Applied innovation, not slide-deck innovation.
Digital Inova Lab is a company focused on applied innovation for businesses in transformation. Strategy, design, AI and digital products delivered with method — at scales ranging from family-run companies to organizations with thousands of people.
Origins
Built from practice. At different scales.
Digital Inova Lab grew out of frustration with seeing innovation treated as a loose banner. A hub here, a lab there, an accelerator somewhere else — almost always disconnected from how the business actually runs and from the strategic decisions that matter.
The Lab's thesis came from hands-on experience at very different scales — from building my own startup in São Paulo, to consulting and process automation in the corporate market, to telecom and retail at national scale, to running structured startup acceleration, to leading a corporate innovation program that brought all of these fronts together under one roof.
Out of that combination came a way of working: strategy that looks at the whole business, human-centered design, AI applied with governance and digital products as a long-term asset — all delivered within the same method, in the right order, with the client building alongside us.
We are not a large consultancy. We are a company focused on applied innovation, with depth, human scale and a focus on measurable results.
Five layers of practice translated into applied capability.
- 01
The restlessness of the start
The journey began with my own startup in São Paulo, driven by a restlessness about creativity and innovation. Building with skin in the game formed the first layer of the method — the discipline of hypotheses, fast validation and a relentless focus on what actually moves the business.
- 02
Corporate market & process automation
From the startup came the move into the corporate market: consulting, process implementation and automation inside real companies. The first serious schooling in operations, governance and what keeps a routine standing once the founder's enthusiasm wears off.
- 03
Continental-scale operations
Experience in telecom (Vivo · Telefônica) and national retail (Grupo Big · formerly Walmart Brasil) brought the practice of technology, process and governance applied across organizations with thousands of people and operations in hundreds of cities. Innovation that survives audits, committees and turnover.
- 04
Structured startup acceleration
Time in a national acceleration program focused on Rio Grande do Sul (Softex · Conecta Startup RS), along with work at FIAP, Rock New Ventures, and RWTH Aachen · EIT Digital. An important chapter: it built the repertoire of formal acceleration process and fast portfolio reading — applied today in the very first diagnostic conversation.
- 05
Corporate innovation program
The convergence: leading an innovation program in telecom (Vero) that brought open innovation, culture, automation and digital products together under one roof, across 3,200+ employees and 450+ cities of operation. The synthesis of these fronts — almost always run in silos — became the Lab's thesis.
Three things the work does not negotiate.
Innovation is not hype
Most companies do not need yet another tool. They need to understand their own business better before deciding where technology makes sense. Applied innovation starts with clarity, not with a trend.
Strategy, design and technology together
We are not a software shop, a marketing agency or a slide-deck consultancy. We combine strategy that looks at the whole business, human-centered design and technology applied with governance.
Repertoire, not dependency
Every engagement comes with knowledge transfer. The client understands what is being built, knows how to run it and has the in-house capacity to evolve it — without being locked into perpetual consulting.
Behind the Lab
Eric Grassi · Founder
More than a decade across strategy, design and applied technology. Started by building his own startup in São Paulo, moved into the corporate market in consulting and process automation, worked in telecom and retail at continental scale, ran structured startup acceleration, and led a corporate innovation program that brought open innovation, culture, automation and digital products together under one method.
Inova Lab is the result of that path — a way of working with innovation that held up in practice, instead of dying on the slide.
Let's talk
It all starts with the diagnostic.
A complimentary conversation to understand where the business stands and, together, decide whether it makes sense to move forward — and in what format.