Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio, Comcast to NBC
Speaker 1: Universal recently announcing its fourth Lift Labs Accelerator class, identifying
Speaker 1: working with companies that are innovating in the media space
Speaker 1: the connectivity space. So our next guest knows a lot
Speaker 1: about that. It's Danielle Cone, vice president of Startup Engagement
Speaker 1: at Comcast NBC Universal. She joins us on the phone
Speaker 1: from New Jersey. Danielle, how are you? I am great, Carol, Pam,
Speaker 1: how are you today? We're doing well. How would you
Speaker 1: describe the common thread that ties together doing Okay, it's
Speaker 1: only Tuesday. When it's Wednesday and Thursday, we're doing much better.
Speaker 1: So dark. I'm not getting used to it being dark.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna be honest with you. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: It happens every year and still I still can't get
Speaker 1: over it. But enough about enough about us, Danielle. I'm curious,
Speaker 1: what is the common thread that ties together that the
Speaker 1: companies that participate in the Lift Labs Accelerator. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I'm just for a little of a little contact startup engagement,
Speaker 1: which includes list Labs and Sports Teck. At Comcast NBCU
Speaker 1: we sit within strategic development, which essentially provides an early
Speaker 1: lens for for future growth areas in our company, UM
Speaker 1: and we bring together all parts of our company, Comcast, NBCUniversal, Park, Picture, Sky,
Speaker 1: and our broader family of brands to work side by
Speaker 1: side with strategically aligned global startups. UM and it's really
Speaker 1: to drive a startup mindset back into our already innovative business,
Speaker 1: to develop new startup partnerships at the earliest stage with
Speaker 1: companies that are inventing the future, making customers and employees
Speaker 1: lives better, and ultimately those are the people who are
Speaker 1: also making an impact in startup communities in which we
Speaker 1: all live and work. UM. The common thread is that
Speaker 1: through these programs and collaborations, we're all kind of spotting
Speaker 1: that potential disruption, emerging technologies, the new platforms, edge opportunities,
Speaker 1: and and all together startups and our teams are gaining
Speaker 1: valuable insights and efficiencies along. So does that mean that
Speaker 1: every company that participates in the Lift Labs accelerator gets
Speaker 1: an investment from Comcast? So every company and in our accelerators,
Speaker 1: they do get an investment. UM but beyond the investment,
Speaker 1: it's really about building the partnership with these early stage
Speaker 1: companies that are working in media, entertainment, connectivity, or sports.
Speaker 1: Some are at the earliest stage, they are steed stage companies,
Speaker 1: and then we actually have programs like lift Off there
Speaker 1: for enterprise ready startups, and our team really helps them
Speaker 1: to get enterprise ready. We help them with business development,
Speaker 1: go to market strategy, how to pitch uh investors. In
Speaker 1: some cases it's even you know, how to deal with
Speaker 1: hr issues that they're having as they build their their
Speaker 1: teams at the earliest stage. I was reading about what
Speaker 1: you guys are up to. It reminded me. A few
Speaker 1: years ago I did a story with Johnson and Johnson
Speaker 1: a something called j Labs out on the West Coast,
Speaker 1: and it's basically an accelerator biotech incubator, and it's just
Speaker 1: a space where companies, individuals who are creating things in
Speaker 1: the healthcare science space, medicine space come in get a
Speaker 1: little spot there, but can work with the company, really
Speaker 1: tap into the expertise and equipment of J and J.
Speaker 1: But it gives J and J a window into the
Speaker 1: future and an ability to invest in it. And it
Speaker 1: sounds like that's what you guys are doing on the
Speaker 1: media space. I love talking about this because it gives
Speaker 1: you an idea of maybe what are going to be
Speaker 1: the trends, the technologies, UH content and so on and
Speaker 1: so forth media, how we consume it going forward? What
Speaker 1: should we be thinking about, um, Danielle when we kind
Speaker 1: of open up our eyes in terms of where this
Speaker 1: is all going. And I know that the folks that
Speaker 1: j labs and they do an amazing job and we
Speaker 1: are we are similar in in our approach. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: the focus areas for us change all the time because
Speaker 1: they are based on trends that we're seeing both insider
Speaker 1: company and outside. UM. We've releave sly concluded our our
Speaker 1: fourth program. As you mentioned, we had a demo day
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, and the two primary trends
Speaker 1: that we saw last year that led to this year's class.
