Generated by All in One SEO Pro v5.0.0.1, this is an llms-full.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site.
# Front page
Helping Corporates & Mittelstand to Reinvent & Grow
## Posts
### [Powering the future of rail mobility through intrapreneurship at ÖBB](https://pioneers.io/powering-the-future-of-rail-mobility-through-intrapreneurship-at-oebb/)
**Published:** March 18, 2026
**Author:** Paul Ruprechter
**Content:**
Austria’s leading rail operator leveraged intrapreneurship to enter new mobility markets beyond rail operations while creating an open innovation culture across the organization. The initiative resulted in three new business streams and four customer-facing products, extending the core business through Postbus Shuttle, Smart Cargo, Integrated Mobility, and a Smart Customer Journey.
Paul Ruprechter
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/paul-ruprechter/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/paul-ruprechter/)
**Categories:** Construction
**Tags:** Enable & Mobilize
---
### [Evailable: How Corporate Innovation and Perfect Timing Transformed E-Mobility Maintenance](https://pioneers.io/interview-with-evailable/)
**Published:** June 16, 2025
**Author:** Sophia Kuther
**Content:**
## ***Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #6 – Interview with Evailable***
We sat down with Stefan Herr, Managing Director of [Evailable](https://evailable.ai/en/), a corporate venture of [E.ON](https://one.eon.com/). Evailable provides AI technology to optimize charging infrastructure operations. Stefan’s journey in e-mobility and innovation management began at Innogy, an energy company later integrated into E.ON. In 2021, while working in E.ON’s e-mobility department, the team identified a growing need for predictive maintenance in charging infrastructure. After launching a solution and web app, a press release gained significant attention, which led to the decision to offer the product on the external market—now known under the brand Evailable. In our conversation, we discuss Evailable’s journey, from the initial idea to becoming a successful market offering, and the role that E.ON played in supporting its development.
**Sophia Kuther, Pioneers:
Hello Stefan, great to meet you! To start, could you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you identified the problem you aimed to solve with Evailable?
**Stefan Herr, Managing Director Evailable**
Thank you! Absolutely, I’d be happy to share. I started working in e-mobility at Innogy in 2009, back when the industry looked very different. For example, I was involved in developing one of the first charging stations in Germany, and I was proud that we were able to charge the first Tesla Roadster with it. When Innogy merged into E.ON, I had the unique opportunity to combine innovation and e-mobility.
I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when the idea for Evailable was born, but I clearly remember when the e-mobility department approached me, saying:
*“Our IT system shows that everything is functioning, but it doesn’t detect simple issues. If someone sticks chewing gum into a charging plug, we wouldn’t know.”
That was the turning point. There was a clear lack of tools to detect charging station failures early on and prevent negative customer experiences. The concept of predictive maintenance was a logical solution, as it was already being used in other industries such as power grids, gas networks, and power plants. Consequently, we began tackling the problem internally at E.ON.
**How exactly did you continue after identifying the need?**
At first, we focused on user behavior, analyzing the limited data we had. We looked for irregular charging patterns, which often indicated vandalism, faulty displays, or blocked access. As we gathered more data, we expanded our analysis to the entire communication process between charging stations and the IT backend, which led us to develop two key AI-driven models:
1. A Health Index – A system that evaluates the condition of a charging station and detects anomalies.
2. A Fault Detection Model – A system that learns from human experience to determine the best response to different errors.
These models worked, but the challenge was: How do we make them usable?
We developed a dashboard, which we later transformed into a web app by the end of 2022. Then came the breakthrough: A press release generated unexpectedly high interest and the positive response to our product was overwhelming.
> ”Timing is everything in innovation. Had we introduced Evailable too early, it probably wouldn’t have gained traction. We entered the market at exactly the right moment—when operational efficiency became critical.
**How did the product development process proceed with E.ON as the responsible company? Was there a structured approval process and was it challenging to secure funding from the board?**
At E.ON Group Innovation, funding is managed through a pitch process. Each idea is developed in collaboration with the relevant department, and for each project phase, a new pitch is required to secure funding—for example, for building the web app and later for entering the external market.
We had support from the board because the idea aligned with E.ON’s strategic goals and addressed an internal problem within the company. I would say that it is a lot easier to get management approval if an internal need is answered.
In general, Group Innovation provided a lot of autonomy to us —they let the experts take charge of the operating business and stepped in only when needed, particularly in corporate discussions regarding the financials.
**Who exactly was involved in the product development process?**
I had a dedicated team for this project, with the business unit providing expertise and support. For an external solution to become successful, it simply needs more resources than a business unit that is mainly active in line operations.
I like to call my team a “superhero team”. It was a mix of internal and external experts and I never made a difference between the two. In the beginning, it was just an internal IT specialist, an external expert, and myself. Internal team members understand the corporate structure and know how to navigate within it, while external experts bring specialized market knowledge and a fresh, unbiased perspective.
We’ve now talked about the development process and the project team. What happened after the product was finalized?**
Typically, innovation projects at E.ON are handed over to the relevant business unit. However, in the past one to two years, there has been a growing recognition that some solutions—especially those like Evailable, which are unique and not yet available on the market—have the potential to scale externally. Particularly the positive response from the press demonstrated significant market opportunities—which we seized.
Obviously, there was some tension with the department since our solution also strengthened the competition, but we pursued our market entry. We offered the product on the external market under the Evercharge brand in early 2023. By mid-2023, we had our own booth at Power2Drive in Munich—and were completely overrun by demand. A year later, we renamed the brand to Evailable.
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/downloads)
**But is Evailable still owned by E.ON?**
Yes, we have completed a spin-off in which Evailable remains 100% owned by the E.ON Group. However, Evailable has transitioned from E.ON Innovation to E.ON One as its shareholder. With E.ON One, we now have a partner that manages multiple startups and consolidates digital solutions within the corporation. E.ON One brings strong scaling capabilities that will help accelerate our growth.
**How would you describe your relationship with E.ON now?**
Currently, we still have a strong connection to E.ON, particularly with the specialized department, and we remain part of the corporation. However, we have established our own brand identity because our customers also include E.ON’s competitors.
In general, we benefit greatly from external customer relationships, as they provide valuable feedback for further developing our solution—something that ultimately benefits the entire E.ON Group. With E.ON’s eMobility subsidiaries, we maintain a more traditional customer-supplier relationship.
**What’s next in the coming years? Will E.ON remain involved in the long term?**
An exit or partnership is currently not a priority. As I have mentioned, E.ON One as our new shareholder can support us in scaling our business and accelerate our digital solution. We’re not looking for a strategic investor at this stage—having two parties involved would likely complicate things further.
Our big goal now is to become the leading platform for operational management within the E.ON ecosystem.
**Thank you for your detailed overview of Evailable’s story. To conclude, do you have additional key learnings in developing the solution that you would like to share with us?**
My most important key learning is timing. No one worked full-time on the project in the beginning—it was meant purely as an experiment. There was no urgency to launch something quickly, because at the time, the market wasn’t ready for the idea. Had we introduced the solution too early, it probably wouldn’t have gained any traction. Timing is everything in innovation. We entered the market at exactly the right moment. By mid-2023, predictive maintenance was still an emerging topic, but at ICEMAC, one of the leading e-mobility trade fairs, charging anxiety suddenly became a major discussion point. While charging station operators focused primarily on expanding charging infrastructure in the last years, the priority has now shifted toward cost-efficient operations.
My second key learning is that resources and know-how from a corporate environment provide a clear competitive advantage in relation to startups. From the very beginning, our vast data foundation has helped us test our models. Additionally, we receive direct feedback from the eMobility department, which has been invaluable for further development. I had an idea, but I’m not an expert in the day-to-day operations of a charging station. Without input from the specialized department, it would have been difficult to develop a truly practical solution. Another major advantage is IT infrastructure. We don’t have to deal with cybersecurity or AWS ourselves—that’s handled by the corporation. Unlike startups, we’re not reliant on investors or funding rounds, which allows us to focus more on our core business.
At the same time, of course, there are drawbacks. Decision-making processes are more complex than in a startup, and sometimes we have to wait a long time for certain tasks to be completed from different departments.
However, I had full freedom from management to assemble the team and experiment with different approaches. My top priority was ensuring that everyone was passionate about the project and fully committed. Another critical factor in building a strong team is transparency across all topics. Alignment and trust are only possible when everyone understands the team’s direction, challenges, and achievements. For me, this level of openness is essential to building a cohesive and motivated team.
My third key learning is that corporate innovation requires persistence. You need a long-term mindset to push ideas forward in a corporate environment. In my case, that persistence has paid off—today, we’ve grown into a team of 20 people, and I’m currently transitioning the team from a project-based setup into a fully structured business unit.
**Thank you for your interesting insights! An inspiring story that shows how corporate entrepreneurship can work while remaining in the possession of the parent corporation. Thank you for your time, Stefan, and much success for your future plans!**
**Key Learnings:**
**The expertise and resources of the parent company represent a significant competitive advantage.** Evailable could leverage its access to corporate data, which has been crucial for testing models. Direct feedback from the eMobility department has also been invaluable in developing a practical solution. Additionally, Evailable benefits from corporate IT infrastructure and capital.
**Solving an internal problem with the solution is a major benefit when securing management buy-in.** E.ON itself faced challenges with insufficient maintenance of charging infrastructure. Evailable’s solution effectively addressed this need and thereby aligned with the group’s strategic objectives.
**The right timing was crucial for the success of Evailable’s solution.** Earlier, operators were focused on scaling charging stations, while infrastructure efficiency became a key concern just as the solution entered the market.
**A fully committed and passionate team unlocks new possibilities.** Stefan had the freedom to hire employees, whether internal or external, who were 100% dedicated to the solution, allowing him to combine the best of both worlds – internal resources and external networks.
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Sophia Kuther**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiakuther/). Simply send a quick email to .
**Sophia Kuther**
*Innovation Manager*
Sophia Kuther
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Neuer Pioneers Partner Alex Neumayer mit Expertenwissen in B2C Innovation](https://pioneers.io/neuer-partner-alex-neumayer-mit-expertenwissen-in-b2c-innovation/)
**Published:** October 24, 2024
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
****Wien, Oktober 2024. Die Innovationsberatung Pioneers bekommt ab sofort Unterstützung im Bereich Innovationsmanagement und holt den Experten Alex Neumayer als Partner für branchenspezifische Unterstützung bei Innovationen im Handel.****
**Laut einer Umfrage des Handelsverbands in Kooperation mit Pioneers sind sich zwei Drittel der österreichischen Handelsunternehmen bewusst, dass sie sich für eine erfolgreiche Zukunft im Innovationsmanagement verbessern müssen. Pioneers holt dafür den B2C-Innovationsexperten Alex Neumayer von der REWE Group als Partner und bietet zukünftig branchenspezifische Unterstützung bei Innovationen im Handel.**
45 Prozent der heimischen Händler meinen: Innovation hat eine „große Bedeutung für die erfolgreiche Zukunft meines Unternehmens“. Mehr als ein Viertel spricht Innovationen sogar eine „sehr große Bedeutung“ zu. Veränderte Kundenbedürfnisse (70%), Differenzierung wegen Wettbewerbsdruck (52%), Effizienzsteigerung und Kostendruck (49%) sowie Anforderungen der Digitalisierung (36%) werden als Hauptgründe dafür genannt. Gleichzeitig bekennen fast zwei Drittel der Händler, dass der Verbesserungsbedarf im Innovationsmanagement noch sehr groß (11%) bzw. eher groß (53%) sei. “Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich das Management von Handelsunternehmen der Wichtigkeit von Innovationen bewusst ist, sich die Unternehmen mangels Innovationsstrategien, Innovationsprozessen, entsprechenden Methoden und der richtigen Organisation ihrer Innovationsarbeit aber noch schwer tun”, meint Alex Neumayer, neuer Partner von Pioneers.
**Neuer Partner bei Pioneers mit Business to Consumer-Fokus**
Alex Neumayer unterstützt seit mehr als 25 Jahren in unterschiedlichen Rollen Unternehmen aus Handel und Finanzwirtschaft bei der Business Transformation durch nachhaltige Strategien, Innovation und Digitalisierung. Zuletzt war Alex Neumayer als Projektleiter maßgeblich am Aufbau des jö Bonus Clubs beteiligt und seit 2018 als Head of Innovation & Digitalization für dessen Weiterentwicklung verantwortlich. In dieser Funktion konnte er auch drei Innovationspreise für eine integrierte Payment & Loyalty Lösung gewinnen, darunter den Retail Innovation Award des Handelsverbandes 2021.
**5 Innovationsfelder im Handel**
Neumayer fasst Neuerungen im Handel in 5 wichtige Innovationsfelder zusammen, die durchwegs von den 3 Megatrends Data Economy & AI, Digitalisierung und Nachhaltigkeit getrieben sind:
ENHANCED & ENGAGING SHOPPING EXPERIENCE: Ein immer stärkerer Einzug der Digitalisierung in den stationären Handel, ein Verschwimmen der Channel-Welten und dadurch eine immer stärkere Einbeziehung der Kunden in den Kaufprozess in den Filialen. Im Zentrum stehen dabei etwa
Instore-Shopping-Assistenten, integrierte Omnichannel-Journeys, neue Checkout-Systeme, Augmented Reality oder Seamless Payment.
DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING & LOYALTY: Die Hyper-Personalisierung, nicht nur der Kommunikation mit den Kunden, sondern auch des Einkaufserlebnisses, das sich den Bedürfnissen und Wünschen der Kunden anpasst, idealerweise natürlich alles in Echtzeit und automatisiert, fördert eine strukturelle Kundenbindung und Green Loyalty kann eine emotionale Kundenbindung bewirken.
INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS & SERVICES: Personalisierung zieht durch “manufacture to order” mittlerweile auch bei den Produkten ein. Nachhaltige Produkte und Verpackung, Smart Packaging und mit IoT, sowie zusätzliche Services wie Reparatur und Wartung zählen zu weiteren Trends.
NEW BUSINESS MODELS: Neue Geschäftsmodelle bieten Händlern die Möglichkeit, dem Wettbewerbsdruck im Kerngeschäft zu begegnen. Um Retail Media gibt es aktuell einen regelrechten Hype. Weitere Möglichkeiten bestehen im Bereich Circular economy (recycling, refurbishment, second-hand goods,…), Social Commerce, Subscription-based business models, Rental Services oder Marketplace- und Plattform-Strategien durch strategische Partnerschaften und Kooperationen.
EFFICIENCY & AUTOMATION: Autonome und automatische Filialen tragen ebenso zur Effizienz bei wie die Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen und der gesamten Lieferkette.
**Ergänzung an Kompetenzen und Branchenerfahrung**
Pioneers unterstützt etablierte mittlere und große Unternehmen bei der Entwicklung nachhaltiger Innovationsstrategien, beim organisatorischen Aufbau des Innovationsmanagements sowie bei der Konzeption und Umsetzung innovativer Lösungen und Produkte, insbesondere im Bereich der Digitalisierung. Pioneers unterstützt Unternehmen aus unterschiedlichen Branchen wie ÖBB, Verbund, STRABAG und Porsche und baut Brücken zwischen Start-ups und etablierten Unternehmen. „Alex Neumayer bringt umfassende Innovations- und Umsetzungserfahrung im Handel mit und ist mit den handelsspezifischen Herausforderungen und Trends bestens vertraut“, sagt Thomas Gabriel, Managing Partner von Pioneers. Umgekehrt können nun auch Unternehmen aus dem Handel nicht nur von der branchenspezifischen Erfahrung von Alex Neumayer, sondern auch von der Methodenkompetenz von Pioneers aus der Zusammenarbeit mit namhaften Unternehmen aus der Industrie, dem Energie- und Mobilitätssektor profitieren.
Rosalie Kolb
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/rosalie-kolb/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/rosalie-kolb/)
**Categories:** News, Pioneers
**Tags:** Team
---
### [Beyond The Prototype And MVP: How To Scale Corporate Ventures](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/)
**Published:** August 27, 2024
**Author:** Sophia Kuther
**Content:**
## Corporate venture building emerged as a vehicle for innovation
In today’s ever-changing business world, innovation is no longer a luxury, it has become a necessity. Companies that want to stay ahead of competition need to constantly explore new opportunities and reinvent themselves.
[Corporate venture](https://pioneers.io/what-is-a-corporate-venture/) building has emerged as a powerful innovation vehicle, allowing established companies to diversify their revenue streams and explore uncharted territories. It leverages their resources and market presence to launch corporate ventures with the agility and entrepreneurial thinking of startups.
Unlike traditional corporate venture capital, which focuses on investing in external startups, corporate venture building is centered on creating new business from within. This approach is able to generate significant value and growth, securing long-term success of incumbent companies in a dynamic landscape.
Many companies that seek new ways of growth and innovation through corporate venture building are professionalizing in the early phases – such as idea generation, validation or prototyping. Yet, still many venture building units struggle to scale their corporate ventures after product-market fit. This difficulty often stems from internal mechanisms within the corporation and the way the innovation and venture-building processes are structured. These challenges can hinder the transition from a promising idea to a scalable business – preventing ventures from reaching their full potential.
Based on years of client experience, we have identified several key success factors for effectively scaling corporate ventures. Think scaling like building a house: it requires a strong foundation (business model and strategy), but also solid walls (operations and go-to-market), a sturdy roof (capital), clear ownership (governance), and skilled builders (talent). If any of the 5 factors are overlooked, the whole venture can easily crumble. Excelling in all five dimensions ensures a robust framework for innovation, rapid scaling, and sustained growth.
Therefore, we have created a comprehensive scaling playbook that addresses the five critical areas, offering corporates a structured and systematic approach for managing the complexities of scaling.
## 1. Business Model & Strategy
Clarity in how a business creates, delivers, and captures value is paramount for any organization. This involves knowing what customers want, how to best deliver value, and how to enlist strategic partners to achieve maximum benefit. Understanding these elements is particularly crucial when navigating new business concepts, which inherently come with unpredictability and risk. As you approach the scale phase, the risks increase significantly due to the substantial investments of time, effort, and resources to be made. A robust business model and strategy are essential for successful scaling, as they provide the necessary foundation to support rapid growth and adapt to market demands.
In the early stages of business development, many elements of your business model can be unpredictable, particularly whether your product meets customer needs and if they are willing to pay for it. Therefore, it’s essential to continuously validate your concept and value proposition and make informed decisions along the way.
> ”Don't build a product that nobody wants.
- **Continue** your concept if you have conclusive proof of concept that there is demand for your product.
- **Pivot** if you see high potential in your concept but need to adjust the value proposition to better meet market needs.
- **Kill** the concept if data shows it is unviable or does not meet a market pain.
It is nothing new that a strong value proposition is vital for a venture’s success. However, simply having a value proposition that addresses a market need is not enough, a scalable business model is equally critical. Many of today’s most successful companies find their strength in achieving the “sweet spot” of business model scalability. Scalability, which is about achieving profitable growth, is a fundamental consideration for managers and investors alike. If managers fail to incorporate scalability attributes into their business model design, they risk falling behind. Without a scalable business model, even the most innovative products can struggle to achieve lasting success.
> ”Make sure the venture has a strong strategic fit with the core and utilizes assets from the mothership
While meeting market needs and ensuring scalability are undeniably important, a venture’s long-term success also heavily depends on its alignment with the parent company’s overarching strategy. Strategic alignment not only safeguards the venture during challenging times but also empowers it to thrive by leveraging the parent company’s strengths. This alignment grants the venture access to valuable corporate assets, resources, support, and decision-making power. Utilizing corporate assets such as networks, talent, expertise, funding, and infrastructure provides a substantial competitive advantage, not only in the early stages. During the launch and scaling phases, the corporate venture can further capitalize on the parent company’s brand, loyal customer base, and extensive reach.
## 2. Operations & Go-to-Market
While a minimum viable product (MVP) serves as a crucial testing ground, achieving product-market fit marks the beginning of a new chapter. Scaling requires a refined go-to-market strategy focused on customer acquisition and retention. Unlike the early-stage, shotgun approach, scaleup marketing needs a more precise focus on ideal customer profiles.
As the venture evolves from a scrappy underdog to a recognized player, brand positioning and messaging must adapt to resonate with a broader audience. This transition underscores the importance of a well-articulated go-to-market strategy that guides the organization through this critical phase of expansion. By refining the go-to-market strategy, corporate ventures can effectively manage the complexities of scaling, ensuring sustained growth and market presence.
### Have a clear growth strategy in place
A growth strategy serves as the roadmap, guiding the corporate venture through the complexities of market expansion. A well-defined strategy outlines specific goals, target markets, and the tactics to achieve them. It is essential to balance aggressive growth with sustainable development, ensuring the corporate venture can handle increased scale without compromising quality or profitability. Continuous monitoring and adaptation are crucial to refine the growth strategy as the market evolves and new opportunities emerge.
Clearly outlining growth goals, such as “achieving a fivefold increase in revenues and a tenfold increase in operating margin,” and evaluating whether the necessary and sufficient conditions to achieve these goals are in place is essential. These goals will be shaped by market and business model realities, as well as the ambition level of the founding team.
By utilizing corporate assets from the parent company, corporate ventures can enhance their market positioning, optimize resource use, and achieve their growth objectives more efficiently. Established distribution channels, for example, can accelerate market entry and expansion, while strong supplier relationships can provide favorable terms and reliable supply chains. Leveraging these assets not only speeds up the growth process but also provides a competitive edge, ensuring the venture is well-equipped to scale successfully in a dynamic market environment.
### Choose your success metrics wisely
Metrics serve as the compass for navigating the scaling journey, providing essential guidance and insights. Carefully selected KPIs offer invaluable information on performance, allowing decision-makers to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts, strategically allocate resources, and accurately measure progress. By integrating a robust metrics framework with a thorough understanding of fundamental assumptions, ventures can greatly enhance their chances of achieving MVP success and subsequent scaling.
In the context of corporate ventures, it is crucial to recognize that KPIs might differ significantly from those of the core business. Understanding and communicating these differences to key decision-makers in the core organization is essential, as it ensures alignment with the venture’s unique goals and challenges. This alignment helps decision-makers appreciate that the venture operates in a different environment and plays by different rules, which is vital for securing the necessary support and resources.
By fostering this understanding, ventures can ensure they are measured appropriately and supported effectively, thereby improving their chances of long-term success and integration with the parent company’s overall strategy.
### Make Your Tech Stack Scalable Too
As the venture grows, so too should its technological capabilities. Investing in a scalable infrastructure from the outset will prevent bottlenecks and ensure adaptability to changing market conditions. While leveraging the existing infrastructure of the parent organization can save time and money, it’s equally important to consider whether these tools truly align with the corporate venture’s specific needs. The goal is to create a tech ecosystem that supports innovation and scalability while avoiding unnecessary complexity.
## 3. Capital
Determining the optimal funding strategy for a corporate venture is a complex decision. Should the parent company invest its own capital or seek external partnerships? This decision profoundly impacts the venture’s trajectory and requires careful consideration of various factors.
> ”Think about what your corporate venture needs
While many corporate parents have the ability to fund their ventures internally, funding alone is not the only factor in deciding on a capitalization strategy. Corporate ventures can benefit significantly from the support of their parent company in early stages, which can help them achieve substantial traction. This is why most corporate ventures start being fully owned by their corporate partner and structured as a business unit under the parent organization.
However, as these ventures grow, attracting strategic investors who align with their goals can open up significant growth opportunities. These investors provide more than just funding — they bring industry expertise, market insights, and valuable networks. Establishing strategic partnerships is often a key reason why corporate ventures look to raise external capital. This approach allows ventures to gain strategic value in areas where the parent company’s capabilities may be limited. By leveraging the strengths of both the corporate parent and external partners, ventures can achieve greater growth and success.
For example, consider the case of rready, a corporate venture of Swisscom. [Rready](https://www.rready.com/de/), a innovation management platform, aims to build a global SaaS software business, while Swisscom, the Swiss Telco, operates primarily in Switzerland and lacks experience in SaaS. In such scenarios, when the business model does not fit the parent company or the parent company cannot significantly contribute to its success, external funding should be considered. By attracting strategic investors with expertise in SaaS and global markets, rready was able to access the necessary resources and knowledge to scale effectively. Swisscom alone would have not been able to support in that. This example underscores the importance of aligning funding strategies with the venture’s specific needs and the parent company’s capabilities, ensuring optimal growth and success. For more details, you can read the full case study[ here](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-2-rready/).
## 4. Governance
> ”Give the venture sufficient freedom to grow
The aim of venture governance is to create a framework that allows ventures to operate effectively and efficiently, free from the constraints of traditional corporate structures and processes, while also managing risks and uncertainties for the corporate parent.
In the initial stages, setting up a venture as a business unit within the parent organization can be beneficial, especially when the teams depend significantly on the parent company. However, as the venture grows and prepares to scale, this structure can become problematic. Fast iteration and agile methodologies are crucial for the venture’s growth, and corporations need to identify where standard corporate processes might hinder the venture’s ability to make swift decisions.
When transitioning from parent company control to an independent legal entity, assessing the necessary level of autonomy is essential. Corporate partners must design a governance structure tailored to the venture’s needs that mitigates business risks, enables decision-making, and allows the venture to move quickly and scale efficiently. Here are some governance options to consider:
1. **Integration into an Existing Division**: Integrate the venture into an existing division of the parent company, leveraging existing resources and infrastructure.
2. **Dedicated team or business unit in core business:** Maintain the venture within the parent company, ensuring close alignment and control.
3. **New legal Entity (Spin-off)**: Create a separate legal entity for the venture, granting it full autonomy to operate and scale independently.
4. **New legal entity with external investment**: Spin off the venture with external investment, allowing the parent company to retain a minority share while benefiting from external expertise and capital.
Each option offers different levels of autonomy and control, and the choice should align with the venture’s strategic goals and the parent company’s capabilities.
## 5. Talent
The skillset required in the early stages of a corporate venture differs substantially from that needed for scaling the venture. During the initial months of building a new venture, the focus is on bringing a new concept to life. This involves generating new ideas, validating them and building a minimum viable products (MVP). A team that is creative, enjoys uncertainty, and knows how to effectively validate new value propositions is essential at this stage.
As the venture grows and reaches the stage where product-market fit is proven, the focus shifts to scaling. This phase requires a different set of skills, including strong management skills and entrepreneurial experience in venture growth. These individuals need to take charge during the launch and scale phases, managing strategy, finances, and growth milestones.
### What’s the main take-away?
Scaling a corporate venture is a complex endeavor that demands a strategic, multi-faceted approach. While many organizations excel at early-stage innovation, transitioning corporate ventures to a scalable business often proves challenging. By mastering the five key dimensions: business model and strategy, operations and go-to-market, capital, governance and talent, corporations can significantly enhance the chances of their ventures’ success.
Each of these dimensions is crucial to a venture’s growth and success. While strengths in individual areas are helpful, the interconnected nature of these elements means that a weakness in even one can jeopardize the entire scaling effort. It is essential to take a holistic approach, ensuring all aspects are considered and aligned with the venture’s long-term goals.
Our experience has shown that a structured, systematic approach is essential for navigating the complexities of scaling. To this end, we have developed a comprehensive scaling playbook covering five key areas that provides corporates with actionable guidance to successfully scale.
## Do you want to know more about how we can help you scale your ventures?
Book a short intro call with our Innovation Manager [**Sophia Kuther** ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiakuther/)who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings. Just send a quick mail to sophia.kuther@pioneers.io.
**Sophia Kuther**
*Senior Innovation Consultant*
Sophia Kuther
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)
**Categories:** Corporate Venture Building
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Beyond The Prototype And MVP: How To Scale Corporate Ventures](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/)
**Published:** August 27, 2024
**Author:** Sophia Kuther
**Content:**
## Corporate venture building emerged as a vehicle for innovation
In today’s ever-changing business world, innovation is no longer a luxury, it has become a necessity. Companies that want to stay ahead of competition need to constantly explore new opportunities and reinvent themselves.
[Corporate venture](https://pioneers.io/what-is-a-corporate-venture/) building has emerged as a powerful innovation vehicle, allowing established companies to diversify their revenue streams and explore uncharted territories. It leverages their resources and market presence to launch corporate ventures with the agility and entrepreneurial thinking of startups.
Unlike traditional corporate venture capital, which focuses on investing in external startups, corporate venture building is centered on creating new business from within. This approach is able to generate significant value and growth, securing long-term success of incumbent companies in a dynamic landscape.
Many companies that seek new ways of growth and innovation through corporate venture building are professionalizing in the early phases – such as idea generation, validation or prototyping. Yet, still many venture building units struggle to scale their corporate ventures after product-market fit. This difficulty often stems from internal mechanisms within the corporation and the way the innovation and venture-building processes are structured. These challenges can hinder the transition from a promising idea to a scalable business – preventing ventures from reaching their full potential.
Based on years of client experience, we have identified several key success factors for effectively scaling corporate ventures. Think scaling like building a house: it requires a strong foundation (business model and strategy), but also solid walls (operations and go-to-market), a sturdy roof (capital), clear ownership (governance), and skilled builders (talent). If any of the 5 factors are overlooked, the whole venture can easily crumble. Excelling in all five dimensions ensures a robust framework for innovation, rapid scaling, and sustained growth.
Therefore, we have created a comprehensive scaling playbook that addresses the five critical areas, offering corporates a structured and systematic approach for managing the complexities of scaling.
## 1. Business Model & Strategy
Clarity in how a business creates, delivers, and captures value is paramount for any organization. This involves knowing what customers want, how to best deliver value, and how to enlist strategic partners to achieve maximum benefit. Understanding these elements is particularly crucial when navigating new business concepts, which inherently come with unpredictability and risk. As you approach the scale phase, the risks increase significantly due to the substantial investments of time, effort, and resources to be made. A robust business model and strategy are essential for successful scaling, as they provide the necessary foundation to support rapid growth and adapt to market demands.
In the early stages of business development, many elements of your business model can be unpredictable, particularly whether your product meets customer needs and if they are willing to pay for it. Therefore, it’s essential to continuously validate your concept and value proposition and make informed decisions along the way.
> ”Don't build a product that nobody wants.
- **Continue** your concept if you have conclusive proof of concept that there is demand for your product.
- **Pivot** if you see high potential in your concept but need to adjust the value proposition to better meet market needs.
- **Kill** the concept if data shows it is unviable or does not meet a market pain.
It is nothing new that a strong value proposition is vital for a venture’s success. However, simply having a value proposition that addresses a market need is not enough, a scalable business model is equally critical. Many of today’s most successful companies find their strength in achieving the “sweet spot” of business model scalability. Scalability, which is about achieving profitable growth, is a fundamental consideration for managers and investors alike. If managers fail to incorporate scalability attributes into their business model design, they risk falling behind. Without a scalable business model, even the most innovative products can struggle to achieve lasting success.
> ”Make sure the venture has a strong strategic fit with the core and utilizes assets from the mothership
While meeting market needs and ensuring scalability are undeniably important, a venture’s long-term success also heavily depends on its alignment with the parent company’s overarching strategy. Strategic alignment not only safeguards the venture during challenging times but also empowers it to thrive by leveraging the parent company’s strengths. This alignment grants the venture access to valuable corporate assets, resources, support, and decision-making power. Utilizing corporate assets such as networks, talent, expertise, funding, and infrastructure provides a substantial competitive advantage, not only in the early stages. During the launch and scaling phases, the corporate venture can further capitalize on the parent company’s brand, loyal customer base, and extensive reach.
## 2. Operations & Go-to-Market
While a minimum viable product (MVP) serves as a crucial testing ground, achieving product-market fit marks the beginning of a new chapter. Scaling requires a refined go-to-market strategy focused on customer acquisition and retention. Unlike the early-stage, shotgun approach, scaleup marketing needs a more precise focus on ideal customer profiles.
As the venture evolves from a scrappy underdog to a recognized player, brand positioning and messaging must adapt to resonate with a broader audience. This transition underscores the importance of a well-articulated go-to-market strategy that guides the organization through this critical phase of expansion. By refining the go-to-market strategy, corporate ventures can effectively manage the complexities of scaling, ensuring sustained growth and market presence.
### Have a clear growth strategy in place
A growth strategy serves as the roadmap, guiding the corporate venture through the complexities of market expansion. A well-defined strategy outlines specific goals, target markets, and the tactics to achieve them. It is essential to balance aggressive growth with sustainable development, ensuring the corporate venture can handle increased scale without compromising quality or profitability. Continuous monitoring and adaptation are crucial to refine the growth strategy as the market evolves and new opportunities emerge.
Clearly outlining growth goals, such as “achieving a fivefold increase in revenues and a tenfold increase in operating margin,” and evaluating whether the necessary and sufficient conditions to achieve these goals are in place is essential. These goals will be shaped by market and business model realities, as well as the ambition level of the founding team.
By utilizing corporate assets from the parent company, corporate ventures can enhance their market positioning, optimize resource use, and achieve their growth objectives more efficiently. Established distribution channels, for example, can accelerate market entry and expansion, while strong supplier relationships can provide favorable terms and reliable supply chains. Leveraging these assets not only speeds up the growth process but also provides a competitive edge, ensuring the venture is well-equipped to scale successfully in a dynamic market environment.
### Choose your success metrics wisely
Metrics serve as the compass for navigating the scaling journey, providing essential guidance and insights. Carefully selected KPIs offer invaluable information on performance, allowing decision-makers to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts, strategically allocate resources, and accurately measure progress. By integrating a robust metrics framework with a thorough understanding of fundamental assumptions, ventures can greatly enhance their chances of achieving MVP success and subsequent scaling.
In the context of corporate ventures, it is crucial to recognize that KPIs might differ significantly from those of the core business. Understanding and communicating these differences to key decision-makers in the core organization is essential, as it ensures alignment with the venture’s unique goals and challenges. This alignment helps decision-makers appreciate that the venture operates in a different environment and plays by different rules, which is vital for securing the necessary support and resources.
By fostering this understanding, ventures can ensure they are measured appropriately and supported effectively, thereby improving their chances of long-term success and integration with the parent company’s overall strategy.
### Make Your Tech Stack Scalable Too
As the venture grows, so too should its technological capabilities. Investing in a scalable infrastructure from the outset will prevent bottlenecks and ensure adaptability to changing market conditions. While leveraging the existing infrastructure of the parent organization can save time and money, it’s equally important to consider whether these tools truly align with the corporate venture’s specific needs. The goal is to create a tech ecosystem that supports innovation and scalability while avoiding unnecessary complexity.
## 3. Capital
Determining the optimal funding strategy for a corporate venture is a complex decision. Should the parent company invest its own capital or seek external partnerships? This decision profoundly impacts the venture’s trajectory and requires careful consideration of various factors.
> ”Think about what your corporate venture needs
While many corporate parents have the ability to fund their ventures internally, funding alone is not the only factor in deciding on a capitalization strategy. Corporate ventures can benefit significantly from the support of their parent company in early stages, which can help them achieve substantial traction. This is why most corporate ventures start being fully owned by their corporate partner and structured as a business unit under the parent organization.
However, as these ventures grow, attracting strategic investors who align with their goals can open up significant growth opportunities. These investors provide more than just funding — they bring industry expertise, market insights, and valuable networks. Establishing strategic partnerships is often a key reason why corporate ventures look to raise external capital. This approach allows ventures to gain strategic value in areas where the parent company’s capabilities may be limited. By leveraging the strengths of both the corporate parent and external partners, ventures can achieve greater growth and success.
For example, consider the case of rready, a corporate venture of Swisscom. [Rready](https://www.rready.com/de/), a innovation management platform, aims to build a global SaaS software business, while Swisscom, the Swiss Telco, operates primarily in Switzerland and lacks experience in SaaS. In such scenarios, when the business model does not fit the parent company or the parent company cannot significantly contribute to its success, external funding should be considered. By attracting strategic investors with expertise in SaaS and global markets, rready was able to access the necessary resources and knowledge to scale effectively. Swisscom alone would have not been able to support in that. This example underscores the importance of aligning funding strategies with the venture’s specific needs and the parent company’s capabilities, ensuring optimal growth and success. For more details, you can read the full case study[ here](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-2-rready/).
## 4. Governance
> ”Give the venture sufficient freedom to grow
The aim of venture governance is to create a framework that allows ventures to operate effectively and efficiently, free from the constraints of traditional corporate structures and processes, while also managing risks and uncertainties for the corporate parent.
In the initial stages, setting up a venture as a business unit within the parent organization can be beneficial, especially when the teams depend significantly on the parent company. However, as the venture grows and prepares to scale, this structure can become problematic. Fast iteration and agile methodologies are crucial for the venture’s growth, and corporations need to identify where standard corporate processes might hinder the venture’s ability to make swift decisions.
When transitioning from parent company control to an independent legal entity, assessing the necessary level of autonomy is essential. Corporate partners must design a governance structure tailored to the venture’s needs that mitigates business risks, enables decision-making, and allows the venture to move quickly and scale efficiently. Here are some governance options to consider:
1. **Integration into an Existing Division**: Integrate the venture into an existing division of the parent company, leveraging existing resources and infrastructure.
2. **Dedicated team or business unit in core business:** Maintain the venture within the parent company, ensuring close alignment and control.
3. **New legal Entity (Spin-off)**: Create a separate legal entity for the venture, granting it full autonomy to operate and scale independently.
4. **New legal entity with external investment**: Spin off the venture with external investment, allowing the parent company to retain a minority share while benefiting from external expertise and capital.
Each option offers different levels of autonomy and control, and the choice should align with the venture’s strategic goals and the parent company’s capabilities.
## 5. Talent
The skillset required in the early stages of a corporate venture differs substantially from that needed for scaling the venture. During the initial months of building a new venture, the focus is on bringing a new concept to life. This involves generating new ideas, validating them and building a minimum viable products (MVP). A team that is creative, enjoys uncertainty, and knows how to effectively validate new value propositions is essential at this stage.
As the venture grows and reaches the stage where product-market fit is proven, the focus shifts to scaling. This phase requires a different set of skills, including strong management skills and entrepreneurial experience in venture growth. These individuals need to take charge during the launch and scale phases, managing strategy, finances, and growth milestones.
### What’s the main take-away?
Scaling a corporate venture is a complex endeavor that demands a strategic, multi-faceted approach. While many organizations excel at early-stage innovation, transitioning corporate ventures to a scalable business often proves challenging. By mastering the five key dimensions: business model and strategy, operations and go-to-market, capital, governance and talent, corporations can significantly enhance the chances of their ventures’ success.
Each of these dimensions is crucial to a venture’s growth and success. While strengths in individual areas are helpful, the interconnected nature of these elements means that a weakness in even one can jeopardize the entire scaling effort. It is essential to take a holistic approach, ensuring all aspects are considered and aligned with the venture’s long-term goals.
Our experience has shown that a structured, systematic approach is essential for navigating the complexities of scaling. To this end, we have developed a comprehensive scaling playbook covering five key areas that provides corporates with actionable guidance to successfully scale.
## Do you want to know more about how we can help you scale your ventures?
Book a short intro call with our Innovation Manager [**Sophia Kuther** ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiakuther/)who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings. Just send a quick mail to sophia.kuther@pioneers.io.
**Sophia Kuther**
*Senior Innovation Consultant*
Sophia Kuther
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)
**Categories:** Corporate Venture Building
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Mavie's inspiring corporate venture journey and how they successfully leverage UNIQA's assets](https://pioneers.io/mavie-corporate-venture-journey-uniqa/)
**Published:** July 31, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## ***Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #5 – Mavie***
***Mavie’s *venture journey and the relationship with the mother company UNIQA****
**Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories is a series of conversations between Pioneers and corporate venture founders. We aim to shed light on successes, failures, and learnings and to share best practices to inspire and encourage corporate entrepreneurs and managers to drive innovation.**
We met up with Erich Kruschitz, CEO of [Mavie](https://www.mavie.care/de?mtm_campaign=Umbrella_Brand_Mavie&mtm_kwd=mavie&mtm_source=googleads-mindshare&mtm_medium=cpc-search&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwnqK1BhBvEiwAi7o0X6C-oAnhgmmlbgEoT41gmFgXz3EXczkkGl9XFluDuZ1t-q7P4AmjIxoCMuQQAvD_BwE), a corporate venture of [UNIQA](https://www.uniqa.at/versicherung/startseite.html). Erich joined UNIQA back in 2009, where he was working in the risk- and asset management area. Soon, management realized his ability to shape change and assigned him to transform the finance division as Head of Group Finance in 2011. Within 5 years, he rebuilt the whole unit, rolled-out SAP in 17 countries, and created an in-house training academy before deciding to leave for an executive MBA in France, Singapore, and Silicon Valley. Through his time abroad and the exchange with many professionals and VCs from other countries, he realized a new business opportunity for UNIQA: entering the healthcare market.
***In this conversation, we talk about the journey of Mavie from the first idea to a 40-person team generating revenue in the double-digit million range.***
**Michael Lunzer, Pioneers: Hey Erich, nice to meet you. Before we dive into the business of Mavie, can you tell us a little bit more about the original decision of UNIQA to enter the health space? How did you recognize the opportunity? Was it a strategic or opportunistic move?**
**Erich Kruschitz, CEO Mavie:** Nice to meet you as well. Sure, I am happy to tell you more. While doing my MBA, I traveled a lot and also got to present myself and UNIQA at different events and workshops. Talking about UNIQA’s insurance offers, health professional networks, and own hospitals, several people asked why the company – given its strong health assets – is not offering any health services itself. It made me think about the business potential and I realized that there could be an interesting opportunity in the health space. In 2020, when I was back at UNIQA, the management team and I joined a strategy retreat with leading entrepreneurship professors from Harvard. There, we jointly discussed how UNIQA can build up new business outside the core and explore new business streams. The topic of providing health services came up quickly, and especially the CEO of UNIQA, who still remains in this role today, was a strong supporter of exploring the market potential in the health sector. After the retreat, I analyzed the topic together with a team of UNIQA employees and we found compelling reasons to take a shot at it. Consequently, management agreed to invest and I was offered to lead the new venture.
During the offsite retreat, we learned that exploration topics require a certain distance from the core business and dedicated resources. Thus, as a prerequisite for leading the venture, I had to leave my old job and fully dedicate myself to Mavie. To complete the team with an additional 10 full-time resources, we did an internal hiring campaign and received 30 applications, many from people who were part of the team exploring the health services potential. With this crew, we started our work to build up the health business for UNIQA.
**How big is your team today and how many from the original crew are still there?**
Today, we are 38 FTEs. Actually, from the initial team, there is only one person left besides me. I guess as the CEO it’s easier \[laughs\]. For many, the fast speed and constant changes were too much to handle. Today, we are mainly hiring externally and rarely from UNIQA.
Thanks for sharing – super interesting story and developments. From our experience, we also see that opportunities outside the core need a fully focused and flexible team. At the same time, using the core assets is essential to outplay startups on the open market. But let’s talk about that later.**
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/downloads)
**Let’s first talk about Mavie’s business today. Many of us have already heard of Mavie (former Sanus X), but can you introduce us to what you are offering today?**
At Mavie we offer a whole range of different solutions and also consist of a group of different companies. Under our company Mavie Next, we engage in both venture building – developing our own solutions – and strategic investments – taking equity in external ventures or startups. Today our portfolio of services consists of [Mavie Work](https://work.mavie.care/), offering health care services for companies and employees, [Mavie.me](https://www.mavie.me/de), a B2C home blood and microbiome test kit, [Cura Domo](https://curadomo.at/), a 24-hour senior care at home service, and [Telemedi](https://telemedi.biz/), a telehealth provider running 600.000 consultations per year.
**Thanks for the overview, that’s a lot of different businesses…**
Yes, we aim to become a holistic health service provider by 2030 generating revenues of €100 million per year from 2025. Currently, we are strongly focused on growth. From after 2025, we will also put a stronger focus on profitability.
**That’s a bold goal considering that there are only 6 years left. Where do you stand today and how will be the distribution of revenues between self-built ventures and external ones by 2030?
I can’t share exact numbers, but we are currently in the lower two-digit million range. There is still a way to go, but we believe we can do it. We strictly monitor our growth path and have quarterly reviews with management to make corrections. Concerning the distribution, we see that external investments will have a larger share as many of them are already in the scaling phase, but also self-built ventures will make a considerable contribution.
**Let’s dive into the development process. How do you develop your own ventures? Do you have a defined approach or process?**
When we started exploring the health business, we did ideation and early validation ourselves but quickly realized that there are organizations outside of UNIQA with deeper know-how in this field. Thus, we decided to partner and outsource large parts of the early idea phase. In this phase, we act as a strategic sparring partner and provide feedback.
In the beginning, we worked with a VC from London who is also teaching at INSEAD business school. Together with “Entprepreneur in Residence” students from all over Europe, we develop and pre-validate new healthcare ideas and we take them over once they pass our selection criteria. In some cases, we also hire these students then for the ventures to continue their journeys with us.
**And for investing?**
We constantly check new targets within defined “Investable Themes”. Having identified a potential partner, we go through the usual process of due diligence and also test their solutions in a pilot or other test procedures. If that works out as expected, we quickly ramp up scaling.
**From an organizational/structural perspective, do you have two different teams, one for venture building and one for the investment path?**
Yes, exactly. Of course, the teams exchange and share their learnings but both streams also require a different team setup, assets and skills.
**Talking about assets: at Pioneers we see that corporate ventures can only be largely successful and beat startups on the open market when using their mother company’s core assets. What’s your opinion? How is Mavie using the core assets of UNIQA?**
First of all, I think it’s absolutely vital for a corporate venture to have the backing of the C-level of the mother company. Without the backing, we surely would have been dead by now.
**How do you “use” this asset?**
I have regular meetings – on a weekly basis – with the CEO of UNIQA to discuss the strategy and growth path of Mavie. These meetings are super important to align our goals with the overall company strategy and overcome any barriers resulting from our special relationship with the mother company. Besides the CEO, I can call any of the UNIQA board members anytime and will get support, which was very helpful on many occasions in the past. Of course, a strong relationship also requires building up trust. Thus, our team also reports to the board on a monthly basis. In addition, each quarter the board members join our team to check the progress. These are not always just fun chats, we also receive highly critical feedback that helps us to improve our business concepts and ultimately enhance our performance.
> ”I have regular meetings \[..\] with the CEO of UNIQA to discuss the strategy and growth path of Mavie. These meetings are super important to align our goals with the overall company strategy and overcome any barriers
**Besides the top management, do you take advantage of other UNIQA assets?**
Yes. Firstly, in the early phase of building up Mavie, we strongly profited from the market credibility and image of UNIQA. It opened many doors that startups on the open market usually cannot get access to easily. Secondly, UNIQA is a huge company with 14.000 employees and 17m customers. This provides us with vast opportunities for business testing. To provide an example, we use the large employee base to actively run surveys around our products and services and thus get valuable feedback for further developments.
Thirdly, UNIQA operates 5 private hospitals with diverse healthcare professionals who understand the market, regulatory environment, and health diagnosis processes. Furthermore, UNIQA has a strong legal and finance department where we can get valuable feedback and difficult-to-access information. In many developments, we reach out to those experts to get quick insights and support.
We try to use any chance to promote our services within UNIQA to get more supporters inside the mothership.
**How is that working out so far? Are there also blockers within the mother company? What about UNIQA client access? Can you use the sales network for your sales as well?**
Of course, not everybody welcomes us with open arms. From the beginning, it has been quite tricky to convince local sales reps. Sales reps are already selling their own insurance and get commissions. Our products are not easy for them to understand and of course, people rather sell what with they are familiar.
**Any learnings you can share about how to get past this barrier?**
We have tried multiple things already. What we realized is that we need to make it easy for salespeople to sell our products. For that reason, we have implemented several internal trainings about our products, showcase our solutions at internal events and we offer our UNIQA sales colleagues to join them in their sales meetings in case they require support. Lastly, we also offer all our services to UNIQA employees and hand out samples on any occasion. Step-by-step we are also gaining momentum in the core organization.
**Sounds like you are on the right path, indeed. How do you see your background working at UNIQA for many years impacting these developments?
For sure, my background helps a lot to open doors within the mother company. I still know many UNIQA colleagues from old times and they know me. So, I strongly believe that the leadership team of a corporate venture should also somehow have roots or strong relationships with the mother company to make good use of its assets.
**Last question: What’s the future of Mavie?**
Well, firstly we want to achieve our goal of €100 million in revenues by the end of 2025. Although this is not a highly significant size for UNIQA, further growth from there will transform our healthcare business into an important part of the group in the future.
We also don’t see our products and services as separate offerings, but rather embedded into an ecosystem of offerings, in the best case with a single sign-on for the user. Logging on to Mavie’s plattform should give the user the full range of health care services. There, we can also cross-sell any additional services from external players and help clients solve multiple health issues in one place.
**Very interesting and definitely an inspiring vision. Thanks, Erich for your time and the insights. Looking forward to hearing news from Mavie.**
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Lunzer**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lunzer/). Simply send a quick email to [michael.lunzer@pioneers.io](mailto:michael.obrist@pioneers.io).
**Michael Lunzer**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Mavie's inspiring corporate venture journey and how they successfully leverage UNIQA's assets](https://pioneers.io/mavie-corporate-venture-journey-uniqa/)
**Published:** July 31, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## ***Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #5 – Mavie***
***Mavie’s *venture journey and the relationship with the mother company UNIQA****
**Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories is a series of conversations between Pioneers and corporate venture founders. We aim to shed light on successes, failures, and learnings and to share best practices to inspire and encourage corporate entrepreneurs and managers to drive innovation.**
We met up with Erich Kruschitz, CEO of [Mavie](https://www.mavie.care/de?mtm_campaign=Umbrella_Brand_Mavie&mtm_kwd=mavie&mtm_source=googleads-mindshare&mtm_medium=cpc-search&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwnqK1BhBvEiwAi7o0X6C-oAnhgmmlbgEoT41gmFgXz3EXczkkGl9XFluDuZ1t-q7P4AmjIxoCMuQQAvD_BwE), a corporate venture of [UNIQA](https://www.uniqa.at/versicherung/startseite.html). Erich joined UNIQA back in 2009, where he was working in the risk- and asset management area. Soon, management realized his ability to shape change and assigned him to transform the finance division as Head of Group Finance in 2011. Within 5 years, he rebuilt the whole unit, rolled-out SAP in 17 countries, and created an in-house training academy before deciding to leave for an executive MBA in France, Singapore, and Silicon Valley. Through his time abroad and the exchange with many professionals and VCs from other countries, he realized a new business opportunity for UNIQA: entering the healthcare market.
***In this conversation, we talk about the journey of Mavie from the first idea to a 40-person team generating revenue in the double-digit million range.***
**Michael Lunzer, Pioneers: Hey Erich, nice to meet you. Before we dive into the business of Mavie, can you tell us a little bit more about the original decision of UNIQA to enter the health space? How did you recognize the opportunity? Was it a strategic or opportunistic move?**
**Erich Kruschitz, CEO Mavie:** Nice to meet you as well. Sure, I am happy to tell you more. While doing my MBA, I traveled a lot and also got to present myself and UNIQA at different events and workshops. Talking about UNIQA’s insurance offers, health professional networks, and own hospitals, several people asked why the company – given its strong health assets – is not offering any health services itself. It made me think about the business potential and I realized that there could be an interesting opportunity in the health space. In 2020, when I was back at UNIQA, the management team and I joined a strategy retreat with leading entrepreneurship professors from Harvard. There, we jointly discussed how UNIQA can build up new business outside the core and explore new business streams. The topic of providing health services came up quickly, and especially the CEO of UNIQA, who still remains in this role today, was a strong supporter of exploring the market potential in the health sector. After the retreat, I analyzed the topic together with a team of UNIQA employees and we found compelling reasons to take a shot at it. Consequently, management agreed to invest and I was offered to lead the new venture.
During the offsite retreat, we learned that exploration topics require a certain distance from the core business and dedicated resources. Thus, as a prerequisite for leading the venture, I had to leave my old job and fully dedicate myself to Mavie. To complete the team with an additional 10 full-time resources, we did an internal hiring campaign and received 30 applications, many from people who were part of the team exploring the health services potential. With this crew, we started our work to build up the health business for UNIQA.
**How big is your team today and how many from the original crew are still there?**
Today, we are 38 FTEs. Actually, from the initial team, there is only one person left besides me. I guess as the CEO it’s easier \[laughs\]. For many, the fast speed and constant changes were too much to handle. Today, we are mainly hiring externally and rarely from UNIQA.
Thanks for sharing – super interesting story and developments. From our experience, we also see that opportunities outside the core need a fully focused and flexible team. At the same time, using the core assets is essential to outplay startups on the open market. But let’s talk about that later.**
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/downloads)
**Let’s first talk about Mavie’s business today. Many of us have already heard of Mavie (former Sanus X), but can you introduce us to what you are offering today?**
At Mavie we offer a whole range of different solutions and also consist of a group of different companies. Under our company Mavie Next, we engage in both venture building – developing our own solutions – and strategic investments – taking equity in external ventures or startups. Today our portfolio of services consists of [Mavie Work](https://work.mavie.care/), offering health care services for companies and employees, [Mavie.me](https://www.mavie.me/de), a B2C home blood and microbiome test kit, [Cura Domo](https://curadomo.at/), a 24-hour senior care at home service, and [Telemedi](https://telemedi.biz/), a telehealth provider running 600.000 consultations per year.
**Thanks for the overview, that’s a lot of different businesses…**
Yes, we aim to become a holistic health service provider by 2030 generating revenues of €100 million per year from 2025. Currently, we are strongly focused on growth. From after 2025, we will also put a stronger focus on profitability.
**That’s a bold goal considering that there are only 6 years left. Where do you stand today and how will be the distribution of revenues between self-built ventures and external ones by 2030?
I can’t share exact numbers, but we are currently in the lower two-digit million range. There is still a way to go, but we believe we can do it. We strictly monitor our growth path and have quarterly reviews with management to make corrections. Concerning the distribution, we see that external investments will have a larger share as many of them are already in the scaling phase, but also self-built ventures will make a considerable contribution.
**Let’s dive into the development process. How do you develop your own ventures? Do you have a defined approach or process?**
When we started exploring the health business, we did ideation and early validation ourselves but quickly realized that there are organizations outside of UNIQA with deeper know-how in this field. Thus, we decided to partner and outsource large parts of the early idea phase. In this phase, we act as a strategic sparring partner and provide feedback.
In the beginning, we worked with a VC from London who is also teaching at INSEAD business school. Together with “Entprepreneur in Residence” students from all over Europe, we develop and pre-validate new healthcare ideas and we take them over once they pass our selection criteria. In some cases, we also hire these students then for the ventures to continue their journeys with us.
**And for investing?**
We constantly check new targets within defined “Investable Themes”. Having identified a potential partner, we go through the usual process of due diligence and also test their solutions in a pilot or other test procedures. If that works out as expected, we quickly ramp up scaling.
**From an organizational/structural perspective, do you have two different teams, one for venture building and one for the investment path?**
Yes, exactly. Of course, the teams exchange and share their learnings but both streams also require a different team setup, assets and skills.
**Talking about assets: at Pioneers we see that corporate ventures can only be largely successful and beat startups on the open market when using their mother company’s core assets. What’s your opinion? How is Mavie using the core assets of UNIQA?**
First of all, I think it’s absolutely vital for a corporate venture to have the backing of the C-level of the mother company. Without the backing, we surely would have been dead by now.
**How do you “use” this asset?**
I have regular meetings – on a weekly basis – with the CEO of UNIQA to discuss the strategy and growth path of Mavie. These meetings are super important to align our goals with the overall company strategy and overcome any barriers resulting from our special relationship with the mother company. Besides the CEO, I can call any of the UNIQA board members anytime and will get support, which was very helpful on many occasions in the past. Of course, a strong relationship also requires building up trust. Thus, our team also reports to the board on a monthly basis. In addition, each quarter the board members join our team to check the progress. These are not always just fun chats, we also receive highly critical feedback that helps us to improve our business concepts and ultimately enhance our performance.
> ”I have regular meetings \[..\] with the CEO of UNIQA to discuss the strategy and growth path of Mavie. These meetings are super important to align our goals with the overall company strategy and overcome any barriers
**Besides the top management, do you take advantage of other UNIQA assets?**
Yes. Firstly, in the early phase of building up Mavie, we strongly profited from the market credibility and image of UNIQA. It opened many doors that startups on the open market usually cannot get access to easily. Secondly, UNIQA is a huge company with 14.000 employees and 17m customers. This provides us with vast opportunities for business testing. To provide an example, we use the large employee base to actively run surveys around our products and services and thus get valuable feedback for further developments.
Thirdly, UNIQA operates 5 private hospitals with diverse healthcare professionals who understand the market, regulatory environment, and health diagnosis processes. Furthermore, UNIQA has a strong legal and finance department where we can get valuable feedback and difficult-to-access information. In many developments, we reach out to those experts to get quick insights and support.
We try to use any chance to promote our services within UNIQA to get more supporters inside the mothership.
**How is that working out so far? Are there also blockers within the mother company? What about UNIQA client access? Can you use the sales network for your sales as well?**
Of course, not everybody welcomes us with open arms. From the beginning, it has been quite tricky to convince local sales reps. Sales reps are already selling their own insurance and get commissions. Our products are not easy for them to understand and of course, people rather sell what with they are familiar.
**Any learnings you can share about how to get past this barrier?**
We have tried multiple things already. What we realized is that we need to make it easy for salespeople to sell our products. For that reason, we have implemented several internal trainings about our products, showcase our solutions at internal events and we offer our UNIQA sales colleagues to join them in their sales meetings in case they require support. Lastly, we also offer all our services to UNIQA employees and hand out samples on any occasion. Step-by-step we are also gaining momentum in the core organization.
**Sounds like you are on the right path, indeed. How do you see your background working at UNIQA for many years impacting these developments?
For sure, my background helps a lot to open doors within the mother company. I still know many UNIQA colleagues from old times and they know me. So, I strongly believe that the leadership team of a corporate venture should also somehow have roots or strong relationships with the mother company to make good use of its assets.
**Last question: What’s the future of Mavie?**
Well, firstly we want to achieve our goal of €100 million in revenues by the end of 2025. Although this is not a highly significant size for UNIQA, further growth from there will transform our healthcare business into an important part of the group in the future.
We also don’t see our products and services as separate offerings, but rather embedded into an ecosystem of offerings, in the best case with a single sign-on for the user. Logging on to Mavie’s plattform should give the user the full range of health care services. There, we can also cross-sell any additional services from external players and help clients solve multiple health issues in one place.
**Very interesting and definitely an inspiring vision. Thanks, Erich for your time and the insights. Looking forward to hearing news from Mavie.**
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Lunzer**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lunzer/). Simply send a quick email to [michael.lunzer@pioneers.io](mailto:michael.obrist@pioneers.io).
**Michael Lunzer**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Mavie's inspiring corporate venture journey and how they successfully leverage UNIQA's assets](https://pioneers.io/mavie-corporate-venture-journey-uniqa/)
**Published:** July 31, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## ***Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #5 – Mavie***
***Mavie’s *venture journey and the relationship with the mother company UNIQA****
**Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories is a series of conversations between Pioneers and corporate venture founders. We aim to shed light on successes, failures, and learnings and to share best practices to inspire and encourage corporate entrepreneurs and managers to drive innovation.**
We met up with Erich Kruschitz, CEO of [Mavie](https://www.mavie.care/de?mtm_campaign=Umbrella_Brand_Mavie&mtm_kwd=mavie&mtm_source=googleads-mindshare&mtm_medium=cpc-search&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwnqK1BhBvEiwAi7o0X6C-oAnhgmmlbgEoT41gmFgXz3EXczkkGl9XFluDuZ1t-q7P4AmjIxoCMuQQAvD_BwE), a corporate venture of [UNIQA](https://www.uniqa.at/versicherung/startseite.html). Erich joined UNIQA back in 2009, where he was working in the risk- and asset management area. Soon, management realized his ability to shape change and assigned him to transform the finance division as Head of Group Finance in 2011. Within 5 years, he rebuilt the whole unit, rolled-out SAP in 17 countries, and created an in-house training academy before deciding to leave for an executive MBA in France, Singapore, and Silicon Valley. Through his time abroad and the exchange with many professionals and VCs from other countries, he realized a new business opportunity for UNIQA: entering the healthcare market.
***In this conversation, we talk about the journey of Mavie from the first idea to a 40-person team generating revenue in the double-digit million range.***
**Michael Lunzer, Pioneers: Hey Erich, nice to meet you. Before we dive into the business of Mavie, can you tell us a little bit more about the original decision of UNIQA to enter the health space? How did you recognize the opportunity? Was it a strategic or opportunistic move?**
**Erich Kruschitz, CEO Mavie:** Nice to meet you as well. Sure, I am happy to tell you more. While doing my MBA, I traveled a lot and also got to present myself and UNIQA at different events and workshops. Talking about UNIQA’s insurance offers, health professional networks, and own hospitals, several people asked why the company – given its strong health assets – is not offering any health services itself. It made me think about the business potential and I realized that there could be an interesting opportunity in the health space. In 2020, when I was back at UNIQA, the management team and I joined a strategy retreat with leading entrepreneurship professors from Harvard. There, we jointly discussed how UNIQA can build up new business outside the core and explore new business streams. The topic of providing health services came up quickly, and especially the CEO of UNIQA, who still remains in this role today, was a strong supporter of exploring the market potential in the health sector. After the retreat, I analyzed the topic together with a team of UNIQA employees and we found compelling reasons to take a shot at it. Consequently, management agreed to invest and I was offered to lead the new venture.
During the offsite retreat, we learned that exploration topics require a certain distance from the core business and dedicated resources. Thus, as a prerequisite for leading the venture, I had to leave my old job and fully dedicate myself to Mavie. To complete the team with an additional 10 full-time resources, we did an internal hiring campaign and received 30 applications, many from people who were part of the team exploring the health services potential. With this crew, we started our work to build up the health business for UNIQA.
**How big is your team today and how many from the original crew are still there?**
Today, we are 38 FTEs. Actually, from the initial team, there is only one person left besides me. I guess as the CEO it’s easier \[laughs\]. For many, the fast speed and constant changes were too much to handle. Today, we are mainly hiring externally and rarely from UNIQA.
Thanks for sharing – super interesting story and developments. From our experience, we also see that opportunities outside the core need a fully focused and flexible team. At the same time, using the core assets is essential to outplay startups on the open market. But let’s talk about that later.**
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/downloads)
**Let’s first talk about Mavie’s business today. Many of us have already heard of Mavie (former Sanus X), but can you introduce us to what you are offering today?**
At Mavie we offer a whole range of different solutions and also consist of a group of different companies. Under our company Mavie Next, we engage in both venture building – developing our own solutions – and strategic investments – taking equity in external ventures or startups. Today our portfolio of services consists of [Mavie Work](https://work.mavie.care/), offering health care services for companies and employees, [Mavie.me](https://www.mavie.me/de), a B2C home blood and microbiome test kit, [Cura Domo](https://curadomo.at/), a 24-hour senior care at home service, and [Telemedi](https://telemedi.biz/), a telehealth provider running 600.000 consultations per year.
**Thanks for the overview, that’s a lot of different businesses…**
Yes, we aim to become a holistic health service provider by 2030 generating revenues of €100 million per year from 2025. Currently, we are strongly focused on growth. From after 2025, we will also put a stronger focus on profitability.
**That’s a bold goal considering that there are only 6 years left. Where do you stand today and how will be the distribution of revenues between self-built ventures and external ones by 2030?
I can’t share exact numbers, but we are currently in the lower two-digit million range. There is still a way to go, but we believe we can do it. We strictly monitor our growth path and have quarterly reviews with management to make corrections. Concerning the distribution, we see that external investments will have a larger share as many of them are already in the scaling phase, but also self-built ventures will make a considerable contribution.
**Let’s dive into the development process. How do you develop your own ventures? Do you have a defined approach or process?**
When we started exploring the health business, we did ideation and early validation ourselves but quickly realized that there are organizations outside of UNIQA with deeper know-how in this field. Thus, we decided to partner and outsource large parts of the early idea phase. In this phase, we act as a strategic sparring partner and provide feedback.
In the beginning, we worked with a VC from London who is also teaching at INSEAD business school. Together with “Entprepreneur in Residence” students from all over Europe, we develop and pre-validate new healthcare ideas and we take them over once they pass our selection criteria. In some cases, we also hire these students then for the ventures to continue their journeys with us.
**And for investing?**
We constantly check new targets within defined “Investable Themes”. Having identified a potential partner, we go through the usual process of due diligence and also test their solutions in a pilot or other test procedures. If that works out as expected, we quickly ramp up scaling.
**From an organizational/structural perspective, do you have two different teams, one for venture building and one for the investment path?**
Yes, exactly. Of course, the teams exchange and share their learnings but both streams also require a different team setup, assets and skills.
**Talking about assets: at Pioneers we see that corporate ventures can only be largely successful and beat startups on the open market when using their mother company’s core assets. What’s your opinion? How is Mavie using the core assets of UNIQA?**
First of all, I think it’s absolutely vital for a corporate venture to have the backing of the C-level of the mother company. Without the backing, we surely would have been dead by now.
**How do you “use” this asset?**
I have regular meetings – on a weekly basis – with the CEO of UNIQA to discuss the strategy and growth path of Mavie. These meetings are super important to align our goals with the overall company strategy and overcome any barriers resulting from our special relationship with the mother company. Besides the CEO, I can call any of the UNIQA board members anytime and will get support, which was very helpful on many occasions in the past. Of course, a strong relationship also requires building up trust. Thus, our team also reports to the board on a monthly basis. In addition, each quarter the board members join our team to check the progress. These are not always just fun chats, we also receive highly critical feedback that helps us to improve our business concepts and ultimately enhance our performance.
> ”I have regular meetings \[..\] with the CEO of UNIQA to discuss the strategy and growth path of Mavie. These meetings are super important to align our goals with the overall company strategy and overcome any barriers
**Besides the top management, do you take advantage of other UNIQA assets?**
Yes. Firstly, in the early phase of building up Mavie, we strongly profited from the market credibility and image of UNIQA. It opened many doors that startups on the open market usually cannot get access to easily. Secondly, UNIQA is a huge company with 14.000 employees and 17m customers. This provides us with vast opportunities for business testing. To provide an example, we use the large employee base to actively run surveys around our products and services and thus get valuable feedback for further developments.
Thirdly, UNIQA operates 5 private hospitals with diverse healthcare professionals who understand the market, regulatory environment, and health diagnosis processes. Furthermore, UNIQA has a strong legal and finance department where we can get valuable feedback and difficult-to-access information. In many developments, we reach out to those experts to get quick insights and support.
We try to use any chance to promote our services within UNIQA to get more supporters inside the mothership.
**How is that working out so far? Are there also blockers within the mother company? What about UNIQA client access? Can you use the sales network for your sales as well?**
Of course, not everybody welcomes us with open arms. From the beginning, it has been quite tricky to convince local sales reps. Sales reps are already selling their own insurance and get commissions. Our products are not easy for them to understand and of course, people rather sell what with they are familiar.
**Any learnings you can share about how to get past this barrier?**
We have tried multiple things already. What we realized is that we need to make it easy for salespeople to sell our products. For that reason, we have implemented several internal trainings about our products, showcase our solutions at internal events and we offer our UNIQA sales colleagues to join them in their sales meetings in case they require support. Lastly, we also offer all our services to UNIQA employees and hand out samples on any occasion. Step-by-step we are also gaining momentum in the core organization.
**Sounds like you are on the right path, indeed. How do you see your background working at UNIQA for many years impacting these developments?
For sure, my background helps a lot to open doors within the mother company. I still know many UNIQA colleagues from old times and they know me. So, I strongly believe that the leadership team of a corporate venture should also somehow have roots or strong relationships with the mother company to make good use of its assets.
**Last question: What’s the future of Mavie?**
Well, firstly we want to achieve our goal of €100 million in revenues by the end of 2025. Although this is not a highly significant size for UNIQA, further growth from there will transform our healthcare business into an important part of the group in the future.
We also don’t see our products and services as separate offerings, but rather embedded into an ecosystem of offerings, in the best case with a single sign-on for the user. Logging on to Mavie’s plattform should give the user the full range of health care services. There, we can also cross-sell any additional services from external players and help clients solve multiple health issues in one place.
**Very interesting and definitely an inspiring vision. Thanks, Erich for your time and the insights. Looking forward to hearing news from Mavie.**
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Lunzer**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lunzer/). Simply send a quick email to [michael.lunzer@pioneers.io](mailto:michael.obrist@pioneers.io).
**Michael Lunzer**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Mavie's inspiring corporate venture journey and how they successfully leverage UNIQA's assets](https://pioneers.io/mavie-corporate-venture-journey-uniqa/)
**Published:** July 31, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## ***Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #5 – Mavie***
***Mavie’s *venture journey and the relationship with the mother company UNIQA****
**Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories is a series of conversations between Pioneers and corporate venture founders. We aim to shed light on successes, failures, and learnings and to share best practices to inspire and encourage corporate entrepreneurs and managers to drive innovation.**
We met up with Erich Kruschitz, CEO of [Mavie](https://www.mavie.care/de?mtm_campaign=Umbrella_Brand_Mavie&mtm_kwd=mavie&mtm_source=googleads-mindshare&mtm_medium=cpc-search&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwnqK1BhBvEiwAi7o0X6C-oAnhgmmlbgEoT41gmFgXz3EXczkkGl9XFluDuZ1t-q7P4AmjIxoCMuQQAvD_BwE), a corporate venture of [UNIQA](https://www.uniqa.at/versicherung/startseite.html). Erich joined UNIQA back in 2009, where he was working in the risk- and asset management area. Soon, management realized his ability to shape change and assigned him to transform the finance division as Head of Group Finance in 2011. Within 5 years, he rebuilt the whole unit, rolled-out SAP in 17 countries, and created an in-house training academy before deciding to leave for an executive MBA in France, Singapore, and Silicon Valley. Through his time abroad and the exchange with many professionals and VCs from other countries, he realized a new business opportunity for UNIQA: entering the healthcare market.
