written by Sabine VanderLinden

There is no doubt that change is constant today.

Not in terms of days or weeks, but in terms of hours.

Large enterprises — from global insurers to leading banks — face a dual challenge. They must innovate with startup agility to stay competitive, yet also build credibility and trust in the eyes of customers and partners. Traditional approaches often fall short: corporate venture capital investments can be hit-or-miss.

In particular, traditional corporate venture capital typically involves equity-based investments and longer timeframes, whereas newer models like the venture client approach focus on direct purchasing and faster innovation adoption.

Internal “innovation labs” sometimes produce more “innovation theater” than real outcomes. Startups, however, are uniquely positioned to develop and deliver technologies that address critical issues, such as climate change and supply chain management, making them valuable partners in tackling these challenges.

What’s needed is a holistic approach that not only delivers tangible business results but also amplifies those wins across the organization and the market by actively injecting innovation into the value chain and corporate culture, moving beyond superficial efforts.

This is where Alchemy Crew’s proprietary DIVAAA framework (Discover, Investigate, Validate, Adopt, Activate, Amplify) comes in – a unique end-to-end blueprint marrying venture-backed experimentation with strategic communication. Aligning innovation efforts with the company’s mission ensures that every initiative supports the core purpose and strategic vision, driving focused and impactful collaboration. Before diving into how DIVAAA works, let’s set the stage with a quick look at the innovation landscape and why this combined approach is so powerful.

The Innovation Landscape and What’s Missing

Around the world, corporations are upping their bets on innovation, whether by launching new ventures or partnering with startups. Boston Consulting Group, for example, has helped launch over 200 corporate ventures through its BCG Digital Ventures arm, achieving a 66% success rate (far above the ~20–30% typical in venture capital). Firms like Mach49 and Founders Factory focus on venture building – creating new startups from scratch alongside corporates – to capture new markets. Meanwhile, accelerators and open innovation platforms like Plug and Play Tech Center and Rainmaking excel at matching corporates with external startups to run pilots. Rainmaking reports that 81% of the startup pilots it facilitates for Fortune 500 clients are successful, thanks to a structured process and clear focus on tangible results (not just innovation for its own sake). These statistics prove that with the right approach, corporate-startup collaborations can thrive.

However, many innovation programs stop short of full impact. It’s one thing to run a promising pilot or even launch a new venture; it’s another to embed the innovation into the core business and scale it.

Often, after a pilot ends, momentum fades – the startup’s solution might never fully integrate into the enterprise’s operations, or the insights gained remain siloed in an innovation team. Crucially, most programs don’t systematically communicate the successes and learnings beyond a small circle. As a result, employees and customers might never hear the story of that successful AI pilot that saved millions, and the wider organization misses out on culture change. In other words, the “last mile” of innovation – adoption and amplification – is frequently neglected. To overcome this, organizations need integrated and scalable systems that ensure innovation is embedded across departments and can be amplified throughout the business.

This is Alchemy Crew’s differentiator. By design, the DIVAAA framework addresses both the execution and the evangelization of innovation. It combines two traditionally separate domains: venture clienting (a model where the corporation engages startups as a client to rapidly test and adopt their technology) and strategic media amplification (making sure those wins are communicated, scaled, and leveraged for maximum business value).

A venture client company is a corporation that acts as a strategic customer to startups, adopting their innovative solutions directly to address technology gaps and gain competitive advantages, often through dedicated Venture Client Units, without taking equity. Engaging with startups as clients rather than investors allows companies to offer immediate revenue and validation, which attracts top-quality startups. Venture clienting enables companies to access innovative startup solutions, address strategic needs, and gain competitive advantages without significant investment risks.

Competitors typically focus on one or the other. For instance, BCG’s Digital Ventures model emphasizes building new standalone businesses, while Plug and Play’s innovation platform concentrates on sourcing startups and running pilots.

Alchemy Crew’s approach is to do both – to not only discover and validate new solutions, but also activate and amplify them so they truly transform the company.

While we are refining our approach every to meet our partners need, let’s walk through the six stages of the DIVAAA framework to see how this works in practice, and why it’s so effective.

