Signature Speaking Topics:
Corporate Innovation Partnerships: Building Value with Multinationals
- Building compelling value propositions for multinational corporate partners that cut through the noise of thousands of competing startups
- Structuring win-win frameworks where multinationals get innovation without distraction from core business
- From concept to $1.6B public company: PureCycle's journey from P&G partnership to NASDAQ
- Understanding what large corporations need versus what they can execute internally
Early Stage Company Strategy: Navigating Uncertainty and Growth
- "You find out things about everything that are different than your original assumptions—you have to change with it"
- The blank sheet approach: Starting over when conventional solutions fail
- Building six companies to IPO: Pattern recognition in transformational company building
- High threshold for pain: Why thick skin matters more than perfect plans
Public vs. Private: Strategic Decisions for Technology Startups
- Strategic considerations for going public versus staying private in early-stage technology ventures
- Navigating SPACs and alternative paths to public markets with lower thresholds
- From startup to public company: Managing the transition to quarterly earnings focus
- Real-world experience from both worlds: the pluses and minuses of each path
- "The company was ready for somebody that was more purely execution focused—that's a different skillset"
Building Teams That Win: Hiring for Uncertainty
- "You need people with the mindset of an athlete—that competitive spirit, that determination to overcome adversity when you face it"
- Why everyone gets equity: Creating cultures of shared ownership and collective success
- The roadmap doesn't exist: Empowering teams to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B
- Case study: Building teams where people evolve into completely different roles as companies scale
Sustainability as Business Strategy
- Addressing compelling global unmet needs with emerging technology solutions
- PureCycle case study: Converting plastic waste challenge into $1.6B market opportunity
- Why sustainability innovations require different commercialization approaches
- Building companies that solve problems multinationals can't address internally
Availability
Mike is available for keynote speaking, institutional investor presentations, innovation workshops, corporate strategy forums, media commentary, and venture capital conferences. He tailors each presentation to align with audience objectives and event themes, drawing from his extensive background in systematic company creation and transformative value building.
Media & Recent Engagements
Featured Articles
Conference Presentations
Academic Engagements:
- Haslam College of Business: Executive-in-Residence appointment, mentoring sessions with entrepreneurship students
- Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation: Regular speaker on commercializing breakthrough technologies
- Guest Lectures: Corporate innovation strategy and building resilient teams
