The pace of innovation continues to accelerate and is profoundly set to diversify following recent crises and the unprecedented shift towards business as un-usual. Now more than ever, staying informed should remain high on all agendas.
Innovation is a constant pacemaker for researchers, however, even the greatest product ideas face the risk of being reduced to incremental innovations, unable to achieve success beyond an R&D lab unless wrapped in a viable venture with a significant market fit. To avoid the peak of inflated expectations and trough of disillusionment (valley of death), it is paramount that teams maintain an active scan of competitor R&D signals and strategically align these to forecast emerging prototype developments so that an appropriate research strategy can be developed accordingly with impending technology advances in mind.
See a sampling of our venture research & development services below. We can co-design our service programs to fit the needs of your organization and R&D strategy so that it stays relevant into and beyond the next 5-year plan. Contact us to learn more.
An on-demand service providing market research and strategic analysis to identify the disruptions and disruptors of tomorrow within your domain. Keep a close watch on shifting dynamics and driving forces of change with systematic mapping.
Innovation Landscaping compliments market research with technical opportunity signals in the form of insights derived from R&D sources to help in identifying competitors, upcoming threats and promising concepts capable of being translated.
- Market & technology trends analysis
- Early stage opportunity spotting
- Adjacent competitive threat identification
- Innovation landscape mapping
- Innovation impact extrapolation
Scenario: How can you identify and keep a watch on the latest scientific and next-generation technological innovations emerging from labs and under development before they've been commercialised? They won't appear in Crunchbase or CB Insights. Better understand and debate the potential impact of emerging science-driven innovations and deep tech in your industry and society. Explore their applications and adopt agile strategies towards internal innovation amongst a wider collaborative ecosystem.
Fostering accidental discovery while minimising accidental oversight. Collaboration and acquisition data of competitors is often overlooked in R&D planning when considering "What are your competitors, known and unknown, developing next?"
The Venture Observatory service enables clients to source inorganic growth and forecast their M&A pipeline and technology roadmap against competitors. Providing data of early-stage breakthroughs from laboratories to real-world testing and commercial application.
- Patent, market research, M&A and IP analysis
- Freedom to operate & commercialise analysis
- Forecasting competitor development efforts
- Future(s) of the art & scenario development
- Future investment decision rationale
Scenario: Your competitors are watching your R&D investments and patent filings, how are you monitoring theirs? Your team need to continually deduce the future to remain innovative, doing so requires synthesising multiple complex data sources to arrive at valuable insights. Only after then can market dynamics, logic and foresight be applied to predict next moves of competitors and counter first-mover advantage.
Our processes apply forward-thinking actions to help decision-makers evaluate their position in the market with respect to competitors and simultaneously identify future white space to penetrate early.
The service provides market landscaping, innovation mapping and solution benchmarking to identify and track how you compare to the state of the art, as well as identifying opportunities for new business creation.
- Innovation audit
- Opportunity analysis
- Competitor activity report
- Competitive positioning pivots
- Development roadmap planning
Scenario: Your innovation team believe they are onto a winner with their latest product or service proposition, how can you increase the likelihood of having a first-mover advantage when commercialised? You may not be able to predict the future success of a venture but you can de-risk its odds of failure by better mapping its future position against those currently in development, looking ahead allows for earlier strategic pivots that are predictive, rather than reactive.
Collaboration accelerates innovation origination and intellectual property development. We accelerate the origination of novel ventures by unearthing and engaging with emerging technology companies. Gauge market trajectory and the next potential disruptor(s) before being disrupted.
Startup & Innovation sourcing, pre-due diligence and deal origination. Marinating Venture Synthesis' expertise in scouting emerging technology and IP with clients' desire to test and learn.
- Value proposition & testing
- Startup acquisition screening
- Pipeline exploration & planning
- Open innovation initiatives development
- Collaboration / NewCo business case development
Scenario: Beyond being inspired by external innovation developments, a cornerstone of any well-planned commercialization plan should be the establishment of partnerships. Explore, screen and connect with key players in your external innovation ecosystem (startups, spin-offs, universities, accelerators, incubators, VCs) for collaborative relationships; joint ventures, licensing arrangements and co-pilots with other innovative players, large and small.
Future-proof your portfolio and pipeline by repurposing or pivoting commercial models and applying market hindsight from the innovation economy to develop a commercial blueprint for the right growth initiatives and new ventures.
The Venture Catalyst service applies a unique lens to understanding your assumptions for the future. Devising a strategic innovation roadmap to be validated that leverages hindsight to conceptualise future horizons of innovation.
- Cross industry innovation and Tech transfer sourcing
- Analysis of domain penetration from new technology
- Innovation library, pipeline and lifecycle screening
- Technology future-market mapping
- Innovation thesis development
Scenario: Commercial decisions such as the potential market for an R&D initiative, technology alternatives and IP development are often time-sensitive. However, with continual shifts in market dynamics, it is valuable to revisit and rejuvenate past concepts that may not have aligned with end objectives at the time, to explore potential new-found applications for today and tomorrow. In tandem, exploring the fundamental building blocks of competitor businesses and products that can be reverse-engineered and emulated can enable reaching the target market faster and with greater impact.
Transforming your opportunity pipeline to move the needle towards greater impact.
The Pilot Lab implementation service advances from strategic consideration and innovation synthesis to integrative thinking; providing the architecture for a pilot venture build. In addressing a fast-paced future we ensure a balance of viable commercial decision-making and application of an entrepreneurial mindset. Failing Forward to quickly understand real-world limitations and manage commercial risk.
- Venture co-creation and implementation
- Business case and GTM development
- Value proposition and MVP testing
- NewCo planning and structuring
- Test to invest: Go / No-Go
Scenario: A portfolio approach to venture development means building a repeatable and scalable model for identifying new opportunities and launching new businesses. Once future scenarios have been explored and signals of disruption extrapolated, ideas should be taken from paper to experimentation and innovation intelligence scaled before being acquired by competitors. Hypotheses are translated to short-term venture pilots to stress-test critical paths and assumptions.
Our Venture Research & Development services will always be tailored to your needs. Services are offered as a progression through different stages of your venturing journey, combining technical and commercial programmes evolving from analysis, to synthesis to building.
Our projects typically deliver on the development or investment case - should it be built, what will it take, what startups or collaboration partners are needed and how will it be done? All the while exploring ideas, validating new initiatives and sourcing investments.
Venture Synthesis is an interdisciplinary venture research and development firm; a hybrid of strategy consultancy, innovation agency and venture builder. We drive innovation from the bottom up, providing clients with commercial strategy and R&D innovation services focused on customer-centric products alongside pipeline planning, competition and market access strategies. The firm is fuelled by a team of diverse profiles, each from STEM and design research backgrounds. Venture Synthesis consultants help companies see their landscape differently through a human-centred and impact-first approach. Taking data-driven decisions to transform innovation intelligence into competitive advantage. An entrepreneurial spirit, results oriented mindset and disciplined operational approach are the most central characteristics of Venture Synthesis.