How You Can Build a Corporate Venture Engine: Lessons from ZX Ventures with Pedro Earp, Chief Disruptive Growth Officer

When Pedro Earp declined his first invitation to lead AB InBev's disruptive growth organization in 2015, he probably couldn't have predicted the transformative impact ZX Ventures would have on corporate venture building. As people who have collaborated closely with ZX Ventures over the years, we’ve had a front-row seat to what makes their model uniquely powerful - and it starts with something surprisingly simple: alignment from the top.

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What struck us most from our conversation with Pedro was how the board's explicit mandate shaped everything that followed. Unlike many corporate innovation initiatives that struggle to gain traction from middle management up, ZX Ventures was born from the board's recognition that M&A-driven growth had limits. They needed a new engine for organic growth, and they were willing to accept the inherent tensions this would create.The "disruptive" in Pedro's initial title (Chief Disruptive Growth Officer - a title he admittedly couldn't wait to change) wasn't about disrupting markets - it was an internal signal that ZX Ventures had permission to challenge the core business.

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This explicit acknowledgment of potential cannibalization was crucial. As Pedro shared, when ZX launched an e-commerce platform selling competitors' beers, it violated one of AB InBev's sacred cultural rules. But because the mandate was clear, these conflicts became productive tensions rather than initiative-killing roadblocks.

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What made this work was AB InBev's partnership culture. Pedro described how long-term relationships and a shared ownership mentality helped navigate the natural friction between ZX's experiments and the core business's efficiency imperatives. When conflicts arose - like craft beer production impacting brewery efficiency - they were handled as "good fights" between aligned partners rather than existential threats.

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The results speak for themselves. Ze Delivery was only doing $50,000/month while in ZX Ventures— a number that would have killed any core business project in the first two months! Yet they  grew to become one of the world's largest beverage delivery platforms. More subtly, ZX's existence pushed core business units to accelerate their own innovation efforts to avoid being disrupted from within.

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Looking back, Pedro acknowledges that even with "the perfect setup" - long-term shareholders, board support, full autonomy - navigating day-to-day conflicts required tremendous emotional intelligence. It's a reminder that structure alone isn't enough; success in corporate venture building demands leaders who can hold space for productive tension.

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For those of us working in corporate venture building, ZX Ventures offers a masterclass in how to do it right. It's not just about creating cool new businesses - it's about thoughtfully designing an organization that can maintain startup speed while leveraging corporate assets, all while keeping the broader organization aligned and engaged. That's the real art of corporate venture building, and few have executed it better than Pedro and the ZX Ventures team.

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