***In this conversation, we talk about the journey of Mavie from the first idea to a 40-person team generating revenue in the double-digit million range.***
**Michael Lunzer, Pioneers: Hey Erich, nice to meet you. Before we dive into the business of Mavie, can you tell us a little bit more about the original decision of UNIQA to enter the health space? How did you recognize the opportunity? Was it a strategic or opportunistic move?**
**Erich Kruschitz, CEO Mavie:** Nice to meet you as well. Sure, I am happy to tell you more. While doing my MBA, I traveled a lot and also got to present myself and UNIQA at different events and workshops. Talking about UNIQA’s insurance offers, health professional networks, and own hospitals, several people asked why the company – given its strong health assets – is not offering any health services itself. It made me think about the business potential and I realized that there could be an interesting opportunity in the health space. In 2020, when I was back at UNIQA, the management team and I joined a strategy retreat with leading entrepreneurship professors from Harvard. There, we jointly discussed how UNIQA can build up new business outside the core and explore new business streams. The topic of providing health services came up quickly, and especially the CEO of UNIQA, who still remains in this role today, was a strong supporter of exploring the market potential in the health sector. After the retreat, I analyzed the topic together with a team of UNIQA employees and we found compelling reasons to take a shot at it. Consequently, management agreed to invest and I was offered to lead the new venture.
During the offsite retreat, we learned that exploration topics require a certain distance from the core business and dedicated resources. Thus, as a prerequisite for leading the venture, I had to leave my old job and fully dedicate myself to Mavie. To complete the team with an additional 10 full-time resources, we did an internal hiring campaign and received 30 applications, many from people who were part of the team exploring the health services potential. With this crew, we started our work to build up the health business for UNIQA.
**How big is your team today and how many from the original crew are still there?**
Today, we are 38 FTEs. Actually, from the initial team, there is only one person left besides me. I guess as the CEO it’s easier \[laughs\]. For many, the fast speed and constant changes were too much to handle. Today, we are mainly hiring externally and rarely from UNIQA.
Thanks for sharing – super interesting story and developments. From our experience, we also see that opportunities outside the core need a fully focused and flexible team. At the same time, using the core assets is essential to outplay startups on the open market. But let’s talk about that later.**
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/downloads)
**Let’s first talk about Mavie’s business today. Many of us have already heard of Mavie (former Sanus X), but can you introduce us to what you are offering today?**
At Mavie we offer a whole range of different solutions and also consist of a group of different companies. Under our company Mavie Next, we engage in both venture building – developing our own solutions – and strategic investments – taking equity in external ventures or startups. Today our portfolio of services consists of [Mavie Work](https://work.mavie.care/), offering health care services for companies and employees, [Mavie.me](https://www.mavie.me/de), a B2C home blood and microbiome test kit, [Cura Domo](https://curadomo.at/), a 24-hour senior care at home service, and [Telemedi](https://telemedi.biz/), a telehealth provider running 600.000 consultations per year.
**Thanks for the overview, that’s a lot of different businesses…**
Yes, we aim to become a holistic health service provider by 2030 generating revenues of €100 million per year from 2025. Currently, we are strongly focused on growth. From after 2025, we will also put a stronger focus on profitability.
**That’s a bold goal considering that there are only 6 years left. Where do you stand today and how will be the distribution of revenues between self-built ventures and external ones by 2030?
I can’t share exact numbers, but we are currently in the lower two-digit million range. There is still a way to go, but we believe we can do it. We strictly monitor our growth path and have quarterly reviews with management to make corrections. Concerning the distribution, we see that external investments will have a larger share as many of them are already in the scaling phase, but also self-built ventures will make a considerable contribution.
**Let’s dive into the development process. How do you develop your own ventures? Do you have a defined approach or process?**
When we started exploring the health business, we did ideation and early validation ourselves but quickly realized that there are organizations outside of UNIQA with deeper know-how in this field. Thus, we decided to partner and outsource large parts of the early idea phase. In this phase, we act as a strategic sparring partner and provide feedback.
In the beginning, we worked with a VC from London who is also teaching at INSEAD business school. Together with “Entprepreneur in Residence” students from all over Europe, we develop and pre-validate new healthcare ideas and we take them over once they pass our selection criteria. In some cases, we also hire these students then for the ventures to continue their journeys with us.
**And for investing?**
We constantly check new targets within defined “Investable Themes”. Having identified a potential partner, we go through the usual process of due diligence and also test their solutions in a pilot or other test procedures. If that works out as expected, we quickly ramp up scaling.
**From an organizational/structural perspective, do you have two different teams, one for venture building and one for the investment path?**
Yes, exactly. Of course, the teams exchange and share their learnings but both streams also require a different team setup, assets and skills.
**Talking about assets: at Pioneers we see that corporate ventures can only be largely successful and beat startups on the open market when using their mother company’s core assets. What’s your opinion? How is Mavie using the core assets of UNIQA?**
First of all, I think it’s absolutely vital for a corporate venture to have the backing of the C-level of the mother company. Without the backing, we surely would have been dead by now.
**How do you “use” this asset?**
I have regular meetings – on a weekly basis – with the CEO of UNIQA to discuss the strategy and growth path of Mavie. These meetings are super important to align our goals with the overall company strategy and overcome any barriers resulting from our special relationship with the mother company. Besides the CEO, I can call any of the UNIQA board members anytime and will get support, which was very helpful on many occasions in the past. Of course, a strong relationship also requires building up trust. Thus, our team also reports to the board on a monthly basis. In addition, each quarter the board members join our team to check the progress. These are not always just fun chats, we also receive highly critical feedback that helps us to improve our business concepts and ultimately enhance our performance.
> ”I have regular meetings \[..\] with the CEO of UNIQA to discuss the strategy and growth path of Mavie. These meetings are super important to align our goals with the overall company strategy and overcome any barriers
**Besides the top management, do you take advantage of other UNIQA assets?**
Yes. Firstly, in the early phase of building up Mavie, we strongly profited from the market credibility and image of UNIQA. It opened many doors that startups on the open market usually cannot get access to easily. Secondly, UNIQA is a huge company with 14.000 employees and 17m customers. This provides us with vast opportunities for business testing. To provide an example, we use the large employee base to actively run surveys around our products and services and thus get valuable feedback for further developments.
Thirdly, UNIQA operates 5 private hospitals with diverse healthcare professionals who understand the market, regulatory environment, and health diagnosis processes. Furthermore, UNIQA has a strong legal and finance department where we can get valuable feedback and difficult-to-access information. In many developments, we reach out to those experts to get quick insights and support.
We try to use any chance to promote our services within UNIQA to get more supporters inside the mothership.
**How is that working out so far? Are there also blockers within the mother company? What about UNIQA client access? Can you use the sales network for your sales as well?**
Of course, not everybody welcomes us with open arms. From the beginning, it has been quite tricky to convince local sales reps. Sales reps are already selling their own insurance and get commissions. Our products are not easy for them to understand and of course, people rather sell what with they are familiar.
**Any learnings you can share about how to get past this barrier?**
We have tried multiple things already. What we realized is that we need to make it easy for salespeople to sell our products. For that reason, we have implemented several internal trainings about our products, showcase our solutions at internal events and we offer our UNIQA sales colleagues to join them in their sales meetings in case they require support. Lastly, we also offer all our services to UNIQA employees and hand out samples on any occasion. Step-by-step we are also gaining momentum in the core organization.
**Sounds like you are on the right path, indeed. How do you see your background working at UNIQA for many years impacting these developments?
For sure, my background helps a lot to open doors within the mother company. I still know many UNIQA colleagues from old times and they know me. So, I strongly believe that the leadership team of a corporate venture should also somehow have roots or strong relationships with the mother company to make good use of its assets.
**Last question: What’s the future of Mavie?**
Well, firstly we want to achieve our goal of €100 million in revenues by the end of 2025. Although this is not a highly significant size for UNIQA, further growth from there will transform our healthcare business into an important part of the group in the future.
We also don’t see our products and services as separate offerings, but rather embedded into an ecosystem of offerings, in the best case with a single sign-on for the user. Logging on to Mavie’s plattform should give the user the full range of health care services. There, we can also cross-sell any additional services from external players and help clients solve multiple health issues in one place.
**Very interesting and definitely an inspiring vision. Thanks, Erich for your time and the insights. Looking forward to hearing news from Mavie.**
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Lunzer**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lunzer/). Simply send a quick email to [michael.lunzer@pioneers.io](mailto:michael.obrist@pioneers.io).
**Michael Lunzer**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Corporate Entrepreneurship: Inspiring Interviews with Successful Corporate Venture Founders | All Stories](https://pioneers.io/corporate-entrepreneurship-all-stories/)
**Published:** April 24, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
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.
## ANDRITZ Green Hydrogen
### From established industry to Green Hydrogen Innovation
Read [**PART #1**](https://pioneers.io/green-hydrogen-venture-journey-andritz-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** ](https://pioneers.io/green-hydrogen-venture-journey-andritz-part-2/)about
- collaboration with an external technology startup
- the first large-scale project
- the growth path
## rready - Swisscom
### How to spin out a corporate venture and scale it externally
Read [**PART #1** ](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-1-rready/)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**](https://pioneers.io/corporate-entrepreneurship-stories-2-rready-part-2/) about
- the process of getting external investment
- the advantages, and disadvantages of being a corporate venture vs. a “normal” startup
- the planned growth path
## One2Zero - Salzburg AG
### One2Zero’s corporate venture journey to empower the corporate energy transition
Read [**PART #1**](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-1/) of our conversation with CEO Tobias Wiener including
- one2zero’s business model
- the founding story
- the collaboration with the corporate venture’s mothership
Read [**PART #2**](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-2/) about
- people and team side of one2zero
- the importance of the right company culture
- Tobias Wiener’s vision for innovation and energy in Europe
## myflexbox - Salzburg AG
### myflexbox revolutionizing last mile delivery
Read [**PART #1**](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-1/) of our conversation with Jonathan Grothaus and Lukas Wieser, the two co-CEOs and founders of myflexbox including
- the origins of the venture
- the experiences and backgrounds of Lukas and Jonathan
- their successes in Salzburgs AG’s “Innovation-Challenge”
- early strategies for expanding their startup idea within the corporate structure
Read [**PART #2**](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-2/) about
- myflexbox’s substantial investment for its expansion in Germany
- the company’s ownership structure and growth plans
- the vision to reshape urban delivery with sustainable solutions
## Mavie - Uniqa
### Mavie’s inspiring corporate venture journey and how they successfully leverage Uniqa’s assets
Read **[HERE](https://pioneers.io/mavie-corporate-venture-journey-uniqa)** of our conversation with CEO Erich Kruschitz including
- the founding story of Mavie
- the portfolio companies of Mavie.Next
- the process of venture development
- Erich Kruschitz background and role as CEO
- the relationship to Uniqa
- how Mavie takes advantage of Uniqa’s assets
- the growth goals of Mavie
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Uncategorized
---
### [one2zero’s Remarkable Corporate Venture Journey and the Success Factors in the Early Development of the Corporate Venture | Part 1](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-1/)
**Published:** May 27, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## ***Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #3 – one2zero – Part 1***
***Part 1 – one2zero’s *venture journey and the relationship with the mother company Salzburg AG****
**Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories is a series of conversations between Pioneers and corporate venture founders. We aim to shed light on successes, failures, and learnings and to share best practices to inspire and encourage corporate entrepreneurs and managers to drive innovation.**
On January 24th we met up with Tobias Wiener, the CEO of [one2zero](https://one2zero.at/), a corporate venture of Salzburg AG. Tobias already found his entrepreneurial passion early on in his career. When he was a young accountant, he took over the responsibility of improving processes, which ultimately led to the innovation of automated bank statements.
At the age of 25, he took on a key role in a project developing new business models for a conglomerate of energy players and subsequently worked on several new business fields for the German energy provider EON. Today, he combines his background in “numbers”, a sense of innovation, and corporate experience to drive the development of one2zero.
***In part #1 we look at One2Zero business model, founding story and collaboration with the mother company – Salzburg AG.***
**Michael Lunzer, Pioneers: Tobias, great to talk to you. Let’s start with a short intro to one2zero. Can you tell us in a few words what one2zero is all about and what you are currently working on?**
**Tobias Wiener, CEO one2zero:**
At one2zero, we consult and build energy solutions for companies that are looking to operate efficiently, save costs, and integrate renewable energy into their business. Our long-term vision is to create microhubs where several players jointly tackle climate change and bring awareness about the topic to the wider population. Lastly, we also bring highly innovative, green technologies to our clients by following a partnering approach with innovative players on the market.
**So, from my understanding, what you are working on is a new business model adjacent to Salzburg AG’s core business?**
Yes, we operate within the energy business but at the same time enter the business with a different focus. At first, we help our clients understand their own needs \[consulting\] and then, using a solution-agnostic approach, find or build the best energy solution for them.
**Do you consider yourself a corporate startup then? Consulting does not sound like a scalable business model.**
Consulting is only one part of our offer. We are currently working on a scalable, recurring revenue model where companies become long-term clients of our platform and we help them to constantly integrate new, innovative solutions supporting their energy transition.
**Was one2zero your idea or how did it come to the launch of the new venture?
In 2020, the management of Salzburg AG launched the new strategy #vorwärts including the goal of developing new \[Green Tech\] solutions and services to enable a fast energy transition. While the goals were clear, sitting down with the management team, we realized that we wanted to present more than statements on paper. We agreed that we want to take rapid action steps to reach the goals. Therefore, we jointly decided to launch a lighthouse project – one2zero – which quickly turned into a venture with its own team, customers and market traction.
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/downloads)
**So, in the end, one2zero resulted from your discussions with the management and a deliberate decision rather than a bottom-up initiative?
Well both, but yes in the end it was a deliberate decision which is why there is also strong backing from the management to further scale one2zero. It fits very well with the overall company strategy and strategic goals of Salzburg AG.
**With 25+ team members, you are now past early-stage and plan to scale which will, of course, also require bigger investments. In the startup world, scaling and growth often go hand in hand with “burning cash” – before achieving profitability. How do you manage a sustainable growth path, whilst having a corporate investor in the background who is probably aiming for short-term profitability?**
A very good question and in my opinion one key factor for the success of corporate ventures. If the corporate venture’s only goal is fast growth and the exit and the corporate’s only goal is a short-term EBIT, the business will never fly. We need a mutual understanding of each other’s goals. As a startup, we aim for growth whereas the corporate expects a short- to medium-term ROI. To overcome this trade-off we need to continuously align, communicate, and set joint goals.
> ”We see many things on the market that might be overlooked. On the other hand, we profit from Salzburg AG’s know-how and contacts.
**When you say constantly, what do you mean by that? Usually, development cycles, budgets, etc. are planned long in advance and corporates’ decisions are slower than the speed needed by a startup…**
Yes, that’s why we have set up a different process for one2zero. While usual decision processes have longer cycles, we regularly align with the management to be able to make quicker decisions. Besides the shorter-than-usual cycles, full trust is key. Lastly, it is important to use the venture’s strong launch momentum and speed and keep up the excitement of all key stakeholders from the mothership.
**Talking about the mothership, we see that it’s essential for corporate ventures to take advantage of the core organization’s capabilities, networks, and know-how. However, we also often see a resistance of core resources or deprioritisation of support due to their core tasks…**
In our case, we see a lot of mutual benefits. We bring new ideas and innovative concepts to the core business. We see many things on the market that might otherwise be overlooked and we talk about these things in internal presentations. Furthermore, we support Salzburg AG in scouting and evaluating external partners and startups.
On the other hand, we can strongly rely on core business services like legal and accounting services that we \[for now\] do not want to build up ourselves. Also, we strongly benefit from Salzburg AG’s know-how and contacts in the energy sector and tourism.
So it’s a give and take but for sure we are not at the end. We are already thinking beyond what we are currently doing and can imagine having an employee rotation program where employees of Salzburg AG join us for some time and vice versa.
A very interesting collaboration indeed, Tobias! Thanks for your insights.**
***This was part #1 of our conversation. Stay tuned for [part #2](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-2/) where we will dive deeper into the role of the corporate “founder” or manager, one2zero’s team, the right culture for corporate ventures as well as the unique position of Europe in the international game of innovation.***
***In the meantime, feel free to download the summary of the one2zero case study.***
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Lunzer**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lunzer/). Simply send a quick email to [michael.lunzer@pioneers.io](mailto:michael.obrist@pioneers.io).
**Michael Lunzer**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [myflexbox: revolutionizing last-mile delivery I part 2](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-2/)
**Published:** June 27, 2024
**Author:** Michael Obrist
**Content:**
## **Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #4: myflexbox – A corporate venture of Salzburg AG – Part 2**
*Part 2 – myflexbox’s investment and expansion plans into the German market*
***This is the second part of our interview with Jonathan Grothaus and Lukas Wieser, co-CEOs and founders of [myflexbox](https://www.myflexbox.com/de-de/), a corporate venture of [Salzburg AG](https://www.salzburg-ag.at/). In the [first part](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-1/), we discussed the origins of myflexbox and the founders’ personal journeys. In part 2, we discuss myflexbox’s substantial investment aimed at fueling its expansion in Germany. We also delve into the company’s ownership, growth plans, and vision to reshape urban delivery with sustainable solutions.***
**Utilizing the core assets of the mother company is a key success factor of for corporate ventures. How relevant was this aspect for myflexbox?**
**Jonathan**: Oh yes, absolutely. Ultimately, we could have never built a company like myflexbox without the assets of Salzburg AG. First, it takes significant upfront capital investments to build the technology and infrastructure for such a solution. Second, it requires long-term trust and commitment from customers and partners in building a network. We already had this trust, given Salzburg AG’s reputation as one of the largest infrastructure providers.
**Lukas**: However, it was still a delicate balancing act. We faced a major decision: Should we follow our own path or continue under the Salzburg AG brand? We opted for the first option in 2019, setting clear growth objectives. Yet, we also needed to maintain support from various internal stakeholders, for instance from the legal department or sales. Things had to move quickly, but we also needed to be realistic: You can’t just rush into the legal department’s office the day before signing and request a review of a 20-page contract.
**Jonathan**: In my view, many corporate ventures fail due to structural reasons, they don’t utilize their unfair advantages and corporate assets. It’s vital to continuously strike a balance between entrepreneurial freedom and drive, strategic use of assets, and coordination with the corporate realities and all involved stakeholders.
> ”It's vital to continuously strike a balance between entrepreneurial freedom and drive, strategic use of assets, and coordination with the corporate realities and all relevant stakeholders
###### *Good vibes for the Pioneers visitors with the myflexbox founding team in front of one of their packet stations*
**Last year, you realized a buyout with a substantial investment from the British private equity company Star-Capital. What motivated this external investment, and how has it been utilized?**
**Lukas:** For both us and our partners, rapid expansion was a logical developmental step. We had already identified Germany as our next target market due to its tenfold market size compared to Austria. However, the trust we had established in Austria was not necessarily present in Germany. Salzburg AG is recognized here but no one in Kiel is waiting for an Austrian player to disrupt the smart cities infrastructure market. (laughing)
**Jonathan:** So we asked ourselves the question: How do we establish trust beyond Austria? The solution was clear: with additional funding and a well-defined growth roadmap. Our investment of over 75 million was a crucial factor in establishing this trust. It demonstrated our commitment to building infrastructure with our partners for the next 10 years. Our primary asset during negotiations was the support of one of Austria’s leading infrastructure providers, which reinforced our investment case.
**What does the ownership structure of myflexbox look like today?**
**Lukas**: Regarding ownership structure, Salzburg AG still holds a significant share, Star Capital is the majority owner and we, the founders, also own a minority. Star Capital is a private equity firm from London, and they are very experienced with infrastructure investments. Of course, our shares are smaller than those of a founder of a classic start-up on the open market, but we are well incentivized and have built myflexbox also with and for Salzburg AG.
> ”Our investment of over 75 million was a crucial factor in establishing this trust. It demonstrated our commitment to building infrastructure with our partners for the next 10 years
**Let’s look a bit at the future: What are your growth targets for the next few years when it comes to market expansion?**
**Jonathan**: On one hand, our focus is on consolidating our existing market. In an area where we have already built up a significant market share, it is important to stay relevant. In Austria, we are currently as big as the Post with our open network, so definitely relevant.
At the same time, as already mentioned, we plan to grow abroad. In Germany, we are already relevant and, after only one year, the third largest player after DHL and Amazon’s network stations. However, there is still a lot of growth potential. We plan to transfer the same footprint as in Austria, where we have over 500 locations, to the ten times larger German market, with a focus on the major agglomerations.
Overall, in Germany we are talking about a very high Total Addressable Market, so there is enormous potential for the future: 4.5 billion parcel circulate here annually with a growth rate of 6% p.a.. Capturing just 1% would mean that we would handle 46 million parcels…
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
**What is your vision? How do you see the market development in the last-mile delivery infrastructure in the future?**
**Jonathan**: Our vision is based on three main pillars: sharing economy, open systems, and inclusive, versatile platforms. There will be several large players in Europe who will build open networks and compete in various markets. Our main focus remains, of course, parcel delivery, but we want to use our more than 50,000 compartments available in the overall network for other purposes as well. We are thinking about the sharing economy – why not hand over tools such as a drill at such stations in the future between households? Why not circulate products from Willhaben or Vinted through such stations?
**Lukas**: However, Austria has to make massive progress in the retail sector in order to not lose touch. The stationary trade will increasingly lose influence, especially in the FMCG sector. In e-commerce, we mainly rely on foreign players, as no large Austrian one has established itself. We believe that there is great potential in the entire e-commerce sector, and we want to advance this together with other stakeholders in Austria!
***Thank you Lukas and Jonathan for the great converesation! And all the best for your further journey with myflexbox!***
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Obrist**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-obrist-2643497b/). Simply send a quick email to .
**Michael Obrist**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Obrist
Innovation Manager [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [myflexbox: revolutionizing last mile delivery I part 1](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-1/)
**Published:** June 4, 2024
**Author:** Michael Obrist
**Content:**
## **Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #4: myflexbox – A corporate venture of Salzburg AG – Part 1**
***Part 1 – The birth of [myflexbox](https://www.myflexbox.com/?utm_term=myflexbox&utm_campaign=%5BSearch%5D+Branding&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=4592172713&hsa_cam=11736566572&hsa_grp=114755041620&hsa_ad=683234589046&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-804772931264&hsa_kw=myflexbox&hsa_mt=e&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpNuyBhCuARIsANJqL9MbeEWc1Hk4xxc6Q5RjuDJ9QQeVqaP4sdFEKQ5r8QdCAmhmtVVUu4kaAqWzEALw_wcB): Utilizing [Salzburg AG](https://www.salzburg-ag.at/)’s internal innovation capabilities to rethink urban last mile deliveries***
**A conversation with Jonathan Grothaus and Lukas Wieser, the two co-CEOs and founders of myflexbox and Michael Obrist and Michael Lunzer from Pioneers.**
Jonathan and Lukas are well-known figures in the Austrian (corporate) startup scene. Together with their CTO and co-founder Peter Klima, they established myflexbox as a significant player in the smart city logistics sector thanks to their last-mile delivery solution. In our conversation with the two, we aim to highlight the success story and individuals behind myflexbox.
***In this first part, we explore the origins of the venture, the experiences and backgrounds of Lukas and Jonathan, their successes in Salzburgs AG’s “Innovation-Challenge”, and** **early strategies for expanding their startup idea within the corporate structure.***
**Hi Jonathan, hi Lukas, great to talk to you! Why don’t you start by telling us what myflexbox is and what’s the current status of development?**
**Jonathan: Nice to meet you! myflexbox is a smart city company that was founded as a corporate venture of Salzburg AG. The aim is to minimize CO2 emissions across Europe in the last mile caused by unsuccessful doorstep deliveries in cities. End customers can receive, send, and return parcels conveniently and contactless 24/7 with myflexbox.**
**Lukas: Since our foundation in 2018, we have established ourselves as the largest independent smart locker network provider in the DACH area. We currently have around over 85 employees, most of whom work at our headquarters in Salzburg. Overall, we have around 800 parcel stations to-date and are represented in more than 40 cities in Germany.**
**Your entrepreneurial roots already date back to a young age. Can you tell us a bit about your background?**
**Jonathan: Sure! I studied economics in my bachelor’s and worked at a marketing startup while still in school. At the Munich University of Applied Sciences, I later deepened my innovation knowledge with a degree in Design Thinking and participated in an EU accelerator whilst building more startups, also in exchange with investors. A native of Salzburg, I eventually wanted to return home and initially worked in product development at Salzburg AG. This was also the time when the first venture idea around a smart locker system was born.**
**Lukas: My entrepreneurial path also started early: At 24, together with a good friend, I took over an inn with a theatre, where I gained my first hands-on business experience. Later, I co-founded [kurzzeitwohnen.com](http://kurzzeitwohnen.com/), an online portal for furnished business accommodations, and simultaneously co-created an organic beer brand with a well known organic brewery. At 30, I sold my shares and moved to San Francisco and London to deep dive into social entrepreneurship. In Munich, I helped transform a health food chain with 700 employees, which deepened my understanding of business building and management. The journey through different industries and cultures showed me how important it is for me to develop sustainable, socially responsible business models that are beneficial for all stakeholders. After working with social entrepreneurs in Kenya and Uganda, eventually I ended up at Salzburg AG where Jonathan was already working on the business idea around a depot box, so we teamed up.**
**Jonathan: It’s also important to mention our third founder, Peter, our tech lead. As one of the first employees of Runtastic and a developer of a payment startup, he brings extensive experience in software development to the team. He thinks in very open software systems and manages to conceive and build complex software from scratch.**
> ”I've always had an interest in social entrepreneurship. I want to build a business where everyone benefits. Create win, win, win situations.
###### Lukas and Jonathan from myflexbox in conversation with Michi and Micha from Pioneers
**The birth of a new venture is often marked with many uncertainties, yet fast progress in key areas (vision, customer understanding, team, funding) is enormously important during this phase. What were your first moves to bring myflexbox up to speed?**
**Jonathan:** The myflexbox journey started in 2018 during a phase where I engaged a lot with the topic of “scalable impact through product innovation”. The initial spark for myflexbox then came from a conversation with an IT manager at Salzburg AG who was struggling with a logistic issue: the time-consuming process of handing over IT devices to other colleagues physically. That’s when we thought: “How about a locker system for these kinds of handovers?”. I instantly saw the vast potential of this concept.
With Tobias Wiener, head of corporate development at the time, we pinpointed about 50 use cases for a smart locker system, both for Salzburg AG’s internal processes and external applications. Our idea won the Salzburg AG Innovation Challenge, allowing us to continue our project through an intrapreneurship program.
**Lukas: A critical step was validating the business model. We needed to ensure that our idea was not only theoretically convincing, but also practical. We thoroughly tested and validated the 50 use cases, paying special attention to understanding users’ needs and habits in parcel management. Our unique selling points – numerous locations, direct access to end customers in Salzburg, and our role as a neutral network operator – were key parts of our value proposition. Our goal was to establish a functioning parcel infrastructure at five locations within one year and our funding request was ambitious: four staff members for a year, five lockers, and proprietary software development. We viewed the software as our unique selling point, creating a future investment case.**
**Jonathan: Also timing-wise we had great momentum: Lukas and Peter joined the company at this crucial early validation stage and were able to dedicate themselves 100% to the project. This early phase laid the foundation for myflexbox, and I am particularly proud of the combination of vision, team, and strategic alignment that drove us forward.**
> ”Our request was ambitious: We demanded four people for a year, five lockers, and resources to develop our proprietary software.
**The logistics industry is a highly competitive market with substantial international competition and many stakeholders involved. What were your primary challenges and initial successes?**
**Lukas**: Absolutely! We understood early that the challenges in the logistics chain are enormous. Everyone we spoke to share our frustration with the existing parcel delivery processes. However, we didn’t just want to bring another product to the market, but to create a solution that fundamentally improves the whole end-to-end parcel management including customers, parcel deliverers, and commercial partners. This goal required our full commitment and a deep dive into the business. We were not logistics experts at the time, but we quickly acquired the necessary knowledge and plunged full force into this industry.
**Jonathan**: Regarding our success, it’s fair to say that the early collaboration with UPS 2021 was a turning point for us. They were our first major customer and the collaboration demonstrated that there was “real music” behind our idea. Not just financially, but also because of the huge impact we could have on all of Austria. The phase in which we realized that as a team we could achieve something special was incredibly motivating.
**Lukas**: We’ve always considered ourselves like a professional sports team, where daily performance matters. This attitude fueled each other, allowing us to optimally use our strengths. As we gradually won more customers like DHL, FedEx, and GLS, and gained the trust of big names like Lidl and Billa in Austria, it became clear that we were on the right track.
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
**Salzburg AG has a stage gate process for the development of internal venture ideas. How well did your idea fit into that development funnel? With your fast-paced development, you were probably also reaching some limits of a classic corporate stage-gate process?**
**Jonathan**: Well, first of all, the Inno-Challenge of Salzburg AG provided us with a valuable platform where we could develop our idea, also regarding the strategic anchoring. The stage gate process was key to advance in a structured way. This process involved frequent evaluations of our progress in short 6-8 week cycles. These short cycles were essential for swiftly responding to feedback and adjusting our strategy. Key questions included: how to measure success, especially during phases where financial figures weren’t significant yet, and data generation was the main focus.
**Lukas**: However, it’s true that the speed at which we progressed sometimes posed a challenge. We were often faster than the company’s internal processes. We saw this also as a positive challenge and tried to further develop the innovation process and acceptance within Salzburg AG ourselves, making it more flexible to the individual development of ideas. Support from top management was also essential in this context. Regular meetings and direct exchanges with the executives provided us with the opportunity to present our progress and secure necessary resources.
**How crucial was the C-Level support for you in particular?**
**Jonathan: A continuous exchange with the board was important. Some decisions needed to be pushed quickly, so the 6-8 weeks cycled helped a lot there. However, despite the detailed business plan, clear targets and budgets, smaller decision points played a crucial role in maintaining focus on technology and the market. Sometimes there were also clarification needs with some departments of course – for example marketing, as we pushed myflexbox with our own brand and pace. They were not overly enthusiastic when we launched our own LinkedIn presence overnight, even though we should have waited according to the corporate guidelines (laughing).**
**Lukas:** I think sometimes you need a certain rebelliousness when driving your own agenda, as it can clash with corporate structures. Problems may escalate even to the top in such situations. However, our aim wasn’t just to resist and do as we pleased. We consistently stood up for our cause, our venture. There were heated discussions, but over time, people understood and respected us because we believed in myflexbox and fought hard for it.
We also deliberately used the expertise and the network of the board to our advantage. Once, for example, we went into the office of Mr. Schitter, our former chairman of the board, with a list of 15 companies that were crucial for the establishment of our locations and asked him for introductions. It worked out and the same morning he was supporting us personally with sales calls, utilizing his personal network.
***This was part #1 of our conversation. Check out [part #2](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-2/), where we discuss myflexbox’s substantial investment for its expansion in Germany. We also delve into the company’s ownership, growth plans, and vision to reshape urban delivery with sustainable solutions.***
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Obrist**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-obrist-2643497b/). Simply send a quick email to .
**Michael Obrist**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Obrist
Innovation Manager [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Meet The Startups: Get a Sneak Peek into GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/govtechpioneers-sneak-peek-meet-startups/)
**Published:** February 28, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** The startup selection process for GovTech.Pioneers on April 2nd is now well underway, with a number of our hand-picked entrepreneurs already having accepted their invitations. In this article we’ll reveal the names of those GovTech game-changers who’ve confirmed they’ll be joining us at Vienna City Hall. Chosen from almost 350 Seed and Series A startup applications, these are some of the best innovators in a $400 bn market. You can be sure you’ll be hearing their names again in the future, so get to know them now by reading on!
**Content:**
The selection process of the startups for GovTech.Pioneers on April 2nd is now well underway, with a number of our hand-picked entrepreneurs already having accepted their invitations to join us at Vienna City Hall on April 2nd. Chosen from almost 350 startup applications, these are some of the best innovators in a market estimated to be worth $400 bn.
While a total of 70 will be invited, we’re happy to confirm the names of the first 13 confirmed startups below. You can also see where they’re based and their core tagline!
**Cryptowerk (USA)** Connecting applications and blockchains
**Cryptolab (USA)** The first search engine for encrypted data
**L7 Defense (Israel)** Protecting online platforms from automated attacks
**Hawa Dawa (Germany)** Air quality monitoring for smart cities
**CivilCops (India)** Consumer interaction for smart governance
**Mostly AI (Austria)** Enabling big data privacy
**Smarthink (Italy)** Innovative e-assessment
**Urbix (United Kingdom)** Intelligent city management technology
**Evrotrust (Bulgaria)** Regtech tool for remote onboarding, signing and secure access
**3DSS (Serbia)** 3D face reconstruction and recognition algorithm
**FindBUG (Kosovo)** Security/GDPR compliance for businesses
**Verismart (USA)** Identity blockchain platform
**Contiamo (Germany – Series A)** The fastest way from data to results
Once we conclude the invitations process for GovTech.Pioneers, we’ll select 16 of the seed startups to take part in the pitching contest. There will be four pitching categories, including Cyber Security, Citizen Collaboration and Education Technology. The fourth category will be a general GovTech category.
Each category winner will advance to a final pitching round, after which the jury will pick the winning startup. They’ll join [2018 winner Fleksy](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/govtech-pioneers-wrap) on our GovTech.Pioneers roll of honour. And as with the winners of all our industry-focused events, such as Mobility.Pioneers and Health.Pioneers, they’ll earn the right to return to Vienna and pitch at our flagship event. This takes place in the Hofburg Imperial Palace on May 9th-10th.
A number of startups will also be selected to exhibit their product or service at GovTech.Pioneers. And it goes without saying that ever attending startup will be networking busily with some of the world’s top Govtech investors and decision-makers. As always, our acclaimed Match & Meet tool will be there to help the right people find each other.
While the main GovTech.Pioneers action will be at Vienna City Hall on April 2nd, a number workshops for startups will already begin on April 1st. These will take place at Talent Garden Vienna – stay tuned for more details!
Come and meet these hand-picked startups – and many more – at GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna on April 2nd. Tickets are available [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers19#/).
GovTech.Pioneers is supported by the **Austrian Federal Computing Center (BRZ)**, **STARTeurope**, the **Austrian PPPI Service Center (IÖB)**, the **Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance**, the **City of Vienna**, the **Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs** and the **Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT)**.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers ’19: Your Chance to See A Cyborg Drummer](https://pioneers.io/moon-ribas/)
**Published:** March 3, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** One thing we’ve never had on the Arena Stage at our flagship event in Vienna is a drumming cyborg activist. But that’s going to change at Pioneers ’19. We’re pleased to announce that visitors to the Hofburg on May 9th-10th will be able to enjoy Catalan avant-garde artist and Cyborg Foundation Co-Founder Moon Ribas giving a rendition of her ‘Seismic Percussion’. Read on to find out how she’ll use a body implant to drum out the earth’s tremors in real time...
**Content:**
**Photo Credit: Michael Sharkey**
Our flagship event might be all about future technology, but we love it when we can find an entertaining way to showcase just what the latest innovations make possible. Our always-memorable opening and closing shows are known for doing just that, with our 500-year-old imperial palace venue providing the perfect contrasting backdrop.
One thing we’ve never had on stage is a drumming cyborg activist, but that’s going to change at Pioneers ’19 on May 9th-10th in Vienna. We’re proud to announce that visitors to the Hofburg will be able to enjoy Catalan avant-garde artist and Cyborg Foundation Co-Founder Moon Ribas giving a rendition of her Seismic Percussion performance.
As Ribas will explain in her talk, what makes this display of drumming unique is that the rhythm is composed by Planet Earth. To put that a little more clearly, Ribas will be hammering out the seismic vibrations she’ll feel in her feet. That’s where the tech comes in: she’ll pick up the earth’s tremors from the online seismic sensor she has implanted in her body.
This device, which Ribas developed, is called Seismic Sense. It allows her to perceive the earthquakes taking place anywhere on the planet in that moment. She can translate this not only into drumming, but into dance as well. You can get an idea of the latter performance, entitled *Waiting For Earthquakes*, via this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Un4MFR-vNI).
But Ribas’s stage performances are just the shop window for her work as a cyborg activist. The ‘enhanced abilities’ the Seismic Sensor gives her, after all, are a perfect match for the [definition](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cyborg) of a cyborg, a term that was coined in the 1960s. While it’s a concept that still has science fiction connotations, the march of technology means it’s now anything but.
Ribas will prove exactly that on stage at the Hofburg. And showing the potential of technology when integrated with the human body fits snugly with our event narrative, of course. As [previously announced](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-19-technological-walk-through-human-life), this takes the form of a technological walk through human life.
In 2010 Ribas co-founded the Cyborg Foundation, an international organisation that aims to help people become cyborgs, defend cyborg rights and promote cyborg art.
In 2017 Ribas also co-founded the Transpecies Society, an association that gives voice to non-human identities, defends the freedom of self-design and offers the creation of new senses and new organs in community.
To get a feeling for the Seismic Percussion performance, check out [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPN_xjzHabw). But for the full acoustic experience that comes with seeing it in a mighty ballroom, you’ll have to be at Pioneers ’19!
*Want to experience two days of magic at the Hofburg Imperial Palace? Pioneers ’19 goes ahead on May 9th-10th in Vienna? Reserve your spot [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Explore Open Innovation with the Pioneers500 Report at Pioneers ’19](https://pioneers.io/explore-open-innovation-pioneers500-report-pioneers-19/)
**Published:** April 30, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re pleased to announce that visitors to this year’s edition of our flagship event will once again get exclusive access to our Pioneers500 Report. This is another co-production of PwC Austria, our key partner to the Pioneers500 program, and our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover. Following last year’s success, we’ve doubled the print run to 1000 copies. Guests will be able to grab one at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna on May 9th-10th.
**Content:**
We’re pleased to announce that visitors to our flagship event will once again get exclusive access to our Pioneers500 Report. Limited to 1000 copies to be distributed at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna, this is a co-production of PwC Austria, our key partner to the Pioneers500 program, and our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover.
Central to the Pioneers500 Report will again be the topic of Open Innovation – namely how corporates can stay competitive by collaborating with the kinds of quality startups we choose for the Pioneers500 program every year. It will offer valuable insights on not only those 500 seed startups we’ve chosen – and who consequently earned an invite to join us at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna – but on startup-corporate collaboration as a whole.
The section authored by our Pioneers Discover team will break down startup-corporate collaboration into its component parts and explore the factors critical to success. Drawing on their experiences running Open Innovation projects across all industries, our expert consultants have shared ‘collaboration readiness’ checklists for corporates and startups. These pages will help both sides know exactly which questions they need to ask themselves ahead of a collaboration, and to weigh up the value of any Open Innovation proposal.
As Head of Pioneers Discover Anton Schilling says: “Open Innovation approaches offer a great chance for corporates and startups to strengthen their innovation power on the market. But we’ve seen that there are both right and wrong ways to go about it, and both parties frequently need guidance on best practice.”
The report will also feature similarly practical first-hand insights from PwC Austria’s experience in the innovation arena, which includes bringing startups and corporates together on a daily basis. Our partner’s experts will share their learnings on how and why certain formats work better than others, clearly outlining the benefits of an Open Innovation approach for corporates looking to get the most out of their strategies.
“In many ways, corporations and startups inhabit two different worlds, and it can be tough to bridge the gap and find the right platform or intermediary to make an efficient professional relationship possible,” says Thomas Riegler, Digital and Innovation Partner at PwC Austria. “Successful cooperation is the key to survival for both and paves the way to mastering future challenges. Ultimately, collaboration can lead to symbiotic success, leveraging each other’s strengths to lift performance to an even higher level.”
Naturally, the report will also be the best possible source of information on the Pioneers500 startups themselves: look out for infographics and statistics illustrating where these seed-stage innovators come from, what they do and other key measurables.
There’ll be deeper individual introductions to the Top 50 startups, with each getting half a page detailing its product or service. It’s the perfect way to get to know those whom you’ll see pitching their hearts out for the Pioneers Challenge Award, which last year went to Austrian startup SzeleSTIM. Once again, the winners will be whisked off to Silicon Valley for a networking trip as part of their prize.
“We made a number of valuable contacts and got inspired by the startup culture in the San Francisco Bay Area,” recalls SzeleSTIM Co-Founder Stefan Kampusch of their journey to America last year. “Everybody saw the need and tremendous market for our solution, but thanks to the feedback we received, we got more focused on the essentials of our business.”
“We also used our time in San Francisco to meet with a potential American partner and discuss details around entering the US market.”
In addition to being awarded tickets to Pioneers ’19, selection as a Pioneers500 startup earlier this year was the first step to getting chosen to pitch or exhibit at the Hofburg. For the full line-up of pitching startups at Pioneers ’19 and further details on the prizes they could win, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-19-latest-pitching-startups-revealed).
Additional benefits of being a Pioneers500 startup include a number of deals we’re offering via partners. These include growth, customer services and marketing products from ConvertKit, Fomo, Semrush, LiveChat, NinjaOutreach, GetResponse and Google Cloud for Startups.
Pioneers ’19 guests will once again be able to pick up their Pioneers500 Report copy at the PwC Lounge, as well as at the entrance to the Hofburg or at the first-day startup pitches at the Launch Pad.
*Click [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/) to meet our 500 selected seed-stage startups at Pioneers ’19 on May 9th-10th.*
**Pioneers ’19 is supported by Google Cloud, Media Apparat, Red Bull, the Vienna Business Agency and PwC Austria.**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Explore Open Innovation with the Pioneers500 Report at Pioneers ’19](https://pioneers.io/explore-open-innovation-pioneers500-report-pioneers-19/)
**Published:** April 30, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re pleased to announce that visitors to this year’s edition of our flagship event will once again get exclusive access to our Pioneers500 Report. This is another co-production of PwC Austria, our key partner to the Pioneers500 program, and our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover. Following last year’s success, we’ve doubled the print run to 1000 copies. Guests will be able to grab one at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna on May 9th-10th.
**Content:**
We’re pleased to announce that visitors to our flagship event will once again get exclusive access to our Pioneers500 Report. Limited to 1000 copies to be distributed at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna, this is a co-production of PwC Austria, our key partner to the Pioneers500 program, and our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover.
Central to the Pioneers500 Report will again be the topic of Open Innovation – namely how corporates can stay competitive by collaborating with the kinds of quality startups we choose for the Pioneers500 program every year. It will offer valuable insights on not only those 500 seed startups we’ve chosen – and who consequently earned an invite to join us at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna – but on startup-corporate collaboration as a whole.
The section authored by our Pioneers Discover team will break down startup-corporate collaboration into its component parts and explore the factors critical to success. Drawing on their experiences running Open Innovation projects across all industries, our expert consultants have shared ‘collaboration readiness’ checklists for corporates and startups. These pages will help both sides know exactly which questions they need to ask themselves ahead of a collaboration, and to weigh up the value of any Open Innovation proposal.
As Head of Pioneers Discover Anton Schilling says: “Open Innovation approaches offer a great chance for corporates and startups to strengthen their innovation power on the market. But we’ve seen that there are both right and wrong ways to go about it, and both parties frequently need guidance on best practice.”
The report will also feature similarly practical first-hand insights from PwC Austria’s experience in the innovation arena, which includes bringing startups and corporates together on a daily basis. Our partner’s experts will share their learnings on how and why certain formats work better than others, clearly outlining the benefits of an Open Innovation approach for corporates looking to get the most out of their strategies.
“In many ways, corporations and startups inhabit two different worlds, and it can be tough to bridge the gap and find the right platform or intermediary to make an efficient professional relationship possible,” says Thomas Riegler, Digital and Innovation Partner at PwC Austria. “Successful cooperation is the key to survival for both and paves the way to mastering future challenges. Ultimately, collaboration can lead to symbiotic success, leveraging each other’s strengths to lift performance to an even higher level.”
Naturally, the report will also be the best possible source of information on the Pioneers500 startups themselves: look out for infographics and statistics illustrating where these seed-stage innovators come from, what they do and other key measurables.
There’ll be deeper individual introductions to the Top 50 startups, with each getting half a page detailing its product or service. It’s the perfect way to get to know those whom you’ll see pitching their hearts out for the Pioneers Challenge Award, which last year went to Austrian startup SzeleSTIM. Once again, the winners will be whisked off to Silicon Valley for a networking trip as part of their prize.
“We made a number of valuable contacts and got inspired by the startup culture in the San Francisco Bay Area,” recalls SzeleSTIM Co-Founder Stefan Kampusch of their journey to America last year. “Everybody saw the need and tremendous market for our solution, but thanks to the feedback we received, we got more focused on the essentials of our business.”
“We also used our time in San Francisco to meet with a potential American partner and discuss details around entering the US market.”
In addition to being awarded tickets to Pioneers ’19, selection as a Pioneers500 startup earlier this year was the first step to getting chosen to pitch or exhibit at the Hofburg. For the full line-up of pitching startups at Pioneers ’19 and further details on the prizes they could win, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-19-latest-pitching-startups-revealed).
Additional benefits of being a Pioneers500 startup include a number of deals we’re offering via partners. These include growth, customer services and marketing products from ConvertKit, Fomo, Semrush, LiveChat, NinjaOutreach, GetResponse and Google Cloud for Startups.
Pioneers ’19 guests will once again be able to pick up their Pioneers500 Report copy at the PwC Lounge, as well as at the entrance to the Hofburg or at the first-day startup pitches at the Launch Pad.
*Click [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/) to meet our 500 selected seed-stage startups at Pioneers ’19 on May 9th-10th.*
**Pioneers ’19 is supported by Google Cloud, Media Apparat, Red Bull, the Vienna Business Agency and PwC Austria.**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers ’19 Speaker Interview: Destination Alpha Centauri!](https://pioneers.io/peter-worden/)
**Published:** March 7, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers ’19 is set to tackle some of the biggest questions faced by humanity - but some of the answers are way out there in space. That’s why we’re pleased to welcome Peter Worden from Breakthrough Initiatives to speak at our flagship event on May 9th-10th in Vienna. The aims of the program, funded by billionaire Yuri Milner, include finding intelligent life and Earth’s first craft to Alpha Centauri, our neighbouring star system. In this interview the former Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center explains how private money is opening up whole new worlds (literally!), introduces his one-gram spaceship and candidly answers questions like ‘are we alone’...
**Content:**
“I think we are not alone. I think we are going to find that life is everywhere. But I also think we’ll find that intelligent life like ours is very rare.”
As an interviewer, you tend to get get excited when your subject gives you such a straight answer to a question. Especially when it’s one of the [fundamental questions](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-19-technological-walk-through-human-life) we seek to address at Pioneers ’19. And even better when the subject happens to be the latest confirmed speaker for our annual flagship event!
Having ticked off ‘Are we alone?’ from my question sheet with more satisfaction than I’m accustomed to, and added Peter Worden’s Arena Stage talk to my list of must-sees on May 9th-10th in Vienna, I pushed on with the next polite enquiry.
Did the Breakthrough Starshot Executive Director and NASA alumnus think Planet Earth would always be our home?
“People are going to leave the earth, probably within a decade,” said Worden. “I’m virtually certain there will be people living on the moon, probably in the next decade. I know of a number of privately-funded efforts to do just that.
“I think Elon Musk’s settlement on Mars will probably happen within 20 years. By the middle of this century we’re probably going to find dozens of settlements off the planet.”
And so to Worden’s thoughts on the third of the big Pioneers ’19 questions on my sheet of paper: “Where do we come from?” I asked.
“I’m leaning towards life originating someplace else than Earth. I think it’s much older than the earth. I tend to be an advocate of [Panspermia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia).”
It’s not just because he’s a former Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley that you might want to sit up and take notice of Peter’s forthright answers. It’s also because his new day job at Breakthrough Initiatives offers more funding and scientific freedom to tackle these questions than the average researcher gets.
Breakthrough Initiatives is what happens when billionaires decide how to spend their fortunes. In this case Russian investor and entrepreneur Yuri Milner, who launched the program with Stephen Hawking in 2015. Targets include finding signs of life beyond earth (Breakthrough Listen) and an unmanned flight to Alpha Centauri, our nearest star system. The latter is known as Breakthrough Starshot, of which Peter is Executive Director.
As he will explain on stage, the rise of privately-funded space exploration can only be a good thing when it comes to succeeding with such missions. For example, building a craft that can viably make it to Alpha Centauri without having to worry about profit or what taxpayers might think.
“We think we can do these things much more efficiently privately! It’s like that old saying: an elephant is a mouse designed by a committee. The government by nature has to satisfy a lot of different groups, so most NASA science missions try to do multiple things. Typically they have six to eight science objectives and a lot of instruments, so they are a lot larger.
“If we only have one science objective they can be a lot smaller. With private money you can take a higher-risk but potentially lower-cost approach.
“Breakthrough Initiatives is just one example. Elon Musk wants to go to Mars, and Jeff Bezos is interested in large-scale industrialization. This is the new space age, powered by visionary, high-net-worth people.”
The job for Worden and his colleagues now, to cut a long story short, is to bring an Alpha Centauri-bound flying object to fruition. And he’s already able to explain how the ‘StarChip’ craft might look in fairly simple terms.
“We would build a 100GW laser. Then we would build a very small spacecraft, weighing about a gram. It would be connected to a light sail, which would basically be a very thin sheet of plastic, maybe four or five meters across. We put them deep in space and we hit them with the laser. After about 10 minutes the laser propels the starchip to 20% the speed of light.
“The laser itself would probably be several kilometres in diameter. It would consist of maybe tens or hundreds of millions of small lasers that would gang together in flat panels. It would look a lot like a solar energy farm, over a several kilometre area. But rather than receiving light it would transmit it.”
Sound expensive? It’s definitely some way north of your weekly shopping bill – Milner’s first wad of cash for Starshot alone is $100 million. But while such a spend might not be a justifiable idea for governments any time soon, Worden points out that it’s a good thing for humanity that the mega-rich are willing to fund this kind of exploration.
“Something like ‘Are we alone’ is a fundamental question. Not just fundamental questions of science, but philosophical questions that people have always pondered. Regardless of what the answer is, it has huge implications for the future of humanity.
“If we do find intelligent life out there, maybe we can ask them some of our big questions – how do we survive our own problems? If not, then maybe that gives us a better reason that we need to solve our problems. Either way it’s important to our future!”
*Want to meet Pete Worden and a host of other technical wizards on May 9th-10th in Vienna? Get your Pioneers ’19 ticket [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/).*
*Breakthrough Initiatives is already working with a number of startups – could you be next? Get in the room with Peter Worden and decision-makers from every industry by applying for free startup tickets [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/). The deadline is March 15th.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Discover Tests New Waters at Corporate Incubation & Acceleration Summit](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-tests-new-waters-corporate-incubation-acceleration-summit/)
**Published:** March 19, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Last week, on March 12th-13th, Pioneers Discover welcomed 150 innovation managers from around Europe to our headquarters in Vienna, where they spent two days exchanging knowledge at the Corporate Incubation & Acceleration Summit. In this article we look back on our consultancy arm’s first foray into this type of event format, as well as share some of the best photos from what turned out to be a productive gathering.
**Content:**
**Photo Credit: Sebastian Kreuzberger**
Last week, on March 12th-13th, Pioneers Discover welcomed 150 innovation managers from around Europe to our headquarters in Vienna, where they spent two days exchanging knowledge at the Corporate Incubation & Acceleration Summit.
This was our consultancy arm’s first foray into this type of event format. Bringing 150 innovation managers – most of them corporate competitors – together to share best innovation practices is a little different from the hackathons, bootcamps and innovation days for which Pioneers Discover is known. (Our established events usually have a strong startup presence and many formats serve only one corporate client.)
Nonetheless the Corporate Incubation & Acceleration Summit (also known as CoInAAc) proved its worth during two busy days in the Austrian capital. Local power utility Wien Energie, with whom Pioneers Discover already partners for the [Wien Energie Innovation Challenge](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/fresh-energy-leads-winners-wien-energie-innovation-challenge), were one of the main partners for the event. They brought insights and experience on the key issue of cross industry collaboration.
Among the highlights was the very well-received keynote from Kristian Luoma of the OP Financial Group, Finland’s largest. In the talk he shared his experience of scaling the company’s OP Lab innovation team from 20 to over 150 people.
The two Best Practice Slams were also a hit. These brought a competitive, engaging element to proceedings by pitting the innovation leaders (and their programs) against each other in a pitching contest of sorts. The summit participants then voted on what they thought was the best practice, using our FlashRate rating platform.
The first Best Practice Slam tackled the topic of how to create an attractive program for startups. This saw a spot of role reversal from most innovation events: the corporates took a grilling from a panel of startups! After all was said and done, the audience voted for Wayra, after the pitch by the global accelerator’s Germany CEO Christian Lindener.
The second Best Practice Slam, where cultural change was the topic, went to the Vienna State Opera. Their pitch was delivered by its Head of Digital Development, Christopher Widauer, who had also given CoInAAc speakers a tour around this famous Vienna attraction on the day before the event began. The Vienna State Opera had worked with us previously as a sponsor of the [VC CultTech Hackathon](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/qiues-hot-idea-wins-vc-culttech-hackathon).
“It was great to see the attendees sharing experiences and best practices with each other throughout the two days,” said Pioneers Discover Project Lead Ruby Wallen. “For Pioneers Discover it was amazing to facilitate new relationships by bringing existing clients together with each other, as well as with players from our ecosystem.”
Meetings between participants at CoInAAc were suggested, requested, accepted and automatically scheduled via our Match & Meet networking service.
Pioneers Discover organized the Corporate Incubation & Acceleration Summit in partnership with EnterpriseUP. Further partners included Wien Energie, Kickbox, Raiffeisen Bank International, Energie Steiermark, Palfinger, Talent Garden, ÖBB, Veepee and WolfTheiss.
*To get learn more about Pioneers Discover’s future innovation programs and how your company can get involved, email discover@pioneers.io*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Humanizing Hosting: Getting Real With New Pioneers ’19 MC Pairing](https://pioneers.io/humanizing-hosting-getting-real-new-pioneers-19-mc-pairing/)
**Published:** March 21, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As the countdown to our flagship event on May 9th-10th starts to tick louder, we meet our new-look Master of Ceremonies duo. In keeping with the ‘technological walk through human life’ storyline that’s driving Pioneers ’19, we can reveal that your Arena Stage hosts will have a stronger human element than last year - neither of them is a robot! In this article we also reveal the names of a few more of the speakers who’ll take centre stage at the event...
**Content:**
In keeping with the ‘technological walk through human life’ storyline driving Pioneers ’19, it seems only right that the Arena Stage action will be hosted by two humans. That might seem an obvious course of action anyway, but if you think that then clearly you weren’t with us last year! Those who were at Pioneers ’18 would doubtless recall that Master of Ceremonies **Chris Wells** had a robot sidekick in the form of Pepper.
This year it’s time for something new, so Pepper’s gracefully rolling aside and making way for global social entrepreneur **Nikki Eberhardt**. No stranger to the Arena Stage after moderating a panel discussion on *Impact Through Technology* last year, she’ll team up with Wells to keep the show running smoothly. And, as she recounts, it wasn’t a difficult decision for her to accept the challenge.
“Last year my mind was blown by innovators, high-powered speakers and awesome moderators in the room,” she told us. “The backdrop was also amazing. When Pioneers asked me to return as co-host for 2019, I immediately said, ‘yes’!”
In Wells (below, with Pepper) she’ll have a partner who can share two years of experience as MC at our flagship event. As ever, the man whose voice is used for English announcements on Japan’s bullet train will be flying in from Tokyo to do his bit in Vienna.
“It’s the creative people and the interesting pitches that keep me coming back,” says Wells. “Not to mention the amazing setting at the Hofburg Imperial Palace!”
Eberhardt says her approach to her bigger role this year will be driven by the audience in the massive ballroom that’s the setting for the Arena Stage.
“I want to understand my audience so I can resonate with them,” she says. “As co-host, I try to imagine what will educate, connect and inspire so that I can enable Pioneers ’19 to deliver an amazing experience for attendees. Ultimately, I want them to get a large dose of inspiration in order to drive the next innovation that may change the world!”
We asked both Chris and Nikki – one a professional stage performance man and one a globally-connected entrepreneur what advice they’d give to the startups who’ll pitch at the Hofburg.
“My biggest advice would be to slow down and not rush through your presentation,” says Wells. “I’d rather see someone present a bit less information and have the time to deliver a well-paced pitch than see someone have to rush through due to lack of editing. And smile!”
“Bring your ‘A-game’ through passion, storytelling, tight differentiation,” adds Eberhardt. “Make us feel like we can’t imagine life without your innovative product or service and convince us that no other biz has the market edge you do.”
We’ll soon reveal the names of the fifty startups we’re selecting to pitch at Pioneers ’19. In the meantime, we’re happy to announce those of several more of the speakers whom Wells and Eberhardt will be calling up onto the Arena Stage during the two days.
- **Jayne Poynter, Co-Founder and former CEO of World View**, will give a glimpse into space entrepreneurship, including projects such as Stratollite and Voyager.
- **Professor Mark Post, CSO of Mosa Meat**, is the man who developed the world’s first lab-grown hamburger (which cost €250,000 and was bankrolled by Google’s Sergey Brin), and will talk about new trends in the artificial meat space.
- **Dr Daniel Kraft, Founder and Chair of Medicine at Singularity University**, will share his insights on some of the most powerful, promising and pioneering medical technologies currently under development.
- **Ghislaine Boddington, Co-founder and Creative Director of body>data>space**, a pioneering interactive creative design collective which has advocated for the living body to be at the heart of the digital debate since the early 1990s.
Meanwhile there’s also more speaker news for the 500+ attending seed and Series A startups, for whom the Academy Stage will be a focal point throughout the two days. One of those sharing their expertise there will be **Geraldine LeMeur**, Co-Founder of The Refiners, a San Francisco-based pre-seed fund, who’ll provide advice particularly valuable for female founders.
Also sharing wisdom will be **Chelsea Rustrum**, author of *It’s A Shareable Life*, who’ll talk about shared ownership and value distribution through the lens of the sharing economy and blockchain technology. And **Cameron Sinclair**, Co-Host of global media series *Human.kind*, will share his insights on building positive change in communities and human-centric solutions that address global issues.
*Want to book your place in the audience at the Hofburg? Grab one of the remaining tickets to join us in Vienna on May 9th-10th [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/).*
**Partners for Pioneers ’19 include Google, Mercedes and PwC Austria.**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [EU Digital Leaders, Pitching Startups Confirmed for GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/eu-digital-leaders-pitching-startups-confirmed-govtechpioneers/)
**Published:** March 28, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With GovTech.Pioneers just a few days away on April 2nd, we’re pleased to announce a final pair of headline speakers for our industry-focused event. On stage at the Vienna City Hall will be Austrian Federal Minister for Digital and Economic Affairs Margarete Schramböck and former Italian Government Commissioner for Digital Transformation Diego Piacentini. We also unveil the names of the pitching startups and another tweak to the format the finalists will face.
**Content:**
Pioneers is pleased to announce the former Italian Government Commissioner for Digital Transformation Diego Piacentini will be speaking at GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna next week. His talk is entitled *Innovative States*.
Piacentini brings recent experience of high-level digital transformation to the stage, following the term he served from August 2016 to November 2018. Reporting directly to the Prime Minister, he founded the Government Digital Transformation Team, building it to over 30 people working on key digitalisation processes in Italy’s public administration.
He is currently a member of the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) established to provide strategic guidance on the OECD’s 2-year, multidisciplinary project on ‘Going Digital: Making the Transformation Work for Growth and Well-being’. This project aims to help policymakers better understand the digital revolution that is taking place across different sectors of the economy and society as a whole.
Before working in government, Piacentini was Senior Vice President of the senior executive team at Amazon.com, responsible for all international retail operations and reporting directly to Jeff Bezos. Prior to that he was also a Vice President of Apple EMEA.
We’re also pleased to welcome Austrian Federal Minister for Digital and Economic Affairs Margarete Schramböck to our stage. Her talk is titled *Digital State of Austria 2.0*.
Before moving into government, she worked as CEO of Dimension Data Austria and then of A1 Telekom Austria. She took up her current role in early 2018.
We also have a few exciting details to announce for our startup pitching competition. Following the new-look final round we [trialled at Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/mobilitypioneers-finalists-praise-new-pitch-format), we’ve adapted the challenge somewhat for GovTech.Pioneers.
With four finalists instead of two, the category winners will each get to answer questions from the jury on stage. The twist is that the pitching startups will hear each question together – but only the one that hits the buzzer first gets to answer it. Each startup can answer a maximum of two questions, so they’ll have to choose wisely.
While the finalist startups won’t repeat the pitches that got them to the last round, they will get to deliver a 30-second summary after the jury grilling.
In the first round, meanwhile, we’ll use the Mobility.Pioneers system once again. That’s where the startup only gets the full allocation of time to complete their pitch if the jury likes their opening enough to hit their buzzer.
As for the startups who’ll be taking on this challenge, we’re happy to announce those we’ve selected to pitch. Already winners after emerging from over 270 applicants, these are the companies who’ll compete in each of four categories. The winner of each will advance to the final round.
**Citizen Collaboration:** CivilCops, DELTA Smart Technologies, Publidata, City Seeders.
**Education Tech:** Polycular, Edulai, Think Smart, Simlabit.
**General Govtech:** Evrotrust, Unigraph, Urbix, Avokaado.
**Cyber Security:** FindBUG, Mimirium, Relate Data, LogSentinel.
Selected startups will also be taking part in a variety of workshops the day before the event itself. These have been organized by Pioneers and a number of our GovTech.Pioneers partners. Topics covered include Artificial Intelligence & Automation, Digital Ecosystems and Citizen Collaboration.
*There are still a few places left for GovTech.Pioneers next week. Head [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers19#/) to join us at Vienna City Hall on Tuesday (April 2nd).*
**GovTech.Pioneers is supported by the Austrian Federal Computing Center (BRZ), STARTeurope, the Austrian PPPI Service Center (IÖB), the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance, the City of Vienna, Digital City Wien, Urban Innovation Vienna, the Vienna Business Agency, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT).**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Blockchain Startup LogSentinel Wins Big at GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/blockchain-startup-logsentinel-wins-big-govtechpioneers/)
**Published:** April 3, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Cybersecurity startup LogSentinel is the latest winner of GovTech.Pioneers. Victory in the industry-focused event at Vienna City Hall today (April 2nd) means not only a pitching slot at our flagship event in Vienna on May 9th-10th, but also a prize trip to New York to meet with the URBAN-X accelerator.
**Content:**
**Photo Credit: Sebastian Kreuzberger**
Cybersecurity startup **LogSentinel** is the latest winner of GovTech.Pioneers. Victory at Vienna City Hall today (April 2nd) means not only a pitching slot at our flagship event in Vienna next month, but also a prize trip to New York to meet with the **URBAN-X** accelerator.
The Bulgarian-Dutch startup beat off three fellow finalists in a new-look final round format at our latest industry-focused event. They offer a solution for governments to secure sensitive information in a private blockchain. This ensures that data is protected and cannot be tampered with – a worldwide danger for authorities from city to multi-national level.
Or, as Chief Operations Officer **Anton Gerunov** put it in his final round summary, “We are the guardians of truth on the Blockchain!”
“It’s not just fancy technology, but it solves a problem that governments care about,” said jury member and Urban Us\* Partner Stonly Baptiste at the winner announcement. “Cybercrime is a big and growing problem for governments, and it’s timely to present a new solution in this area.”
LogSentinel qualified for the final after victory in the Cybersecurity pitching track. Their fellow finalists were **CivilCops** (Citizen Collaboration track), **SimLab** (EdTech track) and **Avokaado** (Open Govtech track). A total of 16 startups from countries including India, Estonia, the United Kingdom and France were hand-chosen to pitch at GovTech.Pioneers. Over 270 applied for the event.
The juries used the Pioneers **FlashRate** platform to score the startups in both rounds. In the first round, startups faced the same 99-second buzzer we rolled out at Mobility.Pioneers. The all-new final round saw the startups themselves gather around the buzzer, hitting it for the chance to answer a maximum of two jury questions.
But the big stage in the magnificent ballroom (below) wasn’t just for our startups to tell their stories. Top industry speakers from as far afield as Los Angeles, Wellington and Tokyo also shared their insights.
Considering our startup winner, it was fitting that the loudest applause of the day had earlier gone to **Neil Walsh**, Chief of Cybercrime at UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). He used his recent hospital treatment for bowel cancer as a prime example of how cybercrime really can be a matter of life and death. In his case, a hack on critical machinery (for example MRI and CT scanners) might have had the worst of consequences for him.
This, and the words that followed, gave the audience pause for thought: “If you’re developing tech that might be used for ‘Crime as a Service’, selling it and not caring what happens with it, you need to think about what you are doing. Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should.”
But cybersecurity was just one of the items on the list of talk topics. One of the most honest speakers of the day was former Italian Government Commissioner for Digital Transformation **Diego Piacentini**, who reflected on his two years working on key digitization processes. Although he built a new team from the ground up, he stressed the importance of continuity in this line of work.
“We started from scratch, broke the legacy and built new processes,” he said on stage. “But we still worked on existing projects.
“You don’t want a new government coming in and starting over. It simply doesn’t work in digital transformation. I knew my term was two years and I started working on my succession plan six months before I left. You need continuity.”
Piacentini also mentioned the importance of culture in digital transformation – but he wasn’t the only one to touch on the topic. **Nick Gerritsen**, our visitor from New Zealand, was another to broach the subject.
“Transformation is about culture, not tech,” said the former Special Advisor to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. “Technology is the tool, but if you don’t have the culture to pick it up and embrace it, you can spend a billion Dollars and it won’t make a difference.
Collaboration between startups and governments fueled many a conversation throughout the day at the Vienna City Hall. And the City Data Officer for Los Angeles, **Sari Ladin-Sienne**, had some strong advice for founders looking to make a good impression on people in her kind of position.
“There’s nothing I dislike more than setting time aside and then having a founder just interview me so they can create their best new product,” she said. “The more research you can do going in, the more aware of local news you are, the better. Do hackathons; come informed. Be humble and ask questions of us, sure, but it’s a smart move to avoid asking that big-picture ‘what is your biggest problem’ question.”
And, to conclude, one networking success story! A conversation that began at last year’s GovTech.Pioneers bore fruit at this year’s edition, in the shape of a signed Letter of Intent between GovTech Polska and event partners IÖB (the Austrian PPPI Service Center). With this agreement, the parties commit to taking action to integrate existing solutions into a common innovation package open to entrepreneurs from all over Europe, thus improving the level of public services in both countries and helping the development of the global Govtech market.
Stay tuned to our channels for the GovTech.Pioneers highlights video!
\*The URBAN-X accelerator, for startups with solutions to offer cities, is a project of Urban Us and MINI/BMW.
*The next Pioneers event will be our flagship in Vienna. Pioneers ’19 goes ahead on May 9th-10th. Get tickets to join the palatial extravaganza [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/) – or check out last year’s video highlights [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/video-pioneers18-highlights).*
**GovTech.Pioneers was kindly supported by the Austrian Federal Computing Center (BRZ), STARTeurope, the Austrian PPPI Service Center (IÖB), the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance, the City of Vienna, Digital City Wien, Urban Innovation Vienna, the Vienna Business Agency, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT).**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Wikipedia Co-Founder Larry Sanger to Speak at Pioneers ’19](https://pioneers.io/wikipedia-co-founder-larry-sanger-speak-pioneers-19/)
**Published:** April 11, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In one of the most exciting bits of news ahead of Pioneers ’19, we’re pleased to announce that Wikipedia Co-Founder Larry Sanger will be speaking on the Arena Stage on May 9th-10th in Vienna. In this article we also reveal the names of several more who will help lead the audience on a ‘technological walk through human life’ at the Hofburg Imperial Palace. Plus, we share the names of some of the first confirmed startups...who knows, maybe the ultimate pitch contest winner is among them!
**Content:**
We’re excited to announce that Wikipedia Co-Founder **Larry Sanger** will star on the Arena Stage at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna on May 9th-10th.
While the American is best-known for his work establishing what has become one of the world’s go-to reference sources, Sanger will also share insights from his current role as Chief Information Officer at **Everipedia**. This is a project to create a Blockchain-based encyclopedia with a new incentive structure, which aims to improve on all fundamental features of Wikipedia.
Sanger has also helped start many other educational and reference websites, including Nupedia, Encyclopedia of Earth, WatchKnowLearn, Reading Bear and Infobitt. He has also written and spoken about the philosophy of the Internet and of online communities.
Like Sanger, professional racing driver and entrepreneur **Collete Davis** knows a thing or two about the ambition and achievement. She’ll dive into some of the common ground that goes into both motorsport and entrepreneurship, highlighting in particular that burning ambition that fuels both of these seemingly unrelated disciplines. Davis also works as host of Girl Starter, a reality television show which documents eight women aged 18-24 as they compete for seed-round funding.
With Pioneers ’19 taking the form of a technological walk through human life, we’re also happy to reveal a number of speakers who’ll share insights on how technology can stay close to fundamental human values even as it develops.
Appearing together for a fireside chat on the Arena Stage will be Center for Humane Technology Co-Founder **Aza Raskin** and Center for the Study of Existential Risk Co-Founder **Jaan Tallinn**. They’ll be delving into the critical topic of how to reduce risks associated with technological progress. They’ll look at how we ensure it remains safe and humane no matter what advances are made.
Another whose daily work revolves around ensuring that the human isn’t forgotten in the design life cycle is **Kerry McGuire**. And so the Space Human Factors Engineer at NASA will also be speaking on the Arena Stage! She’ll be able to share insights from leading a team which tackles the intriguing challenge of ‘developing tools that bridge communication and knowledge chasms.’
Also visiting from NASA will be its Chief Information Officer for Engineering, **Omar Hatmaleh**. He’s also the Executive Director of the Space Studies Program at International Space University.
