Amplify Speakers
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Speakers
There's a difference between a speaker who studies entrepreneurship and one who has actually built something that had to survive contact with a market. The first gives you frameworks. The second gives you the version that includes the part where it almost didn't work, which is usually the part your audience actually needs to hear.
This category covers founders, operators, and executives who scaled something real — not motivational speakers with a startup anecdote bolted onto an unrelated talk. The distinction matters most with founder and small-business audiences, who can tell within a few minutes whether someone has actually made payroll under pressure.
The Roster
Matching the Speaker to the Event
Founder and small-business audiences. Jaime Taets built her own company rather than consulting on someone else's, which lands differently with a room of owners than a corporate executive's story does.
Corporate innovation and intrapreneurship programmes. Simon Luthi operated at Fortune 100 strategy level and personally scaled a business unit fivefold, which is the credibility a large-organization innovation audience actually tests for.
Growth-stage teams and marketing-adjacent audiences. Troy Sandidge works specifically on growth strategy and digital execution, distinct from a general innovation talk.
Rapid-scaling teams under real pressure. Jay Abbasi built inside Tesla during genuine hypergrowth conditions and now coaches teams at Google, Amazon, and TikTok through the same thing.
Category creation and product-led audiences. Nita Marquez invented DropCut™ Technology, holds the IP, and now licenses it to other brands, which makes her the right fit when a room needs the invention and protection side of entrepreneurship rather than the scaling side.
Building something with no blueprint and no budget. Kweighbaye Kotee started the Bushwick Film Festival from nothing and has run it for nearly two decades, which is the right fit when the room is full of people trying to get an idea off the ground without funding, permission, or a model to copy.
The creative process itself, for teams stuck on a hard problem. Blake Vogt invents illusions for David Copperfield, David Blaine and Marvel, work where the entire job is making something people are certain is impossible. He is the right fit when a room needs the mechanics of idea generation and experimentation rather than a scaling story, and because his keynote doubles as a live magic show, he is unusually effective in an opening or closing slot.
Rooms that are long on ambition and short on a written plan. Carey Conley has spent more than thirty years coaching entrepreneurs and business owners on vision and purpose, and owns Infinity Corporation. She is the right fit when an audience of founders and owners needs to decide what they are actually building before they hear another word about how to scale it, because her session ends with each person holding a vision across seven areas of their life rather than a page of takeaways.
Corporate innovation teams being asked to deliver with AI. Ramy Nassar built Mattel's first innovation lab as its Head of Innovation and still builds enterprise AI agents hands-on. His keynote "The Innovation Imperative: Leading Change in the Age of AI" is the right fit when a large organization needs to turn experimentation into results, and he can follow it with a hands-on workshop such as an AI hackathon or strategic foresight lab.
Founders whose company has started to depend on them for everything. Cathy Christen has spent more than 23 years building businesses and created The SCALE Framework™ for exactly this stage. She is the right fit when a room of owners and CEOs has grown past the point where the founder can hold it all together, because her keynotes on alignment and culture give them a way to keep growing without being the bottleneck.
Entrepreneur events where the room needs purpose as much as tactics. Brady McDonald is CEO of Barefoot Land Co., an eight-figure real estate development company, and founder of Zero to 100 Wishes, and he built his businesses while navigating addiction and sobriety, economic downturns and hurricanes. His keynote "Your Greatest Gifts Aren't Just for You" is built for entrepreneur events and sales kickoffs, and draws on the world record he set as the first person to run a 50K in all 50 U.S. states in 50 consecutive days, raising more than $1.03 million for Make-A-Wish.
Founders building a business on reputation and relationships. Kofi Nartey founded GLOBL, a private real estate firm with billions of dollars in sales, after founding and leading the Compass Sports & Entertainment Division, the nation's first vetted group of sports and entertainment real estate specialists. A former Oakland Raiders wide receiver and the author of Sellebrity, he is the right fit when an entrepreneur audience needs the discipline, focus and personal brand it takes to build something elite clients trust. Read his spotlight on why excellence is a strategy.
Innovation speaker or futurist — which do you need?
If your audience needs to understand what's coming and why it matters strategically, see our futurist speakers. This page is for audiences that need the builder's perspective — how something actually got made, scaled, or turned around — rather than a forecast of what's ahead.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What's the difference between an innovation speaker and a futurist?A futurist addresses what's coming and why it matters strategically. An innovation and entrepreneurship speaker addresses how something was actually built, scaled, or turned around, from someone who did it themselves.
Do you have speakers who've actually founded and run a company?Yes. Jaime Taets built and scaled her own company as an Inc 500 CEO, which gives her genuine standing with founder and small-business audiences.
What do keynote speakers cost for this category?Standard market rates apply, typically $7,500 to $15,000 for emerging voices, $15,000 to $35,000 for established professionals and $35,000 or more for high-profile names.
How far in advance should we book?Ninety days or more.
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