Speaker 1: One was in the future of work, a reoccurring theme
Speaker 1: that everyone every listener is feeling. UM. You know, really
Speaker 1: if you think about hybrid work collaboration tools. So we've
Speaker 1: got a bunch of companies that came through last year's
Speaker 1: class in this year's class, UH company called the Guiche
Speaker 1: from Israel as a mobile app that allows people who
Speaker 1: are deaf and hard of hearing to communicate via phone
Speaker 1: by converting speech to text and text to speech bester
Speaker 1: and more accurately than ever before. Our team's actually using
Speaker 1: them for for doing interviews with people who are hard
Speaker 1: of hearing. Another company, Think Confluent out of Paris, as
Speaker 1: an AI assistant that can analyze free form, open ended
Speaker 1: survey questions that we've all done from employee surveys and
Speaker 1: get sentiment analysis what did someone mean by what they said?
Speaker 1: In Second and out of Philadelphia, our headquarters city Employee Cycle,
Speaker 1: which curates multiple HR tools into one dashboard, making it
Speaker 1: really easier for businesses of all sizes to understand their
Speaker 1: employees concerns and what's going well. I want to get
Speaker 1: back to our guests. We're talking with Danielle Cone. She's
Speaker 1: vice president of startup Engagement of our Comcast NBC Universal,
Speaker 1: still with us on the phone in New Jersey. We're
Speaker 1: talking about their Lift Labs accelerator. So, Danielle, before we
Speaker 1: had to step away for a moment, you were talking
Speaker 1: about or you wanted to mention another theme that you
Speaker 1: guys have been focusing on take it Away. Yeah, absolutely, UM.
Speaker 1: As you know, as an innovation company, we're always challenging
Speaker 1: the status quo and looking at new focus areas, and
Speaker 1: our our team is just you know, one part of
Speaker 1: the company's cross company collaborative innovation strategy. And one of
Speaker 1: the themes that came up this year that really stood
Speaker 1: out was interactive and immersive Experiences. UM. We're really inspired
Speaker 1: by the creativity of the startups and their enthusiasm and
Speaker 1: building and launching and scaling these very novel solutions like
Speaker 1: Hello da Um, which is a fitness tech company that
Speaker 1: creates incredible VR experiences to enhance your workout at home
Speaker 1: or in the office. I tried it. It's in our
Speaker 1: fitness center at the Comcast Technology Center and it is
Speaker 1: out of this world. And another company called zoog which
Speaker 1: makes it more engaging for grandparents and parents and their
Speaker 1: kids to stay in touch through augmented reality storytelling. And
Speaker 1: those are just two of the themes. We generally have
Speaker 1: about five themes for the year when we start to
Speaker 1: scout for startups UM. And you know, over the years
Speaker 1: we have had a real proven track record. We now
Speaker 1: have about fifty companies in our portfolio that have gone
Speaker 1: on to to raise millions. All right, So Tim and
Speaker 1: I are dying to ask you metaverse, how is that
Speaker 1: playing in meta thanking or interest when or are some
Speaker 1: of the companies that are working uh uh in the accelerator? Yeah? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean I think one of the companies that I mentioned, Helodia,
Speaker 1: is really about immersive experiences. And uh, I'm not someone
Speaker 1: who loves to work out. And I tried a rowing
Speaker 1: machine for the first time, not alone in that. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna tell you you're not alone. We'll try Hellodia
Speaker 1: because I worked out for thirty minutes and I did
Speaker 1: not realize I had worked out, and I was so
Speaker 1: in awe of the visual and what was happening around me.
Speaker 1: Is it a headset? You know? It's so you use
Speaker 1: a a VR headset, you'll use an oculus, but it's
Speaker 1: sort of agnostic. You can use it with any machine.
Speaker 1: But the more you row, the greater the visual experiences.
Speaker 1: And it made me work out. That's pretty cool. I
Speaker 1: still haven't I've tried Oculus, I've tried metaverse, I haven't
Speaker 1: gotten completely immersed in it thus far. It's on my
Speaker 1: to do list. Hey, Danielle, before we before we go on,
Speaker 1: I got to ask about the I think a lot
Speaker 1: of our our listeners might be familiar with Comcast Ventures.
Speaker 1: It it was. It was the venture capital arm of
Speaker 1: of Comcast Corporation, and what is the relationship. It's it's
Speaker 1: no longer around. It folded into another part of Comcast,
Speaker 1: but it did make investments into startups that many of
Speaker 1: our listeners are probably familiar with dot l A, for example,
Speaker 1: media companies. What's the relationship between what you're doing and
Speaker 1: what happened at Comcast Ventures. So Comcast Ventures is very
Speaker 1: much still here and is even more focused on strategic
Speaker 1: alignment with our core business. I fit right alongside Andrew Cleland,
Speaker 1: who leads Comcast Ventures, and we see ourselves as partners.
