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Josh Linkner

Serial entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, and venture capital investor

About

Gender: Male
Nationality: United States
Languages: English
Travels from: United States

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Biography Highlights

  • Josh Linkner is a New York Times bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, venture capital investor, professional jazz guitarist, and a globally-recognized innovation expert.

Biography

Josh Linkner — a New York Times bestselling author — is a rare blend of business, art, and science.
 
On the business front, he’s been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which created over 10,000 jobs and sold for a combined value of over $200 million. He’s the co-founder and Managing Partner of Muditā (mooDEE-tah) Venture Partners – an early-stage venture capital firm investing in groundbreaking technologies. Over the last 30 years, he’s helped over 100 startups launch and scale, creating over $1 billion in investor returns. He’s twice been named the EY Entrepreneur of The Year and is the recipient of the United States Presidential Champion of Change Award.
 
While proud of his business success, his roots are in the dangerous world of jazz music. He’s been playing guitar in smoky jazz clubs for 40 years, studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and has performed over 1000 concerts around the world.
 
His experiences in both business and music led him to become one of the world’s foremost experts on innovation. Josh is the co-founder and Chairman of Platypus Labs, a global research, training, and consulting firm. Today, he’s on a mission to help leaders Find A Way™ through creative problem-solving, inventive thinking, and ingenuity.

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As we enter a new era of business, 50% of leaders in the United States have lost confidence in their ability to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. The level of disruption, technology threats, and volatility can be paralyzing. We are in a leadership crisis and must embrace a new model to meet today’s challenges.

Prolific entrepreneur, venture capital investor, and innovation expert Josh Linkner helps you Find A Way™ through his proven 5-step innovation framework for cultivating full-organization ingenuity. Whatever outcomes you crave the most – from sales growth to competitive advantage to employee engagement – you’ll walk away with specific tools to drive sustainable success.

The Find a Way™ framework prioritizes agility over brute force, creativity over hustle, and improvisation over perfect planning. Leaders who embrace the model are inspired and better equipped. They feel confident to move forward into the darkness and have a newfound capacity to win consistently, no matter the circumstances.

This keynote serves leaders & teams who are:

  • Facing uncertainty and volatility.
  • Seeking better ways to drive the outcomes they crave the most.
  • Struggling to keep up with the pace of change.

The audience will leave with:

  • A proven model for harnessing ingenuity to solve any problem and seize any opportunity.
  • Innovative strategies to drive better results every day.
  • The confidence to walk into the unknown and emerge victorious.
Available: In person, Virtually

The pressure to generate big ideas can feel overwhelming. We know that bold innovations are critical in these disruptive and competitive times, but when it comes to breakthrough thinking, we often freeze up.

Instead of shooting for a $10 billion IPO or a Nobel Prize, the most prolific innovators focus on Big Little Breakthroughs – small, creative acts that unlock massive rewards over time.

The Big Little Breakthroughs framework provides a specific and practical approach to unlocking dormant creative capacity. Instead of wild, risky, and expensive moonshots, participants learn to unleash small, daily creative acts to drive gigantic results over time.

In this inspiring, timely, and high-impact keynote, New York Times bestselling author and globally-recognized innovation expert Josh Linkner shows us how to de-risk the creative process, build the capacity to unlock breakthrough transformations, and gain the creative confidence to take responsible risks.

This keynote serves leaders & teams who are:

  • Aware of the need to innovate but having a hard time getting started.
  • Responsible for creating a culture of innovation.
  • Feeling pressure to generate breakthroughs but struggling to deliver them.

The audience will leave with:

  • A proven framework to cultivate a high volume of innovations without the typical risk.
  • Inspiring and memorable stories that show how ingenuity, creative problem-solving, and inventive thinking can lead to breakthrough results.
  • The mindsets, habits, and tactics of the world’s most prolific artists, business titans, and entrepreneurs.
Available: In person, Virtually

The business you’re running today isn’t the business you’ll be running next year. In this moment of volatility and uncertainty, we are being called to lead in a radically different way… more decisive, creative, and adaptable. So how can we use this defining moment to ensure relevancy, sustainability, and success in the future?

In this inspiring and practical keynote, battle-tested CEO, venture capital investor, and leadership expert Josh Linkner delivers a modern and accessible framework to help leaders thrive in the face of uncertainty and leverage their skills to move into uncharted territory with confidence.

You’ll learn how to unlock inventive thinking, creative problem-solving, and ingenuity in every box of the org chart. The most successful leaders today help everyday people become everyday innovators. They make sure that innovation is an everyday business.

This can’t-miss session goes way beyond the future of work. This is the future of growth, the future of relevancy, the future of leadership, and the future of success.

