How do you build a culture of innovation inside a 200-year-old conglomerate without tearing down what already exists? Yaniv sits down with Anthony Liu of Swire Properties to explore how New Ventures — Swire’s internal innovation pipeline — operates like a startup inside one of Asia’s most storied property groups, and how they co-founded Urban Lab, mainland China’s first PropTech corporate accelerator.

About Anthony Liu

Anthony Liu is the founder of New Ventures at Swire Properties, which sources and funds innovative tech solutions across 17 business units. He is also co-founder and board member of Urban Lab, China’s first PropTech corporate accelerator, launched with JLL and Ping An.

What We Cover

• Why innovation culture starts with accepting the culture that’s already there
• The three pain points: time, knowledge, and money
• New Ventures’ four-step process: Study, Source, Trial, Adopt
• What “internal product-market fit” means and how New Ventures achieves it
• The origin of Urban Lab: 12 startups, 3 months, 100% POC conversion rate

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction and guest background
(02:30) Why innovation culture starts with what’s already there
(07:30) New Ventures’ four-step process
(15:45) Building trust over knowing the tech
(24:00) What is PropTech?
(28:30) Urban Lab: China’s first PropTech accelerator

Key Takeaways

1. Don’t fight the existing culture. Connect innovation to what people already care about — their KPIs, their promotions, their teams.
2. Remove the three blockers. Time, knowledge, and budget. Once you do, people are willing to try almost anything.
3. Real-world POCs beat lab experiments. Lab experiments give you data; real deployments give you buy-in and genuine learning.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Swire Properties New Ventures — search “Swire Properties New Ventures”
• Urban Lab — China’s first PropTech accelerator (JLL + Swire + Ping An)
• Airlite Air-Purifying Paint: airlite.com

Where to Find Anthony Liu

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anthony-liu-swire

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

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Christian Tidona is a virologist, biotech entrepreneur, and business angel. He is the founder and CEO of BioMedX Institute in Heidelberg, Germany — a research institute that bridges academia and industry by combining global crowdsourcing with local incubation. This episode is hosted by Adrian Rubstein, Innovation Manager at Mergroup in Latin America.

What We Cover

• Why academia turns money into knowledge and industry turns knowledge into money — and why they speak the same language backwards
• How BioMedX launched without venture capital or public funding
• The global crowdsourcing and local incubation model: 200–600 applications, 15 finalists, a five-day bootcamp
• Why four nights without sleep is the selection mechanism
• How BioMedX is approaching pandemic preparedness with the Rapid Antiviral Response Platform
• The three types of scientists: academic, industry, and entrepreneur

Timestamps

00:00 – Why academia and industry speak the same language backwards
02:00 – BioMedX: the origin story and the Merck partnership
05:00 – Launching without VC: how three sponsored projects made it work
07:00 – The crowdsourcing and bootcamp model explained
09:00 – No sleep, no ego: how BioMedX selects its researchers
12:00 – The Rapid Antiviral Response Platform and COVID-19 research
16:00 – Three types of scientists and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

Key Takeaways

1. Great research institutes need to bridge the gap between exploration and commercialization — BioMedX was designed to live in that gap.
2. Trust between collaborators is built under pressure, not in a normal assessment center — sleep deprivation reveals character faster than any formal process.
3. Before becoming an entrepreneur, figure out which of the three types you are: academic, industry, or entrepreneur. Knowing yourself early saves years of friction.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• BioMedX Institute: bio.mx
• Merck Innovation Cup (referenced in episode)
• Rapid Antiviral Response Platform (referenced in episode)

Where to Find Christian Tidona

Website: bio.mx
Search Christian Tidona on LinkedIn

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
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Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

Most innovation programs don't fail because of bad ideas — they fail because of misalignment. Adrian Rubenstein, Innovation Manager for Latin America at Merck Group, shares how to navigate the political realities of large organizations and move ideas from concept to tested prototype.

About Adrian Rubenstein

Adrian Rubenstein holds degrees in biology, pharmacy, and epidemiology. After working as a medical advisor at a pharmaceutical company, his passion for technology led him to his role as Innovation Manager for Argentina and Latin America at Merck Group.

What We Cover

• Why most innovation ideas die before they get a chance to fail properly
• The role of purpose-alignment in getting stakeholder buy-in
• How to influence without authority inside large organizations
• Adrian's structured innovation process: discovery, journey mapping, ideation, prototyping
• Using video instead of PowerPoint to get executive attention
• How to measure innovation success beyond launched products

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:35 – Adrian's career path: from biology to innovation management
05:00 – Why corporate innovation fails: the misalignment problem
10:00 – How to align stakeholders on purpose before anything else
15:00 – Influencing without authority
20:00 – Discovery, Five Whys, journey mapping, ideation

Key Takeaways

1. Start with purpose, not the idea. Before pitching any innovation, align every stakeholder on a shared purpose. Without it, everyone pulls in different directions — and the best idea becomes a turf war.
2. Influence through understanding, not conviction. You have no formal authority as an innovation manager. Influence comes from deeply understanding what each stakeholder needs and showing how your solution helps them get it.
3. Go deep before you go wide. Use the Five Whys to get to the real problem, not the symptom. Most teams jump to solutions too early. Real diagnosis is where the leverage is.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Merck Group: merckgroup.com

Where to Find Adrian Rubenstein

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrianrubenstein

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

What does it actually take to build a startup ecosystem — and what happens when government tries to help without getting in the way? In Part 2, Oded Barel-Sabag breaks down the anatomy of an ecosystem, the three ingredients every city needs, and what made Jerusalem's bottom-up story work.

