My visit to BCG’s Digital Ventures office

Today I had the opportunity to visit BCG’s DV office in Manhattan Beach. Here are some highlights.

• They are one of the largest innovation labs in the world with presence in US, Europe, and Asia (they are coming up with really cool office in Shanghai)
• They participate in a fund formed by B-Capital (separate entity) to invest 250m in innovation. B Capital is an independent venture company with whom BCG has a strategic relationship
• The have unparalleled access to top companies and executives, mostly through BCG’s business network
• Contrary of VC-funded innovation where entrepreneurs launch ideas on their own, DV works with corporate entities to directly understand friction points at the customer / end-user level, almost in an ethnographic way. As a result their deliverable, either hardware or software, arguably has a more mature problem definition
• DV developed a well structured ideation process that is 12-weeks long…
• …followed by incubation where product and business is developed and then commercialization / go-to market

~60 companies currently going through the ideation process. Over the last two years DV has also launched products and businesses across fintech, healthcare, and other areas… both in US, Europe, and Asia.