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.
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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