Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast

Ram Jambunathan spent 15 years at SAP and finished as the SVP and General Manager running SAP.iO, the investment and incubation arm he helped pitch to SAP's board in 2015. It grew into one of the original and largest corporate venture studios: a $35 million fund, a network of equity-free accelerators across eight cities, and an internal venture studio that turned SAP employees into funded founders. He walks through how all three engines worked, what each one was actually for, and what it takes to keep a program like that funded through a decade of leadership change.Episode BreakdownWhy SAP.iO existed in the first place: SAP was late to cloud and late to mobile, and buying your way into a market you missed is expensive. Ram and his team pitched the board on a sensing mechanism that would put SAP in front of the next wave instead of two years behind it.The three things a corporate venture program needs: executive mandate, creative structure, and patient capital. Ram argues you need all three or the program will not survive its first budget cycle, let alone its first CEO transition.Three engines, three jobs: the fund wrote seed and Series A checks and never led a round, the foundries ran equity-free accelerators across eight cities for global reach, and the internal venture studio funneled 500 employee pitches down to one to three funded teams a year.Why an internal startup starts ahead: SAP had already solved distribution, which is where most venture money goes after Series A. That left the studio teams one job, finding product-market fit, and a target of a billion-dollar outcome because that was 1% of SAP's market cap.Disproving a hypothesis is a win: Ram makes the case that killing an idea cheaply, before the company sinks real capital into it, belongs in the return column alongside the ventures that worked.What he took to Intapp: if every model trains on the same data, the models converge, and the differentiator becomes proprietary data and industry-specific workflows. That thesis is why he moved from a horizontal software company to a vertical one.Featured GuestsRam Jambunathan, VP of Strategy and Planning, Intapp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramjets Intapp: https://www.intapp.com/Host: Drew Beechler, VP of Marketing, Alloy Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/ Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/Referenced in the Show"The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen: the framing Ram names as the core problem SAP.iO was built to addressSapphire Ventures: SAP Ventures before it spun out, and where the SAP.iO Fund now sitsSignavio: the acquisition that grew out of Spotlight, an internal venture studio companyIntapp Celeste: Intapp's agentic AI platform for professional firmsResources & Related LinksAdvantaged podcast: https://www.alloypartners.com/podcastAlloy Partners resources: https://www.alloypartners.com/resourcesLearn about venture building: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/what-is-venture-buildingLearn about corporate venture studios: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/corporate-venture-studioWork with Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/connect Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast

Most startups get one of the three things they need at the start. Capital, or a design partner, or real access to the people living inside the problem. John Sheehan got all three on day zero. Swift Workforce AI exists because Wellstar's venture and innovation arm found a problem inside their own hospitals and built a company around it with Alloy Partners rather than waiting for one to show up. John is a four-time healthcare founder with exits to Bain Capital and a Nasdaq-traded acquirer behind him, and in this conversation he breaks down exactly what a corporate partner provides that a startup cannot buy. Episode Breakdown The nursing workforce problem is a balance sheet problem. Nursing is roughly 30% of a health system's workforce. John cites average RN turnover near 16% and replacement costs around $61,100 per nurse, with nurse managers running higher. Once you multiply it out, workforce wellbeing stops being a soft initiative. Cognitive burden is the real product problem. A nurse manager runs every person and every dollar on a hospital floor while toggling between three to five applications across two or three screens. Every minute there is a minute not spent on patient care or mentoring early-career nurses, who leave at disproportionate rates in their first three years. What a corporate partner actually provides. John names three things Wellstar gave Swift that most startups never get at once: access to data to validate the problem quantitatively and build a defensible ROI model, access to leadership stakeholders, and access to real users as pilot customers. Swift started with three nurses on a single unit and expanded through a phased governance process. Selling AI into a regulated industry. Fewer than 10% of health systems have deployed AI at the enterprise level, while far more are piloting. AI centers of excellence and business transformation offices now score vendors on risk, and the systems with the most governance are the ones most ready to buy. The job-replacement conversation nobody wants to have. Swift replaces workflows that non-clinical support staff used to run, and some customers reduce headcount as a result. John argues vendors should name that in the first conversation, and draws a hard line between clinical use cases where AI extends a provider and non-clinical ones where it genuinely substitutes. Why point solutions are getting squeezed out. John's closing advice to founders: if your AI product is a point solution, or could be mistaken for one, change the model or build the case for why it is platform infrastructure. Featured Guests John Sheehan, CEO and Co-Founder, Swift Workforce AI LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheehanconnect/ Swift: https://www.heyswift.ai/ Host: Drew Beechler, VP of Marketing, Alloy Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/ Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/ Resources & Related Links Advantaged podcast: https://www.alloypartners.com/podcast Alloy Partners resources: https://www.alloypartners.com/resources Learn about venture building: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/what-is-venture-building Learn about corporate venture studios: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/corporate-venture-studio Work with Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/connect Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast

