Innov8rs Connect on Culture, Talent & Teams

It is well known that talent is incredibly important to the success of new startups. But, as large corporations are building their own ventures, attracting & securing great talent presents a big challenge. So, how can corporations attract, assess and retain great startup founders for more successful ventures? Panelists from corporate venture studios, innovation teams and venture capital will share their experiences in finding & incentivizing great entrepreneurs, instilling an entrepreneurial culture, and overcoming the challenges of large organizations learning how to navigate this new world of venture building.

Colin leads corporate venture building at Rainmaking venture studio, which build startups in partnership with Fortune 500 partners. Based in Singapore, Colin has overseen the launch of 10+ new ventures alongside corporate partners and entrepreneurs where he has witnessed the pitfalls & triumphs of talent acquisition for high performing teams. Prior to joining Rainmaking, Colin held various roles at Startupbootcamp, one of the world's largest networks of startup accelerator programs & investors in 1,000+ startups. Mike Pareles leads Open Innovation for Bayer Crop Science in APAC, based out of Singapore, supporting and launching Bayer’s digital ventures for smallholder farmers. Before taking on this role, he founded and led Bayer’s Blockchain Global Center of Excellence as part of its Crop Science Digital Strategy and Innovation team in St. Louis. There he developed the company’s distributed ledger strategy and standards, driving industry-wide ecosystem development as well as the COE’s traceability-focused proofs-of-concept in North and South America. Prior to coming to Bayer, Mike was a Fulbright Scholar in China working with nomadic herding communities and spent five years representing the American beef and pork industries in Washington DC and Beijing with the United Food and Commercial Workers and US Meat Export Federation. He received his BA from the University of Chicago and MBA/MA from the Wharton School of Business and the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. Mike speaks Mandarin Chinese. Christiaan leads People & Talent at Menyala, a venture building team founded by Temasek, which launches pioneering ventures that make disruptive technologies accessible and useful to people and businesses. Prior to joining Menyala, Christiaan spearheaded people initiatives for B Capital Group, a global firm investing in venture and B2B growth-stage startups. She partnered with portfolio companies across Southeast Asia & India to drive strategic talent & recruitment initiatives. While at HubSpot, Christiaan managed their APAC recruiting team; she experienced its growth from start up through IPO and understands the critical role that talent acquisition plays in successfully scaling a business.