“Alpharetta Tech Talk,” Episode 8: Brock Kolls, Gr8BigIdeas
Large corporations often struggle to develop and monetize the innovation which comes from technology breakthroughs. That’s where tech innovator Brock Kolls, comes in, connecting corporations with tech startups. Brock joined “Alpharetta Tech Talk” to discuss his work in closing the gap that lies between corporations and startups. “Alpharetta Tech Talk” is hosted by John Ray and broadcast from the North Fulton Business RadioX® studio inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.
Brock Kolls, Gr8BigIdeas
Brock Kolls is founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Gr8BigIdeas®, located in Peachtree Corners, GA. As a serial entrepreneur and innovator, Brock helps companies develop market-changing technology by identifying and capturing intellectual property around breakthrough innovation. In addition, he has developed innovative tools and methods to bridge the gap between corporations and startups.
His startup experience includes raising more than $120 million in funding and a successful exit on NASDAQ. Brock invented a wireless cashless payment technology that is widely used today.
As a former Coca-Cola executive in Research and Development, Bock led a team of innovators in the design of cold drink equipment. One such innovation was the Coca-Cola Freestyle dispenser. Following Freestyle, Brock successfully grew Coca-Cola’s open innovation program. The program scouted for technologies to meet Coke’s business needs worldwide.
Having experience from both the startup and corporate perspective, Brock knows firsthand how challenging it is to get breakthrough innovations out of the lab and into the marketplace at a meaningful big company. He also understands the challenges and need to scale, and scale quickly. To address this challenge, he founded Gr8BigIdeas to partner with companies seeking to innovate in the technical community and created TechConnectHub.com, an open innovation community. A focus has been growing the open innovation community and engaging with corporate partners to connect innovation needs with technical community solutions. In these endeavors, Brock has developed innovative tools and methods to bridge the gap between corporates and startups in completely new ways.
For more information, you can contact Brock through LinkedIn or email him directly. To learn more on Gr8BigIdeas, you can find their website here.
“Alpharetta Tech Talk” is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®, located inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has grown to become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions with approximately $12.9 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you.
