Ep 22. Corporate Venture Capital : nothing ventured, nothing gained

Send us Fan MailIn this insightful episode about the business of Corporate Venture Capital (CVC), Suvo Sarkar is in a deep discussion with Nicolas Sauvage, President of TDK Ventures, the much-awarded CVC arm of TDK. What are some of the factors that are driving legacy corporates to invest in start-ups? Why does innovation have to be external as opposed to internal? Do CVCs turbocharge innovation? What is the ideal oversight for a CVC? And what metrics should we use to measure the success of CVCs? In a free-wheeling discussion on the merits and challenges of CVCs, Sauvage and Sarkar debate a few big bets versus many small ones, exploitation versus exploration, financial returns versus innovation objectives and cultural osmosis versus a Chinese wall between the corporate and the venture. Listen to two Stanford alumni discuss the critically important topic of CVCs and share your comments.