Pharma marketing has an invisible bottleneck. Every brochure, every Facebook ad, every influencer post has to clear medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) review before it can ship, and some materials take five months to get out the door. Ferry Tamtoro, CEO and founder of Revisto, joins Drew to unpack how AI is finally unblocking that workflow, what it actually takes to sell AI into one of the world's most regulated industries, and why trust beats speed in pharma. Episode Breakdown The invisible MLR bottleneck: What MLR review is, why average cycles run a month (and some five), and the real downstream cost to patients, pharma revenue, and the highly trained reviewers stuck doing manual work. Why Revisto built a small language model, not an LLM wrapper: Generic LLMs hallucinate and should disqualify themselves from MLR. Ferry walks through how co-creating with a pharma partner from day one baked institutional knowledge into the product itself. The buy-versus-build math for regulated AI: A production-grade MLR system runs three years and roughly ten million dollars to build internally. Revisto's proof of value runs in four to six weeks. Ferry breaks down the ongoing maintenance cost most companies forget. Change management and pilot paralysis: What separates organizations that scale AI from ones that stall. The pattern Ferry sees working: senior owner with authority, contained measurable workflow, clear KPIs, ROI proven in weeks. The FDA's own AI shift: Over 100 warning letters in recent months, and Ferry's read on why this is structural rather than cyclical. The regulations did not change. The probability of getting caught did. Featured Guests Ferry Tamtoro, CEO and Founder, Revisto LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ferrytamtoro/ Revisto Host: Drew Beechler, VP of Marketing, Alloy Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/ Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/ Resources & Related Links Advantaged podcast: https://www.alloypartners.com/podcast Alloy Partners resources: https://www.alloypartners.com/resources Learn about venture building: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/what-is-venture-building Learn about corporate venture studios: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/corporate-venture-studio Work with Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/contact Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast

Most corporates that try to launch a venture studio assume they already have what it takes. MIT Sloan postdoctoral researcher Dr. Constanze Coelsch-Foisner spent five years studying 65 venture studios across continents and sectors to figure out what they actually need, and her three-resources framework is the sharpest tool we have for deciding whether to launch a corporate venture studio or pick a different innovation play. Episode Breakdown Why "venture studio" became a meaningless label: Everything from a product design agency to a CVC unit gets called a venture studio. Constanze walks through what actually distinguishes the model and why investors are wary of an undefined asset class. The three-resources framework (talent, IP, market insights): Every viable corporate venture studio needs at least one of these three, and most corporates badly overestimate what they have on all three. Honest self-assessment is the entry test. Why corporate venture studios usually die in CEO transitions: BP Launchpad, General Mills, and G-Works produced real ventures before being shut down. The fix is making innovation everyone's business, not the sitting CEO's pet project. Killing fast is the metric most corporates don't measure: Google X built peer recognition and bonus incentives around how quickly teams kill bad ideas. Most Fortune 500s evaluate studios on financial returns far too early; strategic and portfolio metrics matter more in the early years. Why deep tech and the corporate venture studio model are structurally matched: Long timelines, multi-domain coordination, structured experimentation, and parallel companies are exactly what deep tech requires and exactly what traditional venture capital struggles to deliver. Featured Guests Dr. Constanze Coelsch-Foisner, Postdoctoral Researcher, MIT Sloan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/constanze-coelsch-foisner/ MIT Sloan: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ Host: Drew Beechler, VP of Marketing, Alloy Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/ Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/ Referenced in the Show "Is a Venture Studio Right for Your Company?" (MIT Sloan Management Review). Constanze and Fiona Murray's recent paper introducing the three-resources framework. "Founders for hire? The role of venture studios in breaking the individual-opportunity nexus" (Journal of Business Venturing, 2026). Constanze and co-authors on how venture studios systematically separate the founder from the opportunity, drawing on 16 venture studios and 50 interviews. MIT Proto Ventures. MIT's internal venture studio, used as the reference example for IP-translating studios. HighTechXL. ASML and Philips' Netherlands-based corporate venture studio, cited as a strong example of pulling internal entrepreneurial talent into a studio. Resources & Related Links Advantaged podcast: https://www.alloypartners.com/podcast Alloy Partners resources: https://www.alloypartners.com/resources Learn about venture building: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/what-is-venture-building Learn about corporate venture studios: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/corporate-venture-studio Work with Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/contact Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast

