Episodes

For more than two decades at FedEx, Rebecca Yeung helped bring robotics, autonomous vehicles, and physical AI into one of the world’s largest logistics networks. Now an advisor to companies including Dexterity, she explains what it takes to move physical AI from a promising pilot into daily operations. Rebecca argues that executives often overestimate AI’s short-term impact while underestimating its long-term potential. She also explains why buying robotics without rethinking the underlying proc...

Drew DeLong works at the intersection of corporate strategy and national interest, where the boundaries between public policy and business have blurred. With a background spanning key roles at the State Department, FAA and White House, and now leading Kearney’s work in Corporate Statecraft and Geopolitical Dynamics, he brings deep experience from both sides of this evolving relationship. In this episode, Drew examines three structural shifts converging on leadership teams: the unwinding of fort...

Suman’s work sits at the collision point of AI ambition and enterprise reality. From Aetna and Highmark to Merck and Pfizer, he has repeatedly been asked to build new data science and AI capabilities inside complex healthcare organizations, where fragmented data, regulatory pressure, and internal politics shape what can actually scale. In this conversation, he traces how the field evolved from early machine learning and open-source analytics into today’s generative AI wave, and why the hardest p...

We’re pleased to welcome Nagisa Sakurai, who is joining as a Director and as Silicon Foundry’s first Asia-based team member. With a background spanning life sciences, regenerative medicine, corporate venture capital, and corporate innovation, Nagisa brings a multidisciplinary perspective to emerging technologies and global innovation ecosystems. Her experience includes roles across research institutions and industry organizations, including City of Hope Cancer Center, Washington University in St...

Press play to listen to this article https://sifoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/ElevenLabs_The_Corporate_Venture_Trap_Why_Chasing_VC_Returns_Is_the_Wrong_Race.mp3 The AI wave is creating the biggest corporate innovation opportunity in a generation. Most CVC programs are too busy copying the VC playbook to seize it. Every few years, corporate venture capital goes through the same cycle: capital floods in, programs launch with ambitious mandates, and most quietly disappear within a few year...

We’re pleased to welcome our newest Venture Partner, Yuki Shirato, Managing Director of Techstars Japan. A seasoned investor, serial entrepreneur, and attorney with more than 25 years of experience across global markets, Yuki has backed over 50 startups as an angel investor and founded Yakumi, an international angel network connecting investors across Japan, the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He also serves as Senior Advisor at Pangaea Ventures. At Silicon Foundry, Yuki works alongside c...

Across Nike and American Express, Elaine Barsoom had a front-row seat to one of the hardest problems in corporate innovation: how to turn promising technology into something a large organization can actually absorb. She reflects on the moments that defined that work, from helping Nike pursue a direct-to-consumer shift through external partnerships and startup pilots, to standing up an AI center of excellence as generative AI began reshaping the enterprise agenda, to building and scaling a joint ...

Press play to listen to this article https://sifoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/ElevenLabs_The_bank_in_the_agent_economy.mp3 Every major paradigm shift in consumer behavior has followed the same pattern: the infrastructure layer is built before adoption reaches scale. The foundations of the internet were laid decades before the web went mainstream, and the payment rails and logistics networks underpinning e-commerce were laid long before consumers were purchasing from direct-to-consumer b...

Press play to listen to this article https://sifoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ElevenLabs_SaaS.mp3 Why AI is rewriting the economics of SaaS and shifting value from tools to outcomes Over the past few months, more than $1 trillion in SaaS market value has vanished. That tends to get attention. Our clients are asking a very practical question: what’s actually happening, and what does it mean for how they choose partners, investments, and acquisition targets? Because the real risk isn’t mi...

We’re pleased to welcome our newest Venture Partner, Nicolás Melero, former Head of Digital Partnerships and Innovation at Falabella. Today, Nicolás works with corporate leaders and investors to design build–partner strategies, connect with startups, and scale innovation with measurable impact, while simultaneously pursuing his MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management. At Silicon Foundry, Nicolás will work closely with leaders in corporate innovation and venture capital to continue turning emer...

This is the fifth post in our blog series unpacking Silicon Foundry’s full suite of offerings and the thinking behind each one. In this installment, Managing Director Mark Menell explains how Silicon Foundry can serve as an extension of Corporate Venture Capital teams, with end-to-end support from fund setup to post-investment execution. With Silicon Foundry’s guidance, corporates gain the strategic insight and operational infrastructure needed to build or accelerate investment efforts and creat...

Press play to listen to this article https://sifoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ElevenLabs_Momentum_Release.mp3 The advisory firm scaled enterprise AI execution capabilities, expanded its European and Asian presences, and intensified its Piloting, CVC, and M&A offerings to Members. SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Silicon Foundry, a Kearney company, marked 2025 as a pivotal year in its evolution, moving decisively from innovation advisory into hands-on execution as enterprises accelerated the deploym...