Two weeks ago inSITE Fellows Sam Slover, Steve Cordova, Manav Malhotra, Craig Wilson and I had the pleasure of chatting with Ryan Jacoby, an entrepreneur and Venture Advisor at Collaborative Fund, over poached eggs and biscuits at Peels in New York City.
Ryan helps companies conceive and build new businesses, envision new brand platforms,and design products and services. At breakfast he candidly shared some of his experiences as a former founding member and location head of IDEO’s New York office, working alongside start-ups at Collaborative Fund and developing his own entrepreneurial venture,Machine.
An alumnus of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Ryan excited the group of grad students with conversation about opportunities in innovation strategy, innovation process, and product design. Ryan helped explain that strategy is now a process rooted in designing, launching and learning (more on his blog here). Much like the operation of a lean startup, the design process is rooted in prototyping, innovating, and investing a little to learn a lot, steps that can be applied to any innovation process big or small. Through multiple iterations of a product and thoughtful analysis of personal user responses, companies are able to bring creative and disruptive ideas to market that satisfy the functional and emotional needs of their clients.
We had a great time getting to know Ryan and look forward to seeing what other exciting and innovative ideas come out of his workshop in the years ahead.
This post was written by Carolyna De LAurentiis, NYU Stern MBA Class of 2015