For Dave Fanger, building an in-house startup was labor of love.
“It was a nights and weekends passion of mine,” said Fanger, CEO of Swell, the impact investing platform owned by Newport Beach, California-based insurer Pacific Life. “We were looking for asset managers to acquire, but I didn’t see anything out there that was addressing the values I was looking for.”
For Fanger, finding partners who were committed to sustainability was important. So six years ago, he teamed up with a colleague and decided to launch Swell — but instead of creating a startup from scratch, he decided to do so from within Pacific Life. As venture capital funding becomes harder to come by, corporate-incubated startups may become more common. For Swell, maintaining the “separateness” of the startup entity is a critical driver of success.
More in Marketing
OpenAI’s next ChatGPT ad format: click to chat, not to site
The new format lets brands turn an ad click into a conversation with an AI agent inside ChatGPT, rather than sending users to their websites.
As Google’s ad tech case nears its end, the antitrust fight moves to AI
Google avoided breakups in antitrust cases as AI ads and CTV draw scrutiny; see what regulators may target next.
Future of Marketing Briefing: One more helping, for gluttons still hungry for Publicis and PepsiCo takes
Yes, more thoughts on what it means, or doesn’t, that Publicis walked away from competing for Coca-Cola’s media dollars to grab PepsiCo’s instead.