#56: Interview with Lauri Lehtovuori the CEO of the Corporate Venture Alliance - Combient Foundry
Today I have the pleasure of featuring an interview with Lauri Lehtovuori , the CEO of Combient Foundry - the Corporate Venture Alliance. Lauri's journey over the past decade paints a picture of a visionary dedicated to fostering innovation and nurturing entrepreneurial talent. His early endeavors in the Finnish startup landscape laid the groundwork for what would become a significant career focused on bridging the gap between fast developing startups and established corporations.
Lauri's journey in the startup world began more than a decade ago as a core member of the student group called Aaltoes, once titled as the most constructive piece of student activism in the history of the genre by the Economist. The team focused on spotting and filling gaps in the local and Nordic startup scene. They saw the need for better mentoring for founders, stronger talent development for startup operators, and better access to venture capital.
To address these needs, the team launched several key initiatives: they set up a startup accelerator to help aspiring entrepreneurs, created a program that sent talented students and graduates to work and learn at top startups in Silicon Valley, and organized the now-famous startup conference, Slush. These efforts connected aspiring entrepreneurs with top entrepreneurial talent, capital and networks, making Finland's startup environment famously vibrant and contributing significantly to the community's vibrancy.
Transitioning from these foundational roles, Lauri ventured into the realm of consulting, working for PwC on corporate innovation, employing his insights and experience to help large corporates engage with startups more effectively. His consulting work, particularly around open innovation demonstrates a profound understanding of the dynamic interplay between the agility of startups and the scale of industrial operations. He was also foundational in the "Navigating the Startup Space - Slush study 2016" by PwC highlighting how large companies can gain from engaging with top startups.
Today, Lauri is the CEO of Combient Foundry, a platform he leads with a goal of decreasing the time-to-market for both large companies and startups alike by bringing them together through fast and scalable commercial relationships. Under his leadership, Foundry has emerged as a strategic interface, enabling corporates to leverage startup innovation effectively while providing startups with a clear pathway to engage with and scale alongside industry giants.
About Combient Foundry
As I delve into our conversation with Lauri about Combient Foundry, it's clear that his career is a testament to his ability to identify and fill gaps within the innovation ecosystem.
Purpose and Strategy: Functioning as a global venture client alliance, Combient Foundry's mission is to reduce the time-to-value for participating companies. They do this by addressing specific strategic needs of industrial firms, specially in areas such as supply chain logistics, renewable materials, industrial automation systems, digitalization and artificial intelligence.
Lauri explains that they want to bring together the ‘Industrial Future Builders’ both from leading industrial companies and top startups to build new growth. Combient Foundry does this by compiling and keeping up-to-date industry-specific shopping list, making it simpler for top startups to identify customers and gain one-stop access to multitude of industrial companies. Simultaneously, industrial firms can connect with the world's best startups, swiftly addressing their business and R&D requirements. These strategic partnerships are intended to streamline the innovation process, facilitating the rapid development and deployment of new solutions.
Evaluation and Collaboration Approach for Corporations: Combient Foundry sits at the crossroads of traditional industries and modern technology startups, adopting a distinctive collaboration model for industrial leaders. The core idea is that large companies don’t need to establish extensive organizational structures to benefit from the venture client method. Instead, they can start fast, using relatively few resources that can scale according to the company’s needs and the value realized. In today’s world, where all resources are critical, that sounds smart.
Knowledge Sharing and Insights: Combient Foundry creates a space where companies don't just work together; they also build a strong community with others facing similar challenges. In this community, companies learn from each other’s experiences and share their own insights, challenges, and solutions. This open exchange helps everyone grow and innovate faster, making it easier to adapt to new business trends. Members benefit from the shared knowledge and collective experience, which boosts their innovation efforts. Essentially, Combient Foundry turns individual learning into a group achievement, increasing the overall impact for all members.
Operational Support and Technology: Combient Foundry, strategically located in Stockholm, Sweden, and Helsinki, Finland, is expanding their operations and network by establishing offices in Silicon Valley, Switzerland and Germany this year. This expansion positions the organization to drive innovation not only in the Nordic region but also globally. Furthermore, Combient Foundry is developing their proprietary data platform, Foundry Lens, designed to simplify the process for industrial companies and global startups to connect and form commercial partnerships.
Combient Foundry - Working with Startups and the offering
At Combient Foundry, the collaboration with startups isn't just about transactions; it's a dynamic ecosystem aimed at fostering long-term partnerships. As described byLauri Lehtovuori, Combient Foundry acts as a pivotal bridge between large industrial firms and agile startups, optimizing the pathway from first contact to successful commercial relationships.
The Offering to Startups: Fast-Track to Commercial Partnerships
The process begins with a meticulous setup where Combient Foundry identifies specific needs within their partner companies’ strategic frameworks. These needs are then matched with the innovative solutions offered by startups through a structured program called Foundry Cycles. These cycles occur approxametly three times a year, ensuring a regular intake and evaluation of new technologies and solutions.
Streamlined Engagement Process
Startups interested in engaging with Combient Foundry are encouraged to participate in these cycles, where they can present their solutions to multiple industrial leaders simultaneously. This approach not only saves time but also increases the visibility of startups among potential clients. Once a startup enters a cycle, they go through a series of workshops and evaluations designed to assess the fit between the startup’s offerings and the corporate’s needs.
Speed and Scale: The Core Advantages
A crucial advantage that Lauri highlights is the speed of the process. From the initiation of a cycle to the commencement of a pilot project, the timeline is impressively short — it can go as fast as around three months. This rapid progression is a testament to Combient Foundry's efficient orchestration of the matchmaking process, which is further aided by their proprietary data platform, Foundry Lens. This platform supports the seamless connection of startups’ innovations with the complex needs of large enterprises.
Beyond Business: Building a Community of Innovation
Furthermore, Combient Foundry nurtures a community where knowledge sharing and collaboration are encouraged. Startups not only gain direct access to potential clients but also benefit from the collective intelligence and network of the Foundry community. This ecosystem approach helps startups to refine their offerings and align their innovations with the real-world challenges of large industries.
A Testament of Success
I found the endorsement from Qasar Younis , founder of Applied Intuition , particularly compelling. It encapsulates the essence of what Combient Foundry strive for perfectly. He stated:
Conclusion
As I reflect on today’s insights shared by Lauri Lehtovuori, it becomes evident that Combient Foundry is more than just a mediator in the corporate venturing landscape. It is a catalyst for transformative change, facilitating robust partnerships that shape the future of industries. The success stories, like that of Applied Intuition, underscore the significant impact of Combient Foundry’s approach, blending visionary strategy with practical execution. This synergy not only accelerates the path to market for emerging technologies but also cultivates a fertile ground for sustainable innovation.
I hope you enjoyed this week's newsletter. If you have any suggestions or contributions that you would like to share with me, please do not hesitate to reach out. I would be delighted to hear from you.