While the possible expansion of human life into space is one of our key topics at Pioneers ’19, so too are the very beginnings of our human journeys. For the latest developments in the world of genetics, therefore, we’re pleased to be welcoming **Markus Hengstschläger** to the Arena Stage. Having formerly worked at Yale, he’s the Director of the Division of Molecular Genetics at the Medical University of Vienna.
And, as previously announced on our social media channels, World Bank Lead Economist **Wolfgang Fengler** will also take to the Arena Stage.
The latest of those confirmed to share practical learnings for innovators on our new Launch Pad stage will be **Kat Borlogan**. Kat currently leads the French Tech Mission, a government-led taskforce built to bolster the French tech ecosystem. She is also Co-Founder of Five by Five, a boutique consultancy that builds innovation teams inside organizations of all stripes, ranging from the World Bank to Google.
We’re also pleased to give you a sneak preview of some of the startups we’ve already confirmed for the event. This is just a handful of the 500 seed and the additional 50 Series A startups we’ve invited to join us at the Hofburg, and their industries.
**Transportation:** carplane, MOTIONTAG
**Fintech:** Value3 Advisory
**Advertising Industry:** Nexus Edge
**Augmented Reality:** AR4 GmbH, Apla AR
**Health:** CellmatiQ, D-EYE (Series A)
**3D:** 3D-SHARPER, TryMee
**Food:** Microgreenbox, iFarm
We’re currently finalizing the 50 seed startups who will be invited to take part in our pitching competition at Pioneers ’19. Soon we’ll announcing their names here and via our social channels – stay tuned!
*For the full list of speakers, including those previously announced, head [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers19#/). If you like what you see, grab yourself a ticket! 🙂*
**Pioneers ’19 is supported by Mercedes and PwC Austria.**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Exclusive Interview: The Guardians of Truth on the Blockchain!](https://pioneers.io/exclusive-interview-guardians-truth-blockchain/)
**Published:** April 16, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As Bulgarian startup LogSentinel reflects on victory at GovTech.Pioneers earlier this month, and gets ready to take up its prize pitch slot at Pioneers ’19 on May 9th-10th, we find out more details about their cybersecurity solution. In this exclusive interview, Chief Operations Officer Anton Gerunov tells us how this ‘good cop’ company uses Blockchain to make sure the bad guys on the internet can’t get away with misdeeds!
**Content:**
Short, sharp statements really wake up an audience. Catchy lines like ‘We’re the guardians of truth on the Blockchain,’ for example. When Anton Gerunov came up with that gem during the final round at GovTech.Pioneers earlier this month – he’s on the extreme right in the picture – the crowd applauded spontaneously. And it might well have been the line that helped LogSentinel walk off with victory in our latest industry-focused event. Victory that fast-tracked him into a pitching slot at Pioneers ’19 in just a couple of weeks.
It’s notoriously difficult to explain exactly what a Blockchain-based cybersecurity startup does, especially if some of your audience may not be specialists. But our latest experiment with final-round pitching formats certainly inspired the LogSentinel Chief Operations Officer to come up with something that resonated.
“That was a bit of improvisation, I think!” Gerunov told us in an exclusive interview following the event. “We’ve used the concept in our communication before, but not the exact wording.”
Nonetheless, it was arguably the most striking of the responses to the closing ‘Why should you win’ question our jury put to the four finalists at Vienna City Hall. The final-round format was all about answering questions, in fact, with each startup allowed to hit the buzzer a maximum of two times to give an answer to seven open questions from the panel.
For the record, Gerunov managed to buzz fast enough to get his full allocation of two questions. When asked ‘What will make you satisfied in 12 months,’ he explained that LogSentinel wanted to have its ongoing €1m seed round completed and to have turned its POC projects in Asia and the USA into paying customers – as they have already done in Europe.
Again, he’d done well to keep it simple. Sticking to traction and fundraising was a smart response for a startup that had a big challenge when it comes to explaining exactly what it does.
“Our solution is easier to show than to explain,” admits Gerunov. “Blockchain, private and public keys, integrity checks…everybody gets lost!”
Nonetheless, we’ll have a brief stab at outlining what LogSentinel does here. Gerunov takes up the story.
“In the real world, sometimes people do bad things. And in the digital world, people do bad things too! In both cases, they would like to erase their traces. If you’re a murderer, you want to hide your gun. In the digital world it’s the same. What we do is prevent those guys from doing that with advanced Blockchain tech. It’s no longer possible to delete their traces.”
Examples of such skulduggery in a Govtech context? It could be a government employee accessing personal data illegally. Or it could be a bidder trying to ‘edit’ the time of their bid during a tender process for a public contract.
LogSentinel’s premise is that Blockchain’s ledger of transactions makes it much easier to spot when digital bad guys have done something that smells a bit fishy. Erasing activities recorded on the Blockchain is, in theory, not meant to be possible.
Sounds great. But there’s a problem. Namely that you, me and some of the world’s biggest governments and companies don’t generally know how to ‘use’ Blockchain technology at all. Few understand it, so they would have to hire supergeeks to overhaul their systems at massive cost.
This is where LogSentinel comes in. They can integrate all the fancy Blockchain stuff with an existing system, so that the client can reap the security benefits whilst letting all that ‘distributed ledger’ recording happen in the background.
“Our AI can then point our clients to possible anomalies, fraud or criminal behaviour,” continues Gerunov. “We have wrapped all this into a single product. This is a control and command centre for the client’s information security team.”
The basic dashboard would look a little something like this the screenshot below.
The tick in the top-right corner tells you all is well…but if you were to see red up there, you’d know somebody was up to something! You can head [here](https://app.logsentinel.com/) to check out the actual demo on the LogSentinel website.
The essential offering is that the client can catch digital criminals pretty much in the act. But more than that, the audit trail LogSentinel is constantly creating is designed to be useful for a real prosecution.
“A lot of digital investigations do end up in a real court, looking at a real case,” says Gerunov. “Our product is devised so that the evidence collected in the digital world can be presented in a court. If your SysAdmin has stolen money from you, you don’t want to put them in a digital jail – you want to put them in a real one!”
Returning to the Govtech use cases we mentioned earlier, LogSentinel’s early traction has indeed seen the startup working with the Bulgarian government (and partners) to secure both access to information and the procurement process.
And the boost it got at GovTech.Pioneers will certainly help the startup get deals flowing – especially investment.
“The whole team feels quite excited about this. We’re getting some pretty good publicity, and a bit more recognition on the European scene. People need to know that this is the technological way to do the right thing, and this publicity enables us to evangelize that better.
“We’re currently trying to close our seed round – and this has given our potential investors some very good signals. We’re looking at concrete term sheets with investors, and of course they are asking things like ‘Is it only you guys and your ten or 15 customers who think it’s a good thing? Is it a validated concept?’ Winning GovTech.Pioneers gives them a positive signal that the product makes sense and we can go global.”
One thing we probably don’t need to explain here is that such a cybersecurity solution has applications well beyond Govtech. That’s something Gerunov will have in mind as he gets set to pitch to the more general audience (including many corporates) at our flagship event next month. He’ll have 49 other startups to beat, but if he keeps the smart answers coming, then he’s in with a good chance!
*Want to meet LogSentinel and over 500 other remarkable startups at our flagship event? Click [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/) to join us at Pioneers ’19 on May 9th-10th.*
**Pioneers ’19 is supported by Google, Mercedes and PwC Austria.**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers ’19 Latest: Pitching Startups Revealed](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-19-latest-pitching-startups-revealed/)
**Published:** April 18, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With Pioneers ’19 now just three weeks away, we’re excited to reveal the names of the 50 startups we’ve selected to pitch at our flagship event, which takes place in Vienna on May 9th-10th. We also share details of the prizes they’ll win - that networking trip to Silicon Valley is on the cards once again!
**Content:**
With Pioneers ’19 now just three weeks away, we’re excited to announce the line-up of **50 startups we’ve selected to pitch** at our flagship event, which takes place in Vienna on May 9th-10th. Hand-picked from the 500 seed startups we’ve invited to be with us at the Hofburg Imperial Palace, these are the lucky few who’ll have a shot at winning the traditional networking trip to Silicon Valley!
As usual, the startups will be divided into **seven pitching sessions**, each with its own topic. The jury for each of these mini-contests will choose a winner to advance to the final eight, who will pitch on the Arena Stage on the second day. The last finalist will be a wild card voted for by the audience.
Here are the tracks, their definitions, and the startups who’ll compete in each of them!
**Moving the World**
Mobility or logistics startups working to transport people and goods faster, smarter and safer.
*Startups:* Recogni, ONO, Naoris, MotionTag, Mashroom, ClearKarma, Carplane
**Working Smarter**
Technology that solves pain points for businesses, helping them to spend fewer resources on day-to-day processes or reach their goals more effectively.
*Startups:* ZAPIENS, Uhura, TPS Engage, Nexus Edge, Cubbit, ChiveOS, Alpha AR
**Digital Economics**
Startups working on payments and transaction technologies, investment tools and financial management breakthroughs.
*Startups:* Xencio, Value3, USDX Wallet, Trality, RealMarket, Auquan
**Augmenting Nature**
Deep science that pushes the bounds of nature, builds something new out of its elements – or puts it back in working order!
*Startups:* Oxford Cellentech, HepC, Genomtec, EcoPack, DropGenie, 9T Labs, CytoSwitch
**Powering a Sustainable World**
Startups with sustainable technology at their core, or which enable sustainable business practices.
*Startups:* SolCold, NiveauUp, MetGIS, HYDROGRID, Birds.ai, doro, Powhere
**The Good Life**
Technology that builds a safer, smarter or more enjoyable world for ordinary people.
*Startups:* Vicara, StoryBall, LogSentinel, H2L, crime.ai, Crashtest Security, COZYO, 1702ai
**Living Long and Healthy**
Devices and software solutions that diagnose, analyse or monitor health issues or help us to live healthier for longer.
*Startups:* HT Biolmaging, Gero, Komra, DX-Labtrack, contextflow, Breathe ILO, BrainTrip, 3D-SHAPER
For those that make it through to the final, it will be hard to keep their minds off the big prize enjoyed by all our winners in recent years: a networking trip to Silicon Valley. Once again they’ll meet some of the most influential people in the Californian tech hub, just like [Stromkind](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/interview-stromkind-makes-waves-usa) and [SzeleSTIM](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/silicon-valley-trip-sets-szelestim-storm-america) did in the last two years.
But there’s more to first prize than just an all-expenses paid trip for two team members to the city every startup wants to visit. Two team members will also get [Talent Garden Flex membership](https://vienna.talentgarden.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxt3gp57Z4QIV0eR3Ch1CkwzwEAAYASAAEgJl1fD_BwE) for one year. The winners will be able to get a video pitch professionally filmed by Austrian television network Puls4.
This year will not be a winner-takes-all affair either. Each of the remaining Top 8 finalists will get a [Talent Garden Club membership](https://vienna.talentgarden.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxt3gp57Z4QIV0eR3Ch1CkwzwEAAYASAAEgJl1fD_BwE) for one team member for a year.
Furthermore **Pioneers Ventures**, our own investment arm, has set aside **€500,000** for potential co-investments in Top 8 startup funding rounds led by investors participating in Pioneers ’19. This is at Pioneers’ discretion and subject to the necessary due diligence processes.
Following our recent experiments with giving the jury a ‘cut-off buzzer’ at Mobility.Pioneers and GovTech.Pioneers earlier this year, we’ve decided to use the same system for the first-round pitches on day one at Pioneers ’19. This means the startups will only be able to complete their 180-second pitches if one of the jury members hits the buzzer before the 99-second mark.
The Top 8 showdown on the second day will also see a few tweaks. Stay tuned to our channels for more details of how that final-afternoon battle on the Arena Stage will look this year…
*Check out the full Pioneers ’19 program [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/). And just in case you’re wondering, there are still a few tickets available!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Dancing & Dirndls: Pioneers ’19 Celebrates Austria](https://pioneers.io/dancing-dirndls-pioneers-19-celebrates-austria/)
**Published:** April 23, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Our flagship event is known primarily as an international gathering - but it’s also an annual meeting point for the very best startups, investors and innovators in the Austrian ecosystem. So this year we’ve added some Austro-spice to the program - including traditional dress and ballroom dancing! Fun and games aside, guests will also hear from some of the country’s most successful founders and ecosystem builders. So if you’re Austrian or are specifically interested in getting to know the innovation scene here, read on!
**Content:**
Our flagship event is known primarily as an international gathering – but it’s also an annual meeting point for the very best startups, investors and innovators in the Austrian ecosystem. So this year we’ve added some Austro-spice to the program – including themed networking, specialized content…and dancing the Quadrille!
One of the first things you’ll see when you walk into the Hofburg (a national treasure in itself, let’s not forget) will be the Stammtisch space on the left. This is a new networking area inspired by local social tradition. Here, experts and guests will gather to exchange their knowledge in themed sessions. Check the agenda for details and simply drop in for one that grabs you!
Another Austrian touch will be the new area for meetings scheduled by our **Match & Meet** networking service. We’ve moved this to the second-largest room in the Hofburg, the Grand Hall (*Zeremoniensaal*) right next door to the Arena Stage. With its grandiose chandeliers, the decor will be reminiscent of the typical Viennese coffee house – arguably the city’s primary networking institutions!
We’ll be ramping up the Austrian feeling on the second morning of Pioneers ’19. If you want to get into the spirit, we’re encouraging you to put on your *Dirndl* or *Lederhosen* – at least until lunchtime! Because the morning of May 10th will feature some of the local scene’s finest minds on the Arena Stage.
First up is the *Building the Austrian Startup Ecosystem* panel discussion, featuring Johann ‘Hansi’ Hansmann (Austrian Angel Investor Association), Selma Prodanovic (1MillionStartups), Oliver Holle (SpeedInvest)
and Michael Altrichter (startup300).
Then comes our *Building a Winning Startup in Austria* panel, where Florian Gschwandtner, Katharina Klausberger, Frank Westermann and Travis Pittman, the founders of local success stories Runtastic, Shpock, mySugr and TourRadar respectively, will share their insights.
All this builds up to a thoroughly Viennese experience at the end of the morning – dancing the Quadrille! This session will be led by Professor Thomas Schäfer-Elmayer of the Elmayer Dance School (Tanzschule Elmayer), grandson of the school’s Founder Willy Elmayer.
Schäfer-Elmayer, who now runs the school that bears his name, will also be leading a workshop on business etiquette in the Masterclass room later the same day. He is among Austria’s leading experts in this field, having written nine books on good behaviour. Each year he gives about 100 seminars on business etiquette to businesspeople across all industries.
“It’s not without reason that there are guidelines for behaviour,” says Schäfer-Elmayer. “Manners that facilitate social life many times over. Some have developed over hundreds of years. Some are constantly adapted to modern life. There exist new uncertainties in the age of digital communication, for which there seems to be no suitable one solution. At Pioneers ’19, I look forward to answering questions concerning international etiquette, professional behaviour and modern manners in the course of my etiquette workshop.”
As for the 550 seed and Series A startups joining us from all around the world, a good share naturally hails from our home country. This includes a few who have made our selection to take part in the pitching competition. One of them, **doro**, is from Graz, while the other six Austrian startups are based in Vienna. These are **HYDROGRID**, **ChiveOS**, **MetGIS**, **contextflow**, **Xencio** and **COZYO**.
Around 25 further seed startups from Austria were selected for tickets to attend the event. A number of ‘home’ startups will also be taking part in our Series A program.
Remember, you can use filters on our Match & Meet networking service (the link is [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/app/matchmakingdashboard/114) if you are a ticket-holder…) to meet fellow attendees from specific countries – including Austria!
*Want to experience some of that Austrian flavour at the mighty Hofburg? Then grab some of the last remaining tickets [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/)!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers '19 Interview: Reshaping the Asian Credit Landscape](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-19-speaker-interview-geoffrey-prentice/)
**Published:** April 25, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In two weeks today, Oriente Co-Founder Geoffrey Prentice will be speaking on the Arena Stage at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna. Read on for the first of two exclusive interviews with the former Skype Co-Founder. In this article, he tells us more about how Oriente is reshaping the credit market in South-East Asia. Thanks to their project, millions of ‘unbanked’ people in Indonesia and the Philippines are saying their sweet goodbyes to street-corner loan sharks...
**Content:**
“97% of shopping in our markets is offline,” says **Oriente Co-Founder Geoffrey Prentice**. “70% of people have no bank accounts and only 2% have credit cards.”
Prentice, who will speak on the Arena Stage at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna on May 9th-10th, is certainly not the first to notice the huge opportunities to improve financial services in places like Indonesia and the Philippines. Others have seen it, and acted upon it. Oradian, the startup that won our flagship event in 2014, are all about reaching the ‘unbanked’ too.
But there are many ways to skin a cat. **Oradian**, a classic startup story from Croatia, focus on cloud technology that helps banks provide services in remote or tricky areas. Initially that was in Nigeria, but their [ongoing growth](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/no-pivot-full-steam-ahead-rise-and-rise-our-2014-flagship-event-winners) has also seen them expand into the region Prentice was speaking about – they now have an office in Manila.
**Oriente** comes at the issue from a different angle. It provides a direct credit service to customers who still aren’t on that banking radar. Or who, even if they are, aren’t going to have much luck getting a loan. Prentice, who was a member of the founding team at Skype and later an investor at Atomico, had the connections and capital needed to build a new financial infrastructure and turn the whole thing into a going concern with hundreds of employees. All in the space of just 15 months.
Now, instead of going to **street-corner loan sharks**, Filipinos or Indonesians with zero formal credit history can go into one of Oriente’s affiliated department stores and have a realistic chance of getting credit on the spot.
“We are a virtual credit line. When people walk into a store they can download the app (Finmas in Indonesia; Cashalo in the Philippines), input all the relevant information, and within eight minutes we figure out if we want to loan them money. Then they can go and buy anything they want in the store.”
It’s a refreshing mix of digital and physical, and both artificial and human intelligence. Part of the reason it works is that there’s an Oriente employee in the store who can actually see the would-be borrower in front of them. But most of the approval machine works remote to the customer.
“We have a team of 100 data scientists in a KYC (Know Your Customer) team of 300 who are figuring out whether you should be given that loan in those eight minutes.”
Tech plays its part here, but so too does the common-sense human side that most customer-facing financial systems and regulators in the west have thrown into the trash can (along with cursing, frustrated users like this writer) as they worship at the altar of automation. For example, part of what happens during those eight minutes is a series of phone calls to the references the customer puts into the app.
“You can’t have a bot do that in eight minutes,” says Prentice candidly. “You won’t get your information.
The phone call is a judgement call, after all. One that is far easier for a person who knows the language, culture and likely spending customs of the area where the person lives.
“We have the best AI and the best tech in the whole world, but on top of that you do still need some people to do stuff. Tech cannot do everything in a market like this. Take facial recognition. There are so many fake IDs in these countries; you can buy them for five bucks on the street. We need a person to look at this to make sure that’s OK.”
The manpower expansion for Oriente is something to behold at the moment. Of course, it does help to be working in a market where labour is cheap. Nonetheless, Prentice believes technology will be able to do much of the work in time.
“My analogy would be that we know there will be self-driving cars at some point in the future, but Uber didn’t wait for self-driving cars. They started with real people, and in the future they will have not so many people.”
For now, though, approving credit is a team effort. And because there’s no central repository of credit information and regulation is non-existent or under development, no two cases are the same. Without some soulless playbook, anything can happen in those eight minutes.
“In the West there is checklist of things you need to get credit. In these markets everything isn’t as organized. From the information we get, we decide if it is sufficient or if we need more. It’s much more dynamic.”
Another boon to flexibility is that we’re not talking mortgages for a Jakarta penthouse here. The average approved loan is worth around €80. And if Oriente decides that the applicant’s history is too grey an area, there’s a great scheme to get them onto the credit ladder.
“If you’re turned down or we cannot figure out if you are really creditworthy, then we’ll give people a $5 credit to go to a store and buy something. If they pay us back we’ll give them $7 the next time. So they are able to build their credit score from the bottom up as well.”
Essentially Oriente is giving a potential customer a chance to prove themselves with an amount that the company can afford to write off. Can you picture your local bank doing something as imaginative as that? Kudos.
Worth underlining is that Oriente doesn’t give the actual customer money, just store credit. Oriente settles directly with the store the day after any transaction. A hassle for the shops, perhaps?
“Oh, the stores love us,” says Prentice. “We increase their sales by about 20% per month.”
So what’s next for Prentice, apart from getting on a plane to Vienna in a couple of weeks?
“Well, if you add up the size of the market in Indonesia and the Philippines, it’s a lot! We’re launching in Vietnam next, bringing the total to 420 million people. And their average age is 24. So we’re focused on those right now – it’s plenty!”
If you were hoping to hear more about Prentice’s Skype days, stay tuned to our channels for news of a **follow-up blog** full of his learnings. Trust us, it’s founder advice you won’t want to miss!
*Want to meet Geoffrey Prentice and 2,500 innovators from every other industry? Pioneers ’19 tickets are available [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/).*
**Pioneers ’19 is supported by Google Cloud, Media Apparat, Red Bull, the Vienna Business Agency and PwC Austria.**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [A Founder’s Guide to Pioneers ’19: How To Win At The Event?](https://pioneers.io/founders-guide-pioneers-19-how-do-you-really-win-our-flagship-event/)
**Published:** May 2, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With our Top 50 startups for Pioneers ’19 now announced, there are fifty entrepreneurs out there getting their pitches ready for our flagship event on May 9th-10th. And, as they plan the words they hope will take them to victory at the Hofburg, we thought this the perfect moment to look at some of the winning pitches from past editions. Was there a common thread in what they did right? Read on to find out if we were able to dig up some nuggets of good practice...
**Content:**
With our Top 50 startups for Pioneers ’19 [now announced](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-19-latest-pitching-startups-revealed), there are fifty entrepreneurs out there getting their pitches ready for our flagship event on May 9th-10th. And, as they plan the words they hope will take them to victory at the Hofburg, we thought this the perfect moment to look at some of the winning pitches from past editions. Was there a common thread in what they did right?
In much the same way that entering the 500-year-old Hofburg Imperial Palace is a bit like going back in time, watching the videos of former winners pitching is like playing a weird time-travel game. When we saw them present their startups live, we didn’t *know* they were going to get the jury’s vote. They were, in a sense, just another startup on stage.
Then once the victory champagne corks flew off and the bright lights of triumph begin to flash, the winning pitch didn’t matter any more. While the other finalists might have agonized over what they might have done better, the winners went off to party with the rest of us. And rarely do any of us go back and look at that successful stage presentation.
But when you watch the videos of these winning pitches a year (or five!) later, though, it’s actually quite insightful. Was there an obvious something that these startups did right? Any common threads in the way they built their presentations? Could we find some gold dust that might help this year’s crop of hopefuls?
**Pioneers ’13 Winner, Bellabeat**
*Watch the video [here](https://youtu.be/_6e8pVsx5e8), from 58m30s.*
Urška Sršen is arguably the best-known of all the entrepreneurs who’ve pitched on stage at our flagship event. In 2013 she pitched a product called Babywatch, but she’s since achieved fame following a pivot that resulted in the sensation that is Bellabeat.
Working with something as relevant to all of us as pregnancy, birth and existence itself gave Sršen a chance to establish an emotional connection with the audience up front. She did exactly that by opening with a statement that underlined the relevance of the topic for everyone in the room. That ‘every single one of you was a star’ line could hardly fail to engage each individual.
Having gotten everyone a little hooked and primed to see their own obvious connection with pregnant women, she swiftly moved onto outlining the problem these women face. She boiled the issue down to raw numbers: time and money spent. There’s an element of ‘shock factor’ here that works well considering how she moved directly on to providing a solution for that shock.
She sums up that solution in four words: ‘accessible pregnancy monitoring system’. While this might have sounded vague on its own, and she didn’t bring the device itself on stage, she did show a picture on screen. This brought the solution to life quite vividly.
Sršen was also smart to mention that she had co-developed this product with her mother, a medical specialist in the field. Underlining this partnership was a nice touch that fitted the narrative perfectly: take best care of your baby and one day you might open a business with her!
With this engage-problem-solution structure Sršen had already covered the key points by the two-minute mark. She’d already won the audience over – and juries can feel that! – so what came after didn’t matter nearly so much.
One interesting note from the Q&A session: jury member Andra Keay (Silicon Valley Robotics) picked up on exactly the potential for this device to be integrated in a wearable for the fashion-conscious. A few months later that was precisely the pivot Sršen made with her business. So pay attention to your jury – they’re wise people!
**Pioneers ’14 Winner, Oradian**
*Watch the video [here](https://youtu.be/TlMTTRVOPN4), from 48m00s.*
Oradian’s pitcher Julian Oehrlein also started with a strong tactic to grab the audience’s attention right away. In this case it was a question – and one for which he knew just about everyone would have to raise their hands in reply. Because when you ask a crowd of mostly Europeans if they’ve made a bank transfer in the past year, you can be sure you’ll get a ‘yes’ from most of them.
After that strong show of hands Oehrlein hit the audience hard with the problem they solve: “2.5 billion people have never done this,” summed it up just great. It was probably astounding news for an audience sitting in Vienna – but astonishment isn’t a bad thing at all when it comes to getting attention.
From there Oehrlein maintained a strong focus on the problem and client-side solution, but only in terms of what kind of client would use it, what they would use it for and how it would solve their problem. There was almost no mention of detailed technicalities beyond the top line description, so it was easy even for a non-specialist to grasp what Oradian was offering banks in terms of an easier, cheaper infrastructure.
And just in case those in the hall didn’t quite catch the impact or the size of the market, Oehrlein made sure to end with a strong and clear mission statement that tied up well with the beginning: “Connecting 500 million people through financial services.”
Oradian’s closing line was actually a great example of how much you need to think about context. ‘Financial services’ is a classic case of a vague industry term that could mean anything. It’s a phrase that can irritate, because it forces the listener to ask further questions – and they might not bother. In this case the audience had just heard the story, so it worked fine…but using it as a stand-alone line or even at the beginning of a pitch might have invoked a cynical response.
*Click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-19-founder-guide-part-2-more-pitching-lessons-past) for part two!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers ’19 Founder Guide Part 2: More Pitching Lessons From the Past](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-19-founder-guide-part-2-more-pitching-lessons-past/)
**Published:** May 3, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In one week today, on May 10th, the Top 8 finalists at Pioneers ’19 will pitch for the ultimate startup prize. Only one of them can walk off with the spoils. In the second article in a two-part series, we continue to look at what it was that set the winning startups apart in previous editions of our flagship event. Whether you made the cut for Pioneers ’19 or not, read on for more valuable learnings from those who’ve been there and won it!
**Content:**
In this second article in a two-part series ahead of the Pioneers ’19 pitching contest on May 9th-10th, we continue to look at what it was that set the winning startups apart in previous editions of our flagship event. If you missed part one of these practical learnings any founder can use for their presentations, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/founders-guide-pioneers-19-how-do-you-really-win-our-flagship-event) to read it. Or, if you’re already up to speed, keep reading to see what you glean from the last two years’ winning pitches.
**Pioneers ’17 Winner, Stromkind**
*Watch the video [here](https://youtu.be/fs957HtO3zs), from 1h16m00s.*
Just as Dronamics had also done in 2015, Stromkind showed the value of having a physical product (or at least a model of it) present at the Hofburg. Having taken up the offer of an exhibiting slot in the entry foyer, most of the audience and jury had noticed their water drone long before the final pitches. But, just to be sure, Managing Director Andreas Desch asked if he could take the sizeable machine up on stage as well.
Desch arguably didn’t wow so much his delivery as with the structure of his pitch. He didn’t do a memorable hook for the audience, but he did do a textbook job of jumping straight into the drone’s practical applications. Rather than resorting to vague, meaningless, top-line language about transformative aquatic technologies, he listed the drone’s three primary practical applications. What it could do, in other words, rather than what it was.
It wasn’t a classic problem-solution setup, but jumping straight into use cases has its own merits. You just have to be sure the jury will be able to see the problem your tech solves without being spoon-fed. Be aware of how specialised their knowledge is.
With those use cases out of the way Desch then got into the essential DNA of the product. What features allowed it to do those things it could do, or at least do them better? To do this he showed a simple diagram annotated with three ways in which the drone was a unique improvement on existing technology: non-clogging, integrated cooling, 70% higher efficiency. It was a great example of how to execute the ‘value proposition & unfair advantage’ step that should come early on in most pitches.
And with that, the essentials were covered. There was plenty of time left, in fact, to touch on the team (the fact that they were serial entrepreneurs made their credentials worth mentioning) and initial traction. Finally, Desch had a clear answer for all questions, using examples to illustrate his replies.
**Pioneers ’18 winner, SzeleSTIM:**
*Watch the video [here](https://youtu.be/qUKwqqWozWc), from 25m20s.*
Instead of an interactive question or a profound statement, the year’s ultimate winner Stefan Kampusch grabbed the audience with an eye-opening statistic. Not only was it impactful, but he made you sit up and take notice even more by coupling that ‘problem statistic’ with a bold solution statement.
‘There are 190 deaths per day due to opiate misuse. We are solving this,’ was all Kampusch said to get the crowd on his side.
Judging by the feeling in the room at that point, that was half the battle won. After this stark setup, the SzeleSTIM Co-Founder then added the essential details about that problem and how his company’s solution would take it down. This was simply a case of going a layer or two deeper into detail – and because people understood the first layer, they were more likely to listen to that detail.
As with Stromkind the year before, the startup illustrated the solution in the best possible was by bringing their (considerably smaller) piece of hardware on stage. The ‘vagus nerve’ technology that was key to its functionality, however, was summed up in just a line. As has so often proved to be the case with our winning startups, more detail wasn’t required in the pitch.
The rest of the presentation built on that foundation with an overview of the go to market plan and the team.
*Want to be in the mix for our future pitching events? Register for our online dealflow platform Piobay [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Festival ’19 Final Countdown: More Stars on Stage!](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-festival-19-final-countdown-more-stars-stage/)
**Published:** May 6, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** The big week is finally upon us! Pioneers ’19 goes ahead in Vienna this Thursday and Friday (May 9th-10th), and our team is already setting things up at the Hofburg Imperial Palace as we speak. While they prepare our magnificent venue for hordes of innovators to get inspired on the first morning, we introduce a final handful of headlining speakers. In this article you can also meet our jury and the mentors who’ll guide the pitching startups in their preparations.
**Content:**
The big week is finally upon us! **Pioneers ’19 goes ahead in Vienna this Thursday and Friday** (May 9th-10th), and our team is already setting things up at the Hofburg Imperial Palace as we speak. While they prepare our magnificent venue for hordes of innovators to get inspired on the first morning, here’s a final handful of headlining speakers who’ll be enlightening the audiences.
We’re delighted to welcome **Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili** to the Arena Stage, where she will take part in a discussion on Africa’s potential to grow into a substantial technology hub. A former Vice President of the World Bank (Africa Region), former Nigerian Minister of Education and founding Director of Transparency International, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Essex Business School in recognition of her role in promoting economic and social justice in African countries.
Meanwhile **Nichol Bradford**, CEO of the Willow Group and Executive Director of the Transformative Technology Lab, will bring her fascination with human possibility and technology to the Work Redefined discussion on the Launch Pad stage.
We’re also pleased to welcome **Ariel Kramer** of CELLINK to the discussion Making Dinner: Can Biotech Save Food Production?, in which she will share more about the rise of the 3D bioprinting company and the contribution its technology can make to our food supply.
If neurotech is your thing, you won’t want to miss **Matthew Bosworth** on the Arena Stage. Bosworth is Director of Cloud and Data Engineering as well as Data Protection Officer at EMOTIV, the global leader in contextualized neuroinformatics. He’ll be talking brain-computer interfaces, quantified mental states, and the virtuous cycle that occurs when everyone has access to technology and the resulting data is used for the good of all.
Finally we can reveal that **Sara de la Rosa**, Co-Ordinator of the Interagency Supply Chain Group, will be joining us at Pioneers ’19. She’ll be talking about the latest in impactful applications for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), which include health transportation, humanitarian situations, maritime security and public safety.
We’re also pleased to confirm the six jurors who will judge this year’s Top 8 final at the end of day two. The following are the brave experts who’ve agreed to ask the sharp questions and ultimately decide which startup gets ultimate glory at the Hofburg.
**Roman Scharf** (capital300)
**Marvin Liao** (500 Startups)
**Oliver Holle** (Speedinvest)
**Geraldine le Meur** (The Refiners)
**Sakshi Chhabra Mittal** (SoftBank Investment Advisers)
**Amy Wu** (Lightspeed Venture Partners)
But this is just the fraction of the over 30 jurors who will judge the entire competition, which begins on day one with 50 startups pitching in seven different categories. Meet the full list of investors, growth hackers, storytelling experts and serial entrepreneurs from across the international innovation ecosystem [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/participants/114/jurors).
We’d also like to thank the large group of mentors who will be working with the 50 pitching startups this Wednesday (May 8th), helping them to prepare for the challenges later in the week and beyond. Bringing the full range of expertise from all over the startup world, you can see their names [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/participants/114/mentors).
Now, if you want to set up meetings with attendees such as these at the Hofburg, make sure you head [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/app/event-error/114) to fill out your agenda preferences before tomorrow. That’s when our acclaimed **Match & Meet** system will start scheduling meetings – so make sure you’re in the game ASAP!
Of course, if you don’t have a ticket, then you’re going to miss out on all of this. But the good news is that there’s a quick remedy below!
*Click [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/) to buy one of the last remaining tickets for Pioneers ’19.*
***Pioneers* ’19 is supported by Google Cloud, Media Apparat, Red Bull, Raiffeisen Bank International, the Vienna Business Agency and PwC Austria.**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Storyball Takes Startup Victory at Pioneers ’19](https://pioneers.io/storyball-takes-startup-victory-pioneers-19/)
**Published:** May 10, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Storyball beat 50 top-notch challengers to emerge as the winner of the coveted Pioneers Challenge Award at Pioneers ’19 on May 9th-10th. The Israeli startup won a networking trip to Silicon Valley after pitching a smart toy that gets children away from screens and playing in the real world. Our flagship event, which ran as always at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna, saw 2,500 tech innovators, 550 startups and a host of top speakers come together to go beyond the tech hype under the ‘Walk The Talks’ theme.
**Content:**
**Photo Credit: Mark Somay/Pioneers**
**Storyball** beat 50 top-notch challengers to emerge as the winner of the coveted Pioneers Challenge Award at Pioneers ’19 on May 9th-10th. The Israeli startup pitched a physical product of the same name, which is a smart toy that gets children away from screens and playing in the real world. The spherical toy uses games, stories and challenges to get children physically playing and moving – without looking at a screen.
The startup has won a **networking trip to Silicon Valley** to meet the most influential people in the Californian tech hub, as well as a Talent Garden Flex membership and a video pitch professionally filmed by Austrian television network Puls4.
Storyball’s Chief Product Officer **Meir Biron**, with his long beard and bright yellow socks, was certainly the most noticeable of the eight finalists that pitched on stage at the end of the second day. And it was perhaps no coincidence that he was the only one to bring his product on stage – he even went so far as to toss a balls to the curious jury. In fact, Storyball was the third consecutive winner of our flagship event to have physically shown their work in the final round.
But what ultimately scored victory was perhaps the commercial potential of a product that is bound to attract the attention of parents who can’t work out the best way to let their kids grow up in a world of digital screens. That, and the fact that Storyball’s approach represents a really innovative take on their industry.
“I hope we came across with a message that technology can be served in a different way, and that going screen-free is something parents can think about,” said Biton. “I hope we’ll see more real-life experiences coming out, not just digital interfaces.
“I think people really want to see how technology can engage us more and make us feel more, rather than just consuming the bigger and better things. It’s about the purpose of what you’re doing, not just how you’re doing it.
The quality of this year’s finalists was something that struck even the happy winner.
“I don’t envy the jury at all – it was probably a really hard selection for them! All those eight founders are doing something that’s really revolutionizing the world. It’s an honour to be selected but all the other eight would have deserved it as well.”
Storyball qualified for the final after victory in ‘The Good Life’ pitching track. Their fellow finalists were **SolCold** (Powering a Sustainable World), **Auquan** (Digital Economics), **ONO** (Moving the World), **Oxford Cellentech** (Augmenting Nature), **contextflow** (Living Long & Healthy) and **ZAPIENS** (Working Smarter). The last finalist, **COZYO** (The Good Life), qualified as a wild card chosen by audience votes.
Each of the remaining Top 8 finalists have won a Talent Garden Club membership for one team member for a year.
A total of **1209 startups** applied for the event, with 500 selected free tickets. From these, the 50 pitching startups were hand-chosen to present their technologies at Pioneers ’19.
The ninth edition of our flagship event saw 2,500 tech innovators, 550 startups and a host of top speakers come together to go beyond the tech hype under the ‘Walk The Talks’ theme.
*Pioneers ’19 was supported by Google Cloud, Media Apparat, Red Bull, Raiffeisen Bank International, the Vienna Business Agency and PwC Austria.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Festival 2019: Check out the Highlights of Day One](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-festival-19-recap-day-one/)
**Published:** May 13, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As the dust settles on Storyball’s startup victory at Pioneers ’19, which took place in Vienna last week (May 9th-10th), we look back at some of the action on stage on the first day at the Hofburg. Read on for the first article in this two-part overview of the ninth edition of our flagship event.
**Content:**
**Photo Credit: Aron Suveg/Pioneers**
As the dust settles on Storyball’s startup victory at Pioneers ’19, which took place in Vienna last week (May 9th-10th), it’s time to reflect on the first of two magic days at the Hofburg.
Our flagship event’s ‘technological journey through life’ began with a look at the biggest picture of them all: space and humanity’s place in the universe. First, **Pete Worden** shared the latest on the Breakthrough Foundation’s search for life in Alpha Centauri, our neighbouring galaxy. NASA’s **Kerry McGuire** gave a fascinating talk on the ways in which automated systems can help astronauts deal with technical issues in the era of interplanetary travel, when response times from support on Earth could be as long as 44 minutes.
In a panel discussion featuring Worden, NASA’s Chief Innovation Officer **Omar Hatamleh** and **Jayne Poynter** (World View), there was a general agreement that humans could indeed become a transplanetary species in the future. “I thought we would be on Mars already!” said Poynter.
As the theme moved onto topics around the building blocks of our lives, **Erik Gatenholm** of CELLINK showed his company’s contribution to 3D bioprinting technology. “We’ve launched the most cost-effective bioprinter in the world, and are selling it for $5000,” he said. “That has really impacted the field, and we’ve seen it used to print human skin, hearts, muscles and corneas.”
After lunch (appropriately enough) the Arena Stage tackled the topic of food – and more specifically the idea of producing it artificially. **Mark Post**, the man behind the world’s first lab-grown hamburger, took the spotlight here, sharing more about how we can ease the burden on nature through biotech.
Later in the afternoon, Siri creator **Adam Cheyer** returned to his favourite stage to give **Bixby Studio** its global debut. Backed by Samsung, this is his next-generation tool which allows almost anybody to harness the power of machine learning to build a personal assistant. This would give smaller players a chance to create an assistant that isn’t ‘baked-into’ a huge corporation’s environment in the way that Alexa, Siri and others are. This would democratize the space and allow consumers assistant that really has their interests at heart.
“If you’re a third party in the virtual assistant world, you are a second-class citizen,” said Cheyer. “You do not have the tools a developer at Amazon has. We want to change that.”
After this premiere, the Hofburg was treated to next-level virtual reality as Varjo’s **Niko Eiden** showed off how his company has achieved human-eye resolution.
Oriente’s **Geoffrey Prentice** then took to the stage to share more about how his explosive company is bringing credit to the ‘unbanked’ in Indonesia and the Philippines.
“The demographics and the growth rates in South-East Asia are fantastic,” he said. “It’s a younger market even than China, and has an optimism that’s really fun to be a part of. I’m surprised more Western companies haven’t gotten involved in it yet.”
Then Blockchain came under focus, with **Ian Khan** (Futuracy) and Wikipedia Co-Founder **Larry Sanger** starring in a panel discussion that highlighted some of the real benefits of the technology. These include tackling fraud, breaking the trend towards centralization (especially of data) and preserving both truth and democracy. And they’re all independent of cryptocurrency hype. “Bitcoin is not Blockchain,” said Khan, “and I’m on a mission to separate the two.”
Then it was time to learn more about Non-Fungible Tokens, as eloquently explained by **Yat Siu** of Animoca Brands. His Fireside Chat with ex-Pioneer Rebecca Martin (now of Money20/20) touched on where the phenomenon of digital assets (for example ‘CryptoKitties’) might lead us. Among other things, that world could include your kids getting way richer than you before their ninth birthdays…
Talks aside, stage novelties included cyborg drummer **Moon Ribas** delivering a rendition of seismic activities in Austria since 1970 that gripped the audience for six minutes, and a futuristic fashion show by designer Anouk Wipprecht.
Head [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/story-pioneers-19-day-two) to find out how day two at Pioneers ’19 played out!
*For more on how Storyball won the startup competition at Pioneers ’19, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/storyball-takes-startup-victory-pioneers-19).*
**Pioneers ’19 was supported by Google Cloud, Media Apparat, Red Bull, Raiffeisen Bank International, the Vienna Business Agency and PwC Austria.**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Festival ’19: The Highlights of Day Two](https://pioneers.io/story-pioneers-festival-19-day-two/)
**Published:** May 15, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** After another memorable edition of our flagship event, here’s a look of the highlights from the second day at the Hofburg last week (May 9th-10th). Storyball’s triumph in the startup competition grabbed the headlines, but the build-up to the grand finale also saw ballroom dancing, hard-hitting storytelling workshops and plenty more top-class talks from international innovators and tech leaders.
**Content:**
After an intensely insightful first day at Pioneers ’19 (which you can read about [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-19-recap-day-one)), day two in Vienna saw plenty of action as our flagship event built towards its traditional climax – the Pioneers Challenge Top 8 finals.
Few will forget the sight of the Grand Hall *(Zeremoniensaal)* packed with would-be Quadrille dancers learning the moves of a Viennese classic with **Professor Thomas Schäfer-Elmayer** of the Elmayer Dance School. And while we would be lying if we said many of our tech innovators showed potential for a pivot to *Strictly Come Dancing*, it made for one of the more memorable interludes in our history. The Hofburg goes hand-in-hand with dancing, after all!
When it wasn’t playing host to Pioneering dance pairs, the Grand Hall simmered with meetings scheduled by our Match & Meet service. Themed like a Viennese coffeehouse and fuelled by a bottomless supply Espressomobil coffee, it was the perfect milieu for connections to spark. (Trust us, we tried it ourselves!) In all, over 1,500 meetings took place there.
Another highlight of the second day was **Lior Shoham’s** *Mastering the Art of Storytelling* workshop. The Launch Pad stage was packed for this practical session, in which Shoham showed the clearest and simplest ways to tell people what your startup does. We’ll let the attendees keep that secret sauce to themselves…but here’s a little from Shoham on why they need a full bottle of the stuff.
“Whatever it is that you do, your mother needs to be able to tell your story,” said Shoham, who actually invited his mom on stage to prove the point. “Every person who cannot explain what you do is a lost ambassador.”
Speaking of moms, the *5 Hacks to Boost Productivity & Effectiveness* session by **Susan Davis** on the Masterclass stage was also bursting to capacity. The mother of fellow speaker and Top 8 juror **Colette Davis** also kept it super-practical, giving our driven, busy attendees food for thought about how they manage their days. It’s fair to say not many of them realized just how much they were forgetting to breathe…
Back on the Arena Stage, it was onwards and upwards with the ‘technological journey through life’, where speakers tackled topics as thorny as eternal youth and artificial intelligence taking over the world.
The power of neurotech was also up for discussion, with Director of Cloud and Data Engineering and Data Protection Officer at EMOTIV **Matthew Bosworth** talking brain-computer interfaces, quantified mental states, and the virtuous cycle that occurs when everyone has access to technology and the resulting data is used for the good of all.
The main stage also welcomed **Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili** to a panel discussion on Africa’s potential to grow into a substantial technology hub. The former Vice President of the World Bank (Africa Region) was joined by **Maryanne Akoth** of TechBridge Invest and the University of Nairobi.
The room was packed as always for the Pioneers Challenge Top 8 final pitching at the end of the day (more on that here), and when the startups were done the audience was treated with one final look into the future whilst the jury deliberated. Here, Pioneers’ Reka Artner interviewed **Wolfgang Fengler** of the World Bank, who used data to question a few of the audience’s assumptions about poverty and population. He also showed the growing power of the middle class in mind-blowing terms: for the one person who emerges from poverty into the ‘vulnerable’ zone every second, five move up into the middle class in the same time frame.
But all that, folks, is merely a highlights reel of what went on across four stages of keynotes, insights, learnings and pitchings at Pioneers ’19. For the full experience, you simply had to be there!
*Click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/storyball-takes-startup-victory-pioneers-19) for all the details of how Storyball won the startup competition at Pioneers ’19!*
**Pioneers ’19 was supported by Google Cloud, Media Apparat, Red Bull, Raiffeisen Bank International, the Vienna Business Agency and PwC Austria.**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [2016 Pioneers winner Pleo Celebrates $56 Million Series B](https://pioneers.io/2016-pioneers-challenge-winner-pleo-celebrates-56-m-series-b/)
**Published:** May 15, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We had barely begun digesting Pioneers ’19 when we heard the news that one of our former startup winners had just secured a $56 million Series B funding round. Pleo, the Danish Fintech startup that took honours in our flagship event in 2016, thus became the most successful of our alumni (in funding terms) to date. Just another reason for this year’s winner Storyball to believe they’re about to go places!
**Content:**
We had barely begun digesting Pioneers ’19 when we heard the news that one of our former startup winners had just secured a $56 million Series B funding round led by Stripes. [Pleo](https://www.pleo.io/en/), the Danish Fintech startup that took honours in our flagship event in 2016 (see below), thus became the most successful of our alumni (in funding terms) to date.
Pleo is an all-in-one business spending platform that provides smart company cards to automate expense reports, thus saving companies and their employees time, money, paperwork and hassle. Having raised $16 million in their Series A round just last year, Pleo’s new injection of funds brings its total raised to $79 million.
“We’ve built Pleo to allow modern leaders to empower and trust all their employees to buy stuff for work, whilst making it transparent and safe,” say Jeppe Rindom, Pleo’s Co-Founder and CEO. “By putting our primary focus on the employee experience from day one, we have been able to achieve outstanding growth, receive rave reviews and enjoy strong customer satisfaction and loyalty.”
Today Pleo has 120 employees, but when they applied to attend our flagship event (then Pioneers Festival) in 2016, they had raised less than a million and had a single-digit workforce. As the screenshot from below shows, our Piobay digital platform is also an immaculate historical record-keeper!
With all those millions raised, 3,500 companies now using the platform in four big European markets and plans to grow the team to 400 by the end of next year, Pleo has exploded well beyond eligibility to apply for one of our pitching events (€3 million is our maximum funding limit) any time soon. But that’s exactly what we want to see!
“Nothing gives us greater pleasure than to see any of the startups from our history hit the big time,” says Pioneers CEO Oliver Csendes. “When it’s one of our former winners at our flagship event, then it’s an especially good validation of our selection and jury process. Our goal is to give innovators the network to succeed, and Pleo are clearly doing that. This is the reason we come to work every day, and so we’re celebrating with them this week.”
While Pleo’s incredibly simple core offering hasn’t changed – why fix something that’s not broken? – they now want to build on that with a strategy to own the entire purchase experience within business. The vision includes adding credit, invoiced, mobile payments, a vendor marketplace, VAT reclaim and much more. The latest funding will be used to fuel this product development as well as further rapid growth across Europe.
“While we are competing with banks in this one area, we’re not aiming to become one,” explains Rindom. “Instead we’re focused on being the best product for business spending, providing a brilliant experience before, during and after a purchase is made.”
We like to think that pitching successfully on the Arena Stage at our flagship event is a good omen for any startup. The latest to do so was Storyball, a smart toy company from Israel. Find out more about them and their seven fellow finalists from Pioneers ’19 [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/storyball-takes-startup-victory-pioneers-19). Oh, and come back in a year or three for news of their own Series B funding rounds 🙂
*Want to know how our other former winners have gotten on in their growth stories? Check out our full roll of honour [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-hall-fame-all-our-winners).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers ’19 Winner Interview: Storyball’s Inner Workings](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-2019-winner-interview-storyballs-inner-workings/)
**Published:** May 21, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In this article we take an in-depth look at Pioneers ’19 winning startup Storyball. In an exclusive interview with its Co-Founder Meir Biton, we learn what really makes the Israeli startup’s smart toy both unique and commercially potent. Because while Biton’s three-minute pitch during the Top 8 final round may have been the most successful of a high-quality bunch, there’s still only so much you can get across in such a short time. So read on for more on Storyball’s vision - and why they loved Pioneers ’19!
**Content:**
“Storyball is basically a bluetooth speaker,” says **Meir Biton**, one of four men behind the product that won his company startup honours at Pioneers ’19. “If you wanted to, you could pair it to your phone and run Siri or Alexa through it.”
Unlike most bluetooth speakers, **a Storyball is designed to engage kids** with its presentation. Depending on which ‘skin’ you pull over it, it could become a dog named Skye or a bear called Pepper. Alternatively, a spy operating as Agent Ayo. Or if you’re really lucky, Sesame the Splendid Unicorn! (Get a feel for them in the picture below) Later in the year, there’ll also be characters from hit kids’ television series PAW Patrol.
Okay, so it’s a bluetooth speaker with a pretty shell. And it’s designed to be thrown around (as it was during final pitching at the Hofburg) or withstand bouncing down a staircase. Very colourful and certainly kid-friendly, to be sure. But there has to be something more to this $69 smart toy, doesn’t there?
What does ‘smart’ actually mean? This is what we really wanted to understand from Biton, one of the four **Co-Founders at Storyball**, when we chased him down in China for an interview.
The ‘smart’ part isn’t that the ball can say things or make noises. Nor even that it can flash or vibrate. It’s the ability it has to respond to movements or actions, and to do so in a way that makes sense within an ongoing game narrative.
Here’s a simple example. You ‘dress’ the Storyball – as Sesame or Pepper, say – and then choose a relevant game or a quest on the Storyball app, which is paired to the toy via bluetooth. From that point on, the toy (voiced by Sesame or Pepper) will run the game directly with the child. The first step might be a challenge to run away from bad guys or catch a fish. When the child runs with the Storyball, its motion sensors know that it’s happening. Likewise when the child mimics the throw of a fishing line with the ball in hand, the motion sensors know that too. It can then respond with something appropriate that takes the game forward – perhaps a command to run further or the vibration of a fish biting.
This **responsiveness** is the Storyball’s ‘core’ offering. The startup hasn’t invented something new, but created a unique hybrid out of existing tech – and the potent ingredient that is a child’s imagination.
“This is technology that exists,” says Biton. “Motion sensors and smart algorithms, for example. It’s more about how we translated the game. We can know so much about what you’re doing with the ball and what’s going on around the ball that it really makes you feel as if it’s alive.
“It took us a long time to refine the game play – a lot of that is about the responsiveness of the ball. When it lights up or vibrates at the exact right moment or makes the right sound effect or says the right words. These are the things that make the experience, which is a narrative that makes you want to play and be a part of it.”
The central idea is to help get kids up off the floor, moving around in the physical world and away from staring at tablets and phones all day long. Storyball’s games can to be used by groups of friends, not just solo, so there’s a social aspect too.
Now, if you’re an adult reading this, you might well be thinking, ‘Well, if my child needs to get away from screens and into the real world, why can’t he just throw a regular ball with his friends? That’s all *I* needed when I was a kid!’ This is a more than valid question. But a trend is a trend, says Biton, and a ball turning digital is simply a sign of the times.
“If the mobile phone was a change for our generation, now the fact that objects are digital is a similar change. Physical and digital games that have a presence in real life, yet where objects start to become more digital…it’s going crazy.
“When we take toys and give them life, we give them ability to interact with the kids differently. This is our biggest market: toys that are responsive, interactive and especially solving the issue that kids are sitting in front of screens all the time.”
It’s worth remembering how utterly (and understandably) clueless the parents of 2019 are when it comes to deciding what sort of digital diet their kids should grow up with. They’re torn between ensuring their offspring will be equipped for a digital job market and seeing their kids getting outside and doing real stuff under the sun. With busy lives to lead, many are constantly fighting the temptation to use iPads as babysitters. Something like Storyball could look a good compromise to them.
It might also be fair to say that a lot of kids are more likely to listen to a fun character they can identify with than their parents. And perhaps they’re also more likely to stay engaged for a length of time.
Therein lies what might be a stroke of commercial genius. Storyball’s own characters are cute and collectible personalities – the kind of thing your kids might nag you for when present-buying season rolls around. The PAW Patrol characters are ones they’ve seen on television – hero dogs that children already know and more than likely trust to lead them through a game. No wonder Storyball and Nickelodeon have already found synergies there: the Tel Aviv startup and the American network are working hard on getting PAW Patrol content and ‘skins’ ready for September. It’s not hard to see how scaleable the idea of pairing with established kids’ brands could be.
Storyball had already **pivoted** once. When Biton and a couple of former school chums began working on it in 2016, it was a device to help patients with physiotherapeutic rehabilitation.
“Initially it was used for regaining motor skills. You had to use it with an app and it would measure different kinds of movements. We started with a very basic ball, with the screen telling the user to do things that were more than the ball ‘understood’.
“Then we put a speaker inside the ball, added a face to it, gave it voice and personality. The product became so engaging and so much fun. We saw the potential to use more of the tech skills we have to our advantage. That’s the moment we pivoted.
“We try to give gaming a positive and social-friendly aspect. There are a lot of rewards in the game that make you want to come back. And the good thing is that you are coming back to do things that are positive – running, jumping or passing the ball between two friends.”
Given that the investor-heavy judging panel at Pioneers ’19 voted for Storyball as their winner, it may come as no surprise that the startup’s funding is proceeding apace. Having completed a $500K pre-seed round shortly before Pioneers ’19, Storyball is already more than halfway towards securing a **seed round of $1.3 million**.
Victory in our startup competition will only accelerate that progress. Biton also says content in German is a step closer thanks to conversations they had at the Hofburg.
“For us Pioneers is the most exciting and strongest community in Europe. It was my first time there and I saw a very intelligent and digital community, as well as a very creative scene. There were a lot of brilliant startups, but you could also see things like drummers and opera singers that were creative. And edgy and innovative things that we really liked, like Adam Cheyer’s talk on Bixby Developer. I’ve been to startup events before but this one has very good connections and a strong vibe.”
If you’re looking to get a Storyball, [this](https://storyball.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders) is where you can order one. And [here’s a video](https://ksr-video.imgix.net/projects/3360179/video-898458-h264_high.mp4?ixlib=rb-2.0.0) showing it in action!
*Wondering where Storyball might be in three years? Check out the recent good news for our 2016 flagship event winner [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/2016-pioneers-challenge-winner-pleo-celebrates-56-m-series-b).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Create Customer Benefit, Don’t Just ‘Innovate’](https://pioneers.io/create-customer-benefit-dont-just-innovate/)
**Published:** May 14, 2021
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** A case study of an innovation lab within the Sparkassen Financial Group Germany
**Content:**
## A case study of an innovation lab within the Sparkassen Financial Group Germany
Don’t just create ‘innovation’, create products, services and real tangible benefits for customers. This was the declared goal of our project with [SPAYCE](http://www.spayce.de) — Payment Innovation Lab.
> “There are too many innovation departments and activities out there which are merely focused on developing prototypes that do not get developed further. We want, rather no, we need to produce real, sustainable benefit for our customers.”
This was the call to action the SPAYCE team approached us with. And oh boy, was that what we wanted to hear!
Two years in, we are looking at a 66% success rate of topics that made it through the initial filtering process, more than 100 engaged employees, and +150 (potential) customers we interacted with. How did this all happen, what did we create and learn, you ask? Well, let me tell you!
**Before we dive into our learnings, let’s talk about outcomes. We want to particularly talk about two projects that we executed recently.**
---
### Control your credit card remotely
Most banks require their customers to call a hotline in case they need to make geographical restrictions or if they need to fully block their card. This is obviously annoying and time-consuming, not only for the customer but also for service hotline employees.
Once the two-sided potential was discovered, we started to build a low-fidelity prototype to test if and how the customers wanted to use a potential application. After a first iteration, a prototype within the sandbox of a credit card scheme, including test credit cards, was created to also test the feasibility and the future implementation possibilities within the banking environment.
Especially in big organizations, technical feasibility and timing can be a major road blocker.
This is why we like to prioritise this topic very early on in the process. After a successful trial and having secured funding for the functional prototype, the solution is now in the midst of being executed and implemented within three institutes for testing in a real environment.
### Digital receipts in retail
To save time, paper, and nerves, and after validating the need with both potential customers as well as partners from retail, a solution to digitize receipts when shopping was developed.
At the very beginning, even before thinking about what a potential solution could look like, the intrapreneurship team engaged in an extensive discovery phase. The goal was to find out as much as possible about a specific environment and topic, either through research or conducting interviews. This not only helped to improve knowledge about the project but it also greatly improved the commitment of the intrapreneurs involved.
After the first stages, it was clear that collaborating with a startup makes the most sense since they already have existing solutions, as well as connections to retailers. Together with the customer base and connections of the Sparkassen Financial Group, both strengths could be leveraged.
**Now that you have an idea of what we achieved and how we did it, let us talk about a couple of learnings that we had along the way.**
---
### 1. Real work starts when the hype is over
Once the prototypes were tested and more and more knowledge about the future product could be acquired, the initial — “look at us, we are doing innovation by asking customers” — wears off, and the hard work starts.
This is where the nature of an agile project meets the corporate environment. Here, it is important to stay in the loop as long and intensively as needed to make it work. A lot of the time this can take up many resources – nearly as many as were required for the few stages before.
You, as someone who is responsible for innovation, have to make sure that what started out as an idea within your realm will make it to the customer. After all, this is your true and final goal, right?
### 2. Look at the macro and micro perspective
There are two perspectives of a successful innovation operation. The macro lens on the one hand looks at the stakeholders of an innovation hub, the mix of opportunities followed through (the portfolio so to say), and how to build an engaged network of contributors. The micro perspective on the other hand is concerned with the success and advancements of certain concrete opportunities. It ensures that outcomes will be achieved as well as wants and needs being met. Generally, both perspectives are equally important.
### 3. Identify needs & opportunities within customer groups
By involving customers, and customer-facing employees, and providing them with the right tools to identify and express their, or their customer’s needs, a broad range of potential opportunities can be identified. Based on certain parameters, a first selection can be narrowed down to a couple of topics that are then addressed within a “Discovery Bootcamp.”
This allows for a full understanding of the background, involved stakeholders and users of a specific opportunity. Only after this step can you fully understand and judge an opportunity. This bootcamp also made a huge difference in terms of team member engagement. Night and day actually. Intrapreneurs were much more engaged in the following process. It felt like proactive co-founders of a startup, rather than on the job extra duty.
---
Find out more about SPAYCE on [their website](http://www.spayce.de) and feel free to get in touch with them! If you are interested in exchanging learnings or diving deeper into the process of corporate innovation together with Pioneers, contact us via .
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights
---
### [Top 10 Workshop Games and Ice-Breakers 2021 – Edition #1](https://pioneers.io/top-10-workshop-games-edition-1/)
**Published:** August 20, 2021
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
Short workshop games, ice-breakers, and energizers are a great way to engage participants and keep up the energy throughout several hours of intense working sessions. Additionally, they bring in fun and laughter which is needed to foster creativity and an open flow of ideas.
As Pioneers we are always on the hunt for short and sweet activities. As many moderators use the same games such as the [Marshmallow Challenge,](https://www.marshmallowchallenge.com/) we have gathered top 10 less known workshop games for you. We separated them into 5 Energizers and 5 Warm-up Exercises that we want to share with you. These will bring the necessary spice to your workshops. We now open the curtain for the Top 10 Workshop Games– Edition #1: Energizers.
***Download Top Workshop Games** – Edition #1 with a detailed description of our favorite 5 energizers **[HERE](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/).***
## \#1 The Fitness Coach
**What’s the activity
Moving and stretching activities to wake up participants and make them move.
**How to do it:** 1. Gather all present participants (either virtual or onsite).
2. Prepare a set of 5-10 easy exercises and stretches.
3. You perform the exercises, and they go along with you.
4. Finish with a funny one like shaking out the whole body while jumping.
**Why we love it:**
“The Fitness Coach” opens all sorts of possibilities and can be used multiple times throughout a workshop series. People really enjoy it after overcoming the feeling of awkwardness.
**Time:** 10 minutes
## \#2 Do what I don’t say
**What’s the activity
People need to make moves based on your commands.
**How to do it:** **INTRO:** Tell people to stand up and follow your commands in **4 rounds**:
Round 1: Repeat the command and do what it says e.g. I say “Jump to the front”, everybody repeats “Jump to the front”, everybody jumps to the front.
Round 2: People say the opposite command and do the opposite. (e.g. “Jump to the front”, people say “jump to the back”, and then they jump to the back).
Round 3: People repeat the command but do the opposite. (e.g. “Jump to the front”, people say “jump to the front”, and then they jump to the back).
Round 4: People repeat the opposite command but do the first command. (e.g. “Jump to the front”, people say “jump to the back”, and then they jump to the front).
Repeat each round with several commands and people will for sure make lots of mistakes 😉
**Why we love it:**
People move, they laugh, and they make lots of mistakes which is totally fine. It wakes up the crowd and generates a nice positive energy.
**Time:** 10 minutes
## \#3 Ninja Warriors
**What’s the activity
People need to “fight” each other to become the best Ninja warrior.
**How to do it:** Tell people to stand up and that in order to wake up and get some energy we will play a championship/Olympic game called “Ninja Warrior” with only one winner in the end.
Then create a big circle of all people in the room. Each person needs more than one arm length space on either side of them, so if the room is too small, put chairs to the walls and flipcharts away.
How the game works
The game goes around in the circle (always in the same order of people even if the circle is gone) and each person has one fluent move to attack (touch) another person’s arm with his hand. After one person, the next in the circle can make a move. After every move, the person has to freeze (see picture) and cannot pull the arm back after an attack. Each person has two lives which are represented by the two arms. If one person hits the arm of another, it “dies”. If a player loses both arms he/she is out of the game. The game ends with one player that still has life (lives) = arms not touched by other players.
**Why we love it:**
It’s a super fun, strategic, and also wake-up game with lots of laughter (and competitive people) 😀 As it’s originally from South America many in Europe will have never played it.
**Time:** 10-15 minutes
For energizers 4 and 5 download our free pdf Workshop Games Toolkit – Edition #1 **[HERE.](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)**
## Do you like the workshop games and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with our workshop master @Michael Wlaschitz who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
Just send a quick mail to michael.wlaschitz@pioneers.io
**Michael Wlaschitz**
*Senior Venture Designer*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Methods & Tools
---
### [Can AI Reverse Climate Change?](https://pioneers.io/can-ai-reverse-climate-change/)
**Published:** May 23, 2023
**Author:** Philip Reuchlin
**Content:**
# Can AI reverse climate change?
It’s hard to find a topic more present in everyday discussions than AI at the moment. With the success of [OpenAI’s CHatGPT](https://chat.openai.com/), everyone has suddenly realized the potential that machine learning, natural language processing, and neural networks have – and we’re probably still scratching the surface.
But besides potentially taking over the world, building an endless amount of paperclips, and making lots of jobs redundant, are there areas within sustainability where AI can help us transition more quickly to a 1.5-degree world, avoiding the worst impacts of climate change? How can AI be used to reverse climate change? And finally, what effect does AI have on the climate?
### **Energy systems**
- **Forecasting electricity supply and demand:** To plan and schedule electricity effectively, it is necessary to anticipate both the supply and demand of power in advance. Machine learning (ML) can enhance these predictions by increasing their accuracy, enhancing temporal and spatial resolution, and measuring the degree of uncertainty. (Check out: )
- **Renewable Energy:** One of AI’s most potential applications in this field is in renewable energy. By utilizing machine learning algorithms, energy companies can now predict the output of sources such as wind and solar power with significantly improved accuracy, resulting in more efficient and sustainable use of energy. This, in turn, can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy security, and decreasing the expenses related to renewable energy production. (Check out: )
- **Improving scheduling and flexible demand:** Power grid scheduling algorithms face difficulties in managing sizeable amounts of time-varying electricity sources such as solar and wind power. However, machine learning (ML) can enhance these algorithms, enabling better management of storage and flexible demand, designing real-time electricity prices that minimize CO2 emissions. (Check out: )
- **Nuclear Fusion:** Although nuclear fusion has the potential to generate electricity that is both safe and carbon-free, the reactors currently consume more energy than they produce. Machine learning (ML) can contribute by proposing parameters for physical experiments and modeling plasma behavior within reactors. While extensive scientific and engineering research is still necessary, ML can accelerate the process by providing guidance for experimental design and monitoring physical processes. Fusion reactors require smart experimental design because of the large number of adjustable parameters, and ML can assist in prioritizing which parameter settings should be explored during physical experiments. As an example, Google and TAE Technologies have collaborated on a human-in-the-loop experimental design algorithm that enables TAE’s reactor to perform rapid parameter exploration. (Check out: )
- **Reducing life cycle fossil fuel emissions:** Apart from the inescapable environmental effects of using fossil fuels, natural gas pipelines tend to release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Machine learning (ML) has the potential to identify and avoid such leaks until society can transition away from natural gas usage. (Check out: )
### Mobility
- **Electric vehicles:** Machine learning (ML) is crucial for addressing various issues associated with electric vehicles (EVs). ML can enhance charge scheduling, congestion management, and vehicle-to-grid algorithms. Furthermore, ML techniques have been employed to improve battery energy management, such as estimating or optimizing charging in hybrid EVs and detecting faults and lateral misalignment in wireless charging of EVs. With the availability of in-vehicle sensors and communication data, there is an opportunity to comprehend the travel and charging behavior of EV owners, which can guide the placement of charging stations. Since battery electric vehicles are mostly idle for much of the day, they can serve as energy storage for the grid at other times, with charging and discharging controlled by price signals. There is significant potential for ML to enhance vehicle-to-grid technology using methods like reinforcement learning, which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from electricity generation. (Check out: )
- **Freight routing and consolidation:** Efficiently directing and merging freight shipments can significantly diminish emissions. Machine learning (ML) can assist in optimizing freight transportation by collecting data on suppliers, freight demand, and transit delays and utilizing this information to produce optimal transportation schedules. (Check out: )
- **Self-driving cars:** Autonomous vehicles have the potential to transform transportation by decreasing the number of cars on the road and the amount of fuel consumed. Machine learning plays a crucial role in the development of self-driving cars, such as performing fundamental tasks like tracking the road and identifying obstacles. While autonomous cars can potentially decrease energy consumption by alleviating traffic congestion and implementing eco-driving methods, it is also feasible that they might prompt a surge in overall road traffic, which can negate efficiency benefits. (Check out: [https://www.Tesla.com)](https://www.tesla.com)
### Buildings
- **Modeling building energy:** To enhance the energy efficiency of buildings, it is crucial to comprehend the growing volume of data generated by meters and energy monitors in homes. Machine learning (ML) can be utilized to simulate the energy needs of buildings, quantify the energy consumption of specific appliances, and assess the efficiency of energy-saving measures. (Check out: [https://new.abb.com/buildings/smarter-building)](https://new.abb.com/buildings/smarter-building)
- **Smart Appliances:** Intelligent appliances and control systems can aid buildings in reducing their carbon emissions. By utilizing machine learning (ML), heating and cooling systems can be managed more effectively, lighting and temperature can be adjusted according to occupancy patterns, and energy consumption can be altered in response to energy prices that are sensitive to carbon emissions. (Check out: [https://www.hank.re/)](https://www.hank.re/)
### Farms and Forests
- **Precision agriculture:** Conventional industrial agriculture practices contribute to the release of CO2 into the atmosphere by disturbing the natural chemistry and diversity of the soil. Furthermore, the use of chemicals required in this type of agriculture is emissions-intensive, both during their production and application. Machine learning (ML) can aid in monitoring emissions, reducing the dependence on chemicals by identifying pests, diseases, and weeds, and revolutionizing agricultural practices by utilizing physical robots. (Check out: )
- **Modelling carbon stock:** Modeling (and pricing) carbon stored in forests requires us to assess how much is being sequestered or released across the planet. ML can help identify tree species and heights from satellite and aerial imagery. (Check out: [https://pachama.com/)](https://pachama.com/)
- **Afforestation:** Strategic tree planting in suitable areas can assist in carbon sequestration and potentially enhance local ecosystems, provided it is done cautiously. Machine learning (ML) can assist in identifying appropriate locations for tree planting, monitoring the health of the plants, identifying and managing weeds, analyzing patterns and tendencies, and even utilizing drone technology to plant trees. (Check out: [https://dendra.io/)](https://dendra.io/)
### Physical systems
- **Climate systems:** Accurate measurements of environmental emissions play a crucial role in developing models that can simulate climate scenarios in the future. Artificial intelligence (AI) can assist in this process by providing more precise measurements and by processing remote-sensing data from satellites. Additionally, AI can be utilized to monitor the effectiveness of climate policies, which can help teams improve their climate models and strategies for mitigating climate change. (Check out: [https://climatetrace.org/our-approach)](https://climatetrace.org/our-approach)
- **Risk analysis and environment:** Artificial Intelligence (AI) is utilized to observe and record shifts in the environment, enabling prediction and response to environmental crises such as wildfires, droughts, and hurricanes. Machine learning algorithms can be merged with satellite imagery and drone technology to track and oversee alterations in land usage, water supply, and weather trends, supplying vital data to decision-makers to aid in the reduction of climate change impacts. (Check out: )
### The carbon footprint of AI
Ok, the consensus amongst climate and earth scientists is that machine learning models are powerful tools. Used wisely, machine learning has the potential to make climate science more widely available and applicable through the industrialized analysis of data. But what effect does it itself have on emissions, what’s its carbon footprint?
