Building With Partners, Not Just For Them

The partnership episode. Colin and Christian dig into corporate venture building and co-creation: why big companies are structurally bad at zero-to-one, how an external studio acts as a forcing function against innovation theater, and what separates real co-builds from vendor work. They cover the player landscape (Mach49, Highline Beta, Alloy Partners, Founders Factory), the spectrum from wholly-owned subsidiaries to independent spin-outs, the founder recruitment trap, unfair advantages like distribution and data, and the four failure modes that kill most corporate venture programs.