Discover: Exploring Transformative Opportunities

In the Discover phase, organizations cast a wide net across the global startup ecosystem, seeking disruptive technologies and ideas that align with strategic business priorities. This is the scouting and ideation stage, where curiosity leads the way. Out team at Alchemy Crew begins with a deep dive into your business priorities and pain points – whether it’s improving the customer experience in insurance claims, automating finance operations, or addressing climate-related risks in your portfolio. The team analyzes disruptive market trends, emerging customer behaviors, and supply chain dynamics to identify where a startup solution could create game-changing impact. Crucially, this discovery is guided by your strategic intent and focused on identifying the exact needs of your organization: there’s little value in “interesting” technology that isn’t tied to a real business need. By framing the search around concrete challenges and opportunities, the process ensures any startup scouted has the potential to “meaningfully disrupt” your industry in a positive way.

On the startup side, the numbers are vast – there are tens of thousands of ventures out there, with new fintech, insurtech, and climate tech startups launching every month. Alchemy Crew leverages a vast network of over 4.5 million startup and scale-up profiles worldwide to filter through this universe.

Advanced analytics and ecosystem databases help pinpoint the promising few that truly fit your criteria (for example, an AI startup that can cut underwriting time in half (e.g., sixfold or planck), or a climate-tech venture providing satellite data to improve risk models (e.g., Iceye, Athena Intelligence, 7Analytics). This comprehensive scouting is one of Alchemy’s strengths and is tailored to the specific needs of each client, ensuring that only the most relevant startups are selected.

In fact, on our platform, we highlight that we have over the years scouted at least 55,000+ ventures and deeply evaluated around 400+, accelerating 162 of them to date. Such breadth and depth in discovery ensure no stone is left unturned – you see the full spectrum of what’s possible, from the local innovation hubs in Silicon Valley and London to emerging startup scenes in Asia.

Equally important, Discover is not just about tech scouting; it’s indeed also about understanding the story that will need to be told around any innovation. On a parallel track, Alchemy Crew conducts a strategic audit of your brand and audience at this stage (a practice that might be termed “discovering the narrative”).

This means clarifying your brand’s innovation goals, analyzing how competitors position their innovations, and identifying whitespace opportunities in content and thought leadership. Through market research and content diagnostics, the team uncovers which trends and stories your target audience cares about most. For example, if you’re a global insurer aiming to appeal to millennials, the discovery might reveal that themes of simplification and trust are paramount (as was the case for Tryg, I remember many years ago, when reimagining insurance for younger customers.). If you’re a bank focusing on SME clients, perhaps success stories about speed and convenience in lending resonate strongly. By gathering these insights up front, the framework ensures that any innovation pursued will be grounded in relevance and authenticity when communicated later.

In short, the Discover phase sets the foundation by marrying hard analytics (what the business needs and what tech is out there) with soft analytics (what the market and stakeholders would get excited about).

Investigate: Curating an Innovation Portfolio

Once promising startups or ideas are identified, it’s time to dig deeper and separate the signal from the noise. The Investigate phase is all about evaluation and curation. Rather than betting on a single idea, Alchemy Crew helps you build a portfolio of high-potential ventures, with a focus on identifying and selecting growth ventures and highlighting the brightest growth ventures as key drivers of innovation.

This is akin to an R&D funnel: many possibilities enter, but only the most viable will progress. The team conducts thorough due diligence on each candidate startup – examining the technology, team, business model, and alignment to your specific use case. The goal is to confirm the startup’s ability to solve your targeted problem and to gauge the ease of integration with your operations. At this stage, it’s common to engage directly with the startup founders, ask for demos or early data, and assess any risks (technical, regulatory, etc.).

The output of Investigate is a shortlist of the most promising ventures ready for real-world testing, establishing a clear path for these growth ventures to move from evaluation to real-world impact. With a well-designed venture client unit, companies can benefit from over 100 startups per year, ensuring a steady pipeline of innovation. As Rainmaking notes in its own methodology, “Our analysts source top startups in each focus area and assess them for strategic fit, shortlisting the most viable for final selection.” A structured evaluation like this ensures you’re not just chasing hype; you’re choosing startups that can genuinely drive innovation in your sector.

In practical terms, Investigate might involve, say, narrowing 50 scouted fintech solutions down to 5 that meet a bank’s criteria for data security and impact on customer experience. Or selecting the top 3 climate-tech startups whose solutions could plug into an insurer’s underwriting process. This curation is critical. It gives your innovation initiative a focused portfolio rather than a scattershot approach. Each chosen venture in the portfolio is there for a clear reason, whether it’s addressing a known gap (e.g., automating a manual process) or exploring a new growth area (e.g., a new insurance product for the sharing economy).

