MIT alum. She is the CEO of Everyday, a digital tutor for high school students. Before Everyday, she was Chief Product Officer at Veritas Prep and inventor of the Copenhagen Wheel, a Time Magazine Best Invention.

What We Cover

• What an ELB (Exponential Little Bit) is and why 10 minutes a day beats cramming
• How Everyday uses the 70% likelihood sweet spot to keep students in flow
• The product-market fit survey: what “very disappointed” tells you
• How to talk to users without anchoring their answers
• Why online learning completion rates are terrible — and what design can do

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction — Christine’s background and Everyday
(04:15) From architecture to MIT to product
(13:30) Unlearning perfectionism: the MVP shift
(22:30) The product-market fit survey
(28:30) What is an ELB? Exponential Little Bits explained
(35:00) The 70% likelihood zone and flow state

Key Takeaways

1. Small bites compound. An ELB — 10 minutes a day consistently — outperforms a 3-hour cram session almost every time.
2. Design for engagement, not completion. Most online learning fails because it’s boring, not hard. Engagement is the product.
3. The 70% rule. Serve content students have a 70% chance of getting right — hard enough to stretch, easy enough to continue.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Everyday: everyday.com
• The Copenhagen Wheel — Time Magazine Best Invention
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi — Flow theory

Where to Find Christine Outram

Email: christine@everyday.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christineoutram

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

About This Episode

Joyce Tay, co-founder of StartupX in Singapore, shares what makes corporate-startup relationships different in Southeast Asia — from powerful conglomerates to community-first ecosystems — and how to make them actually work.

What We Cover

• The most misunderstood thing about corporate-startup relationships
• Why managing attitudes and expectations comes before everything else
• How StartupX structures its corporate engagement process
• How conglomerates in Southeast Asia impact startup ecosystems
• StartupX's unfair advantage: community first, quality delivery always

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction

(01:50) Joyce's journey: founder, Block71, StartupX

(09:30) The Singapore startup ecosystem: tight, global-first

(13:00) The biggest misunderstanding about corporate-startup relationships

(22:00) How StartupX structures a corporate-startup engagement

(33:00) How conglomerates in Southeast Asia impact startups

Key Takeaways

1. Challenge the "why" before designing the program — vanity vs. genuine challenge changes everything.
2. Corporate-startup relationships are a marathon: mindset change, quick wins, and long-term trust take time.
3. Community-first is StartupX's real edge — insight, credibility, and access no corporate-backed operator can buy.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• StartupX: thestartupx.com
• Block71: block71.co

Where to Find Joyce Tay

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joycetayhj/

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.

Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL

Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

About Nevo Hadas

Nevo Hadas is a Partner at DYDX, a digital transformation practice based in Cape Town with clients across Europe and Africa. DYDX focuses on product and service design, culture and future of work, and purchase journey automation. Nevo also teaches design thinking at Red & Yellow Creative School of Business.

What We Cover

• What digital transformation actually means — and why automation isn't the answer
• Why culture and the human change piece is harder than the technology
• The "Amazon was a terrible bookshop" argument and digital transformation
• What design thinking does well — and what it doesn't
• How DYDX runs fast, structured design thinking with weekly client feedback
• The Smollan project: from a vague brief to a smart dispensing unit

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:22 – What DYDX does: product design, culture, and purchase journey automation
04:45 – Amazon was a terrible bookshop — and why that matters
07:37 – Creating new rituals to replace the old in digital transformation
09:11 – The most misunderstood thing about design thinking
14:53 – The Smollan project: smart dispensing in informal retail

Key Takeaways

1. People need rituals — even in a digital transformation. The reason so many projects fail is they replace rituals without creating new ones. You can't just remove them; you have to build replacements that serve the same human needs.
2. Design thinking's real power is stopping premature decisions. It forces executives to keep listening to the market. An iterative approach builds certainty instead of pretending certainty exists upfront.
3. The problem you're asked to solve is almost never the real problem. The Smollan project started with a vague brief — and ended with a smart dispensing unit nobody imagined at the start. Research reveals what's actually possible.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• DYDX: dydx.digital
• Red & Yellow Creative School of Business: redandyellow.co.za