**To evaluate the carbon footprint of a machine learning model, it is possible to differentiate three types:**
- a) The carbon footprint generated during the training of the model,
- b) The carbon footprint produced when the model is used for inference after it has been deployed,
- c) The overall carbon footprint of the model throughout its lifespan.
**To calculate the carbon footprint of any model, regardless of its type, two key pieces of information are necessary:**
1. the quantity of electricity it uses and
2. the carbon intensity of that electricity.
\# 1 depends a lot on the hardware it’s running on, as well as the utilization rate of the hardware.
\# 2 depends a lot on how the electricity is produced, for instance, solar energy and wind energy are obviously much greener than coal for instance. To quantify this, one often uses the average carbon intensity of electricity in the grid in which the hardware is located.
*The artificial-intelligence industry is often compared to the oil industry: once mined and refined, data, like oil, can be a highly lucrative commodity. Now it seems the metaphor may extend even further. Like its fossil-fuel counterpart, the process of deep learning has an outsize environmental impact.”*
*-Karen Hao, MIT Technology Review (Karen Hao, 2019)*
MIT[ reported](https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/06/239031/training-a-single-ai-model-can-emit-as-much-carbon-as-five-cars-in-their-lifetimes/) that the cloud now has a larger carbon footprint than the entire airline industry, and a single data center might consume an amount of electricity equivalent to 50,000 homes. In a[ new paper](http://arxiv.org/abs/1906.02243), researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, performed a life cycle assessment for training several common large AI models. They found that the process can emit ca. 300 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent—nearly five times the lifetime emissions of the average American car (and that includes the manufacture of the car itself).
### Want to estimate the footprint of your AI model?
- The[ Machine Learning Emissions Calculator](https://mlco2.github.io/impact/#compute) can help practitioners run estimations based on factors like cloud provider, geographic region, and hardware.
- Best practices to reduce the footprint of your AI model:
- And if you don’t care about sustainability but instead want to see how you can build as many paperclips as possible, we really enjoyed this game. (the beginning is slow, but it takes off pretty quickly)
### Other noteworthy links:
[ChatIPCC](https://www.chatclimate.ai/) can converse about climate science, using the latest and most authoritative scientific papers as its data input.
## Do you want to know how we can help your company become more sustainable?
Book a short intro call with our Head of Climate [**Philip Reuchlin**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/preuchlin/) who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings. Just send a quick mail to philip.reuchlin@pioneers.io.
**Philip Reuchlin**
*Head of Climate*
Philip Reuchlin
Head of Climate [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/philip-reuchlin/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/philip-reuchlin/)
[  ](https://twitter.com/greenphilip) [  ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/preuchlin/)
**Categories:** Climate
**Tags:** AI, carbon footprint, climate, sustainability
---
### [Can AI Reverse Climate Change?](https://pioneers.io/can-ai-reverse-climate-change/)
**Published:** May 23, 2023
**Author:** Philip Reuchlin
**Content:**
# Can AI reverse climate change?
It’s hard to find a topic more present in everyday discussions than AI at the moment. With the success of [OpenAI’s CHatGPT](https://chat.openai.com/), everyone has suddenly realized the potential that machine learning, natural language processing, and neural networks have – and we’re probably still scratching the surface.
But besides potentially taking over the world, building an endless amount of paperclips, and making lots of jobs redundant, are there areas within sustainability where AI can help us transition more quickly to a 1.5-degree world, avoiding the worst impacts of climate change? How can AI be used to reverse climate change? And finally, what effect does AI have on the climate?
### **Energy systems**
- **Forecasting electricity supply and demand:** To plan and schedule electricity effectively, it is necessary to anticipate both the supply and demand of power in advance. Machine learning (ML) can enhance these predictions by increasing their accuracy, enhancing temporal and spatial resolution, and measuring the degree of uncertainty. (Check out: )
- **Renewable Energy:** One of AI’s most potential applications in this field is in renewable energy. By utilizing machine learning algorithms, energy companies can now predict the output of sources such as wind and solar power with significantly improved accuracy, resulting in more efficient and sustainable use of energy. This, in turn, can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy security, and decreasing the expenses related to renewable energy production. (Check out: )
- **Improving scheduling and flexible demand:** Power grid scheduling algorithms face difficulties in managing sizeable amounts of time-varying electricity sources such as solar and wind power. However, machine learning (ML) can enhance these algorithms, enabling better management of storage and flexible demand, designing real-time electricity prices that minimize CO2 emissions. (Check out: )
- **Nuclear Fusion:** Although nuclear fusion has the potential to generate electricity that is both safe and carbon-free, the reactors currently consume more energy than they produce. Machine learning (ML) can contribute by proposing parameters for physical experiments and modeling plasma behavior within reactors. While extensive scientific and engineering research is still necessary, ML can accelerate the process by providing guidance for experimental design and monitoring physical processes. Fusion reactors require smart experimental design because of the large number of adjustable parameters, and ML can assist in prioritizing which parameter settings should be explored during physical experiments. As an example, Google and TAE Technologies have collaborated on a human-in-the-loop experimental design algorithm that enables TAE’s reactor to perform rapid parameter exploration. (Check out: )
- **Reducing life cycle fossil fuel emissions:** Apart from the inescapable environmental effects of using fossil fuels, natural gas pipelines tend to release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Machine learning (ML) has the potential to identify and avoid such leaks until society can transition away from natural gas usage. (Check out: )
### Mobility
- **Electric vehicles:** Machine learning (ML) is crucial for addressing various issues associated with electric vehicles (EVs). ML can enhance charge scheduling, congestion management, and vehicle-to-grid algorithms. Furthermore, ML techniques have been employed to improve battery energy management, such as estimating or optimizing charging in hybrid EVs and detecting faults and lateral misalignment in wireless charging of EVs. With the availability of in-vehicle sensors and communication data, there is an opportunity to comprehend the travel and charging behavior of EV owners, which can guide the placement of charging stations. Since battery electric vehicles are mostly idle for much of the day, they can serve as energy storage for the grid at other times, with charging and discharging controlled by price signals. There is significant potential for ML to enhance vehicle-to-grid technology using methods like reinforcement learning, which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from electricity generation. (Check out: )
- **Freight routing and consolidation:** Efficiently directing and merging freight shipments can significantly diminish emissions. Machine learning (ML) can assist in optimizing freight transportation by collecting data on suppliers, freight demand, and transit delays and utilizing this information to produce optimal transportation schedules. (Check out: )
- **Self-driving cars:** Autonomous vehicles have the potential to transform transportation by decreasing the number of cars on the road and the amount of fuel consumed. Machine learning plays a crucial role in the development of self-driving cars, such as performing fundamental tasks like tracking the road and identifying obstacles. While autonomous cars can potentially decrease energy consumption by alleviating traffic congestion and implementing eco-driving methods, it is also feasible that they might prompt a surge in overall road traffic, which can negate efficiency benefits. (Check out: [https://www.Tesla.com)](https://www.tesla.com)
### Buildings
- **Modeling building energy:** To enhance the energy efficiency of buildings, it is crucial to comprehend the growing volume of data generated by meters and energy monitors in homes. Machine learning (ML) can be utilized to simulate the energy needs of buildings, quantify the energy consumption of specific appliances, and assess the efficiency of energy-saving measures. (Check out: [https://new.abb.com/buildings/smarter-building)](https://new.abb.com/buildings/smarter-building)
- **Smart Appliances:** Intelligent appliances and control systems can aid buildings in reducing their carbon emissions. By utilizing machine learning (ML), heating and cooling systems can be managed more effectively, lighting and temperature can be adjusted according to occupancy patterns, and energy consumption can be altered in response to energy prices that are sensitive to carbon emissions. (Check out: [https://www.hank.re/)](https://www.hank.re/)
### Farms and Forests
- **Precision agriculture:** Conventional industrial agriculture practices contribute to the release of CO2 into the atmosphere by disturbing the natural chemistry and diversity of the soil. Furthermore, the use of chemicals required in this type of agriculture is emissions-intensive, both during their production and application. Machine learning (ML) can aid in monitoring emissions, reducing the dependence on chemicals by identifying pests, diseases, and weeds, and revolutionizing agricultural practices by utilizing physical robots. (Check out: )
- **Modelling carbon stock:** Modeling (and pricing) carbon stored in forests requires us to assess how much is being sequestered or released across the planet. ML can help identify tree species and heights from satellite and aerial imagery. (Check out: [https://pachama.com/)](https://pachama.com/)
- **Afforestation:** Strategic tree planting in suitable areas can assist in carbon sequestration and potentially enhance local ecosystems, provided it is done cautiously. Machine learning (ML) can assist in identifying appropriate locations for tree planting, monitoring the health of the plants, identifying and managing weeds, analyzing patterns and tendencies, and even utilizing drone technology to plant trees. (Check out: [https://dendra.io/)](https://dendra.io/)
### Physical systems
- **Climate systems:** Accurate measurements of environmental emissions play a crucial role in developing models that can simulate climate scenarios in the future. Artificial intelligence (AI) can assist in this process by providing more precise measurements and by processing remote-sensing data from satellites. Additionally, AI can be utilized to monitor the effectiveness of climate policies, which can help teams improve their climate models and strategies for mitigating climate change. (Check out: [https://climatetrace.org/our-approach)](https://climatetrace.org/our-approach)
- **Risk analysis and environment:** Artificial Intelligence (AI) is utilized to observe and record shifts in the environment, enabling prediction and response to environmental crises such as wildfires, droughts, and hurricanes. Machine learning algorithms can be merged with satellite imagery and drone technology to track and oversee alterations in land usage, water supply, and weather trends, supplying vital data to decision-makers to aid in the reduction of climate change impacts. (Check out: )
### The carbon footprint of AI
Ok, the consensus amongst climate and earth scientists is that machine learning models are powerful tools. Used wisely, machine learning has the potential to make climate science more widely available and applicable through the industrialized analysis of data. But what effect does it itself have on emissions, what’s its carbon footprint?
**To evaluate the carbon footprint of a machine learning model, it is possible to differentiate three types:**
- a) The carbon footprint generated during the training of the model,
- b) The carbon footprint produced when the model is used for inference after it has been deployed,
- c) The overall carbon footprint of the model throughout its lifespan.
**To calculate the carbon footprint of any model, regardless of its type, two key pieces of information are necessary:**
1. the quantity of electricity it uses and
2. the carbon intensity of that electricity.
\# 1 depends a lot on the hardware it’s running on, as well as the utilization rate of the hardware.
\# 2 depends a lot on how the electricity is produced, for instance, solar energy and wind energy are obviously much greener than coal for instance. To quantify this, one often uses the average carbon intensity of electricity in the grid in which the hardware is located.
*The artificial-intelligence industry is often compared to the oil industry: once mined and refined, data, like oil, can be a highly lucrative commodity. Now it seems the metaphor may extend even further. Like its fossil-fuel counterpart, the process of deep learning has an outsize environmental impact.”*
*-Karen Hao, MIT Technology Review (Karen Hao, 2019)*
MIT[ reported](https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/06/239031/training-a-single-ai-model-can-emit-as-much-carbon-as-five-cars-in-their-lifetimes/) that the cloud now has a larger carbon footprint than the entire airline industry, and a single data center might consume an amount of electricity equivalent to 50,000 homes. In a[ new paper](http://arxiv.org/abs/1906.02243), researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, performed a life cycle assessment for training several common large AI models. They found that the process can emit ca. 300 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent—nearly five times the lifetime emissions of the average American car (and that includes the manufacture of the car itself).
### Want to estimate the footprint of your AI model?
- The[ Machine Learning Emissions Calculator](https://mlco2.github.io/impact/#compute) can help practitioners run estimations based on factors like cloud provider, geographic region, and hardware.
- Best practices to reduce the footprint of your AI model:
- And if you don’t care about sustainability but instead want to see how you can build as many paperclips as possible, we really enjoyed this game. (the beginning is slow, but it takes off pretty quickly)
### Other noteworthy links:
[ChatIPCC](https://www.chatclimate.ai/) can converse about climate science, using the latest and most authoritative scientific papers as its data input.
## Do you want to know how we can help your company become more sustainable?
Book a short intro call with our Head of Climate [**Philip Reuchlin**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/preuchlin/) who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings. Just send a quick mail to philip.reuchlin@pioneers.io.
**Philip Reuchlin**
*Head of Climate*
Philip Reuchlin
Head of Climate [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/philip-reuchlin/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/philip-reuchlin/)
[  ](https://twitter.com/greenphilip) [  ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/preuchlin/)
**Categories:** Climate
**Tags:** AI, carbon footprint, climate, sustainability
---
### [Validating Customer Desirability: 5 Incredible Tools | Part 2](https://pioneers.io/customer-exploration-tools-to-validate-customer-desirability-2/)
**Published:** July 27, 2021
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
**PART 2/2**
In [Part #1](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-tools-validate-customer-desirability-your-business-idea-wlaschitz/?trackingId=my%2FHKHoiQfuGt878Xf6jWw%3D%3D) my colleague @Michael Wlaschitz and I from Pioneers.io looked at how to define a target group and identify the jobs, pains, and gains of our customers. Now it’s time to validate the assumptions made using the following two tools. *(You can download all 5 tools for free on the Pioneers.io website* [*HERE*](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)*.)*
Let’s get started.
## 4) Define key customer hypotheses to validate
### **Tool**
Hypotheses Canvas (by Pioneers)
### **What it is**
The Hypotheses Canvas helps teams to formulate key hypotheses about the customer that need to be validated in order to be sure that the jobs, pains, and gains actually exist.
### Why you should use it
So far, following steps 1 to 3, the teams have defined the customer persona as well as jobs, pains, and gains based on their own experience, beliefs, and discussions. Building a solution based on this would carry a big risk that there is actually no market for a solution in this space.
Thus, the Hypotheses Canvas forces teams to question their assumptions and formulate hypotheses that need to be true for a solution to become successful. These hypotheses can be used in the next step to do customer validation experiments and help the teams to focus their research.
### **How to use it**
The Hypotheses Canvas builds on the right side of the Value Proposition canvas. Key Hypotheses should be formulated about each of the three fields: customer jobs, pains, and gains. Therefore, the teams should jointly use the Value Proposition Canvas and Hypotheses Canvas to formulate the most important (max. 15) hypotheses.
### **Pro-Tip**
The concept of hypothesis testing is new to many employees. Thus, again some examples can help to explain the importance. It is essential here to emphasize that any hypothesis needs to fulfill the following three requirements:
1. It needs to be able to turn out true or false
2. It needs to be actionable/provable
3. It needs to specify the customer persona that is analyzed
## 5) Validate customer hypotheses
### **Tool**
Customer Interviews – Interview Guideline
### **What it is**
Customer interviews are the easiest and most effective method in the early stage of a venture to learn about the target group. 30-45 minute 1-on-1 interviews about the topic at hand open up a lot of new ideas and provide the chance to validate key assumptions made in the steps before.
An interview guideline is a set of questions that helps teams to undertake interviews with a clear goal in mind, – namely validation of the formulated customer hypotheses.
### Why you should use it
Interviews are not 100% proof that any later developed solution will be successful (real proof only comes with real customers). Nevertheless, they provide an incredible amount of information that has surely not been considered by the team. In our career working with 30+ teams, there hasn’t been a single one not learning a lot from these conversations.
The interview guideline tool helps the teams to get even more out of the customer talks by providing a clear structure with a focus on validating hypotheses. It also allows the comparison of interviews and makes it easier to find patterns in the different answers.
### **How to use it**
The Interview Guideline directly builds on the Hypotheses Canvas. Formulated hypotheses should be translated into questions that can trigger information to confirm or falsify those hypotheses. Therefore, it is best to use these tools together again.
### **Pro-Tip**
For 30-45 minutes interviews, don’t prepare more than 10 questions in advance. Rather ask questions in between, such as “why” or “can you explain that in more detail”. This helps to deeper understand the customer and the reason for certain statements.
## Conclusion
Developing customer-centric, innovative solutions is not an easy task. Many times our own assumptions or beliefs about the customer get in the way. They lead us to develop solutions that do not fulfill any market demand or neglect important needs.
The presented 5-step approach and tools aim to avoid this bias and force teams to do their homework about the customer early on. Each new tool builds on the previous one. Thus the process does not only lead to effective customer analysis but also strong acceptance from the teams. They easily understand the value of each step of the work and ensure a more customer-centric innovation process.
***Download the tools** + examples for free at our Pioneers Website* **[*HERE*](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)***.*
\#inspire #empower #create #pioneers #customer #validation #testing #persona #userjourney #valueproposition #digital #product #design
## Do you like our customer tools and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with @Michael Wlaschitz who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
### [Book a 30-minutes Call](https://calendly.com/michael-wlaschitz-1/pioneers-intro-call)
**Michael Wlaschitz**
*Senior Venture Designer*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Methods & Tools
---
### [Validating Customer Desirability: 5 Incredible Tools | Part 1](https://pioneers.io/customer-exploration-tools-to-validate-customer-desirability-1/)
**Published:** July 15, 2021
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
**PART 1/2**
For several years, [Erik Muckenschnabel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikmuckenschnabel/) and I have been working in the corporate innovation space. In most of our projects, the goal is to develop new business models for existing and new external customers. Many times, however, we experience corporate teams struggling to think outside existing structures, technologies, and processes when developing new concepts.
To help our partners focus on external customers’ problems and validate the customer desirability for new solutions, we have developed an effective 5-step Customer Exploration Process. Based on existing and in-house developed methods and tools, the process can be applied to any innovation topic, business idea, or venture opportunity (*You can download all 5 tools for free on the Pioneers Website* [*HERE*](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)*)*.
Let’s get started with step #1.
## 1) Make the target customer tangible
### **Tool**
Customer Persona Canvas (by Pioneers)
### **What it is**
The Customer Persona Canvas is a workshop tool that guides teams to describe a fictional representative of their target group and create personas.
### Why you should use it
The Persona Canvas is an important starting point for any new startup or venture. It brings clarity to the team about who is the actual target customer or potential early adopter.
Describing a sample persona in detail helps teams take on the customer’s perspective and develop a solution with a clear customer in mind from the beginning. Particularly, for B2B business models, it helps to understand that “the company” is not the customer, but that customers are actual people – decision-makers and end-users.
This exercise also provides the foundation for a later definition of a customer-centric solution.
### **How to use it**
Print the canvas (see customer persona template below) on A2 paper or use a virtual board for the teams. Provide customer persona examples beforehand, so the teams feel awkward inventing a fictional person with a name, age, family, etc.
### **Pro-Tip**
When using a Customer Persona tool, be aware that many business models (especially two-sided marketplaces) require the definition of more than one persona. Many times your solution is targeting several customer groups at the same time. These also have different characteristics, language, background, etc. and later in the solution development also need to be considered separately.
## 2) Define the customer jobs and gains
### **Tool**
Value Proposition Canvas (originally by Strategyzer)
### **What it is**
The Value Proposition Canvas is a tool that helps teams to understand the problems and goals of their customers and how to design a value proposition and offer that solve them.
The right side of the tool guides teams in the definition of the jobs (goals/tasks), pains (problems, frustration), and gains (benefits of solving a problem) of customers. The left side, provides support to map whether a solution actually addresses the specified needs. In today’s article, we will focus only on the right side.
### Why you should use it
The right side of the Value Proposition Canvas directly builds on the persona definition. It helps to clarify and prioritize the customers’ problems and needs that should be addressed by a new solution. Furthermore, it provides the basis for defining the first hypotheses about the customer that need to be tested in the next step (more coming later in part 4).
### **How to use it**
As a first step, we focus only on the jobs-to-be-done and gains on the right side of the canvas. Here it’s about describing what the customer needs to achieve today and what benefits they get from completing these jobs/goals. We don’t just think about functional jobs (e.g. doing groceries) but also the emotional and social ones (e.g. feeling secure, building relationships).
### **Pro-Tip**
For teams working with this tool for the first time, the difference between Jobs, Pains, and Gains is not easy to grasp. Make sure to provide a good example of a pre-filled Value Proposition Canvas of any company the team members know.
To read a more detailed description of each field in the Value Proposition Canvas, read an [article by Isaac Jeffries](https://isaacjeffries.com/blog/2018/2/27/how-to-fill-in-a-value-proposition-canvas), who has done a great job explaining the tool.
## 3) Dive deeper into the problems of the customer
### **Tool**
Customer Journey Map (by Pioneers)
### **What it is**
A customer journey map is a visual representation of a customer’s process to achieve a certain goal or job.
### **Why you should use it**
The Customer Journey Framework helps teams to break down previously defined customer jobs into smaller steps. The teams take on a customer perspective and analyze the current solution process identifying problems and unsolved needs on the way. These can then be inserted into the Value Proposition Canvas (right side –> pains). The framework thus ensures that the pains are not based on a quick brainstorming of the team but on a deep analysis of the current customer’s situation.
### How to use it
Let the team decide on the 3 most important jobs defined in the Value Proposition Canvas and then let them fill a maximum of 3 different Customer Journey Maps (paper or digital whiteboard tool). This exercise will result in a long list of pains that can be further evaluated and prioritized.
### **Pro-Tip**
Working with different tools that are connected (Persona, Value Proposition, Journey Mapping, etc.) also requires a visual connection. If you run workshops physically, make sure that each team has a large enough wall to use all the tools side by side. Virtually, this can be easily achieved by using an endless whiteboard like [Miro](https://miro.com/), [Mural](https://www.mural.co/), or [ConceptBoard](https://conceptboard.com/).
## Outlook
In Part #1 we looked at 3 tools to help analyze the customer and his/her jobs, pains and gains using three tools. In Part #2 which we’ll share soon, we will show you how to test all the assumptions made in this process in order to have a validated basis for solution development. Stay tuned!
Download the tools + examples for free at our Pioneers Website [*HERE*](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/).
\#inspire #empower #create #pioneers #customer #validation #testing #persona #userjourney #valueproposition #digital #product #design
## Do you like our customer tools and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with @Michael Wlaschitz who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
### [Book a 30-minutes Call](https://calendly.com/michael-wlaschitz-1/pioneers-intro-call)
**Michael Wlaschitz**
*Senior Venture Designer*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Methods & Tools
---
### [Corporates Need a 500 Venture Strategy](https://pioneers.io/500-venture-strategy/)
**Published:** July 16, 2021
**Author:** Anton Schilling
**Content:**
## Companies need to put their corporate venture strategy on steroids and start 25-50 ventures a year every year for 5-10 years.
When large companies define their venture strategy they often aim to build businesses that will account for 10% of corporate revenues within 10 years — the so-called “10 and 10” goal. But given the rates of failure of new ventures, it is impossible to do this with a piecemeal approach, starting just a handful of new businesses a year.
> ### –
>
> ### “Companies need to start 25 to 50 ventures a year every year for five to 10 years.”
No, in order for venture building to really work, companies must take a portfolio approach, building not just dozens but hundreds of ventures. Companies need to start 25 to 50 ventures a year every year for five to 10 years in order to find the best ideas. We need to establish venture programmes on steroids, building a mix of long-term moonshots and short-term quick wins adjacent to existing business.
This portfolio-building on a venture capital scale — except that corporate ventures often don’t have the kind of money for venturing that VCs have. Venture capital funds have quite a lot of money chasing opportunities and what is considered a good exit for a VC would barely move the needle for a corporation. A startup with annual sales of $100m and valuation of more than $1bn is considered a winner for a VC. Corporations are usually looking for annual sales upwards of $250m for a new business line to be significant.
Think of various late-stage startups and their numbers (revenues and valuations etc) and put this in a corporate context — you pretty quickly realise that corporate venturing equals unicorn building.
What kind of business has the money and capacity to do this?
> ### –
>
> ### “Corporates need to invest 0,5-2% pre-tax earnings into new ventures”
Calculating different cases across sectors and industries we can simplify it by saying corporates (depending on industries) need to invest 0.5-2% of their pre-tax earnings into new ventures to establish a realistic chance of achieving the 10 and 10 goal. It is hard to find many examples of companies doing this — although BP’s aim of building five unicorns in five years, and [SAP’s internal venture building programme](https://sifted.eu/articles/sap-intrapreneurship/), which has so far created three businesses are the ones to watch.
## Build fast and kill fast
One of the secrets of doing venture building on this scale is validating fast and culling quickly. You need to cull two-thirds of all new initiated ventures every year.
Placing a lot of small bets in the early phases helps to validate fast. There are enough ‘zombie’ startups out there — we don’t need them in a corporate context. Serial intrapreneurs, who are scarce, need to dedicate their time to ventures with enough potential to pay off.
> ### –
>
> ### “’Failure culture’ is not established. Stopping a venture often means someone admitting to making a bad investment.”
The best way to do this is to establish investment principles with clear KPIs that need to be reached.
The main reason companies are bad at culling is that ‘failure culture’ is not established and internal politics leads to ventures being funded by internal sponsors with unclear decision-making power. There is often a huge conflict of interest when it comes to stopping a venture — it means someone admitting to making a bad investment, and this can be seen as harmful to their career.
One way to get around this is to establish independent (as much as possible) decision making processes with clear guidelines. Provide enough resources to validate fast and kill early if necessary. For example, there are amazing testing methods you can use without writing a single line of code — including ‘Wizard of Oz’ testing for mocked-up prototypes of products that don’t yet exist, click-rate testing, website testing and customer interviews.
> ### –
>
> ### “One idea would be for corporates to cooperate more with existing VCs to evaluate internal ventures.”
These kinds of processes should help move forward in the early funding stages (seed and Series A). In later stage investment strategies, where scaling and other factors become more relevant, the corporate will have to take decisions like a VC investor. In fact, one idea would be for corporates to cooperate more with existing VCs to evaluate their internal ventures — an interesting reversal of the usual relationship where VCs sell their portfolio companies to corporates.
Parts of this system might be brutal — the kill rate of projects would be high. But moving the needle means corporates finding a way to take an order of magnitude more shots on goal.
## Do you like the article and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with @Michael Wlaschitz who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
### [Book a 30-minutes Call](https://calendly.com/michael-wlaschitz-1/pioneers-intro-call)
**Michael Wlaschitz**
*Senior Venture Designer*
Anton Schilling
Managing Partner at Pioneers.io [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/anton-schilling/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/anton-schilling/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights
---
### [Corporates Need a 500 Venture Strategy](https://pioneers.io/500-venture-strategy/)
**Published:** July 16, 2021
**Author:** Anton Schilling
**Content:**
## Companies need to put their corporate venture strategy on steroids and start 25-50 ventures a year every year for 5-10 years.
When large companies define their venture strategy they often aim to build businesses that will account for 10% of corporate revenues within 10 years — the so-called “10 and 10” goal. But given the rates of failure of new ventures, it is impossible to do this with a piecemeal approach, starting just a handful of new businesses a year.
> ### –
>
> ### “Companies need to start 25 to 50 ventures a year every year for five to 10 years.”
No, in order for venture building to really work, companies must take a portfolio approach, building not just dozens but hundreds of ventures. Companies need to start 25 to 50 ventures a year every year for five to 10 years in order to find the best ideas. We need to establish venture programmes on steroids, building a mix of long-term moonshots and short-term quick wins adjacent to existing business.
This portfolio-building on a venture capital scale — except that corporate ventures often don’t have the kind of money for venturing that VCs have. Venture capital funds have quite a lot of money chasing opportunities and what is considered a good exit for a VC would barely move the needle for a corporation. A startup with annual sales of $100m and valuation of more than $1bn is considered a winner for a VC. Corporations are usually looking for annual sales upwards of $250m for a new business line to be significant.
Think of various late-stage startups and their numbers (revenues and valuations etc) and put this in a corporate context — you pretty quickly realise that corporate venturing equals unicorn building.
What kind of business has the money and capacity to do this?
> ### –
>
> ### “Corporates need to invest 0,5-2% pre-tax earnings into new ventures”
Calculating different cases across sectors and industries we can simplify it by saying corporates (depending on industries) need to invest 0.5-2% of their pre-tax earnings into new ventures to establish a realistic chance of achieving the 10 and 10 goal. It is hard to find many examples of companies doing this — although BP’s aim of building five unicorns in five years, and [SAP’s internal venture building programme](https://sifted.eu/articles/sap-intrapreneurship/), which has so far created three businesses are the ones to watch.
## Build fast and kill fast
One of the secrets of doing venture building on this scale is validating fast and culling quickly. You need to cull two-thirds of all new initiated ventures every year.
Placing a lot of small bets in the early phases helps to validate fast. There are enough ‘zombie’ startups out there — we don’t need them in a corporate context. Serial intrapreneurs, who are scarce, need to dedicate their time to ventures with enough potential to pay off.
> ### –
>
> ### “’Failure culture’ is not established. Stopping a venture often means someone admitting to making a bad investment.”
The best way to do this is to establish investment principles with clear KPIs that need to be reached.
The main reason companies are bad at culling is that ‘failure culture’ is not established and internal politics leads to ventures being funded by internal sponsors with unclear decision-making power. There is often a huge conflict of interest when it comes to stopping a venture — it means someone admitting to making a bad investment, and this can be seen as harmful to their career.
One way to get around this is to establish independent (as much as possible) decision making processes with clear guidelines. Provide enough resources to validate fast and kill early if necessary. For example, there are amazing testing methods you can use without writing a single line of code — including ‘Wizard of Oz’ testing for mocked-up prototypes of products that don’t yet exist, click-rate testing, website testing and customer interviews.
> ### –
>
> ### “One idea would be for corporates to cooperate more with existing VCs to evaluate internal ventures.”
These kinds of processes should help move forward in the early funding stages (seed and Series A). In later stage investment strategies, where scaling and other factors become more relevant, the corporate will have to take decisions like a VC investor. In fact, one idea would be for corporates to cooperate more with existing VCs to evaluate their internal ventures — an interesting reversal of the usual relationship where VCs sell their portfolio companies to corporates.
Parts of this system might be brutal — the kill rate of projects would be high. But moving the needle means corporates finding a way to take an order of magnitude more shots on goal.
## Do you like the article and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with @Michael Wlaschitz who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
### [Book a 30-minutes Call](https://calendly.com/michael-wlaschitz-1/pioneers-intro-call)
**Michael Wlaschitz**
*Senior Venture Designer*
Anton Schilling
Managing Partner at Pioneers.io [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/anton-schilling/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/anton-schilling/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights
---
### [Drones For Good: Working with UNICEF to Drive Business Model Innovation](https://pioneers.io/drones-for-good-working-with-unicef-to-drive-business-model-innovation/)
**Published:** October 29, 2021
**Author:** Andrea Mulek
**Content:**
*written by Michaela Stephen, Verena Judmayer, David Bierbaumer and Erik Muckenschnabel*
### **Earlier this year, we embarked on an exciting project with UNICEF to develop business model ideas for scaling their African Drone and Data Academy (ADDA) from the Malawian market into new African markets, and beyond.**
Under the vision of ‘Drones for Good’ and with a focus on business model innovation, we were inspired to share our goals and learnings from this project. Firstly, because we want to showcase the immense value to be captured in unleashing unused business model potential. And most importantly, we want to shout out loud about the extensive social impact UNICEF creates through their program and invite you to join their mission. So, let’s start by walking you through the African Drone and Data Academy…
### **What is the African Drone and Data Academy (ADDA)?**
[The African Drone and Data Academy ](https://www.unicef.org/malawi/african-drone-and-data-academy-malawi)(ADDA) is an initiative driven by UNICEF, currently based in Malawi. Their aim is to be a centre of excellence that will equip young people in Malawi and the African region with necessary 21st-century skills, while strengthening the drone ecosystem for more effective humanitarian and development response. The ADDA course, developed by the international project lead Virginia Tech in the USA, combines theoretical and practical methodologies in making, testing and flying drones. The curriculum allows young people to learn how to construct and pilot drones, to integrate them into a supply chain system, and to analyse drone data.
Now you know more about the ADDA, let’s dive into the goal of our project together to better set the scene.
### **Project Goal**
Our overall goal was focused on enhancing the global reach of the ADDA program by developing an innovative business model and scaling up strategy, which we split into 3 key goals:
1. Field analysis to understand the current market trends, status quo of the ADDA, and to start the ideation process
2. Business Model ideation process to develop final recommendations for UNICEF based on our field analysis research and results
3. Implementation support to select the models with the most potential and go through discovery and validation processes to understand if these would work in a UNICEF context, resulting in a final Go or No-go decision
### **Our Learnings from the Business Model Innovation Process**
Now you know more about the project and goals, let’s look at our key learnings so you know how to lay the foundations when starting your next business model innovation process.
## 1. Set the team & start with field analysis
Being an external team, we knew we needed to dive head first into the ADDA to fully understand the project itself, the stakeholders and the environment in which ADDA operates. To do so, we organised a kick-off workshop with project stakeholders where we broke the ice, got to know each other and most importantly, got to dive deep into the current ADDA business model and important drone industry trends to be aware of. This then set the scene for our field analysis work which was a crucial element of the project. We interviewed ADDA stakeholders, understood beneficiary journeys, researched market trends and performed a PESTEL analysis of the ADDA.
**Top tip**: this process took 2 months in itself so make sure to set your timeline and expectations up front with your team.
## 2. Use innovation methodologies to your advantage
Once we knew the field analysis results, we had the basis to build our first business model ideas. To do so, we utilised various innovation methodologies to our advantage to understand if our ideas could be feasible for UNICEF. Tools we used included: customer interviews, value proposition canvases and the social business model canvas. These tools enabled us to uncover who would pay for the business models, what value we can create for customers and how the overall business model could work to be viable, desirable and feasible.
**Top tip**: use these tools for each business model idea you create. It really helps to show comparisons between models as your progress, which results in faster decisions.
## 3. Feedback is your greatest gift
Once we had our final business model ideas drafted, it was time to gather as much feedback as we could from UNICEF stakeholders, as well as from external stakeholders. To do so, we organised various feedback and presentation sessions, recording all the results via our online miro board. This was a great way to understand if the model could be implemented and potential barriers that could perhaps be faced.
**Top tip**: encourage your teams to stay open-minded during this phase. No idea is ever too crazy, there is always a way to make it work and this mind-set is crucial in the business model innovation process. Otherwise, you could overlook potential game-changing ideas.
## 4. Discovery and Validation is crucial
As a last step, it’s incredibly important to ‘test’ your business model ideas before you officially launch them. At Pioneers, we have a wealth of experience in this area and various tools we use with our clients to help them discover and validate if ideas will work with real-life customers and processes. And great news! We have 2 blogs on this exact topic already covered. Check them out [here](https://pioneers.io/customer-exploration-tools/) and dive into the different tools you can use during the discovery and validation process.
**Top tip**: always start with the customer.
Now you know what it takes to drive business model innovation, let us know how you get on with your next project or [get in touch](mailto:discover@pioneers.io) with Pioneers if you would like to find out more about our approach to social business model innovation.
## **Do you like our approach on business model innovation and want to know more about Pioneers’ corporate innovation services?**
Get in touch with our Senior Innovation Consultant [Erik Muckenschnabel](mailto:erik.muckenschnabel@pioneers.io) to book a short intro call and talk about the Pioneers Business Model Innovation offerings.
### [Book a 30-minutes Call](https://calendly.com/michael-wlaschitz-1/pioneers-intro-call)
**Erik Muckenschnabel** *Senior Innovation Consultant*
Andrea Mulek
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/andrea-mulek/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/andrea-mulek/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Methods & Tools
---
### [The Tool Every Social Business Needs to Get Started](https://pioneers.io/social-business/)
**Published:** February 16, 2022
**Author:** Sophie Sorg
**Content:**
*written by Michaela Stephen, Verena Judmayer, David Bierbaumer and Erik Muckenschnabel*
### **At Pioneers, we have worked with various clients in the social innovation space. From supporting Europe’s top social entrepreneurs via the European Investment Bank’s Social Innovation Tournament, to working with UNICEF on business model innovation, all the way to launching our Scaleup4Europe Health Lab accelerator. We are passionate about pioneering with purpose. That’s why we are excited to share our go-to tool with you for starting your next social business. Let’s dive in…**
### **The importance of understanding social business models**
Often, ideas for social businesses are complex in nature. They are normally started by people passionate about creating a positive social impact and often, it is the idea of the social impact which can be created that drives the business idea forward. Therefore, there are more elements involved than in traditional business ideas, resulting in the need to map out how the social business will be viable, desirable and feasible, but also how it will create social impact. Understanding business models of social businesses is important because:
1. It helps you to understand the key elements of your business concept i.e. how elements will come together and function, especially in terms of social impact and revenue generating activities.
2. It enables you to test and develop your idea, ensuring it will result in a profitable and impactful business. This is relevant whether you are just starting out or at a later stage already.
### **Introducing our go-to tool – the Social Business Model Canvas**
And luckily, there is a very useful canvas for understanding social business models as a starting point. Developed by [the Social Enterprise Institute](https://socialenterpriseinstitute.co/), the social business model canvas is a twist on the classic version by [Alexander Osterwalder from Strategyzer.](https://www.strategyzer.com/canvas/business-model-canvas) Let’s take a deeper look…
![]()
## The Social Business Model Canvas
The canvas has 12 elements to be completed, all of which come together to show a first overview of your social business idea. You might already notice the ‘new’ elements of the canvas when comparing it to the traditional business model canvas: the mission statement, the social impact and the community reinvestment.
To start, you complete your mission statement. This puts forward the social change you aim to achieve and ensures this remains a central focus when developing your idea.
Next, you complete the customer segment, the social impact, the value proposition, customer benefits and marketing channels. These elements enable you to outline the value and market of your idea. It includes the social change you are intending to make with your business idea and the problem you will solve for the customers who pay for your product/service and thus, enable you to create said social impact. It also looks into how you will market your business.
> ”Being a social business means you need to balance the commercial elements of your business with the social impact you intend to create.
The implementation section is up next where you outline the key activities of your idea, the resources required and the key partners you will need to involve to deliver your activities. This section is important as it clearly outlines the key stakeholders you will need to involve in your idea.
As a last step, you complete the cost of delivery, revenue streams and the community reinvestment. This section enables you to understand how much it will cost you to run your product/service, how you will make money from it and finally, how you will then invest your profits back into your social mission.
## Conclusion
Being a social business means you need to balance the commercial elements of your business with the social impact you intend to create. In this respect, social businesses have models that can be tricky to balance but that’s where this tool can really help to outline the first steps to understand the complexity involved, and areas where things can be tweaked to make them work.
One top tip from our side is that you can also separate out the key elements of your idea into commercial and impact elements. You can then map out the commercial elements in one colour, and the impact elements in another. This way you can clearly see where the two overlap and where they are also separated. As a result, you can create a better understanding of how all elements come together.
Luckily, we’ve created an easy-to-use blank template to guide you through the process. Download it here and use it to kick start your first social innovation ideas. Interested in finding out more about tools you can use to validate your social innovation projects? Get in touch with us to find out more.
Now you know what it takes to drive business model innovation. For further information you can also read [our post on our project with UNICEF.](https://pioneers.io/drones-for-good-working-with-unicef-to-drive-business-model-innovation/) Let us know how you get on with your next project or [get in touch](mailto:discover@pioneers.io) with Pioneers if you would like to find out more about our approach to social business model innovation.
## **Do you like our approach on business model innovation and want to know more about Pioneers’ corporate innovation services?**
Get in touch with our Senior Innovation Consultant [Erik Muckenschnabel](mailto:erik.muckenschnabel@pioneers.io) to book a short intro call and talk about the Pioneers Business Model Innovation offerings.
### [Book a 30-minutes Call](https://calendly.com/michael-wlaschitz-1/pioneers-intro-call)
**Erik Muckenschnabel** *Senior Innovation Consultant*
Sophie Sorg
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/sophie-rab/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/sophie-rab/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Methods & Tools
---
### [What Is a Corporate Venture?](https://pioneers.io/what-is-a-corporate-venture/)
**Published:** January 5, 2023
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
# What is a corporate venture?
Currently, all corporate innovation eyes are turned to the topic of “corporate venture” or “corporate startups” building. While many talk about it, there is still a lack of a coherent understanding of what the term corporate venture really means. Some use the term to talk about risky projects, others about outside-the-core ideas or separate legal entities. So what is a corporate venture? At Pioneers we set out to create our definition
– so here we go:
## Corporate Venture Definition by Pioneers.io
### Corporate ventures are internally launched ideas or projects that are developed into separate units, divisions or companies with a dedicated team, positioning (brand, logo etc.) and a distinct offering from the companies core products and services.
## Difference to other corporate innovation terms
With the above definition, we want to make a clear **differentiation from 5 other innovation activities** or innovation types which are often mixed up:
### **1. Difference to “Startup Collaboration”**
Touching on the first point “*internally launched”*, in our view, corporate ventures are kickstarted from within the company. With that said, we would not consider the collaboration of a corporate with an existing startup as a corporate venture unless both parties start working on a new idea together. If a company uses an existing solution of a startup or acquires it, we would categorize it as a Corporate-Startup Collaboration.
### **2. Difference to an innovation project**
We aim to distinguish corporate ventures from internal innovation projects. Corporate ventures have their *dedicated team* (often including specific hires from outside) and operate highly independently from the core company. Many times, C-ventures are separate legal entities with a managing director hired for driving the venture. Internal innovation projects, on the other hand, are usually strongly linked with the core business. Project team members also work on other projects and are not “employed” by and for the project.
### **3. Difference to “New Products and Services”**
Thirdly, regarding positioning, corporate ventures are not just another service added to the company’s portfolio with a new name (e.g. a loyalty program by a retail company). For us, a corporate venture needs to go further and offer a *distinct branding and positioning* with innovative solutions that add up to the core offerings. While some C-ventures enter into completely new business fields (horizon 3 innovation = new customers and offerings), others only target a new customer group or offer completely new services to existing customers (horizon 2 innovation).
### **4. Difference to “CVC” (Corporate Venture Capital)**
Lastly, we want to make a clear distinction to CVC – Corporate Venture Capital. Operating a CVC unit or “doing CVC” is the practice of investing corporate capital into external, innovative companies. There are a few cases (e.g. [rready AG](https://www.linkedin.com/post/edit/7016064730934980609/?author=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_company%3A2940800#) from Swisscom in Switzerland) where CVC is invested in its own corporate ventures. In most cases, however, CVC is invested in external startups / scale-ups founded and grown independently from the company.
### **5. Difference to “Corporate Startups”**
For us, there is no real difference. Some companies might only consider corporate ventures as corporate startups once they have a different legal structure. The characteristics for us, however, are the same: *internally launched, own team & positioning as well as a distinct offering.*
What’s your definition of a C-Venture? Is there any other term we need to distinguish from corporate ventures?
## Do you want to know more on how we can help your company develop its own ventures?
Book a short intro call with our innovation manager @Sophie Rab who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings. Just send a quick mail to sophie.rab@pioneers.io
**Sophie Rab** *Innovation Manager*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Intrapreneurship
---
### [Pioneers Climate Summary 2022: Analyzing the Year From a Climate Perspective](https://pioneers.io/climate-summary-2022/)
**Published:** January 23, 2023
**Author:** Philip Reuchlin
**Content:**
# Pioneers Climate Summary 2022: Analyzing the year from a climate perspective
As the new year has started we would like to share our climate change highlights and lowlights from this busy, dramatic and long year 2022.
## Low points
- The climate gap is widening: the climate gap is the gap between where science tells us we should be and where we actually are. We should be reducing our emissions by between 7-8% per year. In 2022 the world will emit the **highest amount of CO2 emissions EVER.**[ Read more.](https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-global-co2-emissions-from-fossil-fuels-hit-record-high-in-2022)
- The emissions of 20 years ago are already intensifying natural disasters. It was the **4th warmest year** on record, only 2016, 2017 and 2020 were warmer.[ Read more.](https://www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-climate-2022-to-date-is-fourth-warmest-year-on-record/)
- **Europe** was hit by **heatwaves**, fires and **flooding**, as was China.[ Read more.](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/24/over-20000-died-western-europe-heatwaves-figures-climate-crisis)
- Devastating **floods hit Pakistan**, displacing 30-50 million people.[ Read more.](https://www.npr.org/2022/09/19/1123798981/climate-change-likely-helped-cause-deadly-pakistan-floods-scientists-find)
- The COP27 conference in Sharm el Sheikh largely underwhelmed expectations, which were already low.[ Read more.](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/20/cop27-climate-summit-egypt-key-outcomes)
- **Solar energy got more expensive,** driven by material and energy prices.[ Read more.](https://about.bnef.com/blog/cost-of-new-renewables-temporarily-rises-as-inflation-starts-to-bite/)
## High points
- Scientists managed a **fusion energy breakthrough**: they produced the first fusion reaction in a laboratory that created more energy than it took to start it.[ Read more.](https://www.cnet.com/science/what-the-fusion-energy-breakthrough-really-means/)
- **Ethereum**, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, **slashed its CO2 emissions** by 99.999% by switching to PoS.[ Read more.](about:blank)
- Patagonia initiated a **new form of climate philanthropy** by transferring 2% of voting and 98% of non-voting stock toward causes to fight the climate crisis.[ Read more.](https://www.patagonia.com/ownership/)
- Alphabet, Meta, McKinsey, Shopify, and Stripe launched[ Frontier,](https://carbon180.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4823fd7f19ac2e684f23c310e&id=fc1883717c&e=9a63bdf0f7) an advanced market **commitment for carbon removal** worth $925 million, sending a demand signal to potential buyers and sellers.
- **CSRD** regulations were accepted in the EU – committing many companies to **report on ESG** topics.[ Read more.](https://finance.ec.europa.eu/capital-markets-union-and-financial-markets/company-reporting-and-auditing/company-reporting/corporate-sustainability-reporting_en)
- Climate action received a big financial boost through the **Inflation Reduction Act** in the USA.[ Read more.](https://www.credit-suisse.com/about-us-news/en/articles/news-and-expertise/us-inflation-reduction-act-a-catalyst-for-climate-action-202211.html)
- We launched our **Climate Tech report**, featuring the most promising startups with the potential to dramatically reduce, store or track emissions. [Download here.](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=5989)
We remain optimistic that through collaboration and innovation, we can tackle the world’s biggest challenges. The Ukrainian war has contributed to an awareness of the fragility of our worldviews as well as the need for systems powered by renewable energy and circular material flows. We will contribute to closing, with our partners and clients, the “climate innovation gap”.
Have a good start to the new year.
## Do you want to know more on how we can help your company become more sustainable?
Book a short intro call with our Head of Climate [**Philip Reuchlin**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/preuchlin/) who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings. Just send a quick mail to philip.reuchlin@pioneers.io.
**Philip Reuchlin** *Head of Climate*
Philip Reuchlin
Head of Climate [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/philip-reuchlin/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/philip-reuchlin/)
[  ](https://twitter.com/greenphilip) [  ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/preuchlin/)
**Categories:** Climate, Corporate Innovation Insights
**Tags:** climate
---
### [From Established Industry to Green Hydrogen Innovation - ANDRITZ’s Remarkable Venture Journey | Part 1](https://pioneers.io/green-hydrogen-venture-journey-andritz-part-1/)
**Published:** March 27, 2024
**Author:** Michael Obrist
**Content:**
## *Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #1: ANDRITZ – Part 1*
***Part 1 – The birth and development of the idea during the Andritz Venture Startup Contest***
**A conversation between Peter Eisenköck, Vice President of Global Sales and Service for Green Hydrogen at ANDRITZ, and Michael Obrist, Innovation Manager at Pioneers**
Peter Eisenköck has played an essential role in establishing ANDRITZ as a key European player in industrial-scale green hydrogen production. His journey began with the 2021 ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest – a global intrapreneurship program that we have backed for several years as strategic partners and coaches. Peter and his team submitted a green hydrogen idea concept to the contest, recognizing its market potential. After rapid customer and market validation, ANDRITZ formed a technological partnership and launched its own hydrogen department in early 2022.
In the discussion with Peter, we dive deeper into his personal entrepreneurial journey, the team’s accomplishments and success factors along the way from validating to scaling a venture within such a short time frame.
***In this first part, we’ll explore Peter’s key role in ANDRITZ’s journey into green hydrogen, covering how the idea came to life and how the team succeeded in the Venture Startup Contest.***
**Michael Obrist, Pioneers: Peter, we first met in 2021 at the Idea Bootcamp of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. Already back then, you were convinced of the idea’s potential. Can you share more about this initial phase?**
**Peter Eisenköck:**
My journey began even before the Venture Contest as part of my role as Director of Innovation and Business Development in the Metals processing Division of ANDRITZ. I got increasingly interested in the whole topic of green hydrogen and after some research, I became convinced that it’s an important strategic area for ANDRITZ to move into. I applied for the contest to gain more support and resources for development.
Once accepted, I collaborated with my former manager, Willi Karner, who I persuaded to come out of retirement to support me with my idea \[laughing\]. We spent the initial months building our expertise on the topic and assessing its value for our clients. We quickly found proof on the customer, market and technology aspects, that this could indeed become a high-potential opportunity.
###### *Peter Eisenköck, VP of Global Sales and Service for Green Hydrogen at ANDRITZ and corporate entrepreneur*
> ”Our aim was to play a central role in the global green energy transition. With our vast experience within ANDRITZ in the metals industry, I recognized hydrogen's potential to reduce CO2 emissions substantially.
**At the time when you started the project, many players were already investigating the potential of green hydrogen production and tried to make a business out of it. Where did you see the competitive edge of ANDRITZ going into this market over many innovative players/startups already being positioned in the field?**
The hydrogen market is still in strong development and there is not one standardized solution on the market. At the same time, investments needed to enter the market at industrial scale are substantial. So, while startups might have a maturely developed technology, they lack the necessary trust and credibility needed to offer a large scale, integrated industrial solution. This is where we came into play. ANDRITZ is skilled and known for managing large-scale plant projects, from engineering design to construction planning to efficient operations and maintenance execution.
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
> ”Thanks to ANDRITZ's core assets and market trust, we had a strong edge with our venture over hydrogen startups.
**Yes, you could definitely leverage ANDRITZ’s experience in large-scale manufacturing. However, you had to validate some key aspects in the beginning to showcase internally that this was indeed a worthwhile venture idea. How did you do that?**
Yes, absolutely. Moving into large-scale industrial solutions has always a huge potential upside, but it is also associated with substantial investment risks. So our early validation work was crucial. We did this through customer interviews, market data, and a first technological feasibility assessment. Secondly, we onboarded our own Metals department management and received valuable feedback.
With their support, we presented our concept to the global technology board of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. This presentation included a detailed analysis of the market, customer requirements, a technology development roadmap, a first business case and required investments for the next six-month phase.
**What exactly was the funding used for in the initial idea-development phase?
Well, primarily, it allowed us to dedicate more time to essential tasks. During the first phase of the contest, we worked on the project while also managing our regular job role and duties. The funding enabled us to devote more time to the project. It also allowed us to expand the team for increased productivity and quicker market entry and in addition, we also used some of the budget for market studies and improved the understanding of our positioning in the hydrogen value chain.
**Let’s talk a bit about the technology, the core of your venture offering. There are different ways to produce green hydrogen at scale. Could you run us through the underlying technology you offer today?
Sure! The overarching technology is called electrolysis, where electricity from renewable sources splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. We use Alkaline Electrolysis (AEL), where an alkaline solution is used to produce hydrogen and oxygen at separate electrodes. This makes it ideal for large-scale production, but we also move into other technologies such as PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane).
Our expertise today covers the entire spectrum, from consulting and engineering to plant construction and lifecycle management. Furthermore, we incorporate digital technologies for performance optimization, including advanced sensors and data analytics.
> ”The startup contest was a huge leverage... It provided a platform for internal exposure and funding, but it also gave us a methodological structure.
**Innovation formats like intrapreneurship have recently been observed critically in the innovation scene, as they did not always deliver the expected results. What’s your take on that? Did the ANDRITZ Startup Contest help you in bringing your idea to market?**
I think that really depends on how such a format is designed and executed and it’s different for each company. I think that the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest was definitely a huge leverage for us. We were part of a cohort of more than 10 teams that worked on new product and business ideas. It provided a global platform for internal exposure and funding, but you also gave us a methodological structure.
The regular check-ins we had with Pioneers and the ANDRITZ ventures mentors were helpful in finding the right focus on key aspects we needed to test and develop next. Balancing a new venture while maintaining your core role isn’t always simple. However, a format like a startup contest can effectively align resources and expectations across the company and create momentum.
**Thank you for the insights Peter!**
***This was part 1 of our discussion with Peter Eisenköck. In part 2, we will find out more about the teams’ remarkable growth path, the technological partnership and a lighthouse project with Salzgitter AG that will become one of Europe’s largest green hydrogen production facilities.*** [Read part 2 here.](https://pioneers.io/green-hydrogen-venture-journey-andritz-part-2/)
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Obrist**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-obrist-2643497b/). Simply send a quick email to .
**Michael Obrist**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Obrist
Innovation Manager [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [From Established Industry to Green Hydrogen Innovation - ANDRITZ’s Remarkable Venture Journey | Part 2](https://pioneers.io/green-hydrogen-venture-journey-andritz-part-2/)
**Published:** April 2, 2024
**Author:** Michael Obrist
**Content:**
## Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #1: ANDRITZ – Part 2
***Part 2 – The teams rapid growth path to become a European leader in green hydrogen production***
**This is the second part of our discussion with Peter Eisenköck, VP of Global Sales and Service for Green Hydrogen at ANDRITZ. In the[ first part of the corporate entrepreneurship story](https://pioneers.io/green-hydrogen-venture-journey-andritz-part-1/), we explored the early days of Peter’s venture journey into green hydrogen. In part 2, we will find out more about the teams’ remarkable growth path, a technological partnership and the lighthouse project with Salzgitter AG that will soon become one of Europe’s largest green hydrogen production facilities.**
**Peter, as we were discussing initially, your venture has experienced a remarkable growth path. Not only in terms of business, but also with your team. Where do you stand today?**
Yes, I think one can say that, it’s been an incredible journey where we have seen very rapid growth over the last 3 years. We are currently a team of more than 40 people, with a sales pipeline of over €100 million. There are a lot of potential customers interested in our solution, so going forward, we plan to hire an additional 100 team members every year to meet future demands.
**And the people you hire are all ANDRITZ employees?
Some are internal people, but we also hire externally. Our rapid growth is also facilitated by the attractiveness of green hydrogen among many talents on the market to work on the topic. Especially young engineers that are purpose-driven are excited to work with us – which is also rewarding for me.
**A key part of your growth has been the partnership with the Norwegian electrolyzer startup HydrogenPRO. How did this partnership accelerate your market entry?**
We have always been looking for cooperations, be it internally within ANDRITZ or from outside to enhance our technological capabilities. The partnership with [HydrogenPro](https://www.andritz.com/newsroom-en/news/2023-04-19hydrogenprogroup) has significantly accelerated our market entry as it combines HydrogenPro’s specialised expertise in high-pressure alkaline electrolyzer (AEL) technology with our proficiency in plant manufacturing. This partnership ultimately integrates the electrolyser technology into our EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) offerings.
###### Model view of an ANDRITZ green hydrogen plant © ANDRITZ
**Can you provide some insights to the lighthouse project with Salzgitter AG, a German company who has ordered a 100 MW green hydrogen plant for low-CO2 steel production?**
Salzgitter AG’s decision to order one of Europe’s largest green hydrogen production facilities from ANDRITZ was a pivotal moment for us in the validation of our technological capabilities. Starting in 2026, the plant will produce around 9,000 tons of green hydrogen per year, which will be used to produce green steel and replace coal. It’s part of the larger SALCOS® program, a commitment of Salzgitter to achieving nearly CO2-free steel production by 2033. We are really proud to be chosen as a partner by Salzgitter. It shows a strong message to the market that we are capable of delivering industrial scale green hydrogen plants.
> ”The order of one of Europe's largest green hydrogen production facilities from ANDRITZ was a pivotal moment for us in the validation of our technological capabilities
**Compared to many other corporate ventures, your growth rate is truly exceptional. Can you tell us some factors that allowed you to grow so quickly in recent years?**
Well, firstly we received strong support from our top management, which pushed us to enter the market rapidly. Additionally, the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest established clear timelines and milestones, encouraging us to progress within a defined time frame. Also, at ANDRITZ, we have a network of skilled and experienced experts worldwide, ready to provide support when facing challenges. Lastly, we were able to promptly hire external talent as mentioned before, which is crucial for staffing key positions at the right times.
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)**What role will green hydrogen play for ANDRITZ in the long term? What potential do you see for this technology in the future?**
The green hydrogen division is a fundamental part of ANDRITZ’s wider sustainability and innovation strategy. We are focusing on industries where green hydrogen can have a substantial impact, including transportation, energy, and manufacturing. Hydrogen will be crucial for bridging the energy gap, especially in storing and transporting renewable energy. This is vital as we need to make renewable energy available around the clock, not just when the sun shines or the wind blows. Additionally, hydrogen plays a key role in further decarbonizing energy-intensive industries like steel and cement. These sectors can’t rely solely on electrification due to their high-temperature requirements. By replacing natural gas with hydrogen, we can significantly reduce carbon emissions in these industries and we are happy to be part of it.
**Lastly, with all the learnings you have made over the last 3.5 years: what are 3 tips that you would give to other corporate entrepreneurs out there in developing an idea into a successful venture?**
First of all, my piece of advice would be to leverage your company’s core strengths with your startup idea. It’s about aligning your ventures in such a way that they not only complement but also enhance your existing capabilities. Secondly: Listen to your customers! It sounds simple, but it’s profound. Engaging with your customers early and often, gathering their feedback, allows you to refine your product in a way that truly meets their needs and addresses market demands. Lastly, do not underestimate the power of building strategic partnerships. Collaborating with both internal and external partners can dramatically accelerate your development process and broaden your access to essential resources.
***Thank you for your insights, Peter. Good luck on your continued journey!***
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Obrist**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-obrist-2643497b/). Simply send a quick email to .
**Michael Obrist**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Obrist
Innovation Manager [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Introducing Pioneers.Talent | Our New Offering to Find the Best Innovation Talent](https://pioneers.io/new-offering-pioneers-talent/)
**Published:** April 9, 2024
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
**Wien, April 2024. Die Innovationsberatung Pioneers erweitert ihr Serviceangebot und bietet ab sofort Unterstützung für Unternehmen im Bereich Headhunting, Interim Management und Recruiting as a Service an. Dazu holt Pioneers den Headhunting-Experten Rupert Schmutzer mit an Bord, der den neuen Servicebereich aufbauen und leiten wird.**
Eine der größten Herausforderungen beim Aufbau und der Skalierung von neuen Ventures ist es, abhängig von der Unternehmensphase die passenden Talente zu finden.
Nachdem in den letzten Jahren das Wachstumsziel häufig vorrangig war, wird aufgrund der veränderten Rahmenbedingungen aktuell der Fokus auf Profitabilität immer stärker. Das stellt Unternehmen vor neue Herausforderungen beim Auffinden und bei der Auswahl der Mitarbeiter:innen. Es geht oft nicht mehr nur darum, möglichst rasch die nötige personelle Kapazität für das geplante Wachstum zu finden, sondern vielmehr auch um das Auffinden und Gewinnen der Talente mit den passgenauen Skills und Erfahrungen für das Erreichen der Profitabilität.
Pioneers hat in den vergangenen Jahren eine Vielzahl von Ventures bei der Entstehung und Skalierung begleitet und dabei immer wieder eine Erfahrung gemacht: Oftmals mangelt es Unternehmen nicht nur an einem Netzwerk in der Startup- und Innovationsbranche, sondern auch an spezifischem Know-how für die präzise Auswahl von Talenten. Besonders in der Frühphase ist ein ausgeprägtes Employer Branding häufig nicht vorhanden, was den Rekrutierungsprozess zusätzlich erschwert.
Mit dem Einstieg von Rupert Schmutzer und dem Launch von Pioneers.Talent hat die Innovationsberatung ein neues Serviceangebot, das die ausgeprägte Erfahrung im Venture Building und in Corporate Innovation mit zukunftsfähigen Werkzeugen der Personalberatung kombiniert.
“Wir verstehen die Herausforderungen, vor denen Unternehmen heute stehen, wenn es darum geht, talentierte Mitarbeiter:innen im Innovationsbereich zu finden”, so Anton Schilling, Managing Partner Pioneers. “Mit unserem neuen Service wollen wir diese Last von den Schultern der Unternehmen nehmen und ihnen helfen, die besten Talente für ihre Teams zu gewinnen.”
“Unser Versprechen ist es, das Recruiting für Ventures zielgenauer und effizienter zu machen”, so Rupert Schmutzer, Head of Pioneers.Talent. “Damit tragen wir dazu bei, dass unsere Kunden ihre Ventures mit den passenden Talenten wachsen lassen und profitabel machen.”
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** News, Pioneers
---
### [How to Spin Out a Corporate Venture and Scale It Externally - rready's Venture Journey | Part 1](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-1-rready/)
**Published:** April 17, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #2 – rready – Part 1
***Part 1 – rready’s early phase, the difficult spin-out process, and relationship with the mother company – Swisscom.***
**In this episode, we take a closer look at rready, a corporate venture of Swisscom. Michael Lunzer, Head of Venture Design at Pioneers had an insightful conversation with rready’s co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer Ralph Hartmeier.**
Ralph’s entrepreneurial journey started at the university when he founded his first startup – sports and fitness platform. Finishing his studies he joined Swisscom’s innovation team, where he was in charge of fostering internal innovation together with his colleagues. After some time, they came across the “Kickbox” methodology invented by Mark Randall.
Compared to other approaches, Kickbox supports employees to validate their business ideas by sending them boxes of support materials. These provide instructions and guidelines on how to validate the customer, build prototypes, draw up a business case, and many more. Along the process, and by passing various gates, employees get larger boxes with more extensive materials and coaching support.
Fascinated by this approach, Ralph and his team launched a Kickbox program at Swisscom. Based on the program’s early success, the team expanded the approach and developed a digital layer around it. Sharing about their success at different events, they soon received requests from other companies to use their digital solution.
That was the moment when the team realized the solution’s potential to become its own business. Today, rready has a team of 20+ employees and a client base of over 40 international clients using the digital platform. In our conversation, we dive deeper into the entrepreneurial journey of Ralph and his team.
***In part #1 we look at the early developments of the venture, the difficult spin-out process as well as the relationship with the mother company.***
**Michael Lunzer, Pioneers: Ralph, nice to meet you again and learn more about the full story of rready. To start, tell us more about your current solution and traction on the market.**
**Ralph Hartmeier:**
Nice to meet you as well. Sure, since our last encounter, we have developed our solution quite a bit. As of now, we offer two solutions at rready.
As our core solution, we still offer the digital employee activation tool \[Kickbox\]. Through the platform, we enable decentralized innovation in corporates. We provide employees across the organization with tools and the methodology to independently develop and validate their ideas. This solution also makes up the largest part of our revenues.
Recently developed, we now also offer a full digital idea management tool. It provides innovation managers with a full overview of the innovation portfolio and funnel, support assessing and selecting ideas, and ultimately brings transparency through KPI tracking and reporting. We also have achieved the first traction with this product and it can be used complementary to KICKBOX to identify promising ideas and talents.
###### *The four co-founders of rready – Reto, Dave, Ralph and Vinz (from left to right)*
> ”We don't just offer a digital innovation tool, but also the methodology behind it. This is where value is created: The validation and execution of ideas.
**Working in the field for 5+ years, I have seen and worked with numerous digital innovation tools and there is quite a lot of competition out there. What’s your take on that and how do you stand out from other providers?**
A good question. Yes, there are numerous corporate innovation tools on the market. However, we have a clear USP: Compared to many others, we do not just offer the front-end but also the back-end of innovation. Most tools you will find, allow its users to create a customized digital environment for innovation. This can include a space for the innovation community to share and exchange ideas, various pipeline dashboards, or even digital collaboration spaces.
We, however, go a step further and offer the full methodology that guides all these efforts from a first idea to the market. As an intrapreneur using our solution, you do not just have a space and the functionalities to collaborate, but guidance on what to do. We provide many templates, tools, and guidelines on how to develop, validate, test, and scale innovative ideas. This is where value is created: The validation and execution of ideas.
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/downloads)
**Thanks for the intro to your solutions – let’s dive deeper into your entrepreneurial journey because as I know it’s quite remarkable. After testing your solution internally and with the first external clients, you spun out rready from Swisscom. Today you are together with your co-founders the venture’s owners. Let’s start at the beginning. Who was the team when you decided to spin out?**
Firstly, yes we are the owners, but not alone \[laughs\]. We have several internal and external investors. We can talk about them later.
Who was the team? We were all innovation managers at Swisscom – in total four – and are still today four co-founders. Luckily, all four of us already had entrepreneurial experiences before joining Swisscom and were thus ready to take the risk. Additionally, most had only been a short time at Swisscom. I believe that also made it easier for us to move on with the new venture instead of staying in our innovation manager jobs. Lastly – and also important for any venture – we brought a very diverse skillset to the table, which still helps us today in our company’s development.
**Very interesting! 4 ex-founders and at that time innovation managers becoming co-founders of a corporate venture… How did you manage your full-time job as an innovation manager and working on the venture simultaneously?**
That was surely an intense period. We worked day and night. We had to keep the internal program and tool alive while already developing the internal program into a functioning product and solution for the market. Before the spin-out, we already had a handful of active clients and of course, had to deprioritize part of our core to-dos. It helped that the project was far away from Swisscom’s core business and our roles were also more flexible than others in the daily business.
**Wow, sounds indeed like an intense period. Great that you pushed through! So, when and how did you realize that you need to take this venture out of Swisscom?**
We soon realized our solution’s global scaling potential with first-paying, external clients. At the same time, Swisscom was not the right place for growth. Firstly, Swisscom is mostly acting regionally and not globally. Secondly, at that time developing a SAAS solution was not a core capability of the company. Furthermore, the reputational and financial risk of scaling rready were too high for Swisscom – especially also due to the fact that our product was not a focus of Swisscom.
> ”Despite support from lawyers, the management and the external investor, it took nearly two years to reach an agreement to spin out.
**How did you convince management then to take rready out and the whole innovation team with it?**
As a first step, we pitched the idea to the top management. We pitched the potential for scaling and returns for Swisscom and our clear ask for shares in the venture to be able to attract other entrepreneurial employees and be attractive on the venture capital market for further investment rounds. Of course, we expected Swisscom to keep a part of the equity but waive its decision rights in the venture.
Starting from this meeting it was, to be frank, a quite long and complicated process that required many hours with lawyers, management, and further investors. Swisscom and many other stakeholders were supportive but it still took us almost two years to come to an agreement and spin out.
The venture became a portfolio company of ‘Swisscom Ventures’ and the lead investor, FYRFLY Venture Partners from the Silicon Valley, was backed by other Venture Capitalists such as EquityPitcher Ventures or Verve Ventures. The setup was comparable to any other startup in a seed financial round.
**Swisscom agreed to have an outside investor on board?
It was even a prerequisite for the spin-out that we find another investor on the open market who sees the growth potential too.
**With Swisscom already on board, not an easy task, right?
Well at first, luckily, Swisscom also operates a CVC \[corporate venture capital\] arm – Swisscom Ventures – that took rready into their portfolio instead of Swisscom itself. That surely made it easier to find external investment. However, yes, it was quite difficult to find investments. Many investors refrained from assessing our venture in the first place due to our high number of founders and the potential risk of a costly spin-out process. Finally, we found the right match with FYRFLY Ventures Partners.. They believed in our team as well as our value proposition and saw the strong market potential in the USA and for future data business models.
**That was part #1 of our conversation with Ralph. In [part #2](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-2-rready/), we will dive deeper into the investment process, the advantages and disadvantages of being a corporate venture vs. a “normal” startup as well as the growth ambitions of rready.**
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Lunzer**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lunzer/). Simply send a quick email to [michael.lunzer@pioneers.io](mailto:michael.obrist@pioneers.io).
**Michael Lunzer**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [How to Spin Out a Corporate Venture and Scale It Externally - rready's Venture Journey | Part 2](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-2-rready/)
**Published:** April 23, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #2 – rready – Part 2
***Part 2 – The process of getting external investment and advantages, and disadvantages of being a corporate venture vs. a “normal” startup.***
***Having looked at rready’s solutions, the founding team, and early developments in [part #1](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-1-rready/), we now want to dive deeper into the investment process, the advantages and disadvantages of being a corporate venture vs. a “normal” startup as well as the future growth path of rready.***
**Michael Lunzer, Pioneers: First, congrats on finding an external investor and spinning rready out! I would be curious to dive deeper into this topic. When looking for investments in the startup world, founders would usually call for a specific funding round and state their company valuation. What does the process look like for a corporate venture?**
**Ralph Hartmeier:**
Good question. There had been very few examples before us that we could learn from, so we had to test and learn on the go. In the end, we tried to bring exactly the startup logic you mentioned to the corporate world. We documented and tracked everything we did for rready during our Swisscom jobs. Additionally, we evaluated all services and benefits we received from Swisscom until the external investment.
All these Swisscom “expenses” were summed up, valued, and treated like a Pre-Seed investment \[early-stage investment in a startup, usually pre-product stage\] from Swisscom Ventures. That way, the external investor was then co-investing in a Seed round while Swisscom Ventures as the Pre-Seed investor also stayed on board. For Swisscom Ventures this was a win-win situation as they could add a venture to their portfolio without actually investing in it. For Swisscom itself, it provided the chance for a financial return, and cost savings by shifting employees as well as promoting a nice success story.
One important thing to add is that full trust between us and Swisscom was essential in the entire process. Surely, there was a conflict of interest during the last months of the spin-out process between being the corporate venture’s founder and an employee of Swisscom. Naturally, we would have had the incentive to ascribe as little working time as possible to rready to lower Swisscom’s claim for shares. But by being highly transparent in the whole process, we could overcome the barrier of mistrust and got all stakeholders aligned.
