The Role of the Innovation Capitalist in Open Innovation A Case Study and Key Lessons Learned

OVERVIEW: An innovation capitalist can help companies manage the organizational and managerial challenges inherent in sourcing innovation externally. Innovation capitalists are innovation intermediaries; they mediate large firms' interactions with external sources of innovation. In particular, innovation capitalists seek out promising new ideas from independent inventors and other sources, invest in those ideas to transform them into market-ready concepts, and sell (or license) the related intellectual property to large client firms. Drawing on a case study of an innovation capitalist firm that focuses on sourcing ideas and technologies from universities and national labs and placing them in large global technology companies, the article suggests organizational strategies and practices that can enhance the success of open innovation initiatives involving innovation intermediaries.