Cultivate Labs Blog

Discussing how crowd forecasting, internal crowdfunding, and other new workplace trends can be used to improve the #futureofwork

By Vanessa Pineda on May 02, 2019

3 lessons in global innovation from a Fortune 100 that’s winning outside the U.S.

If you’re leading a large team that’s globally dispersed, you understand the challenge to create an innovative culture that can span physical boundaries. Here are 3 lessons from one Fortune 100 client running an innovation campaign across multiple countries that's exceeded expectations in countries including Japan.

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By Adam Siegel on May 02, 2019

Don't Kick Em' When They're Down

As I was scrolling through news this morning, I noticed a headline: Energizer’s 18,000mAh phone-battery monster is an Indiegogo flop. Checking other headlines about this, the news and commentary were equally brutal.

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By Vanessa Pineda on Oct 22, 2018

Canadian Nuclear Labs’ scientists crowdfund $1.4M in seed-stage ideas

The Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), the nation’s premier nuclear science and technology organization, just ran its inaugural “Seed Program” committing $1.4 Million for employees to propose – and (using company funds) directly invest in – new projects for the research pipeline.

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By Adam Siegel on Aug 14, 2018

Can you crowdfund your way to a better culture at your company?

We recently did a project with a private company doing quite well in the marketplace. Its products are widely used and its growth over the past few years has been spectacular. Financially, the company is on really solid footing. But culturally, there were storm clouds. Growth has meant employing a few hundred people to a few thousand in only a few years. The CEO recognized this and lamented at the company's loss of its original hacker/builder culture...

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By Vanessa Pineda on May 07, 2018

NFL's Cleveland Browns launch crowdfunding pilot to improve recruitment and retention 

Could the 2018 NFL season finally be a turning point for the Cleveland Browns? For a team that’s had enough rocky starts on the gridiron these past few seasons, the front office rank and file is turning to a Kickstarter-like approach to give a jolt to innovation.

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By Cultivate Labs on Jul 18, 2017

The Strength That Comes From Within

As crowdsourcing becomes more widely adopted as a corporate innovation tool, the spotlight is on external crowdsourcing: engaging outside stakeholders such as experts, customers, and the general public to understand market demands and to collaborate on new product and service development. At the same time, organizations have recognized the innovative power of one more important constituency: their own employees.

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By Adam Siegel on May 19, 2017

How to Run Your Own Shark Tank with Internal Crowdfunding

Want to generate some excitement about your company's future and possibly identify its financial future at the same time? Run your own Shark Tank.

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By Cultivate Labs on May 11, 2017

Introducing Enterprise Crowdfunding for Established Companies

Crowdfunding, the practice of financing a project by sourcing small investments from a large number of people, has exploded in the past decade as an alternative funding source. Established companies looking to adopt the agile principles of startups have begun to use external enterprise crowdfunding to gain indicators from their consumers, but with Cultivate Ignite, companies can now gain critical business indicators and insights from employees using internal crowdfunding.

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By Cultivate Labs on Apr 18, 2017

Brainstorming doesn't work. To cultivate better ideas, try internal crowdfunding instead.

We've all participated in group brainstorming sessions in both academic and business settings at some point complete with whiteboards, Post-it notes, and afternoons around a conference table. Though it has been proven that brainstorming, especially in group settings, doesn't work, people continue to look to it as the go-to technique for stimulating creativity. When the afternoon session is over, someone takes a picture of the whiteboard and promises to follow up with the team. And that's as fa

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By Vanessa Pineda on Dec 19, 2016

What Happens When You Provide a Refund Mechanism in a Crowdfunding App?

In the application itself, we created a feature you won’t find on Kickstarter - a “refund” button - to encourage employees to move their investments around.

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By Adam Siegel on Nov 17, 2016

Radical Budgeting: Introduce a Crowdsourced VC Model for Inside Your Organization

What if you tried to supplant the entire funding model inside organizations to not only mimic VC rounds, but use crowdfunding to decide what ideas/projects/initiatives should get resources?

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