Corporate-Venture Portfolio Board Adviser

The mandate

The venture portfolio contains minority investments, internal incubations, customer pilots and proposed spinouts using inconsistent evidence and ownership. Teams celebrate technical milestones, while business units decline adoption and follow-on funding continues because stopping could imply the original sponsor was wrong. Some ventures hold data, intellectual property or customer relationships strategically valuable even where standalone economics are weak. The board needs explicit stop, scale, partner and absorb choices before the next capital cycle.

The adviser will challenge a venture thesis map covering strategic right, customer problem, evidence, technical dependency, business-unit owner, capital, talent, data, intellectual property, partner path, downside and time-to-decision. The review must distinguish learning option, strategic control point, financial investment, business-line seed and executive-sponsored experiment. Sunk cost, headline valuation and pilot count cannot substitute for evidence of adoption or strategic necessity.

The cadence comprises fortnightly work with venture and strategy leads, monthly board-committee attendance and two cohort evidence reviews. The adviser will examine source claims, interview accountable business sponsors and frame decision alternatives with uncertainty visible. Valuation, legal, tax, technical and transaction conclusions remain with appointed specialists; the role provides portfolio challenge rather than due diligence certification.

The adviser has no line authority and undertakes no executive responsibility for ventures, funding, product, partnerships, employment or transactions. The role cannot direct teams, approve investment, solicit buyers, negotiate spinouts, value holdings, select executives or promise adoption. Business sponsors retain operating ownership; investment committees and boards retain capital decisions. Advice cannot be used to market a venture or predetermine a sale.

The appointment lasts ten months. Renewal requires a new minuted cohort or strategic question after present decisions close. Relationships with founders, employees, funds, potential partners, buyers, advisers and competing ventures must be disclosed. Relevant interests trigger recusal, and no capital-raising, transaction, recruitment, valuation or partnership referral economics may be accepted.

Why the board wants this voice

Venture teams benefit from continuation, business units protect current economics and sponsors may defend prior decisions, leaving stop choices structurally underrepresented. External investors value options differently from an industrial owner. An independent adviser can challenge evidence and strategic rights without seeking investment access or transaction work.

What you will own

• Challenge each venture’s customer problem, strategic right, evidence, owner, dependencies, funding and next irreversible decision.
• Classify learning options, control points, financial holdings, business seeds and sponsored experiments using consistent logic.
• Test adoption, technical feasibility, data, intellectual property, talent, partner and business-unit evidence against claims.
• Frame stop, scale, partner, absorb, hold and exit choices with sunk cost and executive sponsorship separated.
• Advise on staged capital, decision dates, kill conditions, business ownership and protected learning after closure.
• Maintain assumptions, specialist dependencies, conflicts, recusals, dissent and board decision records.
• Deliver a portfolio constitution, cohort recommendations, evidence standards and next capital-cycle calendar.

Candidate qualifications

• Has advised boards on corporate venture, incubation or strategic innovation portfolios inside an industrial group under capital scarcity.
• Understands pilots, adoption, strategic control, intellectual property, staged capital, spinouts and business-unit ownership.
• Can recommend stopping sponsored ventures without discarding valuable learning, rights or customer relationships.
• Has separated industrial strategic value from external valuation narratives and venture-team continuation bias.
• Brings credible collaboration with boards, founders, business units, technology, finance, strategy and IP counsel.
• Is independent of capital raising, venture investment, M&A, recruitment, valuation and partnership fees.

Non-negotiables

• Can attend monthly Berlin sessions and both venture-cohort evidence reviews despite remote work.
• Brings direct corporate-venture portfolio governance; startup mentoring or venture investing alone is insufficient.
• Will not solicit investors, value holdings, negotiate spinouts or protect ventures because of sunk cost.
• Will disclose ties to founders, employees, funds, partners, buyers, advisers and competing ventures.

1. 49 words maximum. Which evidence should outweigh pilot completion in a scale decision?
2. 49 words maximum. How would you stop a venture while preserving a strategic right it created?
3. 49 words maximum. What sunk-cost argument would you reject before the next funding round?