Use corporate venture as a market sensor, not just a deal engine. The best CVC teams help the parent company see what is changing before it shows up in the roadmap. 
For the latest episode of Corporate Venturing Insider, Nicolas Sauvage sat down with Barbry McGann of Workday Ventures at GCVI Monterey 2026 to discuss her career journey, Workday Ventures’ role as a strategic market sensor for the enterprise software company, how AI is reshaping SaaS, and the weekly newsletter she uses to keep Workday leaders informed on fast-moving market shifts.McGann did not enter corporate venture through the traditional inv
esting path. Before joining Workday Ventures, she spent more than 20 years as a product manager and product officer across PeopleSoft, Oracle, and Workday. In fact, she was preparing to retire when Workday’s CEO and co-founder called and asked her to bring her product expertise into the ventures team.
“I thought I had done everything possible in my career at Workday,” McGann said. But the opportunity quickly became something different. Four years later, she describes corporate venture as “the best job” because it combines product strategy, market discovery, and access to breakthrough innovation.
Four years later, McGann is still there, describing corporate venture as “the best job” because it combines product strategy, market discovery, and exposure to breakthrough innovation, without the traditional management burden. “It takes all the aspects of product management and product strategy at a time where innovation is at an all-time high,” she said.
That product background became central to how McGann helped shape Workday Ventures. Rather than act only as a tactical partner finder for internal product gaps, she wanted the venture team to become more strategic. Early on, Workday Ventures focused on emerging SaaS companies that could complement Workday’s roadmap. But over time, McGann pushed the function to become what she called a “market sensor,” helping the company understand where enterprise software was headed before those changes became obvious internally.
That shift proved especially important as AI began transforming the software landscape. McGann said the team moved from presenting individual products to presenting market shifts, showing Workday leaders what was happening across HR, finance, agents, cybersecurity, and enterprise workflows. “We’re not going to present products anymore,” she explained. “We’re going to shift the conversation to be about the market.”
The pace of change has only intensified. McGann said Workday Ventures now helps internal teams understand emerging concepts such as agents, MCP, non-human identity, and the governance layers required for AI systems in enterprise environments. “Every day is something new,” she said. “I write a weekly newsletter, and it’s so old by the time the next one comes out.”
That newsletter has become one of Workday Ventures’ most effective internal tools. Sent to a focused group of product GMs, corporate strategy leaders, the executive committee, and the CEO, it distills what the ventures team is learning in real time. McGann said the key is to keep it short, sharp, and useful. “Short,” she said, when asked what makes the communication effective. “And very provocative headlines.”
For Nicolas, that internal education role captures one of corporate venture’s most important responsibilities: “removing blind spots for the corporation.” McGann agreed, noting that Workday Ventures had found blind spots internally and had to “bring the education up” quickly.
The result is a model where venture is not just investing capital. It is raising the knowledge level of the organization as it learns, helping Workday understand threats, opportunities, and the “so what” of emerging technology before the market fully settles.