Where to Find Nevo Hadas

Email: nevo@dydx.digital
LinkedIn: Search for Nevo Hadas

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

What We Cover

• What it means to be Head of Culture and Collaboration — and why both words matter
• How Mural's culture differs from Hano's: product-first versus culture-first remote organizations
• The hybrid team problem: when some are in the office and others are remote, asymmetry kills inclusion
• Why remote workers have built empathy for office life, but not the reverse
• What the day after COVID might look like — and why the result will be personal for everyone

Timestamps

00:00 – Mural, culture, and collaboration explained
03:00 – Head of culture vs. head of collaboration: the internal and external view
05:00 – Hano was culture-first; Mural is product-first — the difference matters
09:00 – Why remote workers prefer controlling their environment
11:00 – The day after COVID: what Laïla predicts
14:00 – The hybrid team problem and building empathy across work styles

Key Takeaways

1. Fully distributed teams share one experience — hybrid teams do not, and that asymmetry requires active effort to bridge.
2. Remote workers already know how to work in offices; office workers haven't learned to work with remote colleagues — the empathy gap runs one way.
3. What happens after COVID will be personal: some will run back to the office, some will never return, and most will land somewhere in between — smart organizations will offer flexibility rather than uniformity.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Mural: mural.co (free trial; free for consultants and educators)
• Hano remote work playbook: search "Hano remote work playbook" on Google

Where to Find Laïla von Alvensleben

Website: lailavon.com
Laïla von Alvensleben on LinkedIn
Twitter: @lailavona

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

About Scott Anthony

Scott Anthony is a Senior Partner at Innosight, the growth strategy firm co-founded by Clayton Christensen, and co-author of Eat Sleep Innovate. Based in Singapore since 2010, he has spent two decades helping global companies navigate disruptive change.

What We Cover

• Edgar Schein’s three levels of culture — and why the waterline is where change happens
• Why stated values have zero relationship with actual behavior
• The five innovation behaviors: curious, customer-obsessed, collaborative, adept in ambiguity, empowered
• DBS Bank vs. Singtel: two different paths to culture change
• The intelligent failure framework and FAIL = First Attempt in Learning

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction — Scott Anthony and Innosight
(10:00) Edgar Schein’s three levels of culture
(13:00) Stated values vs. actual behavior
(15:30) DBS Bank vs. Singtel: two paths to culture change
(26:00) BEANS: behavioral enablers, artifacts, nudges, systems
(43:00) Intelligent failure: celebrating learning, not just winning

Key Takeaways

1. Culture is what people actually do. Stated values have near-zero correlation with real behavior. Measure behavior — not intent.
2. Change habits, not beliefs. It’s easier to act your way into new thinking than to think your way into new acting.
3. Intelligent failure is different from any failure. Be intentional about what you want to learn before you experiment. Celebrate the learning.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Eat Sleep Innovate by Scott Anthony — on Amazon
• Companion site: eatsleepinnovate.com (101 BEANs, free tools)
• Innosight: innosight.com

Where to Find Scott Anthony

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/scottdanthony
Website: innosight.com

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

What We Cover

• How Marius went from designer to startup ecosystem builder to MetaBeta
• What OKRs are and why they work better than traditional goal-setting
• The critical difference between accountability and responsibility
• How to build a self-managing team that doesn't need micromanagement
• The weekly, quarterly, and daily routines that make OKRs stick
• Why the problem statement canvas matters before you set any goals

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:30 – Marius's background and the origin of MetaBeta
05:00 – What OKRs are and how they differ from KPIs
10:00 – Accountability vs. responsibility: why the distinction matters
15:00 – How to build a self-managing team
20:00 – The routines: quarterly reviews, weekly all-hands, daily standups, 1:1s
27:00 – The problem statement canvas: why start with the problem?

Key Takeaways

1. Accountability is chosen; responsibility is assigned. The most important distinction in goal-setting is that accountability has to be voluntarily taken on — it can't be imposed from above. When teams confuse the two, you get finger-pointing instead of ownership.
2. Self-managing teams still need structure. The goal isn't to remove all management — it's to replace top-down control with shared rituals. Regular standups, weekly reviews, and quarterly reflections give teams the rhythm they need to stay aligned.
3. Start with the problem, not the goal. Before writing a single OKR, teams should invest real time in understanding the problem they're solving. Skipping this step is why most OKR implementations produce metrics that nobody cares about six months later.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• MetaBeta: metabeta.com
• Measure What Matters by John Doerr (referenced in episode)

