There’s been a long-debated topic: should we treat corporations like people? Something drives them both ⸺ the pursuit of longevity. Much like people, corporations strive to endure, evolve, and thrive in an ever-changing landscape. With eternal existence as the goal, venture capital plays a crucial role in the birth, expansion, and maturation of companies ⸺ and fueling continuous and profitable growth.

The Rise and Fall of Industry Titans

Longevity may seem easily attainable, considering the current S&P 500's combined market cap was $40.04 trillion for fiscal year 2023. With the “smallest” member totaling $15 billion as of Q2 2024, it seems impossible that any one of these titans could go out of business in our lifetime. However, corporate evolution is rife with giants that have fallen, with more than 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies over the last 20 years.

Once-leading companies, like Kodak, have become relics of the past, failing to adapt to transformative shifts such as the rise of digital photography. More recently, Bed Bath & Beyond, despite being ranked 286 on the Fortune 500 in 2020, announced its bankruptcy filing and closed its 360 stores and 120 Buy Buy Baby locations thanks to intensifying competition from online retailers. Technological innovation is relentlessly reshaping industries, forcing companies to evolve or face irrelevance.

In an era of rapid technological advancement and shifting market dynamics, the pursuit of corporate longevity has become more crucial than ever. Corporations try their best to keep up with technology developments by financing research and development (R&D) and executing mergers and acquisitions (M&A), but they’re costly and complex. On average, mature software companies allocate 10 to 15 percent of their revenue to R&D, while mature non-software companies allocate around five percent.

Especially for the latter, each of these R&D dollars is precious. Whether the company is trying to stay ahead ⸺ or in the case of non-software companies, catch up in a market that isn’t valued on revenue multiples ⸺ each dollar must be spent with a clear and timely return on investment. M&A transactions can involve a complex integration process, making it challenging to accurately forecast and obtain technology, revenue, or profit benefits. While every major company operates with the intention to survive for the long haul, they struggle to stay relevant in an ever-evolving market.

As the B2B software market continues to grow and thrive, and the artificial intelligence (AI) and cleantech industries emerge as the next big opportunities in business and society, the market is once again shifting. The next generation of innovators must blend old and new strategies to adapt to unprecedented challenges. Whether collaborating with corporations, startups, or investors, selecting partners aligned with long-term goals and market dynamics is mission critical.

Unleashing the Power of Venture Capital

That’s where we come in. The Myriad Model ⸺ our approach to supporting and developing the next generation of disrupters ⸺ tackles the innovator’s dilemma head-on, allowing startups and companies to thrive amidst change.

A robust network and strategic connections are crucial, especially during the earlier stages of a startup's journey or at critical junctures in a corporation's strategic planning process. While our first priority is partnering with and supporting select founders who are building venture-scalable businesses that drive venture level returns, we believe facilitating meaningful and relevant introductions early in our process between founders, corporations, and co-investors not only drives synergies to all parties, but also results in superior capital allocation decisions.

Our extensive network acts as a powerful ecosystem flywheel to foster connections between startups and stakeholders throughout the funding process. Whether it’s through our Strategic Advisory Board, Executive Advisory Board, co-investors, founder network, or broader ecosystem, if we can make a meaningful, relevant, and timely introduction to help those in our network, we ensure it happens.

These introductions are not just based on funding decisions. Over 99 percent of the startups we engage with may not be suitable for our direct funding. But as each startup and corporation in our network has different needs and operates at a different technological or go-to-market stage, we believe fostering these connections early in the process creates value for all parties involved and lays the foundation for long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

We embrace this diversity and the challenge of making the right introductions to the right partners at the right time. The Myriad Model is uniquely positioned to accomplish this and differentiates itself through four key features:

1. Insider Experience: Unrivaled Expertise Across Diverse Industries

We’re a team with diverse backgrounds spanning investing, strategy, M&A, R&D, operations, science and technology, among other fields. Our collective expertise has been cultivated through extensive involvement with businesses large and small, public and private, and across industries and growth stages.

My partners Dean Mai and Tim Chiang boast impressive careers before transitioning into experienced investors.

