
Five-Time Tech Entrepreneur, Hyper-Growth CEO, New York Times Bestselling Author & Venture Capitalist
TRAVELS FROM:
Michigan
SPEAKER FEE:
$20,001 – $30,000
Speaker fee falls within this range. For exact fee, please contact us.
Josh Linkner is a Creative Troublemaker. He passionately believes that all human beings have incredible creative capacity, and he’s on a mission to unlock inventive thinking and creative problem solving to help leaders, individuals, and communities soar.
He has been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which sold for a combined value of over $200 million and is the author of four books including the New York Times Bestsellers, Disciplined Dreaming and The Road to Reinvention. He has invested in and/or mentored over 100 startups and is the Founding Partner of Detroit Venture Partners.
Today, Josh serves as Chairman and co-founder of Platypus Labs, an innovation research, training, and consulting firm. He has twice been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and is the recipient of the United States Presidential Champion of Change Award.
Josh is also a passionate Detroiter, the father of four, is a professional-level jazz guitarist and has a slightly odd obsession for greasy pizza.
BIG LITTLE BREAKTHROUGHS: How small, everyday ideas drive gigantic results
Big Little Breakthroughs isn't just for propeller-head inventors, fancy pants CEOs, or hoodie-donning tech billionaires. Rather, it is a simple yet effective method for all of us to cultivate the power of human creativity. Focusing on a simple and deliberate approach to daily practice, the system enables people from all backgrounds, training, and walks of life to expand their creative skillset and mindset. It helps everyday individuals and leaders unlock inventive thinking and harness innovation to tackle tough challenges and seize bold opportunities. The Big Little Breakthroughs framework provides a specific and practical approach to unlocking dormant creative capacity. Instead of wild, risky and expensive moonshots, participants learn to unleash small, daily creative acts to drive gigantic results over time. In fact, cultivating high volumes of micro-innovations not only de-risks the creative process, it builds the much-needed skills that lead to colossal transformations...and the creative confidence to take responsible risks.
THE MUSIC OF BUSINESS: Problem solving, collaboration and agility from the dangerous world of jazz music
FIND A WAY: How creative problem solving can tackle any challenge
THE 5 MINDSETS OF INNOVATION: How the world's most innovative leaders think and act
THE CREATIVITY UPGRADE: Lead your team to the next level of innovation, growth, and sustainable success
On a regular basis, we upgrade our cars, software, and wardrobe. But when was the last time you upgraded your imagination? Isn’t it about time to give your team a boost of inventive thinking, creative problem solving, and everyday innovation to drive better outcomes?
From your upgrade, you will:
- Learn and understand the mindsets of innovators
- Grasp the need for – and urgency – of change
- Become inspired to take action and forge a new path
- Acquire specific techniques for creative problem solving
- Leverage human imagination to outpunch the competition
- Understand how and where to use inventive thinking to fuel growth
- Discover fresh possibilities with heightened level of creative awareness
- Recognize that we are all creative, and that everyday innovation is accessible for every role and job function
- Demystify the creative process
- Emerge with specific tools to close the Creativity Gap to achieve full potential
- Launch a new version of you – as a powerful creative force
In this inspiring keynote, Josh will help your team grow, as both business leaders and as people. Your audience will learn to solve problems in creative, non-traditional ways and expand their creative capacity to drive growth and sustainable success. Your group will laugh hysterically, feel thoroughly energized, get deeply inspired, and leave better equipped. Now that’s an upgrade that’s simply irresistible.
THINK AND ACT LIKE A STARTUP: How celebrity entrepreneurs generate game-changing solutions
Have you ever wondered how Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg think and act behind the scenes? How do the billionaire founders we revere invent bold ideas, do more with less, and change the world as a result? What would happen if the founder of Snapchat or Zoom joined your organization? Tech startups aren’t the only ones who can think differently. We can all use this same creative thinking in our own careers, companies, and communities. In this energizing and surprising keynote, five-time tech entrepreneur and venture capital investor Josh Linkner demystifies startup thinking and shares a specific methodology that we can put into practice immediately. Audience members will learn to embrace the creativity, grit, and vision of a startup and then channel this approach to drive growth, innovation, efficiency, and customer delight. Participants get an insider’s look as Josh Linkner decodes startup thinking to help leaders of any size company in any industry or profession:
- Understand how an entrepreneur would attack their organization with the specific goal of dislodging it
- Reimagine their role through the lens of an entrepreneur
- Harness the ferocity of entrepreneurial thinking
- Embrace “startup speed” to increase velocity in their own organizations
- Learn the five best approaches used by startups to create disruption
- Avoid the weaknesses that plague entrepreneurs by exposing the four biggest startup death traps
Request Availability for Josh Linkner
JOSH LINKNER
Five-Time Tech Entrepreneur, Hyper-Growth CEO, New York Times Bestselling Author & Venture Capitalist

TRAVELS FROM:
Michigan
SPEAKER FEE:
$20,001 – $30,000
Speaker fee falls within this range. For exact fee, please contact us.
“Josh, as always you are amazing. It is quite obvious that you took the time to prepare to bring everything you have. Thank you for your coaching and support throughout. I am sending you so much gratitude. You amaze me…always!”
“Josh Linkner made a huge impact on our organization. His message on creativity and innovation was spot-on and his work has had a lasting effect. After hiring him for one conference where he was voted the top speaker by far, we promptly invited him back to present to a larger audience. His keynote was high-energy, interactive, and left us with specific tools and techniques to improve our creative output.”
“Thanks again for giving a very inspiring and thought provoking speech. Members of the team were blown away by your message and walked away with tools to succeed in their role as innovators.”
“Thank you a million times over—you nailed it with the presentation yesterday and it was spot on for our team! You sparked so many follow-on discussions yesterday and were a continued theme throughout our meeting—people are already brainstorming great new ideas about how to implement small innovations and use your tips to break down barriers on our teams.”