Venture Development Consulting

Innovative, growth-oriented business people engage Becca Braun to help their companies take advantage of growth drivers and overcome issues blocking progress. Becca’s skills and experience cover a wide range of areas including: business planning and development, operations and technology, culture and people, and finance and fundraising. Clients appreciate Becca’s straightforward, focused, and supportive approach.

Becca has decades of experience helping companies grow and making investments in early stage businesses. She has held executive positions in organizations in the technology, financial, healthcare, media & publishing, and non-profit industries and has grown several organizations as founder, president, CEO, and chairman. She has co-led the team that invested in Ohio’s first-ever “unicorn” company (>$1 billion valuation); co-led the creation of a venture accelerator; managed numerous advisory boards; and developed the operating and financial plans for successfully launched or licensed healthcare technologies.

For her work helping companies grow, Becca has received the Hero’s Award from the ERC, Northeast Ohio’s largest organization providing Human Resources and workplace programs. Becca received the Crain’s Forty Under 40 recognition. She has spoken on TV, to members of Congress and in front of executives and entrepreneurs around the country on topics including company growth, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Becca earned her MBA from Harvard Business School.

Using CEO Memoirs & Biographies in the Classroom

Memoirs and biographies combine the case method with more immersive and experiential learning because readers are immersed in the story and narrative. Narratives are arguably the most effective way to teach and learn in general. Studies have shown that students consistently recall information tied to storytelling better than material presented without storytelling. Organizational psychologists have found that learning from a well-told story is remembered “far longer” than learning derived from facts and figures and that facts are 20 times more likely to be remembered if they’re part of a story.

Braun Collection books and comic books enable business educators to use narrative to enhance the learning experience of their students. Further, it seems that people who read narratives that “oscillate” (i.e., the narratives do not offer a story of clear ascent or descent but rather a story of oscillating successes and failures) have better resilience later in their own lives and careers when making their own decisions. This is because they have reference points (the prior narratives) that consist of patterns of oscillation as opposed to clear-cut ascent or descent2. As we know in real life, decisions rarely involve clear-cut ascent or descent situations. Braun Collection materials do show neither deeply flawed heroes nor perfect decision makers, rather people who deal with the ups and downs of the issues and
opportunities in their lives and careers.

When using a True Business Adventure Tale (CEO memoir or biography), business educators have the opportunity to develop these business competencies in students. Such competencies are in high demand in the business workplace.

Ask students to:

SUMMARIZE the actions, people, and topics and SYNTHESIZE all the information into the theme of the book. Synthesizing key topics and themes is important in business.
DEVELOP ARGUMENTS about and CRITICALLY APPRAISE key actions and decisions made by executives. Being able to develop and appraise various actions is important in business.
OFFER SUPPORT for their arguments using text and facts as opposed to pure opinion and conjecture. Knowing how to offer factual, even if not scientific, evidence is important in business.
REFLECT ON how the subjects and authors views and actions compare and contrast to their own. A level of appropriate reflection is shown to build a level of warmth and relationships that matter for business.
SHOW CURIOSITY about business leaders through asking questions of the authors, if the LIVE VIDEO VISIT option is chosen by educators. Asking good questions is a vital business skill.