Innovation capitalist

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An Innovation Capitalist is a type of innovation intermediary.

Innovation capitalists are firms, often with a particular industry expertise, that seek out and evaluate ideas and technologies from the inventor community and other external sources. They develop and refine those ideas to the point where their market potential is validated, and they then pitch them to large client firms. An innovation capitalist reduces a client company’s acquisition costs and early-stage risks. In return, it shares in the proceeds from the innovation.

The term Innovation Capitalist was coined by Prof. Satish Nambisan of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Prof. Mohanbir Sawhney of Northwestern University in their article in the Harvard Business Review in March 2007.

[edit] References

Nambisan, S and Sawhney, M. "Meet the Innovation Capitalist," Harvard Business Review, March 2007, 24.

[edit] External links

• http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbrsa/en/issue/0703/article/F0703D.jhtml?type=F
• http://endlessinnovation.typepad.com/endless_innovation/2007/03/innovation_word.html
• http://shoptalkmarketing.blogspot.com/2007/02/proposing-value-adding-middleman-for.html
• Evergreen Innovation Partners - a Product Capitalist(R) firm that focuses on consumer products. Two of EIP's partners maintain active blogs on the innovation capital model: Dispatches From the Frontier and View From the Bridge.
• IGNITE IP, LLC - an Innovation Capitalist (IC) venture fund that invests in and manages all aspects of the commercialization process for disruptive and valuable technology.