At the same time, the Investigate phase on the media side sharpens your understanding of how to position and differentiate these potential innovations. Here, Alchemy Crew delves into your current digital presence and audience behavior. How are people responding to your existing content? Where are the engagement gaps? What narratives are competitors pushing, and where are they falling flat? By benchmarking your messaging against competitors and analyzing audience feedback, the team identifies narrative gaps – areas where your voice could be sharper or more differentiated. For example, perhaps none of your competitors are talking about a certain emerging risk (like climate-driven insurance models), presenting an opportunity for you to lead the conversation. Or maybe your content skews very technical, and there’s an unmet need for more human-centered storytelling in your industry. This investigative research defines a clear, differentiated voice for your innovation story – one that will resonate with decision-makers on platforms from LinkedIn to industry podcasts.

In essence, by the end of Investigate, you have two things: (1) a curated portfolio of startup-driven solutions ready to be tried, and (2) a refined understanding of the story that will make stakeholders care about those solutions. You’re now ready to move from analysis to action.

Validate: Testing and De-Risking in the Real World

Now comes the moment of truth: Validate is where ideas meet reality. In this phase, Alchemy Crew facilitates real-world experiments and pilot programs to test the selected startup solutions against your business objectives. The philosophy here is “learn by doing.” Rather than making big bets on unproven technology, you run controlled pilots to see what actually delivers value – all while using agreed business metrics to measure success. Through the venture client model, companies obtain innovative solutions, such as cutting-edge technologies and new business models, from startups to address critical business challenges and enhance competitiveness without traditional investments. This might mean launching a limited-scope trial of a new AI claims processing tool in one region, or integrating a fintech API in a sandbox environment to observe its impact on customer onboarding time. The goal is to rigorously vet the venture’s solution in a low-risk environment and gather data: Does it work as intended? What quantifiable improvements or cost savings are achieved? What glitches or integration challenges arise? Teams are supported throughout the process to ensure successful validation and collaboration between all stakeholders.

For example, consider a large insurer partnering with a machine-learning startup to improve customer retention. In several of our labs, corporate partners did exactly this – they ran a pilot with AI-powered startup in underwriting, litigation management, and customer retention, and the collaboration led to insights about their business performance that they never had before. This kind of outcome is what Validate strives for: not only proving the tech in practice, but also uncovering new knowledge and process improvements for the corporate, including measurable improvements in productivity and efficiency. Each pilot is designed with clear success criteria (sometimes called a “success matrix”). In fact, experts advise defining “measures of success upfront when partnering with innovation teams” to avoid misaligned expectations. Alchemy Crew ensures that for each experiment, both the startup and corporate sides know what metrics will signal a successful validation – be it a certain percentage reduction in processing time, an increase in conversion rate, or positive user feedback from a focus group.

Crucially, this validation stage is about de-risking innovation. By testing on a small scale (often within months and with relatively small budgets), you can filter out ideas that don’t meet the bar and double-down on those that do. It’s a fail-fast, learn-fast approach. According to corporate innovation research, venture client pilots are relatively inexpensive – often costing under $100k – and can be executed quickly, allowing more “shots on goal” and faster results. This contrasts with traditional big IT projects that might take years. The DIVAAA framework’s Validate phase embraces agile experimentation so that only the most viable and scalable models make it through to the next stages. By the end of Validate, you should have at least one or two proven solutions (backed by data and real-world performance) ready to integrate more deeply into the business. Even more, you’ve generated valuable insights for both your company and the startup. As one industry observer put it, “The financial success of many insurtechs hinges on getting insurers to sign up for pilots” – and conversely, the success of insurers’ innovation efforts hinges on running pilots that can turn into scalable solutions.

Interestingly, Alchemy Crew extends the Validate concept to content and messaging as well – something most do not do. In parallel with the tech pilots, the team will run controlled media experiments to test how the story of your innovation resonates with your audience. This could involve A/B testing a thought leadership article on LinkedIn, sharing a series of social media posts or short videos about the pilot’s theme, or even releasing a podcast snippet to gauge interest. Each piece of content is essentially a “pilot” for your message, analyzed for engagement, feedback, and conversion. For instance, if your venture pilot is about AI in insurance, you might publish a LinkedIn post sharing early results (“We reduced claims processing time by 50% using AI – here’s what we learned”) and see how your network reacts. The data from these content pilots (click-through rates, comments, inquiries generated) validates what narratives hit the mark and which formats drive traction. It’s an evidence-based way to hone your broader marketing approach so that when you fully launch the innovation, you already know how to communicate its value compellingly.