The consulting industry has run on the same pyramid model for a century. AI is removing the base. In this episode, Drew talks with Utsav Bhatt, CEO of StratOff, about what comes next — the five archetypes of alternative consulting already emerging, why most enterprise AI transformations keep stalling out, and the identity and culture barriers that no one is talking about enough. Episode Breakdown AI is collapsing the consulting pyramid: The traditional model depends on large layers of junior analysts doing research and synthesis. Once AI automates that work, the economic logic of the whole pyramid breaks — and a new model (fewer layers, more senior judgment, outcome-based pricing) has to take its place. Five alt consulting archetypes are already forming: Solo experts, senior-heavy boutiques using AI as their operating system, strategy-as-a-product firms, expert insight platforms, and on-demand curated networks of ex-MBB talent. Incumbents now have to compete with all five at once. Why enterprises are stuck in pilot theater: 90% of CEOs in one study say AI hasn't moved productivity. McKinsey puts 94% of companies in pilot mode. MIT found 84% of companies that invested in AI training haven't changed a single role. Companies are adopting tools — they're not redesigning work. The behavior change problem isn't resistance, it's identity protection: Employees aren't rejecting AI. They're protecting how they know how to succeed. If your career was built on owning information and following proven processes, AI threatens all of that simultaneously. Redefining roles and creating psychological safety to experiment is where most companies fall short. Real transformation follows the Rewire framework: Reimagine, Redesign, Realize. Most companies stop at step one. The redesign phase — actually rethinking processes, roles, and incentive structures — is where the gains live. The Solow Paradox from the 1980s is instructive: computerization didn't show up in productivity data for 10-15 years, because companies computerized their old processes instead of rethinking them. McKinsey won't disappear, but consulting will unbundle: The big firms are already moving toward outcome-based pricing and deeper AI integration. What shifts is who gets access and what they pay for. Mid-market companies that couldn't afford MBB will access AI-powered boutiques. MBB retreats to the highest-complexity work. And as ex-consulting partners move in-house to corporate strategy offices, enterprise buyers will get much sharper about what they actually need to buy externally. Featured Guests Utsav Bhatt, CEO, StratOff LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/utsavbhatt/ StratOff: https://www.stratoff.com/ Host: Drew Beechler, VP of Marketing, Alloy Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/ Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/ Referenced in the Show Alt Consulting by Utsav Bhatt "Services: The New Software" by Sequoia's Julien Bek The Solow Paradox — Robert Solow's 1987 observation on computers and productivity Jack Dorsey on Block's new three-layer org structure Resources & Related Links Advantaged podcast: https://advantaged.alloypartners.com/ Alloy Partners resources: https://www.alloypartners.com/resources Learn about venture building: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/what-is-venture-building Learn about corporate venture studios: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/corporate-venture-studio Work with Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/connect Subscribe to Advantaged on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube — and if this episode was useful, share it with a colleague who's thinking through what AI means for how their organization buys and uses strategy work. Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast

