Highline Beta

Corporations say they want to work with startups—but most struggle to move fast enough. Why? Endless pilot programs with no real buy-in. Unclear ownership and accountability. Slow, risk-averse decision-making. The companies that get it right remove friction. They identify the right problems to solve before engaging startups. They structure deals to scale, not just experiment. And they empower teams to make fast decisions without endless approval loops. If your organization wants innovation but can’t execute, it’s just theater. We’d love to hear from you — what’s the one thing corporations could do tomorrow to accelerate startup collaboration?

When does a new idea belong inside the core business, and when should it be built as a separate venture? This is one of the most common challenges corporate leaders face when launching new growth initiatives. When to build within the core: — When the initiative is a natural extension of existing products. — When it can be quickly integrated into existing sales and distribution. — When it strengthens the core business model. When to build outside the core: — When the idea challenges how the core business currently operates. — When speed and flexibility are required to validate the model. — When the biggest opportunities exist before customers interact with your product. Most companies default to keeping everything inside—but sometimes, the best way to drive long-term core growth is to create something entirely new outside of it.

Launching new ventures beyond the core is a completely different game than launching a new product inside an established company. In core banking, for example, you have clear models—financial projections, distribution strategies, and customer behaviors you can rely on. When you launch a new credit card, you know how it will sell. But when you’re building something truly new? None of that exists. Every decision is based on assumptions, like: → Will customers adopt this? → Can we scale distribution? → How do we monetize in a way that makes sense? The further from the core you go, the higher the risk—but also the bigger the upside. How do you balance risk and conviction when making bets beyond your core business?

On Tuesday, we hosted HaloHealth at the #HighlineHub for their dental venture showcase in collaboration with Dentacloud. The invitation only event was a brilliant opportunity to bring together healthcare innovation ecosystem stakeholders, investors, dentists and physicians and hear pitches from three great startups all looking to innovate within the dental space; DentalForce , Aya Care and DentAi. A big thank you to DrJohn Maggirias, Hanneke de Roo and Matthew Cormier for organising, all our attendees for such engaging conversation and our three pitching startups for telling us more about the incredible work you're doing! Here's to the next.

Last week we shared our Highline Beta 3.0 strategy: vertical venture studios. Today, we launch our 1st vertical studio: DentalTech 🎉 🦷 Highline Beta DentalTech is a venture studio dedicated to building and funding new startups for dental clinics and the broader dental ecosystem. We believe there's immense potential in this market, to bring more value and innovation to dental care, improving access to care for everyone. Our goal is to build a concentrated portfolio of up to 10 startups in the dental space. We're partnering with John Maggirias, CEO of Dentacloud. He has an incredible network and vision for the dental ecosystem. As Venture Partner, Dr. John will be actively involved in helping us build & fund the right startups We've added a number of great advisors too, including Marie Eve Prevost and Firas A.. Both of them are entrepreneurs, investors and experts in the dental space. In addition to launching the studio, we're announcing our first portfolio company: DentalForce. DentalForce is one of the leading marketplaces for dental practices to find temporary or full time dental professionals. The company is in-market and scaling quickly. We've brought on Aris Economopoulos as CEO for DentalForce. He has a decade+ of experience building venture-backed B2B and marketplace startups. He's hit the ground running with incredible velocity. Vertical venture studios enable us to go deep into specific domains, build repeatable playbooks that help startups succeed faster and generate better returns. If you’re an investor, founder or corporate interested in DentalTech, please get in touch with Marcus Daniels or Ben Yoskovitz.

Every VC loves to talk about “value add.” But here’s the reality—most of the time, it’s just money and a LinkedIn post. Real value looks like this: 1. Making the right introductions—not just to anyone, but to buyers and partners who actually convert. 2. Helping startups get distribution—breaking into industries where sales cycles are brutally long. 3. Bridging talent gaps—helping early-stage teams hire executives who know how to scale. Take American Family Ventures for example: Dan Reed and his team aren’t just investing—they’re actively connecting startups to their network of corporate LPs. And Dan has great perspective, because American Family Ventures started as a single LP fund (with American Family as the LP), where strategic fit on investments was paramount. Now, American Family Ventures is a multi-LP fund, with its LPs including other insurance carriers, reinsurers and others in the insurance industry. Value add isn’t about PR. It’s about delivering outcomes that make the investment worth 10x. What’s the best (or worst) example of a VC actually delivering on value add?

A decade ago, taking money from a CVC came with baggage. The narrative was: — They might slow down decision-making. — They could force strategic terms that hurt startups. — They’d disappear when market conditions shifted. That stigma has changed. Today, CVCs are more aligned with founders and traditional VCs than ever. The best ones focus on: — Financial returns first—no unnecessary strategic strings attached. — Speed—moving at the pace of venture, not corporate bureaucracy. — Industry knowledge—bringing real operating insight to the table. We’ve seen bad corporate investors, sure. But we’ve also seen tier-one VCs behave just as poorly. It’s no longer about who the capital is coming from—it’s about how they operate. For founders: Has your view on taking corporate VC money changed?

Always a pleasure to host The Upside Foundation of Canada and Growth Partners at the #HighlineHub! Yesterday's breakfast focused on fundraising as a female, with tangible insights from Azrah Manji-Savin and Irene de Gooyer-Collins, CPA, CMA - check our Jordan's summary of their brillaint tips below! 👇

Startups fall into two camps: disruptors and enablers. Disruptors aim to compete with incumbents, often by building more efficient, tech-driven alternatives. Enablers, on the other hand, sell into the industry, embedding new solutions into existing infrastructure. Historically, early money in insurance tech, for example, went toward disruptors, but now? The enabler side is growing faster. The reality is, it’s often easier to sell to the big players than to beat them at their own game. Which side do you think has the bigger opportunity right now—disruptors or enablers? PS - thank you to Dan Reed (Managing Director and President of American Family Ventures) for joining us this week on Beyond The Core. Check out the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gpcZUH9K

Corporate leaders often default to revenue as the ultimate proof of progress. But in early-stage venture building, that mindset can kill promising ideas too soon. The better metric is stickiness. → Are users actively engaging with the product? → Are they coming back? → Is adoption growing over time? Big companies expect startups to deliver hockey-stick growth overnight, but the best ventures don’t scale that way. The real signal of long-term success isn’t early revenue—it’s whether users can’t live without what you’re building. Revenue follows engagement, not the other way around. For corporate innovation teams: How are you measuring progress at the earliest stages?