Highline Beta is Selected as One of the Best Workplaces for Innovators in 2020 by Fast Company
Highline Beta works with large companies to help them build more innovative teams and cultures in order to launch new ventures. So it’s great to also be recognized for our own culture of innovation and the effort we put forth internally to empower employees to do their best work. Fast Company just released their “Best Workplaces for Innovators” awards, and Highline Beta is ranked #37.
Developed in collaboration with Accenture, the 2020 Best Workplaces for Innovators ranks 100 winners from a variety of industries, including computer science, biotech, consumer packaged goods, nonprofit, education, financial services, cybersecurity, and engineering. Working together, Fast Company editors and Accenture researchers scored nearly 900 applications, and a panel of eight eminent judges reviewed and endorsed the top 100 companies—an increase from last year’s list of 50. The 2020 awards feature workplaces from around the world with several of the honorees based outside the U.S.
Everyone at Highline Beta “wears many hats.” It’s the nature of running an entrepreneurial business that is adapting to our corporate partners’ needs, in a variety of industries, and working with many startups across the globe. Recently we launched the Intuit Prosperity Accelerator with Intuit Canada to help solve financial challenges faced by SMBs and consumers in the wake of COVID-19. The goal is to partner early stage startups with Intuit Canada to run pilots and impact the Canadian economy. We’re constantly evolving the way big companies and startups can successfully work together, and combining that work with our investment thesis and Highline Beta Fund. We’re helping companies like RBC, Kraft Heinz and AB InBev discover new growth opportunities and realize those opportunities through internal and external innovation.
All of this means we move fast, learn even faster, and get very creative on-the-fly when necessary. Lately, we’ve been saying, “let’s call an audible.” It’s when the quarterback on a football team changes the play in a split second based on what they see happening on the field.
There are a lot of audibles in innovation. It’s not a linear path. But you do need to put in place systems for fostering innovation–for giving people the tools, skills and freedom to be creative, explore new ideas, try (and sometimes fail), and learn. We believe corporates have the opportunity to build diverse venture portfolios through a rigorous, but evolving operating model focused on innovation best practices and developing an entrepreneurial and investor mindset.
Building an innovative workplace takes time, and lots of experimentation. When we work with clients on their efforts to build repeatable, scalable models for launching new ventures, we know it’s not cookie-cutter and each organization is different. The same is true with Highline Beta. Innovation and being innovators means change. It means experimentation. It means learning. It means failing, but leveraging those failings as learnings to get it right the next time. Or the next time after that.
It’s great to be recognized by Fast Company as one of the best workplaces for innovators in 2020. We think Highline Beta is a pretty great place to work, but there’s still plenty to do, more to learn and more to try.