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The Venture Podcast

Empowering corporate entrepreneurs with the playbook to design, build, and scale new businesses.

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The Venture is an original podcast series hosted by serial business builders from Leap by McKinsey. In each episode, our experts cut through the noise to empower corporate entrepreneurs in designing, building, and scaling new companies. We break down the journeys of legendary venture builders—how they did it, the challenges they faced, and how they built successful and competitive businesses.

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The latest episode

Podcast

Growing meat instead of raising animals for food: A conversation with Eat Just’s Josh Tetrick

– The cofounder of a food-technology company wants nothing less than to change the way we produce and consume meat.

The meaning behind this company is that the food we eat doesn’t represent our values, and we should change that, because it really matters.

Josh Tetrick cofounder and CEO of Eat Just
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Previous episodes

Podcast

Getting it right before going global: A conversation with LingoAce’s Hugh Yao
– The founder of an online Mandarin language-learning platform explains why starting slowly prepared his start-up for exponential... growth.
Podcast

Giving Gen Z customers what they want: A conversation with by.U
– Two top executives at Telkomsel, Southeast Asia’s largest wireless provider, explain how the company supported a new venture... and freed it to succeed on its own terms.
Podcast

Scaling up ‘rock-star fast’: A conversation with foodpanda’s Jakob Angele
– The CEO of foodpanda APAC recounts how the company grew from a food-delivery start-up to a business valued at $30 billion by moving... fast and creating a trusted brand.
Podcast

Lending corporate business builders a helping hand: A conversation with New Ventures’ Alvin Cai
– The vice president of Singapore’s corporate venturing entity explains how the island city-state’s Economic Development... Board is helping businesses kick-start new ventures—from ideation to market validation—in six months.
Podcast

Building e-commerce ecosystems on Amazon: A conversation with Rainforest’s JJ Chai
– The cofounder of a Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator explains how his previous start-up experience helps him identify, acquire,... and scale Asian “solopreneurs” targeting US consumers on Amazon’s marketplace.
Podcast

Differentiation through constant innovation: A conversation with Ninja Van’s Lai Chang Wen
– The cofounder of a Singapore-based express-delivery start-up, which has thrived with a vast addressable market and an equal emphasis... on technology and human nature, talks about sticking to the core and a commitment to relentless innovation.
Podcast

Digitization, decarbonization, and electrification: A conversation with CLP Group’s Austin Bryan
– Energy represents one of the last major economic sectors to undergo digital disruption, but massive change is under way. The key... to providing sustainable solutions such as energy as a service is a company’s willingness to embrace ambiguity, risk, and discomfort, according to the head of innovation for a Hong Kong–based regional energy supplier.
Podcast

Building sustainable and affordable urban living: A conversation with White Peak’s Jesper Jos Olsson
– Not many companies are bold enough to enter the challenging Chinese market without a local partner. But a desire to retain full... control, and the belief that relying on local partners may hinder its ability to learn and scale, eventually paid off, according to the cofounder of a Beijing-based, Swedish property developer.
Podcast

Giving and reaping rewards: A conversation with ShopBack’s Joel Leong
– Transplanting a successful e-commerce business model into a region where online shopping is still developing is a heady task for... any organization. But a willingness to localize that model and fertilize the market by rewarding users for online purchases helped ensure success, according to the cofounder of a Singapore-based cash-back platform.
Podcast

2020 season recap: Building and scaling new businesses
– Listen to learnings on business building from The Venture’s 2020 episodes.
Podcast

Stressing customer obsession: A conversation with Sequoia Capital’s Pieter Kemps
– Start-ups fail for all sorts of reasons, but those that succeed constantly think about the customer journey, use technology to... remove friction, and find new ways to delight their customers, according to an investor with a legendary venture-capital firm.
Podcast

Building a start-up innovation ecosystem: A conversation with Jardine Matheson’s Anne O’Riordan and Michael Poon
– Two executives share how a three-pronged approach to partnering with start-ups has spelled success for an almost 200-year-old... Hong Kong multinational.
Podcast

Growing an incumbent by building a new business: A conversation with True Digital’s Bernd Vindevogel
– Building and scaling a corporate spin-off requires striking a critical balance between growing as an independent entity while... serving the needs of the parent organization, according to the chief analytics officer at True Digital Group.
Podcast

A culture of caring: A conversation with Globe Telecom’s Glenn Estrella
– Growing a market-leading business while spawning start-ups depends on freedom to fail and a culture of caring modeled from the... top down, according to the start-up chief of the Philippines’ largest mobile telecom provider.
Podcast

Clone or create: A conversation with Aaron Tan, CEO of Carro
– Building a new business isn’t necessarily about creating an entirely new business model but about understanding the market... and where the opportunities lie, according to the CEO of Southeast Asia’s largest automobile marketplace.

Featured hosts

Andrew Roth
Expert Associate Partner, Singapore
Drives innovation and builds digital ventures for clients
Tomas Laboutka
Associate Partner, Singapore
Helps companies build new digital businesses
Raphael Bick
Partner, Shanghai
Builds digital businesses across China and Southeast Asia
Dilip Mistry
Partner, Singapore
Brings extensive operational experience in software product management, marketing, and sales, leading cross-functional teams to build new digital businesses.

Featured insights

Article

Innovating from necessity: The business-building imperative in the current crisis
– The coronavirus crisis is a world-changing event. Here are early solutions and concrete steps leaders can consider as they plan... and build new businesses for the next normal.
Article

Building an e-commerce business: Lessons on moving fast
– With consumers moving online in reaction to coronavirus restrictions, companies will need to learn how to launch new e-commerce... businesses quickly.
Article

Building new businesses: How incumbents use their advantages to accelerate growth
– For large companies, building new businesses is essential for growth and reinvention. The key to success? Combining the strengths... of an incumbent with the agility of a start-up.

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