Turning Corporate VC into an Exploration Machine (with TDK Ventures)

Founder Series: Building AI for One of the World's Most Regulated Industries (with Revisto)

Pharma marketing has an invisible bottleneck. Every brochure, every Facebook ad, every influencer post has to clear medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) review before it can ship, and some materials take five months to get out the door. Ferry Tamtoro, CEO and founder of Revisto, joins Drew to unpack how AI is finally unblocking that workflow, what it actually takes to sell AI into one of the world's most regulated industries, and why trust beats speed in pharma. EPISODE BREAKDOWN * The invisible MLR bottleneck: What MLR review is, why average cycles run a month (and some five), and the real downstream cost to patients, pharma revenue, and the highly trained reviewers stuck doing manual work. * Why Revisto built a small language model, not an LLM wrapper: Generic LLMs hallucinate and should disqualify themselves from MLR. Ferry walks through how co-creating with a pharma partner from day one baked institutional knowledge into the product itself. * The buy-versus-build math for regulated AI: A production-grade MLR system runs three years and roughly ten million dollars to build internally. Revisto's proof of value runs in four to six weeks. Ferry breaks down the ongoing maintenance cost most companies forget. * Change management and pilot paralysis: What separates organizations that scale AI from ones that stall. The pattern Ferry sees working: senior owner with authority, contained measurable workflow, clear KPIs, ROI proven in weeks. * The FDA's own AI shift: Over 100 warning letters in recent months, and Ferry's read on why this is structural rather than cyclical. The regulations did not change. The probability of getting caught did. FEATURED GUESTS Ferry Tamtoro, CEO and Founder, Revisto LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ferrytamtoro/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ferrytamtoro/] Revisto [https://www.revisto.com/] Host: Drew Beechler, VP of Marketing, Alloy Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/] Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/ [https://www.alloypartners.com/] RESOURCES & RELATED LINKS * Advantaged podcast: https://www.alloypartners.com/podcast [https://www.alloypartners.com/podcast] * Alloy Partners resources: https://www.alloypartners.com/resources [https://www.alloypartners.com/resources] * Learn about venture building: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/what-is-venture-building [https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/what-is-venture-building] * Learn about corporate venture studios: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/corporate-venture-studio [https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/corporate-venture-studio] * Work with Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/contact [https://www.alloypartners.com/contact]   Advantaged: An Alloy Partners [httsp://www.alloypartners.com] Podcast

The Three Resources Every Corporate Venture Studio Needs to Get Right (with MIT's Constanze Coelsch-Foisner)

Most corporates that try to launch a venture studio assume they already have what it takes. MIT Sloan postdoctoral researcher Dr. Constanze Coelsch-Foisner spent five years studying 65 venture studios across continents and sectors to figure out what they actually need, and her three-resources framework is the sharpest tool we have for deciding whether to launch a corporate venture studio or pick a different innovation play. EPISODE BREAKDOWN * Why "venture studio" became a meaningless label: Everything from a product design agency to a CVC unit gets called a venture studio. Constanze walks through what actually distinguishes the model and why investors are wary of an undefined asset class. * The three-resources framework (talent, IP, market insights): Every viable corporate venture studio needs at least one of these three, and most corporates badly overestimate what they have on all three. Honest self-assessment is the entry test. * Why corporate venture studios usually die in CEO transitions: BP Launchpad, General Mills, and G-Works produced real ventures before being shut down. The fix is making innovation everyone's business, not the sitting CEO's pet project. * Killing fast is the metric most corporates don't measure: Google X built peer recognition and bonus incentives around how quickly teams kill bad ideas. Most Fortune 500s evaluate studios on financial returns far too early; strategic and portfolio metrics matter more in the early years. * Why deep tech and the corporate venture studio model are structurally matched: Long timelines, multi-domain coordination, structured experimentation, and parallel companies are exactly what deep tech requires and exactly what traditional venture capital struggles to deliver. FEATURED GUESTS * Dr. Constanze Coelsch-Foisner, Postdoctoral Researcher, MIT Sloan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/constanze-coelsch-foisner/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/constanze-coelsch-foisner/] MIT Sloan: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ [https://mitsloan.mit.edu/] * Host: Drew Beechler, VP of Marketing, Alloy Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/] Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/ [https://www.alloypartners.com/] REFERENCED IN THE SHOW * "Is a Venture Studio Right for Your Company?" (MIT Sloan Management Review) [https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/is-a-venture-studio-right-for-your-company/]. Constanze and Fiona Murray's recent paper introducing the three-resources framework. * "Founders for hire? The role of venture studios in breaking the individual-opportunity nexus" (Journal of Business Venturing, 2026) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883902626000303]. Constanze and co-authors on how venture studios systematically separate the founder from the opportunity, drawing on 16 venture studios and 50 interviews. * MIT Proto Ventures [https://protoventures.mit.edu/]. MIT's internal venture studio, used as the reference example for IP-translating studios. * HighTechXL [https://www.hightechxl.com/]. ASML and Philips' Netherlands-based corporate venture studio, cited as a strong example of pulling internal entrepreneurial talent into a studio. RESOURCES & RELATED LINKS * Advantaged podcast: https://www.alloypartners.com/podcast [https://www.alloypartners.com/podcast] * Alloy Partners resources: https://www.alloypartners.com/resources [https://www.alloypartners.com/resources] * Learn about venture building: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/what-is-venture-building [https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/what-is-venture-building] * Learn about corporate venture studios: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/corporate-venture-studio [https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/corporate-venture-studio] * Work with Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/contact [https://www.alloypartners.com/contact]   Advantaged: An Alloy Partners [httsp://www.alloypartners.com] Podcast

