Corporate Entrepreneurship – All Stories

We are excited to announce the launch of Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories! With this series, we want to shed light on the experience and learnings of successful corporate venture founders. 💬 🚀

Why these stories matter
While startup successes, failures and new funding rounds are frequently discussed in the news, we feel that developments in corporate entrepreneurship are often overlooked. Corporate venture building is complex, facing typical startup risks and challenges like company politics and the “not invented here” syndrome. However, corporates also possess significant advantages, including substantial assets that startups cannot quickly replicate.

At Pioneers, we’re convinced that corporate ventures hold immense potential for value creation, sometimes even surpassing traditional startups. We’re eager to bring more visibility to these success stories—and the visionaries behind them— to foster inspiration within the corporate innovation ecosystem.

From established industry to Green Hydrogen Innovation

Read PART #1 of our conversation with founder Peter Eisenköck including

• the early idea and validation
• the development out of the internal venture program
• the core technology the team uses

Read PART #2 of our conversation with founder Peter Eisenköck including

• collaboration with an external technology startup
• the first large-scale project
• the growth path

How to spin out a corporate venture and scale it externally

Read PART #1 of our conversation with co-founder Raph Hartmeier including

• the founding story
• the solution and USP of the innovation platform
• the difficult spin-out process
• the relationship to the mother company Swisscom

Read PART #2 of our conversation with founder Raph Hartmeier including

• the process of getting external investment
• the advantages, and disadvantages of being a corporate venture vs. a “normal” startup
• the planned growth path