By validating both the solution and the messaging, Alchemy Crew dramatically increases the odds that the innovation will stick. You’ve de-risked the venture by proving its worth, and you’ve de-risked the go-to-market story by proving it resonates. This one-two punch sets the stage for adoption.

Adopt: From Pilot to Full-Scale Adoption

A validated pilot is a terrific milestone, but the real impact comes when the solution is fully adopted into the business. The Adopt phase focuses on transitioning from a successful experiment to an operational reality. In venture clienting terms, this is where the corporation formally becomes a paying customer of the startup’s product or integrates it into their processes at scale. Corporations acting as venture clients attract top-quality startups by offering immediate revenue and credibility, which helps ensure the partnership is mutually beneficial. It’s about moving out of the sandbox and into production. Alchemy Crew works closely with both the corporate’s business units and the startup to remove any friction and meet internal requirements for deployment. Establishing a dedicated venture client unit can play a crucial role here, providing a focused structure to facilitate the adoption and integration of startup solutions. This often involves building a robust Playbook or blueprint for integration – covering everything from technical integration steps and security compliance to training staff and setting KPIs for ongoing performance. Alchemy Crew creates tailor-made solutions for each organization, ensuring the integration approach fits specific needs. Essentially, Alchemy provides a tactical roadmap so the innovative solution meets all the corporation’s internal evaluation criteria (IT approvals, regulatory checks, ROI thresholds, etc.) and can smoothly slot into the existing operations.

During Adopt, the venture client model truly shows its value. Because the corporation has acted as an early customer, the startup’s solution is already tailored to the corporate’s needs – there’s no “not invented here” syndrome to overcome, since the solution was co-developed and proven on the corporate’s turf. Real-world examples of this model include companies like The Hartford (a major US insurer), which, after piloting Tractable’s AI for auto damage assessment, proceeded to integrate it into their claims process. The result: claims that used to take days could be processed in minutes.

Tractable’s computer-vision solution has now processed over $1 billion in auto claims for top insurers worldwide, showing how a pilot with one client can scale into business-as-usual across an entire sector (More on this subject from a startup called CamCom that joined Ergo ScaleHub program.) In the Adopt phase, such successes move from one-off trials to everyday practice. The benefits of adoption extend to the entire company, not just a single department, enabling organization-wide innovation and competitive advantage.

It often requires internal champions and cross-department collaboration – IT, operations, customer service, all working together to embed the new capability. As Fabian Dudek (CEO of GlassDollar) emphasizes regarding venture clienting, “It is important that the process does not end after a successful PoC. The validated solution must be anchored in the company. This is where internal communication and activating the right departments are crucial.”

In other words, adoption is as much about organizational change as technology. Alchemy Crew’s framework ensures those insights from the pilot are socialized internally, stakeholders are educated, and the startup’s champions inside the firm have the tools to push the solution through procurement, budgets, and rollout. Training and internal communication also focus on the development of leadership and management skills, supporting senior leaders and rising managers as they guide the adoption process.

Another key aspect of Adopt is evaluating the financial and strategic fit for the long term. Sometimes adoption goes hand-in-hand with investment or ownership changes – for instance, if the pilot was extremely successful, the corporation might choose to make a strategic equity investment in the startup or even acquire it. (We’ve seen Fortune 500 firms do this: Spain’s Banco Santander piloted an online lending platform with fintech startup Kabbage, then scaled it to a same-day loan offering for SMEs. Similarly, BBVA’s partnership with digital bank Holvi led BBVA to fully acquire the startup to expand its services.) Alchemy Crew’s Investment-as-a-Service guidance comes into play here, advising if and how to invest in the venture as it’s adopted. The virtuous circle is clear – by adopting the startup’s solution, you’ve de-risked it, making it a more attractive investment, which in turn can fuel further growth of that solution within your company and beyond.