Dean began his career in the Israeli Special Forces, followed by roles at several Israeli startups. Later, he led R&D, technology sourcing, and investment operations for companies like Dyson, accumulating deep knowledge in the way modern enterprises operate, particularly across AI, cloud, and security ⸺ practice areas he now leads for Myriad.

Tim heads our deep-tech and cleantech practice, leveraging his strong technical background and prior career in federal acquisitions, intellectual property, and product development. A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tim has served as lead engineer on several acquisition projects for the FAA prior to investment roles at venture funds of major corporations like General Electric and PTT Global Chemical.

I began my career in structured finance and global operations at two of the world's largest banks, later transitioning to M&A, private equity, and structured finance at two AM100 law firms. Before founding Myriad, I served as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Xerox Corporation, sitting on Xerox’s Executive Committee and building and overseeing global M&A, global strategy, and the founding and launch of Xerox Ventures Fund I.

Over the past three and a half years, Tim, Dean, and I have collaborated closely. Our diverse yet complementary blend of expertise ⸺ what we aptly describe as a “myriad” ⸺ allows us to approach challenges from multiple angles, providing comprehensive and tailored counsel to our partners. We integrate and refine these networks and experiences to offer a unique and holistic approach, leveraging our strengths while addressing blind-spots to add significant value to our ecosystem.

2. Venture Capital as Business Intelligence

Traditionally, the easiest way to gather information about up-and-coming startups and technology is through analytic sites like Pitchbook or Crunchbase. This can also be done through a corporation’s sourcing function, such as a business unit, strategy group, and/or corporate development group.

But there are trade-offs. The former is scraped only from public data, at times putting data accuracy into question. The latter may not exist, have sufficient market access, or lack strategic alignment (generally or among the various functions in a corporation).

The Myriad Model harnesses our expansive industry networks and deeply-rooted experiences to enhance the capabilities of conventional internal and external information sources. We take our time to understand our corporate partners’ needs and capabilities, and what introductions and engagements would be most beneficial to startups at a specific time in their development.

Through this network, startups gain access to invaluable insights from top industry leaders, while corporations gain access to emerging trends before they become mainstream. Both venture-scalable startups and longstanding industry titans can use these introductions to better inform their strategic roadmaps and as a basis for potential commercial partnerships. We serve as the ecosystem's connective tissue.

While we exercise the Myriad Model broadly across our network, we take a white-glove approach with members of our Strategic Advisory Board. This includes regular programming focused on tailored introductions, pitches, market insights, and more. We take particular care to introduce only the most relevant startups to our Strategic Advisory Board members, and help them understand how a startup applies and may potentially impact each stage of their business roadmap. In addition, we offer guidance on venture structuring and help facilitate spinouts of non-core businesses into venture-backed companies, exemplified by our successful partnerships with Mojave and Novity.

3. Deciding Without Sacrifices: Strategic Vs. Financial Returns

Thirty-eight percent of corporate investment arms spend almost half of their precious time navigating internal decision-making politics with their corporate parent. They also frequently encounter a trade-off that they must choose between decisions based on strategic value or financial returns.

But what if they didn’t have to compromise? What if the dichotomy between strategic and financial gain could be a both-and situation rather than an either-or?

The Myriad Model drives financial returns without sacrificing strategic benefits for our partners. Our approach simultaneously drives returns for investors (including our corporate investors), provides strategic value to our network (corporates, founders and co-investors), and establishes funding and support for the founders and startups defining the future of business solutions. As we see it, strategic value should be immediate and constant, while financial value is realized over time, both from such strategic value and from return on investment over the span of a fund cycle (with most fund exits expected within three to seven years). This balanced approach ensures that our corporate and startup partners benefit within the venture landscape both quickly and long-term.

4. Corporate Decision Making: Know When to Kill, Pivot or Commercialize

Risk is inherent in every business venture, but particularly for new products, offerings, and business units, including startups incubated inside a corporation. Understanding when to discontinue or pivot a project is crucial, but challenging due to external perceptions or strategic, financial, or political reasons, especially after significant investment.

