Friday Aug 5, 2016

"Atlas Informatics - Journey of a spin-off from IVY Softworks Innovation Studio"

Kaj Pedersen

Vice President of Operations Atlas Informatics

Scribe: Paul Chapman Introduced by: Bob Holert

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Kaj started by explaining the inspiration for Ivy Innovation Studio:

  • Wanted to develop a better model for early-stage venture capital and entrepreneurship.
  • Brought together an A-team of early-stage innovators whose broad goal is to build multiple technology startups together.
  • This model enabled them to engage, incentivize, and inspire those early contributors to stick with the team beyond the first successful product, instead of losing them to another company as they pursue their next challenge.
  • Key to this model is a set of incentives and equity structures that allow innovators to benefit in a way that compares to being a founding member of a startup, retaining ownership and upside for what they contribute.

The innovation studio model was designed to solve the following problems:

  • Resolved a key problem in technology startups and the venture capital community: the loss of time and investment when a great team splits up
  • Ivy Softworks’ unique funding term structure enabled the team to experiment with multiple big ideas, staying focused on developing the strongest of them without having to worry about the usual stability and financing risks of startups
  • From an investor’s perspective, their capital is better utilized by leveraging it across multiple ideas with the same A-team, rather than betting on just one idea built from scratch by a new team

So, was Ivy Innovation Studio successful? Yes, however, all of the 34 plus employees became employees of a promising concept called Atlas Informatics as of April 22, 2016.

Atlas Informatics: The first complete personal search index, with the customer at the center and surrounded by everything the customer interacts with digitally. Data is accumulated automatically across all one’s devices, apps & data.

Atlas Slide

About the Speaker

Kaj Pedersen is a forward-thinking executive with broad-based experience and a proven record of success in setting strategic directions and leading teams to reach challenging goals. Trusted business advisor; an incisive decision-maker who consistently delivers results. Visionary leader who is effective in leveraging innovative technologies to realize significant ROI improvements, expertly leading product development, service delivery, expense reduction, and efficiency improvement initiatives.

Presently with Atlas Informatics as VP of Operations, Kaj previously has been with Pharmacy OneSource as CTO/Vice President of Technology (acquired by Wolters Kluwer); Pendo Systems as COO: Cascade Investments; Lycos as Vice President and General Manager; Quote.com as Vice President of Engineering (acquired by Lycos); and GT Global as Director of Investment Systems.