This is the fourth post in our blog series unpacking Silicon Foundry’s full suite of offerings and the thinking behind each one. In this installment, Managing Director Eli Promisel highlights Executive Treks, which are curated, immersive experiences that connect senior leaders with innovators to spark bold ideas, align on strategy, and drive action. Eli explains how this offering can help executives fast-track innovation by stepping outside their day-to-day, gaining firsthand exposure to emerging technologies, and building the relationships needed to turn insights into impact.
Press play to listen to this conversation
Let’s start with the “why.” What inspired Silicon Foundry to create the Executive Treks offering?
Executives are increasingly curious about what’s happening on the frontlines of innovation, whether in Silicon Valley or other global hubs like London, Tel Aviv, or Singapore. However, they often lack the time, access, or structured format to deeply engage with startups, VCs, and trailblazing thinkers who are shaping the future.
Executive Treks were created to bridge that gap. They offer a highly curated, immersive experience that brings senior leaders face-to-face with the people and ideas that matter most. By stepping outside their traditional environments and engaging with cutting-edge technologies and business models, executives gain the insight, inspiration, and connections necessary to think differently and lead boldly.
Why do you believe the Executive Treks offering is particularly relevant right now?
The pace of technological change continues to accelerate, and business leaders are expected to make forward-looking decisions amid unprecedented complexity. Executives can’t afford to stay siloed. They need to experience emerging innovation ecosystems firsthand.
At the same time, the startup and venture ecosystem has matured. Solutions that were once considered too early are now robust, enterprise-ready, and capable of driving meaningful business transformation. But with this maturity comes an overwhelming volume of options. Executive Treks provide the filtering, curation, and translation layer that busy leaders need to identify the most relevant, high-impact solutions. They also serve as a forcing function for executives to step out of the day-to-day and see what’s possible, which is often the first step toward real innovation.
In your own words, how would you explain the impact this offering has on corporate leaders?
Executive Treks create a shift in mindset. By engaging in direct, in-person dialogue with entrepreneurs, investors, and pioneering corporates, executives are pushed to think beyond incremental improvements and toward transformational opportunities.
These experiences often catalyze new partnerships, inform strategic decisions, and unlock new ways of thinking about persistent challenges. They’re not just informational. They’re also inspirational and actionable. Whether it’s discovering a startup to partner with, learning from a peer’s innovation journey, or simply being jolted out of conventional thinking, the outcomes tend to have lasting impact.
What’s a misconception people often have about the Executive Treks?
A common misconception is that Executive Treks are a form of “innovation tourism,” a flashy, surface-level look at startups without meaningful outcomes. That’s not what we do. We design each trek with clear objectives in mind, aligning every meeting and experience to the client’s strategic priorities. The startups and thought leaders we include are not random or off-the-shelf. They’re carefully selected for relevance and potential fit.
Another misconception is that these treks are glorified sales pitches. In fact, we deliberately avoid that. We ensure executives are meeting with CEOs, founders, and senior leaders who can speak to long-term vision and strategic context, not just product specs.
Can you share a favorite anecdote or example where this offering really made a difference for a client?
We’ve seen several treks serve as a critical starting point in long-term strategic relationships. In many cases, the trek becomes the first step in a meaningful collaboration, whether it’s a pilot, partnership, or even investment.
For one client, meetings during their trek led to a strategic partnership with a startup in an adjacent industry, something they would not have considered previously. In another instance, years after a trek, a client executive cited a particular conversation with a startup founder as the seed that shaped a major strategic initiative.
These treks build trust on both sides. Corporates start to view emerging companies as serious innovation partners, and startups see a pathway to real engagement beyond a single meeting.
What’s something you personally learned or found surprising while building or delivering the Executive Treks offering?
The power of in-person engagement is real and hard to replicate. When executives sit across the table from founders or VCs, the energy and authenticity of the exchange lead to more memorable and actionable takeaways. I’ve also learned that when executives take time out of their schedules and immerse themselves in these experiences, they come in with a sense of “skin in the game.” That commitment leads to more open, high-level conversations and a greater willingness to move from idea to execution.
I’ve been struck by the level of alignment and mutual value that can be achieved when we design these treks thoughtfully. When both sides are prepared, the conversations go far deeper than surface-level networking. They become the start of real collaboration.
How do you see the Executive Treks offering evolving in the next 12-18 months?
We expect to see treks expand beyond traditional innovation hubs like Silicon Valley and New York to include emerging centers of innovation in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. As global innovation becomes more decentralized, our clients are eager to explore diverse ecosystems and understand how innovation looks and operates across different markets. We also see an opportunity to involve a broader set of stakeholders, not just C-suite executives, but also heads of business units, product leaders, and transformation teams. This allows for multi-layered engagement and faster internal alignment post-trek.
We anticipate a greater emphasis on turning insights into action. More clients are asking us to help translate what they learned into next steps, roadmaps, or experiments, which is a natural extension of our advisory work.
If you could give one piece of advice to a corporate leader considering the Executive Treks offering, what would it be?
Think of Executive Treks not as an endpoint, but as a powerful starting point. They can spark ideas, reframe challenges, and expose you to entirely new possibilities, but the real value comes when you commit to taking action after the trek.
To create lasting impact, you need executive sponsorship, cross-functional alignment, and a willingness to experiment. When paired with Silicon Foundry’s broader suite of offerings, from discovery to execution, Executive Treks can serve as the launchpad for transformational innovation journeys.
What excites you most about working in this space?
What excites me most is seeing unexpected connections lead to breakthrough ideas. Often, the most valuable insights come not from your own industry, but from adjacent or even seemingly unrelated sectors. There’s immense creativity and potential at the intersections, such as retail technologies shaping the future of air travel or telecom infrastructure unlocking new financial services experiences, and beyond. Being in the room when those dots are connected and seeing the lightbulb go on for a corporate leader is incredibly rewarding.
We’re fortunate to work at the nexus of ambition and possibility, where forward-thinking leaders come to reimagine what’s next. That’s what keeps me inspired.
