Stanley Ventures' Dina Routhier and Michael Mahan talk about the evolving investment landscape for building things.

One of the interesting shifts that happened during the covid pandemic was in building things. Larger construction projects slowed down while at-home DIY projects took off as people spent time inside. This is but one of the patterns that Stanley Ventures, the investment unit of US tool company Stanley Black & Decker, had a front-row view to, sitting at the intersection of construction and consumer goods.

Dina Routhier and Michael Mahan, the respective president and managing director of Stanley Ventures, join me on the show to talk about that shift and about how changes in a parent company’s business units – such as Stanley Black & Decker’s divestiture from its security and healthcare business and the launch of its outdoor tools business – can affect portfolio management.

We also talk about emerging trends and technologies in the construction sector, what it’s like sitting in both construction and consumer markets, and what venturing units should do to best help them survive when their parent company has difficult decisions to make about its future.

Fernando Moncada Rivera

Fernando Moncada Rivera is a reporter at Global Corporate Venturing and also host of the CVC Unplugged podcast.