About Oded Barel-Sabag

Oded is a serial community builder and innovation ecosystem architect based in Jerusalem. After four and a half years helping grow SIFTECH into Jerusalem's leading accelerator, he joined Jnext — the Jerusalem Development Authority's startup ecosystem program — to scale what the community had built from the institutional side.

What We Cover

• How Oded discovered SIFTECH through a letter to the mayor about a co-working space
• The community initiatives that extended SIFTECH's reach: hackathons, Creative Mornings, and more
• Why Oded left SIFTECH after four and a half years — and what he learned from the transition
• What Jnext is and why only Jerusalem has something like it
• How the Jerusalem Development Authority shifted from grants and industrial zones to ecosystem thinking
• The three ingredients of a thriving startup ecosystem: capital, know-how, and rebellion culture
• Why ecosystems are rainforests — organic, not over-planned
• The generosity mindset institutions need to adopt — and where tension still shows up

Timestamps

(02:35) Community initiatives beyond the accelerator: hackathons and Creative Mornings

(07:01) What the Jerusalem Development Authority does — and how it evolved

(11:16) The anatomy of a startup ecosystem — people, bottom-up energy, and institutions

(16:00) Three ecosystem ingredients: capital, know-how, and rebellion culture

(18:02) How Israel built its VC industry by identifying what was missing

(21:36) Generosity vs. control: what governments need to get right

(23:12) Why conflict and misalignment can be healthy

Key Takeaways

1. Ecosystems need rebellion, not just resources. Capital and know-how aren't enough. A culture that challenges the status quo is the third — and often missing — ingredient.
2. Government's job is to enable, not control. The JDA's most effective move was backing community-led initiatives rather than imposing top-down programs.
3. Build platforms for collision. Hackathons, meetups, and informal events aren't soft activities — they're the mechanism through which ecosystems compound.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Rainforests: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley — Victor W. Hwang & Greg Horowitt

Where to Find Oded Barel-Sabag LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/oded-barel-sabag-b442736/

Listen to Part 2 open.spotify.com/episode/1GuqfP8b7c7p4DMxIgv7yD

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystems.io

Bud Caddell is the founder of Nobl, a culture and change agency that works with Fortune 500 companies on organizational design and innovation. A recovering software developer turned innovation consultant, Bud spent years building innovation labs for companies like Pepsi and GE before realizing he was solving the wrong problem.

What We Cover

• Why organizations don't suffer from a lack of ideas — they suffer from cultures that kill good ideas
• The three-team model: Explorers, Scalers, and Optimizers — and why the Scale team is always missing
• Why innovation fails internally, not in the market: incentives, politics, and "not invented here"
• The flywheel diagram: small wheel → chain → big wheel, and why it mostly goes one way
• What makes a great Scaler: persuasion and negotiation over design thinking
• What happens to innovation teams during downturns — and why that's when disruptors emerge

Timestamps

00:00 – Innovation is a baton race — and the baton keeps getting dropped
03:00 – What every institutional innovation program gets wrong
05:00 – The missing Scale team: your best entrepreneurs, in the middle
08:00 – Why scaling is the hard part — even inside large corporations
10:00 – What makes a great Scaler: "Getting to Yes" over Double Diamond
14:00 – The flywheel diagram explained: Explore → Scale → Optimize
20:00 – Failure rates, learning culture, and the distance hypothesis

Key Takeaways

1. Organizations aren't suffering from a lack of ideas — they're suffering from ways of working and cultures that kill good ideas from within.
2. The missing piece in most innovation programs is the Scale team: entrepreneurs who can navigate internal politics and hand innovation off to the core business without dropping the baton.
3. Every recession creates disruptors — because established companies over-grip on the short term while someone else is taking bigger bets on a shoestring.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Nobl: nobl.io
• Nobl Academy: nobl.io → Resources → Academy
• "Getting to Yes" by Fisher & Ury
• Article: "What Every Institutional Innovation Program Gets Wrong"

Where to Find Bud Caddell

Website: nobl.io

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449
Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io
For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io

Dan Ryan is the Community Manager at Stone & Chalk in Adelaide, Australia — one of the country's leading innovation hubs. With a background spanning the United Nations, the University of Oxford, Startup Weekend, and advisory roles across six continents, Dan has spent over a decade building the communities that make startup ecosystems actually function.

