Launching UP.Labs: A new Venture Lab model the world has not seen yet
UP.Labs is a first-of-its-kind Venture Lab in parallel with a traditional venture capital fund, bringing together proven entrepreneurs, product leaders and technologists to launch purpose-built startups that solve the most pressing strategic challenges corporations face and cannot tackle alone.
But in order to fully understand what we do and why we’re here, it’s necessary to start from the beginning.
Traffic drives me crazy, and inefficiency in general. Growing up, I was first inspired by my grandfather, a true leader in the aviation industry, and became fascinated by helicopters and planes. I admire the pier infrastructure of San Francisco and wish I was transported back to the 70s when helicopters could land on them versus sitting in traffic for hours. Even today, I see all the helipads decommissioned in LA, New York, and cities around the world and can only imagine how efficient it would be to allow helicopters to land throughout the city.
This fascination soon turned into a passion to make mobility more efficient. I was inspired to move people and goods around the world in a more efficient, cleaner, faster and safer way. I believe, in order to achieve this pursuit and to achieve maximum impact on our planet, we must harness the power of startups and the reach of the world’s most influential corporations. If we help corporations tackle their most pressing challenges and growth areas, humanity will reap the benefits.
I’ve spent the past six years of my life trying to crack this nut: how can we launch startups with an unparalleled advantage by partnering with the world’s most influential corporations? I began to discover the answer around the same time I was invited to speak about an eVTOL concept we designed at BCG Digital Ventures, which was eventually acquired by Boeing as part of a larger acquisition. The event was exclusive and top secret, and was hosted by Ben Marcus and Cyrus Sigari and co-hosted by the Walton Family. It is now known as the UP.Summit.
My mind was blown by the experience and the community being built at the UP.Summit. I quickly became not only friends, but kindred spirits, with Ben and Cyrus over our shared passion for transforming the moving world. It was at the next UP.Summit where we decided to harness the energy of this forward-thinking community to make the world a better place. First, with the incredible help of Adam Grosser, UP.Partners raised a first fund with $250 million under management.
I was then fortunate enough to let my thesis take flight in creating a first-of-its-kind investment vehicle built perfectly for Corporate Venturing. A hybrid of a normal GP/LP Venture Capital Fund and a Corporate Incubation model.
Our corporate partners will engage in a new investment vehicle, the Corporate Investor Venturing Agreement (“CIVA”), and commit to capital calls for a three year term following a rigorous methodology and governance program to launch two companies per year for a portfolio of six companies.
UP.Labs then identifies the most pressing challenges that they, and broader society, face and launch startups built by proven entrepreneurs, product leaders and technologists to develop transformative solutions that bring strategic value to the corporation. The fund, UP.Partners, leads the financing round, then once these companies have matured, corporate partners have the option to acquire them.
This model gives entrepreneurs access to what they want most, a big first customer, brand visibility, tier 1 funding, and our corporate partners are given access to top entrepreneurial talent incentives with startup equity focused on solving their core problems, which really moves the needle for them. This talent group would be otherwise unreachable by the large corporations.
My model is built on years of experience and more data in the world than you’ll find anywhere else, and I am confident that it will help launch startups to solve the most pressing strategic challenges corporations face and cannot tackle alone, finally breaking the ‘Innovator’s Dilemma’ which all large corporations eventually face.
I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to watch my thesis take shape in what is now UP.Labs. I believe this to be the shortest road to a faster, cleaner, safer, and more accessible future.
