Stacy walks us through a macro-historical retrospective detailing what structural issues led to the last decade of rapid innovation within the construction ecosystem, outlines when, why, and how he has seen venture capital pour into the broader builtworld environment to accelerate digital transformation aligned to those structural issues (note according to McKinsey, on a comparative basis, VC investment in construction tech outpaced the overall VC industry 15-fold through 2019; and didn’t slow i...
Apr 11, 2022•44 min
Eric explains how he defines Industry4.0 and walks us through a global outlook on how the US, Germany, and China are progressing their respective initiatives, what the challenges are associated with selling digital innovation into these industrials settings both for large enterprise accounts and the long tail of mid-market manufactures (tip: get them to see successful digital innovation in person!), how companies can get started on their digital transformation journies and why you have to bring ...
Apr 05, 2022•38 min
Carl shares what led to his maker passion within industrial settings and re-launching Flying Moose, how the current Russia and Ukraine war (as well as Covid fallout) will impact global supply chains, how he is advising his h/w-oriented startups to harden their own supply chain and manufacturing capabilities, his strategy for capitalizing business models with sizeable 'bits meet atoms' h/w components (tips: take the cash if available, building truly differentiated h/w products create clear moats)...
Mar 21, 2022•40 min
Ankoor outlines his macro take on what’s occurring within the current global supply chain strain, why customers are searching for integrated, end-to-end multi-mode/multi-node supply chain solutions to fix it, how rail and intermodal are critical pieces of the supply chain that are innovating faster than ever, and how the private equity asset class is clearly not sitting on the sidelines when it comes to pouring capital into the digitization of the supply chain.
Jan 31, 2022•37 min
Heavy Hitters episode 43 is live now with NEA Venture Partner, Jeff Immelt. As a GE Ventures alumni, this one is extra special to me. Jeff discusses how an interest in company creation led him into venture capital as his next chapter after GE, where his role as a Venture Partner fits into NEA’s fund strategy, how he transitioned his skillset from running one of the world’s largest and most prestigious corporations into the venture capital asset class, why he outlined in his new book “Hot Seat” t...
Jan 03, 2022•31 min
Mike discusses what the trends and indicators were all the way back in 2017 that led Plug and Play to launch their supply chain focused program, how they leverage their extensive corporate network to build out a win/win/win model to drive value to startups, corporate partners, and Plug and Play, what the specific events and engagement tactics his team leverages to facilitate deep relationships between startups and corporate partners, and from the supply chain program’s global footprint (Silicon ...
Nov 29, 2021•31 min
Steve explains what is meant by In-Q-Tel’s platform slogan to “combine the security savvy of government with the can-do curiosity of Silicon Valley”, why their efforts building a bridge between private sector innovation and federal government agencies is so important to us all from both an economic and a security perspective, how digital industrial innovations specifically are legitimate matters of national security for the US government to stay on top of (hint: a lot of offline infrastructure a...
Nov 22, 2021•39 min
We discuss the ‘6Ts’ framework Aaron developed to evaluate industrial automation innovation, how he analyzes the total market opportunity for robotic applications that are blazing new trails, the capitalization strategy he leverages for businesses that have both s/w and h/w components (bits meet atoms!), what role blitzscaling has to play in these industrial categories where bits meet atoms, and finally, we discuss the underlying macro factors and tailwinds that are at play globally leading to w...
Nov 08, 2021•29 min
Sunil outlines how he got the conviction to leave a premier VC platform to launch Ubiquity Ventures, breaks down his thesis and definition of investing in “Software beyond the screen”, shares how he defines Deep Tech (and what its not!), details how he got comfortable investing ahead of the curve in Deep Tech categories that often don’t have clear exit potential paths/comparables at the outset, and finally, Sunil provides a critique of why Elon Musk’s comment of “Space is hard” is not only wrong...
Nov 01, 2021•35 min
Heavy Hitters episode 37 is live now thanks to BuiltWorlds allowing the release of their 2021 US Summit panel discussion “Tech Strategy: Build vs. Buy”. Listen in on the discussion I hosted with a diverse group of Builtworld experts including Stacy Scopano at JE Dunn, Meg Baldini at Procore, Vivin Hegde at Hilti, and Dave Burns at McCarthy. We cover a lot of ground including evaluating frameworks to decide on “Build vs. Buy (or Partner!)”, how subsequent implementation considerations weigh heavi...