Meanwhile, on the content front, Adopt means it’s time to scale up the validated messaging across all channels. The experimentation with content in the previous phase revealed what works; now those winning messages and stories are amplified through a harmonized campaign. Alchemy Crew helps harmonize your brand voice and narrative tone so that, whether a stakeholder encounters your CEO’s LinkedIn article, a case study on your website, or a presentation at a conference, they get a consistent and resonant story. Messaging is tailored to different audience segments (e.g., a more technical emphasis for a CIO audience, a business value angle for a CFO), ensuring relevance “meets stakeholders where they are.” The idea is to create consistency and relevance at scale, which in turn deepens engagement and builds trust.

Research shows that consistency in thought leadership pays off: 9 in 10 decision-makers say they are more receptive to a company’s sales outreach if that company consistently produces high-quality thought leadership content. In Adopt, the organization commits not only to the new venture but also to championing it publicly. Internally, success stories from the pilot are shared in newsletters or town halls, rallying employees around the win. Externally, press releases, blog posts, and conference talks might announce the new solution. This stage transforms a pilot “project” into a strategic capability of the company, and the storytelling ensures everyone (inside and outside the firm) knows it.

Activate: Accelerating Collaboration and Growth

With the new solution adopted and the foundation laid, the Activate phase aims to accelerate and broaden the impact of the corporate-startup partnership. Think of this as stepping on the gas: we want to fully leverage the innovative solution across the enterprise and possibly across the market. On the venture collaboration side, Activate involves deploying advanced commercialization techniques based on the venture client model to maximize value. This could mean expanding the usage of the startup’s product to additional business units, regions, or use cases within the company. For example, if an Asia-Pacific division of the company led the initial pilot, Activate might roll the solution out to European and North American divisions next. It’s about scaling the collaboration from one beachhead to enterprise-wide adoption. Alchemy Crew assists by providing tactical blueprints, playbooks, and tools to manage this scale-up, ensuring that the performance continues to meet the corporation’s criteria as volumes increase or new contexts are introduced. Alchemy Crew also provides ongoing support to both corporates and startups, helping them navigate challenges and sustain momentum during this critical phase. Essentially, we institutionalize the startup collaboration into the company’s processes by effectively operating the venture client model to ensure scalable and repeatable outcomes.

Another aspect of Activate is exploring deeper partnership models or revenue opportunities. By now, the corporation has firsthand experience with the startup’s capability – this opens the door to strategic options like co-developing new features, forming joint ventures, or creating entirely new products together. Investing in startups at this stage can further deepen collaboration, accelerate innovation, and align interests for long-term growth. The focus is on removing any remaining complexity in the commercialization process. Alchemy Crew acts as a facilitator to uncover win-win scenarios for both corporate and startup. Perhaps the startup’s tech could enable a new service for your customers that neither of you initially envisioned; Activate workshops would identify such opportunities. In some cases, this phase might lead to negotiating investment or acquisition if that’s beneficial for both parties (turning the startup into a long-term strategic asset for the company). The key here is that, unlike one-off innovation experiments, the relationship has matured – it can now be leveraged to generate new revenue streams or operational improvements across the board. For instance, a large European bank after adopting a fintech solution might decide to resell that solution to its own network of small business clients, creating a new revenue line for both the bank and the startup (similar to how ING implemented a startup’s invoicing software and offered it to its customers as “ING invoice solutions.”) Activate is about finding these multiplier effects.

It’s worth noting that by this stage, the startup often gains significant advantages too – they have a marquee customer in the corporate, real market feedback, and possibly an investment. This strengthens the startup’s credibility and might attract other big clients. For the corporate, acting as a venture client early on means they’ve effectively shaped the product to their needs and gained early access to new technology ahead of competitors. It’s a symbiotic dynamic, and Activate cements it. Alchemy Crew helps navigate any organizational hurdles as the collaboration deepens, for example adjusting procurement contracts for larger rollouts, or ensuring the startup can handle the scale (perhaps by connecting them to more funding or partners if needed). By the end of Activate, the innovation is not a novelty – it’s part of business as usual, and possibly even a competitive differentiator in the market. The power of this approach lies in its ability to drive real transformation and industry impact, moving beyond superficial innovation to deliver measurable results.

