Proving the ROI of Corporate Venturing
Peter Roeber, innovation leader at Gore, on measuring venturing across strategic and financial returns, and keeping the rug from being pulled.
With Peter Roeber
From The Corporate Venturing Podcast, brought to you by Open Road Ventures
4 things this conversation gets into
- 01How Gore defines ROI across strategic and financial value
- 02Learning velocity, and exploration teams as scouts
- 03Tracking intangible returns like talent and credibility
- 04Securing long-term executive buy-in
Peter Roeber is an innovation leader at Gore, the global material science company known for Gore-Tex and its strong innovation culture. He works on how Gore evaluates its venturing efforts and balances financial and strategic returns.
Davide Ritorto is a management engineer from Italy with an international MBA, currently working at Lamborghini. He is what some call an intrapreneur, passionate about open innovation and corporate venturing, and driven by curiosity about how things work and how to make them work even better. Through Open Road Ventures he sets out to inspire and inform other innovators, intrapreneurs and dreamers.
He founded Open Road Ventures as a weekly publication on open innovation and corporate venturing, and The Corporate Venturing Podcast grew out of it. He also mentors startups at Motor Valley Accelerator and sits on the Open Innovation Advisory Board at UC Berkeley Haas.
The Corporate Venturing Podcast is made by Open Road Ventures. The Bundl Venture Club is a partner of the show.
Read the full show notes
🎙️ Welcome to the fifth episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!
Proving the Return on Investment (ROI) of corporate venturing is one of the most persistent—and misunderstood—challenges innovation leaders face. It’s not just about the money. It’s about showing how innovation drives strategic growth, cultural change, and long-term value creation.
In this episode, I sit down with Peter Roeber, innovation leader at Gore, a global material science company known for Gore-Tex and its strong innovation culture. Peter shares how Gore evaluates its venturing efforts, balances financial and strategic returns, and uses early wins to build momentum and stakeholder confidence.
We discuss:
💡 How Gore defines ROI across strategic and financial dimensions
📊 Metrics that matter—from TAM/SAM analysis to real-win-worth frameworks
🧠 The importance of learning velocity and how exploration teams act as “strategic scouts”
💬 Communicating innovation success to executive stakeholders and securing long-term buy-in
🎯 How to recognize and track intangible returns—like brand credibility, talent attraction, and culture change
⚠️ Lessons learned from misaligned ventures—and how to avoid getting the rug pulled out
Whether you’re building new ventures or evaluating the impact of your innovation portfolio, this episode offers deep, practical advice on how to prove the value of your work.
Resources:
If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to follow, rate, and share The Corporate Venturing Podcast.
Stay curious, keep innovating and we’ll see you next time!
Keep listening
All episodes
New growth plays, every fortnight.
What is working inside the world’s biggest consumer brands, straight to your inbox.