Episode Breakdown Nicolas’ path into TDK and into corporate venturing​ Exploration vs exploitation and the “small helicopter” analogy for corporate VC​ Why TDK started with a small but meaningful first fund and how that design de‑risked the model​ Strategic value as “pre‑financial” and why TDK Ventures positions itself as “purely financial”​ The Groq story, high conviction before consensus, and the role of business model innovation​ How TDK Ventures recruits for passion, kindness, diversity, and founder empathy​ Equal win engagements and the engagement checkerboard connecting 50+ portfolio companies with 65 internal TDK teams​ The professionalization of CVC and the “yin and yang” relationship with traditional VC in the next decade​ Featured Guests Host: Drew Beechler, VP of Marketing, Alloy Partners, and host of Advantaged Guest: Nicolas Sauvage, Founder and President, TDK Ventures​​ Referenced in the Show TDK Ventures Investment Scorecard (open source): https://tdk-ventures.com/news/insights/open-source-tdk-ventures-investment-scorecard/ TDK Ventures Engagement Checkerboard (open source): https://tdk-ventures.com/news/insights/open-source-mothership-startup-engagements-tracker/ Why VCs Should Use Net Promoter Scores with Founders https://hbr.org/2024/09/why-vcs-should-use-net-promoter-scores-with-founders Nicolas' Corporate Venturing Insider podcast: https://cv-insider.com/ Starting a New Corporate VC: https://youtu.be/QKhw6XvGs0c?si=9Dyl-WTVv-opvtzL Hiring for Decision Quality at TDK Ventures An Insider Investor View on Groq GCVI Summit​ World of Corporate Venturing research report Resources & Related Links Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com Advantaged Podcast: https://advantaged.alloypartners.com Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast

Episode Breakdown00:00 Welcome to Advantaged and Alloy Partners Podcast00:55 Introducing Danyel O'Connor and Umami01:31 Danyel's Background in Food and Beverage03:01 Understanding Umami's Role in Product Development07:17 The Impact of AI on Umami's Solutions09:01 Success Stories and Proof of Concept11:37 The Importance of Innovation Partners12:26 Conviction and Passion in Solving Problems14:00 Charging Innovation Partners for Commitment16:11 Founder-Market Fit and Passion for Problem Solving17:35 Founder Product Fit and Early Traction18:02 Passion for the Industry and Customer Satisfaction19:17 Current Trends in the Food and Beverage Industry20:55 Challenges and Innovations in Analog Meat22:12 Consumer Journey and Product Development23:13 Transitioning to B2B Software26:04 Supporting Women in the Food Industry29:26 Future Plans for Umami31:30 Advice for Entrepreneurs and Startup FoundersFeatured GuestsDanyel O’Connor – Entrepreneur-in-Residence, UmamiDrew Beechler – VP of Marketing & Host, Alloy Partners​Referenced in the ShowUmami – AI-powered CPG product development platform​.Fieldbook Studio – Alloy’s venture studio based in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Umami and sister ventures like Muckender and Coaxial  Collective were incubated.​​Muckender – Durable cleaning wipes brand launched out of Fieldbook using Umami-generated product direction.​Females in Food Community  Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast

Episode BreakdownGreg’s path from investment banking and Schwab corporate development into building Edward Jones’ innovation and ventures capability.​The founding story of Edward Jones Ventures and what they learned from a “listening tour” of what typically goes wrong in corporate VC.​Why Edward Jones chose a GP‑capital model instead of a balance‑sheet or traditional fund structure—and how that changes incentives and flexibility.​​The team’s mandate around growth, differentiated problem‑solving, and third‑horizon themes like AI, tokenization, and blockchain in wealth management.​How the seven‑person team splits between classic VC activities and a platform group focused on commercialization to 20,000+ advisors.​Edward Jones’ approach to incubation: moving from PowerPoint to live product in under 240 days and fully scaling new solutions across the firm.​Greg’s philosophy on AI in wealth management, including focusing less on advisor‑only tools and more on client‑facing experiences and “automating the ordinary to humanize the extraordinary.”​Building an ecosystem: the first Edward Jones innovation summit, bringing together advisors, executives, startups, VCs, and partners in St. Louis.​Practical advice from Greg for other corporates on being flexible, not over‑controlling, and avoiding common CVC pitfalls like overreaching on governance or acquisition expectations.​GuestsGreg Robinson – Partner & Head of Corporate Development and Edward Jones Ventures, Edward Jones​Drew Beechler – VP of Marketing & Partner, Alloy Partners​Referenced in the Show & Related LinksEdward Jones VenturesAlloy Partners – Venture building with leading corporations: https://www.alloypartners.com​Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast (all episodes): https://advantaged.alloypartners.com​More episodes on corporate VC and venture building:The Impact of Early Strategic Investment on Product and GTM (with ServiceNow Ventures & Tenon)Inside ENGIE’s Venture Studio: Fast‑Tracking Energy Innovation Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast

Global logistics is a tough market, but it is also one of the most advantaged arenas for corporate venture building. In this episode, DSV venture builder and former Schenker Ventures leader Tom Schneider joins Alloy Partners’ Drew Beechler to share how they built and spun out ventures from inside a logistics giant, what they learned from NxtLog, and why AI is accelerating the pace of experimentation.​​​Episode breakdownIntro & Tom’s path into venture building – From industrial engineering and autonomous vehicles at Volkswagen to venture building in logistics.​Why Schenker launched a venture studio – Low margins, emerging digital platforms, and the need to monetize existing data and network assets.​​Studio design and spin-out decisions – Strategic vs. studio ventures, portfolio outcomes, and why revenue is the core validation metric.​​Talent, incentives, and ownership – Hiring founders, internal rotations, and the difficulty of matching startup-like upside inside a corporate.​NxtLog as a case study – Starting with paid PDF “MVPs,” overbuilding a platform, and refocusing on customer value in logistics data and decision support.​​AI and the next wave of venture building – Using LLMs and lightweight tools to ship prototypes in days and what that means for corporate venture teams.​​Featured guestsTom Schneider – Senior Manager Venture Building, DSV (formerly Schenker Ventures)LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-schneider-muenchen/​DSV: https://www.dsv.com/en-us/​NxtLog: https://www.nxtlog.io/​Drew Beechler – VP of Marketing, Alloy PartnersLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler​Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com​Referenced in the showSchenker Ventures – Corporate venture capital and venture builder at DB SchenkerDB Schenker & NxtLog: A Visionary CollaborationDSV completes acquisition of Schenker Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast

Episode overviewOn this episode of Advantaged, host Drew Beechler sits down with Amplio CEO and co-founder Trey Closson to unpack the journey from corporate supply chain leader to venture-backed founder, and the hard-earned lessons behind Amplio’s major product pivot. They explore how Sprint Week at Koch Industries sparked Amplio’s creation, why surplus industrial inventory became the company’s true north, and what it really takes for startups and corporations to experiment together successfully.​Episode breakdownTrey’s non-linear path from philosophy major to supply chain operator to founderSprint Week: how Amplio was bornWhy private ownership structure can enable longer-term, experiment-friendly decision-making​Amplio’s first act: predictive supply chain risk softwareEarly customer traction and raising a seed round from Construct Capital, Slow Ventures, Alpaca, High Alpha, and FlexportThe catalyst for a pivot: surplus inventoryBuilding a marketplace for surplus assets, decommissioned industrial equipment, and raw materialsWorking with strategic corporate investorsWhy corporates must place real experimental bets—often through external startups—to sustain long-term growth​Featured GuestsTrey Closson – CEO & Co-founder, Amplio ​Host: Drew Beechler – VP of Marketing, Alloy PartnersReferenced in the ShowAll In Podcast – Dave Ricks interview on GLP-1s, obesity, and building an innovation culture at Eli LillyFlexport – Modern freight forwarding and logistics platformGeorgia-Pacific – Koch Industries company where Trey led international logistics and experienced entrepreneurial corporate culture.​Koch Industries – Privately held industrial conglomerate that partnered with Alloy Partners to create Amplio.Amplio Seed Round — Led by Construct Capital with participation from Slow Ventures, Alpaca VC, Flexport, High Alpha, and others.Amplio $11M Series A — Led by Hitachi Ventures & Yamaha Ventures.Resourceshttps://www.amplio.com/​​https://www.alloypartners.com/​Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast – Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.Wavelength Newsletter Advantaged: An Alloy Partners Podcast