  Corporate venture capital is in the midst of a renaissance. The end of 2015
marked all-time highs both in the number of corporate firms participating in VC
deals and in the amount of capital being deployed by corporate VCs. This paper
explores, rather than defines, how these firms find success in the wake of this
sudden influx of corporate investors. A series of interviews was conducted in
order to capture the direct and indirect objectives, philosophies, and modes of
operation within some of these corporate VC organizations. During the course of
this exploration, numerous operational coherency issues were discovered. Many
firms were implicitly incentivizing conflicting and inconsistent behavior among
their investment team. Perhaps most surprising, the worst offenders were the
more mature corporate VCs who have been in the game for some time. As will be
discussed, fundamental evidence suggests that this misalignment is due to lack
of attention and commitment at the executive level as corporate strategy
evolves.
