Providing Ongoing Support for the Design of Corporate Venture Studio 1848 Ventures
At a Glance
Client: 1848 Ventures, the corporate venture studio of Westfield Insurance
Opportunity: Support 1848 Ventures through a process of modifying their structural design and improving how they build ventures in a repeatable way.
Solution: Regular coaching and guidance on how to update 1848 Ventures’ “ways of working” leveraging Highline Beta’s experience and best practices.
Who is 1848 Ventures?
1848 Ventures is a corporate venture studio established by Westfield Insurance. Despite being backed by Westfield, 1848 Ventures is an independent entity that is focused on building new SaaS businesses in a variety of markets, focusing on SMB customers. They place a high priority on data and AI solutions.
Problem
1848 Ventures wanted to update their “ways of working” and explore how to improve efficiency and quality of research, validation and venture building. The corporate venture studio had been running for a couple years and saw an opportunity to improve how they operated.
The challenge was figuring out how to improve operations, research methodologies, team compositions, governance and more in order to increase the volume and quality of work being done. This is where Highline Beta came in.
Why Highline Beta?
Our experience working with numerous corporate venture studios and our experience building and funding startups over many years has given us a deep insight into best practices for venture building.
We work in a variety of ways with corporate venture studios, including in an advisory and coaching capacity, which provided 1848 Ventures with the right level of engagement and flexibility for guiding them through this venture studio design process.
How We Worked With 1848 Ventures
We worked closely with 1848 Ventures as they upgraded the design and methodology of their venture studio. This included regular coaching and strategic advisory sessions focusing on:
- Governance
- Ideation / validation methodology
- Team construction / skill building
- Frameworks & KPIs for assessing ventures at different stages
- Stakeholder engagement / management
- And more
In addition, we worked closely with one venture in their portfolio to provide active coaching and support on a bi-weekly basis around:
- Product prioritization & analytics
- Go-to-market strategy
- Stakeholder management
- Team management
- And more
Results
1848 Ventures is actively updating how they work, with the creation of an early validation team and independent venture building teams. This increases activity around exploring new opportunity areas with research and rapid prototyping experts, while ensuring that ventures move forward with the right resources and approach to accelerate quickly and scale.
1848 Ventures continues to undergo an evolution in its “ways of working” including team structures, validation methodology, criteria for moving ventures through the stages, target outcomes and more.
The goal is to increase throughput and quality at the same time.