Over the past decade, corporations have made large strides in pushing innovation efforts to protect against disruption and new entrants in their markets, whether that is hosting hackathons, internal innovation contests, or developing their own corporate accelerators. Most large multinationals at this age have dedicated teams to exploring innovation or searching for high potential ecosystem partners to collaborate and experiment with. 

But the pandemic and now recession have now exacerbated what are often perceived as cost centers, compelling teams to consider how to restructure their teams and processes for maximum efficiency to produce the outcomes desired by executives.

 500 Startups believes that following a crisis like that of 2020, doubling down on innovation through startup collaboration is more important than ever.  However, these initiatives must be structured and executed with expert care and diligence to minimize waste and for corporates to maintain their reputation in the startup ecosystem. 500 set out to interview a selection of twelve prominent innovation practitioners from a range of  industries to see how internal stewards of innovation are trying to make it happen and what best practices they might share with their peers.

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