Oct 25, 2021•46 min
Tim shares his own driver for jumping into the digital industrial investment ecosystem, what he defines as the ‘pre-covid and post-covid’ macro factors that outlined the time was now to focus on these industrial markets in order to both drive alpha for the fund and align to OpenView’s mission to “improve people’s working lives”, why he thinks specialization and having a prepared mind are critical to moving fast within industrial automation applications, how OpenView applies their Product-Led Gro...
Oct 18, 2021•33 min
We walk through how Brentt found himself carving out a thematic focus on the Builtworld ecosystem within Greycroft, how he defines the Builtworld ecosystem start-to-finish, why the time was now to begin investing behind that thesis to drive alpha for their fund, why its critical to be thematically and sector-focused in order to compete within the venture asset class today, how Greycroft leverages their value-add platform of resources to support founders scaling in these sectors, share Builtworld...
Oct 11, 2021•34 min
Cutler shares why a world-recognized, 60-year old general contractor decided in 2018 to launch a dedicated innovation division, Dysruptek, what his latest industry pulse on the state of construction tech today is, what some of the unique challenges that come with deploying innovation within a construction environment, how he leverages Dysruptek’s corporate venture capital platform to drive sector-focused value both to startups and to Haskell, and we wrap up discussing construction tech trends “W...
Oct 04, 2021•37 min
Chris walks us through the history that led to Fontinalis Partners launching one of the very first thematic VC funds specifically targeted on mobility and “Reinventing the way people and goods move”, how the broader mobility ecosystem has evolved over the past 12 years since launching the fund and what that has meant to Fontinalis’s thematic strategy, why sector-focus and thematic specialization in venture capital is important to compete in the current VC asset class, why the automotive industry...
Sep 20, 2021•30 min
Sam shares how his iconic, early-stage enterprise s/w venture fund found itself investing in emerging tech applications like warehouse robotics, drones, etc., outlines why “cognitive applications” will be the next generation of great s/w companies and how those apps are built on top of the current foundation of cloud & SaaS infrastructure, describes how Scale leverages their Mega-Trends Process to identify the upside potential/alpha within emerging technologies, walks us through lessons lear...
Sep 13, 2021•27 min
Canaan is a storied, early-stage venture VC fund that has been around 34 years with ~6B AUM across 12 funds, and Rayfe discusses what the macro factors were that led Canaan into expanding a frontier and industrial tech thesis that would drive alpha for their fund. With a large and diverse partnership that is split 1/3 healthcare (digital, biopharma, medtech) and 2/3 tech (consumer, fintech, enterprise/cloud, frontier), he discusses both how to navigate a partnership into a new investment categor...
Sep 07, 2021•31 min
Ginger explains why a private, fourth-generation family-owned industrials business founded in 1930 with over 38 operating companies (heavy construction and materials, environmental services, and specialty chemicals) would spool up a venture group, how her team leverages the extensive resources of The Heritage Group to drive differentiated value to their portfolio companies, why we should all remember industrial innovation relies on physical world innovation (i.e. hardware) not just digital innov...
Aug 30, 2021•29 min
Trevor outlines how having a sector focus, and associated domain expertise, provides a prepared mind that allows him to both underwrite investments quickly and provide sector-aligned value back to their portfolio companies, where he thinks the venture asset class is headed between sector focused funds and generalist funds, why Blackhorn expanded its multi-stage investment capabilities from seed-to-growth with an opportunity fund that provides the ability to ‘play through’ with investments throug...
Aug 23, 2021•36 min
Travis explains how they saw the opportunity to build an architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) and real estate focused network of investors to launch Building Ventures to invest in ‘sapling-stage’ companies, helps define what the terms Built Environment and Builtworld mean to them, outlines why buildings and the associated construction process of making them have a massive role to play in sustainability efforts going forward, why he feels the term “Constructuring” is indicative of how...
Aug 16, 2021•33 min
Bryan has easily been one of the most active investment bankers within the digital industrial ecosystem, and he kicks off the discussion outlining why he believes Desktop Metal’s SPAC in late 2020 was the catalyst that set off the record level of dry powder in the capital markets to target the digital manufacturing ecosystem. He walks us through how 8 months after Desktop Metal’s SPAC there have been 61 transactions and ~$7B in transaction volume; which is on par for the entire history of invest...
