#10 - The Venture Clienting Playbook w/ Fabian Dudek (Co-Founder & CEO at Glassdollar)
The Corporate Venturing Podcast
<p>🎙️ Welcome to a new episode of <em>The Corporate Venturing Podcast!</em></p>
<p>How can corporates buy innovation at startup speed, and amplify their R&D budgets by tapping into billions of euros of external capital? Today, I sit down with <strong>Fabian Dudek</strong>, co-founder and CEO of <strong>GlassDollar</strong>, pioneers of <strong>Venture Clienting</strong> (aka innovation procurement). We unpack why this model has emerged as a core pillar of corporate venturing, explore hard data from GlassDollar’s 2025 Impact Study, and dive into practical frameworks and real-world lessons.</p>
<p>In this episode, Fabian shares his perspective on:</p>
<p>🧭 <strong>Macro-trends fueling Venture Clienting</strong> — economic pressure, accelerating tech cycles, and the limits of in-house R&D</p>
<p>⚙️ <strong>The Corporate Venturing Toolbox matrix</strong> — how to choose between build, buy, partner, or invest </p>
<p>📊 <strong>Surprising insights from 66,424 PoCs</strong> — success rates, time-to-first value, ROI, and why many teams still overlook these metrics</p>
<p>📈 <strong>Maturity stages: Starter, Growing, Pro</strong> — the concrete signals to self-diagnose your stage and the #1 shift to scale your PoC program</p>
<p>🛠️ <strong>Lean PoC governance</strong> — fail-fast loops, cost-control, and cross-functional alignment with IT and procurement</p>
<p>📐 <strong>KPIs that matter</strong> — measuring true strategic impact vs. vanity metrics</p>
<p>🌍 <strong>Bridging startup agility with corporate process rigor</strong> — breaking through IT and procurement bottlenecks</p>
<p>🚀 <strong>Benchmarks from Siemens & Samsung</strong> — how leading corporates leverage €20–60 bn of VC funding through startup partnerships versus their internal R&D</p>
<p>💡 <strong>Startups vs. traditional suppliers</strong> — why innovation procurement demands a different playbook</p>
<p>🔮 <strong>The future of Venture Clienting</strong> — policy levers, AI-driven analytics, and emerging tech frontiers</p>
<p>Plus, we close with Fabian’s most rewarding moments building GlassDollar, and how he’s helped corporates indirectly tap into over <strong>€55 bn</strong> of external innovation funding.</p>
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<p><strong>Resources:</strong></p>
<p>• <a href="https://www.glassdollar.com/blog/corporate-venturing-toolbox" rel="nofollow">Corporate Venturing Matrix mentioned by Fabian</a></p>
<p>• <a href="https://openroadventuress.substack.com/" rel="nofollow">Open Road Ventures Newsletter</a></p>
<p>• <a href="https://www.bundl.com/venture-club" rel="nofollow">Bundl Venture Club</a> </p>
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<p>🎧 Follow the podcast for more grounded stories and actionable insights from inside the world of Open Innovation and Corporate Venturing.</p>