Where to Find Marius Ursache

Search Marius Ursache on LinkedIn

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

What We Cover

• Corporates and startups: chess versus Fortnite — two completely different games on the same field
• Why the number one challenge in large organizations is getting them away from technology buzzwords
• The Workshop and the Kitchen: Li & Fung's open innovation crowdsourcing program built on Spigot
• Gorilla sessions: bringing in external speakers to challenge internal assumptions
• The Supercharger in Residence program: helping startups survive rapid scaling
• What corporate innovation leaders should focus on during a crisis

Timestamps

00:00 – Corporates and startups are playing different games
02:00 – Human at Work: strategy, innovation, and purpose explained
05:00 – Li & Fung: lessons from a 40,000-person global organization
07:00 – Innovation must come from culture — not from a hackathon
09:00 – The Kitchen: open innovation crowdsourcing at Li & Fung
13:00 – The Supercharger in Residence program for scaling startups

Key Takeaways

1. Corporates jump to AI and blockchain before asking what they're trying to solve — the job of an innovation advisor is to keep pulling them back to the problem before touching technology.
2. The best ideas don't come from HQ or the biggest paycheck — the Kitchen was built to surface ideas from the edges of a 40,000-person organization and make them visible company-wide.
3. During a crisis, stop examining the grains of sand and look for the tsunami — staying true to your cause while others firefight is where future competitive advantage is built.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Spigot (crowdsourcing tool used for the Kitchen at Li & Fung, referenced in episode)
• Li & Fung / Lianfeng Group (referenced in episode)

Where to Find Yi Hoo Ong

Search Yi Hoo Ong on LinkedIn

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

About Brian Tam

Brian Tam is the founder of Let's Make Great, a creativity and innovation consultancy based in Shanghai. He has worked with multinationals including GE, HP, Decathlon, and NYU on innovation workshops, design sprints, and strategy across Asia.

What We Cover

• How Brian went from English teacher to innovation consultant in Shanghai
• The vision statement that opened his first client door
• Why starting from a business mindset — not a design mindset — was key
• How to build an agency with near-zero fixed costs
• What "the next 100 years of innovation in China" actually means
• How NYU became his first client through a single conversation

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:51 – Brian's background: New Jersey to Shanghai
06:07 – Starting with what you have: talk, think, train
09:47 – The mission: "the next 100 years of innovation in China"
12:12 – How NYU became the first client
19:34 – The zero fixed cost model

Key Takeaways

1. Start with a vision, not a product. Brian's vision opened his first client door before he had anything formal to sell. A compelling vision attracts the right people early.
2. Prototype your pitch through live conversation. Brian refined his vision statement by watching facial reactions in real time — noticing which phrases landed and repeating them. Your message is a product too.
3. Keep costs at zero until you know what you're building. No office, no salary, no fixed costs. Only freelancers willing to share risk and reward. That lean model is what allowed Let's Make Great to survive.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Let's Make Great: letsmakegreat.com

Where to Find Brian Tam

Email: brian@letsmakegreat.com
Instagram & all platforms: @letsmakegreat

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

What We Cover

• What innovation really means (and why most people have it wrong)
• How Suzanne overcomes resistance to change inside large organizations
• The power of listening before diagnosing — two ears vs. one mouth
• How to segment an organization by where people are on the adoption curve
• The role of coaching in sustaining mindset change at scale
• What a one-day innovation hackathon can do for skeptical employees

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro: balancing implementation with relevance
00:49 – Suzanne's background: from family business to ING Labs Singapore
02:30 – The mindset and attitude of an innovator
04:59 – Making innovation actionable for everyone
06:45 – Overcoming resistance to change: listening before diagnosing
09:07 – Using evidence and assumptions to reframe the conversation
12:33 – Demystifying innovation: the one-day hackathon
15:30 – If you had to start over: what comes first?
18:34 – Segmentation: the secret weapon of innovation programs
20:15 – Mindset change is a balancing act — that's where coaching comes in

Key Takeaways

1. Listen before you prescribe. Resistance to innovation almost always has a root cause — a bad past experience, unclear value, or feeling unheard. Diagnose before you prescribe, just like a good doctor.
2. Segment your organization like you segment customers. Not everyone is asking "why should we innovate?" — some are already asking "how?" Treat each group differently, with tailored programs for where they are on the adoption curve.
3. Tools don't stick without the why. Introducing new methodologies without first helping people understand why innovation is relevant to them personally leads to programs that fade within months.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Be Less Zombie by Elvin Turner (mentioned in the episode)

Where to Find Suzanne Vos

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/suzannevos

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

About Brian Tam

Brian Tam is the founder of Let's Make Great, a creativity and innovation consultancy based in Shanghai. He works with multinationals across Asia on innovation workshops, design sprints, and strategy — helping organizations unlearn Western assumptions and find approaches that fit their markets.

