Join us Sept. 14-16 in Miami to connect with top publishing leaders
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
Brand marketers are adopting fan-first social media strategies
Bigger brands are picking up a social playbook perfected by startup and scaleup marketers, having seen the results. But can it work at scale?
Creators build GEO strategies to get discovered by brands and agencies in AI search
With no established playbook for AI search, creators are starting to build their own.
How H&M, Chobani, UrbanStems and Teleties are refining their partnership strategies
Brands are refining partnerships to match audiences, drive cultural relevance and find new growth.