Open innovation · AI · Corporate venturing
Davide Ritorto.Making open innovation and AI work in complex industries.
- Currently
- Building Lamborghini's open innovation capability within Corporate Strategy
- Host
- The Corporate Venturing Podcast
- Board
- Open Innovation Advisory Board, UC Berkeley Haas
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Essays on corporate venturing and open innovation, plus Innovation Espresso, a weekly news roundup.
01
Podcast
What it takes to make innovation and corporate venturing work.
The Corporate Venturing Podcast Spotify Apple Podcasts
Guests have come from
Stefan PeintnerNew
The State of New Business Building in 2026
Eric Ries
Incorruptible: Why Corporate Innovation Keeps Drifting
Steve Rader
Open Innovation at NASA
Ji Hoon Kwon
Corporate Venturing Backing the AI Transformation
Dong-Su Kim
Building and Scaling a $900M CVC
Nicole LeBlanc
Inside Woven Capital: The Playbook for Growth-Stage Venturing
Jelena Joffe Weil
Scaling Venture Innovation in the AI Era
Phil Hague
Why Corporate Venturing Matters for Business Growth?
Mar Serra
Building Internal Culture to Embrace External Ideas
02
Work
Turning strategy into frameworks, processes and roadmaps that teams across the company adopt.
With regular updates to the Board in earlier roles, and to the C-suite today.
Designing and coordinating the Hub, and translating business challenges into pilots and proofs of concept with startups and research partners.
- First open innovation framework, aligned with corporate strategy
- Prioritise and orchestrate venture clienting and CVC initiatives across the company, and report progress to the C-suite
- An open innovation culture promoted through internal presentations and events
Coordinated the design and execution of the multi-year strategy for Global Aftersales across 52 markets, with its digital transformation roadmap, and introduced Systems Engineering methodology to Aftersales.
Bottom line52 markets
Designed and implemented the strategy for connectivity services in more than 50 countries, and led more than ten innovation projects scouting new technologies.
Bottom line50+ countries · 10+ innovation projects
As Value Stream Specialist at Marelli, mapped the value stream and obtained a 35% reduction in total lead time; then joined Lamborghini as Process Engineer in Pre-Series.
Bottom line−35% total lead time
Tools
Assistants and agents
Claude · Code · Design
ChatGPT
Gemini
Perplexity
Microsoft Copilot
Instinct
Knowledge and automation
Notion
n8n
Content and media
ElevenLabs
Riverside
HeyGen
Napkin AI
Canva
Scouting
GlassDollar
Entrapeer
Crunchbase
AI in practice
AI projects in Aftersales
Designed and managed AI innovation projects in Aftersales, from proof of concept to rollout.
PathBusiness challenge → Proof of concept → Rollout · Rolled out
Task force
Member of Lamborghini's task force on AI adoption and transformation
Innovation OS
Built an Innovation OS in Notion that connects intake, scoring, scouting, governance and pilots. Every Monday its AI agent drafts startup matches for validated business needs, for human approval.
Second brain
Built a personal knowledge base with Claude Code: sources kept read-only, a wiki that agents write and check, rules enforced by scripts.
Skills
Custom Claude skills and artifacts for podcast preparation, newsletter writing and pre-publication checks, personal finance reviews, and Whoura, a health and performance advisor.
03
Writing
A newsletter on corporate venturing and open innovation, written by someone doing the work.
Open Road Ventures, on Substack
The most expensive idea is the one in your drawer.
Using AI is table stakes now. 6 things from Wave by Vento on what still sets companies apart.
If you're a startup pitching a corporate, start here.
10 things I took from the man who built NASA's Open Innovation function.
Everyone wants to be Batman. You need to be Robin.
The cure for force-feeding Innovation
04
Speaking & interviews
Panels, lectures and interviews on open innovation and corporate venturing.
Why venture clienting is becoming a core CVC capability
Panel with Telus Global Ventures and Rehau, Global Corporate Venturing (GCV) Conference, Jun 2026
Open innovation in practice: corporate power, startup agility and the proof-of-concept trap
Interview, Bundl Venture Club
Lectures
POLIMI Graduate School of Management, Master in Innovation Management · LUISS University, Open Innovation · Sapienza University, guest lecture
For organisers
Davide Ritorto works in Innovation Management at Lamborghini, in Corporate Strategy, where he is building the company's open innovation capability and its Open Innovation Hub. Earlier he coordinated Lamborghini's Global AfterSales Strategy 2030 and led the design of a problem-solving procedure adopted across nine departments. He hosts The Corporate Venturing Podcast, writes the Open Road Ventures newsletter, and sits on the UC Berkeley Haas Open Innovation Advisory Board.