Speaker 1: Our team works at a very early stage and oftentimes
Speaker 1: we see deal flow between our two organizations. UM. So
Speaker 1: they are very much still around and we happen to
Speaker 1: now be on the same team in strategic development. Very cool.
Speaker 1: So you'll potentially invest or at least support a company
Speaker 1: Danielle that could ultimately get an investment from Comcast Ventures
Speaker 1: down the line. Absolutely. Um. One of our companies, or Rye,
Speaker 1: has has already seen that from a previous for program
Speaker 1: UM and we help each other every day. We see
Speaker 1: each other as again sort of this cross company collaborative
Speaker 1: innovation team and Ventures is absolutely one of our core partners.
Speaker 1: They were very involved in our program UM during the accelerator.
Speaker 1: They met with all of the companies, give feedback and
Speaker 1: whether they make an investment or not, they share other
Speaker 1: ideas with them for others out in the you know,
Speaker 1: in their own network that that might be interested. All right,
Speaker 1: So I've gone down a rapid hall with Hellodia and
Speaker 1: I've definitely gone down UM really cool. Well, I love
Speaker 1: talking with folks like yourself because I do think, you know,
Speaker 1: we kind of like open up our brain. As I
Speaker 1: said before earlier, I just really think about how our
Speaker 1: world is changing, and as you mentioned about, you know,
Speaker 1: work collaboration tools, because it does feel like that that
Speaker 1: that we've really gone through a significant change because of
Speaker 1: the pandemic. Where else do we need to be you know,
Speaker 1: looking at UM and I think about investors in particular,
Speaker 1: looking for those trends that might become some of the
Speaker 1: big companies publicly held companies in the future or tag
Speaker 1: ons at have become a significant part of Comcast business like,
Speaker 1: what other trends are you seeing out there? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean they're there are new trends we're looking at in
Speaker 1: connected health. That is an area that is a particular
Speaker 1: professional and personal interest. I love what Pivotal Ventures and
Speaker 1: Milindi Gates's organization is doing in the care tech care
Speaker 1: economy space UM, but a lot of trends in UM
Speaker 1: fintech that is an area that we believe will have
Speaker 1: a very positive impact on underserved communities. In fact, we
Speaker 1: just ran a really fantastic liftoff program that uncovered to
Speaker 1: fantastic fintech companies that we will be investing in UM.
Speaker 1: And and so you know what's been interesting to me
Speaker 1: over the years and in working with founders is many
Speaker 1: of them have similar similar stories, but different problems and
Speaker 1: different challenges and and each founder and each company is
Speaker 1: so different and we're learning every day. And the mentors
Speaker 1: we have two mentors across Comcast, NBC, Universal and Sky
Speaker 1: who roll up their sleeves every year, work side by
Speaker 1: side with these companies, are invested in them in terms
Speaker 1: of time and energy, and it goes well beyond the
Speaker 1: program and they're always learning as much as they're giving.
Speaker 1: And UM you know that part to me is always
Speaker 1: just so exciting to learn from the companies. Um. One
Speaker 1: of the other things that I have found, UM, really,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if this is a trend
Speaker 1: to look at, but a reality. We have been engaged
Speaker 1: in startup communities since our start of this program six
Speaker 1: years ago, and we use every every part of our
Speaker 1: engagement in the community to learn their insights to adapt
Speaker 1: our approach. And the two main things we've heard along
Speaker 1: the way is we're looking for access and amplification, and
Speaker 1: specifically we heard early on for founders of color and women,
Speaker 1: this was specifically very important, UM, the need to amplify
Speaker 1: and and all stories and invest in companies who are
Speaker 1: led by women and people of color. I'm sure you
Speaker 1: already know the stats. We're pretty sad on um, you know.
Speaker 1: I think at this point the number has now dropped
Speaker 1: down to two point three of all VC funding has
Speaker 1: gone to women in that was down from two point seven,
Speaker 1: and then recent stats show that black and Latina women
Speaker 1: combined received only point six four of total investment. So
Speaker 1: our team does a lot to ensure we are intentional
Speaker 1: and inclusive in our programs. Uh feel that way, Daniel
Speaker 1: all of our founders or have identified themselves in that way.
Speaker 1: We have to run um, but glad to get so
Speaker 1: much time with you and really appreciate it. Learned a lot.
Speaker 1: Daniel cone G's VP of Startup Engagement of our Comcast
Speaker 1: NBC Universal, joining us on the phone from New Jersey,