Investing In, Partnering With, and Building New Companies
Alloy is an annual invite-only event that brings together investors, startups, and leading Fortune 500 innovators who are interested in learning how to better engage with startups. In 2019, we hosted 300+ attendees in San Francisco for a day of inspirational content sessions and relationship building. An alloy is the union of two or more base metals resulting in a new, stronger, and more useful compound. We think this is a fitting metaphor for large corporations and startups that successfully work together.
Elliott Parker, Managing Director of Business Design and Corporate Innovation at High Alpha, kicked off #Alloy2019 with a look at the science behind engaging with startups.
In this session, Elliott describes how internal R&D and M&A are more expensive and less effective than they once were, due to the forces of decentralization. He explains how companies that want to innovate in meaningful ways should be engaging with startups through programmatic acquisition, partnership and investment, and external building of new, independent companies.
High Alpha is a Venture Studio that creates and funds enterprise software companies. Elliott’s team is primarily responsible for designing, validating, and launching new startups, often with corporate partners as co-founders and investors. Elliott previously worked in corporate ventures, strategy consulting, and as an entrepreneur to bring new ideas to market. Most recently, he was a consultant at Innosight, the strategy firm founded by Clayton Christensen, where he helped companies develop innovation capabilities, design growth strategies, and launch new ventures.