Aug 02, 2021•35 min
Gina leads the DHL Americas Innovation Center, a 28,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility in Chicago where customers, partners, academia, and thought leaders can experience the next generation of logistics in an interactive showroom environment. From her vantage point helping create the logistics of tomorrow, we discuss what logistics innovation is hot and what is hype, why DHL’s recent sustainability pledge to be emissions free by 2050 is a critical initiative, how to deploy and actually s...
Jul 20, 2021•30 min
Supply chain tech startups raked in $7.7 billion in venture funding in Q1 2021, an increase of 90.6% over last quarter and a staggering 355.1% year over year (Pitchbook), and transportation & logistics subsegments were a major part of that activity. Mike & I discuss the innovation journey Ryder took to launching Ryder Ventures, what trends and technologies his team are focused on, how he defines and approaches last mile innovation to meet ever-increasing customer experience requirements,...
Jul 12, 2021•30 min
Guy’s unique background, blended between deep tech and capital markets, guides us through a fun discussion on the topic of “Deep Tech”. We define what “Deep Tech” is, outline why we’re already living in a ‘Present Future’ surrounded by these technologies, evaluate how the future of work will be impacted by these innovations, and then bring it all back to how the capital markets are exploding with funding growth in this category to meet the opportunity ahead.
Jul 05, 2021•35 min
Family office direct investing into the private markets, and the venture capital asset class specifically, is at an all-time high. Cindy joins us to outline how the Perot Jain office leverages its extensive industrial operator network and physical infrastructure footprint to gather market intelligence on real-world pain points to invest behind, how their broader platform leverages all of its resources to drive tangible value back to startups targeted at those pain points (hint: they’ve actually ...
Jun 28, 2021•36 min
Ram has deep experience on both sides of the tech startup and incumbent table, and he brings that experience to help drive SAP’s current SAP.iO corporate innovation platform efforts. We discuss why when SAP kicked off SAP.io in 2016 it all started and ended with thinking about how to drive value to their customers, how SAP.iO has become a gold standard in corporate innovation via activating multiple levers internally and externally (internal corporate venture investing through SAP.iO Fund, SAP.i...
Jun 07, 2021•46 min
Julian was ahead of the curve in identifying the e-comm wave that is now transforming our industrial supply chain, and he founded Schematic Ventures to go all-in on that shift to better compete in a venture capital asset class that is only getting more and more competitive. We talk about his transition from being a generalist into a very focused specialist investor, how sector specialization compounds learnings and benefits to his network and within the portfolio, why he is adapting his fund con...
May 24, 2021•40 min
Dynamo was one of the very first sector-focused VC funds that lasered in on supply chain. Santosh outlines how they leverage that sector focus to add value in 3 distinct areas at the pre-seed and seed stage when founders truly need a trusted partner (not just capital), how having a focused 'prepared mind' provides him an advantage in helping founders navigate these complex industrial supply chain settings, and why fund size drives fund construction strategy in a VC asset class that is blurring t...
May 18, 2021•35 min
There has never been a more critical and more opportune time than right now to revitalize the US manufacturing base, and as the Global Head of Manufacturing for McKinsey, Enno has one the most unique vantage points in the world on this topic. We discuss how the US excels at manuf. tech innovation but has work to do in adopting and scaling those technologies domestically, why it’s critical to both bring new talent into and build a more inclusive manufacturing workforce, why McKinsey and the World...
May 10, 2021•37 min
As the cloud infrastructure heavyweight within industrials, Microsoft is now throwing its resources behind startups through its Microsoft for Startups platform to accelerate vertical growth for both sides. Having sold his last IoT software company into Microsoft in 2016, and now leading Microsoft for Startups focus on industry verticals, Tom brings us a very unique perspective as to how the times have changed for what startups do and don't need to build themselves. We cover a range of topics inc...
Apr 12, 2021•39 min
Industy4.0 will not succeed without a vibrant and diverse community of both private and public support. As P33’s resident Industry4.0 and Ventures expert, Brandi helps lead P33’s mission to turbocharge Chicago’s tech ecosystem stimulating growth and providing inclusive opportunity to all through orchestrating the various voices of the business, startup, non-profit, and government communities. She discusses why building up an inclusive Industry4.0 ecosystem is so important to both P33’s focus on ...
Apr 05, 2021•35 min