What We Cover

• What makes innovation in China fundamentally different from the West
• Three drivers of Chinese innovation: centralized government, low-cost labor, practical culture
• How Brian acts as a cultural bridge for Western brands entering China
• Brian's favorite project: making the invisible visible for a client
• Why imagination and empathy are the most critical innovation skills
• Using COVID as a catalyst — not just a crisis — for transformation

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:34 – China as a place to unlearn: forcing assumptions to the surface
03:46 – Three drivers of Chinese innovation
08:39 – The cultural bridge: Brian's role with multinational clients
12:14 – Brian's favorite project: making the invisible visible
19:30 – Crisis as a Rorschach test — and how to use it as a catalyst

Key Takeaways

1. China's innovation is driven by three unique forces. Centralized government, low-cost labor enabling massive scale, and a practical "make it work" culture that treats copying as a starting point — not an endpoint.
2. Making the invisible visible is the real innovation work. Brian's favorite project started with a client who had an idea about an idea. The breakthrough was a framework that gave shape to something formless.
3. Crisis is a Rorschach test. The pandemic revealed what every organization was really made of. If you want to use it as a catalyst, ask: what would you do if no one remembered what you did before?

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Let's Make Great: letsmakegreat.com

Where to Find Brian Tam

Email: brian@letsmakegreat.com
Instagram & all platforms: @letsmakegreat

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

What We Cover

• Three things COVID taught Yaniv — about stillness, connection, and family
• Why boredom is a muscle worth training (even if he never practiced what he preached)
• How solitude made people more reachable — and why Yaniv leaned into that
• The gut-punch realization: not knowing his own kids as well as he thought
• What it actually takes to run a weekly interview podcast — and what nobody warns you about
• Consistency as a superpower and kryptonite
• The 5 most popular episodes of Season 1
• Why the innovation conversation is broken — and who Yaniv really wants to talk to
• What's changing in Season 2: fewer interviews, more conversations, a full digital school

Timestamps

(00:00) A different kind of episode — no music, no guest, no edits

(01:00) Three things COVID taught Yaniv

(02:28) Lesson 1: Permission to stop and be bored

(03:30) Lesson 2: Solitude made people more accessible

(04:25) Lesson 3: Rediscovering family — and the punch-to-the-stomach moment

(06:11) Why 2020 was the year of the pivot — from consulting to podcasting

(08:19) What he learned from running the podcast: it's hard, consistency is harder

(10:35) The good side: people are more open than you think

(12:36) Being a great interviewer is its own skill — and Yaniv's honest self-assessment

(14:37) The 5 most popular episodes of Season 1

(20:00) What's next: the School of Innovation goes digital

(21:53) The real pivot — from innovation professionals to everyday innovators

(25:18) Closing quote: Robert A. Heinlein on why specialization is for insects

The 5 Most Popular Episodes of Season 1

1. My Journey from Venture Architect to Multicultural Innovator — Christine Wang (Ep. 27)
2. The Entrepreneurial Scientist — Christian Tidona, hosted by Adrian Rubstein (Ep. 21)
3. Culture, PropTech and New Ventures — Anthony Lu (Ep. 4)
4. Navigating the In-Between: Ethnography and Innovation — Natalia Lora (Ep. 34)
5. Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing — Marius Orsache, Metabeta (Ep. 28)

Key Takeaways

1. Stillness isn't wasted time — it's a muscle. Workaholics need permission to stop. COVID forced it. Most of us needed it.
2. The innovation conversation is a closed circuit. Innovators talking to innovators gets old fast. The more interesting conversation is with people who don't have "innovation" in their title — but are building and improving things anyway.
3. The best innovators are generalists. As Heinlein put it: "Specialization is for insects." The School of Innovation is built for the rest of us.

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystems.io

About Hila Cohen

Hila Cohen is Head of Business Development and Chief of Staff at the WFP Innovation Accelerator. She joined WFP in 2012 and has been with the accelerator since 2015. Before WFP, she was a corporate lawyer in Tel Aviv. She holds an MBA from SDA Bocconi and a law degree from the University of Haifa.