On the amplification side, Activate corresponds to launching full-scale campaigns and turning awareness into conversion. With the content strategy validated and aligned, this phase is where a coordinated media campaign goes live. Alchemy Crew deploys what you might call targeted “drops” of content across platforms – a series of high-impact releases designed to grab attention and engage your audience at multiple touchpoints. For example, this could include publishing a feature article or white paper detailing the innovation journey (perhaps in a respected industry journal or on Medium), releasing a polished video case study or a thought leadership reel, having executives present the success story at major conferences or webinars, and pushing targeted email newsletters to clients highlighting the new capabilities. Each asset in this campaign is tailored to its platform and audience: a snappy LinkedIn carousel post for quick social media consumption, a more detailed Medium article for those seeking depth, a keynote talk for live inspiration. The idea is a full-funnel approach – from generating awareness and excitement, all the way to driving inquiries, leads, or internal buy-in that convert into tangible outcomes (new customers, upsells, or greater adoption internally).

By orchestrating these activation moments, Alchemy Crew ensures that the innovation doesn’t just quietly exist – it makes a splash in the market. One real-world illustration: when Tryg and Rainmaking launched their new digital insurance startup Undo, they didn’t just deploy the app and hope for the best; they publicized how it was reinventing insurance for millennials. I remember, at the time, seeing the founding team stand outside universities to educate millennials about insurance for their preferred gadgets and belongings. The results were impressive – in its first couple of years, Undo sold 36,000 policies with 100% year-on-year growth, and achieved a 90% retention rate. Such growth is fueled not only by a good product but by effective marketing activation that educates the target users on the new offering. In B2B contexts, effective activation might mean your innovation gets featured in industry reports or your thought leadership content starts being cited by others (a sign you’re influencing the conversation). Metrics like impressions, engagement rates, share of voice, and lead generation are tracked meticulously. Alchemy’s campaigns have a track record of delivering millions of impressions and thousands of qualified leads for partners, turning the innovation from an internal success into a public market success.

Amplify: Scaling and Sustaining the Momentum

The final “A” in DIVAAA stands for Amplify, and it represents the long-term scaling and institutionalization of the innovation capabilities built so far. If Activate was about accelerating, Amplify is about ensuring the innovation capability is sustainable, repeatable, and spread across the enterprise and beyond. At this stage, the initial innovation project has proven its value and is integrated – now the task is to industrialize and democratize the learnings across the company’s broader operations and even to make a mark on the industry.

Within the corporation, Amplify often means expanding the venture program to more business units, more countries, and more use cases. The lessons learned from this first cycle of Discover through Activate can be codified into playbooks so that other teams can run their own innovation cycles with startups. Essentially, the DIVAAA framework becomes a reusable innovation engine inside the organization. A concrete example is how some global banks or insurance companies set up centralized innovation hubs and then establish satellite programs in different regions – sharing knowledge and startups between them. (Barclays, for instance, after success in London with fintech startups, expanded its Rise innovation hubs to New York, Mumbai, etc., creating a global network of startup collaboration centers.) Alchemy Crew supports this scaling by often deploying or building a digital engagement platform – a purpose-built system to manage all these startup interactions, track pilot progress, collect data on outcomes, and facilitate communication among stakeholders. This kind of platform accelerates multi-country adoption because it standardizes the process and makes it easy for any division to plug in. By amplifying internally, you create a culture where innovation isn’t a one-off project but a continuous program. Employees across the company gain access to the repository of startup solutions and case studies, and more importantly, they are encouraged to participate and contribute ideas for the next wave of ventures. This drives a more entrepreneurial mindset company-wide and helps unlock the full potential of startup solutions. Leadership also continues to be involved, seeing that the initial investment has yielded returns, they are likely to sponsor additional rounds. As one innovation study noted, companies that foster an environment where experimentation is celebrated can unlock unparalleled growth potential – Amplify is about cementing that environment and fostering a true entrepreneurial spirit throughout the organization.

Externally, the Amplify phase extends the reach of your success story through every available channel and partnership. It’s not just about talking louder; it’s about creating sustained momentum and influence. By now, you have a compelling narrative and proof points (real metrics, customer testimonials, etc.). Alchemy Crew helps repurpose and syndicate your content across regions and sectors to get maximum mileage. For example, a great case study might be translated and shared with teams in Asia, or a webinar might be turned into a series of blog posts and an e-book. Influencer engagement is also key in this stage: industry influencers or respected voices may be enlisted to share or comment on your story, giving it a third-party endorsement. Perhaps a renowned InsurTech analyst cites your company’s innovation in their annual report, or a climate tech thought leader invites your team on their podcast. Such amplification ensures your story travels far beyond your immediate circles. In marketing terms, this builds your brand as an innovator and can lead to outsized opportunities.

