Conviction amid complexity

You might condense down the challenge of venture capital to this: you must invest with conviction in the face of complexity and confusion. Amid shifting industrial policy, corporate strategy, market hype, you must commit — both in terms of money and time — to half-formed ideas and technologies. This is the challenge for any investor and even more so for those placing bets on startups on behalf of a corporation.  

The successful corporate investors we interview for GCV all have found ways to manage complexity while holding onto a guiding strand. Take John Banta at Blue Venture Fund, for example, with 36 limited partners to manage — all Blue Cross Blue Shield companies and affiliates. Many corporate investors struggle with navigating the expectations of just one corporation, let alone three dozen, all wanting strategic benefits and insights from the portfolio. READ MORE