**That is an important learning for sure. So with the external investment, did rready basically become a conventional startup? Or something in between a corporate venture and a startup? What changed?**
With the investment, we became a startup, yes. We cut most ties to Swisscom and also to the outside world to promote ourselves as an innovative, independent company. This brings along of course many advantages but also disadvantages compared to being a corporate venture.
###### *The four co-founders of rready – Reto, Dave, Ralph and Vinz (from left to right)*
> ”We don't just offer a digital innovation tool, but also the methodology behind it. This is where value is created: The validation and execution of ideas.
**What are the advantages of being a startup vs. a corporate venture?**
First, we need to make it very clear: rready would not exist without the support we experienced by Swisscom during the pre-seed phase. Not only the investment in us and the soon-to-be-product were valuable but the testing environment of a big corporate, the knowledge, and support by other Swisscom employees was incredibly valuable.
The biggest advantage we saw after the spin-out process was with regards to hiring key talent. By independently building up our own brand and being a “startup”, we could recruit employees fitting to our environment and culture. When we were still operating under the Swisscom brand, we received mostly applications from corporate managers. After the re-branding, we suddenly received many applications from people fitting much better to our startup setting. By being in charge of hiring, we could also create leaner and faster hiring processes than in a corporation. These faster processes reduced dropout rates in our hiring funnel and led to higher hiring conversions.
Besides improved hiring, we saw a strong rise in investor interest in rready, which made follow-up investments much easier.
**Any disadvantages?**
Well, surely you can feel that you are on the open market and you take a larger part of the risk. But that’s part of the game.
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/downloads)
**So, summing it up – when would you recommend a venture like yours, that does not fit the core business, to take the step of spinning out?**
In the beginning, we profited strongly from the credibility of Swisscom, especially in Switzerland. As employees of a corporate, you are more easily invited to conferences, as speakers for instance. Additionally, it helps gain trust and win the first test customers. However, once you have a product and want to scale your team, being within the corporate environment will reduce the speed. It does not allow for employee stock options and other incentives for key talent. Once you want to scale, it is probably the best time to cut ties and spin out.
**Thanks for these insights. You just received USD 4 Mio Series A funding from several investors. How do you plan to use it and what are your goals now?**
So far, we focused strongly on growth. We aim to continue this path with a solid growth rate per year but also target profitability and enhance our product with AI-features to quicker and better derisk ideas.
**And Swisscom? What does the company expect and when can they expect a positive return?**
On paper, the investment already brought an ROI for Swisscom \[laughs\]. But as for any other startup investors, it is only in the books if the exit has been successfully executed.
**Last question, as someone who has experienced all three roles– corporate venture founder, startup founder, and innovation manager – what recommendation would you offer corporates that aim to build successful ventures?**
Firstly, be clear about what you want, which will then of course also relate to a certain risk appetite. Secondly, set realistic timelines for returns. It takes time and maybe several pivots to build a successful venture. Thirdly, in my opinion, most ventures fail at the end because not enough good validation has been done in the beginning. Let people do their homework early on and focus on a data-driven approach to validate the most critical hypothesis. Moreover, a transparent ROI calculation and measurement along the way is important to be successful; and take decisions on the way. Lastly, you need passionate and persistent people who stand up more often than they fall.
**Thanks a lot for this very insightful conversation and all the best!**
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Lunzer**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lunzer/). Simply send a quick email to [michael.lunzer@pioneers.io](mailto:michael.obrist@pioneers.io).
**Michael Lunzer**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [9.5 Guidelines to Successfully Master Corporate Innovation](https://pioneers.io/9-5-guidelines-for-successful-corporate-innovation/)
**Published:** April 25, 2024
**Author:** Christina Senft
**Content:**
### **9.5 guidelines for successful corporate innovation –**
### **Transcending from a traditional to a new corporate innovation approach**
Are you investing substantial resources into your innovation efforts but are not satisfied with your organization’s innovation performance? Do you wonder why your innovation setup doesn’t yield the desired results? We thought about it at Pioneers.io and created our **9.5 guidelines for successful corporate innovation**. A systematic, inclusive, and motivational approach to create sustainable value for your business.
The right strategic and organizational setup is key for successful corporate innovation. For innovation to be successful, a corporate environment is needed where innovation can prosper and is supported by the right resources, processes, structures, skills, culture, and methodologies that enable flexible and fast innovation development, testing, and scaling.
While improving one of these aspects, like introducing a new innovation methodology in all business areas, is a good start, it is unlikely to solely improve the overall innovation performance. Achieving corporate innovation success requires a holistic approach where the entire organizational setup is aligned with the long-term innovation objectives. In this article, we outline today’s traditional corporate setup and propose a new holistic approach based on 9.5 guidelines for successful corporate innovation.
**Transcending from a traditional to a new approach**
From the age of individual inventors through mass production and up until recent years, the prevailing tenor in the business world revolved around a product-centric approach. This resulted in innovation primarily emanating from R&D departments that ensured a competitive advantage mainly through intellectual property (IP) creation and protection. With the rise of new Tech giants such as Microsoft or Apple, it soon became evident that solely relying on established R&D structures would no longer be sufficient to ensure one’s competitive advantage in fast-changing market environments. Hence, a mindset shift towards a more customer-centric approach became imperative and top management became aware that innovation endeavors should not be seen as silo activities confined to one department; rather innovation needs to be deeply embedded within all organizational activities and the employee mindset across the entire organization.
In the following sections, we delve into our 9.5 guidelines for corporate innovation examining what this new approach to innovation entails – from leadership’s role to cultivating an innovative mindset across all levels of the organization.
### 1) Strategic Legitimation: Anchoring Innovation in Corporate Strategy
In order to ensure that innovation is deeply rooted within the entire organization, companies must anchor innovation and customer-centricity within their corporate strategy. A strategic legitimation for innovation is needed, which involves defining clear innovation areas and goals. Aligning these with the overarching business objectives is crucial to ensure that innovation efforts are integral components of the company’s long-term vision. It is all about the right anchor in the future that you are trying to reach, formulating clear hypotheses on future trends, and aligning strategy and innovation execution.
### 2) Management Commitment: Redefining Leadership Roles
To achieve broad innovation success, however, the role of management needs to evolve from a mere “boss” into a proactive “agent of change”. This new role of top management not only involves setting clear innovation targets but also cultivating a culture of understanding, fostering focused innovation efforts, and actively being engaged in innovation initiatives throughout the entire organization.
The fast market developments require innovation in all areas of the company. Not every topic can be driven by the CEO. Thus, top management needs to act as empowering leaders, inspiring, motivating, and enabling all parts of the organization and providing incentives to innovate. Management commitment to innovation needs to be visible in every talk, employee interaction, and meeting to encourage the organization to think and act entrepreneurially and thereby become an innovation champion.
### 3) Organizational Anchor: Establishing Clear Roles and Responsibilities
To ramp up innovation, over the last years, many corporates have established innovation departments. However, a common issue is the lack of interconnectedness with the core business. Without this linkage, innovation efforts often struggle to align with the company’s overall objectives and strategic direction. While some companies have incorporated initiatives like intrapreneurship programs or startup collaborations to foster innovation, these efforts often face challenges unless properly integrated into the core operations and strategies of the organization. Additionally, these are often characterized by “the same-old” long waterfall development cycles, rigid deadlines, and traditional financial KPIs. Overall, this approach has often led to incremental innovation and rising development costs for existing business models rather than the creation of highly innovative solutions and cost reductions.
An effective innovation setup needs more than just “cool” innovation initiatives as they can soon become more of an ”appearance than substance” kind of thing. It requires a new, suitable organizational framework and smart management. At Pioneers, we see the need to create a coordinated innovation community with clear roles and responsibilities within the organization. By defining who is accountable for innovation initiatives and ensuring that everyone understands their role in the innovation process, companies can foster a sense of ownership and commitment to driving innovation forward. Central approaches (a central coordinating team) need to be combined with decentral innovation power (innovation enthusiasts and doers in all company areas) to achieve target results. Moreover, different setups may be necessary for exploration and exploitation activities.
### 4) Systematic Approach: Implementing Clear Processes
While the approach of using more customer-centric methodologies and tools in existing structures seemed exciting in the beginning, many companies did not reach the expected results. While thousands of new ideas are created using new methodologies, many do not even make it past an early validation or become zombie projects.
This is often due to the inexistence of clear processes, decision gates, and criteria that kill bad and push great ideas inside a corporation. Organizations need a more systematic approach to take advantage of this new entrepreneurial way of doing things. By implementing clear processes that provide flexibility and transparency, companies can ensure that innovation project portfolios are efficiently managed and high-potential projects receive the necessary attention and resources. It is also essential to include fast-track options to ensure the necessary speed to outperform competitors when time-to-go-to-market is concerned. A structured approach furthermore minimizes the risk of ideas getting lost in the bureaucratic jungle and facilitates the rapid development and deployment of innovative solutions.
### 5) Resource Availability: Ensuring The Necessary Support and Talent
The right tools and processes are, however, not enough. Innovation also needs resources. While startups on the open market have scarce resources and thus have to speed to market, in many corporates we see even fewer resources being dedicated to innovation development. The backbone of corporate innovation is to secure long-term budgets, employee resources, and entrepreneurial talent. Resource competition with the core needs has to be managed carefully by protecting innovation budgets actively and by creating enough flexibility. Furthermore, access to necessary technologies and partner structures can speed up the go-to-market time.
### 6) Innovation Measurement: Tracking Progress
To ensure the long-term success of corporate innovation efforts and maintain management commitment, it is crucial to track innovation activities in a transparent manner and measure their success. As Peter Drucker famously said, “What you can’t measure, you can’t manage.” This requires tracking input, throughput, and output metrics across various dimensions. A data-driven approach enables informed decision-making and continuous improvement of the entire innovation setup, ensuring that innovation efforts remain closely aligned with strategic objectives and yield the desired outcome: Create sustainable value for people, planet, and profit.
### 7) Innovation Mobilization: Engaging Employees
The key to successfully mastering the game of corporate innovation is to leverage one’s internal know-how and entrepreneurial talent across the entire organization. Hence, the innovation mindset must be deeply embedded into the corporate DNA, and employee mobilization for innovation activities is indispensable.
Similar to a strong purpose that drives the motivation of startup employees, cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit within the organization fosters intrinsic motivation among employees. This empowers them to think outside the box, take ownership, and drive meaningful innovation. To truly unleash the innovation potential of employees, organizations must democratize innovation and empower employees to contribute their ideas and insights.
By top leadership providing strategic guidance, inspiration, and active involvement, companies can create a culture where experimentation, collaboration, and learning are encouraged and rewarded. Through open communication and by providing creative and safe spaces for employees to think outside the box, employees will be inspired and empowered to create innovative ventures.
### 8) Innovation Sandboxes: Creating Experimental Spaces
Innovation thrives in environments where both exploration and experimentation are encouraged and failure is embraced as a learning opportunity. Innovation sandboxes provide a safe space for teams to explore new ideas, test hypotheses, and iterate rapidly without fear of repercussions. Combining these experimental spaces with state-of-the-art methods and tools fosters creativity and risk-taking, ultimately leading to breakthrough innovations.
Such an environment can take many forms and might look completely different across organizations. While for one corporate the right way to go might be to have formalized incubators, accelerators, or startup collaboration programs, others might opt for dedicated innovation formats like innovation challenges. Some organizations might even want to go as far as to establish entire units dedicated to venture building. There is no one-size-fits-all approach; rather, the key lies in identifying the most suitable innovation sandbox tailored to the unique needs and innovation goals of each organization.
### 9) Innovation Collaboration: Building External Networks
In ever-evolving and rapidly changing markets where established industry players are constantly being challenged by innovative players that are fast, agile, and built customer-centric from the ground up, the ability to introduce innovative solutions to the market at a high speed is paramount. However, companies don’t always have to tackle this alone. There’s a huge potential for speeding up innovation by reaching beyond the organization’s borders and expertise and forging strong connections with the startup and entrepreneurial community.
By tapping into external technologies, and talent pools, corporations can seize opportunities for collaboration and growth. Opening up to the world means building ecosystems where corporates co-create with others – customers, suppliers, start-ups/scale-ups, and research entities – to foster innovation and drive collective progress.
### 9.5) Be Bold: Embracing Innovation with Courage
Last but not least, innovation demands courage! The courage to take risks, to challenge the status quo, and to embrace failure as a natural part of the process. To truly excel in corporate innovation, companies must adopt a bold mindset, where exploration and experimentation is encouraged, failures are accepted as learning opportunities, and the agility to adapt quickly is highly valued.
This means being willing to “just do and try,” to move fast, and to have the humility to recognize and eliminate projects that are not yielding results – a process often referred to as “spotting and killing zombie projects.” By embracing boldness in innovation, companies can unlock their full potential and thrive in today’s rapidly changing business landscape.
**Successful corporate innovation requires a holistic approach**
To put it in a nutshell, corporate innovation success is not only a matter of selectively applying new methodologies but it requires a holistic approach. It requires bridging the gap between the corporate and startup world and finding the right balance between a ”customer-centric, startup-like” approach and effectively running the organization’s core business. Hence, combining a startup-like, “customer-centric approach” with the corporate’s core strengths and assets. In other words, managing exploration and exploitation (also called ambidexterity) at the same time. It’s not easy, but also not impossible. It requires communication, collaboration, and openness to build the bridge from the traditional to the new approach. And in many cases, it requires to pioneer.
***At Pioneers we guide companies through their transformation, empower them to unlock their innovation potential, and help them develop and scale innovative solutions. To guide organizations through their innovation journey, we have developed our so-called Pioneers Innovation Framework comprising three important layers: innovation strategy, organizational setup, and execution. We believe that successful corporate innovation requires setting the right course along all of these layers. If you are interested in learning more about our Innovation Framework and how we support clients in their transition to successful corporate innovation, feel free to contact us, we would be happy to schedule a call with you!***
Christina Senft
Senior Innovation Consultant [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights
---
### [one2zero’s Remarkable Corporate Venture Journey and How to Build Up a Strong Corporate Venture Team | Part 2](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-2/)
**Published:** June 4, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## ***Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #3 – one2zero – Part 2***
*Part 2 – one2zero’s venture journey and how to build a strong corporate venture team*
***In [part #1](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-1/), we learned about [one2zero](https://one2zero.at/)’s business model, founding story and collaboration with the corporate venture’s mothership. In part #2, we dive deeper into the people and team side of one2zero and how Tobias Wiener – founder of one2zero – sees the future of innovation and energy in Europe.***
**Michael Lunzer, Head of Venture Design at Pioneers:
Thanks for your insights into your relationship with Salzburg AG. Let’s look at your team. How big is one2zero today and what can you tell us about your team and culture?**
**Tobias Wiener:**
Sure, today we have around 25 employees. Most of them were external hires, a few also joined from Salzburg AG. To be frank, the one2zero culture is still a work in progress. As a team, we recently defined our principles and redefined how we aim to create impact with one2zero. Now, we are in the process of bringing these principles to everyday work.
Before, we had also defined impact as one of our goals, but it was too fluffy and untouchable. We received many applications and hired people who wanted to change the world tomorrow but then realized that we are still a company that also has to deliver client work, and needs to be revenue-drivenMany of those people left and we had a high fluctuation last year. When building your team, my advice is to set already the right expectations in the hiring phase.
Lastly, we learned that new product development and operations should not be split within a small venture like ours. There are numerous things to improve in our operations and our team, we have many intrapreneurs eager to bring in their ideas. In this early phase, everybody’s entrepreneurial spirit is strongly needed.
**Having a positive impact and achieving growth and profitability simultaneously is very difficult for many companies and startups…
Yes. I understand that the energy transition is an important goal, and we need to put more effort into getting things on the ground. However, young talents also need to understand that a company requires revenues to survive and grow its impact. We need a well-aligned and professional team effort to successfully deliver projects that bring impact. It’s about finding the right balance between an entrepreneurial spirit and creativity and efficient operations.
**When talking about entrepreneurial spirit – in what way are you or your employees incentivized by equity in one2zero?**
Being a 100% daughter company of Salzburg AG, there is no participation model for founders or employees yet. We are driven by our strong vision and created impact, by a flexible working environment, and the entrepreneurial culture we are shaping together.
> ”It’s about finding the right balance between an entrepreneurial spirit and creativity and efficient operations.
**So you are not incentivized by a potential exit or revenues. What are your personal goals then and how do you drive growth and manage investments into one2zero?**
I was always driven to create something new to solve customers’ pains. With one2zero we do not just help our clients but also the environment. And there are many things to do to achieve a green future for Europe.
Besides my ambition, of course, there are growth targets we agreed on with the Salzburg AG management. These are quarterly reviewed and measured to take according to action. Scaling one2zero into one2zero 2.0 – a more standardized offering – is the next step. For that, we also need to achieve a fitting organizational structure and professionalization that ties back to the cultural topic we discussed before.
In terms of further investments, we rely on Salzburg AG, so we are also constantly investing in our currently great relationship with the management. We do not just see Salzburg AG as an investor but more like a strategic advisor and sparring partner. At the same time, we also need to be bold and pushy \[laughs\], but that’s part of the corporate venture game.
**Sounds like you found a suitable relationship to Salzburg AG. How do you see the future of corporate ventures? Are you optimistic that this model will succeed and grow?**
Firstly, I truly believe in the model as it combines the best of two worlds – the vast assets of the corporate, with a more exploratory and flexible development environment that allows for fast growth. Corporate ventures have furthermore the potential to not just achieve financial ROIs but also foster the corporate’s brand, and culture and for public companies even positively impact the image of the location or region. So corporate ventures, to me, are the chance for Europe to start into a new era.
[Download Learnings](https://pioneers.io/downloads)
**What’s the new era in your view?
A Europe that like before embraces diversity, different approaches, and an entrepreneurial spirit. But at the same time a Europe that jointly focuses on building a green continent. We need to go where climate change is happening. Besides hubs in Northern Europe, we need climate and sustainability hubs in every large city in Europe and locally co-create solutions.
**A hopeful and visionary picture you have drawn for us here. Hopefully, we will see parts of it coming alive in the future. Last question: Any advice you would give other corporates who aim to launch corporate ventures?**
3 things. Number 1 – we need fewer innovation officials and more innovation doers. Too much time goes into defining processes and methods instead of just starting to validate the customer and develop solutions that bring value. Secondly, let’s not try to copy the USA or China in their approaches but find our own style. Corporate venture building can work if we give it a try. Lastly, for corporate venture founders, please only put your effort into ideas in which you would invest yourself. It’s a tough path, so you need to fully believe in the idea.
**Many thanks for your insights, Tobias, and all the best with your further endeavors!**
## Do you want to learn more about how we can support your corporate venture building activities?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Lunzer**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lunzer/). Simply send a quick email to [michael.lunzer@pioneers.io](mailto:michael.obrist@pioneers.io).
**Michael Lunzer**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Corporate Venture Building, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Asking the Tough Questions: Is Your Company ‘Startup-Ready’?](https://pioneers.io/asking-tough-questions-your-company-startup-ready/)
**Published:** May 24, 2019
**Author:** Harald Federspiel
**Excerpt:** No two innovation programs are the same, but if there’s one thing that always applies, it’s the truth that the client needs to be ready to innovate! That might sound vague, but in fact, there’s a checklist our Pioneers Discover consultancy arm works through in order to see if they’re prepared for the brave new world of startup collaborations, internal innovation programs or both. In this article by one of our most experienced consultants, we share some of those questions you need to ask yourself.
**Content:**
For the last 34 months working as an innovation consultant at Pioneers Discover (that’s our team above!), I’ve run 25 projects for a variety of clients across the world. They’ve ranged from Fortune 500 companies and multinationals to investment funds and state-owned organizations.
No two innovation programs are the same, but if there’s one thing that always applies, it’s the truth that the client needs to be ready to innovate! That might sound vague, but in fact, there’s a checklist we work through in order to see if they’re prepared for the brave new world of startup collaborations, internal innovation programs or both.
The checklist is broken down into strategic questions, cultural questions and process-related questions. Here’s a general idea how it looks, along with some real-life examples that might help you answer them for your own company!
**Strategic Questions**
- How did you run innovation in the past?
- Is there already a team in place that works on radical / Horizon 3 innovation topics?
- What are the KPI’s and how do you measure success in the innovation space?
- How much budget is dedicated to work on radical / Horizon 3 innovation projects and for what timespan?
- Is the top management on board and supporting innovation in every possible form?
Our main goal here is to find out if the organization uses the right metrics to measure success and how well-integrated innovation is with its core business. We really don’t want to support isolated initiatives with simple short-term ROI potential where there is no link between corporate and innovation strategy.
We’ve seen examples of corporates that just take projects that simply happen to be of current personal importance for certain department managers. There are situations where such managers move the topic into innovation programs just so they can use up allocated budget and resources. You rather need to start by getting executives on board and asking ‘Why are we doing this?’ From there you can make a reasoned decision about which field or topics are relevant to your goal.
One good way to answer these questions is the kind of innovation assessment we did with a leading oil & gas company in the CEE region. After no more than a two-day workshop, they had already defined four major areas ripe for innovation. The mix of people was important in achieving this outcome: the workshop involved not only top management but carefully-selected innovation or digital officers from their national offices all over Europe. They also invited people whose job wasn’t specifically innovation (such as retail executives), because these people are the ones who really know what problems need to be solved in order to stay competitive.
**Cultural questions**
- Is the culture of the organization ready to work on innovation projects, including collaboration with external innovators, in a lean and hypothesis-driven customer feedback process?
- Did the organization already establish lean innovation processes and a positive culture of failure?
- Is support from the Business Units available even though there might be other more pressing challenges or issues?
- Does the organization focus primarily on short-term challenges and problems or does everyone up to top management understand that thinking long term (5-10 years) is necessary?
- Are product owners of innovation topics ready to work around 20% of their time on innovation projects?
Here we’re trying to find out if the organizational culture is ready for innovation even when there are more pressing issues for line managers and potential product owners. It’s important to understand if the innovation team has full support from C-Suite.
Our ongoing work with Wien Energie on their Innovation Challenge showed just how directly the board should be prepared to be involved – their CEO actually joined the jury to judge startup pitches. In another smart move to grow the right culture, the Viennese energy utility identified a network of ‘Innovation Scouts’ within the company who had the right mindset and understand what innovation is all about. While innovation wasn’t their ‘day job’, they were encouraged to look for opportunities and to be ready to work on innovation topics.
Another of our major multinational mobility clients fostered an internal culture of innovation by creating an internal innovation hub for people to work on new, promising and creative ideas in an environment removed from the main headquarters. They had dedicated budgets to pursue projects for up to eight weeks, with help from mentors and exchanges with people from the startup world. They also had a clear understanding that there would be potential to execute the idea – with a team and resources – if the board liked their initial concept pitch.
A concept like that shapes the environment for innovation and allows employees the freedom they need. In this environment, it is understood that some ideas make it and some don’t – and this culture of failure is critical for any broader innovation projects.
**Process-related questions**
- Are lean legal and procurement processes in place?
- Are IT, data and back-end systems available for startups or external parties to access?
- Have you set up processes or structures that are a fit to the startup mentality and a lean product development?
- Have you simplified bureaucracy specifically for your innovation program, so that it doesn’t stall?
These questions are particularly important if you’re considering working with startups. The important thing to find out here is if the organization can integrate startups and other external (or even internal) innovators quickly and without too much bureaucracy. Innovation is all about speed, so you can’t waste time waiting for the next steering committee or prolonged procurement processes!
This is fairly basic execution stuff that really should be simple – but in a large corporation, it isn’t always so. We’ve seen first-hand how things can go wrong if processes aren’t as slick as they should be. In a recent client project, with a [bootcamp](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/startup-bootcamps-your-gateway-high-value-open-innovation-program) completed and a startup ready to begin collaboration with clear deliverables, the client took almost three months to sign the agreement with the startup. This was absolutely nothing but basic paperwork – and the kind of thing that should never slow down innovation. In this case, just drawing up sample agreements up front could have been enough to avoid that wasted time.
**Conclusion**
If you don’t have positive answers or clear plans as responses to these questions, then it’s too early to launch an actual innovation program – especially if you’re considering working with startups. Spending a little time and resources on answering these questions up front will save a lot of time and resources – and quite possibly awkward situations – later on! It will also ensure the best possible outcomes for you. The good news is that you don’t have to answer those questions all on your own – talk to us!
*Looking for specialist help to get your company startup-ready? Then reach out to Pioneers Discover via discover@pioneers.io*
Harald Federspiel
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/harald-federspiel/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/harald-federspiel/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Open Call: Win a Mercedes Sprinter worth over €22,000!](https://pioneers.io/open-call-win-mercedes-sprinter-worth-over-22000/)
**Published:** May 29, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In one of the most exciting startup opportunities of the summer - launched on the Arena Stage at Pioneers ’19 - Austrian startups have the chance to win a vehicle few entrepreneurs would dare to dream of. Thanks to the Sprinter Start-Up Challenge, an initiative of Mercedes-Benz Austria, one young business will win a Mercedes Sprinter fully kitted-out with the Mercedes PRO connectivity and fleet management solution. To have a chance, they’ll need to film a lively video in which they convince the world of the innovative use case they have in mind for this commercial van. Read on for more on how it all works!
**Content:**
Mobility is a recurring theme for us at Pioneers and in the wider innovation world. This year Pioneers has already celebrated two startups changing the game, with MOTIONTAG crowned winner of Mobility.Pioneers in February and then ONO reaching the Top 8 final at Pioneers ’19 as winner of our *Moving the World* pitching contest.
Our next opportunity in the mobility space comes from Mercedes-Benz, one of the original innovators in ‘horseless carriage’ transport. This is the Sprinter Start-Up Challenge, as announced by **Gottfried Vallant** of Mercedes-Benz Austria on the Arena Stage at Pioneers ’19. The entire process will be managed by our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover – and it’s one of the more innovative concepts we’ve been involved with.
First up, there’s a seriously valuable hardware prize in the shape of a state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, complete with the Mercedes Pro fleet management and connectivity solution. The MBUX multimedia system, which enhances the experience to its full potential, will also be installed. Altogether it’s worth over €22,000…
Secondly, applications will depend on some creative video work and storytelling on the part of the startups. Those who want to take part will receive a goodie box containing all the information they need to make a short movie about their business and why they should get the prize. And if they want to include said prize in the production, all they need to do is approach their local Mercedes Van dealer for help.
More fun than filling out a form or tweaking another pitch deck, right? And with the upload deadline three months away on August 31st, there’s a whole summer of creative time to really nail it! After an online vote, five finalists will then advance to pitching at the Tabakfabrik in Linz on September 20th.
As an initiative of Mercedes-Benz Austria to support early-stage local entrepreneurs, this opportunity is only open to Austrian startups who’ve had a product on the market for less than five years and/or are less than five years old. On the other hand, however, the connection to mobility doesn’t necessarily have to be your core technology. The reward will go to the most ‘innovative transport use case’, so a travelling workshop or a mobile pop-up store can have just as good a chance as a ‘classic’ mobility startup. It’s all about telling the story of why your business needs a Sprinter and Mercedes Pro.
For more on how the Challenge works, check out this instructional video (in German) [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5aV95tZZE8).
We really like the way in which Mercedes-Benz is creating awareness of what its commercial van and Mercedes Pro is capable of. A raft of growing businesses in Austria will have it on their radar by the time the application phase is over, and they get the chance to win some five-figure value in return.
Visitors to Pioneers ’19, where the Challenge was launched, already got the chance to experience the full package thanks to the exhibit just inside the entrance to the Hofburg (see below). Whilst the Sprinter name goes back to 1995, the latest generation of this commercial van represents an industry-leading leap forward in connectivity and fleet management terms. That’s because Mercedes Pro and the third-generation Sprinter are closely intertwined, having launched concurrently last year.
Technological progress had called for a ground-up rethink of what might be possible for fleet management interfaces. Launched last June, Mercedes PRO is the result of just such an effort. What strikes you when you get a tour around all aspects of the system is that it’s not the quick-fix or add-on some manufacturers still offer. The key ingredient to this comprehensive solution is the LTE communication module, which forms the interface between fleet manager (via web tool) and driver (via app).
And while the startups applying for the Sprinter Start-Up Challenge might not have a fleet at their disposal, a number of the benefits are clearly worthwhile even when you’ve only got one vehicle to look after. The winner of the Challenge can rest assured that their Sprinter won’t drink more fuel than necessary (saving pennies always matters to founders!) if the pay attention to the driving style analysis features, improved navigation and tools to find available parking spaces. And they can sleep easy in the knowledge that it will be virtually impossible to steal thanks to mobile vehicle access, locking and geofencing.
Other benefits include optimized assistance, efficient fleet management and digital record-keeping of driving hours – including separate tracking for business and private trips.
For drivers, all of this is best enjoyed via the optional MBUX system, with its pleasingly vast screen display and its ability to respond to voice commands. (‘Hey Mercedes!’ is the magic phrase) And in a neat tie-up with this year’s Mobility.Pioneers event, it also understands the what3words address system that [so intrigued the audience in Munich](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/motiontag-wins-new-look-pitch-contest-mobilitypioneers) when it was introduced by keynote speaker Claire Jones.
*Startups can apply for the Sprinter Start-Up Challenge via the Pioneers Discover Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Spot the Megatrends! Repeat History! Founder Advice from Geoffrey Prentice](https://pioneers.io/spot-megatrends-repeat-history-founder-advice-geoffrey-prenticespot-megatrends-repeat-history-founder-advice-geoffrey-prentice/)
**Published:** June 4, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers ’19 speaker Geoffrey Prentice may have given the Arena Stage audience a terrific overview of how his Oriente company is reshaping personal finance in South-East Asia. But not even the fast-talking American had time to get around to the advice that would have been of special interest to the entrepreneurs in the audience. However, the Co-Founder of Skype and Founding Partner of Atomico did share it with us in an exclusive interview – so we thought it would be a waste not to share the wisdom!
**Content:**
“Almost nobody has a new or novel idea,” declares Geoffrey Prentice. “If you have a novel idea then you are probably insane! Also, it’s probably not a very good idea.”
First, a little background on why entrepreneurs might want to listen to the high-energy, quick-talking and forthright Co-Founder of Oriente. He’s best-known for co-founding a communication tool that defined a generation: Skype.
Having helped set it up in 2002, he worked with a small team to build a leading global telecommunications platform company and oversaw its expansion into Asia and Latin America. He also drove its initial business plan development and fundraising activities, and then played an instrumental role in the $3.1 billion exit to eBay in 2005.
Yet he’s the first to admit that there was nothing ‘new or novel’ about Skype.
“Before Skype there was Dialpad and Yahoo and MSN Messenger,” says Prentice. “And Before Google there was AskJeeves and Altavista. Before Facebook there was Friendster. You can find this with everything.”
The message for founders is clear: don’t think of yourself as an inventor, because success doesn’t depend on that. While this obviously doesn’t apply to every field, many founders should know that copying history might be all they need to do.
“Don’t be worried if someone has tried it before. Food delivery happened when I was living in San Francisco in the late 90s – and it didn’t work! But it works now. So don’t be scared if you see an idea you want to do that didn’t work in the past. That doesn’t mean it won’t work in the future.”
Which brings us to timing – a topic that’s underrated in the world of innovation. Probably because timing is closely tied up with luck, which in turn is not a concept the world’s meritocracy rhetoric likes very much.
That’s not to say that you can’t do a few things to better your chances. For almost any startup, taking a step back and looking at the big trends is great advice when it comes to validating an idea. And yes, even the life sciences have trends!
“One thing you really need is some sort of megatrend that’s working in your favor. If you look at Uber now, that trend has been the rise of smartphones and mapping tech.
“For us at Skype, we launched right when broadband was taking off like crazy. The team figured out how to get around those home network routers so that call quality was way better – but if we had launched five years before or after it wouldn’t have worked.
“For us, it had to be at that moment – but we didn’t know that of course! You need a little bit of luck – but the one really important thing is to look at what general trends are out there and seize on those.”
And assuming your resources are as limited as they are for most startups, then Prentice is clear that product is absolute priority. No amount of storytelling will change that.
“If you only use marketing, that is not a very good way to start. You want to make sure the product is viral and people actually want to use it. Just to brute-force market is not the best way to market anything.”
Finally, since Prentice is now concentrating on the Fintech world with Oriente, we asked him if he has any specific advice for startups in this field.
“If you’re sitting somewhere like London and look out the window, you see a lot of really tall buildings with the names of banks on them. And new Fintech in the developed world is really going to start to hammer these banks. There is a real opportunity to take these people down a notch or two.
“On the consumer side almost everything is ripe for disruption. The incumbents have so much margin built in there. You’ll see it happening across the board. The closer you get to the real B2B stuff – that’s going to take a little longer.
“Change happens very slowly and then very quickly. Fintechs have been discussed for a really long time, now you’re starting to see them really get traction. I think you’re going to see a real tsunami for that.”
If the ridiculously fast growth at Oriente is anything to go by, then Prentice is absolutely right. But opportunity like that is everywhere. And if you want to find it, then just be smart in how you look for it!
*Want to learn about the megatrends moving the health industry? Click [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pioneers-health-2019-tickets-62042668291) for tickets for Pioneers Health in Linz on October 16th.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [SolCold: The Cooling's Hottest Story](https://pioneers.io/solcold/)
**Published:** June 12, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With the Viennese summer now really beginning to hot up, it’s fitting that the first of the Pioneers ’19 finalists we’ll meet in more detail is all about cooling things down. The unique thing about SolCold’s technology is the way in which it turns the sun’s heat into a cooling process. The hotter it gets, in fact, the better it works. If that’s making your head spin, then read on to learn more from Co-Founder Yaron Shenhav.
**Content:**
Storyball may have been the [best startup](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/storyball-takes-startup-victory-pioneers-19) in a tightly-contested final round at Pioneers ’19 – but SolCold was certainly the coolest! An Israeli company just like the winner, they know a thing or two about roasting temperatures and how uncomfortable they can be. SolCold’s core business is dealing with that discomfort. And, as is fairly typical for entrepreneurs from that part of the world, they’re doing so with a uniquely efficient use of resources.
It might sound counter-intuitive, but in essence SolCold directly harnesses the sun’s heat to cool things down.
When the sun hits your car, in the normal course of events, the vehicle slowly begins to cook. But not when SolCold’s coating is applied to the surface! The more heat you bring on, the more the coating (and consequently the car) will cool down. And the difference is not insubstantial: if it’s 40 degrees outside, you can expect a drop to 25 degrees.
Basically the coating ejects heat in the form of photons, in other words turns heat into light. In terms of the results you’ll get in a given situation, two factors are at play. The coating requires the presence of sunlight to work, so the longer you have sunlight – ideally direct – the better. But the efficiency also depends on the amount of ambient heat.
If you’re in the Arctic in summer, in other words, you’ll have a lot of sunlight but not a lot of cooling effect thanks to the ambient temperature. Which, as Shenhav points out, is a fine thing because you probably need your head read if you want to cool things in the Arctic. (Unless, perhaps, you’re freezing the morning’s grayling catch…) So there’s a self-regulating element to the technology, where the temperature level will automatically tend towards a human comfort level.
“The hotter it is, the more efficient we are,” explains SolCold’s Co-Founder Yaron Shenhav. “Because we extract the heat from the material, the more heat you have in the material the more you can extract. For this reason it will always maintain nice temperatures – it will never cool down too much.”
While the initial marketing (and pitching) focus for SolCold centers around the familiar problem of trying to get into a roasting vehicle in hot places during summer, you don’t need to have your thinking cap on for long to see just how many applications a ‘cooling paint’ might have.
“You have to start somewhere,” says Shenhav, whose company is in an intense R&D phase and still working with small-scale samples. “We started with cars because it is something we all can relate to. I wish I had the solution on my car already, because sometimes it’s impossible to get in!
“But this is a good solution for a lot of things. For buildings, for planes sitting on runways and even for sunscreen. You could put it on chocolate packaging or you could put it on the back of your phone. You can use it in many ways either to save energy or in places that don’t have energy at all. It’s pretty much endless.
“In India more than 50% of agriculture doesn’t reach the market, and it’s because they don’t have the right cooling conditions.”
Coat a truck, storage unit or building with SolCold’s solution, however, and the fruit and veggies will enjoy some mild refrigeration during the logistics process.
There are a few things to point out. One is that there won’t be much effect when a vehicle is actually on the move – the technology works in stationary situations. Secondly, it’s a constant cooling process – it’s not like you have a one-off temperature drop and then you car starts to roast again. And finally, although the startup hasn’t physically tried this yet, there are no theoretical limits with regard to the size of the surface to be cooled. “There is no difference regarding size,” says Shenhav. “You can cover an entire ship.”
By now you’re almost certainly thinking, ‘This sounds a lot like Anti-Stokes Fluorescence cooling!’ If so, you’re right on the mark. That’s what SolCold is using. Their patent is more about taking the idea away from microscopic lab work and into the real world – and they put together two layers to achieve a cooling effect specifically using sunlight.
We’d love to go into more detail on that, but Shenhav would only reveal this: “We’re using a known mechanism and materials but multi-layered, with a lot of frequencies so that it can be activated by the sun. The IP is for the system itself – how it is put together. If you only have one layer, it will not work!”
Sadly it’s not going to help us this northern summer. SolCold will need a little more time before it’s ready to coat our office building with cool magic – but bring it on for 2020!
*Stay tuned for further detailed articles on each of our finalists from Pioneers ’19.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [How Keep Your Startups on Track: Kapsch Shares Honest Learnings From Factory1](https://pioneers.io/how-not-lose-your-startups-kapsch-shares-honest-learnings-factory1/)
**Published:** June 17, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With the Demo Day for the second Kapsch Factory1 global accelerator program coming up in Vienna next week (June 18th), the 127-year-old global technology company has just published some of its learnings from the first. In a refreshingly honest white paper, they’ve shared both the good and bad from that edition, and how they’ve adjusted. They didn’t know, for instance, just what a challenge it was to execute a good collaboration with your partner startups after the Demo Day - did you? They’re keen to save others making similar mistakes, so if you’re planning an innovation program, read on for an exclusive interview with co-author and Kapsch TrafficCom Head of Corporate Development Marcus Handl as well as the full download.
**Content:**
With the Demo Day for the second Kapsch Factory1 global accelerator program coming up in Vienna tomorrow (June 18th), the 127-year-old global technology company has just published some of its learnings from the first edition. Their white paper is a refreshingly honest piece of work, with plenty for curious corporate innovators to chew over. It’s the result of an eight-month analysis of Factory1 by Kapsch TrafficCom Head of Corporate Development Marcus Handl and Thomas Kohler, who Associate Professor of Marketing at Hawaii Pacific University and an expert on startup-corporate collaboration.
The most interesting result from the research and feedback was that there is a real challenge to consider when it comes to implementing projects with startups in the post-acceleration phase. While there was plenty to celebrate from the first Factory1 – most notably a collaboration with operations management software provider Mobiag – it could have been even better. Handl explained this further in an exclusive interview with us.
“The feedback we got was quite positive from the human perspective,” says Handl. “Everyone felt pretty comfortable and taken care of. But there was still room for improvement with the execution towards the end, with the post-acceleration program. We had quite a few problems integrating the startups into our day to day business.”
Handl and his team have responded to that with a few major adjustments for the second program, which promises to deliver an even more positive set of collaborations.
“This time the fields for innovation are more closely aligned with our business units, because it brought us some challenges in the post-acceleration program when they weren’t!
“The process post-acceleration is now much better structured – we already know exactly what we will do with this year’s startups. We started partnership talks during the program this time around, whereas last time it was at the end. That made startups feel a little bit uncomfortable because at first they were not sure if we wanted to collaborate with them.
“I can already announce that we will enter into a partnership with each of the startups in this latest Factory1. This time the mentors will remain the primary interface with the startups for some time to come. And we will have regular meetings with all mentors to review the progress and see if we are executing what was planned.
“Another thing we’ve done is included the whole Kapsch group, not just our TrafficCom division. From having just a member from other units on the jury as an ‘external expert’ in the first edition, it has now become a group-wide undertaking.”
One area where Kapsch did well from the start was having involvement at the very top. Unusually for a CEO of a major company, Georg Kapsch personally read almost 500 pages of applications for both accelerators. That’s a great example to follow. But for this second edition, Kapsch have gone one better by including the entire board on the program committee, including the CTO and COO.
By now you should have a feel of the no-nonsense approach taken by the white paper. There’s heaps more in the way of practical learnings, which we won’t give away here. What we did do was ask Handl about the honesty of the publication.
“One of the things we have learned from working with startups is that you can only get on successfully if you open yourself up,” he says. “This is why we decided to share our journey from incremental to disruptive innovation. We think honesty is the right thing.
“It also brought us into contact with Raiffeisen Bank International. We shared the findings of our research with them in various conversations in recent months. They found it pretty interesting – sometimes the things that didn’t work out well are the things you can consider going forward. They appreciated our honesty and now we’re running one of the startup challenges in their current Elevator Lab program. So that was a good return on investment!”
Both Kapsch and Raiffeisen, we’re proud to say, are clients of our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover. In Kapsch’s case, we were tasked with scouting the startups for this second edition.
“We had external help on the program management for the first edition, but this time around we decided to do that part on our own – just with a little backup ready! I’m very proud of how we internalized the knowledge of running such programs. However, the sourcing of startups would not be possible without the help of a company like Pioneers.”
*Download the white paper [here](https://factory1.net/whitepaper).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Insights: Five Ways to Embed Innovation Through Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/five-ways-embed-innovation-through-intrapreneurship/)
**Published:** June 19, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With corporate innovation beginning to move from its exploratory early days to a clearer understanding of what really works, the concept of intrapreneurship is gaining traction at quite some rate. The value of adding an internally-focused aspect to your innovation program is now gaining acceptance across multiple industries. In this article, one of our Pioneers Discover consultants shares best practice for those setting up an intrapreneurship program.
**Content:**
Entrepreneurship is an inherently creative endeavor, requiring almost constant problem-solving, risk-taking, and rule-breaking…and this is a good thing! Companies need more entrepreneurship – and although **working with startups** is an important way of doing that, it’s not enough. More and more companies are looking for ways to **incorporate entrepreneurship in their internal infrastructure** to foster growth, innovation and talent retention from within. This process is known as ‘intrapreneurship.’
But because intrapreneurship is still in its infancy, designing an intrapreneurship program still means plenty of open question for most innovation managers. In this article I want to share some of our experience designing and executing intrapreneurial programs with corporate clients across several industries, also drawing on our partnerships with accelerator programs and our network of mentors.
At Pioneers Discover we believe **intrapreneurship is about behaving like an entrepreneur within an corporate** in order to develop and evolve ideas into new business models that have an impact for the organisation. In order to see this happen, we’ve identified **five factors** that must be considered when designing and implementing an intrapreneurship program.
These factors help shape a solid program for you to get the ball rolling. Later, they can be further adapted to incorporate the things you learn as you execute your specific program.
**Management Must Support, Not Shout**
Intrapreneurship should not be seen as another innovation program – it should become part of the corporate’s innovation DNA. That’s why it should never go ahead without some internal patronage. However we’ve seen very different levels of commitment here: sometimes management gets excited and wants to create visibility for the project across the organisation before participants have even covered much ground. This can distract or influence teams. It’s best for senior management to support quietly, and later advertise the success as the teams and projects mature.
**Even Creative Ideation Needs Structure**
Not everyone is a visionary, but everyone can contribute to an idea in some way. For intrapreneurship programs you’re not looking for incremental improvement ideas, rather exceptional, disruptive ideas with lots of ‘unknowns’. Where and how you collect these ideas can very much depend on the organisation of your company and its ideation funnel. Consider how your organisation collects such ideas and make sure they remain relevant to your core business and structure. A good hint is to involve people from the operative business units in the early stages of the process. You’ll need their commitment throughout any project, as it’s usually important for the finer details of executing an idea.
**Team Selection: Get The Right Mix**
Choosing the right people is essential for any innovation project – and that’s a truth that confirms itself over and over in our daily experience. The teams are the most important ingredient for a strong intrapreneurship program. You need people who are intrinsically motivated, have the necessary drive and the right mindset. But the *diversity* of a team is also a definite success factor – bringing people from different backgrounds and business units together accelerates the innovation effects. We recommend hosting an innovation assessment center to learn more about the applicants and test if they bring the right requirements with them.
**Look for Innovation Maturity**
The mindset we mentioned in the last point is worth a little more detail. We see teams performing better in an intrapreneurship program if they’ve already been exposed to some basics of innovation, are interested in entrepreneurship or have been in touch with the startup community. It’s ideal to find people with some sort of ‘start’ in innovation, because this innovation maturity accelerates really fast once they start working in a team with similar people.
**Map Out Projects Stage by Stage**
Structure can be a defining factor for a program’s success. Going from idea to market is a challenging process, and we’ve seen that a very structured approach to progressing the idea into a new business model has offered the biggest value. Stage-Gating can be implemented in order to stop teams going too far before certain milestones have been reached. This method puts the emphasis on the idea to be developed while ensuring a long-term program. And that usually means more chance of success!
Intrapreneurship is more than just another innovation program – it’s a step towards transforming an organisation into a creative, learning and self steering organism. This transformation does take time. There are structures which need to be broken up and decades-old mindsets which need to be challenged. But at the end of this transformation process the company is enriched by many engaged, motivated intrapreneurs who are just waiting to find new, creative ways to solve future challenges.
*Looking for direct help with your intrapreneurship program? Get in touch with Pioneers Discover, our consultancy arm, on discover@pioneers.io*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [The Power of Genuine AI...Why contextflow Deserves More Than Just a Scan!](https://pioneers.io/ai-radiography-contextflow/)
**Published:** June 25, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As we meet another of our Top 8 startup finalists from Pioneers ’19, we find out how Austrian startup contexflow is making it easier and faster for radiologists to analyse scans and make correct diagnoses. In an exclusive interview we find out about how their ‘deep learning’ technology - call it genuine AI if you will - goes well beyond the image recognition tools currently available.
**Content:**
If you’ve ever had a medical scan, you probably know what it’s like to receive a big brown envelope containing an incomprehensible report of what the radiologist has found. All those long and specialized words are quite reassuring in a way – they make you feel like someone particularly smart has done the analysis. But just because radiologists are highly-trained people doesn’t mean they can identify every abnormality with ease. Sometimes they get stuck.
Image-recognition technology should of course be a radiographer’s best friend. But the leap taken by Pioneers ’19 finalist startup contextflow suggests it’s been no more than a mildly useful acquaintance up until now.
“Most companies do binary diagnosis,” says Julie Sufana, who was the first of the Top 8 finalists to deliver her pitch on the Arena Stage last month. “Is it a nodule the radiologist is seeing? Their technology will give a yes or a no to that question.”
“Essentially they say ‘We know what a pattern looks like and we tell you if that’s what you’re seeing on the scan.’”
This is great when you have a good idea of what you are looking for, says Sufana. And most cases are straightforward, especially for specialists in particular abnormalities. But what if the radiologist is feeling just a little bit stumped?
“What contextflow does is step back and take a very general approach,” she says. “We come in when you have a very difficult case and maybe you’re not sure what you’re looking at initially. Our system would be able to look at any scan and say ‘These are the patterns that are present. Here are your likely diagnoses. Go and look in that direction.’”
contextflow doesn’t make a decision for the radiographer. Instead, the artificial intelligence presents the radiographer with what it sees as relevant or similar cases from its knowledge base. That saves a lot of time on unstructured searching. Because as anybody who has tried to Google a thing they can’t easily describe knows, search makes a lot more sense when you know what you’re searching for.
“We don’t do absolute diagnosis, rather we support radiologists in making that diagnosis for really difficult cases,” says Sufana.
Here’s a picture of what that might look like.
While the initial capability revolves around recognizing lung disease patterns in CT scans – 19 and counting – Sufana says contextflow can work with “any kind of scan and any organ.” This is clearly a more ambitious image recognition undertaking than looking for a binary output. Unsurprisingly, it’s harder and takes longer. So how has contextflow gotten it right where others have opted for a simpler offering?
It lies in the way they use one of the innovation industry’s favourite buzzwords. Which for one thing means really using it.
“Yes, this is actually real AI for once!” says Sufana. “We use both supervised and unsupervised machine learning. And our CTO would want you to know it’s true deep learning!”
“The focus of our patent plan is on our specific use case – enabling this kind of 3D image search functionality in a medical context,” adds contextflow Co-Founder Markus Holzer. “It describes the process of how you can do that, from how you use the neural networks in a way that returns results very efficiently.”
But while the benefits of such technology for you and me probably don’t need much further explanation, what’s going to be the big sell for the people writing the cheques at clinics and in health departments?
“Right now with such a backlog and such a radiologist shortage, most departments are having to pay either overtime or to hire radiologists from outside as consultants,” says Sufana. “This overtime expense is really huge – the figure I found for my pitch at Pioneers ’19 was that it cost 165 million Pounds a year for the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.”
But rather than selling this cost and efficiency benefit directly to hospitals and clinics, the ultimate idea for contextflow is to integrate its technology into the existing PACS (Picture Archive and Communication Systems) their radiologists are using. Hence why the four Proof of Concepts contextflow is implementing this summer are with four companies in the PACS business: Phillips, Sectra, Medigration and Agfa.
Concurrently to that, contextflow is working on its CE certification and continuing to build the capabilities and features. Having trained its machine using initial lung scan data from the Vienna General Hospital and the Medical University of University, the next step is to add brain MRI data to the knowledge base. Sales are planned to begin in earnest in 2020.
For the full story of Pioneers ’19 click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/storyball-takes-startup-victory-pioneers-19).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Startup CellenTech Opens Fast Lane to Personalised Drugs](https://pioneers.io/oxford-cellentech-opens-fast-lane-personalized-drugs/)
**Published:** July 2, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Following last week’s feature on contextflow, next up in our series of interviews with the Pioneers ’19 finalist startups is another university life sciences spin-off: Oxford Cellentech. As its name suggests, the university in question is a reasonably well-known one in the middle of England. And as you might expect, the technology they're working on is ground-breaking. Founder Zameel Cader and his team have found a way to recreate stem cells much faster and at vastly reduced cost. Read on for an interview revealing the huge implications for personalised medicine.
**Content:**
“Drug discovery is broken,” says Oxford CellenTech Founder Zameel Cader. “The current method for developing medicines is based on a flawed concept that you can develop a drug and it will work for everyone.”
“Nine times out of ten a clinical trial doesn’t work, yet drug companies keep doing it this way because often that’s the only way they know how to do it. And there’s a certain safety in following an old paradigm. We aim to break that process by using stem cells to develop personalized rather than generic medicines.”
If, like me, you don’t do an awful lot of stem cell tinkering in your spare time, that might need a little background explanation. Think of making stem cells as a spot of reverse-engineering. The process allows you to go back in time to when an organ was healthy – the very beginning, in fact. That is to say, to the so-called ‘embryonic stem cell.’ For example, you take a blood sample from an Alzheimer’s patient, turn back the clock to a stem cell and from that you recreate exactly that Alzheimer’s patient’s brain cells.
‘How does this help develop drugs?’ I hear you cry. To put it as simply as possible, starting from scratch helps researchers see where and how things went wrong for that individual patient. From square one they can even (forward) engineer it in certain directions and observe the same results that would have happened in that patient’s body. And because your stem cell is not the same as my stem cell, and diseases do not develop in uniform, convenient ways, they can begin to spot the differences between (at the risk of sounding macabre) your diseases and *my* diseases. When they can do that (and here is where it gets a lot more positive), they can develop drugs more attuned to each of us.
That’s the layman’s explanation out of the way. None of this is news to the specialist community – certainly not since Sir John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka scored a Nobel in 2012 for developing this reverse-engineering. To be sure, Oxford CellenTech has not invented any of the above. Over to Cader to explain exactly where the Oxford University spin-off comes in.
“Stem cells open the door to personalized medicine. But the bottleneck is that making those stem cells is *really* slow and costly. What we have done is develop a way of making them much faster, much cheaper and at a greater scale than currently possible.
“The core of the Nobel Prize-winning invention was that if you added certain molecules it would lead adult cell back into embryonic state, also known as the stem cell. That’s what we use but we developed a way to scale it up – and this is the secret sauce!
“Right now we’re deciding whether to patent this or to keep it as a secret sauce – like Coca Cola.”
It’s not completely fanciful to suggest that Oxford CellenTech’s sauce might prove to be just as lucrative as that of the American health drink (just kidding) manufacturer. Whatever happens, the use cases seem far more constructive for humanity.
The ability to manufacture stem cells at scale and speed isn’t just good news for more targeted drugs. There is also the regenerative medicine potential: to directly swap degenerated cells with healthy ones that actually ‘fit’ the individual.
‘Personalised medicine’ is a term we hear a lot in the innovation community, but here it’s important not to take it too literally. The day you’ll get a drug specifically for you is still quite far off. Although there is now no theoretical barrier and the arrival of Oxford CellenTech’s scaling technology brings it much closer, the realistic first step is ‘personalization’ in the sense of closer targeting for groups of patients with similar patterns.
“In the near term it’s about you belonging to a sub-population, not individual personalization,” says Cader. “Nobody really has explored the latter properly and nobody can say how far off that is.”
Much closer at hand are the first business steps for the spin-off. These include formally establishing the company (it’s that fresh) and finalizing first funding – Cader and his team have gotten this far as part of their day jobs with Oxford University. The target then is to gain first revenues with a ‘reprogramming service model’ for researchers. Essentially that means Oxford CellenTech performing the reverse-engineering for those who need it. If they’re really 100x faster and threefold cheaper than existing competitors – and those are the claimed numbers – then this should be an easy sell.
From there, the plan is to transition into a data company, where they can simply offer researchers and drug companies disease-specific cellular big data from the huge bio-repository they plan to build up.
Cader, who also works as a physician, is on a steep learning curve when it comes to setting up and running the business. But with some great backing, high-impact tech and mention mentorship at Pioneers ’19 that he likens to “gold dust”, the future looks extremely promising!
*For the full story of Pioneers ’19, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/storyball-takes-startup-victory-pioneers-19).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [AI: Could Your Next Intern be a Chatbot?](https://pioneers.io/ai-could-your-next-intern-be-chatbot/)
**Published:** July 10, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In a world of dubious or overstated use cases for chatbots, here’s one that looks sounder than most. A chatbot driven by real machine learning might really be the thing you need to access all the knowledge your company colleagues (and ex-colleagues) have built up over the years. Spanish startup Zapiens has developed just such a bot and found a bunch of big clients already. Can it really answer useful questions and save you hunting for the right co-workers all the time? We ‘chat’ to the Pioneers ’19 finalists to find out...
**Content:**
Picture this. You’ve got a task or a problem at work. You’re pretty sure *someone* has dealt with it before…but you don’t know who. Or where. Or when. It might be that weird guy sitting three metres away from you. Or it might have been that lady who quit working in the Abidjan office three years ago. Since you don’t know where to start asking and time is pressing, you do the whole trial-and-error thing from scratch.
If you work in any company larger than a startup, you probably know this situation well. Welcome to the wonderfully challenging world of Knowledge Management.
For all the clever technology and systems we use in our work, some crucial nugget of knowledge of how to get something done is usually stored in *people*. And there’s a major disconnect there, because people come and go from companies. People don’t know what each other are doing. People don’t always like to share information. Even when they write down information to help their colleagues, these colleagues forget that the document exists at the crucial moment, or can’t find it. In short, people make for a terrible filing system.
And in a world of dubious or overstated use cases for chatbots, here we find a compelling one. The idea of an artificial intelligence that doesn’t hide information from colleagues or leave the company, but rather gets wiser all the time and shares its wisdom on demand, appears to be a natural fit here. AI only really makes sense when it can negate human shortcomings in some way. And in theory this would do exactly that.
Developing such a chatbot is exactly what Pioneers ’19 finalist startup Zapiens have been doing since 2016. Building and selling such a thing is a huge task, but one the Spanish company is executing very well already.
“We’re not looking for money,” is the first unusual thing Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer Aurelio Jimenez says in an exclusive interview with Pioneers. “We now have around 30 customers, all of them companies with at least 50 employees, and this base is growing every month. This already finances our day to day operations.”
That leaves the company free to put its existing investment (around €1m) into making its ‘Zap’ chatbot as good as it can be. We’re talking real proprietary tech, says Jimenez.
“Many companies doing AI, analytics and so on are using engines from IBM, Microsoft, Google or whatever. We are building our own engine and our own IP.”
As with any machine learning, the thing with Zap is that he needs input before he can start being useful. The machine underlying him needs to suck as much knowledge as it can from the company’s employees.
“We tell them ‘congrats, you have hired a new intern! Now he needs to learn from you.’ We’re always working to improve the system itself, but every company has its own silo of knowledge that is empty when we start with them.”
Will busy employees really want to spend their valuable Instagram time answering work questions in order to train a chatbot? Thanks to elements of gamification in the Zapiens system and (sometimes) companies offering bonus incentives for participating employees, it appears that people *do* want to contribute.
“Lots of companies say, ‘We see what you want to improve here, but everything depends on people sharing what they know, instead of trying to lock the knowledge into them for competitive advantage.’ We have this conversation over and over with our clients. And a lot of it is about their culture.
“But companies have been surprised by the level of user acceptance.
People are more proud to share their knowledge than companies think – that is usually a surprise. And this is the best thing for our customer retention!”
Those customers are not small fry, by the way: think Audi, Deutsche Bahn, Unilever and Vodafone. And if you’re thinking ‘Ah, but those are just piffling pilot projects!’ then Jimenez would have you thinking again.
“This year we changed the strategy: we don’t accept Proofs of Concepts any more. Because what we do only makes sense with a long term view. We will define our work with any new client as a long-term project, but of course we won’t lock them into Zapiens if they aren’t happy.”
Might the startup from Oviedo just be on their way to major success here? Big companies are notably terrible at even knowing how bad they are at Knowledge Management (or hiring people, as *The Economist* points out [here](https://www.economist.com/business/2019/05/09/why-companies-are-so-bad-at-hiring)) and many are only just starting to wake up to the preposterous inefficiencies going on in their midst. There are vast corporations in which nobody has the job of aligning all the in-house knowledge.
“We won’t start working with a company that doesn’t believe in what we are trying to achieve for them,” says Jimenez. “If they actually have someone in the role of Talent Manager or Knowledge Manager, this is a KPI for us that says this company is thinking about the things we do. And every day more and more companies have this role!
“The bigger a company is, the more difficult it is for them to update and manage their knowledge. The more rotation they have in products, services or people, the more important something like this becomes.”
So far the Zapiens system has found most application when it comes to product, internal or sales processes. ‘What’s the price of this? Where can I get this? How should I do this? How did you solve that problem?’ These are the kinds of questions a well-trained Zap is designed to answer.
If you’re wondering whether ‘Is there a document about this’ and ‘What document should I read about that?’ are also on the list, then the answer is yes – as long as an employee has shared that information. The system does not, in other words, scan through your folder tree and its files in the looking for search words (such hit-and-miss systems already exist). It targets only human knowledge – in effect it asks your question of choice to everyone in the company without you having to leave your desk. And if the bot has been well-trained by your past and present colleagues, then it will already have the answer for you – or at least tell you whom to ask.
Ambitious? Hugely. Have we tried it? Sadly not yet. What we can say here is that the early traction with clients suggests Zapiens is addressing a problem companies really want to solve. Horizon 2020 grants and a current participation in the Alchemist Accelerator in the USA suggest we’re not the only ones to see it. Above all, the company has a genuine confidence about it – they seem to know where they’re heading. We trust the destination is a good place!
*For the full story of Pioneers ’19 click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/storyball-takes-startup-victory-pioneers-19).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [What Makes a Winning Startup?](https://pioneers.io/what-makes-winning-startup/)
**Published:** July 16, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** If there’s one thing most veterans of our flagship event agreed on after this year’s edition back in May, it was that the quality of our Top 8 startup finalists was next-level stuff. Considering that any one of them would have been a worthy winner at Pioneers ’19, it’s no wonder their pitches were followed by one of the hottest jury debates we’ve seen. But the last round was just the tip of the iceberg! In this article, for the first time, we publish the details of how we get from over 1000 applications down to a single winner.
**Content:**
**By Jasmina Henniova, Head of Startups & Community Partnerships at Pioneers**
When **Storyball** was announced as the winner of Pioneers ’19 it was the culmination of an extensive selection process that ran over a period of several weeks.
After pre-selecting the best 500 startups to invite, we chose the best 50 to pitch at the event, where we further narrowed it down to eight finalists. We’ve been told this year’s Top 8 was the best batch we’ve ever had – no wonder their final pitches on the Arena Stage were followed by one of the hottest jury debates we’ve seen. So how did we arrive at the ultimate winner?
As part of my role at Pioneers, I was there throughout the process and also moderated the final jury discussion. Later in this article I’ll give you a glimpse of just what went on in that jury room. But first, let me outline the **framework and criteria we use throughout the full process** – something we’ve never published before.
For our flagship event there are no fewer than six selection phases – and this has become standard procedure for most of our pitching events.
**PHASE 1: SMART RATING**
To avoid the subjectivity and errors associated with human judgement, our first step is to get help from a third-party smart algorithm. This allows us to make a first divide between the best applications and those that are probably less strong.
**PHASE 2: PIONEERS500**
The second step is for our in-house Startups Team to go through the applications manually. We double-check every application and invite the best 500 startups to join us for free at the event. Those who accept get a pair of tickets and progress to round three.
**PHASE 3: ONLINE JURY**
Together with our community of dedicated partners and a team of our own innovation consultants, we rate each of the 500 confirmed startups on the following criteria: team, traction, product, market and pioneering factor. Those who read our FAQ ahead of the event will know that the criteria here are not entirely secret – although the criteria guidelines and the exact way in which our scoring system weights each of them is! What we can reveal though is that every criterion is scored with a star rating on a scale of one to six. To further avoid subjectivity, every ‘star level’ for each criterion has its own detailed definition.
**PHASE 4: TOP 50**
A day-long workshop follows in which we pick the best 50 startups to pitch at the event, based on the internal and external ratings. Here the startups are also clustered into seven appropriate pitching sessions for the event.
**PHASE 5: SEMIFINALS**
Pioneers ’19 is here! After going through a mentoring program, our top 50 startups pitch during the seven pitching sessions on the first day of the event. Each session has its own jury composed of a diverse mix of experts and key players from the startup ecosystem, including representatives from prominent VC funds and accelerators. They rate the startups on the same criteria as in step three, in real time and using tablets. Last but not least, one Wild Card startup is picked by the audience at the end of the first day, resulting in the eight finalists who go to the last round on day two.
**PHASE 6: FINALS**
This is the moment of the truth. The eight finalists, selected from over a thousand applications, pitch on the main stage. A jury of six (below) again uses the same rating criteria as in rounds three and five. Then, after the show is over, a wild discussion starts in backstage to pick the winner!
This process has been tweaked a little every year and continuously improved based on lessons learned. Every stage of the process is managed through **Piobay**, our online dealflow management tool, and **FlashRate**, the startup evaluation software we’ve specifically designed for juries at pitching sessions. It’s the latter the juries use on their tablets during rounds five and six.
You probably still have a couple of burning questions, right? How did that jury debate at Pioneers ’19 go? And if there’s a scientific scoring system and software, why do we need a debate at the end at all?
To answer the second question first, we typically use the star rating system as a framework for a follow-up debate at each stage. Especially when it comes to the finals, we do prefer to rely on the ultimate conclusions of our selected experts. Such discussions are never easy, as every juror has a strong opinion and there is no objective right or wrong!
At Pioneers ’19 the scores registered on FlashRate were extremely close – and the top two startups were in fact **tied**. That made the discussion even more lively – and without a clear consensus, a final vote had to be held amongst the panelists. The reality is that *all* the startups in the finals had checked the quality box and any of them would have been worthy winners. In the end it was storytelling and that little ‘x factor’ Storyball left in the memory of the jurors that proved to be decisive. Our final two rounds are a pitching contest after all!
*To learn more about Storyball, our Pioneers ’19 winning startup, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-2019-winner-interview-storyballs-inner-workings).*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [100+ DACH Corporations Reveal Their Innovation Approaches: First Study Findings](https://pioneers.io/100-dach-corporations-reveal-their-innovation-approaches-first-study-findings/)
**Published:** July 18, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover has just completed the first comprehensive study of how leading corporates drive innovation in the DACH region. In this article we publish the key findings of this formal survey by our consultancy arm, which covered 104 companies averaging over 1,000 employees and €500m in revenue. Read on to see how the results tell a clear story of why companies try to innovate, the number one barrier to their success and, most importantly, the best way they can overcome that barrier.
**Content:**
**By Antonia Frizberg, Verena Judmayer, Michael Wlaschitz and Richard Asher.**
Pioneers Discover has completed the first study of how leading corporates drive innovation in the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) region. This 2019 survey by our consultancy arm covered 104 companies headquartered in the region, which average over 1,000 employees and €500m in revenue. Senior management, most often the overall heads of innovation or digitalisation, provided the responses.
**KEY FINDINGS: Startups & Senior Management are Critical to a Positive Innovation Culture**
Pioneers Discover’s survey of over 100 major companies headquartered in the DACH region tells a clear story of why companies try to innovate, the number one barrier to their success and, finally, the best way they can overcome that barrier.
The responses we received clearly showed that **gaining (or maintaining) a competitive advantage is the primary driver of innovation** among top DACH companies. But, while many try to innovate using intrapreneurship programs (among other formats), **65% of intrapreneurship projects are not successfully implemented.**
This, according to the study results, is primarily due to internal resistance to innovation – something intrapreneurship is supposed to address! **Improving the innovation culture** amongst employees therefore remains a task that should get top priority – and intrapreneurship alone is not the answer.
The solution lies in the survey results. These revealed the two factors that have been most successful in helping companies address that internal innovation culture: **top-level management involvement in programs** and **startup-driven innovation**.
The study showed that **support from top-level management leads not only to positive outcomes of innovation activities but also internal satisfaction with results**. 97% of respondents highlighted the importance of top-level management support and more than 50% describe a push from supervisors as a main factor of success in innovation activities. But this is particularly relevant when it comes to intrapreneurship programs, as 79% of respondents state that senior commitment is key for such initiatives.
**Startup-driven innovation, meanwhile, surpasses expected outcomes in regards to improving a company’s innovation culture.** Perhaps surprisingly, it also surpassed intrapreneurship programs in this aspect. This is one of a number of findings that testify to the exceptional value of innovating alongside startups.
**OVERVIEW OF RESULTS**
**Cross-Innovation Stream Findings – Innovation Governance in DACH Companies**
Competition is the main driver for corporate innovation in the DACH region. The results of this study show that many corporates innovate by delivering new products and services to clients, developing and digitizing processes or fostering an open innovation culture. To better understand how innovation is implemented, the first part of the study offers insights into their governance of innovation.
*Involvement of Top-Level Management*
Innovation is a top-level management topic, with 88% of respondents reporting strong involvement of senior management in innovation activities. The importance of their commitment is underlined by 79% of study participants who see senior support as a key aspect of success in intrapreneurship. 53% stress its importance in startup collaboration. The study found that this is especially valid during the transition phase towards a more strategic approach to innovation.
*Structure of Innovation Teams & Strategy*
Findings show that the size and structure of the teams responsible for driving innovation, as well as the strategy behind innovation initiatives, differ markedly. 12% of companies attempt to innovate ad hoc without following a clear strategy, usually with a single employee (not specifically dedicated to innovation projects) responsible. Meanwhile 33% have a strategy but no clear timeline or KPIs. Companies who do demonstrate a clear strategy generally foster innovation through cross-department teams (31%), innovation centers and hubs (30%) or via separate legal entities (13,2%).
**Innovation Through Intrapreneurship – Why Outcomes Lag Behind Expectations**
*Why Intrapreneurship?*
DACH companies engage in intrapreneurship to develop new products and services (82%), foster strong innovation cultures (56%) and improve internal processes (47%). Results show that companies believe in the quality of employees’ ideas and aim to use their abilities for internal development.
*How is Intrapreneurship Done?*
The majority of companies offer employees a budget (59%), mentorship opportunities (48%) and dedicated time for side projects (45%) to work on their own ideas. Internal idea competitions (58%) and innovation or entrepreneurship trainings (40%) are the main innovation formats used in practice.
*What are the Main Enablers & Challenges for Successful Intrapreneurship?*
The study shows that strong involvement of top-level management (79%), clear strategies and goals (61%) and high-quality ideas (32%) are the main enablers of intrapreneurship. The biggest barriers are internal resistance (48%), low budgets (36%) and a lack of support from company leadership (32%).
*What are the Outcomes of Intrapreneurship Initiatives?*
Intrapreneurship activities result in product innovations (57%), improved innovation cultures (49%) and motivated employees (43%). The study identifies ineffective innovation activities by comparing the resulting product innovations (57%) with the product and service development goals originally set by around 80% of companies. With internal resistance being the main preventer of innovation, outcomes for improved innovation culture likewise fail to meet the respondents’ goals.
When reviewing the average numbers of started and successfully implemented intrapreneurship projects (on average 4-6 projects were initiated and 1-2 successfully implemented), the study suggests that companies are still experimenting on a rather small scale. With a failure rate of over 50%, increased efforts on the corporate side are deemed necessary in order to ensure successful innovation projects and lasting intrapreneurial impact. Only 25% were ‘more than satisfied’ or ‘highly satisfied’ with their intrapreneurship activities.
**Innovation Through Startups – The Road to Success**
*Why Startup-Driven Innovation?*
In order to stay ahead of the competition, 88% of corporates engage in startup collaboration as part of their innovation program. Main goals include product innovation (86%), process innovation (41%) and new market entry (39%).