Sharing your success stories and thought leadership externally also delivers a strategic benefit—it positions your company to solve critical business challenges and gain a competitive edge. (Consider how frequently companies like Microsoft or IBM produce case studies and then those get amplified by partners, leading to a perception that they are at the forefront – this is very intentional.)

The impact of effective amplification can be profound. According to a 2024 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B study, 75% of decision-makers say that a piece of high-quality thought leadership content led them to research a product or service they weren’t previously considering. In other words, by continuously pushing out insightful content about your innovation and vision, you attract new interest and potentially new customers who might not have been on your radar. Moreover, 70% of C-suite executives said that thought leadership content has at times convinced them to change an existing supplier in favor of a new one. This statistic underscores how powerful your amplified story can be – it can literally shift market dynamics, positioning your company as a leader and pulling in business from competitors, all because you took the effort to share your knowledge and success.

Finally, Amplify feeds back into the next cycle of innovation. The extensive external network you build – spanning startups, industry experts, media, and influencers – becomes an asset for sourcing the next wave of ideas (back to Discover). It also supports your adopted startup, possibly opening new markets for them (they might gain other clients after the publicity, which in turn helps them grow and serve you better – a win-win). By this point, the venture program plays a strategic role in the parent company’s growth, and it’s recognized internally and externally. Innovation becomes part of the company’s identity, not just a side project.

To illustrate Amplify with a real case: consider Plug and Play’s innovation platform, which, after years of building its ecosystem, now connects corporations, startups, VCs, and governments in over 60 locations worldwide. A corporate that engaged in one Plug and Play program suddenly gains access to this global network – their innovation stories and needs are broadcast across a vast ecosystem, leading to more partnerships and opportunities. In a similar vein, Alchemy Crew’s Amplify stage plugs you into broader FutureTech communities (we has been featured in many such publications.), meaning your successes could appear as case studies in conference keynotes or industry journals, further cementing your reputation. Amplification, done right, creates a self-reinforcing cycle of innovation and credibility: your success story attracts more talent, more partners, and more ideas to your doorstep, which in turn leads to the next success.

Alchemy Crew's Venture Client Model 2.0: Combining Collaboration and Communication

It should be clear by now how Alchemy Crew’s DIVAAA framework uniquely combines two critical engines: venture commercialization (to execute innovation) and strategic communication (to amplify innovation). This dual approach is what sets it apart from other innovation models. Many innovation consultancies and venture studios address pieces of the puzzle, but few integrate the whole journey from discovery to amplification in one framework.

For instance, some firms excel at venture building but require huge resource commitments and longer time to market; others facilitate quick startup pilots but often leave after the pilot, right when internal adoption struggles might begin. The Venture Client Model is a cost-effective corporate venturing approach accessible to companies of all sizes, making it an ideal choice for organizations looking to innovate without overextending resources. Alchemy Crew deliberately bridges these gaps.

Let’s briefly compare: Venture clienting as practiced in DIVAAA emphasizes speed and practicality – as one advisor quipped, it lets you “turbocharge process optimization with tested startup tech, no need to start from scratch”, making it an ideal choice when you want quick wins and lower risk.

Importantly, the venture client approach enables companies to rapidly adopt new technologies from startups, ensuring they stay ahead of the curve and maintain a competitive edge by integrating the latest innovations and business models. In contrast, traditional corporate venture building (like some competitors pursue) can aim for more radical, standalone businesses but often demands deeper investments of time and money (and a higher tolerance for failure.) Alchemy Crew leans into venture clienting to get early results and de-risk opportunities, complementing it with the option to invest once those results are proven. This means you enjoy the best of both worlds: you achieve impact quickly through adoption, and then you can pursue bolder bets (including follow-on ventures or acquisitions) based on evidence, not just hypothesis. Few competitors orchestrate this transition as fluidly.

Moreover, the emphasis on “Success Amplified” is a real differentiator. Firms we have featured in this article may build you a new business, but they don’t typically stick around to train your marketing team on thought leadership or ensure your success story gets quoted in Forbes. They have a different model.

Alchemy Crew does, because it recognizes that innovation’s value is magnified when it’s communicated effectively. Consider that 73% of B2B decision-makers view an organization’s thought leadership as a more trustworthy way to assess its capabilities than traditional product-focused marketing. Alchemy Crew bakes that insight into the framework – ensuring that each innovation project enhances your organization’s credibility and thought leadership in the market, not just its internal operations.