What We Cover

• How the accelerator acts as a “translator” between startups and humanitarian operations
• How innovations are matched to country offices before bootcamps begin
• What happens during a 5-day innovation bootcamp
• Case studies: H2Grow (hydroponics) and Building Blocks (blockchain cash transfers)
• How impact is measured differently at each stage

Timestamps

(01:00) Introduction and Hila’s background
(02:30) What is the WFP Innovation Accelerator?
(06:30) The accelerator as a “translator”
(18:00) Matching startups to country offices
(28:00) H2Grow: hydroponics in refugee camps
(32:00) Building Blocks: blockchain for 400,000 refugees

Key Takeaways

1. Match before you invest. Falling in love with a startup means nothing if no country office needs what they’re building.
2. Existing tech, applied well, beats new tech applied poorly. Both H2Grow and Building Blocks used established technologies in new contexts.
3. Good enough at scale beats perfect in a lab. A $3,000 locally-built hydroponics system that replicates beats a $40,000 container that can’t.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• WFP Innovation Accelerator
• Apply to WFP Innovation Programs

Where to Find Hila Cohen

Email: hila.cohen@wfp.org
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/hilacohen

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

About Jan Kennedy

Jan Kennedy is the founder of the Academy for Corporate Entrepreneurship (ACE), a Munich-based firm that helps Fortune 500 companies run internal startup accelerators. He previously directed the Munich chapter of the Founder Institute before launching ACE with Allianz as its first client.

What We Cover

• Why only about 15% of any workforce has intrapreneurial DNA
• Why intrapreneurs should ask for forgiveness, not permission
• When top-down support matters — and when it doesn’t save you
• Bayer’s results: 1 billion euros of annual revenue potential
• The portfolio problem: who owns a portfolio of intrapreneurship projects?

Timestamps

(00:30) Origin story: frustrated managers at the Founder Institute
(03:30) Bootstrapping ACE and landing Allianz
(10:30) Ask for forgiveness, not permission
(15:00) The 15% thesis
(17:00) Bayer: 1 billion euros of annual revenue potential
(19:00) The portfolio problem: who owns it?

Key Takeaways

1. Intrapreneurship is innovation, not a program. Entrepreneurship = invention × commercialization. Intrapreneurship brings that equation inside existing organizations.
2. Only ~15% of your workforce has intrapreneurial DNA. Crowdsource ideas from everyone — but run the journey with the right people.
3. The portfolio problem is real. Nobody is responsible for a portfolio of intrapreneurship projects in most organizations. Someone needs to own this — or it dies.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Academy for Corporate Entrepreneurship
• Founder Institute
• Intrapreneur DNA Test — email jan@afce.co (mention this podcast for free access)

Where to Find Jan Kennedy

Email: jan@afce.co
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jankennedy-afce

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

About Elvin Turner

Elvin Turner is an innovation consultant, speaker, and author of Be Less Zombie — a practical field guide to corporate innovation. He helps organizations move from incremental thinking to bold, transformational ideas.

What We Cover

• Why companies don’t lack ideas — they lack bold ideas
• Creative constipation vs. creative indigestion: two ways fear shows up
• Why culture must be calibrated to the type of innovation you’re pursuing
• The concept of “catalytic questions” and how to design better ones
• The case for falling in love with your ideas — love vs. infatuation

Timestamps

(00:40) Introduction and Elvin’s background
(05:30) Companies don’t lack ideas — they lack bold ones
(08:00) Creative constipation and creative indigestion
(12:00) Why culture must match the innovation outcome
(15:00) Catalytic questions: what they are and why they work
(19:00) Should you fall in love with your ideas?

