Simudis: Corporate venture funds do not guarantee high-quality deal flow
Evangelos Simudis · a16z Podcast | On Corporate Venturing & Setting Up 'Innovation Outposts' · Jan 2, 2019 · at 3:19
Venture capitalist Evangelos Simudis explains why corporate innovation efforts and CVC funds often fail to get traction in startup ecosystems.
0:00 / 0:08exact quote · 8.1s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Just because you're establishing a fund, it doesn't mean that now you're going to start seeing a tremendous deal flow and the right deal flow”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Evangelos Simudis
Simudis: Corporations should build business development before launching venture groups
“90% of the times is to establish a venture group. And in retrospect, we determined that maybe establishing a venture group wouldn't have been the right first step. Maybe they should have established a business development capability before they even think abou…”
Simudis predicts 50% of corporate VC arms will close next recession
“Now by, I would call them unofficial statistics, there are Roughly a little over a thousand corporations, which in a sense makes sense because many more geographies have opened up in the intervening, you know, 1015 years, and I wouldn't be surprised if we have…”
Simudis: Corporate moonshots that go exactly as planned lacked sufficient risk
“And when you're, our point is that when you are involved in moonshots, not everything is going to go as planned. And if it goes as planned, it means that you didn't take enough risks.”
Simudis: Silicon Valley tech companies will not completely overtake the auto industry
“There's also a lot of enthusiasm in the Valley from our own companies that we can completely overtake the automotive industry, and I think this is a fallacy. Completely obliterating it and making Silicon Valley the, you know, the next Detroit, it's hard for me…”
Simudis: Capital alone does not make corporate VCs valuable to startups
“Just because you have a venture fund and just because you're willing to spend some money doesn't mean that you become a value add partner of a startup or of a group of startups.”
Simudis: Corporate outposts require continuous executive engagement to succeed
“The ones that have a particular reason, they're trying to solve a particular problem, They have engagement from the highest levels of the corporation. It's not only anointment, but there is actually engagement on a continuous basis. They are the ones who are p…”