*How is Startup-Driven Innovation Done?*
Common practices that lead to successful startup collaboration involve two essential formats. First, many companies host startup pitching challenges (49%) or hackathons (39%) to get to know a large number of potential collaboration partners. Second, the best-fitting startups are offered financed pilots/PoCs (69%), as well as access to data (53%) and customers (59%). Accelerators enjoy high popularity with corporates as 41% run their own 6-12 month programs, thus combining the previously mentioned formats. Incubators (13%) or co-working spaces (19%) are used less frequently.
The study reveals that most companies (56%) collaborate with growth-stage startups, as they provide the benefit of a market-ready solution, a tested business model and some initial industry and business experience. However 21% do work with early-stage startups while 31% are prepared to work with startups at any stage of their development.
*What are the Main Enablers & Challenges for Successful Startup-Driven Innovation?*
The study shows that the main enablers of startup-driven innovation are clearly-defined expectations for the collaboration (63%), the involvement of the corporate’s top-level management (53%) and a strong commitment from both the startup and the corporate to the collaboration (46%). The biggest challenges are different cultures and work methods (47%), internal resistance (46%) and technical integration (46%).
*What are the Outcomes of Startup-Driven Innovation Initiatives?*
Startup-collaboration initiatives achieve most of the expected outcomes, enabling process innovation (41%) and entry to new markets (41%). However, 65% of respondents report that the expected product innovations are not yet achieved.
When it comes to the goal of improving internal innovation culture, the results are very positive. 32% of respondents state it as a goal, and 31% report success. This suggests more companies should keep in mind that improved innovation culture is a highly likely outcome.
Even though only 15% of respondents aim for an improved reputation, 31% report being seen as more innovative after working with startups.
Around 40% of questioned companies state that they worked with more than 11 startups in the past three years. Overall, 92% have implemented at least one successful collaboration project with startups while 14% have successfully implemented more than 11. All companies that have worked with more than three startups in the last three years managed to implement a successful project.
Respondents were generally positive about the different collaboration formats they had tried, but the enthusiasm varied by format. Specifically, incubators lead to highly satisfying results: even though only 12.5% of the companies had hosted an incubator, 80% of them were ‘highly satisfied’ or ‘fully satisfied’ with the outcomes. In comparison, 55% of respondents were similarly satisfied with accelerators, 45% with hackathons and 51% with pitching challenges.
Most companies (72%) seek external support when engaging in startup collaboration. 38% are employing external consultants while around 20% are working with universities or external mentors. Looking at the levels of satisfaction with the project outcomes, it’s clear that companies who have no external support are less satisfied with the outcomes than those who do.
**Multi-Corporate Innovation – The Quest for Perfect Partners**
The study also analyzed multi-corporate collaboration, a third stream of corporate innovation after intrapreneurship and startup-driven innovation. Even though 78% of polled participants had already attempted multi-corporate innovation, companies are less likely to innovate with other corporates than with startups. The main reason for this, as indicated by 47% of respondents, is the difficulty of finding the right corporate partner with similar goals from another industry.
47% of multi-corporate innovation takes the form of co-creation to develop new products, while 49% of companies are building a cross-industry ecosystem to achieve their goals. The main goals of multi-corporate innovation are product development (65%), ecosystem building (40%) and process innovation (40%).
This executive summary reveals just a glimpse into the results of the survey. The full report turns up further good arguments in favour of startup-driven innovation. It also explores a number of other topics facing major corporates in the DACH region, including country- and industry-specific outcomes.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers '19 finalist ONO Hits The Streets of Berlin!](https://pioneers.io/ono-hits-streets-berlin/)
**Published:** August 7, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We're proud to share that one of our Pioneers '19 finalist startups, ONO, has taken the next big step on its journey to success. Last week the second generation of the ONO Pedal Assisted Transporter (PAT) rolled out (quite literally!) onto the streets of Berlin, as the first of two pilot projects with German logistics companies Hermes and Liefery got underway.
**Content:**
We’re proud to see that one of our Pioneers ’19 finalist startups, ONO, has taken the next big step on its journey. Last week the second generation of the ONO Pedal Assisted Transporter (PAT) has hit the streets of Berlin, as the first of two pilot projects with German logistics companies Hermes and Liefery got underway.
As those attending the tense final pitches at the Hofburg will recall, the ONO PAT is an emissions-free and weather-protected vehicle developed for the CEP (courier, express, parcel) industry. It features two electric motors and doesn’t require a driver’s licence. With its load volume-capacity of over two cubic metres, easily exchangeable cargo-units replace the volume capacity of many conventional delivery vehicles.
**Berlin, Europe and Beyond: A Clean and Cost-Effective Solution**
ONO and its pilot project partners are tackling a problem that affects city centres worldwide. Last-mile deliveries cause road congestion, air pollution, and take up valuable space. The ONO PAT promises to address these issues with a smaller, greener solution.
While part of that solution is evidently the vehicle itself, the most interesting aspect is ONO’s vision of an innovative ecosystem that includes the use of micro-depots within urban centres. Here vehicles load cargo from micro-depots within the city, as opposed to huge warehouses on the outskirts. That reduces the number of trucks in the city, with clear emissions and congestion benefits.
But being green, healthy and pleasant isn’t generally enough reason to get logistics companies to change their ways. It has to work for their bottom lines. And ONO’s solution offers clear savings, says Vieran Hodko, the startup’s Head of Brand Development.
“Our solution is positioned to be 20% cheaper to operate than all the big trucks out there. It’s a lot more future-friendly in that we designed with the ‘city-hubs’ model in mind. And as a business you will need less time to train a potential driver, because you don’t need a driving licence. And all of that is without even mentioning the ecological benefits of the the vehicles.”
**Ahead of 2020 Mass Production: Demonstrating Feasibility of Replacing Diesel Vehicles Through Pilot Projects**
The pilot projects with Hermes and Liefery will address feasibility concerns of switching from conventional trucks and vans to ONO PATs for urban logistics. Performance will be monitored as the vehicles are used in daily and regular operations for a four-week period. Hermes and Liefery will fill the interchangeable ONO cargo-units at their distribution centres, bring them to micro-depots by van and then send items by PAT to final destinations within 5-10km. ONO will use the results to prepare for mass production in the spring of 2020.
Beres Seelbach, ONO co-founder and Managing Director explains, “With our e-cargo vehicles in everyday use, we look forward to demonstrating that cargo bikes are an effective alternative to conventional delivery practices, and that our ONO in particular best meets the needs of urban logistics.”
**The Next Chapter in ONO’s Growth Story**
The broader potential of the ONO concept was no doubt a factor in our jury sending the Berlin-based startup through to our Top 8 final. And, sure enough, this pilot project launch three months later marks the expansion of ONO’s target markets. After mainly focusing on the CEP market, the company is now addressing urban logistics as a whole.
The ONO transporter is built using a modular platform base, where standardised cargo-units can be easily swapped with units suited to different purposes. So in addition to parcel deliveries, the plan is for ONO PATs to be used to transport all types of goods, from food to flowers to furniture and more.
Josef Schulze Sutthoff from the German investment firm, Innovations & Beteiligungsgesellschaft Wolfsburg explains, “With the roll out of the second generation of this completely new category of vehicle and with the new pilot projects, ONO is that much closer to market maturity and mass production. We see tremendous scaling-up potential in ONO.”
*For the full story of the Pioneers ’19 startup competition, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/storyball-takes-startup-victory-pioneers-19).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [MOTIONTAG and Baze Celebrate Investment Deals](https://pioneers.io/more-pioneers-champions-celebrate-investment/)
**Published:** August 22, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re pleased to report that our 2019 Mobility.Pioneers winners MOTIONTAG have landed a six-figure investment from Wayra, the corporate venture capital arm of Telefonica. The deal also means a collaboration with the Spanish mobile communications giant. And in further investment celebrations for our community this month, former Health.Pioneers winner Baze has closed a $6 million Series A funding round led by American supplements manufacturer Nature’s Way.
**Content:**
We’re pleased to report that our 2019 Mobility.Pioneers winners MOTIONTAG have landed a six-figure investment from Wayra, the corporate venture capital arm of Telefonica. The parties have also agreed a strategic partnership that will allow the Spanish mobile communications giant to help improve the Berlin-based startup’s product.
Wayra and MOTIONTAG first met at Mobility.Pioneers two years ago. Wayra were there to see the startup’s [victory in the third edition](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/motiontag-wins-new-look-pitch-contest-mobilitypioneers) this February, where they were one of our event partners. The relationship between the two strengthened further at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna, where Wayra Head of Portfolio Alberto Pérez Arranz acted as the startup’s mentor.
As we explained in more detail [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/mobilitypioneers-finalists-praise-new-pitch-format) following Mobility.Pioneers, MotionTag offers software that offers transport providers the most accurate mobility demand data on the market, using the sensor technology found in mobile devices. The collaboration with Telefonica could take this to the next level of accuracy by adding the Spanish giant’s mobile network data to the recipe.
“Working with Wayra will allow us and Telefonica to measure transport usage patterns much more accurately than has been possible up until now,” commented MOTIONTAG CEO Stephan Leppler.
Having concluded its seed round of €1.3 million in January 2018, MOTIONTAG is seeing the Wayra deal as a ‘Pre Series A’ financial injection. In the short term this will be used to strengthen the sales and development teams. For Wayra it is exactly in line with their policy of investing in startups that can impact Telefonica’s core business.
In more good news for former winners of our industry-focused events, personalized vitamins startup Baze has closed a $6 million Series A funding round. Baze was the winner of our first [Health.Pioneers event](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/health-pioneers-summary) in Amsterdam in 2017.
The investment is similar to the MOTIONTAG deal in that it was led by a company with product synergies – in this case established American supplement manufacturer Nature’s Way. This lines up well with the Berlin startup’s plan to focus fully on the United States market in the near future.
“We are at a pivotal growth point for Baze — it’s exciting to see how our offerings are evolving with the needs of our consumers and the world,” said Baze Co-Founder Philipp Schulte. “The partnership with Nature’s Way is an amazing stamp of approval from the quality leader in the US supplement market.”
Earlier this summer Pioneers Festival 2016 winners Pleo [closed a $56 million Series B round](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/2016-pioneers-challenge-winner-pleo-celebrates-56-m-series-b).
*To guess who might be the next startup to announce an investment, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-hall-fame-all-our-winners) for the list of all Pioneers event winners!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [ÖBB's intrapreneurship success story: Unleashing internal innovation](https://pioneers.io/unleashing-internal-innovation-success-story-obb/)
**Published:** January 31, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Promoting innovation company-wide is a challenge for many corporates. To tackle this, ÖBB established an Open Innovation team that supports and promotes innovation via an intrapreneurship program that utilizes internal innovation potential through interdisciplinary sub-group teams and use cases.
**Content:**
### **How the biggest Austrian mobility provider succeeds with their intrapreneurship program**
The second batch of the ÖBB innovation program ended with a demo day on Dec. 9th, making it the perfect timing to recap the key program highlights from throughout 2019. In the last 9 months, 4 teams from different subgroups have worked intensively on innovative projects to develop them from an idea concept into tested pilots.
### **Promoting innovation company-wide is a challenge for many corporates.**
To tackle this, ÖBB established an Open Innovation team that supports and promotes innovation via an intrapreneurship program that utilizes internal innovation potential through interdisciplinary sub-group teams and use cases. As a result, ÖBB creates innovative mindsets and pushes ideas through the use of design thinking methods and applied prototyping, enabling idea concepts to turn into tested prototypes and pilots.
This year, 17 innovative heads were selected via an open call and were grouped in diverse teams that were (if required) complemented by external specialists and startups.
### **Developing new mobility services successfully.**
Looking back on two years of the ÖBB innovation program, we can proudly say that two of last year´s projects have been implemented and have been launched as a new revenue stream. The [ÖBB Postbus Shuttle](https://www.postbus.at/unsere-leistungen/postbus-shuttle.html) solves the last mile problem and the underserved micro-mobility market in rural areas with an on-demand solution. Two running pilots are recently in place, with many more waiting for rollout. [GPS Ticketing](https://www.oebb.at/de/tickets-kundenkarten/online-mobile-ticketing/oebb-app.html) revolutionizes the public transport ticketing process through a GPS tracking mobile app – nationwide applicability under review.
These success stories show the potential of innovative solutions and the relevance of user-centric products in the mobility industry. Furthermore, they show how fruitful the collaboration of startups and corporates can be and what new opportunities this opens. With this, we are excited about our next innovation projects and the future of mobility.
By the way, the new batch is about to start soon!
**More buzz around the ÖBB innovation program can be found here:**
- Postbus Shuttle Webpage:
- DerBrutkasten, Article “Postbus auf Zuruf: Die ÖBB testen Verkehrsinnovation in Kärnten”:
- DerBrutkasten, Interview “Das Intrapreneurship Programm der ÖBB“:
- ÖBB Mobile Ticketing Webpage:
- DerStandard, Article “ÖBB tüfteln an neuem Smart-Ticketing“:
- Futurezone, Article “ÖBB planen Einführung von GPS-Tickets“:
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Uncovering the secrets of the Digital Metals AI Hackathon](https://pioneers.io/creativity-untethered-uncovering-secrets-digital-metals-ai-hackathon/)
**Published:** February 4, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Hackathons are not often first when thinking of collaborative innovation formats. Hackathons with their quick pace - and long nights - problem-solving goal embody what innovation in its essence is - dynamic, collaborative and a lot of fun. 17 teams took part in the Digital Metals AI Hackathon in Vienna during 16-17th January 2020. Their goal was to solve 4 challenges presented to them by voestalpine and Primetals - both leading global companies.
**Content:**
### The hackathon
Hackathons are not often first when thinking of collaborative innovation formats. Hackathons with their quick pace – and long nights – problem-solving goal embody what innovation in its essence is – dynamic, collaborative and a lot of fun. 17 teams took part in the Digital Metals AI Hackathon in Vienna during 16-17th January 2020. Their goal was to solve 4 challenges presented to them by [voestalpine](http://www.voestalpine.com) and [Primetals](https://www.primetals.com/) – both leading global companies.
### International at its core
17 startups from 8 different countries across Europe participated in the hackathon. This was not surprising at voestalpine and Primetals are international companies with presence all over the world. With over more 150 teams shortlisted and more than 40 final applications, the hackathon selection was very competitive. Teams came from Austria, UK, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Poland, France and Bulgaria.
### 4 use cases solving real problems
The 17 teams participating in the hackathon worked diligently all day long with the majority of the teams finishing well after midnight on the first day of the hackathon. A lot of this had to do with the 4 use cases (challenges) of the hackathon that were difficult and interesting at the same time: automatic requisitions and measuring steel pieces for voestalpine; digital twin visualization and information crawler for Primetals.
Voestalpine’s first use case was automatic requisitions use case that challenged startups to find new ways to automate ordering thousands of small parts annually in a factory: the winner was [Flowlity](https://www.flowlity.com) from France that used AI and machine learning to come up with a very strong solution. Second use case involved measuring steel pieces using a mobile phone. Sounds simple but the accuracy demanded made this a difficult challenge and the winner [Iviso](https://www.iviso.at) from Austria already had a working prototype that met the requirements for accuracy by end of the hackathon.
> “I was impressed to see, how well the first protoypes are working within only 1,5 days and how different these approaches are. The Hackathon is a good format to quickly reach an assessment of the subject.” Stefan Krammer, Global Operations, voestalpine High Perfomance Metals – Use Case Lead “Measuring Steel Pieces with a Mobile App”
Primetals’ first use case was visualising a digital twin of a steel plant and the winner [LocLab](https://www.loclab-consulting.com) from Germany wowed the jury with a working prototype of this created in less than 24 hours. Second use case was an information crawler and the winner was [Thinkers.ai](https://www.thinkers.ai) from Austria that used AI-based algorithms that demonstrated to the jury that it could provide relevant results given a requested query.
> “Very professional organized Hackathon! The most important experience: The mood of the hackers has been extraordinary good throughout the whole two days. Thanks to the organizers for this!” – [LocLab](https://www.loclab-consulting.com)
### Only 2.5 days to reach first prototypes
Most hackathons vary in duration but all of them have one thing in common: unrelenting energy. In the case of the Digital Metals AI Hackathon, 2.5 days was ideal: a remote 1/2 day kickoff several days before the hackathon took place where teams were provided an overview of the uses cases; the actual hackathon consisted of 2 days on-site event where teams worked on the use cases in intense working sessions. This drive resulted in first prototypes being presented by the end of the hackathon in front of the jury.
### ALL WINNERS
4 teams won the top prize in the hackathon (one for each use case). The remaining teams had a lot of fun and feedback from leading industry experts. The hackathon’s best asset was to create an atmosphere for open discussion and exchange of ideas between the organisers – voestalpine and Primetals and participating startups. Furthermore, for voestalpine and Primetals, the hackathon itself proved a very good format to untether creativity from the outside to solve specific challenges while having a lot of fun along the way.
> “One of the best organised hackathon I’ve been at, and I’ve been to many as both participant and/or sponsor.” – [Imagga](https://imagga.com)
>
> “The perfect hackathon experience!” – [Giant Lazer](https://giantlazer.com/)
>
> “The AI metals hackathon was a great opportunity to validate the fit of our product for the metals industry and to compare our proposition with other product and services.” – [We Connect Data](http://weconnectdata.com/)
>
> “Best event I ever participate in with others startups!!” – [Norlean](https://norlean.com/en/home/)
Big thanks to our amazing Hackathon team. You’re kick-ass!
No more words needed.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [How do you run a Hackathon to innovate successfully with external partners?](https://pioneers.io/how-do-you-run-hackathon-innovate-successfully-external-partners/)
**Published:** March 2, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** At Pioneers, we have run more than 20 successful hackathons across numerous countries and industries with partners such as Palfinger, VoestAlpine, MVM and Swisspower. As hackathon experts, we created a whitepaper on everything hackathon-related that there is to know. Here is a sneak preview of some of our top tips for success.
**Content:**
Hackathons, which effectively give partners hundreds of hours of R&D time from hand-picked innovators spurred on by an element of competition, are gaining momentum across a range of industries.
At Pioneers, we have run more than 20 successful hackathons across numerous countries and industries with partners such as Palfinger, VoestAlpine, MVM and Swisspower. As hackathon experts, we created a whitepaper on everything hackathon-related that there is to know. Here is a sneak preview of some of our top tips for success:
**1. Outline exactly why you are running a hackathon.**
What are your goals? What is the problem you want to tackle and who should be involved? Make sure you answer these questions before you kick-off. Don´t forget to involve the key stakeholders from the start and include them in the problem definition. Ensuring that a clear strategy and budget is in place to turn selected ideas into reality post event is also strongly recommended.
**2. Give yourself enough time.**
A hackathon takes anywhere between 3-5 months from planning to implementation. Don´t rush in the beginning – the outcomes of a hackathon are only as good as its preparation.
**3. Ensure you create well-defined, relevant use cases.**
This gives you and your team clear direction and secondly, it enables you to search for top-fitting startups with technological solutions across different industries.
**4. Find top-fitting startups.**
Having the right startups to bring external ideas and innovation into the project is essential. To do so, outline a clear scouting strategy and criteria so you know the type of startups to engage.
**5.Organization is key.**
From event location to catering, and everything in between, it is important to have a key team involved who manage and implement all operational tasks. This creates a memorable event experience for all parties involved.
These are just a handful of our top tips to set you up for success. If you would like to find out more or are interested in Pioneers Discover running a hackathon on your behalf, email discover@pioneers.io.
[Read more](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/creativity-untethered-uncovering-secrets-digital-metals-ai-hackathon) about our previous Hackathon with VoestAlpine and Primetals.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [RUNNING A REMOTE OPEN INNOVATION PROGRAM: A look back on important questions to ask and unexpected upsides to value](https://pioneers.io/running-remote-open-innovation-program/)
**Published:** March 30, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** 2020 just turned into the year of remote working and it’s no secret: distributing team work remotely can be challenging, especially when you want to run an open innovation program!
About a year ago, we were facing exactly this situation and decided to undertake the first open innovation program on a remote basis. It posed us with new challenges but soon, we realized the remote setting didn’t impose additional obstacles, it rather opened our eyes to the opportunities and advantages the entire program could benefit from. Now, we want to share the three greatest opportunities we discovered from running remote programs as well as insights and key learnings we made along the way.
**Content:**
### 2020 just turned into the year of remote working and it’s no secret: distributing team work remotely can be challenging!
When looking at new challenges such as this, we usually brainstorm and translate problems into “How might we” questions. At the moment, there are lots of these buzzing around our heads: How might we facilitate workshops remotely? How might we facilitate innovation projects online? How might we undertake business development effectively? How might we keep the team spirit and productivity up?
This isn’t the first time we have had to ask ourselves questions related to remote settings. Around this time a year ago, we started discussing an open innovation challenge with Aegon. After looking at potential scenarios, we decided to undertake the project on a nearly fully remote basis. Back then, it posed us with new challenges but soon, we realized the remote setting didn’t impose additional obstacles, it rather opened our eyes to the opportunities and advantages the entire program could benefit from.
Now, it’s the perfect time to share the three greatest opportunities we discovered from running remote programs and, of course, we also added some insights and key learnings we made along the way.
### 1. Involvement of globally distributed teams
When designing open innovation programs, one key determinant is the constellation of the teams involved. We usually aim for diverse teams with different backgrounds, yet relevant knowledge and skills for the core topic. In this case, we aimed at matching pre-selected employees from Aegon with top-notch startups from all over Europe, while inviting experts to share their knowledge on specific topics such as UX/UI Design. Due to the nearly full remote framework of the program, we had the opportunity to create international teams consisting of the best people in their field and make them work on a solution for the pre-defined use cases. No one had to fly in for every session meaning there was no need to spend a lot of time and resources on travel. All teams benefited from the time saved as they were able to dedicate it to their joint project. Even more importantly, we were able to get professionals on board that couldn’t have been part of a full on-site program. The Aegon Open Innovation Challenge involved around 40 people from more than 10 different countries. We saw Aegon Mentors working hand-in-hand with eight excellent startups and scaleups, rethinking and changing the traditional pension model, the models for yet underserved segments, the solutions regarding health and wellness as well as the traditional insurance distribution model.
**“Pioneers helped to run 8 parallel Design Sprints with startups from across Europe. Their assistance, creativity and co- creatorship helped us and the teams to successfully conceptualize 8 submitted ideas. Today, 2 of these ideas are being pursued to become commercial in 2020.”**
Casper van der Veen, Head of Business Development, Aegon Continental Europe
### 2. Flexibility at its best
As mentioned, offering a more dynamic framework for the open innovation program enabled all participants to enjoy more flexibility. It was easier to unite tasks through the program with ongoing work. Increased flexibility did not only ensure the involvement of the right people but also allowed a more elastic setup of the program. Combining approaches from the Google Design Sprint and the Design Thinking methodology with concepts from our previous startup-corporate collaboration programs, we designed a 10-week comprehensive program with the goal of jointly developing innovative concepts for the use cases. In order to provide relevant knowledge, foster multidimensional exchange and guarantee some structure during this journey, we arranged one fixed workshop per week. All other mentoring and working sessions were individually scheduled by the teams. Hence, startups could arrange additional sessions with their mentors when and how they needed them. In this way, we were able to create a structured and flexible program.
### 3. Leveraging digital tools
While playing a rather subordinate role in on-site programs, digital tools are of critical importance when it comes to remote settings. It’s a great opportunity to test and evaluate new tools. For open innovation initiatives, there’s usually a set of five tools needed to cover all necessary areas and make it work. In our project with Aegon, we decided to use our favorite tools:
1. Zoom for web conferencing because of the option of breakout rooms
2. Piobay for startup scouting, rating and management
3. Be-novative for crowd ideation
4. Miro for remote collaboration in form of distributed whiteboards
5. Slack for easy communication
One important note when using digital tools remotely is that you have to be flexible. Individual teams should have the freedom to use the set of tools the way they need them. What’s counting is the actual progress towards achieving the goals – in this case, rethinking the traditional business models and developing new solutions to serve Aegon’s existing and future customers together.
**“Thanks to the Aegon Open Innovation Challenge not only did startups and Aegon mentors challenge traditional models, but we also had the opportunity to rethink the way we set up innovation projects and discover the unknown upsides. As a result, we are now implementing more and more impactful remote programs together with our clients.”**
Harald Fedespiel, Project Lead & Manager, Pioneers
After collecting feedback and having our retrospective meeting, we soon decided to continue working with Aegon virtually, including facilitating design sprints utilizing online tech. Stay tuned!
Find out more about our running programs on our [LinkedIn page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/pioneers-io) and get in touch with !
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Innovation in times of corona - those who do not reinvent themselves now will not play along tomorrow](https://pioneers.io/innovation-in-times-of-corona/)
**Published:** April 15, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Our future is rapidly changing from day to day. The lack of everyday freedom reinforces the human urge to change current circumstances. Decision-makers should recognize the opportunities of this change early on. Even this crisis will open new windows of opportunities for innovations throughout the economic landscape. Therefore, in the next few weeks we have to find out how we can use the opportunities of the crisis with digital technologies to the benefit of our economy!
**Content:**
#### Our future is rapidly changing from day to day. The lack of everyday freedom reinforces the human urge to change current circumstances.
Since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, the restrictions have been so far-reaching that interests seem to unite in almost all areas of life, across the medical, social and economic environment. People are faced with new restrictions that change their everyday lives and lead to problems in many parts. In this way, these restrictions lead to people’s unified desire to find solutions to problems that limit their everyday lives.
#### The pandemic triggers an urge to innovate in society.
The problem areas have no geographical boundaries and the search for solutions brings together teams of experts from all nations. The search for answers unites the world in these hours. In the past few days, we have seen many initiatives that focus on key problems of the crisis and solve them with digital technologies. Across the globe, more and more hackathons are combating the CoronaVirus. This underlines that in this extraordinary situation, we even manage to create a global hackathon and connect entrepreneurs all around the world striving to find solutions for the same issues together. Starting with the [Global Hack initiative in Estonia](https://theglobalhack.com/), many other governments around the world followed and launched hackathons. The German government’s call for [\#wirvsvirus](https://wirvsvirushackathon.org) was followed by 42,000 participants and developed 800 ideas within 48 hours. It is obvious that innovation is a proactive way of dealing with change.
#### Still many of our daily routines are non-digital – why?
Our everyday life during shutdown offers a new perspective on familiar processes.
We see long lines in front of supermarkets and supermarket checkouts with people looking for their cash. Since the payment process at the customer interface has not yet been digitized, the purchase must be made physically between two people. Plexiglass walls are set up for safety. Apart from the possibility of doing your grocery shopping via home delivery, contactless shopping has long been a reality at Amazon. Billing and payment are also possible directly via smartphone and NFC, so no cashier and no direct contact point are required. So far, at least in Germany, there is no widespread use of this technology.
It’s not just in retail that you can feel the digital backlog. Doctors’ offices were crowded in the first few days of the virus. Unsettled people wanted to see a doctor or pick up their prescriptions. Why is there no digital prescription and why are medical consultations usually only possible physically? The global development of telemedical services and solutions for digital patient data is progressing rapidly. We also find many successful startup examples in the European ecosystem such as [Fernarzt](https://www.fernarzt.com/), [eedoctors](https://eedoctors.ch/), [Clickdoc](https://clickdoc.de/cms-de/), [Teleclinic](https://www.teleclinic.com/), [Selfapy](https://www.selfapy.de/), [Connected Health](https://connected-health.co.uk/) or [Symptoma](https://www.symptoma.com/). Of course, critical examinations and blood analyzes require a doctor’s visit. But laboratory results are still mostly sent by fax. The transfer of patient data also illustrates the need for digitization in the healthcare system.
Last but not least, working from home has hit us all with full force recently. Home Office illustrates two aspects that we have to deal with in the digitization of Corona times. From a purely superficial point of view, parents are forced to balance working with teaching and supervising their children. Schools and kindergartens are trying to save the education system and care for young people via digital channels. In business, companies are trying to keep everyday work as smooth as possible and to organize workflows via remote solutions. It is more obvious than ever before that working in remote structures is a challenge for many companies and public institutions (e.g. government, court, schools etc). Many do not have the necessary tools and know-how in digital working methods.
#### Decision-makers should recognize the opportunities of this change early on.
Taking the next step, companies now have to deal with the central questions:
- How will the change impact our business model and how can we use the learning experiences from the crisis to our advantage?
- How can we use innovation tools to identify new ideas from all of the learning experiences?
- How can we access relevant digital technologies to unveil business potentials as quickly as possible?
- What know-how and skills do we need in order to build digital maturity sustainably?
- What organizational changes do we have to see to adapt to the velocity of digital change?
- Which use cases are promising future business models in terms of their added value and their scalability?
Winston Churchill once said, “never let a good crisis go to waste”. This implicates that even this crisis will open new windows of opportunities for innovations throughout the economic landscape.
Therefore, in the next few weeks we have to find out how we can use the opportunities of the crisis with digital technologies to the benefit of our economy!
For this purpose we are organizing a curated exchange along with decision makers in order to share the learning experiences so far and to find ways to exploit the opportunities. Please reach out to us via if you want to participate!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Impact of the Corona crisis on the sports industry and how esports initiatives fill the gaps that have arisen](https://pioneers.io/impact-corona-crisis-sports-industry-and-impact-of-esports/)
**Published:** May 18, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** The need for innovative change in companies in the wake of the Corona crisis is clearly observed by most of us - now we want to look at a specific industry that is just as affected: Sports.
**Content:**
#### The need for innovative change in companies in the wake of the Corona crisis is clearly observed by most of us – now we want to look at a specific industry that is just as affected: Sports.
As a big fan of soccer, tennis and literally every kind of ball sports, our innovation consultant [Erik Muckenschnabel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikmuckenschnabel/) took a closer into how the sports industry is reinventing the wheel to keep people around the world active and connected.
---
Covid-19 has hit the entire sports industry hard, not only financially, but also its fan base – let’s look into what is happening out there and whether esports can be a suitable replacement.
Worldwide sporting events are postponed or cancelled due to the corona virus, and while society is facing an unprecedented economic crisis and unpredictable health consequences for everyone, the nimbus of the indestructibility of certain sports has suffered some scratches.
Take football as an example. In the years 2018/2019 alone, the clubs in the English Premier League have generated revenues of £5.05 billion, with £3.00 billion coming from broadcasting alone. Needless to say, however, that in the event of an unforeseeable outcome, which could also mean the end of the season, many teams would suffer considerable losses, as there are 92 matches still to be played this season and there are also earnings to be made from matches and titles won.
On the one hand, sports clubs are suffering from these losses, while on the other hand, the major institutions and states behind this summer’s blockbuster events are affected: the anniversary European Football Championships, which were to be held in twelve European cities, the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Formula 1 and the Tennis Grand Slam Tournament in Wimbledon, which was cancelled for the first time since World War II. The postponement of the Tokyo Summer Games alone will cause an estimated loss of around $6.00 billion – including costs incurred by the additional maintenance and management of the venues, as well as money needed by related groups to maintain their organisations for a year.
However, we should not forget a third group that has suffered particularly from the cancellations, not financially but for emotional reasons: the fans. Not only have they been deprived of the opportunity to attend sporting events, but, logically, the television broadcasts that so many of them watch are also cancelled.
### Virtual events happening out there
That is why sports federations and associations have come up with alternatives that cannot be regarded as 1:1 substitutes, but at least alleviate the pain. So which virtual sporting events have taken place, how is the esports sector developing and what conclusions do we draw from this?
- While the continuation of the Tennis ATP and WTA Tour has been postponed for many more weeks, the organisers of the Mutua Madrid Open decided not to cancel their tournament altogether, but became innovative and imaginative, inviting world-class players like Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Victoria Azarenka and many others to play on the PlayStation instead of the real clay courts. The prize money went both to financially disadvantaged tennis players and as support to the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic in general.
- Formula 1 has also taken the opportunity to offer its fans a virtual Grand Prix series to follow online via livestreams, in which four races have already been driven, two of which were won by Ferrari’s figurehead Charles Leclerc. The series, in which many other Formula 1 drivers are also taking part to drive against each other, will continue on 10th May, and another two races will follow before the initiative ends with the last race on 7th June.
- Looking overseas, for the first time in the history of the National Football League (NFL), the Drafts for the next season took place virtually. In the NFL Drafts, each year the 32 professional teams get the opportunity to strengthen their teams with the best youth players of the colleges. 255 players were selected by the NFL teams over a period of three days. The event was broadcasted in the USA on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network, while fans in Germany also had the opportunity to follow the event on ProSieben Maxx and ran.de.
These three examples already show that sports institutions are trying to replace the missing events and stay connected with their fan base the best they can, although it is probably not particularly daring to say that these virtual and esports initiatives do not generate the same emotions and enthusiasm among fans as “real” events. Nonetheless, we are seeing a growing interest in esports, which was already apparent before, but is now not only accelerated by the Corona crisis, so to speak, but also by governments.
### Governments fostering esports initiatives
The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Innovation (METI) aims to generate revenues of $2.6 billion through esports by 2025 as a result from ticket sales, advertising and streaming fees. Therefore, the government wants to cooperate with the gaming industry and also creates a legal framework that makes this possible. After naming one of the most important esports countries in the Far East, it is inevitable to mention the others: China and South Korea.
While you would probably assume that Corona only promotes esports events, it has obviously caused financial losses in the Middle Kingdom in this area. In the first half of 2020, more than 500 esports offline events were cancelled, resulting in losses of more than $140 million. Therefore, the government in Beijing will organise the event series “Esports Beijing 2020” to promote esports and its growth. In addition, partnerships with private companies will be established to support this initiative.
Many events have also been cancelled in South Korea, which is known as one of the top esports ecosystems in the world – but here too, government initiatives launched in the past are leading to a real rise in the industry: with Game Coach, the country has its own academy for future pro gamers, educating them on making their hobby to a profession.
Whereas the countries in the Far East seem to be ahead in this sector, the European Esports Federation (EEF) was founded as an umbrella organisation in February 2020 and declared its goal to be representing esports players and organisations in European politics, media, sports and society as well as developing and promoting esports.
Whichever way you look at it, Corona deprives fans of the opportunity to follow their favourite sport in any way they choose – but that doesn’t mean that we will have to face another sporting drought in a similar crisis in the future. Because thanks to innovative initiatives, esports are on the rise and will attract more and more people in the coming years as an alternative to traditional sports.
---
[Follow Erik on LinkedIn to read more on sports innovation](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/impact-corona-crisis-sports-industry-how-esports-fill-muckenschnabel/)
[Read more on innovation in times of Corona](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/innovation-in-times-of-corona)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Working with startups: Hardly any sustainable results, but there is usually a good reason for this!](https://pioneers.io/why-startup-collaboration-fails/)
**Published:** July 1, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** At Pioneers, we have run numerous startup-corporate collaboration projects - usually with the intention to drive corporate innovation activities while creating a win-win situation for corporates and startups alike. However, it doesn't always turn out that way. One of our innovation consultants now shares his insights on why many collaboration activities do not deliver the expected results and shows how to design a useful and effective collaboration that accelerates both parties.
**Content:**
Having worked on numerous startup-corporate collaboration projects, our innovation consultant [Erik Muckenschnabel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikmuckenschnabel/) summarized his thoughts on why many startup collaboration activities do not deliver the expected results and shows how to design a useful and effective collaboration that accelerates both parties.
---
#### When the startup hype started ten to fifteen years ago, it didn’t take long for all kinds of forms of cooperation between startups and corporates to emerge.
Whether it was hackathons, scouting programs, pitching or innovation days, all these projects brought something new to companies around the globe. Since then, startups have been seen as saviors of failed innovation initiatives within companies and motivated them to work together in all the above formats and many more. Nevertheless, many of the collaborations didn’t seem to create long-term value for either party.
If I look back at some of the earlier projects I was involved in, we had many startups participating who were dissatisfied and we had corporate partners that didn’t receive tangible outcomes from the project. In the end, there was no lasting change, no benefit for the startups and no innovation growth. Why is that and what else must be done in order to be successful when innovating?
### (1) It simply does not only help to get to know startups on the market
Cooperation between startups and companies takes place in different ways, usually with the same goal: to bring tomorrow’s innovations and ideas into companies. Although the question of whether start-ups are necessary to fulfill this self-imposed task is often not yet answered, first typical formats such as hackathons, scouting & dealflow management are being commissioned.
The above-mentioned projects regularly provide a cultural stimulus for participants and innovation managers, even if they neither satisfy the startups themselves nor serve the overall goal of a company. On the contrary, it often happens that their solutions serve as an impetus for ideas and new products for the companies, without the hard-working startups receiving a follow-up cooperation or a prize. To be honest, no really good startup participates just because of the opportunity to meet someone or to get a 5k cheque. Just put yourself in the shoes of a participating startup: would you spend valuable resources only to potentially get this benefit?
It is also needless to say that this is often due to the fact that through the formats mentioned, corporates get to know a large number of startups, at least on paper, and get a good overview of the market in terms of the use case they are looking for. This seems to be sufficient, but rarely leads to a sustainable innovation change within a department, let alone the company as a whole.
***Solution:** Hackathons, scouting & dealflow management have their justification, but they should only be used when they actually bring the desired added value to companies and startups alike – there is no point in simply scouting, approaching or inviting the most promising startups if follow-up measures are neither intended nor planned. Therefore, the following questions should always be asked internally in advance: What do I really want to achieve with my project? What kind of collaboration is the right one? Which startups do we need as partners? Do we even need startups to solve the defined problem? How could the entire process look?*
### (2) Don’t make startups feel that they are losing control
As a startup you are always dependent on financial or other support, which large companies can often provide. Therefore, an offer to work with a large company for a longer period of time or to develop a specific product in a particular industry can be very attractive. This is another form of collaboration between startups and companies that is designed to create a win-win situation for both sides. In reality, however, it is a dance on thin ice, as the company recognizes the opportunity to gain knowledge through the joint creation of a new product or service through the startup’s often existing innovative advantage, while the startup is looking for resources and partners to develop its product and add another well-known reference to its portfolio.
The problem? As a startup you want to keep as much control as possible, because you cannot know where the path will lead you and how successful the future might be. As a company, on the other hand, you probably belong to the market leaders and do not want a potential competitor to grow up next to you.
***Solution:** Startups want to be as independent as possible and yet are still looking for opportunities to work together with renowned partners. Therefore, as a company, try to provide the startup with the resources that make you a trustworthy partner. By helping them to grow and develop their solution or product, you gain knowledge, insights and, if desired, even a cultural change within your teams. Try to make the startups feel that they are on an equal footing as partners and not as applicants for a job. All in all, you shouldn’t try to get the upper hand from the very beginning, because this leads to startups being very restrictive in their approach to collaboration, as they feel they are too much out of control.*
### (3) Don’t start another innovation theatre
In innovation projects, there are many key factors on which success depends on. One of them is certainly a comprehensive problem discovery before the start of each project, which is often missing. Companies start innovation initiatives to present themselves as fast-moving players that either keep up with or even stay ahead of the times. In addition, they also try to become innovative and agile employers in order to be attractive for digital talents. What is often forgotten is that companies do not even know what exactly they should innovate. It almost seems as if the creation of real products and results is either not their primary goal, or the real problem is not even visible to them – and this is precisely why projects often end up as “innovation theatres”, which is of no benefit to either the companies or the startups involved.
It’s not just like waking up in the morning and deciding to drink tea instead of coffee this time. As much as it may sound that innovation is a complement to all other tasks, responsibilities and projects within the company, it must nevertheless be a well thought-through process that can only then lead to sustainable changes and results.
***Solution:**If you want to become more innovative, always remember that innovation should somehow solve critical problems. Innovation should not be an end in itself. It is essential to identify the problem or challenge first, and therefore a problem identification exercise involving key stakeholders, innovation departments and management should be planned and carried out first before launching any initiative. To this end, I recommend a series of workshops that focus on the composition of the company as such, current and past innovation initiatives and the lessons learned, and a clear definition of objectives and possible obstacles. Only when the problem is clear, the most appropriate approach can be chosen.*
#### To sum up, startup-corporate collaboration can be a useful and effective way to accelerate both parties – but the above-mentioned essentials should always be borne in mind.
If you want to know more or discuss, just add him on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikmuckenschnabel/) and send him a message.
---
[Read more on how we recently run the Digital Metals AI Hackathon](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/creativity-untethered-uncovering-secrets-digital-metals-ai-hackathon)
[More learnings from Kapsch’ startup programme Factory1](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/how-not-lose-your-startups-kapsch-shares-honest-learnings-factory1)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights
---
### [5 Learnings from Digital Prototyping](https://pioneers.io/5-learnings-from-digital-prototyping/)
**Published:** August 30, 2021
**Author:** Michael Obrist
**Content:**
##### *written by Michael Obrist, Erik Muckenschnabel and Alexander Schuh*
**“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” (Isaac Asimov)**
In a social and professional context, we unconsciously make assumptions about what others want and need. “I know what’s good for you” – we say, making a classic mental shortcut that leads to inefficient outcomes and products that nobody really needs. Assumptions are everywhere. What we need to do is be aware of them and remember: you only assume, until you test and validate!
In digital product design, the prototyping process is a systematic approach to verify or falsify assumptions about user needs which have previously been identified. The prototypes give a first idea of how the product will “look and feel” like and, in some cases, already incorporate some final design aspects you want to test for. Once the prototype has been created, you let your users interact with it and collect their feedback, to feed it into the next step of your product development cycle.
When creating digital prototypes, there are many potential hurdles and pitfalls one can tap into. However, fear not – we have been through that and are happy to share some (painful but important!) learnings we gathered along the way:
## 1. Identify your assumptions upfront
Before you start prototyping, identify the assumptions you want to test and match them with the design of your digital prototype. Let’s imagine you want to develop a cookbook app, where amateur chefs around the world can add recipes, search for dishes and rate them. If you assume that your users will easily know how to add a new recipe to your app – design your prototype in a way that you can actually *test* how they would add a new recipe and validate if they are successfully doing so. It would be a painful lesson to only find out at the end that nobody has a clue where to add a new recipe within the app.
## 2. Choose the right level of fidelity
Before you get started, you have to decide on the right level of fidelity of your prototype. Fidelity? What’s that again?! Simply speaking, fidelity refers to the level of details and functionality represented in a prototype.
Low-fidelity prototypes like paper sketches or wireframes are simple visual representations of the final product. Creating them takes little time, and they can be helpful in the process of brainstorming and developing first ideas to receive direct feedback from your colleagues or customers. High-fidelity prototypes on the other hand are designed to look and feel much like the final product, including details about features (e.g. button colours, font sizes) and interactions in your website or app. They are much more time-consuming to develop, but allow for a more in-depth feedback loop when discussing them with potential users.
In general, try to move incrementally to a higher level of fidelity. Start simple and only create as much as necessary to test the relevant aspects of your product with the prototype in order to not waste your time resources.
## 3. Storyboarding is key
Before you jump into the design of your digital prototype, you start off with a storyboard. A storyboard is an illustrated, step-by-step sketch that explores the user’s experience with a product. It helps you to understand how your target users will interact and perform tasks with your digital product over time, and whether it adds value for them. If your product doesn’t add value for anyone, there’s no need for developing it, right?
So the storyboarding technique helps you take the right directions and identify lots of assumptions in the beginning. It’s often just a simple paper drawing without any product details. Make sure to discuss the storyboard in-depth with your clients or colleagues to clarify as much as possible upfront. It leaves less room for your own interpretation and saves much time later.
## 4. Focus on the most important user journeys
When creating a digital prototype, we are tempted to get lost in details and lose lots of valuable time for features that are not essential. To avoid this, try to focus on the 3-4 most important user journeys.
For example, skip the login screen or the settings section when prototyping the first version of your app. They are not essential to test the relevant user behaviour, and you can still integrate them at a later stage. Coming back to the example of the cookbook app, you would start with the 3 most important user journeys – for example:
1. Adding a new recipe to the cookbook app
2. Searching for a specific dish in the catalogue that can be filtered by categories (e.g. “vegetarian food”)
3. Rating a dish from another user and adding comments to it
The digital prototype then helps you to validate whether your assumptions of a certain user behaviour are true and if your product design is a good fit to help the user fulfil the tasks they want to perform.
## 5. Design Sprint: use your resources wisely - or stay up late
Developing a high-fidelity digital prototype in a classic 5-day design sprint is an ambitious goal and even experienced UX/UI designers often struggle with time management in such sprints. So make sure to regularly keep track of your progress and prioritise things. Don’t be a perfectionist – good enough is good enough!
Finally, make sure to use existing 3rd party services: have a look online for existing templates, building blocks, inspirations or tutorial videos. The design community (e.g. in [Figma](https://www.figma.com/community/explore)) is huge and shares a lot of knowledge for free. Following all these steps helps you to avoid doing long shifts the night before your submission – believe us – we’ve been there 🙂
##### *This is an example of a digital prototype for a B2C sustainability app that was created within a design sprint by Pioneers’ Digital Product Designer Erik.*
So to sum things up, digital prototyping is a very powerful technique to deep-dive into user needs and verify assumptions that are crucial for the design of your app or website. You’ll gather a lot of insights in a relatively short time period to then develop a final product with the exact attributes your users are looking for.
## **Do you like our approach on digital product design and want to know more about Pioneers’ corporate innovation services?**
Get in touch with our digital product designer [Michael Obrist](mailto:michael.obrist@pioneers.io) to book a short intro call and talk about the Pioneers Digital Product Design offerings.
### [Book a 30-minutes Call](https://calendly.com/michael-wlaschitz-1/pioneers-intro-call)
**Micha Obrist** *Digital Product Designer*
Michael Obrist
Innovation Manager [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Methods & Tools
---
### [Pioneers.Peak at a Glance | Multi-corporate Venture Hub](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-peak-at-a-glance/)
**Published:** March 8, 2022
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## **At Pioneers, we strongly believe that business innovation has a long-term positive impact on people, planet and companies.**
##
To democratise innovation and empower any employee to act as an entrepreneur, we have launched Pioneers.Peak – the first multi-corporate intrapreneurship hub on the market.**
## Why we started Pioneers.Peak
At Pioneers.io we have been working on intrapreneurship topics for more than 5 years. We are fascinated by the impact these programs have delivered. Not only have we seen many of the employee’s ideas being turned into reality. But we witnessed positive cultural changes within our client’s organisations.
**Intrapreneurship** formats combine the best of many worlds and can **help** **achieve** **several goals** with the organisation:
### Intrapreneurship Goals
1. Develop new products, services and business models
2. Further develop an entrepreneurial mindset within the company
3. Break silos and foster interdisciplinary exchange
4. Retain talent aiming to contribute to the future of the company
5. Attract new talent looking for a place where they can make an impact
There are many reasons to kick-off internal venture building through your own employees. However, many companies have **difficulties** **implementing** intrapreneurship initiatives **successfully**. Some of the most common **hurdles** are:
### Barriers to Intrapreneurship Success
1. Employees’ lack of time and focus to develop new ideas next to their daily role
2. Missing know-how and expertise in building and scaling ventures
3. High investment to build up initiatives and resources internally
4. Problems with reintegrating new ideas into the core business
5. Lack of a support system for teams after the initial ideation phase
In the last 5 years, we have constantly improved our intrapreneurship approach. It has become clear that intrapreneurs don’t just need a good idea. They require the right environment, tools and network to develop large-scale successful ventures.That’s why we have launched Pioneers.Peak – the first multi-corporate intrapreneurship hub where teams find everything they need to climb the peak.
## The Pioneers.Peak Concept
At Pioneers.Peak teams of different corporates work side-by-side on their ventures. That means e.g. that two teams of an energy company could work next to one team of a manufacturing player and a mobility company, similar to an accelerator on the startup market.
The development of a team’s idea or solution is divided into three phases:
1. *PRE-SEED* with a focus on early validation of an idea concept,
2. *SEED* where teams work on the first pilot and MVP
3. *GROWTH* where teams get support in scaling.
In all phases, Pioneers.Peak provides innovation coaches that support the teams with the necessary tools and methods to succeed. Additionally, there is a broad pool of experts who we match with the teams at various stages of the development process. Experts give individual coaching sessions. They provide support in areas such as marketing, tech, sustainability, or legal. They also share their personal view on the venture concepts themselves.
## The Physical and Digital Environment
Teams work bi-weekly for one day in the innovative co-creation space [*Tribe.Space Vienna*](https://www.tribespace.com/). In between the on-site sprints, they work individually and remotely on their ideas. Here, they have several weekly check-ins with our venture builders. These, provide their expertise and hands-on support.
Additionally, together with our partner [*Braineet*](https://www.braineet.com/), we offer a digital platform. There, teams can exchange among each other and with all Peak partners and experts.
## Official Launch of Pioneers.Peak in 22
The first Pioneers.Peak teams will officially start their climb in September 2022. Before that, we support our company partners in defining the right innovation topics and activating and selecting the best teams and ideas.
For all info on how to join Pioneers.Peak as a company or intrapreneur, visit our website:
[P.Peak Website](https://www.pioneers.io/peak)
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Intrapreneurship
---
### [Electric Vehicles: A Comprehensive Emissions Analysis](https://pioneers.io/electric-vehicles-an-analysis-of-emissions/)
**Published:** August 8, 2022
**Author:** Philip Reuchlin
**Content:**
**A Power play**: Since transportation is a large energy consumer and burns most of the world’s oil, the environmental impact derived from this industry is exceptionally significant. The transport sector accounts for about 16% of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, most of which comes from road transport. To lower this number, manufacturers are filling cities around the world with electric vehicles and releasing new battery-powered alternatives to compete with traditional gasoline and diesel-driven vehicles. But how likely is this electric revolution to completely replace traditional cars? What are their strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly, how good are they to the environment?
[  ](https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector)
[  ](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-transport)
###### *H. Ritchie, M. Roser (2020) – CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions*
**EV as greenwashing?**: The EU has decided to aggressively [cut down on emissions from combustion engines](https://www.eumonitor.eu/9353000/1/j9vvik7m1c3gyxp/vks4ps1y8ot8?ctx=vg9pi5ooqcz3&start_tab0=20), deciding on a target of 55% reduction by 2030 (from 130g in 2019 to ca 59 grams per km in 2030). In order to reduce, manufacturers and legislation must work together and define a clear pathway. With electric cars on the market the solution seems to be obvious as EVs are said to have significantly lower emissions and are therefore essential to meeting this extremely ambitious goal. Their environmental footprint, however, has frequently been criticised because “they are more energy-intensive in their production” or “the electricity they use is not clean.”
Therefore, before we draw our conclusions on electric vehicles, let’s look at what causes emissions in both battery-electric (BEV) and gasoline or diesel (ICE) vehicles. In this article, we dive deeper into two important and most frequently discussed topics: the calculation of emissions produced during EV ***manufacturing*** and their ***charging***.
## Manufacturing
**Made in …**: The technology in the lithium-ion batteries that drive electric cars is the secret to their performance. Unfortunately, the use of these batteries creates an impact on the environment as they contain rare elements, whose extraction and production can require a lot of water and electricity. Numerous studies have been conducted on this matter and it seems that the place of producing the battery plays a major role in its lifecycle emissions. Data from 17 different studies are displayed in the figure below. The chart displays emissions based on the region in which the batteries were produced:
###### *Literature review of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from lithium ion battery manufacture, in kg CO2-equivalent per kWh of battery capacity. Studies are coloured based on the region in which batteries were manufactured. Error bars are shown when provided. The original [IVL study](http://www.ivl.se/download/18.5922281715bdaebede9559/1496046218976/C243+The+life+cycle+energy+consumption+and+CO2+emissions+from+lithium+ion+batteries+.pdf) is included as the “Romare & Dahllof 2017” bar, while the [revised IVL study](https://www.ivl.se/download/18.14d7b12e16e3c5c36271070/1574923989017/C444.pdf) is included as “Emilsson & Dahllof 2019”. Chart by Carbon Brief using [Highcharts](https://www.highcharts.com/).*
The majority of studies that have been published recently indicate lifecycle emissions with an average of about 100kg CO2 per kWh. Estimates of emissions are generally greater in Asia than in Europe or the US due to the region’s extensive usage of coal for energy generation. Studies that directly compared batteries produced in Asia to those produced in the US or Europe showed that lifecycle emissions outside of Asia were about 20% lower.
**In short**: Yes, emissions are high from the production of the battery, and there are environmental effects beyond emissions, but location of production and provenance of materials matter. Further recycling improvements in batteries may even boost the efficiency of the production of batteries.
## Charging
**Dirty, dirty electricity**: The majority of emissions from both electric and conventional vehicles over their lifetime in most nations come from vehicle operation, specifically the tailpipe and fuel cycle, rather than from the manufacturing process. This is another argument against electric vehicles, namely that they charge on ‘dirty’, fossil-fuelled power grid. So despite not polluting via tailpipe fumes, they still cause emissions at the power plant. Even clean grids will rely on fossil fuels during ‘dark doldrums’ when renewables are intermittent.
Nevertheless, an overall growing number of studies indicate that the average BEV has a smaller carbon footprint over the lifetime of the vehicle in most countries. While the amount of carbon released when a gallon of gasoline or diesel is burned cannot be decreased, this is not the case with electricity. In nations like France, which generates the majority of its electricity from nuclear power, or Norway, the lifecycle emissions for electric vehicles are significantly lower (from renewables).
**Charts, charts everywhere**: The below chart helps us understand the difference between the conventional vehicles and hybrid solutions. It includes exhaust (or tailpipe) emissions (grey), emissions from the [fuel cycle](https://greet.es.anl.gov/files/qmanmyv9) (orange) – which includes oil production, transport, refining, and electricity generation – emissions from manufacturing the non-battery components of the vehicle (dark blue) and a conservative estimate of emissions from manufacturing the battery (light blue).
###### Lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions for conventional and electric vehicles (by country) in grammes CO2-equivalent per kilometre, assuming 150,000 kilometres driven over the vehicle lifetime. Adapted from Figure 1 in [Hall and Lutsey 2018](https://www.theicct.org/publications/EV-battery-manufacturing-emissions). The error bars show a range of values for emissions from battery manufacture.
Chart by [Carbon Brief](https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-how-electric-vehicles-help-to-tackle-climate-change/) using [Highcharts.](https://www.highcharts.com/)
The chart above bases electric-vehicle emissions on the current grid mix in each country. However, if the climate targets set in the [Paris Agreement](https://www.carbonbrief.org/category/policy/paris-2015) are to be met, electricity generation will become significantly less carbon-intensive, further increasing the advantage of electric vehicles over conventional ones.
[  ](https://www.transportenvironment.org/discover/how-clean-are-electric-cars/)
###### *Adopted from European Federation for Transport and Environment AISBL*
**Magical number 69**: Looking at a comparison between battery electric vehicles and a medium sized gasoline vehicle the numbers show that emissions over the cars’ lifetime (225,000 km) is 69% lower. Battery production gives a headstart to EVs in emissions but as the cars pass the 18.500 KM mark, gasoline-driven vehicles continue to emit CO2 in a sharp linear way into the atmosphere whereas EV emissions stay pretty flat (assuming that emissions related to electricity production continues to reduce per kwH as economies transition to net-zero)
### ***To sum up**: it’s clear that electric vehicles are not completely emission free and should not be labelled as such. However, currently they are a big improvement over combustion engines in terms of carbon emissions as well as their energy conversion efficiency (roughly 60-70% of the energy of combustion engines is lost as heat, whereas in electric vehicles up to 97% of electric energy is used for movement). Combustion engines may still get more efficient, and synthetic fuels may one day be an interesting alternative – but nothing beats a bicycle (for short distances) or a train (for long distances)!*
**For further reading to learn more about electric vehicles and their emissions visit the following reads:**
A. Hoekstra (2019): [The Underestimated Potential of Battery Electric Vehicles to Reduce Emissions](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542435119302715)
## **Do you want to know more about Pioneers.Climate services?**
Get in touch with our Head of Pioneers.Climate [Philip Reuchlin](mailto:philip.reuchlin@pioneers.io) to book a short intro call and talk about how Pioneers could help you combine your sustainability and innovation initiatives.
### [Book a 30-minutes Call ](https://calendly.com/philip-reuchlin-pioneers/45min)
**Philip Reuchlin**
*Head of Pioneers.Climate*
Philip Reuchlin
Head of Climate [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/philip-reuchlin/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/philip-reuchlin/)
[  ](https://twitter.com/greenphilip) [  ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/preuchlin/)
**Categories:** Climate
**Tags:** carbon footprint, climate, electric vehicle, emissions, sustainability
---
### [Corporate Ventures Need the Right Talent and Funding Strategy](https://pioneers.io/corporate-ventures-need-the-right-talent-and-funding-strategy/)
**Published:** February 6, 2023
**Author:** Anton Schilling
**Content:**
# CORPORATE VENTURES NEED THE RIGHT TALENT AND FUNDING STRATEGY
Corporate venture building is becoming increasingly important as part of corporate growth strategies, to build up the next level asset class, and to diversify the corporate innovation portfolio across all horizon levels, especially towards adjacent and radical innovation. According to a recent[ McKinsey study, ](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/new-business-building-in-2022-driving-growth-in-volatile-times)eight in ten surveyed CEOs see new-business building as a top-five priority in the next few years despite the current challenging economic situation. During their early stage, corporate ventures are usually well-funded and accelerate fast, utilizing knowledge and assets of the core organization and growing in a venture-studio environment. However, after the first incubation phase, the process of roll-out and scaling usually leads to higher investments and risks which yet only few corporates are prepared to take.
When it comes to exploring novel business opportunities, intrapreneurship programs or corporate venture studios continuously fill the pipeline for new ventures to be validated in the early stage. One of our previous articles here describes how a portfolio approach should be structured and launched: “”.
Nevertheless, the challenge of developing and scaling ventures successfully, thus creating a strong venture portfolio, lies within the access to sufficient outstanding talent and their time working on the ventures as well as access to risk capital financing these ventures. Both pillars are usually scarce resources within regular corporate environments.
> ”At Ninepointfive, we have set ourselves the goal to solve the corporate/startup grid-lock. To distill the corporate acceleration while preventing the negatives. We discovered, that VC funding & support is an essential component of the corporate venturing constellation.
>
> Bart Houbenninepointfive.vc
But not only within corporations these two key resources for successful ventures are scarce. Startups and scale-ups outside of corporate environments are looking for similar resources, thus attracting talent for corporate ventures needs the right strategy and incentive structures that can compete with competition on the market. Furthermore, risk capital investors such as VCs financing startups are usually cautious when corporates are involved in venture activities and are not taking it into consideration for their investment strategies.
> ”We see a lot of talent for startup jobs coming from classical corporate career paths. If these companies rethink their future work setup, their employer branding and most importantly their culture - they could manage to keep their talent.
>
> Maria BaumgartnerSpeedinvest Heroes
This results in a triangle of needs and offerings which can lead to an attractive sweet spot to be considered:
**Sweet Spot for Corporate Ventures:** Combining the subjects above we see a strong value proposition for corporate ventures that are able to secure access to much-needed assets to fast-track (**corporate**), fully dedicated entrepreneurs (**talent**), and risk capital to grow (**venture capital**).
Leveraging the assets mentioned in combination with a strong anchor in the overall corporate strategy could provide corporate ventures with the necessary unfair advantage to become successful and position themselves in the market long-term.
## Do you want to know more about how we can help your company develop its own ventures?
Book a short intro call with our Innovation Manager [**Sophie Rab** ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-rab/)who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings. Just send a quick mail to sophie.rab@pioneers.io.
**Sophie Rab**
*Innovation Manager*
Anton Schilling
Managing Partner at Pioneers.io [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/anton-schilling/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/anton-schilling/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Neuer Pioneers Partner: Thomas Gabriel wechselt von EY](https://pioneers.io/thomas-gabriel-wechselt-zu-pioneers/)
**Published:** August 3, 2021
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Strategie Expertise für Pioneers
### Wien, 29. Juli 2021.
#### Wien, 29. Juli 2021. Der EY-Partner Thomas Gabriel wechselt zur Innovations-Consulting-Firma Pioneers. Er übernimmt wesentliche Anteile an Pioneers und wird als Managing Partner gemeinsam mit Anton Schilling das Unternehmen weiterentwickeln. Die startup300 AG, bisher 100-Prozent-Eigentümer von Pioneers, bleibt Gesellschafter, reduziert aber ihre Anteile auf rund 25 Prozent. Strategie- und Innovationsconsulting werden künftig bei Pioneers unter dem Motto „Innovation to Value“ eng verwoben. Pioneers-Kunden profitieren vom Fokus auf konsequent wertschöpfendes Innovationsmanagement.
Thomas Gabriel ist ein erfahrener Strategie-Berater mit 25jähriger Erfahrung und
unternehmerischem Track-Record. Er hat die Contrast Management-Consulting mit seinen Partnerkollegen zu einer 120-Mitarbeiter:innen-Beratungsfirma entwickelt.
Nach dem Exit an EY war er die letzten vier Jahre bei EY-Parthenon als Partner
erfolgreich. „Thomas Gabriel bereichert Pioneers mit seiner umfassenden Erfahrung, seinem exzellenten Ruf als Strategieberater und seiner großen unternehmerischen Erfahrung. Er kann sich als Gründer einbringen, versteht aber auch Corporate-Strukturen perfekt. Strategie trifft Innovation, und davon werden unsere Kunden unmittelbar profitieren“, sagt Anton Schilling, Managing Partner von Pioneers.
„Unternehmen geraten zunehmend unter Druck und sind auf Erfolge ihrer Innovationsaktivitäten angewiesen. Genau hier setzen wir mit unserer intensiven, praxisorientierten Begleitung von Innovationsinitiativen an. Abgeleitet aus der Strategie und eingebettet in ein innovationsfreundliches organisatorisches Umfeld setzen wir Innovation um und schaffen langfristige Werte“, so Thomas Gabriel. „Unsere “Pioneers in Residence” unterstützen zudem interne Teams bei der Validierung neuer Geschäftsmodelle und stellen den Erfolg sicher – from idea to value!“
## 140 erfolgreiche Innovationsprojekten, neuer „Innovation to Value“-Ansatz
Künftig steht das Tun von Pioneers unter dem „Innovation to Value“ Ansatz. Dieser sichert langfristige Fortschritte mit Fokus auf Kundennutzen sowie finanziellen, ökologischen und gesellschaftlichen Mehrwert. Wertschöpfung im Kerngeschäft wird gesichert, erweitert und optimiert; neue Geschäftsmodelle mit einem hohen,
langfristigen Renditepotenzial werden parallel dazu entwickelt. Pioneers unterstützt Organisationen auf drei Ebenen: bei der langfristigen Innovationsstrategie, beim Aufbau erforderlicher Rahmenbedingungen auf allen Unternehmensebenen sowie beim Umsetzen der Innovationsprojekte.
Pioneers hat sich in den letzten sieben Jahren international einen ausgezeichneten Ruf als Innovations-Berater erarbeitet. Die Pioneers-Berater:innen begleiten etablierte Organisationen bei Innovationsvorhaben, etwa mit Startup-Corporate Kollaborationen, Intrapreneurship-Programmen und zunehmend auch Formaten, die sich auf die Themen Nachhaltigkeit und Social Impact konzentrieren.
In über 140 Innovationsprojekten hat man Kunden wie Airbus, Booking.com, Daimler, ÖBB, VISA, Vattenfall oder voestalpine begleitet. Aktuell werden interne Teams der STRABAG, Andritz oder der Sparkasse Deutschland in der Validierung neuer Geschäftsmodelle unterstützt. Als Programmpartner des Horizon2020 Projekts „Scaleup4Europe“ sowie des Social Innovation Tournaments der Europäischen Investmentbank begleitet Pioneers zudem auch Startups und Social Enterprises, die gezielt den Fokus auf gesellschaftlichen und ökologischen Mehrwert setzen.
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** News
---
### [Top 10 Workshop Games and Ice-Breakers 2023](https://pioneers.io/top-10-workshop-games-and-ice-breakers-2023/)
**Published:** June 28, 2023
**Author:** Christina Senft
**Content:**
# Top 10 Workshop Games and Ice-Breakers of 2023 – Edition #1
Have you ever talked to someone in your company about workshop games and energizers and heard something like “that sounds fun and creative, but…. that’s just not for us” or “only startups do that, it doesn’t fit the people in our company”? At Pioneers, we hear this quite a lot and always give the same answer, “At least give it a try, you won’t regret it!”
Even though often associated with young, dynamic startups or “the creative guys from the innovation department”, workshop games offer far more than just entertainment. They have significant benefits as they enhance team dynamics, boost productivity, and foster a positive work environment in all companies, including those with a more traditional company culture.
Of course, there is always the one very skeptical workshop participant who thinks it is just a waste of time. “Let’s skip these hippie games and just get started with the work”, is something we have heard countless times before. However, our experience has shown that even the most resistant individuals eventually come around and enjoy these games. It might take some convincing, but they usually end up coming out of their shell, they share amusing anecdotes, and beware – even have fun ;-)!
We, at Pioneers, strongly believe in the power of workshop games, especially, how they help get people out of their daily work routine and comfort zone, and open their minds to a more creative way of doing and approaching things.
So let’s stop thinking that workshop games are just for the young dudes that work in trendy startups. Instead, let’s embrace their potential to promote teamwork, boost creativity, and foster an innovative mindset.
*Below, you can find a selection of some of our favorite energizers and icebreakers. For the full list **download our Top Workshop Games 2023** – Edition #1 **[HERE](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)**.*
## \#1 Weather Check-in
**What’s the activity
People share how they are feeling using a weather analogy.
**How to do it:** 1. Prepare a slide, whiteboard, or even just a piece of paper with different weather symbols on it.
2. Share the visual of the weather symbols with the group.
3. Ask people to choose a weather symbol from the visual that best describes how they are feeling today and to elaborate on why they chose the symbol in one or two sentences. You can ask the participants about their general mood, but it can also be related to specific topics like project progress, i.e. “How are you feeling about the project after last week’s meeting?”
4. Ask for volunteers or choose a person to start. When they are done sharing, ask the participants to hand over to another person.
5. The goal is to understand the group’s mood and give the participants a platform to share their feelings and thoughts.
**Why we love it:**
It is a great and easy way to get people to share their feelings and thoughts and understand the current vibe of your audience.
**Time:** 10-15 minutes
## \#2 Emoji or GIF Challenge
**What’s the activity
Participants use Emojis or GIFs to depict something, such as their favorite movie, and the remaining members of the group then attempt to guess the correct answer.
**How to do it:** 1. Prepare an online whiteboard or chatroom that all workshop participants have access to. If it is not clear that all participants know how to get access to emojis or GIFs, make sure to explain it beforehand.
2. Choose a topic for the challenge. This could be something like your favorite movie, a book, or your last vacation destination. It can be anything, really, even organizational topics that the workshop participants would know about.
3. Ask the participants to think about their answer, like for example their favorite movie, but make sure they do not say it out loud. Invite them to describe their answer, using only three emojis or one or several GIFs.
4. The group should then guess what the emojis or GIFs mean. A lot of laughter is guaranteed!
5. Alternative: It is also possible to change the game in a way that the participants do not have to guess the answers, but rather describe a predetermined statement or topic, like “Monday morning blues”, “the weekend is finally here” or alike through suitable emojis or GIFs. Here, the goal is to produce funny and creative responses.
**Why we love it:**
The participants get to know each other better and lots of laughter is guaranteed.
**Time:** 15-30 minutes
## \#3 My first … job
**What’s the activity
Participants anonymously write down their first jobs on a post-it. The group then guesses which job belongs to which group member.
**How to do it:** 1. Prepare an online whiteboard with post-its.
2. Ask the participants to write down their first job on a post-it on the whiteboard. Make sure they keep it anonymous!
3. Let the group guess which first job belongs to which group member.
4. Once the puzzle is solved, invite all workshop participants to share more details (when was it, what were the main learnings, etc.) about their first job with the group.
5. Alternative: This game can also be played with almost every other topic; good alternatives are, for instance, the first music single or album you ever bought, the first concert you went to, or if you could meet anyone from the past, who would you like to meet and why?
**Why we love it:**
It is a great energizer that usually brings out loads of fun stories about the group members, results in a great atmosphere, and allows the participants to get to know each other.
**Time:** 15-30 minutes
For games 4 and 5 download our free pdf: ***Top 10 Workshop Games and Ice-Breakers of 2023 – Edition #1* [HERE.](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)**
## Do you like the workshop games and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with our workshop master @Michael Wlaschitz who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
Just send a quick mail to michael.wlaschitz@pioneers.io
**Michael Wlaschitz**
*Manager and Head of Venture Design*
Christina Senft
Senior Innovation Consultant [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/)
**Categories:** Methods & Tools
---
### [Top 10 Workshop Games and Ice-Breakers 2023](https://pioneers.io/top-10-workshop-games-and-ice-breakers-2023/)
**Published:** June 28, 2023
**Author:** Christina Senft
**Content:**
# Top 10 Workshop Games and Ice-Breakers of 2023 – Edition #1
Have you ever talked to someone in your company about workshop games and energizers and heard something like “that sounds fun and creative, but…. that’s just not for us” or “only startups do that, it doesn’t fit the people in our company”? At Pioneers, we hear this quite a lot and always give the same answer, “At least give it a try, you won’t regret it!”
Even though often associated with young, dynamic startups or “the creative guys from the innovation department”, workshop games offer far more than just entertainment. They have significant benefits as they enhance team dynamics, boost productivity, and foster a positive work environment in all companies, including those with a more traditional company culture.
Of course, there is always the one very skeptical workshop participant who thinks it is just a waste of time. “Let’s skip these hippie games and just get started with the work”, is something we have heard countless times before. However, our experience has shown that even the most resistant individuals eventually come around and enjoy these games. It might take some convincing, but they usually end up coming out of their shell, they share amusing anecdotes, and beware – even have fun ;-)!
We, at Pioneers, strongly believe in the power of workshop games, especially, how they help get people out of their daily work routine and comfort zone, and open their minds to a more creative way of doing and approaching things.
So let’s stop thinking that workshop games are just for the young dudes that work in trendy startups. Instead, let’s embrace their potential to promote teamwork, boost creativity, and foster an innovative mindset.
