Innovare
Innovare is a privately held US consulting firm (founded 1999, Mattapoisett, MA) that delivers front-end-of-innovation methodology — Discovery research, concept development, and validation — to enterprise innovation teams across consumer and B2B industries.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1999
- HeadquartersMattapoisett, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Innovare does
Innovare is a privately held US consulting firm founded in 1999 by Donald Ross, headquartered in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, and operating with 1–10 employees. The firm provides front-end-of-innovation consulting services to enterprise clients, structured around a proprietary methodology called Knowledge Driven Innovation that runs in three phases: Discovery (customer and technology research), Concept Development (creative workshops), and Validation (portfolio and roadmap refinement). Under this umbrella, Innovare delivers six core service modules — Vocal Insights (ethnographic Voice of the Customer research with team immersion), Tech Explorer (systematic technology discovery linking emerging technologies to customer needs), Innovare Greenhouse (facilitated concept development workshops), Experiential Team Training (hands-on capability building alongside client teams), Front-End Process Consulting (full three-phase facilitation), and Strategic Business Research (market, policy, and technology analysis). Vocal Insights and Innovare are registered trademarks; the firm has no app, no public API, and no AI/ML technology stack.
Innovare monetizes exclusively through professional services: project-based consulting engagements and experiential training, scoped to client needs and quoted per project, with multi-year contract cadences observed. Its go-to-market is sales-led and founder-driven — Don Ross maintains a public LinkedIn presence, the firm offers free webinars on front-end innovation best practices as top-of-funnel lead generation, and it co-presents case studies with named clients at PDMA conferences. Marketing is content-led, centered on YouTube video content, downloadable white papers, SlideShare presentations, and case study newsletters.
The firm's customer base spans consumer and B2B markets across food, beverage, packaging, healthcare, chemicals, medical devices, publishing, education, commercial printing, financial services, electronics, energy, industrial gases, and manufacturing, with named clients including Bayer, Dow, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Praxair, Xerox, Sealed Air, Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, Pearson Education, Ocean Spray, Materion, EMD, and IPEX. The firm claims its process has helped generate over $1 billion in annual revenues from new products and services, and founder Ross has cited an 80%+ new product success rate and a 10-fold revenue increase attributed to his prior leadership of Ocean Spray's innovation program. Innovare has no disclosed funding, no institutional investors, no acquisitions, and no parent company.
Innovare firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Innovare
- Legal name
- Innovare, Inc.
- Website
- https://innovare-inc.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1999
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Innovare is a privately held US consulting firm (founded 1999, Mattapoisett, MA) that delivers front-end-of-innovation methodology — Discovery research, concept development, and validation — to enterprise innovation teams across consumer and B2B industries.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Innovare industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Innovation Consulting
- NAICS
- Management Consulting Services (54161), Professional and Management Development Training (61143)
- SIC
- Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Innovation, Product & R&D Consulting (BPAHACAM)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Innovation Leadership & Leading Growth (EDABAAAO), Creativity & Innovation Mindset (EDABAMAH)
Keywords
Where Innovare is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Mattapoisett
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Innovare business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Innovation Consulting Services: Professional consulting services for front-end innovation including customer research, technology discovery, concept development, and strategic business research. Revenue is generated through project-based consulting engagements.
- Experiential Team Training: Hands-on training services where Innovare works alongside client teams on real projects. Training covers Voice of the Customer, technology discovery, and full front-end innovation approaches.
- Front-End Process Consulting: Systematic front-end of innovation process facilitation and consulting. Includes organizing teams, facilitating through Discovery, Concept Development, and Validation phases, delivering knowledge foundation and innovation portfolio.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Multi-year contract | Custom project-based consulting engagements |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels8 records
Innovare product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Innovare is a front-end innovation consulting firm that helps enterprise clients accelerate innovation through a portfolio of services including customer research, technology discovery, concept development, and team training. The firm deploys proprietary tools and methodologies (Vocal Insights, Tech Explorer, Innovare Greenhouse, and the Three Phase Process) to structure the earliest stages of corporate innovation work, from insight gathering through to actionable concept output. Founded in 1999, Innovare sells its expertise directly to corporate innovation teams seeking to professionalize their front-end pipelines.
Product overview
Innovare is a front-end of innovation consulting firm offering six integrated service modules: Vocal Insights (Voice of the Customer research with team immersion), Tech Explorer (technology discovery linking emerging tech to customer needs), Innovare Greenhouse (creative concept development workshops), Experiential Team Training (hands-on capability building), Front-End Process Consulting (systematic three-phase Discovery/Concept Development/Validation process), and Strategic Business Research (market, policy, and technology analysis). These services work together as a unified front-end innovation methodology, starting with Discovery research to build knowledge about customers and technology, then moving to creative concept development in the Innovare Greenhouse, and culminating in validation and portfolio roadmapping.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Vocal Insights: Our best practice Voice of the Customer customer needs discovery approach. It helps teams get below the surface of the customer's language, explores their motivations, perceptions, and experiences and uncovers their spoken and unspoken needs.
