FutureBuilt Podcast: "Copilot and the 10x FDI Leap"
- Greg Rogers
- May 22
- 5 min read
Watch the intro video below for Episode 3 of the fictional FutureBuilt Podcast.
In this video I set the scene for co-hosts Jay and Talia's interview with Amara Lin, an Investment Director at one of the most forward-looking national IPAs and a former founder of a GPT LawTech startup.
In Episode 3 "Copilot and the 10x FDI Leap," Amara tells Jay and Talia about how she launched an FDI Copilot Open Innovation Lab to empower a cohort of Copilot super users across her IPA’s global BD teams.
You can read the podcast transcript under this video. After you’ve read the transcript, take a moment to reflect on the questions that follow based on this episode.
This FutureBuilt Podcast episode features in Session 5 (Investor Targeting Research) of the Copilot for FDI Attraction Toolkit online course.
TRANSCRIPT:
JAY:
Welcome back to FutureBuilt, the podcast where business development meets machine intelligence. I’m Jay.
TALIA:
And I’m Talia. And today — oh, today — we are not just talking about prompts. We’re talking about a total IPA profile rewrite. The BD pro of the future? Half strategist, half creative technologist.
JAY:
Because in the world of AI-powered FDI, if you’re not combining business insight with technical intuition — you’re already behind.
[Guest Intro]
TALIA:
Which is why we’re thrilled to welcome someone who’s already rebuilt the blueprint. Please welcome Amara Lin — Investment Director at one of the most forward-looking national IPAs, and a former founder of a GPT LawTech startup that had legal firms sweating and Silicon Valley watching.
AMARA:
Thanks, both. It’s great to be here — I’ve been waiting for this one.
The Open Innovation Lab
JAY:
Let’s start with what you built. An open innovation lab — inside Microsoft 365. Tell us everything.
AMARA:
We launched the FDI Copilot Open Innovation Lab to empower a cohort of Copilot super users across our global BD teams. We said: you’ve got access, now experiment. Push the platform. Break business as usual.
TALIA:
No top-down instructions. No IT gatekeeping. Just full access?
AMARA:
Exactly. We gave them space, structure, and the challenge:
“Use prompt engineering and data analysis to reimagine investor engagement.”
They got to work. Prompt libraries started forming. Sector-specific targeting workflows emerged. It wasn’t about executing tasks. It was about unlocking strategy.
Detecting Hidden Expansion Intent
JAY:
And here’s the jaw-drop moment: your team didn’t go after companies already planning expansion, right?
AMARA:
Nope. We flipped the whole targeting model.
Instead of chasing publicly declared moves, we started prompting Copilot to detect global expansion propensity — companies getting ready to scale globally… but keeping it quiet.
TALIA:
Okay, pause. What kind of signals are we talking about?
Leila’s Day at Work
AMARA:
This part’s kinda wild. We had a Bring Your Kids to Work Day, and my 16-year-old daughter, Leila, shows up — curious, bright, totally GenAI-native.
I gave her access to the new Copilot Researcher AI Agent, some public sector reports, and said:
“Try building some indicators that could predict if a company is warming up for international expansion.”
By the end of the day — no exaggeration — she’d built a framework of 100 expansion indicators, each with 3 sub-indicators. That’s 300 intelligent prompts we could feed into Copilot.
Real Signals
AMARA (cont’d):
These weren’t just fundraise alerts. She pulled in:
• Foreign-language job ads for non-domestic markets
• C-suite hires with past scale-up experience
• Webinar topics targeting overseas markets
• Early-stage website localization
• Engagement with international accelerators
• Beta access gated by country
It was subtle. It was smart. And it completely reshaped our targeting logic.
XSaaS & Cheeky Brilliance
TALIA:
She basically built your IPA’s predictive playbook?
AMARA:
She did. We refined it, sure — but the framework? All hers.
It let us go upstream. Way upstream. We weren’t reacting anymore — we were anticipating.
JAY:
I heard she turned down a Harvard scholarship and already has a stealth-mode startup?
AMARA:
Two, actually. The first is already in beta: XSaaS.
JAY:
XSaaS?
AMARA:
Expansion Scoring as a Service.
And yes — a rival IPA tried to poach her after I told the story at the FDI summit.
JAY:
And she said no?
AMARA:
Of course. Bigger markets, bigger fish. She’s thinking multi-sector. Why stop at FDI when your expansion signal model can power private equity, supply chain, even HR?
TALIA:
This is what we mean by GenAI becoming intuitive. To her, Copilot wasn’t “tech.” It was just… thinking out loud.
Results & Impact
JAY:
So what happened when you started feeding those prompts into Copilot Researcher?
AMARA:
Game changer. Teams started identifying silent scalers weeks — sometimes months — before competitors.
We booked investor calls before any formal announcements. In one market, we saw a 10x jump in qualified investor engagement.
TALIA:
And this wasn’t luck.
AMARA:
Not at all. It was repeatable. We systematised prompt stacks for each sector and persona. We didn’t just write better emails. We built better targets.
JAY:
You weren’t just prospecting. You were predicting.
AMARA:
Exactly. The prompts didn’t just automate work. They gave us foresight.
What This Means for IPA Pros
TALIA:
So what does this mean for the rest of you out there?
AMARA:
It means we’re in a new phase. The IPA professional of tomorrow is part prompt engineer, part business analyst.
You don’t need to code. But you do need to know:
• How to write a prompt with purpose
• How to spot expansion intent in data
• How to collaborate with Copilot like it’s your smartest team member
JAY:
The BD/IT divide? Dead. BD is data now.
FutureBuilt Wrap-Up
TALIA:
Alright, Amara — your top three takeaways?
AMARA:
1. Start your own Open Innovation Lab. Don’t wait for permission.
2. Use prompt engineering + data signals to go upstream.
3. Reframe IPA work as strategic intelligence. You’re not reacting — you’re discovering.
TALIA:
Bonus tip?
AMARA:
Bring your daughter to work. You might just 10x your playbook.
JAY:
And remember…
JAY & TALIA (together):
You’re not just chasing leads — you’re prompting them into existence.
End.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Session 5 of the Copilot for FDI Attraction Toolkit online course includes ten questions for you to reflect on based on this FutureBuilt Podcast episode. Here are the first few questions:
How do you interpret Amara’s approach of “going upstream” to detect silent scalers before they announce global plans?
Where in your sector or market could you start looking earlier — and what kinds of signals might you be missing today?
Without seeing the full index, what are some real-world signs you’ve come across — in meetings, online, or through research — that made you think, “This company might be scaling internationally soon”?
How could you start capturing those observations more systematically and turning them into prompt-ready inputs for Copilot?
Amara talks about designing prompt stacks and prompt libraries. What would that look like in your BD workflows?
COURSE REGISTRATION:
Enrol today on the Copilot for FDI Attraction Toolkit online course to supercharge your investment attraction.
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