In practice, this could mean that after a successful fintech pilot, your company suddenly becomes seen as a visionary in AI for finance, attracting new clients who followed your content. Competitors in the innovation consulting space rarely offer this kind of media amplification service in-house. It’s usually left to separate PR agencies (who might not deeply understand the venture’s story). Alchemy Crew’s integrated approach means the same team that helped discover and validate the innovation also helps tell its story, lending authenticity and coherence to the narrative.

To underscore the point, let’s recall an earlier stat: Plug and Play found that companies often struggle with scaling after the pilot – “how to convert all the ideas tested into commercialization." DIVAAA addresses that directly through the Adopt and Activate phases (so nothing gets lost in translation after the pilot), and then goes one step further by Amplifying (so that the commercialization is visible and reinforced).

It’s a soup-to-nuts solution. By aligning discovery, partnership, adoption, and communication, the framework creates a reinforcing feedback loop. Each success builds organizational confidence and market reputation, which in turn attracts better startups and enables bigger innovations next time. This repeatability is something Alchemy Crew prides itself on – as it states, a “robust yet flexible framework that maximizes success and repeatability” for innovation. The end result is not just one-off innovation, but an innovation capability: your company becomes adept at continuously bringing in new ideas and spinning them into strategic gold, while everyone – from your employees to your customers and shareholders – knows and appreciates it.

Finally... A New Playbook for Corporate Innovation

Innovation in large organizations has often been compared to turning a ship – slow and difficult. What the Alchemy Crew DIVAAA framework demonstrates is that with the right approach, even the biggest ships can turn swiftly and deliberately, setting a new course toward growth. By serving as a venture client, your organization taps into the ingenuity of startups and scale-ups, infusing fresh ideas into your products, services, and business models with speed and efficiency. At the same time, by amplifying success, you ensure those ideas don’t languish in a lab but instead drive real change – in market perception, customer engagement, and internal culture.

We’ve seen how each phase of DIVAAA contributes to this journey: Discover opens your eyes to what’s possible and aligns innovation with strategy; Investigate separates the gems from the noise and crafts a sharp vision; Validate proves value in practice, providing evidence and insight; Adopt embeds the innovation and turns it into operational reality; Activate scales it up and deepens the partnership for mutual growth; and Amplify broadcasts the success, fueling momentum and establishing thought leadership. Each step is necessary; together, they are sufficient to break through the notorious “innovation inertia” that plagues corporates. They ensure that innovation is not an experiment that fades, but a story that keeps unfolding.

Perhaps most importantly, this framework reminds us that technology alone doesn’t change industries – people do. By focusing equally on the human elements (partnerships, communication, culture) and the technological ones, DIVAAA creates a persuasive narrative for change. It turns skeptics into supporters: the business unit leader who sees a pilot hitting KPIs, the customer who reads about a new service and gives it a try, the employee who feels proud their company is leading the pack. In a Fortune 500 insurance firm or a global bank, these shifts are priceless. They mean the difference between an innovation program that’s a cost center and one that’s a growth engine.

In storytelling terms, Alchemy Crew helps corporates not just play catch-up with disruption, but author their own innovation success stories. And those stories come with citations – real data, real examples, real validation – not just hype. A CEO reading about how another insurer captured 40% of a millennial segment through a startup collaboration, or how decision-makers are actively seeking partners who demonstrate thought leadership, will recognize that this approach is both credible and necessary.

So whether you are in insurance, finance, fintech, climate tech, or any sector facing upheaval, the message is clear: innovation is a venture and a narrative. With the DIVAAA framework, you simultaneously build the venture and the narrative, each reinforcing the other. It’s a playbook for making innovation a repeatable, scalable engine of growth – and making sure the world knows about it. In a time when standing still means falling behind, this integrated approach offers a way to leap forward confidently, with eyes open to opportunity and a voice ready to amplify the victories ahead.

Sources:

• BCG Digital Ventures success metrics.

• Rainmaking pilot success rate.

• Plug and Play on collaboration mindset.

• Rainmaking’s structured startup selection.

• GlassDollar on venture clienting (Fabian Dudek interview)

• Examples of corporate-startup partnerships (Santander-Kabbage, ING-Zervant, etc.)

• Undo insurance venture case study (Tryg/Rainmaking)

• Tractable partnership with The Hartford

• Edelman/ LinkedIn B2B thought leadership statistics.

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