- Tech Explorer
- Innovare Greenhouse
Products and services
- Customer Research
Quantifiable outcome
- Over 80% new product success rate for founder's own innovation programs
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Innovare
Customer profileNamed customers14 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Innovare technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature4 records
Innovare partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- PDMA (Product Development and Management Association)coreInnovare sponsors PDMA conferences and presents case studies with clients. Don Ross has presented multiple times with client partners at PDMA conferences including Voice of the Customer conference and Innovate Carolina conference. This provides visibility and credibility for lead generation.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves4 records
Expansion highlights2 records
Innovare competitors and assessment
Company assessmentOthers
- Product Development and Management Association (PDMA): PDMA is the professional association where Innovare presents and recruits clients, providing the same body-of-knowledge framework for NPD practitioners; comparable as an ecosystem anchor rather than a direct competitor.
Emerging players
- Sopheon: Sopheon provides enterprise innovation management software and consulting for idea-to-launch processes, adjacent to Innovare's front-end process consulting because it operationalizes the same innovation pipeline Innovare helps clients populate.
- Killer Innovation: Killer Innovation is a boutique innovation consultancy that helps mid-market and enterprise teams build front-end innovation capabilities, run discovery research, and train cross-functional innovation teams — overlapping with Innovare's experiential training service.
- Planview (LeanKit / Spigit): Planview offers innovation portfolio management and idea management software used by enterprise innovation teams, thematically adjacent to Innovare's front-end consulting because it often complements discovery and concept development engagements.
Direct peers
- frog (part of Capgemini Invent): frog is a design and innovation consultancy specializing in customer research, technology exploration, and concept development for enterprise clients, directly overlapping Innovare's Vocal Insights, Tech Explorer, and Greenhouse service modules.
- Innosight (Huron Consulting): Innosight is a strategy and innovation consultancy founded by Clayton Christensen that helps enterprises build innovation capabilities, develop new growth strategies, and run front-end innovation processes, closely aligned to Innovare's Knowledge Driven Innovation approach.
- IDEO: IDEO is a global design and innovation consultancy that helps enterprises run design research, customer insights, and concept development — the same front-end innovation stages Innovare services, making it the most directly comparable peer in category, customer type, and methodology.
- Strategyn (an applied strategyn company): Strategyn pioneered Jobs-to-be-Done innovation and helps enterprises run customer discovery, opportunity identification, and concept development, offering a directly comparable customer-research and front-end innovation methodology.
Broad incumbents
- McKinsey & Company (NewProduct Innovation practice): McKinsey's innovation practice serves large enterprises with strategy, R&D transformation, and front-end innovation capability building, competing for the same CIO/CTO/CXO budgets as Innovare but with vastly larger scale and broader services.
- Boston Consulting Group (BCG) — Innovation practice: BCG's Center for Innovation and Growth/Smart Simplicity teams advise large enterprises on innovation strategy, R&D effectiveness, and front-end processes, intersecting with Innovare's market at the enterprise innovation team level.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Customer concentration
Innovare social profiles
Digital presenceInnovare financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Innovare leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Innovare funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Innovare M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Innovare
What does Innovare do?
Innovare is a front-end innovation consulting firm that helps enterprise clients accelerate innovation through a portfolio of services including customer research, technology discovery, concept development, and team training. The firm deploys proprietary tools and methodologies (Vocal Insights, Tech Explorer, Innovare Greenhouse, and the Three Phase Process) to structure the earliest stages of corporate innovation work, from insight gathering through to actionable concept output. Founded in 1999, Innovare sells its expertise directly to corporate innovation teams seeking to professionalize their front-end pipelines.
Is Innovare a public or private company?
Innovare is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Innovare founded?
Innovare was founded in 1999. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Innovare based?
Innovare is headquartered in Mattapoisett, United States, in the North America region.
How does Innovare make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Innovation Consulting Services are the primary driver. The others are experiential Team Training and front-End Process Consulting.
Who are Innovare's main competitors?
Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) is listed as an others. Emerging players are Sopheon, Killer Innovation and Planview (LeanKit / Spigit). Direct peers are frog (part of Capgemini Invent), Innosight (Huron Consulting), IDEO and Strategyn (an applied strategyn company). Broad incumbents are McKinsey & Company (NewProduct Innovation practice) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) — Innovation practice.
Does Innovare have an API?
No public API is recorded for Innovare.
What industry is Innovare in?
Innovare's product category is Innovation Consulting. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAHACAM, Innovation, Product & R&D Consulting, with a secondary code of EDABAAAO, Innovation Leadership & Leading Growth. Its NAICS code is 54161 and its SIC code is 8742.