Key Takeaways

1. You don’t lack ideas — you lack bold ideas. The gap is in transformational ideas, not incremental ones.
2. Design your questions before your brainstorm. Catalytic questions break through status quo assumptions. Generic questions get generic answers.
3. Love your ideas — don’t be infatuated with them. Passion pushes ideas through resistance. The difference is whether you can still hear feedback.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Be Less Zombie by Elvin Turner — on Amazon and major bookstores
• belesszombie.com
• elvinturner.com — includes a free course

Where to Find Elvin Turner

Website: elvinturner.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/elvinturner

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

What We Cover

• Why COVID remote work is a crisis response, not a model — and why that distinction matters
• Remote work as a philosophy, not just a geography
• How Laïla found Hano through a tweet in 2014 and spent three years there
• The Hano remote work playbook: built for internal alignment and client trust, freely available
• Why you should not copy-paste your pre-COVID way of working into a remote setup
• The importance of culture conversations before tool conversations

Timestamps

00:00 – COVID remote work is not real remote work
03:00 – Remote work as philosophy, not geography
06:00 – How Laïla got into remote work — a tweet, a thesis, and a trip to Argentina
09:00 – What companies are asking about remote work right now
19:00 – Hano and the remote work playbook
26:00 – Buffer, Automattic, and the companies that set the standard

Key Takeaways

1. What people are calling remote work during COVID is a crisis response layered with pandemic stress — don't let it define your opinion of remote work as a practice.
2. Remote work is a philosophy of how you structure collaboration — companies with offices on multiple floors sending emails were already working remotely without using the word.
3. The Hano playbook worked because it was built iteratively and shared openly — it served as proof to clients that the team had their act together, even without a physical office.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Hano remote work playbook: search "Hano remote work playbook" on Google
• Remote Starter Kit (referenced in episode)
• Mural: mural.co

Where to Find Laïla von Alvensleben

Website: lailavon.com
Laïla von Alvensleben on LinkedIn
Twitter: @lailavona

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

What We Cover

• Why Daniel sees architects primarily as designers — not builders
• What architecture school actually teaches: iteration, uncertainty, and how to take feedback
• How the MIT Media Lab is essentially an architecture school without buildings
• Why design thinking is a "placebo" — and why that's not entirely bad
• Design doing vs. design thinking: the recipe vs. the ingredients
• Why architects are missing the conversation around spatial computing and immersive tech

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction: architects as exceptional entrepreneurs
11:00 – Midnight Commercial: from 3 to 25 people — and then what
15:00 – Why architects excel in multidisciplinary design teams
22:00 – Design thinking: what it gets right and what it misses
40:00 – What architects should do: expand beyond the building

Key Takeaways

1. Architects learn to design — buildings are just the medium. The real skills from architecture school — tolerating uncertainty, iterating under pressure, presenting to hostile critics — are directly applicable to innovation and entrepreneurship.
2. Design thinking works as a permission structure, not a process. It doesn't describe how design actually happens — it describes a placebo that makes non-designers comfortable enough to start.
3. The next big opportunity for architects is spatial computing. As technology moves into physical spaces, architects are uniquely equipped to contribute — but only if they stop seeing themselves as building designers and start seeing themselves as experience designers.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• CASE at RPI: case.rpi.edu
• MIT Media Lab: media.mit.edu
• Google Ara project

Where to Find Daniel Rosenberg

Email: daniel@phantasma.tech

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

About Michael Fenn

Michael Fenn holds a PhD in biomedical engineering and is Director of Health and Life Sciences at Harvard Innovation Labs. A former faculty member and lab director, he has supported startups from concept to Y Combinator and Series A funding, including Luminous Labs, which reached Y Combinator and exited successfully.

What We Cover

• How Harvard iLab evaluates and supports early-stage life science founders
• The four pillars of a successful venture: people, unmet need, IP, and capital
• How Harvard iLab's wet lab space and network drive startup success
• Bridging the gap between academic research and industry commercialization
• The most exciting trends in biotech: biomanufacturing, AI/ML, cell and gene therapy

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:01 – Michael's background: from faculty lab to Harvard iLab
03:28 – Harvard iLab's approach to evaluating ventures
07:31 – How Harvard iLab compares to MIT, Stanford, and others
12:04 – Building investor relationships and making introductions
18:45 – Biotech trends: biomanufacturing, AI, cell therapy, digital health

Key Takeaways

1. People first, always. Before evaluating the science, ask: are these the right people? The best technology in the wrong hands rarely reaches patients or markets.
2. Start with the unmet need, not the technology. The most successful life science ventures begin by deeply understanding a patient need — then matching it with science, not the other way around.
3. The academic-industry gap is a people problem. Bridging it requires mutual understanding of incentives. When academia understands what industry needs, both sides win.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Harvard Innovation Labs: innovationlabs.harvard.edu
• Lab Central: labcentral.org

Where to Find Michael Fenn

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michaelfenn

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io