Interview with Brian Bemiller from 1848 Ventures

Brian Bemiller is an Innovation Engine Leader at 1848 Ventures, a corporate venture studio from Westfield Insurance.

1848 Ventures is a corporate venture studio building and launching B2B SaaS ventures that bring the power of AI to small and medium-sized businesses.

Brian has been with Westfield (and now 1848 Ventures) since leaving college. It's a 21 year journey to-date, with the last 6 years spent in the corporate venture studio. He was the first employee of 1848 Ventures!

1. What is your background and how did you get into 1848 Ventures?

I started at Westfield Insurance right out of college on the employee help desk installing software, resetting passwords, troubleshooting PC issues, etc. For the 15 years that followed, I held various roles across Westfield’s IT department, primarily focused on product development and leadership roles.

In 2017, Westfield was beginning to explore their innovation strategy, and I got tapped on the shoulder to be part of a small team leading that exploration. After a few months of experimenting with technologies and potential startup partnership options focused on the insurance operations, we pivoted our strategy to focus on building and launching ventures that help small and medium sized businesses address the challenges they face every day when running their businesses. This pivot crystallized with the official formation of 1848 Ventures on January 1, 2018. I transitioned full time at that point to become the first employee of the new venture studio.

2. Why did Westfield decide to launch 1848 Ventures? Can you share a bit about the ventures you've built?

There are two long term outcomes we target: (1) direct financial value from the income generated from ventures that we launch; and, (2) the indirect financial value that we generate for our parent company, Westfield, via access to new customers and data.

Two examples of ventures we’ve launched, which we’re now scaling are Takeup.ai and Vandra.ai.

• Takeup leverages AI/ML to optimize hotel room rates continuously for all future dates, with a current focus on independently owned and operated boutique and bed and breakfast hotels across the United States.
• Vandra leverages real time visitor behavior data to generate dynamic discount offers that target low intent buyers on eCommerce websites, primarily those that leverage the Shopify platform, to drive more sales without cannibalizing those that would have purchased anyway.

3. Can you describe, at a high level, how your process works for creating new ventures?

While our process has many phases, there are two distinct parts of our organization. The first is the early stage venture creation “engine” that starts with market exploration in one of our core industries of focus (retail, restaurants, hotels, real estate and construction) and progresses through customer discovery and business model ideation and de-risking through hypothesis driven, in-market testing. Throughout these phases, many alternative problem spaces and business model ideas are explored and tested. Many of these are ultimately shut down or significantly pivoted.

For those that progress through the aforementioned hypothesis driven, in-market testing, the venture is transitioned to an experienced B2B SaaS leader to carry the momentum forward into early customer acquisition, product launch/go to market, and the original team heads back to the beginning to restart in a new space.

 For those ventures that experience early indicators of future success (initial customer acquisition, customer feedback, market understanding, etc.), a Seed investment is provided to drive additional customer growth and progression on the journey towards product market fit and scale. Once that investment is made, funds are leveraged to build a team around that specific venture and execute a Seed investment plan, iterating along the way informed by learnings from customers and the market.

4. What types of roles do you hire for 1848 Ventures? 

Within our early stage venture creation “engine,” we pair individuals with early stage product/go to market experience with individuals with early stage data science/engineering execution and leadership experience. Those pairs are then supplemented by full time designers, data scientists, software engineers and growth marketing roles as they iterate through early stage business models together.

On ventures we’ve launched via a Seed investment, typical roles include venture business and technical leadership and some combination of roles focused on product, sales, marketing, customer success, design, engineering and data science.

You can check out our jobs here: https://jobsatventurestudios.com/companies/1848-ventures-2175217

5. What are you looking for from candidates (especially that differs from people working in corporate jobs)?

A requirement for nearly all roles is experience operating in early stage SaaS companies, ideally those where data is core to the product value proposition. Many individuals we target have a depth of experience in product, technology and/or growth.

From a motivational fit standpoint, alignment to our culture, and the ability to both embrace uncertainty and experiment to drive rapid learning that reduces that uncertainty, are critical.

6. How do you think about career pathing within a corporate venture studio / 1848 Ventures?

For many, a corporate venture studio represents an opportunity to do the kind of work people are passionate about, but without the challenges and time commitment associated with raising capital. So many individuals on the team have come from other venture studios or the VC-backed startup world, and enjoy operating and continuing to grow their skills via new and diverse experiences at 1848 Ventures.

7. Any recommendations for job seekers thinking about corporate venture studios? Pros/cons? Tips on how to apply / get noticed?

There are many "flavors" of venture studios. Get to know the various types, how they work, the outcomes they target and the structure of the companies they launch/invest in.  Combine that with the alignment to your skills and experiences. But regardless, I recommend it!