*Below, you can find a selection of some of our favorite energizers and icebreakers. For the full list **download our Top Workshop Games 2023** – Edition #1 **[HERE](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)**.*
## \#1 Weather Check-in
**What’s the activity
People share how they are feeling using a weather analogy.
**How to do it:** 1. Prepare a slide, whiteboard, or even just a piece of paper with different weather symbols on it.
2. Share the visual of the weather symbols with the group.
3. Ask people to choose a weather symbol from the visual that best describes how they are feeling today and to elaborate on why they chose the symbol in one or two sentences. You can ask the participants about their general mood, but it can also be related to specific topics like project progress, i.e. “How are you feeling about the project after last week’s meeting?”
4. Ask for volunteers or choose a person to start. When they are done sharing, ask the participants to hand over to another person.
5. The goal is to understand the group’s mood and give the participants a platform to share their feelings and thoughts.
**Why we love it:**
It is a great and easy way to get people to share their feelings and thoughts and understand the current vibe of your audience.
**Time:** 10-15 minutes
## \#2 Emoji or GIF Challenge
**What’s the activity
Participants use Emojis or GIFs to depict something, such as their favorite movie, and the remaining members of the group then attempt to guess the correct answer.
**How to do it:** 1. Prepare an online whiteboard or chatroom that all workshop participants have access to. If it is not clear that all participants know how to get access to emojis or GIFs, make sure to explain it beforehand.
2. Choose a topic for the challenge. This could be something like your favorite movie, a book, or your last vacation destination. It can be anything, really, even organizational topics that the workshop participants would know about.
3. Ask the participants to think about their answer, like for example their favorite movie, but make sure they do not say it out loud. Invite them to describe their answer, using only three emojis or one or several GIFs.
4. The group should then guess what the emojis or GIFs mean. A lot of laughter is guaranteed!
5. Alternative: It is also possible to change the game in a way that the participants do not have to guess the answers, but rather describe a predetermined statement or topic, like “Monday morning blues”, “the weekend is finally here” or alike through suitable emojis or GIFs. Here, the goal is to produce funny and creative responses.
**Why we love it:**
The participants get to know each other better and lots of laughter is guaranteed.
**Time:** 15-30 minutes
## \#3 My first … job
**What’s the activity
Participants anonymously write down their first jobs on a post-it. The group then guesses which job belongs to which group member.
**How to do it:** 1. Prepare an online whiteboard with post-its.
2. Ask the participants to write down their first job on a post-it on the whiteboard. Make sure they keep it anonymous!
3. Let the group guess which first job belongs to which group member.
4. Once the puzzle is solved, invite all workshop participants to share more details (when was it, what were the main learnings, etc.) about their first job with the group.
5. Alternative: This game can also be played with almost every other topic; good alternatives are, for instance, the first music single or album you ever bought, the first concert you went to, or if you could meet anyone from the past, who would you like to meet and why?
**Why we love it:**
It is a great energizer that usually brings out loads of fun stories about the group members, results in a great atmosphere, and allows the participants to get to know each other.
**Time:** 15-30 minutes
For games 4 and 5 download our free pdf: ***Top 10 Workshop Games and Ice-Breakers of 2023 – Edition #1* [HERE.](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)**
## Do you like the workshop games and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with our workshop master @Michael Wlaschitz who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
Just send a quick mail to michael.wlaschitz@pioneers.io
**Michael Wlaschitz**
*Manager and Head of Venture Design*
Christina Senft
Senior Innovation Consultant [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/)
**Categories:** Methods & Tools
---
### [Insights to Pioneers.Peak: An Intrapreneurial Journey with Daniel Rass](https://pioneers.io/insights-to-pioneers-peak-an-intrapreneurial-journey-with-daniel-rass/)
**Published:** August 2, 2023
**Author:** Michael Obrist
**Content:**
Daniel Rass was one of the 32 intrapreneurs that joined the [Pioneers.Peak](https://pioneers.io/peak-venture-building/) Pre-Seed Program 2022 with his team from [Porsche Holding Salzburg](https://www.porsche-holding.com/de) to work on a solution for customer loyalty in mobility services. We talked to him about his experience and learnings during the Pioneers.Peak journey.
#### **Q: Hi Daniel! Can you please quickly introduce yourself?**
Sure! I am Daniel Rass, and I work as the Head of International Procurement at Porsche Holding Salzburg, a leading international automotive retail company based in Austria. My role involved building up an international procurement network in a complex organisation and pioneering new ways. I am passionate about exploring new markets and shaping the business model for the future.
#### **Q: What was your motivation to apply for Pioneers Peak?**
My motivation stemmed from my interest in joining a network of people who are actively shaping new business models. Furthermore, I wanted to be part of a venture that explores web 3.0 opportunities and loyalty for PHS. The idea of improving current business, exploring the potential of new technologies and possibly finding new revenue streams sounded exciting to me.
#### **Q: How did your idea get selected?
The selection process was part of a global PHS-internal idea pitching program coordinated by our strategy and innovation unit. There were three similar ideas connecting web 3.0 concepts with our core business model – one of them handed in by me. Florian Steiner, our head of strategy, was convinced about the potential around web 3.0 and loyalty. So we merged the three ideas into one team to enhance collaboration.
#### **Q: How did you organise yourself as a venture building team?**
Our team was super diverse, with members from various countries and with different backgrounds, from IT to sales to procurement, all contributing their distinct perspectives to our idea. Some of us knew each other before, which helped in the setup. However, the initial phase was challenging as we had to strike a balance between productive flow and necessary discussions. We learned that having a common understanding of the goals was essential to gain traction and set the right pace.
###### *Full Focus: The PHS Team has been working with their international team on an idea that focuses on customer loyalty in the web 3.0 space*
#### **Q: What’s the idea you worked on in a nutshell?**
Our team focused on exploring how to implement web 3.0 opportunities in our mobility-oriented business model increasing customer loyalty and attracting younger customer groups. We aimed to leverage blockchain technology and gamification elements and created new services that provide value to our customers. During our testing phase, we evaluated services such as drive-to-earn compensation models, rewarding car owners for sharing automotive data, and a blockchain-based trading platform for digital collectibles of cars.
#### **Q: How did you benefit from the Pioneers.Peak venture building platform?**
The structured innovation process provided by Pioneers.Peak was a game-changer for us. While we had some experience with design thinking, we never ran through a whole business and product validation process in such a structured way before. The guidance we received from Pioneers Mentors proved to be very valuable, and we also benefited greatly from the insights shared by market experts like Markus Lang from Speedinvest and Alice dal Fuoco from Postfinance. They were helping us to stay focused on what truly mattered and to evaluate the real problem we were solving.
> ”In-person collaboration during decisive moments fuels innovative processes. The on-site sprints in Vienna were key to our success.
#### **Q: What were the developments and milestones you achieved?**
Initially, we had to validate several hypotheses to understand the user problem better. For instance, we investigated whether users want to be rewarded for loyalty behaviour in mobility. This process helped us gain insights into customer expectations and pain points. We realised that loyalty was crucial, and by adopting web 3.0 concepts, we could refine and improve the existing customer journey.
#### **Q: What do you think about having on-site sprints once per month in Vienna?**
On-site sprints in Vienna were crucial for our success. While remote work has its merits, you need to put yourself out to work on the innovation topic and let in-person collaboration thrive during decisive moments. We also appreciated the physical interaction with other teams from OMV, Pioneers, and BOSCH at the co-working spaces in Vienna. Despite being in different industries, the cross-industry exchange provided valuable insights and fresh perspectives on each other’s challenges.
###### *Daniel and Carola presenting their idea at the Pioneers.Peak Event*
> ”The most rewarding aspect of being an intrapreneur is witnessing the impact of our innovation. We initiated significant developments and contributed to one of our company's core applications.
#### **Q: What is the status of your idea now? What did you achieve and what are your next steps?**
At the end of the 4-month Pioneers.Peak pre-seed phase, we had a successful internal presentation in front of our management board where we showcased our customer validation and a digital prototype around customer loyalty. We are currently integrating our learnings and product development suggestions from our idea into an existing customer loyalty initiative at PHS. Overall, we initiated significant developments and contributed to the company’s core applications, which I am very proud of.
#### **Q: What did you learn along the journey?**
One of the most important lessons I learned was to be brave and not dwell on why things may not work. Instead, I focused on finding solutions and being confident in our capable team. Our successful output with web 3.0 concepts and blockchain technology wouldn’t have been possible without this mindset.
**Thank you for sharing your insights, Daniel!**
## Do you want to learn more about Pioneer.Peak and how you can join the next round?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Innovation Manager [**Michael Obrist**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-obrist-2643497b/) to learn more about Pioneers.Peak and the Pre-Seed Phase 2023. Simply send a quick email to .
**Michael Obrist**
*Innovation Manager*
Michael Obrist
Innovation Manager [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Intrapreneurship
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [Six Corporate Practices Killing Innovative Business Ideas](https://pioneers.io/six-corporate-practices-killing-innovative-business-ideas/)
**Published:** October 25, 2023
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
**Thousands of ideas** for innovative solutions are generated every month in large corporations. They stem from discussion meetings, active brainstorming, idea contests, intrapreneurship programs, or trend scouting. However, only a few of them are actually validated and **only a handful make it to an actual market launch**. Why is that? Here are **six corporate practices** I have experienced in the last 5 years as an innovation consultant that **prevent** innovation from reaching **later stages.** I also share suggestions on how to change the system, but “Hey!”, let’s discuss together in the comments.
### 1) Killing ideas prior to validation
Based on my experience +70% of ideas are killed based on somebody reading and evaluating an idea one-pager (your company is different? Excited to hear from you in the comments!). Most of the time, rejecting ideas does not happen due to the poor quality of the idea, but to reach an artificial maximum number of selected ideas for a further phase (boot camp, incubation/intrapreneurship program, collaboration with startups).
**Suggestion:** Don’t cut down ideas too early. Take as many as possible into a few weeks’ validation phase (basic research, numbers crunching – see my last article on [cheap testing of ideas](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-ways-evaluate-your-business-idea-0-investment-michael%3FtrackingId=JoSjPk8IS6al5hvD6x8%252FnQ%253D%253D/?trackingId=JoSjPk8IS6al5hvD6x8%2FnQ%3D%3D)). For example, in an intrapreneurship program, instead of reducing 100 ideas to 5 teams, involve 30 single “idea sponsors” in a swift 1-2 week validation process. Cut ideas based on validated facts after that!
### 2) Developing business ideas misaligned with strategic priorities
Many ideas that enter an early validation phase lack alignment with the company’s strategic goals, leading to rejection in later management gates. Teams working on misaligned ideas also find it very difficult to onboard internal sponsors supporting the project beyond an early phase.
**Suggestion:** Ensure that all ideas entering a validation phase align with high-level strategic priorities (strategic goals and/or defined innovation areas). As a team, use alignment with the strategy in your presentations to convince key stakeholders.
### 3) Evaluating early business ideas like standard projects
New business models are based on many assumptions that still need to be tested. Often there is no clear project plan or financial forecast for more than 6-12 months. While this is a normal characteristic for early-stage ideas, often management judges those ideas with the same criteria as standard projects. Consequently, many ideas are turned down before a later stage.
**Suggestion:** In evaluating ideas for new business models, use criteria that emphasize potential rather than proof of success. Additionally, bring in external people who are used to deciding on novel concepts to guide the discussions.
### 4) Staffing fully utilized employees on the idea development
Companies often expect already fully engaged employees to contribute to new innovation efforts. While they might be fully on board for a few months (e.g. an intrapreneurship program), in the long run, this staffing practice results in delayed implementation or stopping of projects due to resource scarcity.
**Suggestion:** Plan business development for the long run. Hire dedicated resources for innovation projects to take the burden off core business employees. Let them take over the development of new business models after an initial validation phase with only low involvement of core business employees.
### 5) Forming teams without validation experts
Corporate teams validating new ideas often lack experience with professional validation methods and tools. Thus, when presenting early-stage ideas to management they base their information mostly on internal discussions. When management asks “why” questions about different aspects (e.g. competitive edge, business case, market demand), teams often can’t explain their rationale and lose support.
**Suggestion:** Bring in experts for validation methods and upskill employees on validation practices and results presentation. Promote external exploration by encouraging employees to collaborate with market experts or directly engage with customers. Insights from external validation offer more compelling arguments to advance an idea to the next stage.
### 6) Keeping 100% of the equity to the company
Corporations expect employees to invest time and effort in the development of new business models without offering a share in the potential upside. This often leads to the frustration of employees and a slow death of projects after a few quarters.
**Suggestion:** Explore ways to involve employees through equity, revenue sharing, or milestone-based bonuses in the new business model’s success. This ensures long-term commitment and advancement of new business models until the launch.
What other practices do you see in your organization that prevent innovation success? Do you agree with the 6 practices presented? Can you share any learnings?
Let’s discuss how to bring new business model development in corporates from an early validation stage to a successfully applied practice.
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights
---
### [Top Workshop Games and Energizers - 2024 Edition](https://pioneers.io/top-workshop-games-and-energizers-2024/)
**Published:** February 7, 2024
**Author:** Christina Senft
**Content:**
Without a doubt, the success of any meeting depends on the level of engagement and motivation shown by its participants. Whether you are organizing a brainstorming session with a small team or orchestrating a workshop with a larger group, setting the right stage from the start has a significant impact on the quality of engagement and eventual outcomes. This especially holds true if your meetings are aimed at producing fresh perspectives and creative solutions.
This is precisely where carefully selected warm-up games and energizers come into play! These simple exercises serve as more than just energy boosters; they are essential tools laying the groundwork for creativity and collaboration. By kicking off with a warm-up exercise that stimulates creative thinking, you can help participants transition already into the right mindset by encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and getting them out of their daily work routine.
So, whether your meeting is held virtually or in person, do not underestimate the power of a well-planned warm-up activity. It could be the key to unlocking your team’s full potential and making your workshop or meeting a success.
*Find below a selection of some of our favorite workshop games and energizers. For the full list **download our Top Workshop Games – 2024 Edition** **[HERE](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)**.*
## \#1 One Thing, Nine Ways
**What’s the activity
People have to think of unconventional uses of an everyday object. Use this exercise to spark creativity and look at things from different perspectives!
**How to do it:** 1. Grab an object from your desk or home. It could be a pencil, a cup, paper, anything!
2. Ask everyone to grab a piece of paper, and divide it into nine squares by folding it into thirds — first horizontally, then vertically.
3. Ask everyone to draw nine new, unconventional uses for the object.
4. Give participants a short time limit (5-10 minutes) to complete it.
5. Ask everyone to share their ideas. Did anyone come up with a really crazy or innovative idea?
**Why we love it:**
The participants will practice their improvisation skills and foster creative thinking. Lots of laughter is guaranteed!
**Time:** 20-30 minutes
## \#2 Nine Dot Puzzle
**What’s the activity
The participants have to think about how to connect the 9 dots without lifting their pencil from the paper.
**How to do it:** 1. Ask everyone to come to the session with a writing utensil and paper.
2. Ask participants to draw 9 dots in a 3×3 grid on a sheet of paper.
3. Set a timer for 2 minutes, and ask everyone to connect all nine dots, without lifting their pencil from the paper, using 4 or less straight lines.
4. Did anyone connect all the dots with 4 or less lines? Ask everyone to show their solutions.
5. Share a couple examples of how to solve the puzzle.
**Why we love it:**
We like to use this exercise to get people in the critical thinking mindset and to encourage people to think outside the box.
**Time:** 10-15 minutes
## \#3 Powerpoint Karaoke
**What’s the activity
Participants have to pitch a funny object or picture that they have never seen before.
**How to do it:** 1. Prepare a slide deck before the workshop, where every slide shows a funny or weird picture or object. Make sure that the participants do not see the slides beforehand.
2. Share the slides on-screen and choose a person to start or ask for volunteers.
3. The goal is to pitch/sell whatever comes up on the next slide to the group. The participants have 30 seconds to prepare for the presentation and should pitch for about one minute.
4. After the first pitch, switch to the next slide and nominate the next person or find a volunteer to pitch. This goes on until all slides have been presented.
5. Give a big round of applause to all presenters. Optionally, the group can also vote for the best pitch and choose a winner. Tip: If done in person, small prizes, like for example chocolate are also always a good choice and incentive. 😉
**Why we love it:**
Lots of laughter and breaking the ice will be guaranteed. Also, the participants will work on their presentation skills, practice improvisation and creative thinking.
**Time:** 20-30 minutes
For games 4 and 5 download our free pdf: ***Top Workshop Games – 2024 Edition* [HERE.](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)**
## Do you like the workshop games and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with our workshop master @Michael Lunzer who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
Just send a quick mail to michael.lunzer@pioneers.io
**Michael Lunzer**
*Manager and Head of Venture Design*
Christina Senft
Senior Innovation Consultant [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/)
**Categories:** Methods & Tools
---
### [Greenwashing 101: How to Fool Everyone into Thinking You’re Saving the Planet](https://pioneers.io/greenwashing-101-how-to-fool-everyone-into-thinking-youre-saving-the-planet/)
**Published:** April 1, 2023
**Author:** Philip Reuchlin
**Content:**
# 9 Tips on How to Greenwash Your Company
It’s no secret that green eco-products sell better and often achieve higher margins. But the road to authentically sustainable products is often long and requires analysis, strategies, and a bullet-proof implementation roadmap. That’s tough….which is why we have considered what companies can do immediately to appear greener without actually doing very much. You’re welcome.
### **1. It’s all about marketing**
Perception trumps reality. Make sure that you spend more money on marketing your sustainability initiatives than on the cost of the initiative itself. People don’t care about the truth, they only remember how you made them feel.
### **2. Tell narratives, not facts**
Hello boomer! There is way too much information out there already, and nobody believes facts anyway. Besides, others are likely to contradict your facts with their own alternative facts. Do you really want to have that discussion? Rather: share selective insights into your company’s “sustainability transformation”, and embellish them with personal anecdotes – strategy documents and KPIs put everyone to sleep….
### **3. Use hyperboles – make it sound bombastic**
You need to get the attention of consumers, and you have many words to choose from: “climate-neutral”, “greenest”, “industry-leader” and “groundbreaking”. Now don’t forget that some terms are legally defined, so you may end up having to justify yourself in front of regulators. But these things take years to resolve, with the only downside being that you may have to change your advertisement or pay a small fine (that you can finance with the profits you made in the meantime). Don’t worry about the consumer backlash, this is something your PR team can handle.
### **4. Blame the consumer**
Nobody actually understands what you do and the contribution you are making to society and the planet. So just make sure that you keep explaining to everybody that criticizes you why they are wrong. Or, at best, simply ignore them and blame the consumer for demanding your products. They need to change, not you.
### **5. Focus on the long term**
Fake it till you make it! Don’t be timid and announce a short-term goal, go straight for the big hairy audacious goal in 2050. By then you will be retired and no one will remember what you said. With an ambitious, long-term target, you will seem like a true trailblazer and have something to tell your friends for years to come. Others can deal with the hard work of implementing the target, and you are freed of any short-term accountability.
### **6. Don’t include all emissions**
If you have a long upstream or downstream chain of value creation, then you only need to worry about your direct emissions, the rest is not your problem. So only calculate scope 1 and scope 2 emissions and forget the rest!
### **7. Offset, don’t reduce**
Once you have calculated your emissions, don’t reduce them, but rather offset them with cheap carbon credits. Nobody knows what high-quality offsets are anyway, and this is much cheaper than changing your business model.
### **8. Technologies of the future**
Building on the above – don’t reduce, but promise to neutralize your historical emissions in the future with technologies that are not yet ready for the market. This shows courage to innovate and takes the short-term pressure off your shoulders.
### **9. “Involve” staff**
You have repeatedly said that your staff is your most important asset. So set up a highly publicized “green team” and have them discuss some marginal sustainability issues, not the core business model. For example, how the company can make it easier for employees to recycle paper, or that there is enough bicycle parking. Have them use the company intranet to promote their activities, put reminder posters on the toilet to turn off the lights, and give them a small budget to hold a sustainability event on Earth Day. On that day, make sure everyone gets a reusable coffee mug with your company logo in green, so everyone knows that you are putting your money where your mouth is.
## Does something feel wrong with this article? Happy April Fools!
If you want to go beyond greenwashing and are sincerely interested in becoming a more sustainable company, get in touch with our Head of Climate [**Philip Reuchlin** ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/preuchlin/). Just send a quick mail to climate@pioneers.io.
**Philip Reuchlin**
*Head of Climate*
Philip Reuchlin
Head of Climate [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/philip-reuchlin/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/philip-reuchlin/)
[  ](https://twitter.com/greenphilip) [  ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/preuchlin/)
**Categories:** Climate
**Tags:** climate
---
### [Pioneers & HYVE bündeln Kräfte für Corporate Venture Building Aktivitäten](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-hyve-buendeln-kraefte-fuer-corporate-venture-building-aktivitaeten/)
**Published:** March 28, 2023
**Author:** Sophie Sorg
**Content:**
# Pioneers & HYVE bündeln Kräfte für Corporate Venture Building Aktivitäten
**Wien/München, 28.03.2023.** **Die Innovationsberatungen Pioneers und HYVE bündeln Ihre Kräfte und unterstützen ab sofort gemeinsam mittelständische und große Unternehmen bei der Entwicklung von Corporate Ventures. Beide Player haben bereits in der Vergangenheit den Aufbau und die Skalierung von Corporate Ventures begleitet und auch die strukturellen Rahmenbedingungen mit Corporate Venture Studios wurden schon mehrfach geschaffen. Mit vereinten Kräften und der Bündelung von Ressourcen kann man nun auch völlig ausgelagertes Venture Building für Corporates betreiben und die Erfolgsquote weiter steigern. Derzeit fokussiert sich die Zusammenarbeit vor allem auf Unternehmen aus dem DACH-Raum, unter den Kunden sind aber auch einige globale Player zu finden. Auch in den arabischen Raum soll expandiert werden, hierzu werden bereits erste Gespräche mit Corporates geführt.**
Um in unserer schnelllebigen Geschäftswelt langfristig erfolgreich zu sein, müssen Unternehmen innovativ sein und sich laufend neu erfinden. Veränderungen im Konsumentenverhalten, disruptive Technologien sowie Wettbewerb stellen dabei die größten Herausforderungen für Unternehmen dar. Verschärft werden diese Themen durch die Klimakrise, sodass traditionelle Transformationsstrategien nicht mehr ausreichen und es zusätzlicher radikaler Ansätze bedarf, um langfristigen Erfolg im Unternehmen sicherzustellen. Gerade größeren Unternehmen fällt es jedoch aufgrund von internen Herausforderungen wie starren Strukturen, effizienzgetriebenen Prozessen und dem Fachkräftemangel oft schwer, mit dem Tempo der Veränderung mitzuhalten.
### **Corporate Venture Building**
Genau hier kommt Venture Building ins Spiel. “Corporate Venture Building bietet die Möglichkeit, die Vorteile eines Startups, wie Agilität und Geschwindigkeit mit den Ressourcen eines etablierten Unternehmens zu verknüpfen und diesen “Unfair Advantage” für sich auszunutzen, um erfolgreich innovative Geschäftsmodelle aufzubauen”, so Florian Then, Innovation Consultant bei HYVE. Unternehmen wie Mahle oder VERBUND haben das Potenzial bereits erkannt und mit “chargeBIG” oder “HalloSonne” erfolgreich Corporate Ventures gegründet ([Eine Übersicht der Top 50 Corporate Ventures im DACH-Raum ](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)ist hier zu finden). “Oft ist diese Verschmelzung der beiden gegensätzlichen Welten eine große Herausforderung und es braucht eine Art externen “Emulgator”, der dabei unterstützt. Hier setzt das Corporate Venture Studio von Pioneers & HYVE an und hilft Unternehmen gezielt beim Aufbau von innovativen Ventures.” so Thomas Offner, der als Experte Venture Studios unterstützt.
### **Begleitung über die gesamte Venture Journey**
HYVE und Pioneers begleiten ihre Kunden über die gesamte Venture Journey: Angefangen von der Strategie über die Konzeption der Prozesse und Organisation bis hin zur Umsetzung der einzelnen Ventures. Hierbei nicht nur in den klassischen Venture Building Aktivitäten wie Business Modelling, Prototyping, Brand & Marketing, sondern mit allen Services, die es von der Entwicklung bis zur Skalierung von digitalen und physischen Produkten und Services braucht.
“Gemeinsam mit unserem Partner HYVE können wir die gesamte Venture-Journey unserer Kunden, von der Inkubation bis zur Skalierung abbilden. Die gebündelte Erfahrung aus der Startup- und Corporate-Welt hilft uns, das Corporate Venture Building strategisch im jeweiligen Unternehmen zu verankern.”, erklärt Anton Schilling, Managing Partner von Pioneers.
So begleitete die Wiener Innovationsberatung bereits die STRABAG beim frühphasigen Aufbau von teamup, einer online Jobsharing-Plattform, oder die Porsche Holding Salzburg bei der Skalierung ihres Corporate Ventures MOON POWER, das Lade- und Energielösungen für Unternehmen entwickelt. Ihre Kompetenzen bei der Umsetzung von neuen Ventures hat die HYVE wiederum unlängst mit den vielfach ausgezeichneten Startups ICAROS im Bereich Virtual Reality (www.icaros.com) und TAWNY (www.tawny.ai) im Bereich der künstlichen Intelligenz unter Beweis gestellt. Auch im ersten Durchlauf von Pioneers.Peak, dem Multi-Corporate Hub für Venture Building, wurden bereits erfolgreich frühphasige Ventures von OMV, Bosch und Porsche Holding Salzburg begleitet. Die Vorbereitungen für 2023, mit Start im September, laufen bereits.
Pioneers mit Standort in Wien und HYVE mit Hauptsitz in München haben bereits in der Vergangenheit bei zahlreichen Projekten kooperiert.
## Do you want to know more about how we can help your company develop its own ventures?
Book a short intro call with our Innovation Manager [**Sophie Rab** ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-rab/)who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings. Just send a quick mail to sophie.rab@pioneers.io.
**Sophie Rab**
*Innovation Manager*
Sophie Sorg
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/sophie-rab/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/sophie-rab/)
**Categories:** News
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [The Unfair Advantage of Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/the-unfair-advantage-of-corporate-venture-building/)
**Published:** April 27, 2023
**Author:** Sophie Sorg
**Content:**
# The Unfair Advantage of Corporate Venture Building
In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business landscape, innovation is more important than ever. Companies must continually adapt and evolve to stay ahead of the competition and remain relevant in the market. One way to drive innovation and stay ahead of the curve is through corporate venturing. (For the Pioneers definition of corporate venturing refer to [our recent blogpost](https://pioneers.io/what-is-a-corporate-venture/).)
Corporate venturing involves creating new ventures within an established company, allowing the company to explore new markets and business models while leveraging its existing resources and capabilities and at the same time benefit from startup advantages, such as agility, speed and access to talent. This approach can provide corporate ventures with a significant advantage over traditional startups and other ventures in a number of ways.
**Advantages of Corporate Venturing**
Startups face several challenges in comparison to corporations when it comes to venture building. For one, **securing funding is a critical hurdle, while corporations have the advantage of significant financial resources**, allowing their corporate ventures to gain momentum quickly and concentrate on business development. Although startup funding rounds are frequently highlighted in the media, giving the impression of a substantial investment pool, the amount of VC funding with [$415.1 billion in 2022 ](https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/venture-trends-2022/)is considerably smaller than the global R&D investments ([$2.47 trillion in 2022](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1105959/total-research-and-development-spending-worldwide-ppp-usd/)). This number suggests that large organizations spend a lot on developing new business. However, CVC-backed funding amounted to only 4% of the total R&D investments ([$98.9 billion](https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/corporate-venture-capital-trends-2022/) in 2022), indicating that corporations could allocate a more significant share of their R&D budget towards corporate venturing investments.
Another advantage of corporate ventures is that established corporations already have **customer bases** and **supply chains**, providing a strong basis for new ventures to build upon. This can prove beneficial in the initial stages of product development, providing access to a test market and valuable customer feedback. Furthermore, corporate ventures can benefit from the **expertise and knowledge within the corporate organization.** Especially, the extensive market knowledge of the corporate can help in defining relevant problems and developing fitting solutions to solve them. Moreover, corporations can **leverage their existing talent and expertise to support new ventures, reducing the risk of failure**. Corporate ventures might also benefit from **utilizing existing administrative structures**, such as HR and legal to save time and money at the beginning of their development. Their **reputation and brand recognition** can provide new ventures with credibility and help them establish themselves in the market and their **access to strategic partnerships and collaborations** can give new ventures the resources and support they need to succeed.
When done right, corporate ventures do not only profit from the assets and know-how the corporate brings to the table but can also **exploit advantages that are usually limited to startups**, such as **access to talent** and **agility**. While corporations might find it challenging to attract talent and a different type of thinkers, it might be easier to recruit these types of employees for a corporate venture that provides them with enough space and freedom to pursue their own initiatives. Likewise, by granting some degree of independence to their venture, corporations can foster greater agility and accelerate the development and growth of the venture.
**Case in Point: Successful Corporate Venturing**
One company that has successfully leveraged corporate venturing is **VERBUND**, the leading energy company in Austria with its **corporate startup HalloSonne**. The venture was established with the aim of enabling residential customers to generate and store their own solar energy, allowing them to become more self-sufficient and sustainable. The launch of HalloSonne is part of Verbund’s broader strategy to transition towards a more sustainable and customer-focused business model. By leveraging its expertise in energy production and distribution, the company has been able to create a new revenue stream while promoting the use of renewable energy sources. The success of HalloSonne serves as an example of how corporate startups can drive innovation and growth within established companies, while also contributing to broader societal goals such as sustainability and energy transition.
Another example of a company successfully leveraging corporate venturing is **Porsche Holding,** the leading automotive distribution and retail company in Europe. Its business model is focused on delivering high-quality products and services to its customers through its extensive network of dealerships. This includes not only the distribution of vehicles of the VW group, but also the sale of after-sales products and services, such as maintenance and repairs, as well as financial and mobility services. The addition of **MOON POWER as a corporate venture** further underscores this commitment, as it provides customers with intelligent and data-driven energy solutions that are designed to meet the growing demand for sustainable mobility. The venture provides charging stations, photovoltaic systems, battery storage, and energy management services, showcasing Porsche Holding’s commitment to sustainability and its drive to bring new and innovative products and services to market.
**Risks and Hurdles of Corporate Venturing**
While these examples demonstrate the potential success of corporate ventures, it is important to consider the potential risks and challenges associated with establishing and scaling such ventures. One of the biggest risks is the potential for cultural conflict between the parent company and the subsidiary company. The subsidiary company may have a different culture and operating style, which can lead to friction and difficulties in integrating the two companies.
Another risk is the potential for misalignment between the goals of the parent company and the corporate venture. The parent company may have a different vision for the future of its subsidiary, which can cause conflicts and difficulties in aligning and achieving a desired outcome.
Finally, there is the risk of the new venture not being successful. Corporate venturing involves investing significant resources and capital into a new venture, and there is always the risk that the venture may fail and the investment may be lost.
Therefore, it is essential to define the ideal setup and strategy for the venture, making sure that the right degree of independence and collaboration between the two companies is found. Oftentimes, external support from professional venture building consultants can help, as they serve as a neutral player between the two parties and help to determine the strategy for the corporate venture and the optimal structure for the collaboration.
**In a nutshell**
Although startups are commonly viewed as the primary drivers of innovative business models and market disruption, corporate ventures possess significant advantages that give them a head start over their startup counterparts. This unfair advantage stems from the convergence of corporate resources, including access to funding, established customer bases, infrastructure, and processes, with the typical benefits of startups, such as agility and access to talent. As a result, corporate venturing presents a promising avenue for innovation and has the potential to yield successful outcomes in the development of new products, services, and business models.
## Do you want to know more about how we can help your company develop its own ventures?
Book a short intro call with our Innovation Manager [**Sophie Rab** ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-rab/)who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings. Just send a quick mail to sophie.rab@pioneers.io.
**Sophie Rab**
*Innovation Manager*
Sophie Sorg
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/sophie-rab/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/sophie-rab/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights
**Tags:** corporate venture
---
### [These Creatives Are Saying Goodbye to Their Laptops](https://pioneers.io/these-creatives-are-saying-goodbye-their-laptops/)
**Published:** April 1, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Tablets are no longer just about watching movies and playing games - you can do real work on them too!
**Content:**
I have a confession to make. As a writer, I’ve long had a snooty habit of looking down on anyone who owns a tablet, but doesn’t feel the need for a laptop.
“They’re obviously mere watchers and readers,” I’ve thought dismissively. “Their choice of hardware means they’re only interested in consuming stuff. They’ve effectively decided never to create anything. How sad!”
Well, it sounds like those words might be about to come back to bite me. At least if Gabor Papp, early team member and Head of Growth at tablet design app phenomenon Shapr3D (who should know), is to be believed.
“We think tablets and portable devices will do the same to laptops that laptops did to mainframe computers,” he boldly tells me (via Skype and laptop, incidentally) from the burgeoning company’s Budapest HQ.
Or what mobiles did to landlines, perhaps? It’s a big prediction, but one that needs careful attention. The consequences of developers, startups, investors and large hardware corporations gambling the right way on this particular tech trend hardly needs to be spelled out.
While I struggle to imagine how we writers might continue our trade without recourse to a decent-sized keyboard (although the unimagined, of course, is exactly what makes future tech exciting), it seems some of my fellow creatives are already nailing their colours to the portable device mast.
“Tablets aren’t just a device for games anymore,” says Papp, putting my outdated prejudice firmly in its place. “For a lot of people they’re already a professional tool. Especially in the creative space. As a 3D modelling company, we expected a lot of engineers and CAD professionals to use us, but creatives are our biggest adopters. We’re seeing architects, jewellery designers and even children’s book illustrators using the service.”
“There will be a tipping point,” adds Papp, “and as soon as either the software or the hardware gets there a lot of people will start shifting from computers to tablets.”
As developers of some of said software, Shapr3D is at the cutting edge of that tipping point, if that isn’t some horrible mixing of metaphors. That’s largely because it’s based on use with a quality stylus, which is far more intuitive than that fiddly rodent that lives next to your keyboard.
Having almost given up on developing a tool that would work on a finger-driven tablet, it was the recent rise of the high-quality stylus and powerful tablet — initially the iPad Pro and iPad Pencil — that gave Shapr3D the hardware it needed to succeed.
“Many companies have tried to figure out ways to use your fingers as a very precise input device,” says Papp. “In fact, just as a joke amongst ourselves, we tried using sausages, and found that sometimes they work better than human fingers! (We don’t do that any more, but you can try it at home). The reality is that you just can’t do serious, professional things with fingers on a tablet.”
Along with the sausage-slaying stylus (minimal latency and built-in pressure sensitivity are the key quality indicators, says Papp), the rise in computing power for tablets completed the picture. While Shapr3D is only to be found in the iPad Pro environment, Papp rates the abilities of the Microsoft Surface (and its stylus) as an equally potent driver towards professional tablet adoption. “Both are very powerful, with the computing capacity of a three-year-old computer. This tech is evolving very fast, and getting to the point it needs to be at to run professional software.
“Most of the software written for tablets at the moment is not actually designed for tablet use. Look at Excel or Powerpoint — they’re just stupid versions of the desktop programmes. Now that tablets are getting powerful, companies are designing software with that interface in mind.”
3D Shapr is ahead of the curve on that one, though, and the team of seven is already well into the process of improving on the basic functionality with extra features. They even got chased (and advertised) by Apple ahead of the iPad Pro’s launch, and their listing in the App Store now provides their primary revenue stream. The early bird gets the worm, doesn’t it?
It may seem ironic that, after all these years, many professionals might be headed back towards something with a ‘pen and paper’ feeling, which a lot of us haven’t known since our school days. But this is just another example of how future tech doesn’t need to be anything more than a subtle reinvention of a simple and long-lived idea.
Will a switch from laptop to tablet really achieve mass adoption? Or perhaps just in the field of 3D design? What do you think? Let’s hear it in the comments section!
Full disclosure: Shapr3D is a Pioneers Ventures portfolio company. And this was typed up on a vintage Dell Inspiron 14Z laptop.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [How to become that irritatingly happy guy](https://pioneers.io/how-become-irritatingly-happy-guy/)
**Published:** April 4, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Can Grumpy Graham turn himself into Cheerful Charlie? Might Negative Nancy be able to morph into Happy Harriett? This cute bit of tech says they can...
**Content:**
Can Grumpy Graham turn himself into Cheerful Charlie? Might Negative Nancy be able to morph into Happy Harriett?
Absolutely yes, says the living, breathing proof of concept that such a transformation is possible. He’s a regular Austrian guy named Christoph. Once a self-confessed miseryguts, with dizzy spells playing havoc with his life into the bargain, the 32-year-old has achieved that morph — by hitting a digital gym.
He’s been ‘working out’ there for a few years now, building that happiness core to the point that he’s become one of the happiest people we know here at Pioneers.
“We think happiness is a destiny, but it’s not,” says Christoph. “It’s actually like a muscle that you can train.”
But the problem, he reckons, is that most of us don’t think those workouts are necessary. Even though for most people “Life is like Tetris — the mistakes add up and the success vanishes.”
With Human Augmentation at the forefront of our thoughts in 2017 — it’s the theme of this year’s Pioneers Festival, after all — the idea of letting technology help overcome such dreadfully negative human tendencies deserves a closer look. So what’s the story?
Christoph began the old-fashioned way. He wrote down all the best things that happened to him on a daily basis. A long-established trick. It helped, sure, but it was only when he began to trying to choose which happy moment was the best that his idea for a ‘digital happiness gym’ was really born.
“Choosing the best moment of the week was difficult,” he recalls. “For a month, it was even harder, and choosing the top moment of the year was almost impossible. But — and here’s the magic discovery — every time I had to make that difficult decision, it made me happier.”
Christoph isn’t one for keeping such things to himself, and when a Reddit user innocently posted a question about how to make themselves happier, he replied with a post about his technique. Christoph was as surprised as anyone to find that contribution went viral.
And when another poster uttered those immortal words ‘I wish there was an app for that,” well, you probably don’t need me to tell you what Christoph did next.
hiMoment is a smartphone and web tool that deliberately sets out to give you those ‘difficult decisions’ that help let your in-built happiness mechanisms bloom. You can upload photos and texts (sound and video will join in time) of anything positive that might play a part in your day. The system will store them, ready to offer you the chance to rate one against another. Was this morning’s flaky, buttery croissant better than last night’s dinner with your partner? In that decision lies your workout. And it’s one Christoph says you should do at least once a day.
Machine learning technology is set to make that gym session a whole lot smarter too, says Christoph. “Let’s say you have a girlfriend. You treasure those moments a lot, and usually they win against other moments. But then one day, suddenly, they start losing against the f\*\*\*ing croissant! The tool has to understand that there’s been a big shift in your preferences.
“We’re not quite that far yet, but it’s where the journey is going — to really understand these things before you’ve even told your best friends. And this information would allow hiMoment to give people an extra dose of what they need at that time.”
Worth noting: the system isn’t one of those lazy apps that tap into your social media for content. You decide what to upload, and you do it directly. So go ahead and add your full-body post-workout shots, or write a note about how that nasty rash has cleared up. It’s for you, and only for you.
“The important thing is that you share these moments with yourself,” says Christoph, who is in fact wary of social media. “Those feeds are something you need to watch out for. Facebook and so on is people creating fake memories for other people — and maybe for themselves too.”
Whether this intriguing system works for everyone, time will tell. But Christoph points out that he wouldn’t have gotten this far with the project if the concept hadn’t worked for him.
“hiMoment actually gave me the strength I needed to launch hiMoment!” he says earnestly. “Without it, I’d never have had the grit and resilience to leave a well-paid job and follow my dream. It’s turned me upside down. I’ve now got people asking me why I’m so confident. Yet quite honestly, I really never used to be confident at all.”
Want to try Christoph’s digital happiness gym for yourself? Request to join the beta at himoment.com.
This year’s Pioneers Festival explores the concept of how technology can enhance our lives and make the world a better place. Tickets and startup applications here!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Six Founder Lessons You Need to Hear](https://pioneers.io/six-founder-lessons-you-need-hear/)
**Published:** March 25, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Zipcar creator and serial entrepreneur Robin Chase shares her wisdom
**Content:**
Best known for founding Zipcar and her thought leadership on a wide range of topics, serial entrepreneur Robin Chase is one person you really want to listen to if you’re in the future tech game. Which, one way or another, all of us are! The good news? She’s shared some of her top lessons in an exclusive interview with Pioneers!
**Sell A Product You Love**
Diving straight into taking your idea to market is always tempting, but be honest with yourself. Consider whether the product you’re selling really gets your pulse racing. If it doesn’t, maybe you can still go ahead, but you might want to think about hiring a salesperson with the right passion. On the flip side, if you truly love the product then you might find your repressed inner seller emerging.
“Before Zipcar, I was working with a partner on something called Project Professionals,” recalls Chase. “When my partner, who had been doing the selling, pulled out, I thought, ‘Oh, I hate sales, I could never do sales, I don’t want to do sales. Therefore I’m not going to pursue this.’
“But with Zipcar I loved the product so well that it didn’t feel like sales to me. Since then, I’d say I’ve felt very passionate about each of the things I’ve been doing, without any of the negative connotations that you apply to a salesman. It’s felt quite different.”
**Don’t Overrate Experience**
When Robin launched peer-to-peer car rental service BuzzCar in France, around 2011, she decided she was going to make a smartphone app. After all, it had worked with Zipcar in other places, right? Wrong. And in this case, the knowledge she thought she had proved her undoing.
“Our competitor Drivy had taken a completely different and better technology path. They made it possible to book on the web, and didn’t have a smartphone app at all. And their bet worked better than my bet. Mine was based on past experience, whereas they came with no preconceptions at all. So it’s interesting to think about whether or not experience is really a positive attribute.
“Being an outsider is a wonderful thing for entrepreneurs because you have no preconceptions about what works and what doesn’t. Or about what you know and what you don’t know…”
**Get Lucky…**
The role of chance and luck in the success of an idea isn’t a popular concept in our meritocracy, but Chase is under no illusions that sometimes the dice just fall in your favour.
By way of example of lucky timing, she refers to BlaBlaCar, Europe’s successful answer to the ride-sharing concept that she couldn’t get to work in the US with GoLoco.
“BlaBlaCar was doing the same in France that I was doing in the US, and then two incredibly fantastic things happened for him. One was the volcano eruption in Iceland that shut everything down across Europe for about ten days. He was there and ready when that happened, and that’s just dumb luck. The other thing was that he was ready and waiting when there was a French transit strike. In the US, we didn’t have transit strikes and we didn’t have volcanoes…”
**…And Don’t Beat Yourself Up When You’re Not**
The opposite is also true. Your startup might fail because it was an abominable idea, or because it wasn’t sold right. But it might also have been a great idea that just hit whatever the opposite of serendipity is.
“A friend of mine was closing their B round of funding with a firm that happened to be based in one of the Twin Towers. Right around the time of 9/11. So they went out of business, because they couldn’t refinance in that period of time when it was all calamity. And so they disappeared. And that was no fault of theirs.
“So people should not be so smug when they are wildly successful, but also they should not feel so terrible when some crazy thing outside of your control does happen.”
**Think ahead — as much as you can**
If your startup has anything whatsoever to do with technology — and it’s hard to think of one that wouldn’t — then it’s little use picturing how things fit into the landscape right now. It’s not easy, but you have to picture the world as it will be. That’s where the open-ended opportunities are.
Robin uses the example of the mobility sector, which is her specialty. “Everyone in the transportation industry has to think very hard about how they will fit in when autonomous vehicles hit the streets. They’re going to completely transform the economics of what it costs to bring a car to your door. So this will completely change car rental, ride hailing, buses, shuttles, taxis and parking apps.
“It’s true that there will be business models we can’t imagine in the future. But as best I can, I try to focus on the upcoming economic reality, and always think about its implications.”
**Know When to Stop**
If Robin Chase can leave Zipcar — which she did — then it’s fair to say anybody can leave anything. She only left her successful creation for personal and family reasons, but she’s equally clear that it’s important to turn your back on an idea that isn’t working.
“At the end of the dotcom boom there was a cohort of maybe a dozen CEOs of brand-new companies that I used to bump into on a regular basis. After a year Zipcar was the only one left standing. And I think some of those people had really dumb ideas they were completely stuck to.
“Another person who will remain nameless once told me ‘I just raised three and a half million on this idea. It’s fantastic!’ He didn’t have any idea what the revenue model would be, or where it was going. Well, they never did find a revenue model. This guy had quit his well-paid job as a lawyer and divorced his wife because he was working all the time.
“He paid a really high price to have a slow death. A slow startup death. All because he didn’t face the fact that it was a stupid idea early on.
“Learn as quickly as you can, pay attention to all the signals and execute with speed.”
*Robin Chase’s latest project is the ‘Internet of Moving Things’ company Veniam. Buy her book Peers Inc via her website here.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Why low-tech schnitzels rule](https://pioneers.io/why-low-tech-schnitzels-rule/)
**Published:** March 23, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Tech learnings from a weekend on small-town Moravia.
**Content:**
I’m just back from a long weekend holed up in a small village in South Moravia. Offering very little in the way of disturbances (apart from one street broadcast to the populace, which came across as quite Orwellian, but might have been about kittens for all I know), it served as the perfect writer’s retreat.
It also got me thinking about human augmentation technology. And it all started with a schnitzel.
See, one of the reasons my Airbnb stay was memorable was that the resident grandmother produced a number of home-cooked meals for me. One of which was a delightful chicken schnitzel with mash and ‘salat’. Just one example of the hearty Mitteleuropean food that I so unashamedly adore (apart from ‘salat’, which is pure rabbit food).
Seriously, it was massive. All her meals were. Whether it was the roast vegetables from the back garden or that never-ending bowl of pasta with lashings of home-made sauce, granny tried (in a good way) to kill me with food.
There’s a timeless pleasure in a home-cooked meal from grandma — even if it’s someone else’s grandma! And much of that pleasure comes from its essential humanity. It’s not just the food itself, nor the fact that not all the ingredients come from a supermarket. It’s the know-how of another generation. It’s the thought and it’s the care. It’s the smile on granny’s face when she sees how well that schnitzel’s going down.
I believe it would be a shame if technology robbed us of these kinds of experiences. There’s no app, nor any robot waiter, quite like grandma.
Yet at the same time, there are so many ways technology could have augmented that human side of the experience. A fully-functioning, intelligent translation tool that understands Czech, along with better mobile connectivity in Krepice, could have allowed us to communicate properly, using something better than the few German and English words she could remember from middle school.
A self-packing dishwasher would be a great spot of ultra-basic human augmentation, so that the poor old lady could say goodbye to huffing and puffing as she has to bend down to load the darn thing. (Dishwashers, by the way, are the most expensive, time-inefficient con of a ‘labour saving’ device known to man. I’ve seen ‘whose turn is it to load the machine’ fights far uglier than ‘whose turn is it to wash up’ arguments. When dishwashers send out a drone to clear the table, and then pack themselves, then we can talk about labour-saving. The dishwasher industry is ripe for disruption).
Another thing: granny seemed to spend most of her time visiting sick mothers and sick mothers of son-in-laws (is there a word for that relation?) in various local hospitals. Thankfully, she can still drive her car. But the mobility tech that’s coming — especially self-driving cars — is going to make it so much easier when she no longer can.
And as for those sick relatives, there’s just no argument against health tech innovation that will make early diagnosis and (especially) prevention better and faster. Not to mention the possibilities the next-generation health industry (wearable tech, for example) could bring for family members to monitor ailing relatives in their own homes.
But, like with the cooking, let’s not push tech for the sake of it. When I finally left the house on Monday, grandma was busy tending the vegetable patch. Sunshine and fresh air for her, and a sprinkling of human touch for those beetroots destined for the kitchen table. As long as she still enjoys it, let’s leave this interaction of human and nature alone. When she’s too old for garden work, though, then bring on the veggie patch robots by all means!
Technology that enhances our humanity without robbing us of it is the theme for Pioneers Festival 2017. Click [here](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/) for tickets and startup applications (especially if you’ve invented a dishwasher that actually helps!)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [‘This will be as big as Bitcoin’](https://pioneers.io/will-be-big-bitcoin/)
**Published:** March 7, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Content:**
Is it fair to say that the Blockchain space is still in its infancy? Probably not. It might arguably be more fitting to say it’s in its adolescence. After all, it’s in undergoing rapid changes and thrives on undermining (if you’ll pardon the Bitcoin pun) the establishment.
As for those rapid changes, it’s not quite so easy to tell what adulthood will bring for Blockchain and cryptocurrencies. This is a specialized game, after all. So, naturally enough, we sat down with a specialist to get those answers. Pioneers Festival 2017 speaker and former Bitcoin.com co-owner Adam Stradling, who has Blockchain knowledge coming out of his ears, has been kind enough to share his thoughts on the matter with us.
Fintech might be barely recognizable in a few years’ time. And while that might sound scary, it also means plenty of opportunity for the smartest, quickest innovators and corporates. Here’s where a few of those opportunities might lie…
**Decentralized Data Storage**
“This is something that I’m very excited about,” says Stradling. “I see it forming in the same way that was exciting about Bitcoin when it first started forming.
“Looking at Bitcoin Blockchain, Ethereum Blockchain and so on, these chains and that technology stack are not fundamentally going to be able to hold large amounts of data. They will be able to compute data when needed for various operations, but in terms of just storing large amounts of data… they’re not going to do that.
“So now you have big projects that are coming out of Bitcoin itself. Kim Dotcom doing another version of Mega. You have Swarm and IPFS on Ethereum and you have a number of independent entities starting to do stuff. And the sheer number of experiments being done in that realm is an indication of just how interesting this is.
“The cost per terabyte on some of these systems is drastically lower. People also say ‘why not just use Google and Dropbox, or other cloud systems?’ but I don’t see these networks as competing with those 100% — just like I don’t see Bitcoin as competing 100% with banks. I think there’s actually going to be new services and new applications that people haven’t thought about, for when and why they’ll want to have their their data in this type of storage environment as compared to other ones.
“The wave is forming on the horizon. Somebody is going to nail this, and it’s going to be as big as Bitcoin itself. Even if Bitcoin is at $100 million.”
**Privacy Crypto**
“This is a trend I started researching around two and a half years ago, and which is now coming to fruition. It’s a whole branch of cryptography that focuses on doing data computations, but being able to keep the inputs private. These are things like homomorphic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs and multi-party computing.
“There’s a number of coins that are using these now, and those coins have gone up in huge value just in the last year.
“Just from a coin perspective we’re starting to see value transfer systems and storage systems that have the true privacy that we originally wanted with Bitcoin.
“That is then going to precipitate out into other applications that also need privacy but still need computation. The corporates and the banks worry about privacy: they don’t want to put transactions out there publicly. But as soon as you start stripping away the facets of the Blockchain to get that privacy, you reduce the security and you reduce some of the Blockchain’s good features. So privacy crypto gives you the best of both worlds.
**Distributed Compute**
“Another trend that’s just in its very kernel right now is distributed compute and there’s only been one ‘company’ that started down this path.
“It’s an open source ecosystem and project that uses some very simple smart contracting to allocate unused CPU resources to do larger compute projects. With big data analysis and the huge requirements that are going to continue to grow both on data storage and then computation of data, this is going to have a complimentary effect along with decentralized data storage.
“So to be able to start building commercial systems that will do that, I think that’s going to be huge. Barely the seed of this has started, but the minute I saw it I was blown away.
“There’s going to be another 20 guys in the next two and a half years that are going to start going down that path. But this will be just as big as distributed storage.”
To hear more from Adam Stradling and a host of other inspiring speakers at Pioneers Festival 2017, click here! And remember that our selection of startups attends free of charge.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Why Rust Could Be Your Gold Dust: Corporate Tech Wish List #1](https://pioneers.io/why-rust-could-be-your-gold-dust-corporate-tech-wish-list-1/)
**Published:** March 1, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Content:**
Large corporations need great tech ideas — fact! But, as even the most optimistic founder knows, it’s not exactly child’s play to figure out which breakthrough might get your local multinational excited.
Well, since it’s our raison d’etre at Pioneers to give much-needed tech its big break, we thought we’d start a blog series in which we ask those corporations for the specifics. What exactly does your friendly neighbourhood innovation boss want you to pitch to him A-S-A-P?
Nothing subtle about this, founders! We’ve put the corporates on the spot and asked them the question point-blank, so nota bene, as they say. And while you go away and work on solving those problems, don’t forget to check in every month for another pointer or two from the big business world.
We’ll kick off this March with some handy guidelines from Magna International’s R&D Vice President Ian Simmons, who took time out from scouting startups at Mobility.Pioneers to share his tech dreams. And the first of those is surprisingly elemental.
“If the startups could find a very simple anti-corrosion material then it would solve quite a complex part of our business today,” says Simmons. “Right now there are multiple steps in the process, which add weight and cost. If there was a simple coating process it would really add to light-weighting.
“We’ve yet to find something that’s sufficiently robust and cheap, and is a very light, thin coating. So that’s something we’re looking for. It would be a big win for the industry because we’re all still trying to save weight and improve mass.”
Meanwhile, if the mobility software side of things is more your bag, then the automotive industry supplier has a challenge for you too.
“If you could find a way to combine all the sensor technologies into one unit that would meet all the needs for autonomous driving, that’ll be absolutely wonderful,” continues Simmons.
“Right now you’ve got ultrasonics for parking, you’ve got a variety of radar systems and you’ve got multiple LiDAR systems, all of which are now enabling fully autonomous vehicles. Then you’ve got cameras with multiple features and systems included on them.
“As all these systems are becoming more sophisticated, they’re starting to overlap each other and add redundancy. But it would be wonderful if you had one all-encompassing sensor system. It could be mounted in different locations, but still meet all the needs for the vehicle.
“For us that’s just science fiction, but it would be tremendous if it existed…”
Great line, isn’t it? If there’s one thing startups do well, it’s turning today’s science fiction into tomorrow’s reality. So over to you, founders — let’s see you make it happen!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [The paper-thin line between selling bathtubs and building supercars](https://pioneers.io/large-corporations-need-great-tech-ideas-fact-even-most-optimistic-founder-knows-its-not-exactly-childs-play-figure-out-which-breakthrough-might-get-your-local-multinational-excited-well-its-our-raiso/)
**Published:** February 28, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Content:**
When one of your personal heroes gives you their card, it’s a good idea to file it away with extreme care. Which is exactly what Kristjan Maruste didn’t get right at Pioneers Festival two years ago.
The mistake could have had life-changing consequences for four of Kristjan’s best friends, who were working dead-end jobs back in Estonia. In fact, one of them could quite easily still be selling bathtubs in Tallinn.
But first, a little of the backstory.
28-year-old Maruste is a confident young man who has always had a passion for automotive engineering. During his years at Tallinn University, Kristjan’s main focus was his institution’s Formula Student team. “For six years of my life I was completely buried in this thing,” he says, reflecting on his crew’s successful projects in both combustion and electric mobility innovations.
After graduating, the 28-year-old Kristjan and another fellow team member went on to found mobility startup Comodule (which is how I ended up bumping into him at Mobility.Pioneers). But for the rest of Kristjan’s fellow Formula Student crew members, things weren’t so promising in a country without much of an automotive industry.
“These friends were some of the best young automotive engineers,” says Kristjan. “Yet one of them went to work for a company that builds baths and showers! Another was doing quality checks on car dealerships. Completely pointless jobs for good engineers.”
Fast forward to Pioneers Festival two years ago, where Kristjan had the chance to come face to face with supercar king Christian van Koenigsegg. Kristjan, who had already met another Pioneers hero in Mate Rimac, was starstruck.
“Koenigseggs are here,” he says bluntly, doing a comparison thing with his hands. “And Ferraris are down here.” The Italian legend is a long way down. He’s a true Koenigsegg devotee.
“So I’m in the same workshop with Christian,” he recalls of that fateful trip to the annual Vienna jamboree. “This guy’s my hero, building the best cars in the world — and I’m in the same room as him!
“So we get talking and I tell him I have some really good engineers he might be interested in, guys who have experience with CATIA systems.”
“I remember meeting Kristjan very well,” recalls Koenigsegg. “It was a crowded room and we sort of bumped into each other. He recognized me and asked me how it was going.
“I remember being pre-occupied with how difficult it was to find talented CATIA V5 capabable automotive engineers, so instead of the normal chit chat, my response to Kristijan was basically this: I’m doing great, but I need to find CATIA engineers!”
Maruste picks up the story: “And because Christian is a super nice guy, he listens. And then he says my friends sound very interesting to him. So he tells me to send their contacts, and gives me his card.”
So far, so perfect. But that’s when things began to unravel.
“I was at one of the networking events that evening, but all I could really think of was writing to Christian von Koenigsegg. So I leave early, take a taxi back to the hotel. I open my laptop to write him the mail…and I can’t find the card.”
Not only had Kristjan failed to look after the business card of a lifetime, but he’d actually managed to lose his entire card holder.
“I was, like f\*\*\*!”
As you can well imagine.
First Kristjan thought he’d left it in the Uber, and frantically set about trying to relocate a driver who didn’t speak English. With the hotel’s help, he got the taxi back, only for the late-night ransack to prove fruitless.
The next morning a desperate Kristjan went back to the beer garden where the previous night’s networking had taken place.
“All the way there I’m thinking ‘how is this possible?’ I get the business card of Christian von Koenigsegg, and then I go and lose it! I was super-depressed. How could I mess up like this?”
His mood hardly got any better when a thorough search of the beer garden also revealed nothing. And when he got to the Hofburg for the second day of Pioneers Festival, he realised how dim his chances of getting a duplicate were.
“Christian was speaking on the main stage that day, so I couldn’t reach him anymore.”
Things were looking glum for a down-in-the dumps Kristjan. But then his phone rang. It was the guy from the beer garden. The cards had been found!
One mighty relieved Estonian sped back over to the beer garden in the first taxi he could find. “When I pick up the cards I open up the holder to show the guy at the beer place why I was so keen to have them back. The guy sees Christian van Koenigsegg’s card and his eyes go wide. And I was just nodding and smiling. I was like…‘I know!!!’”
And with that, the plan for his four friends to work in Sweden was suddenly back on track.
“I told them I’d met Christian and asked them all if they’d like to work at Koenigsegg. Their reaction was pretty much ‘Are you f\*\*ing kidding me?’”
Kristjan took that as a yes.
And now? Long story short, his quartet of mates are all working at Koenigsegg in Sweden. Not selling showers in Tallinn.
“And the coolest thing is that six months later one of our guys was the number one in aero at Koenigsegg. And our composites guy was building entire rear sub-frames.”
Koenigsegg is as happy as Maruste with the human resources he got out of that serendipitous meeting at Hofburg. “Luckily and very surprisingly Kristjan had a solution to my issue and the rest is history! This is really a classic story of speak your mind and you will be heard.”
And Kristjan? Wasn’t he tempted to work for Koenigsegg himself?
“Not me, because I have my own company! But one day I might be tempted to sell my connected vehicle technology to them…” he says with a smile.
Which is reason number five why tracking down that card was totally worth doing!
Want to make a dream connection of your own at Pioneers Festival this year? Click here if you’re a keen startup, or here if you’re a corporate or investor looking for talent.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [‘We want to make using Blockchain as easy as sending an email’](https://pioneers.io/we-want-make-using-blockchain-easy-sending-email/)
**Published:** February 27, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Content:**
Jörg von Minckwitz didn’t have to travel far to pick up the latest of several accolades for Bitwala. In fact, the pitching stage at the recent Fintech.Pioneers was just a few minutes’ walk from his home in Kreuzberg.
But home ground advantage had little to do with his company’s recognition as the best startup at the new-for-2017 financial technology event in Berlin. No, that was all down to Bitwala’s simple, accessible vision for the future of money transfers.
And what better city than Berlin to talk about finally simplifying cross-border payments? After all, this is a place where, back in the days of the wall, sending funds to somebody a ten-minute walk away could have required all kinds of skulduggery. And probably a coat with a hidden pocket or four.
But in the same way that Berlin has transformed itself into a Fintech innovation hub, things have come a long way for fund movement too — at least within the united Germany. Internationally, though, many of us are still in the ludicrous situation where you can fly from London to Sydney in less time than it takes your money to make the journey.
Few in the room at Forum Treptow would argue that the days of large fees and slow transfers could — and should — be numbered. And this is being tackled at pace by Blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
But to put it bluntly, Blockchain is complicated and hard to grasp. So it’s down to startups like Bitwala — and the large corporations they might work with in time — to package it up into useful, understandable products.
“Marketing these concepts is our major challenge but also our ultimate goal,” says von Minckwitz. “We want to make the use of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology as easy as sending an email.”
Aha, now that’s the kind of claim we want to hear! And clearly the judges in Berlin agreed. But what will we get out of starting to work with these scary non-things called Bitcoins?
“As a decentralized ledger accessible from all over the world, Bitcoin is way faster and cheaper than traditional online banking,” explains von Minckwitz. “At Bitwala we’re here to transfer your money faster than anyone else can do.”
It’s a straightforward, real-world use case that’s easy enough to understand. After all, we may not have a choice but to get to grips with Bitcoin (or another cryptocurrency) sooner or later. Von Minckwitz certainly belongs to the school of thought that everyday usage isn’t far away.
“I think there’s no question of whether there will be a certain cryptocurrency that is widely used. The question is more which currency it is going to be. Bitcoin is the most promising one at the moment, but we will see more competitors challenging Bitcoin and therefore improving it.
“If you ask me now, though, I would still put all my money on Bitcoin.”
Speaking of which, Bitcoin expert and shrewd crypto investor Adam Stradling was among the speakers on stage in Berlin. He echoed von Minckwitz’s belief that there’s still frightening growth potential for the original (and still biggest) of the cryptocurrencies.
Stradling was also highly impressed with Bitbond, one of the other two finalists Bitwala saw off to claim the free pass to this year’s Pioneers Festival in Vienna. Like Bitwala, Bitbond inhabits the murky world of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies. But, like Bitwala, it offers a simple, clear and highly presentable product: cross-border loans.
“I really like what they’re doing, and the practical simplicity of how they’re building their business,” Stradling told us. “I think some people have a talent for deducing what a simple product is, and they’ve done that well. It’s working too: they’re getting transactions and they’re building it up.”
The third finalist startup at Fintech.Pioneers was Telleroo, a payments API that takes the hassles out of paying suppliers and freelancers. Another jargon-free product with a simple message. Coincidence? Probably not. Judges know that the end customer — even if it’s a business — doesn’t need to understand what the duck’s legs are doing beneath the water.
Fintech.Pioneers was the second of Pioneers’ new portfolio of industry-specific chapter events, which have been set up to complement the established Pioneers Festival showpiece. With Mobility.Pioneers and Fintech.Pioneers now completed, chapter events for Health, Retail and Industry will follow later in the year.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [‘We want to make using Blockchain as easy as sending an email’](https://pioneers.io/we-want-make-using-blockchain-easy-sending-email/)
**Published:** February 27, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Content:**
Jörg von Minckwitz didn’t have to travel far to pick up the latest of several accolades for Bitwala. In fact, the pitching stage at the recent Fintech.Pioneers was just a few minutes’ walk from his home in Kreuzberg.
But home ground advantage had little to do with his company’s recognition as the best startup at the new-for-2017 financial technology event in Berlin. No, that was all down to Bitwala’s simple, accessible vision for the future of money transfers.
And what better city than Berlin to talk about finally simplifying cross-border payments? After all, this is a place where, back in the days of the wall, sending funds to somebody a ten-minute walk away could have required all kinds of skulduggery. And probably a coat with a hidden pocket or four.
But in the same way that Berlin has transformed itself into a Fintech innovation hub, things have come a long way for fund movement too — at least within the united Germany. Internationally, though, many of us are still in the ludicrous situation where you can fly from London to Sydney in less time than it takes your money to make the journey.
Few in the room at Forum Treptow would argue that the days of large fees and slow transfers could — and should — be numbered. And this is being tackled at pace by Blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
But to put it bluntly, Blockchain is complicated and hard to grasp. So it’s down to startups like Bitwala — and the large corporations they might work with in time — to package it up into useful, understandable products.
“Marketing these concepts is our major challenge but also our ultimate goal,” says von Minckwitz. “We want to make the use of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology as easy as sending an email.”
Aha, now that’s the kind of claim we want to hear! And clearly the judges in Berlin agreed. But what will we get out of starting to work with these scary non-things called Bitcoins?
“As a decentralized ledger accessible from all over the world, Bitcoin is way faster and cheaper than traditional online banking,” explains von Minckwitz. “At Bitwala we’re here to transfer your money faster than anyone else can do.”
It’s a straightforward, real-world use case that’s easy enough to understand. After all, we may not have a choice but to get to grips with Bitcoin (or another cryptocurrency) sooner or later. Von Minckwitz certainly belongs to the school of thought that everyday usage isn’t far away.
“I think there’s no question of whether there will be a certain cryptocurrency that is widely used. The question is more which currency it is going to be. Bitcoin is the most promising one at the moment, but we will see more competitors challenging Bitcoin and therefore improving it.
“If you ask me now, though, I would still put all my money on Bitcoin.”
Speaking of which, Bitcoin expert and shrewd crypto investor Adam Stradling was among the speakers on stage in Berlin. He echoed von Minckwitz’s belief that there’s still frightening growth potential for the original (and still biggest) of the cryptocurrencies.
Stradling was also highly impressed with Bitbond, one of the other two finalists Bitwala saw off to claim the free pass to this year’s Pioneers Festival in Vienna. Like Bitwala, Bitbond inhabits the murky world of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies. But, like Bitwala, it offers a simple, clear and highly presentable product: cross-border loans.
“I really like what they’re doing, and the practical simplicity of how they’re building their business,” Stradling told us. “I think some people have a talent for deducing what a simple product is, and they’ve done that well. It’s working too: they’re getting transactions and they’re building it up.”
The third finalist startup at Fintech.Pioneers was Telleroo, a payments API that takes the hassles out of paying suppliers and freelancers. Another jargon-free product with a simple message. Coincidence? Probably not. Judges know that the end customer — even if it’s a business — doesn’t need to understand what the duck’s legs are doing beneath the water.
Fintech.Pioneers was the second of Pioneers’ new portfolio of industry-specific chapter events, which have been set up to complement the established Pioneers Festival showpiece. With Mobility.Pioneers and Fintech.Pioneers now completed, chapter events for Health, Retail and Industry will follow later in the year.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Driverless cars go wheel to wheel in Buenos Aires](https://pioneers.io/driverless-cars-go-wheel-wheel-buenos-aires/)
**Published:** February 21, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Content:**
Okay, so you couldn’t call it a race. But still, seeing two self-driving cars circulating a track at an FIA-sanctioned motorsport event is another reminder of just how fast (if you’ll excuse the pun) autonomous driving technology is moving.
The live demo run for DevBot1 and DevBot2 in Buenos Aires yesterday gave a taste of things to come in Roborace, the planned series for electric, driverless cars. Roborace will support the now-established FIA Formula E Championship, a fully-fledged series for all-electric single-seaters, albeit ones steered by human race drivers.
While we’ve seen driverless cars drive a circuit solo before, this synchronised performance by two of them is claimed to be a world-first. If the machines were avoiding contact with each other (something human racing drivers can rarely be trusted to do) using their on-board sensors and systems as claimed, then the significance is clear. Contact avoidance might go against the grain for most race fans, but it’s the most important thing our future city cars will need to do. Day in and day out.
“The ability of the AI software to perceive and interact within a dynamic environment is critical to Roborace,” said Roborace CTO Bryn Balcombe. “Today we demonstrated a major milestone in this direction with full awareness between two vehicles combining world sensing, compute and communication technologies.”
While it seems highly unlikely that driverless motorsport will ever grip the public imagination in the same way ‘traditional’ motorsport and its human competition does, it’s still no surprise that the competitive racing scene is where we’re seeing the technical breakthroughs. Formula E has helped bring the electric car’s viability a long way in just two and a half seasons, and sure enough its concentration of bright minds, along with the dream marketing platform its global roadshow of city-centre street tracks provides, is now attracting and producing related mobility stories.
The two DevBots in Argentina were dressed up in the colours of River Plate and Boca Juniors. Their demo surely came nowhere near a clash between the two local football rivals for intensity. But they did ultimately produce what most spectators (even though some don’t admit it) want from a race : a good crash.
While the accident for the yellow car meant that River Plate cruised to an easy ‘win’, it certainly didn’t spoil the moment beyond repair. Nobody ever said big technological steps are supposed to work perfectly first time — Formula E certainly didn’t. It takes brave souls to roll these things out in public, and they ought to be encouraged.
And besides, while the ‘loser’ may have crashed, the ‘winner’ managed to reach 185 kph. But better than that, it dealt with a situation nobody could have foreseen: a stray dog on the circuit. Apparently the DevBot slowed down and adjusted its line.
Now if that’s not a real-life situation, what is?
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [How the sharing economy can turbo-charge your portfolio](https://pioneers.io/how-sharing-economy-can-turbo-charge-your-portfolio/)
**Published:** February 9, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Content:**
Flirting with the stock market is fun. Making a few bucks to supplement your income is even better. But unless you’re an industry professional, that’s where it stops. To take your hobby any further — let’s say managing an investment strategy others might pay for — you’d need licences, connections, a country club membership, shiny shoes, a suit and an obscenely expensive tie.
And you’d need to quit your job. Then go work for a company that manages other people’s money.
Right?
Nope. Not any more.
Managing a public investment strategy is no longer an exclusive club for a small crowd of guys with vast libraries of hair gel. New technology has changed all of that. Trading fees are starting to melt away, social media and other services have made information freely available, and it’s now possible for a regular Jane to set herself up as someone who can earn from sharing their investment wisdom. Without all that risk.