How AI Is Rebuilding the Consulting Model (with StratOff)

The consulting industry has run on the same pyramid model for a century. AI is removing the base. In this episode, Drew talks with Utsav Bhatt, CEO of StratOff, about what comes next — the five archetypes of alternative consulting already emerging, why most enterprise AI transformations keep stalling out, and the identity and culture barriers that no one is talking about enough. EPISODE BREAKDOWN AI is collapsing the consulting pyramid: The traditional model depends on large layers of junior analysts doing research and synthesis. Once AI automates that work, the economic logic of the whole pyramid breaks — and a new model (fewer layers, more senior judgment, outcome-based pricing) has to take its place. Five alt consulting archetypes are already forming: Solo experts, senior-heavy boutiques using AI as their operating system, strategy-as-a-product firms, expert insight platforms, and on-demand curated networks of ex-MBB talent. Incumbents now have to compete with all five at once. Why enterprises are stuck in pilot theater: 90% of CEOs in one study say AI hasn't moved productivity. McKinsey puts 94% of companies in pilot mode. MIT found 84% of companies that invested in AI training haven't changed a single role. Companies are adopting tools — they're not redesigning work. The behavior change problem isn't resistance, it's identity protection: Employees aren't rejecting AI. They're protecting how they know how to succeed. If your career was built on owning information and following proven processes, AI threatens all of that simultaneously. Redefining roles and creating psychological safety to experiment is where most companies fall short. Real transformation follows the Rewire framework: Reimagine, Redesign, Realize. Most companies stop at step one. The redesign phase — actually rethinking processes, roles, and incentive structures — is where the gains live. The Solow Paradox from the 1980s is instructive: computerization didn't show up in productivity data for 10-15 years, because companies computerized their old processes instead of rethinking them. McKinsey won't disappear, but consulting will unbundle: The big firms are already moving toward outcome-based pricing and deeper AI integration. What shifts is who gets access and what they pay for. Mid-market companies that couldn't afford MBB will access AI-powered boutiques. MBB retreats to the highest-complexity work. And as ex-consulting partners move in-house to corporate strategy offices, enterprise buyers will get much sharper about what they actually need to buy externally. FEATURED GUESTS Utsav Bhatt, CEO, StratOff LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/utsavbhatt/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/utsavbhatt/] StratOff: https://www.stratoff.com/ [https://www.stratoff.com/] Host: Drew Beechler, VP of Marketing, Alloy Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/] Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/ [https://www.alloypartners.com/] REFERENCED IN THE SHOW * Alt Consulting [https://www.amazon.com/Alt-Consulting-comes-after-strategy-consulting/dp/B0G4S9LN8M?sr=8-1] by Utsav Bhatt * "Services: The New Software" by Sequoia's Julien Bek [https://sequoiacap.com/article/services-the-new-software/] * The Solow Paradox [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_paradox] — Robert Solow's 1987 observation on computers and productivity * Jack Dorsey on Block's new three-layer org structure [https://block.xyz/inside/from-hierarchy-to-intelligence] RESOURCES & RELATED LINKS * Advantaged podcast: https://advantaged.alloypartners.com/ [https://advantaged.alloypartners.com/] * Alloy Partners resources: https://www.alloypartners.com/resources [https://www.alloypartners.com/resources] * Learn about venture building: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/what-is-venture-building [https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/what-is-venture-building] * Learn about corporate venture studios: https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/corporate-venture-studio [https://www.alloypartners.com/articles/corporate-venture-studio] * Work with Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com/connect [https://www.alloypartners.com/connect] Subscribe to Advantaged on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube — and if this episode was useful, share it with a colleague who's thinking through what AI means for how their organization buys and uses strategy work.   Advantaged: An Alloy Partners [httsp://www.alloypartners.com] Podcast