This keynote serves leaders & teams who are:

  • Being called to lead in a bold, new way
  • Overwhelmed with the demands of modern leadership
  • Craving a more innovative approach to drive explosive growth, gain competitive advantage, and get more from their teams

The audience will leave with:

  • A modern framework for innovative leadership
  • Insights from some of the world’s most prolific leaders
  • A behind-the-scenes view of legendary business disruption
  • Strategies to drive growth, engagement, and success amid change and uncertainty
Available: In person, Virtually

We’re living in a rate of change like none other in history. The hard truth is that we can no longer rely on the models of the past and expect the same results.

In this energizing and actionable keynote, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of rapid change and how to respond confidently and intentionally. New York Times bestselling author and lifetime disruptor Josh Linkner shares a proven model for you to take control and reinvent your own future.

This keynote serves leaders & teams who are:

  • Struggling to keep up with the rate of change.
  • Overwhelmed with competitive threats, technology advancements, and shifting disruptive market forces.
  • Recognizing the need for reinvention but struggling to gain traction.

The audience will leave with:

  • A proven framework to lead reinvention efforts of all shapes and sizes.
  • The confidence to walk into the unknown and realize they can now navigate whatever challenges or opportunities emerge.
  • Mindsets and tactics to ensure relevance, adaptability, and sustainable success.
  • The ability to rethink old approaches and discover new ones.
Available: In person, Virtually

In our modern AI-driven world, creativity has become the currency of success. It’s the one thing that can’t be outsourced or automated; the indisputable competitive advantage. We are all hard-wired to be creative, yet most of us have underdeveloped creative skills. And today, more than ever before, creative problem-solving and inventive thinking are crucial to overcoming obstacles and seizing opportunities.

Based on the breakaway New York Times bestselling book published in 19 languages and globally recognized by over 2 million readers as the definitive work on applied creativity, author and creativity expert Josh Linkner takes the audience on a journey to unlock their dormant creative capacity. Inspiring stories, surprising truths, and instantly-applicable solutions make this keynote both energizing and actionable.

This keynote serves leaders & teams who are:

  • Facing increasing challenges and competitive threats
  • Craving a new approach to harness their full creative potential
  • Struggling to keep up with the pace of innovation

The audience will leave with:

  • A proven model for harnessing and applying human creativity
  • An understanding of how the most innovative and disruptive leaders think and act
  • Practical techniques to generate more high-quality ideas at any time and for any challenge
Available: In person, Virtually

The mysterious and dangerous world of jazz is a caldron of spontaneous creativity. And in times of radical change and uncertainty, it serves as the perfect model for modern leadership.

Professional jazz guitarist and prolific entrepreneur Josh Linkner connects the dots between jazz and business, helping to unlock the secrets of some of the world’s most creative geniuses. Using live jazz as a metaphor for collaborative innovation, this session is entertaining, inspiring, and directly applicable to the daily challenges we face in business.

A fusion of live musical performance and keynote presentation, the session’s finale includes audience members “joining the band” to compose and perform a song in real time to the delight of the audience. Cameras will flash as the entire group is dazzled by their colleagues’ improvisation and spontaneous invention.

This keynote serves leaders & teams who are:

  • Looking for an elevated experience beyond a typical keynote.
  • Craving deeper collaboration, creativity, and performance.
  • Seeking a way to stand out from the pack and lead in a fresh, creative manner.

The audience will leave with:

  • The mindset and perspective of a jazz musician serving as a creative new model for business growth and results.
  • A deeper understanding of collaborative creativity and specific tools to harness inventive thinking and artistic expression.
  • A memorable and inspiring sense of what’s possible and how to push boundaries and barriers to achieve remarkable outcomes.
  • The creative confidence to pursue our highest calling and to never let the music inside us die.
Available: In person, Virtually
Josh'S

TESTIMONIALS

Books

Josh Linkner book

Big Little Breakthroughs: How Small, Everyday Innovations Drive Oversized Results

A surprisingly simple approach to help everyday people become everyday innovators. The pressure to generate big ideas can feel overwhelming. We know that bold innovations are critical in these disruptive and competitive times, but when it comes to breakthrough thinking, we often freeze up. Instead of shooting for a $10-billion payday or a Nobel Prize, the most prolific innovators focus on Big Little Breakthroughs – small creative acts that unlock massive rewards over time. By cultivating daily micro-innovations, individuals and organizations are better equipped to tackle tough challenges and seize transformational opportunities. How did a convicted drug dealer launch and scale a massively successful fitness company? What core mindset drove LEGO to become the largest toy company in the world? How did a Pakistani couple challenge the global athletic shoe industry? What simple habits led Lady Gaga, Banksy, and Lin-Manuel Miranda to their remarkable success? Big Little Breakthroughs isn’t just for propeller-head inventors, fancy-pants CEOs, or hoodie-donning tech billionaires. Rather, it’s a surpassingly simple system to help everyday people become everyday innovators.

