Catalyzing the Innovation Snowball Effect
Snowball Innovation Advisory serves as your team’s expert operating partner, combining deep venture expertise with hands-on execution to drive compounding success.
In today’s competitive landscape, winning organizations actively deploy innovation investment as a cornerstone growth engine to propel sustainable competitive advantage. Snowball Innovation Advisory was founded to help such organizations realize this vision. We operationalize the “innovation snowball effect” – the principle that targeted investments in innovative technologies and companies, when properly structured and expertly guided, create a powerful compounding impact across the enterprise. We help our clients turn ambitious innovation strategies into tangible results, faster and more effectively.
Who We Are and What We Do
Snowball Innovation Advisory serves as operating partners to our clients – primarily corporations, government agencies, and family offices. We are a firm of deeply experienced practitioners with world-class track records of success leading VC and CVC teams. When and where required, we will provide guidance derived from our decades of experience, but we are resolutely focused on consistently delivering one thing: execution.
Snowball acts as an extension of your team – bringing partner- level expertise, execution certainty, and network reach directly to your team. We provide hands-on support to help our clients execute their innovation strategies and build internal capabilities. We offer the strategic flexibility of a short-term engagement with the quality and dedication of a senior team member, all at a cost that is a fraction of adding equivalent full-time talent. This model is fundamentally different from both big consulting firms and outsourced venture services, and it delivers superior return on investment for our clients.
Every Senior Advisor on our team has 10+ years of experience as a venture investor (VC or CVC), startup operator, and corporate executive leader. Collectively, Snowball’s professionals have operated and invested for more than 80 of the top Global 1000 companies and have completed over $7 billion in venture investments and acquisitions. This means clients work directly with experts who have proven track records of leading successful innovation investments – not career consultants. This external vantage point inherently challenges organizational orthodoxies, stimulates innovative ideation, and illuminates previously unexplored innovation trajectories.
We focus our expertise on three critical innovation investment verticals:
Venture Investments
We guide the design and operations of corporate venture capital funds, from investment thesis development to deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio management. Our advisors help structure funds that maximize both strategic and financial returns for the parent organization.
Venture Partnerships
We identify and facilitate partnerships between corporations and startups (even as pilot programs or vendor relationships) to unlock strategic value. Snowball helps clients scout promising startups, evaluate partnership opportunities, manage pilot projects, and integrate successful innovations across the enterprise.
Venture Acquisitions
We assist in crafting acquisition strategies targeting emerging tech companies that can enhance core capabilities or open new markets. From defining acquisition criteria to sourcing targets, conducting due diligence, and planning post-merger integration, Snowball ensures venture acquisitions deliver lasting value.
Across all these service areas, Snowball provides end-to-end support. We refine innovation investment strategy and then execute alongside our clients. Every Snowball engagement is led by at least two Advisors who work directly with our client’s team, translating recommendations into action and delivering results.
What You Can Expect from Snowball
Snowball is not a typical consultancy that hands over advice and walks away, nor are we an outsourced venture service provider that runs a program in isolation.
Our unique partner-oriented approach sets us apart from other firms.
Hands-On Execution
We work alongside your team to drive immediate execution on critical tasks and focus on delivering results, not just slide decks. No time is wasted in capitalizing on good traction when working with us: pipeline opportunities are swiftly evaluated, promising startups are fast-tracked into pilots, and internal champions are engaged early to drive adoption.
Deep Venture Expertise
Our team consists solely of senior professionals with long track records of success driving impactful results from innovation investments. Clients benefit from decades of real-world experience in VC, CVC, M&A, and startups on day one. In contrast to generalist consultants, Snowball’s advisors have “been there and done that,” giving them the insight to navigate complexities and the credibility to drive alignment among executives.
Vast Network and Ecosystem Access
Through years in the industry, we have built a vast network of startups, investors, and corporate innovators. We open those networks to our clients, expanding deal sourcing pipelines and partnership opportunities beyond what most in-house teams or consultants can provide. Our network acts as an extension of your own, uncovering high-potential opportunities across the globe.
Accelerated Results
By engaging Snowball, organizations can execute and achieve more in a fraction of the time and with a fraction of the resources required for other alternatives. We offer immediate capacity – our senior experts are available to start right away, with minimal ramp-up. There is no 5-month hiring cycle or learning curve; we hit the ground running to accelerate your innovation initiatives.
Building Internal Capability, Not Dependency
Snowball’s goal is to build lasting innovation capability within your organization, not to replace your internal team. Unlike “outsourced CVC” providers, we do not run a fund on your behalf or take over your innovation function – instead, we augment your team to make it faster and more effective without adding permanent headcount. Snowball does not have its own venture fund or agenda; our only success metric is your success. We help clients build sustainable internal capabilities and only step in as external partners when world-class expertise is needed to propel you forward.
Driving Impact and Strategic Value
Snowball’s collaborative approach quickly translates into measurable impact. By focusing on immediate execution and internal alignment, we ensure difficult problems are being addressed head-on, and that innovation investments start yielding both financial returns and strategic value for the broader organization within a condensed timeframe.
Crucially, we measure our success in the lasting benefits we leave behind. Beyond the immediate deals and partnerships closed, our clients gain enhanced internal processes, stronger executive support for innovation, broader external networks, and team members who have learned by doing. After a Snowball engagement, innovation teams find themselves operating at a higher level of maturity and confidence.
This legacy is intentional – we want our clients to be capable of continuing the momentum on their own. When our clients later face new challenges or opportunities, Snowball is ready to step back in as a trusted partner who can again rapidly catalyze the next stage of growth.
Whether you’re trying to accelerate execution or trying to solve difficult problems that require the insights of someone who has “been there” many times, having the expertise of a senior operating partner like Snowball is often the clear difference between success and failure. Let us help you create your own innovation snowball effect – and achieve innovation outcomes that compound into lasting advantage.
