A Madison-based startup that offers “innovation-as-a-service” is expanding its business model to more industries as it works to connect corporations with emerging technology.
As corporations face increased competition from technology startups, Hyper Innovation serves to alleviate the bottlenecks that accompany corporate innovation initiatives.
Most big corporations are focused on operational excellence and predictable growth. While these corporations rarely lack the ideas to spur new products or partnerships, internal barriers—such as department politics and pilot processes or sticking to the status quo—often leave key investments on the back burner, says Hyper Innovation founder and CEO Sandra Bradley.
“I really observed the challenges of corporations who were well-positioned to run today, but that don’t have good mechanisms to see what’s coming next,” Bradley explains. “Everything that runs their business well is counterintuitive to innovation. The reality is trying to innovate within an institution is hard.”
Bradley saw an opportunity to change that. After serving as a digital strategy director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and witnessing the gap, she launched Hyper Innovation as a “corporate innovation agency” three years ago. The startup brings strategic insights and a systematic “kill fast, grow fast” process to pilot ideas between emerging tech companies and corporations trying to avoid cannibalization and maintain their relevancy.
Though Hyper Innovation originally launched as a consortium of sorts—it focused on hosting innovation workshops—corporate clients quickly expressed the need for professional services and technical talent. Since that early transition, the startup has counted corporations such as CUNA Mutual Group, Kohl’s Corporation, BMO, Foxconn, CIGNA, Land’s End, and American Family Insurance among its clientele.
Today, Bradley describes Hyper Innovation as a hybrid between an accelerator and a consultancy. While accelerator programs are credited with getting startups into the water, she says it’s essentially a waiting game to see if a startup is viable enough to fundraise or stay afloat. Hyper Innovation works as a liaison to directly connect corporations to technology startups already equipped for partnership.
“The missing piece is having a partner that can bring in turnkey resources for innovation,” Bradley adds. “Companies hire an ad agency for branding. You can bring us in as an innovation agency.”
Bradley says corporate clients benefit by outsourcing the vetting process of startups they want to bring to the table, essentially saving time and “de-risking” any investments they might make in building out a new team, testing strategic partnerships, or moving forward with new acquisitions, spin-outs, or product launches. It’s a way to accelerate innovation, she adds.
“Innovation doesn’t happen in a silo, it’s got to have an ecosystem,” Bradley explains. “There is a lot of activity, ‘speed-dating’ between corporations and startups, but everybody gets stuck on ‘What do I do next?’ None of that was working. What we do is help navigate and activate the ecosystem.”
For example, one client—a $150 billion insurance agency—approached Hyper Innovation after attending a conference and collecting nearly 50 business cards from potential tech startup partners. Bradley’s team helped the company whittle down its prospects to just four players, who were then placed into a 14-week tailored accelerator program for final validation.
The mutually-beneficial partnerships between Hyper Innovation’s corporate clients and its growing startup pipeline have led Hyper Innovation to expand its business in new directions. Bradley says the organization is currently testing a new studio model to help “open doors” for startups seeking corporate customers, exchanging equity or licensing benefits in the process.
For now, the company remains focused on opportunities in digital health and Ag tech, but Bradley says the startup isn’t opposed to scaling across verticals or regions.
“With [coronavirus], suddenly companies understand how important tech and innovation is,” Bradley says. “People will say it’s important, but ‘it might be next year’s investment.’ Now, it’s number one on the priority list. We can’t back burner anymore.”