For instance, if a project generates revenue but fails to generate sufficient profits compared to other businesses, shutting it down may improve the overall profit margin of the corporation. But this can be a difficult decision to make. Corporations must assess the business’ place in the competitive landscape, if the business can expand margins over time, and whether the business operates in an attractive, growing sector.

Similarly, when corporations embark on launching a new business or go-to-market strategy, they often opt for a partnership approach to reduce risk or expedite time to market. While partnering with established incumbents may seem advantageous, it can also present challenges. Internal buy-in may be easier with incumbents, but their technology may be outdated compared to startups, which come with their own risks due to their early stage. Understanding and balancing the risks and rewards of these partnership options is crucial for long-term success.

Lastly, internal investments in new technologies or R&D projects may not yield anticipated results due to delays, leadership issues, structure restraints, or market misunderstandings. These projects may have significant investment in intellectual property, but lack effective commercialization strategies. In some cases, projects may not be viable in the market, yet internal incentives hinder the ability to pivot  or discontinue them. This failure is often attributed to the absence of strong founders, equity incentives, the freedom to operate at the same pace as an external startup, or all of the above.

By providing objective insights and data-driven recommendations, we empower corporations to make informed decisions to optimize their resource allocation, partnership ecosystems, and project viability to maximize their chances of success. We help them to strategically determine when to forge partnerships, or whether to persist or terminate a project.

The Myriad Model: Empowering Corporates to Withstand the Test of Time

In the quest for corporate longevity, a multi-faceted approach is paramount. Corporations must confront the innovator's dilemma head-on, utilizing strategies grounded in intellectual honesty to ensure relevance and agility in a rapidly evolving landscape. This involves synthesizing information to build effective strategic roadmaps and make optimal opportunity cost decisions.

A robust venture strategy emerges as a crucial component, offering a pathway to leverage top-tier business intelligence and form strategic partnerships, facilitating the cultivation of key alliances and guiding corporations in their growth trajectory.

The Myriad Model prioritizes financial returns while driving strategic benefits to our partners ⸺ startups and founders, corporates, and co-investors alike. By funding and championing innovative solutions, Myriad supports founders and startups at the forefront of market transformation while addressing future challenges head-on.

This is not just lip-service or a grand plan, but something we have lived. Our model consistently delivers substantial value to our partners. In the past 6 months, we have facilitated more than 152 highly curated commercial introductions between 134 corporations and 93 startups, which has led to 36 proof-of-concept arrangements (POCs) and 10 commercial contract engagements for companies in our network. To further illustrate the effectiveness of our approach, over a 24-month collaboration with a Strategic Advisory Board member, we arranged more than 175 corporate introductions to startups. This effort resulted in 60 POCs and 11 commercial contracts, generating millions in value to both startups and corporate partners. Additionally, we assisted in spinning out and optimizing two internally incubated businesses into venture-backed companies for one of our Strategic Advisory Board members.

As formation-stage backers of Mojave ⸺ an advanced HVAC system that uses liquid desiccant technology to more than double the energy efficiency of traditional solutions and reducing the climate impact of HVACs ⸺ we’ve supported its ambitious goal to mitigate 100 million tons of CO₂e. Our relationship continues today through ongoing support as Mojave commercializes its next generation air conditioning platform. They are on a trajectory for breakout success. Novity ⸺ a physics modeling-based predictive maintenance tool enabling data-lean environments in process industries, such as oil and gas and chemical plants to eliminate unplanned downtime ⸺ serves as another clear example. We’ve backed Novity since formation, and supported their subsequent rounds of financing.

By consistently delivering strategic value and returns, we demonstrate our commitment to our partners' success and the transformative power of our model, time and time again. Our mission is clear: to drive venture level returns and foster meaningful, relevant, and timely connections within our network ⸺ even in some cases irrespective of financial investment. Every founder and company is on a unique journey, and we commit to nurturing these individual trajectories for long-term success.

Engaging with us offers unparalleled benefits for founders and companies. It’s a decision that simply makes sense.