What We Cover

• What social innovation is and how Dan defines it
• Why Australia has a strong social innovation culture — and the "tall poppy syndrome" paradox
• What Stone & Chalk does: the five buckets of value for startups
• How to build community with introverted founders who don't want to talk to each other
• The corporate-startup relationship challenge: why innovation departments get bypassed
• Why decision-makers deeper in the org matter more than innovation managers

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:30 – How Dan defines social innovation
03:00 – The Australian Centre for Social Innovation: "Families by Families"
05:00 – Dan's role as UN Youth Ambassador for Australia
06:00 – Stone & Chalk: what it does and who it's for
09:30 – Building community with introverted founders
13:30 – Corporate-startup relationships: the real challenge
18:00 – Community vs. culture: what's the difference?
22:00 – Why the best communities are a little bit like cults
26:00 – Australia's startup ecosystem: Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne

Key Takeaways

1. Community is not geography — it's knowing what each other does and why it matters. Dan's litmus test: ask one startup what another startup does. If they can't answer, you don't have a community yet.
2. The innovation manager is often not the right person to sell to. The people who champion startup adoption through to procurement and legal are usually deeper in the organization — building those relationships is how you avoid the deal dying at the last step.
3. In innovation hubs, the connective tissue between people has to be actively managed. Founders won't naturally talk to each other. Someone has to make the introduction — and create enough shared rituals that people keep coming back.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Stone & Chalk: stoneandchalk.com.au
• Australian Centre for Social Innovation: tacsi.org.au
• Techstars / Startup Weekend: Give First philosophy

Where to Find Dan Ryan

Search Dan Ryan on LinkedIn
Twitter: @danmanryan

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

How do you spark innovation at the intersection of academia, government, and business? Andrew Maxwell, Professor at York University's Lassonde School of Engineering, has spent his career doing exactly that — teaching technology entrepreneurship and bridging the gap between research and real-world impact.

About Andrew Maxwell

Andrew Maxwell is a Professor at the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University in Toronto, teaching technology entrepreneurship, Renaissance engineering, and technology commercialization. His career combines business experience, economic development, and academic excellence.

What We Cover

• How Andrew's engineering and business background shaped his approach to innovation
• The role academia plays in driving entrepreneurship and commercialization
• How to bridge the gap between academic research and industry needs
• Building an entrepreneurial mindset inside a university environment
• Key lessons from working across academia, government, and business

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:24 – Andrew's background and path to innovation
05:00 – Innovation at the intersection of academia and business
10:00 – Teaching entrepreneurship: what works and what doesn't
16:00 – Bridging academia, government, and industry
22:00 – Key lessons for aspiring innovators

Key Takeaways

1. Innovation requires institutional bridges. The most impactful breakthroughs happen at the intersection of academia, government, and business — not in any one sector alone.
2. Entrepreneurship can be taught. Courses in technology commercialization help students and researchers translate ideas into real-world ventures.
3. Start with the problem, not the solution. The most successful innovations begin with a deep understanding of unmet needs, not with a technology looking for a market.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Lassonde School of Engineering: lassonde.yorku.ca

Where to Find Andrew Maxwell

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrewmaxwell

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow

Subscribe to The School of Innovation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Have a guest recommendation? Email hello@startupsystem.io

Nevo Hadas is the founder of DYDX, a Cape Town-based company at the intersection of product strategy and pricing. A self-described pricing nerd, he's fascinated by how pricing decisions shape growth, adoption, and the user experience. He has spent years helping startups and innovative companies think more carefully about how they charge for what they build.

What We Cover

• What it means to be a "pricing nerd" and why pricing is often overlooked in innovation
• Why SaaS companies price too high early and what they should do instead
• The psychology of switching costs, inertia, and why free doesn't always mean adoption
• How to use personas and buyer journeys to figure out pricing
• Why you should price for what customers value — not what the product costs you
• The difference between the buying value proposition and the using value proposition

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction: what is a pricing nerd?
01:30 – Money left on the table: pricing and the innovation strategy
03:00 – The SaaS pricing mistake: pricing too high, too early
05:00 – What to price for: value drivers vs. arbitrary limits
07:00 – The persona as a pricing tool: do a buying journey
08:30 – Why free doesn't guarantee adoption
09:00 – Enterprise SaaS: buying vs. using value propositions

Key Takeaways

1. Pricing is part of the user experience. The way you structure your price shapes how customers onboard, engage, and deepen their use of your product. Calendly is a masterclass in this — the pricing makes people want to use it more, not less.
2. Do a buying journey, not just a user journey. Personas are great for understanding behavior, but map that same persona through the purchasing decision — what drives them to click "pay," what holds them back, and what makes switching feel too costly.
3. The biggest SaaS mistake is putting too many price points on the product. Understand your top two or three value drivers and price for those — make the rest free to maximize adoption.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• DYDX: dydx.digital

Where to Find Nevo Hadas

Email: nevo@dydx.digital
LinkedIn: Search Nevo Hadas on LinkedIn

Where to Find Yaniv Corem
Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

Subscribe & Follow
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The School of Innovation so you never miss a conversation.
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5VOBVkueP7zg5ErNYtrmPL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-school-of-innovation/id1498420449

Have a guest recommendation or want to be on the show? Email hello@startupsystem.io

For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email sponsor@startupsystems.io