Read more..

Big Little Breakthroughs: How Small, Everyday Innovations Drive Oversized Results

A surprisingly simple approach to help everyday people become everyday innovators. The pressure to generate big ideas can feel overwhelming. We know that bold innovations are critical in these disruptive and competitive times, but when it comes to breakthrough thinking, we often freeze up. Instead of shooting for a $10-billion payday or a Nobel Prize, the most prolific innovators focus on Big Little Breakthroughs - small creative acts that unlock massive rewards over time. By cultivating daily micro-innovations, individuals and organizations are better equipped to tackle tough challenges and seize transformational opportunities. How did a convicted drug dealer launch and scale a massively successful fitness company? What core mindset drove LEGO to become the largest toy company in the world? How did a Pakistani couple challenge the global athletic shoe industry? What simple habits led Lady Gaga, Banksy, and Lin-Manuel Miranda to their remarkable success? Big Little Breakthroughs isn’t just for propeller-head inventors, fancy-pants CEOs, or hoodie-donning tech billionaires. Rather, it’s a surpassingly simple system to help everyday people become everyday innovators.
Josh Linkner book

Hacking Innovation: The New Growth Model from the Sinister World of Hackers

Hackers are a global fascination with cybercrime representing our single biggest threat to national security. But putting their sinister motives aside, the dark underworld of hackers contains some of the most creative minds on the planet.

Read more..

Hacking Innovation: The New Growth Model from the Sinister World of Hackers

Hackers are a global fascination with cybercrime representing our single biggest threat to national security. But putting their sinister motives aside, the dark underworld of hackers contains some of the most creative minds on the planet.
Josh Linkner book

The Road to Reinvention: How to Drive Disruption and Accelerate Transformation

Companies, communities, and individuals fall for many reasons, but one of the most common―and easily avoidable―is the failure to reinvent. When people and organizations rest on prior successes rather than driving purposeful transformation, they discover too late that they have lost their market position altogether to competitors and external forces. The most successful companies, brands, and individuals make reinvention a regular part of their business strategies. Transformation demands an ongoing process of discovery and imagination, and The Road to Reinvention lays out a systematic approach for continually challenging and reinventing yourself and your business. Venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur Josh Linkner identifies six elements in any business that are ripe for reinvention and shares examples, methods, and step-by-step techniques for creating deliberate, productive disruption. Throughout The Road to Reinvention, Linkner also explores the history―the great rise, unprecedented fall, and now rebirth―of his beloved hometown, Detroit. First rising to greatness as the result of breathtaking innovation, Detroit had generations of booming growth before succumbing to apathy, atrophy, and finally bankruptcy. Now, the city is rising from the ashes and driving sustainable success through an intense focus on reinvention. Linkner brings an insider’s view of this incredible story of grit, determination, and creativity, sharing his perspective on Detroit’s successes and setbacks as a profound example of large-scale organizational and personal transformation. Change is inevitable. You need to decide: Will you drive that change, or be driven away by it? Will you disrupt or be disrupted? By choosing to deliberately reimagine your own status quo, you can secure a strong future for both your company and your career.

Read more..

The Road to Reinvention: How to Drive Disruption and Accelerate Transformation

Companies, communities, and individuals fall for many reasons, but one of the most common―and easily avoidable―is the failure to reinvent. When people and organizations rest on prior successes rather than driving purposeful transformation, they discover too late that they have lost their market position altogether to competitors and external forces. The most successful companies, brands, and individuals make reinvention a regular part of their business strategies. Transformation demands an ongoing process of discovery and imagination, and The Road to Reinvention lays out a systematic approach for continually challenging and reinventing yourself and your business. Venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur Josh Linkner identifies six elements in any business that are ripe for reinvention and shares examples, methods, and step-by-step techniques for creating deliberate, productive disruption. Throughout The Road to Reinvention, Linkner also explores the history―the great rise, unprecedented fall, and now rebirth―of his beloved hometown, Detroit. First rising to greatness as the result of breathtaking innovation, Detroit had generations of booming growth before succumbing to apathy, atrophy, and finally bankruptcy. Now, the city is rising from the ashes and driving sustainable success through an intense focus on reinvention. Linkner brings an insider's view of this incredible story of grit, determination, and creativity, sharing his perspective on Detroit's successes and setbacks as a profound example of large-scale organizational and personal transformation. Change is inevitable. You need to decide: Will you drive that change, or be driven away by it? Will you disrupt or be disrupted? By choosing to deliberately reimagine your own status quo, you can secure a strong future for both your company and your career.

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Josh Linkner

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