Turning Corporate VC into an Exploration Machine (with TDK Ventures)

Episode Breakdown * Nicolas’ path into TDK and into corporate venturing * Exploration vs exploitation and the “small helicopter” analogy for corporate VC * Why TDK started with a small but meaningful first fund and how that design de‑risked the model * Strategic value as “pre‑financial” and why TDK Ventures positions itself as “purely financial” * The Groq story, high conviction before consensus, and the role of business model innovation * How TDK Ventures recruits for passion, kindness, diversity, and founder empathy * Equal win engagements and the engagement checkerboard connecting 50+ portfolio companies with 65 internal TDK teams * The professionalization of CVC and the “yin and yang” relationship with traditional VC in the next decade Featured Guests * Host: Drew Beechler [https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/], VP of Marketing, Alloy Partners, and host of Advantaged * Guest: Nicolas Sauvage [https://www.linkedin.com/in/nsauvage/], Founder and President, TDK Ventures [https://tdk-ventures.com/] Referenced in the Show * TDK Ventures Investment Scorecard (open source): https://tdk-ventures.com/news/insights/open-source-tdk-ventures-investment-scorecard/ * TDK Ventures Engagement Checkerboard (open source): https://tdk-ventures.com/news/insights/open-source-mothership-startup-engagements-tracker/ * Why VCs Should Use Net Promoter Scores with Founders https://hbr.org/2024/09/why-vcs-should-use-net-promoter-scores-with-founders * Nicolas' Corporate Venturing Insider podcast: https://cv-insider.com/ * Starting a New Corporate VC: https://youtu.be/QKhw6XvGs0c?si=9Dyl-WTVv-opvtzL * Hiring for Decision Quality at TDK Ventures [https://nicolas-sauvage.medium.com/hiring-for-decision-quality-at-tdk-ventures-783c6ac74fd7] * An Insider Investor View on Groq [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/insider-investor-view-groq-nicolas-sauvage-wfwfe/] * GCVI Summit [https://www.gcvisummit.com/] * World of Corporate Venturing research report [https://www.worldofcorporateventuring.com/executive-summary] Resources & Related Links * Alloy Partners: https://www.alloypartners.com [https://www.alloypartners.com/] * Advantaged Podcast: https://advantaged.alloypartners.com [https://advantaged.alloypartners.com/]   Advantaged: An Alloy Partners [httsp://www.alloypartners.com] Podcast

Founder Series: Building an AI-Powered CPG Product Engine (with Umami)

EPISODE BREAKDOWN * 00:00 Welcome to Advantaged and Alloy Partners Podcast * 00:55 Introducing Danyel O'Connor and Umami * 01:31 Danyel's Background in Food and Beverage * 03:01 Understanding Umami's Role in Product Development * 07:17 The Impact of AI on Umami's Solutions * 09:01 Success Stories and Proof of Concept * 11:37 The Importance of Innovation Partners * 12:26 Conviction and Passion in Solving Problems * 14:00 Charging Innovation Partners for Commitment * 16:11 Founder-Market Fit and Passion for Problem Solving * 17:35 Founder Product Fit and Early Traction * 18:02 Passion for the Industry and Customer Satisfaction * 19:17 Current Trends in the Food and Beverage Industry * 20:55 Challenges and Innovations in Analog Meat * 22:12 Consumer Journey and Product Development * 23:13 Transitioning to B2B Software * 26:04 Supporting Women in the Food Industry * 29:26 Future Plans for Umami * 31:30 Advice for Entrepreneurs and Startup Founders FEATURED GUESTS * Danyel O’Connor [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danyeloconnor/ ] – Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Umami * Drew Beechler [https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewbeechler/] – VP of Marketing & Host, Alloy Partners REFERENCED IN THE SHOW * Umami [https://www.madebyumami.com ] – AI-powered CPG product development platform . * Fieldbook Studio [https://fieldbook.studio/] – Alloy’s venture studio based in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Umami and sister ventures like Muckender and Coaxial  Collective were incubated. * Muckender [https://www.muckenders.com/] – Durable cleaning wipes brand launched out of Fieldbook using Umami-generated product direction. * Females in Food Community [https://www.femalesinfood.community/]     Advantaged: An Alloy Partners [httsp://www.alloypartners.com] Podcast