You’re smart, and you’ve got a great portfolio of companies or investments that you think are going to deliver profits. But you don’t have cash to start investing yourself. Problem? Not as much as it used to be, thanks to startups such as wikifolio.com.
Through the platform you can now publish your ‘fantasy’ selection of stocks and other financial instruments. This is known as a wikifolio, and anyone can view it. And if it’s good enough to attract the attention of ten ‘followers’, that’s where it gets really interesting. Because then your wikifolio can form the basis for an exchange-traded product. And you’ll earn a fee from that.
“The continuous lowering of bars to act as an ‘investment expert’ is empowering individual investors to act as such,” says Can Ertugrul, Head of Partner Acquisition at wikifolio.com. “They’re now able to share their trading ideas via specialized social media platforms like StockTwits or social trading platforms like wikifolio.com.
“In other words, what was limited to highly-paid professionals with the formal technical knowledge and the traditionally required infrastructure is now opening to a broader group of individuals.
“Wikifolio.com is empowering individuals and for the first time enables them to make their trading ideas investable for others via exchange-listed and exchange-traded financial products.
“This trend of a sharing economy is seen in other areas as well and already has created big Consumer-2-Consumer platforms such as YouTube, eBay, AirBnB, and others. All of them are lowering the barrier for people who would otherwise be consumers to act as ‘producers’, providing them with a marketplace to monetize their content, goods or real estate.”
As an investor, would you have more faith in a popular wikifolio than in your ‘professional’ fund manager? There’s an interesting debate around incentives here. Your fund manager gets a salary or fee regardless of performance, although he may well receive bonuses for good decisions and get fired for bad ones. Your wikifolio builder gets no wage, and can’t get fired, but it’s possible to do well enough to quit the day job. It’s been known to happen…
That discussion is for another day — stay tuned to the blog for wise words from the unlikely characters who’ve won big. With tips thrown in. For now, we can say that the wikifolio.com concept is another example of the sharing economy in positive action. Let it thrive!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Of bicycles, horses and dodgy ticket machines](https://pioneers.io/bicycles-horses-and-dodgy-ticket-machines/)
**Published:** February 7, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Content:**
The first thing you notice is the number of bicycles. They’re everywhere. It’s quite hard to find a spot in Munich where you can’t see one. Right now, I’m working in a café just off the Isartorplatz, and I can see nine of them huddled around a tree. And just across the tram lines? There’s a bike shop.
We’re in town for [Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility/), which kicks off just across the river at Muffatwerk tomorrow, so transport — and the cities of the future — are on everyone’s mind this week. But, having travelled the relatively short distance from our Vienna base, it’s also striking how different the cities of today are.
Cycles are a rare sight in Vienna, at least in the winter time. Yet here in Bavaria, just one country across from Austria, they’re being pedalled about town with gusto. And the odd spot of head-shaking, bell-tinkling fury, each time yet another clueless tourist saunters along on the bikes-only half of the pavement.
Cycling may seem a low-tech topic to discuss in the hours before our event speakers explore deep tech issues like artificial intelligence, smart traffic management and autonomous driving. But the fact is, it’s all inter-related. You can’t ignore a city’s existing transport culture when you’re thinking about its transport future. Ditto its infrastructure.
A bike, after all, is an elegant solution to city transport, and has long been so. Cities like Munich or Amsterdam, who have known this for decades, might be expected to be far more open-minded to concepts like car-sharing. Because they’re already less sold on the one-person, one-car culture than other places. The concept of a vehicle (possibly shared) as a weekend plaything should catch on far easier in these places than in, say, the south-east of England.
German companies are among the most-forward thinking on the topic. Mobility.Pioneers speaker Holger Weiss, of German Autolabs, uses horses (!) as an illustration on how we should think about the way we use cars in the smarter, more efficient and less congested cities of the future.
“It could be that in certain countries or metropolitan areas of the future, private car ownership is simply not allowed anymore,” he says. “Or it might be allowed 40 miles out of the city and you use the car as a weekend entertainment, to go to the country. Like it is now for riding a horse.
“And that’s my analogy. People say ‘but people like driving cars!’ and I say, ‘Well, that’s fine, but people also like riding horses.’ But we don’t have these beautiful animals filling up our cities, do we?
“It’s called innovation evolution: if there’s no private car ownership then there will be shared systems.”
Which brings me to another Munich vignette from this morning. I saw a lady emerging from a church car park on Thierstrasse, in a vehicle proudly bearing the decal of Statt Auto, which claims a partnership with the local transport authority (MVG). Maybe my eyes are particularly open to car-sharing this week, but it was nice to get so timely a reminder of the concept’s growth. As for its genesis, the talk from Zipcar founder Robin Chase at Mobility.Pioneers tomorrow is likely to be highly enlightening.
But despite the bikes and the car-sharing, Munich, with its multi-storey shop-windows stuffed with Mercedes, not to mention BMW in its blood and Audi up the Autobahn in Ingolstadt, is very much motoring central. And yet, many of its citizens, like the proverbial horse owners, aren’t using cars as their go-to transport. This is the kind of blend of technology, efficiency and common-sense that all cities are going to need going forward.
Not that it’s invariably fun and games getting around Munich when you’re a first-time visitor. Buying a weekly city transport pass from the machines at the Hackerbrücke S-Bahn station yesterday evening was far from easy. I had to join forces with two equally confused recent bus arrivals — one from Romania and one from Macedonia — to try and figure out the multitude of ticket options, zones and routes. Unable to convince the machine to sell us a ticket for Zone 1 only, and with no human official in sight to ask for help, we eventually gave up and rode ticketless.
Next time I’m going to think like a Münchner. I’m going to bring my bicycle.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Dinosaur Protein, Anyone?](https://pioneers.io/fake-food-just-got-fun/)
**Published:** April 12, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Geltor co-founder Alex Lorestani will share the latest in animal-free food tech at Pioneers Festival 2017. And how the future can draw on the very distant past...
**Content:**
Is it possible that one day, in some enlightened future, we’re going to look back on our animal-slaying days and shake our heads in amazement? Will future societies think of the humans of 2017 as barely-evolved cave people, who routinely slaughtered and plundered their fellow animals for their dinner table and more?
Look at some of the breakthroughs going on in the food industry right now, and there’s a certain inevitability about that vision of the future. Trust me: I’m speaking as a hardened steak-lover with plans to tuck into an ethically questionable tuna pizza at lunch time!
On the subject of speaking, one of our Pioneers Festival 2017 speakers is one of those forward-thinking people building the animal-independent world of tomorrow. Alex Lorestani, co-founder of [Geltor](http://geltor.com/), will be up on stage at Vienna’s Hofburg to talk about his company’s remarkable progress in developing sustainable proteins.
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
“Our process is completely insensitive to whether or not the animal is alive and roaming the earth, because there are zero animal inputs in our process. All we need is a sequence, and that’s it,” says Alex, whose company last year showed off ‘[Mastodon Gelatin](https://www.facebook.com/geltorinc/posts/1671137223128221:0)’ candy as a proof of how powerful DNA synthesis can be.
Geltor, which Lorestani and co-founder Nick Ouzounov set up as a response to their “sense of quiet outrage” about the lack of progress in such a critical area, has made significant breakthroughs on producing artificial collagens (the building blocks of gelatin) at scale.
“Making a little bit of very expensive protein isn’t that hard,” says Alex. “What’s hard is making tonnes of the stuff at a competitive price point.”
Now, thanks to more cost-effective DNA sequence printing technology and the “millions of litres of fermentation capacity” that’s a legacy of the biofuels industry, Lorestani believes that competitive price point is now here. And it could be within sight for a range of other animal-free substitute foods too.
If technology can take us to a place where we can have a steak or tuna experience that doesn’t evolve an animal, shouldn’t we be all for it? Not just because of the nagging feeling that slaughtering our fellow creatures doesn’t sit well with our level of technical prowess. Not just because it’s time we stopped pillaging endangered species once and for all. And not just because fewer cows mean fewer emissions and more forests.
All those reasons are excellent ones, but more than anything, the advantages of a sustainable food supply are gigantic. That’s why innovators like Lorestani get invited to Pioneers Festival. And you’ll meet plenty more of them in Vienna!
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Corporate Tech Wish List #2: Bring European SME Banking Back To Europe!](https://pioneers.io/corporate-tech-wish-list-2-bring-european-sme-banking-back-europe/)
**Published:** April 12, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Raiffeisen Bank Innovation Manager Maximilian Schausberger says he'd like to see more European SME banking solutions
**Content:**
Considering that a vast swathe of Europe’s economic wealth is created by the SME sector, isn’t it something of a surprise that there’s no go-to SME Banking platform for the continent?
In our latest answer to the ‘what corporates want’ question, Maximilian Schausberger, an Innovation Manager responsible for the set-up of Raiffeisen Accelerator at Austrian banking giant Raiffeisen Bank International, points to this as a clear gap in the future tech market.
That need makes perfect sense, given that Raiffeisen is a player in over a dozen European countries. And with the Europe-wide PSD2 banking regulations set to take hold next year, there isn’t a better time for a Fintech innovator to come up with something that can fit into what will be a more transparent, more open banking system.
“It’s going to be all about banking being more practical and easy to use for the customer. And it’s going to be easier for them to change banks, of course! So we need to start from where the customer is right now, not where our legacy systems are.”
“There are so many opportunities for startups to really find their niche. In SME Banking, for example, this could be in digital cash management, lending and investment or e-commerce solutions just to name a few. Soon, we will be competing with the big technology providers such as Apple, Google or Samsung. I’d wish for a strong European counterpart to these mainly US-based platforms.”
“Europe has a lot of room for improvement in terms of having its own solutions and own standards.”
But while such an European platform would be a big advantage for the European banking industry as a whole, Raiffeisen is also pro-actively looking for startups that will help to keep the competitive edge in the choppy waters of our times.
“The advancement of technology is challenging us, but so are the regulations that are forcing us to open up towards innovative third party technology providers. Our response – and it’s a board-level strategic decision – is that we don’t just want to keep to the minimum level of what the regulation is asking for but actively enable cooperations.
“We want to seek co-operation with the so called ‘challengers’. The magic word is co-opetition, meaning a change of our view from competition to potential cooperation. It’s a word that’s flying around our office a lot, and we’re going for those more and more.”
But why work with startups, instead of working on new ideas internally?
“Because, especially in larger organizations, it helps from time to time to get a critical outside view. Not only on how to come up with creative ways to solve a certain problem, but also on how to implement new products and processes in the existing framework. Plus, sometimes it is simply also more time and cost-efficient to work with external experts on a certain project than build the knowledge and expertise in-house.”
“We look for startups that not only have the areas of expertise needed, along with a good idea, but also with the open-mindedness to be willing to co-operate with the incumbents. The opportunity for startups is in leveraging the incumbents’ assets in a smart way. The ones that recognise this opportunity are the ones who will win in the long run.”
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Fund Twenty8 closes: now watch its tech get to work](https://pioneers.io/fund-twenty8-closes-now-watch-its-tech-get-work/)
**Published:** April 12, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Fresh UK startup fund gets set to unleash tech-driven investment on the startup world!
**Content:**
Hands up if you like the idea of investing your money in deserving startups that promise to change the world for the better? In other words, ploughing some spare cash into high-risk, high-reward opportunities. Is that you?
If so, then you may have already come up against the disappointing truth that investing in startups is often just another way for the rich to get richer. In short, That’s because you generally need a five-figure amount to buy yourself any sort of stake in a lot of nascent firms.
And you also need a lot of spare time to do due diligence on these companies. It doesn’t typically suit someone with a day job. After all, it’s asking a lot to go home at night and do more staring-at-a-screen. Having a trust fund helps with this stuff.
But yesterday, a bright new concept that aims to partially address these issues announced that it was good to go. SyndicateRoom’s [Fund Twenty8](https://www.syndicateroom.com/fund-twenty8) closed with £4.5m in the bank, with 233 investors jumping on this novel opportunity. With a promise to invest smartly (via some nifty tech) in at least 28 of the next startups to seek funding on the SyndicateRoom platform, it offers an enticing solution to the due diligence question.
Granted, you still needed a minimum of £10,000 to buy into the fund, which eagle-eyed readers will note happens to be a five-figure sum. But there are a couple of key points here. First, it’s the smallest five-figure sum there is. It’s also considerably lower than the five-figure sum you would usually need to get behind a standalone startup. Most importantly, it’s a five-figure sum that will be distributed to at least 28 opportunities. If your investment were evenly split then – presto! – you’ve bought into each startup at a rather accessible £357!
Okay, it’s not going to be evenly split. But I wanted to say ‘presto’ very badly. And the key takeaway remains: you’re investing in a lot of startups for not very much. Which, if your investment budget equals a large chunk of your life savings, is considerably better than ploughing all your money into one bright light.
We spoke to SyndicateRoom’s CEO and co-founder Goncalo de Vasconcelos for more on the genesis of the idea, why low-cost crowdfunding investment isn’t all that, and how technology is going to add some science to how the fund gets spent. Over to him to tell the story!
“Before SyndicateRoom happened, I was working with a lot of business angels and VC’s. And I noticed that companies raising funds in crowdfunding were in different sectors from those getting institutional investment.
“These startups were very consumer oriented. And that’s why professionals tend to avoid investing into those companies – they’re the ones that can’t protect themselves against competitors. There are some success stories of course, but they’re quite rare – it’s very easy to compete with another Mexican restaurant!
“On the other hand, life sciences and crowdfunding do not mix. Things like life sciences are not very sexy, but that doesn’t mean they’re not great investment opportunities.
“So, I could see all these really cool companies and great entrepreneurs that the professionals were investing in. And I thought, if you have individuals interested in investing online and you have companies being backed by professional investors who are still looking for more capital, then why don’t we just allow online investors to have access to the same opportunities as the professionals?”
Good question. Hence Goncalo and co-founder Tom Britton setting up SyndicateRoom in 2013. With individual startup investments possible from a relatively democratic £1000 – something thoroughly in keeping with a decreasingly exclusive investment world – the firm has grown way faster than he thought possible. And the volume of action and spread of opportunity on its platform (around 120 as of March) is exactly what led to the idea of Fund Twenty8 making sense.
“This is the first time to our knowledge that technology is really being used to drive investment decisions on an early stage fund,” continues Goncalo. “Which is very, very cool. It was developed by our tech team in Portugal, and here’s an example of how it works.
“Say there are three startup investment opportunities on our SyndicateRoom platform. The first doesn’t attract much interest, so the fund doesn’t deploy any capital there at all. Let’s say the second one has a normal amount of interest and hits the minimum target amount. The fund deploys investment by a factor of one. Now, if there’s quite a lot of investment going into the third opportunity, and it goes into overfunding, then the fund increases its allocation to that third opportunity as that investment interest materialises. It doesn’t kick anyone out but it keeps on increasing exposure to that deal. And it can do this because the fund has access to this data in real time.
“Thus you end up with a fund with a very diversified portfolio of at least 28 opportunities, but also with different exposure to different deals.”
So, while technology will guide the decision-making on fund allocation, the ultimate driving force is human interest in a certain opportunity. But, unlike a fund manager deciding what to do with your money, the human factor here is actually a crowd playing its own cards.
“Fund managers have an incentive to run very high risks,” says Goncalo. “If they lose, it’s your money and your problem, but if they win, they want to win big. That’s why most VC funds end up being negative. Our fund removes any conflict of interest, not only because it uses data from the platform but because it invests alongside our online investors, who are investing their own money. And most of them won’t even be aware that they actually influence the decision of the fund.”
Essentially, then, this is about a volume of people betting on a certain outcome with their own money. Which has more than an echo of the prediction markets about it. [As we’ve written before](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/trump-and-brexit-lessons-prediction-markets), the prediction markets model has a lot going for it – so there’s a lot to like about the concept. Not to put too fine a point on it, if you’re the guy without time to do your due diligence, hopefully you’re going to benefit from the fact that at least some of the crowd has done your homework for you!
The fund will be deployed over the coming months, and we’ll be watching how the tech performs with interest. Stay tuned for an update – and maybe next time round you’ll be putting some of your savings behind some deserving pioneers!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Solutions Aplenty at Alpine Tourism Hack](https://pioneers.io/solutions-aplenty-alpine-tourism-hack/)
**Published:** April 17, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Even in the magnificent surrounds of the Swiss Alps, there’s plenty of room for technology to enhance the proverbial landscape!
**Content:**
What springs to mind when you think about the glorious Swiss Alps? The old-school pleasures of stunning views and fresh mountain air, right? But even in this magnificent part of the world, there’s plenty of room for technology to enhance the proverbial landscape. As we’ve just discovered on the Pioneers Alpine Tourism Hack.
Ten startups descended on the world-famous town of St Moritz from 21-23 March, where they were charged with finding elegant, innovative technical advances for the tourism industry in the surrounding Südbunden region.
The hungry hackers, challenged with rapid prototyping and executing an idea in the space of 40 hours, had a choice of three main focus areas on which to work. These were Gamification & New Media, Data Analytics and Chatbots.
Black Cell came up with the winning solution in Gamification & New Media. Based on the idea of giving people an emotional tie to the target region, their ‘Engadin VR’ creation affords the user virtual, interactive, competitive experiences of the sports for which Engadin is know, as well as a life-like immersion in the Swiss scenery. This was then closely tied to a booking system that would offer users the chance to arrange the real thing.
Conquerors of Data Analytics were Mammoth DB, who developed an exciting new customer profiling tool. Making use of data from hotel partners, as well as from the mountain railways and GPS, they built a tool that lets businesses gain an understanding of who their customers are and what they really want.
Winner in the Chatbot category was Craftworks, about whose experience you can read in their own blog post here. Make sure you click on the video of their ‘My Digital Concierge’ solution – not only is it an impressive piece of work in a short time frame, but the music is guaranteed to brighten your day!
“Overall, Pioneers’ Alpine Hack was a great experience for us,” said Natalie Korotaeva of Craftworks. “We’re confident it was great for the other nine teams as well. As a startup, you should be an expert in fast-paced problem-solving. Thanks to all the participants, partners and the Pioneers team!”
Stay tuned to the Pioneers Discover channels for news of our next Hackathon. We’re on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/PioneersDiscover/) and [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/start/join?trk=login_reg_redirect&session_redirect=%2Fcompany-beta%2F10940219%2F).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Launch. Fly. Land. Repeat!](https://pioneers.io/launch-fly-land-repeat/)
**Published:** April 19, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** The man at the center of one of the biggest drone news stories of the year will be speaking at Pioneers Festival 2017. Here's why Ran Krauss made the headlines...
**Content:**
This March Ran Krauss and his Airobotics crew made aviation history. By earning a commercial licence for their fully automated Optimus drone to fly without an operator, they became the first to gain such permission, anywhere. A big moment.
But what’s even more exciting than making history? Building the future, of course! And it’s Ran’s expert perspective on a world in which drones save lives that made us invite him to speak at Pioneers Festival 2017. As he puts it, “We’re on the brink of the unmanned aerial revolution.”
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
A serial entrepreneur based in Israel, Krauss has been rewarded for tackling the big players in his field, comparing his firm to ‘wild horses’ in comparison to the likes of Lockheed Martin. Nor is he afraid to talk about the problems, obstacles or drawbacks with drone technology. These are just the traits that will have people making a beeline (or should that be droneline?) for his talk come June.
With the Optimus ‘drone-in-a-box’ now in legal, commercial flight in Israel, Ran’s thoughts on the next phases of this aerial revolution are enlightening.
“We see drones fusing into our future in three steps,” he says. “First, deploying our systems in safer, unpopulated environments such as seaports, mines, refineries and fabrication facilities.
“The second step is to use them in cities. At first that would most likely be around emergency response, where the risk to reward ratio is very low. Getting a defibrillator to a person in a couple of minutes could be life-saving.”
The potential to save lives by dispatching vital medical equipment (or even organs) in traffic-hoppingly quick time is one of the most important arguments for drone technology. And, rightly, this should have priority over pizza delivery. But in time, Ran sees them permeating normal life too.
“The final step is everyday commercial use,” he says. And that doesn’t just mean getting your dinner delivered. “You could come to one of our boxes, swipe your credit card, and let the drone take your house key to your kid who has locked himself outside.”
As for making that future a reality, Airobotics is in prime position. But as Ran likes to point out, anybody has a chance to change the world with technology. Aviation itself offers one of the best examples of that.
“The Wright brothers competed against an experienced, well-funded group of PhD’s,” he says. “But we all know who won that race: the guys from the bicycle store.”
At Pioneers we know there are plenty more Wright brothers out there, and Ran Krauss is just one of the many unlikely future tech heroes you’ll bump into at Pioneers Festival 2017. So take a self-driving car, take a hyperloop or take a drone…but make sure you get yourself to Vienna!
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Language Barrier? What Language Barrier?](https://pioneers.io/babel-revisited/)
**Published:** April 24, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Unbabel has translation technology that's redefining possibilities for everything. Its co-founder Vasco Pedro will reveal all at Pioneers Festival 2017.
**Content:**
Technology might be hurtling along at breakneck speed, but giving it the ability to grasp the nuances of human language remains perhaps the ultimate challenge. Quality automated translation is something that’s very, very difficult to get right.
But technical innovators revel in a challenge, as we well know. And so it should come as no surprise that plenty of them are working with vigour to try and make that dream come true. One of those leading the race is Vasco Pedro, who heads up Unbabel and will be speaking at Pioneers Festival 2017.
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
Unbabel boasts a machine translation software that’s said to out-perform Google Translate, a service which itself took a dramatic turn for the better when it went down the artificial intelligence route late last year. And the fact that Google Ventures is among those to invest in Unbabel suggests that the claim may be more than just hype!
Nonetheless – and this is good news for translation professionals fearing imminent starvation – Unbabel doesn’t think the day when we can skip out the human element is coming any time soon. After all most wrong translations are defined by nothing more programmable than a native speaker’s ‘it just doesn’t sound right’ or the equally vague ‘we wouldn’t say it that way’. Native-speaker linguistic ability, picked up in those wildly receptive early years, is one of those mysteries of nature that machines can’t yet match.
Which is actually kind of cool. Technology is to be welcomed and encouraged, yes, but it’s equally nice to keep a few human things human. After all, we did spend millions of years getting this far!
So, yes, an Unbabel job is at first divided up into chunks and automatically translated. But after that, these chunks still go to freelance checkers before the whole project is delivered to an overall editor responsible for the final product. While Unbabel’s machine is as good as any going, the human remains at the helm.
Vasco believes that farming the whole job out to a single translator, in the time-honoured fashion, is both unscalable and inefficient. Machinery can now do much of the work. It just needs guidance at certain junctures along the way.
Unbabel is a service designed for professional business clients. Hence why it goes beyond the likes of Google Translate and includes some of the ‘memory’ features found in ‘traditional’ translation software. That means drawing on previous translations for a given client, so that brand and product terminology is consistent.
The potential for a system that can translate more words in less time, for less cost and without losing quality, is a pretty beguiling one for anybody from big business to startup. With a tool like this, you could be selling to Brazil within a week! Or Romania. Or Korea…
And Pioneers Festival 2017 will be full of tech like Vasco’s: tech that can make dreams come true. Whether you’re an investor looking for a hot AI startup, a business looking to boost your expansion or find an ace collaboration, Vienna on 1-2 June is the place to be!
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Powering the World Through Artificial Intelligence](https://pioneers.io/taking-ai-next-level/)
**Published:** April 26, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Artificial Intelligence has already touched our lives in a few areas, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Sentient is showing just how many industries AI can transform. Meet the man behind it, former Siri guru Babak Hodjat, at Pioneers Festival 2017.
**Content:**
Babak Hodjat stands ready for the artificial intelligence revolution. With large-scale AI finally on the brink of impacting our lives in a positive way, he believes it will drive the biggest change in our world since the internet. And it’s hard to disagree with the Pioneers Festival 2017 speaker on that score.
A serial entrepreneur whose natural language work evolved into Siri, Hodjat knows his stuff about the power of machines to affect nearly every industry. Just one of the things he’s exploring is the potential for fully-automated trading based on artificial intelligence, through his Sentient platform.
But, as he’ll be showing on stage at the Hofburg, Sentient’s work is about so much more than just trading. The company is looking to commerce, healthcare and even agriculture for applications for its tech.
Visitors to the Festival, will be treated to a live e-commerce demonstration from Babak, showing just what sort of power AI can wield in business. Think AI-powered digital marketing, AI personal shoppers that help customers find what they’re looking for in two or three clicks and website optimization on steriods.
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
But it’s the Sentient investment platform that best illustrates the technological concept – and what this company is capable of on a wider scale. It has attracted a great many column inches over the years, after all, and interest is ramping up ahead of its long-awaited launch to the public.
"Humans have biases and sensitivities, conscious and unconscious," says Hodjat of his fully AI trading system. "It’s well documented that we humans make mistakes. For me, it’s scarier to be relying on those human-based intuitions and justifications than relying on purely what the data and statistics are telling you."
But what makes Sentient’s system – which the company has only used internally so far – such an attractive one compared to the dozens of other AI startups out there? So attractive, in fact, that the Tata Group and Li Ka-shing have bought into it?
Primarily it’s that ‘evolutionary intelligence’ concept Sentient brings to the game. A technology that’s been around for a decade of largely secret training. And one led by a serious team that has all the biggest tech company names (you know the ones) on its collective CV.
Without going into too much detail, the system mirrors the Darwinian notion of ‘survival of the fittest’. Sentient even refers to its virtual traders – working through the power of thousands of distributed machines – as ‘genes’. And just as their good trading decisions get rewarded, allowed to ‘multiply’ and ultimately to trade live, those offering unprofitable logic or methodology get rooted out. The idea is a fascinating mix of the promise of technology and the uncompromising harshness of nature.
Another reason Sentient has attracted millions in funding is the fact that Babak, who has no less than 31 patents to his name is a smart guy whom you have to take seriously. And he’s just one of a host of other great technical minds you can connect with at Pioneers Festival 2017.
Sentient and its wise founder are unquestionably sitting at the cutting edge of the artificial intelligence revolution. What are they planning next, when will it happen and how will it work? You’ll learn a lot from Babak’s talk on stage, but you might learn even more if you manage to bump into him for a chat! Whether you’re a startup, corporate or investor, Pioneers Festival is all about opportunity. As long as you’re in the room, that is…
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Hi, How May I Help You?](https://pioneers.io/hi-how-may-i-help-you/)
**Published:** April 27, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Google Assistant has redefined the digital buddy. And, even better, technology like theirs is bringing 'natural language' back into our everyday lives.
**Content:**
When you look back over the history of human communication, there’s every reason to conclude that the last decade or so has been some kind of weird reversal. A reversal which, as you’ll see graphically illustrated in Behshad Behzadi’s talk at Pioneers Festival 2017, is coming to an end.
Let me explain. From cave-grunting to the rise of spoken language to the arrival of the telephone, the art of conversation grew steadily for millennia. We got pretty darn smart at talking. Writing developed in parallel, of course, from parchments and the printing press to word processors and then email. But, because it took longer and required more effort than opening your mouth, writing was really just for big ideas, love letters and legal documents.
Then, along came the mobile phone. And – irony! – we stopped talking.
Written communication suddenly became some kind of default, even when we didn’t need it. We texted people in the same room, we filled out irritating web forms where once we only had to make a quick call, we drowned in email chains and we began to fight with our partners via massive WhatsApp essays.
The mad thing – especially if you had big fingers – was that doing things this way often took orders of magnitude longer than it used to. We were spurning the beautiful, quick and effective thing called speech, that we’d taken millennia to develop. It didn’t make much sense.
But we’re already well into putting this silly phase behind us. Don’t ask me, ask Google! Ask Apple. Ask Amazon. ‘Natural language’ – aka just talking like normal human beings – speech interaction is all the rage right now. And if the tech giants are leading us back into talking, then it must mean people have the appetite to talk again. And if they don’t yet, they will soon!
One man at the centre of this journey is Behzadi, who leads the Zürich-based team that developed Google Assistant. He’ll be sharing his vision for the talk-based future of search at Pioneers Festival this year. And, naturally, he’ll do it through the medium of speech!
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
“We’re seeing an increasing move towards speech,” says Behshad. “It’s becoming more and more acceptable to talk to your phone! And when people talk, they use more natural language. Instead of typing ‘Auckland weather’ into a device, they want to ask ‘How’s the weather in Auckland today?’
“Now that the technology in this area has improved so much, natural language interaction is really growing. You don’t have to think so much about how to formulate your questions any more.”
And you really don’t. Google Assistant is smart! It broadens the definition of ‘search’ so wide that the word no longer suffices. It’s context-aware, it knows your world as opposed to just the world, and it can understand queries to do with chats you might be having. It can deal with double-searches (‘How tall is Khloe Kardashian’s husband?’) and give you a Bloody Mary recipe before dealing just fine with the query ‘Which Mary was Bloody Mary?’
Basically, Google Assistant does a remarkable job in being an ultra-organised ‘buddy’ that really knows you and your needs. The easy, natural interaction makes day-to-day life quicker and easier, which means we can get that thing we all want: time to focus on what’s really important!
And even when the assistant gets it wrong, you can correct it using natural language! In other words, thanks to people like Behshad, we’ve now arrived at a point where we can do something a lot more constructive than threaten to throw a stupid machine out of the window.
Behshad, naturally enough, is one of those people who isn’t shy about talking to his phone. You can be pretty sure he’ll be doing plenty of it when he shows off the best of Google Assistant on stage in Vienna, actually! But more than that, he’ll be one of many tech leaders revealing what’s coming next in their respective fields.
“This is not science fiction any more,” he says of natural human-machine interaction. “This is the future.”
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [City, Space and DNA Data: In focus at Pioneers Festival 2017](https://pioneers.io/city-space-and-connectivity-focus-pioneers-festival-2017/)
**Published:** May 1, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Introducing another three speakers you'll meet at Pioneers Festival 2017. And find out how their technology is pushing boundaries everywhere from commercial space flights to concrete!
**Content:**
In the world of tech innovation, standing still is going backwards. Thanks to pioneers everywhere, each area of our lives is enjoying big leaps of technology, finding new solutions and upgrading itself. As visitors to Pioneers Festival 2017 will find out, there’s incredible progress happening everywhere from your own city to microscopic DNA to outer space.
Even concrete, which you might think falls into the category of being something fairly, well, static, is getting its share of attention from tech visionaries. Anielle Guedes leads a global startup whose work centres on the Internet of Concrete. [Urban3D](http://www.urban3d.co/) is developing digital tools to completely rewire the construction industry through intelligent building materials.
To put it another way, the company tracks materials and projects with the laudable aim of reducing wastage and unforeseen costs. Want something more concrete (sorry…) on how Anielle’s tech actually works? Then get yourself a ticket to Pioneers Festival 2017 and watch her speaking live on stage at the Hofburg.
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
From concrete to cosmonauts (if you’ll allow for a spot of poetic licence), Richard Branson has gone on record as saying he’d like ‘hundreds of thousands of people to have had the chance to go into space’ by the end of this century. As we well know, Branson is the ultimate make-it-happen kind of guy, so one tends to take his ambitions seriously.
And that’s why we’ve got a speaker from Branson’s [Virgin Galactic](http://www.virgingalactic.com/) project coming to Pioneers Festival! A woman whose passion for space travel [drips from her every word](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu76wTJ1oc4), Beth will be in charge of training the very first group of commercial space travellers. And how soon? Well, Branson has said he wants the VSS Enterprise to make its first sub-orbital space flight before this year is out…
And yes, he did say ‘hundreds of thousands’! In other words, he doesn’t see space travel as an exclusive, exorbitantly-priced bit of fun in the long term. So, even if you’re not a millionaire, you could be a passenger astronaut sooner than you think. In which case Pioneers Festival might not be the only time you run into Beth Moses!
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
While space is the ultimate example of ‘thinking big’, future tech is equally alive with possibility on the microscopic scale. Plenty of exciting researchers are working hard to push boundaries in the tiny world of DNA, including our Pioneers Festival 2017 speaker Hyunjun Park.
Park is the CEO and co-founder of [Catalog](https://catalogdna.com/), a company with a mission to encode the world’s digital information into DNA. The San Francisco based firm sees the huge data centers of today shrinking in a big way – in fact they believe the data center of the future will fit into the palm of your hand!
These three talks, and the diversity of topics they cover, are a great sample of the variety you can look forward to at Pioneers Festival 2017. Whatever your field, you’re going to find plenty of tech to make you smile in Vienna!
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Your Health Takes Center Stage At Pioneers Festival 2017](https://pioneers.io/new-perspectives-your-health/)
**Published:** May 8, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Rachel Haurwitz and Harry Gandhi are changing health with remarkable new technologies. Which is exactly the reason we've invited them to speak on the Arena Stage at Pioneers Festival 2017. Introducing Medella's smart contact lens and Caribou's incredible gene editing possibilities.
**Content:**
Flying cars are fascinating. Blockchain is brilliant. Drones are delicious. But all of this exciting technology is worthless if we’re too sick to care about it, right?
The efforts being made in health tech represent the most important innovation work of all. Everything we can achieve and enjoy begins with a healthy body. It’s our most essential human need. And that’s why we’ve made sure some remarkable people from this field will be speaking at Pioneers Festival 2017. People like Rachel Haurwitz and Harry Gandhi.
Haurwitz is doing positive gene editing work that’s poised to make some of the biggest breakthroughs in medical history. Maker of many headlines already, she’ll be presenting the latest possibilities on stage in Vienna. Authoritative and knowledgeable, she’ll speak with the quiet, no-nonsense sense of purpose that’s the mark of a true scientist.
Her work with her company, Caribou, centres on the use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology. While the name may sound complicated enough to send you running, the basics aren’t too difficult. ‘Editing’ says it all: It’s the genetic equivalent of cutting and pasting within a document on your word processor.
What does all this mean for you and me? Oh, just a few life-changing possibilities on the disease and mutation prevention front! Not only that: CRISPR-Cas9 can also give us a healthier, more sustainable food supply. While her team works towards human applications in the coming years, they are already putting the tech to real-world use for plants and animals. And they’re doing it in partnership with major corporate partners in DuPont Pioneer and Genus respectively.
“We’re breeding animals that are healthier, and improving their wellbeing,” says Haurwitz. “This is the side that excites me most personally because it’s incredibly exciting and hasn’t been done before. With Genus we’re working on breeding pigs resistant to PRRSv. This is a nasty sickness that makes pigs too sick for food and sees them getting slaughtered needlessly. Farmers in the US are losing millions of dollars because of it.”
As for plants, Haurwitz believes CRISPR-Cas9 will be one of the keys in ensuring the globe’s ever-growing population has access to the proteins it needs. And not only that – the food’s she is working on with DuPont Pioneer is going to taste better too!
“Have you ever bitten into a tomato and been incredibly disappointed?” she asks. “We’ve selected away flavour and other characteristics that make food interesting. Now, we’re not just making hardier plants with improved drought tolerance and disease resistance, but also using gene editing to correct what humans have previously done to them.”
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
Remember Pioneers Festival 2016, when Dr Ben Hwang introduced the tiny Profusa biosensor? A couple of months ago at Graz University, that little ‘smart gel’ went into clinical use in Europe. This time around we’re giving another biosensor innovator the chance to stuff that could hit the market soon. Namely Medella founder Harry Gandhi, who will demonstrate his company’s glucose-measuring contact lens.
The move towards preventative healthcare is gathering momentum, as technology begins to expose the flaws in the way we currently do things. Gandhi’s a firm believer that taking personal control is the way forward.
“We live in this reactive model of care,” he says. “You go to a doctor only when things go wrong. Preventative medicine means having the data at your fingertips to know what might or might not go wrong, and be able to avoid that symptom.
“But there is a data collection problem. Putting a phone next to your bed to measure sleep, or measuring how many steps you walk, just doesn’t cut it. High quality, clinically valid data that tells a story about our health is very important.”
Medella’s smart contact lens looks set to be one of the solutions. It’s a contact lens in the familiar, vision-correcting sense of the word, but it offers so much more. Namely measurement of tear-based biomarkers – notably glucose.
“Measuring glucose levels rising or dropping is extremely crucial because you can avoid for example the onset of diabetes, avoid strokes and avoid hypoglycemic attacks,” says Gandhi. “It can allow you to avoid the onset of other diseases.”
Harry’s talk at Pioneers Festival 2017 promises to be a broad education into the issues facing preventative healthcare, including his passionate take on the conflicts of interest and incentives in our existing systems. Then, as well as demonstrating his own product live on stage, he’ll give an overview of how a variety of innovations can work together to help make us healthier, live longer and live better.
Long live the health tech pioneers!
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [How We Went Online Dating to Create Match & Meet](https://pioneers.io/how-we-went-online-dating-create-pioneers-match-meet/)
**Published:** May 11, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Finding the right investor, corporate partner or startup at a big event can be tough. Likewise for your perfect dating match. But it turns out the same tech can solve both problems...
**Content:**
If you want to get good at online dating, doesn’t it make rather a lot of sense to set up a fake profile as a member the opposite sex? It’s got to be an eye-opener, surely, to see what your competition is doing. Especially eye-opening (hint: expect a lot of graphic anatomy lessons) if you’re male.
Almost three years ago, we at Pioneers tried out the fake-profile thing. But it wasn’t exactly about landing a ton of dates. It was about developing a red-hot match-making algorithm for our events.
We had a particular problem we wanted to solve. “Pioneers – especially the co-founders – had always been great at connecting the right people with each other,” says former project member Christoph Schnedlitz. “But it was usually done the old-fashioned way. We wanted to take this to the next level with an automated system in time for Pioneers Festival 2015. After all, we did have a lot of data, particularly for startups.”
In pursuit of a digital tool that would ensure investors would meet startups that ticked their boxes (and vice versa), we realised that dating sites would be our best guide. OkCupid were setting trends with their scientific match-making system, made famous by [the guy who hacked it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJod9kRYyao) to make himself top match with thousands of women.
OkCupid was based on multiple choice questions. And it wasn’t just about how you answered them – it was about how you wanted your *date* to answer them too. And there was also a clever element of weighting to unravel. And so we took a closer look at it, making a few fictional profiles along the way. And then we got those profiles talking to each other…so to speak.
“I answered questions on both sides, and saw how the match was calculated,” recalls Christoph. “I’d change a few things and then see how that affected the match percentage. I’d find that some questions counted for ten times as much as others, depending on whether you said a question was very important to you. When it’s really important to you it has to have more weight in the match percentage. So we reverse-engineered how they calculated a match percentage.”
Then, it was a question of trying to apply some of those guiding principles to the system we were developing at Pioneers. After all, an innovation networking event offers plenty of parallels to dating.
“It was much the same, except with different questions. We just had to replace ‘Do you like long walks on the beach?’ with ‘do you want to bend over backwards to get seed funding?’!
“In many ways our investors replaced the women on a dating site. And the startups were more like the guys, in the sense that there were more of them and they were the ones sending most messages. And it’s the same dynamic at an event, where we would always have more startups than investors.
“We had to define what factors best determined compatibility between startups and investors. What’s the important thing that they want from each other? Startups are easy – they want money – and ‘smart money’ if possible. With investors, they might want startups with a certain ticket size. Or just startups in the health sector, for example. Geographic location is very important for some investors, especially angels.
“We had to define how important questions about geography, ticket size and so on should be in determining the match. We had to make sure the system asked the right questions, and that it would provide the right kind of answers to choose from.”
Finally we came up with 12 criteria, built our ‘innovation dating’ algorithm, and Match & Meet was born in time for Pioneers Festival 2015. That year attendees received a simple PDF shortlist of people they absolutely had to sit down with at the Hofburg. The feedback was overwhelming.
“We had people asking if we could read their minds! Some said, ‘Hey, I prepared for this event. I went through the list of investors and I identified the ones I wanted to talk to. I’d picked six or seven – and all five you sent me were on my list!’
“Investors were saying, ‘I thought I knew all the startups in my region, but you sent me a couple I didn’t know. And they were very interesting!”
But this was only the beginning for Match & Meet. Last year, the technology took a giant leap forward. No more PDF: a dynamic, mobile-friendly web tool joined the party. Not only did Match & Meet expand its database to begin matching corporates and startups, but it was also able to assign meeting slots and venues for matched parties.
“That was a big improvement. It was a hassle for matches to figure out when and how to meet, and automating that process was a great thing. No other event has anything nearly as useful. The only problem we had was that we ran out of tables for all the meetings people wanted!”
For 2017, Pioneers guests can expect an even better matching service – one that has been further fine-tuned at Mobility.Pioneers and Fintech.Pioneers earlier this year. As usual, it will only go live in the last few days before the festival, when attendee information is final, but you can get an overview [here](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/match-meet/).
“Finding the right person and actually meeting them has never been easier,” says Pioneers CEO Oliver Csendes. “We really take care of all the work, so you can just focus on the networking.”
Algorithms aside, you’re probably wondering if we learned anything fun on our travels around OkCupid. Oh, that we did.
“For one thing, I learned that men are bastards,” chuckles Christoph. “The way they approached my fake woman profile…let’s just say I learned a lot about how not to treat women. The smell of desperation and misogyny out there is quite something.
“There were some creative pickup lines. One guy asked my fake girl if she grew up on a chicken farm. Think of another word for ‘rooster’ and you can imagine where that one went…”
But despite the alarming references and even more alarming photography we received, he reckons a fake profile is a great exercise. Even if you’re not trying to build an algorithm.
“I think every guy should try it for a while. It’s the best way to learn how not to approach women!”
And which of the 12 criteria get the most weight on our Match & Meet system? Ah, that would be telling! We can’t reveal our secret sauce, but we can certainly tell you that it works. So come to Vienna and try it for yourself. And get set to meet the innovation partner of your dreams…
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [A Giant Leap For Virtual Reality?](https://pioneers.io/giant-leap-virtual-reality/)
**Published:** May 15, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** “A sense of connection with your body is one of the big things missing from the virtual world,” says Leap Motion CEO and Pioneers Festival 2017 speaker Michael Buckwald. “Every other mechanism besides hands is trying - and failing - to emulate them."
**Content:**
“Our hands our capable of unfathomable complexity, in a way that’s just so natural and so part of being human.”
So says Leap Motion CEO and Pioneers Festival 2017 speaker Michael Buckwald. Hardly a controversial statement, of course. And yet it’s all too easy to forget the power of our hands. Opposable thumbs are a massive part of the reason we dominate the planet today.
As Michael will explain on stage at the Hofburg, forgetting the power of our hands is exactly what we’ve done in the brave new world of virtual reality. Leap Motion seeks to redress that by bringing them into VR experiences. And with such technology rather hard to do justice in words, they’ll also be allowing Pioneers Festival visitors to try it out for themselves.
“A sense of connection with your body is one of the big things missing from the virtual world,” says Michael. “Every other mechanism besides hands is trying – and failing – to emulate them.
“Right now VR, and possibly AR, both have fundamental technological things missing that are part of the experience. Emotional things that have to exist for them to be massively disruptive mainstream products.”
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
What Leap Motion are doing is an exciting technological step, to be sure. But where does it apply to everyday life? Rest assured, this isn’t just something for gamers. Michael sees it ultimately forming the basis of a completely new, less limiting, non-binary way we’ll give technology our input.
“Over the last 30 years, we’ve seen the power of computing increase by almost unfathomable orders of magnitude. Yet input has progressed in a much more shallow way. We’ve gone through essentially binary things like a card you punch or don’t punch, to a keyboard you press or don’t press, to a mouse you click or don’t click, and a touchscreen you touch or don’t touch. It’s all very shallow and simple.
“I see our technology having applications not only for games, but for the primary input for the future of these devices.”
And that’s just on the consumer side. This writer likes the idea of using his hands on some kind of virtual keyboard. Presumably its non-physical nature might mean larger keys, and therefore fewer typos. On the subject of tiny buttons, Michael thinks our interaction with things like phones could change dramatically with the new possibilities he’s brought to the virtual horizon.
“As long as our input with tech is just ‘yes or no’ then we will try to make it small and disconnected. But when you open up opportunities for radically new experiences, people will be happy to use them in ergonomic ways similar to how we interact with the real world around us thousands of times a day – with our hands and fingers.”
What form this might take is tough to predict at this stage, but that’s exactly where Pioneers Festival gets you thinking. And, as you’ll learn in Michael’s talk, there’s further potential in education.
When a child learns to catch a ball, they don’t know the equation behind the physics of the ball’s arc. And yet the skill stays with them for life. This innate predisposition to learn in 3D, as opposed to our tried-and-failed paper or screen methods, is something Leap Motion can explore. Whether it’s elementary scholars experiencing and manipulating a historical battlefield, tertiary students diving right into quantum particles or a trainee doctor exploring a human body, experiencing things in three dimensions taps into our most fundamental intuitive learning abilities.
“The whole way people learn changes massively in this new world,” says Michael. “We’re 3D, our world is 3D and the way we think is 3D. But right now the way we are being made to look at the world is 2D! And that doesn’t make sense.”
To hear much more about how Michael intends to start fixing that, hear about further applications in health and industry, and experience his work for yourself, make sure you’re at the Hofburg in a couple of weeks!
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/tickets/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [This Man Can Hack Your Phone](https://pioneers.io/man-can-hack-your-phone/)
**Published:** May 18, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Ralph Echemendia, aka 'The Ethical Hacker', will tackle cybersecurity on stage at Pioneers'17. He'll show just how easy it is to break into a mobile. But don't worry...he'll also be providing the latest solutions!
**Content:**
Of all the speakers who’ll grace the stage at Pioneers’17, Ralph Echemendia probably needs the least introduction. Unless, of course, you only know him by his ‘Ethical Hacker’ moniker. Either way, though, this guy absolutely oozes laid-back coolness. But don’t be fooled: Ralph’s on a serious tech mission.
Born in Cuba, Ralph “stumbled across the hacking subculture and that led to a career.” He’s now been in the cybersecurity game for 25 years. And while that might conjure up images of hermits in basements, the truth is a lot more glamorous. His specialist entertainment industry skills have been called upon by the likes of Bob Marley’s family and the makers of the Snowden film. No wonder he pulls off a bowler hat so well.
Now, though, his focus is on protecting consumers like you and me from the dangers we typically aren’t even aware of. He’ll be demonstrating those threats in no uncertain terms when he ‘live hacks’ and audience member’s phone during his talk at Pioneers’17. Having given us all the fright of our lives by showing how easy hacking really is for someone who knows the ropes, he’ll then deliver the good news: his Seguru app.
Scheduled to go live in September, Seguru is ultimately about protecting us from ourselves. Because while we tend to be clear about the dangers of a masked man grabbing our phone in, say, Barcelona, we’re typically rather apathetic about the silent, digital threats out there.
“The real problem is not the phone, it’s the person,” Ralph says. “The individual user is the biggest threat and the weakest link. We solve that by informing the user what is happening.”
“People aren’t aware of what their phone is doing. Your entire life runs on tech. Your digital identity is tied to your physical life, but there’s still this ‘physical versus virtual’ misconception. People don’t believe that virtual is still real!”
Seguru, which is a clever combination of ‘seguro’ – that Spanish word for ‘safe’ – and, well, ‘guru’, aims to spell out the dangers in everyday language, thus making our ignorance a little less costly.
“It’s an app to increase security level, making you aware of things you might not be okay with. It’s like an assistant specifically looking out for you. We’re not big brother…we’re more like big brother’s keeper. Whether it’s at ISP level, SIM level or app level, anything leaving your phone we will alert you about.”
It sounds like a clear and total solution. And Ralph says Seguro will also be good at identifying any poisonous ‘fake news’ that might happen to be doing the rounds, or content that is specifically designed for information gathering purposes. Once the app knows your preferences, of course, it will then be able to automate actions such as blocking.
“This is about making an impact from a technical perspective,” Ralph continues. “It’s a cliche, but we’re making the world a better place. I’ve had too many calls from people saying they have been hacked, and I know what a negative impact it can have. Providing people with a solution to this doesn’t exist. And I’m not going to sell to companies. I am selling to you.”
That kind of thinking scores Ralph a great many points with us at Pioneers. We like tech that has a real and a positive impact on everyday lives. Not waking up to find that unspeakable acts have been committed in your digital name – or worse, that your credit card has been buying pizza somewhere you’ve never been – certainly falls into that category.
And the coolest thing of all about Seguru? That would have to be the fact that Damian Marley is one of the chief investors…
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Getting Intimate With Technology](https://pioneers.io/getting-intimate-technology/)
**Published:** May 23, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Real innovation has taken a more than enough time to reach the 'sextech' industry. But people like Pioneers'17 speaker Stephanie Alys are changing all of that. She tells us more about her unique (and crowdfunded) Crescendo vibrator...
**Content:**
There are times where a male company writer needs to avoid the temptation to get clever. Times when it’s better to focus on a clear and straight-faced appraisal of the topic at hand. A blog about the latest in vibrator technology? That is one such time.
So here goes…
The ‘sextech’ industry has long been right up there with bicycles and the zipper when it comes to a lack of innovation. But, with people [starting to marry robots](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/chinese-man-marries-robot-built-himself), it was only a matter of time before the march of technology caught up with the sphere of life most societies treat as the most private of them all.
And high time indeed. Private or otherwise, sex is something we give more attention than we care to admit – and also something intensely human. With [Pioneers’17](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers17#/) throwing the spotlight onto technology that enhances our human qualities, it would be remiss of us not to celebrate and encourage some of the strides in the area. Which is exactly what we’ll be doing in our Getting Intimate With Tech session on the Academy Stage on Friday 2 June.
[](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers17#/)
Sex toy innovator Stephanie Alys is one of four female innovators featuring in the session. Her official job title at MysteryVibe? Probably as cool as it gets…although Chief Pleasure Officer must surely have raised an eyebrow or three over at Companies House!
MysteryVibe is the creator of the Crescendo toy. But why is it cool and innovative, I hear you ask? Because it bends any way you want it to – yet still has the ability to dance and buzz to your preferred beat.
“Crescendo is the only toy that can be bent to adapt to any body shape and reach any part of the body,” says Stephanie. “This is truly unique technology and we have a patent pending for it. It’s also the only toy to have six individually programmable motors allowing users to create and experience any vibration pattern they desire.”
It might be a surprise to learn that this is actually something new. It is, after all, 2017! We weren’t kidding when we said sextech has been a bit slow to get with the innovation program. But also, says Stephanie, the technical challenge was tougher than you might think.
“A lot of companies have tried to make flexible vibrators with limited success. The biggest challenge in creating something flexible is long term durability. It took two years of iterations and highly specialised custom manufacturing to build a product that can bend and hold its shape after thousands of uses, yet still not lose its rigidity or break.”
The vibrator is ultimately a victory for collaboration. “It’s the first to be designed by experts with experience in sex (Durex), luxury (Aston Martin, Bentley), technology (Nokia, Sharp, Google) and Brand (BBC, MTV, Vogue),” says Stephanie of her impressive list of partners in the project.
It’s hard to imagine some of these companies getting involved with a project like this in the past (though Durex probably had a good brand fit from its conception), but, like we said, times have begun to change. Stephanie agrees on that score.
“Innovation has been slow in sextech. A number of technological, economic and societal barriers exist which have, for a long time, been difficult to overcome. But it’s definitely changing.”
What better proof of that than the fact that Crescendo got its first lift from crowdfunding? The public are more willing than ever to openly support this kind of technology. In fact something like this, a sexy and a brazen enhancer of everyday life to which we can all relate, is absolutely the perfect product for successful crowd backing. Vibrators are always likely to beat Blockchain apps when it comes to Kickstarter (or in this case, [Born.com](http://https://born.com/)), aren’t they?
“People are always curious about new tech on crowdfunding and if that involves sex, then the excitement multiplies for sure. Crescendo did stand out during the campaign, appealed to a huge audience of people and ended up getting backers from over 50 countries.”
So is all the news good? Well, it’s hard to find a downside for technology that enhances the general mood. That said, Stephanie believes there’s a limit to the role tech should play in sex.
“Technology should be an enabler, not the centerpiece,” she says. “That’s why in everything we design, we focus on the user and their pleasure. We believe that the best tech works subtly in the background to bring pleasure without getting in the way.”
And if you’re reading this and thinking ‘great, now I’m completely redundant’, fear not! Crescendo’s long-range remote control functionality via the phone app is coming soon…
And before I make any tempting innuendos, I’m going to stop right there! See you at the Hofburg!
[](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers17#/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Technology: What's The Endgame?](https://pioneers.io/technology-whats-endgame/)
**Published:** May 24, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Where exactly is technology going to take us in the long term? Does artificial intelligence mean existential dangers for humanity? What if synthetic biology gets out of control? Future of Life Institute co-founder and Skype Founding Engineer Jaan Tallinn will explore these tricky but critical topics at Pioneers'17.
**Content:**
Getting excited about future technology is a terribly easy thing to do. Especially when you’re surrounded by the latest innovations, as we are in the Pioneers office. And big events like [Pioneers’17](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers17), of course, are like our office run amok. For two days next week, the venerable windowpanes of the Hofburg will rattle with the buzz surrounding the latest in human progress.
[](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers17#/)
But while the thrill of the new is might be intoxicating, it should never stop us thinking about where all these novelties are taking us. We’re well aware of that. Which is why we’ve got experts like Jaan Tallinn speaking at Pioneers’17. The [Future of Life Institute](https://futureoflife.org/) co-founder, who was also a founding engineer at Skype, will discuss technology and existential risk. Will tech empower or embattle humanity? A most important question, we think you’ll agree!
If one thing’s a no-brainer, it’s the fact that we need to be thinking ahead, particular when it comes to controlling the ultimate possibilities (and dangers) of artificial intelligence. It’s something the Estonian thought leader is spending a growing share of his time doing. Powerful stuff is coming our way for sure. It’s how we manage it that’s critical.
“Smooth transitions are better than disruptive and catastrophic ones,” says Tallinn. “Even people who think AI is good no matter what seem to be acknowledging that disruptive changes are bad! So we definitely need to think about how to make upcoming changes smoother and more controllable.”
Worst case scenario for Tallinn, who counts Elon Musk among his fellow Future of Life Institute co-founders?
“Artificial intelligence is not just a tech, it’s a meta-tech,” he explains. “It’s a technology that can develop its own technology. And the AI concern I have comes when you remove humans from the research loop. In other words fully automated technological progress.”
It’s easy to agree that this sort of situation might not be optimal. Same goes for the idea of fully automated warfare, another undesirable Jaan also highlights. But it’s an awful lot harder to see how we’re going to avoid these worst-case scenarios in a free-for-all world economy with an unfortunately high proportion of destructive, malicious individuals. Do we need agreements like the Geneva Conventions or the Antarctic Treaty System to prevent things getting out of hand?
It’s a mite too soon for that, says Jaan. But we should definitely be getting things in place. “With the exception of military, where the time is ripe for international agreements, it seems too early to talk about concrete treaties when it comes to tech development.
“But I think it’s valuable to increase our ability to do that kind of co-ordination. If in five or ten years we learn that we really need to constrain certain scientific research avenues, it would be great if we had the ability to do so.
“We shouldn’t have more rules right now, but we should at least think about how we increase our ability to create more enforceable rules when it becomes clear that we need to do so.”
But it’s not just AI’s direct technical abilities that we be keeping in mind. It’s also the indirect impact we might face. The fear of rampant unemployment in the medium term has made Universal Basic Income a hot topic – and one which will get plenty of attention at Pioneers’17 – but Jaan believes we need to think outside of the box defined by our current system of people, cash and jobs.
“We need to go beyond economic interventions to ensure the long term prosperity of humanity, because there’s uncertainty about how long a human economy will last at all. AI goes way beyond economics. Anything that doesn’t need human assistance is not going to be participating in human economy.”
And lest we get hung up exclusively on AI, it’s worth remembering others areas of progress that’s basically good, but have the potential to get out of control.
“Synthetic biology is second on my list of potentially dangerous technology,” says Jaan. “I’m glad people are thinking more about bio-safety. I’m particularly interested in interventions that would help to stop, slow or reverse ageing…but the worst possible outcomes of biotech and AI tech are very similar. They would basically look to us humans like the planet becoming uninhabitable.”
One hopes it doesn’t come to that! And it really shouldn’t. As long as we keep a close eye on a couple of critical areas – and stand ready to limit things if we need to.
“With most of tech we don’t have to worry about in terms of anything catastrophic,” says Jaan.
And here’s to that!
[](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers17#/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Fighting Autism With Tech at Pioneers'17](https://pioneers.io/disney-meets-autism/)
**Published:** May 29, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Owen Suskind has fought regressive autism using Disney movies - and he’s winning the battle. His father Ron will share the new tech Owen inspired - and which he hopes will prove a winner for others with autism - at Pioneers’17 this week.
**Content:**
“If I told him to go outside and play ball, he’d have refused. But because his sidekick told him to put his jacket on and shoot hoops, he did it. And he came back with a big smile on his face.”
These happy words come from a mother using Ron Suskind’s Sidekicks app to help her connect with her autistic son. Would that be the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and *Life, Animated* author Ron Suskind? The man whose son Owen became a household name when the critically-acclaimed [documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n7fosK9UyY) of the same name released last year? The same Ron Suskind speaking at Pioneers’17? It would indeed.
Owen’s story, which led directly to the idea for the Sidekicks technology, takes some matching. There’s something powerfully human about the idea of an autistic child using Disney films to rebuild critical skills and start making sense of the world. Something hopeful and touching about a three-year-old who lost all speech to a cruel and sudden regressive autism regaining voice back four years later – with the help of Iago and Abu from Aladdin.
The Suskind family stumbled across the power of cartoon characters – rewound and replayed to a point most of us would consider *ad nauseum* – completely by accident. One day in the fall of 1997, Owen made an unexpected contribution to a family conversation around the kitchen table. “He doesn’t want to grow up, just like Peter Pan or Mowgli,” said the six-year-old, offering a spectacularly insightful explanation for his brother Walt’s sulky birthday behaviour. The kind of semantic construction his parents didn’t know he was capable of.
“It was as if a thunderbolt had passed through the kitchen,” Ron recalls.
That night, Owen had the first real conversation he’d had with his father in almost five years. But only because Ron hid under the bedsheets and spoke like the Iago parrot puppet he was holding up.
Sure, dad had to do his very best Gilbert Gottfried impression (after subsequent practice that would have made Malcolm Gladwell proud, his take is a very commendable one). And sure, his son had to bring out his Jafar voice to keep the conversation going. But what mattered was that they had found a way to talk.
That first little chat (about friendship, if you’re wondering) was a monumental turning point. What’s followed has been a gradual and ongoing piecing-together of Owen’s ability to communicate. Now, he can hold a robust conversation, and do it without any Disney puppets. In fact, he lives and works on his own. A positive and productive life beckons.
Now 26, Owen has developed a confidence that’s both charming and disarming. Speaking to a room full of people at Rennes University in France, he had these words to say of his remarkable progress: “When I look in the mirror I see a proud autistic man ready to build a future that is bright and full of wonder.”
But why did Disney, of all things, do the trick? Like so many autistic people, Owen felt left behind. He was acutely aware that he wasn’t like other people, and that he didn’t have friends. But therein lay his connection with the ‘sidekick’ characters in Disney’s animations. Characters like Rafiki and Zazu from *The Lion King*, and even Quasimodo’s gargoyles from *The Hunchback of Notre Dame*, which only came to life when the protagonist’s imagination willed them to do so.
These characters weren’t exactly outcasts, but they were distinctly second-fiddle. Their roles were supporting ones – and yet the tales would invariably be poorer without them. Often larger than life, vivid and unsubtle, yet frequently imparting wisdom their leads needed to hear, they were an inspiration for a kid like Owen. A kid who felt second-fiddle too, but who knew he had a voice worth hearing.
Owen desperately wanted to have his own part to play. And the Disney sidekicks – with a message of strength he could watch over and over – showed him that anybody could find their place in the world. That’s why these colourful creations spoke to him better than any human – even his own parents – could do. They became his building blocks for cognition and communication.
Hence the rather straightforward choice of name for the company his father has founded to help other autistic kids. It’s perfect for a tool that also uses the power of non-human interaction to ultimately connect them better with the human world – and their parents in particular.
As meaningful, powerful technology that tackles a real human need goes, Ron Suskind’s Sidekicks app is right up there at the top of the list. After all, millions of people around the world are touched by autism. If this simple app could make a difference for even a fraction of them, then it’s tech worth celebrating. Which makes Ron (and Owen, whose breakthrough this ultimately was) the kind of pioneers we like best.
Meet Sidekicks and hear its creator Ron Suskind at Pioneers’17 later this week: it’s not too late!
[](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pioneers17-tickets-2859937550)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Magic Meets Tech at Pioneers '17](https://pioneers.io/magic-adam-cheyer/)
**Published:** May 26, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Back in the summer of 2012, serial entrepreneur Adam Cheyer ran into the remarkable Till Haunschild at Pioneers Festival. Now the duo is back at the Hofburg, teaming up for what might prove to be two of the most memorable talks at Pioneers’17. Because there’s going to magic in the air. Literally.
**Content:**
Back in the summer of 2012, serial entrepreneur Adam Cheyer ran into the remarkable Till Haunschild at Pioneers Festival. While the American creator of Siri and the breathtakingly good magician might not, at first glance, have had much in common, it turns out that they had quite some snynergy. Adam, after all, is a hobby magician. One of his lesser-known businesses, in fact, is [working the party circuit with his young son Noah](http://magic-parties.com/site/home). Till, meanwhile, has a wealth of founder experience too.
Now the duo is back at the Hofburg, teaming up for what might prove to be two of the most memorable talks at Pioneers’17. Because there’s going to magic in the air. Literally.
[](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers17#/)
Adam, who has moved on from Apple and is now working on a next-generation assistant named Viv, doesn’t want to give away too many spoilers about the special way the pair will present practical entrepreneurial lessons on the Academy Stage on Friday afternoon. Nor about the thought-provoking future tech show they’ll give on the Arena Stage that evening, just before the Pioneers Challenge winner is announced. And rightly so: this is something they’ve never tried on a big stage before. It’s basically a premiere.
But, judging by the trace of anticipation in his voice when he spoke to us, it’s definitely one not to be missed. “We’re going to deliver our message and lessons in a very unique way. It’ll be entertaining and…magical. Entrepreneurship, after all, is very much like magic. What any entrepreneur does is take the impossible and make it real.
“On Friday we’re going to go a little way back into the history of human augmentation, with one particular pioneer who created some of the most important technologies of our time. But again, we’ll do it in a way that’s magically entertaining. We’ll have stage magic, you will see things you’ve never seen before and technologies being used in ways that warp your perception of reality.
We’ll close with a call to action that every pioneer can think about as they work on their tech. There’s going to be a lesson that they can take with them about how to do their work in a way that will be important for humanity. A lot of technology, a lot of magic, with a little bit of history and a takeaway.”
But just why has Adam chosen Pioneers’17 to try such a novel presentation for the first time? Because this old friend of ours – multiple event attendee, experienced speaker and former Pioneers Challenge judge – simply loves what the annual innovation festival in Vienna has done for his own career.
“It’s my favourite conference ever. It fundamentally changed my career and gave me something I really needed. It was emotionally hard for me when I left Apple, but then I went to Pioneers and being able to interact with so many young entrepreneurs, with their energy and who were so desperate to succeed and learn. There I was, telling my story about entrepreneurship, and they were so excited about it that it gave back this energy and excitement to me at a time when I was relatively down. I came back home and said, ‘Yeah, I gotta do this!’ And right around then I started with Viv, which is my biggest and most ambitious effort. Viv might not have been possible without Pioneers Festival.
“The people I have met and the relationships I have found through Pioneers have lasted more than from any other event I’ve been to.”
“So Pioneers has meant something to me and my career, and really given me something back. That’s why I go out of my way to support it.
[](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers17#/)
And apart from developing his magic skills, what’s the next challenge for Adam? His sights are firmly set on Viv, which memorably enjoyed its first European public demonstration at Pioneers Festival one year ago. Now an independent subsidiary of Samsung, we wait with bated breath for it to be distributed to the public.
And while that might involve a little bit of a wait – Adam can’t reveal details on that front – there’ll still be plenty at Pioneers’17 for those interested in the latest personal assistant technology. Most notably when Google’s Behshad Behzadi gets up on stage to demonstrate the incredible power of Google Assistant.
But when all’s said and done, can any tech magic be as compelling as somebody pulling a rabbit out of a hat? It doesn’t sound like Adam and Till’s show is going to be quite as traditional as that, but it’s safe to say it’ll be quite the talking point at the Hofburg…
[](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers17#/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Stromkind Triumphs In The Pioneers Challenge at Pioneers’17](https://pioneers.io/stromkind-wins-pioneers-challenge-pioneers17/)
**Published:** June 3, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Stromkind walked away with one of the highest honours in the startup world when it claimed the Pioneers Challenge today. Not only did the maker of the KAT 300 aquatic drone emerge victorious from 50 hopeful startups at the Hofburg Palace, but it also took the Best Austrian Startup award.
**Content:**
Pioneers’17 once again brought together a full house of 2,500 tech innovators from over 100 nations, including 500 selected startups and over 80 speakers, in the annual celebration of technology in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace. While the automated Pioneers Match & Meet service sparked connections and dialogues by helping to arrange 2,800 meetings over the two days, [Stromkind](http://stromkind.at/) walked away with the Pioneers Challenge powered by PwC. The maker of the KAT 300 aquatic drone also took the Best Austrian Startup award.
Victory means not only global recognition, but also a trip to San Francisco with Pioneers, during which Managing Director Andreas Desch will enjoy mentorship with legendary investor Tim Draper, communications expert Nancy Duarte and Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel. In addition, Desch and KAT 300, which automates a number of aquatic problem-solving processes, including cleansing water of algae, will be featured on CNBC.com. CNBC will showcase the winner as part of its new digital franchise entitled [The Brave Ones](http://www.cnbc.com/the-brave-ones/), a series that charts the rise of some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.
Stromkind beat over 4000 applicants by achieving Pioneers500 selection, and then getting chosen for the Pioneers ChallengeTop 50. Clearing the latter hurdle meant the chance to pitch yesterday, after which the company was announced as one of the eight finalists who would pitch again today.
“I didn’t believe that we were going to get into the selected 500," enthused Desch. "I really didn’t believe we’d make the Top 50. And I never imagined we’d be a finalist. To win Pioneers Challenge? That’s incredible.”
“The people we will meet in California are people we most likely would never otherwise get to meet. We want to break into the US market, but it’s not easy to go over there without some kind of backing or momentum. You need some positive vibes. With the coverage we’ll get, they might just say, ‘Ah, you are the guys from Austria – we’ve heard of you!’’
Pioneers’17 (previously Pioneers Festival) sought to address issues around human augmentation this year. Namely the future-facing tech that will enhance human capacity to address world challenges.
In the opening session, Atomico’s Siraj Khaliq shared his thoughts on Europe’s deep tech potential in a stage interview with Pioneers co-founder Jürgen Furian. Atomico also launched its [Europe Meets China Games Report](http://news.atomico.com/europe-meets-china/) to co-incide with the first day of Pioneers’17.
“We are approaching US levels in terms of numbers of deep tech startups in Europe, with over 1000 founded since 2014,” said Khaliq. He also pointed out the importance of talent when it comes to investment potential. “Money follows talent, and that talent is spread across Europe.”
Artificial intelligence then formed the major thread in the first day’s programme. Among the sessions were Artificial Intelligence Masterminds, featuring AI guru Babak Hodjat of Sentient Technologies and Google Assistant architect Behshad Behzadi.
“Artificial Intelligence itself in its nature is not the driver of that,” said Hodjat when asked about possible threats to future employment. “As new technology comes in, people get left behind and they have to catch up. This momentum is increasing, and as a society we have to ask how we deal with the people who get left behind. I think the question is misplaced, if we direct it at those working on AI technology.”
Later Skype co-founder and Future of Life Institute co-founder Jaan Tallinn offered his thoughts on the ultimate long-term impact (and risks) of technology on our lives. And in the Automation & The Future of Work session, a panel of experts, including Kathryn Myronuk of Singularity University, Andrus Ansip, VP of the European Commission, former Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and Dr Markus Braun of Wirecard looked ahead to what implications this rapid technological progress will have in the medium term.
“No way am I in favour of taxing robots!” said Ansip. “The aim of tax is not just to get revenue to raise salary of policement and teachers. I agree we should tax bad habits like smoking or alcohol, but taxing progress? If we slow down progress, somebody else will simply take the lead on that.”
The second day of Pioneers’17 tackled a range of cutting-edge tech. Among others, these included cyber security, biotech and sextech. The Listen to Your Body session dove into biotech, and the growing possibilities for us to diagnose our own health. Later on ‘Ethical Hacker’ Ralph Echemendia, a former security advisor to Nasa, Google and the US Marine Corps, performed live hacking into a random audience member’s phone! Virgin Galactic astronaut trainer Beth Moses spoke with passion about the dawn of the era of space tourism and what it means for humanity.
“As William Gibson said, the future is already here, but it’s just not very evenly distributed,” said Moses. “That is true, but it’s about to change. We’re at the dawn of space as a travel experience. This is a new frontier for humanity. Members of the public are going to be able to travel to space, or send goods to space, any time now. Some of those who have signed up are in their nineties. It’s going to be the journey of their lives and their souls.”
In the afternoon Adam Cheyer (the inventor of Siri) gave entrepreneurship lessons with the aid of magic – and magician Till Haunschild. And in Getting Intimate With Tech, ‘sextech’ had its moment in the spotlight, through a panel discussion featuring MysteryVibe’s Chief Pleasure Officer Stephanie Alys.
In the startup exhibition, attendees had the chance to experience tech that will change the way we live and work. Highlights included humanoid robotics from Humanizing Technologies and professional locomotion solutions for VR by Cyberith.
The broad selection of side events gave opportunities for small, curated communities to meet and discuss issues and technologies. One of the highlights was the Diversity, Inclusion & The Future panel discussion, which featured five thought leaders including Gesche Haas of Dreamers // Doers.
With this year’s flagship Pioneers event now completed, attention turns to Pioneers’18. The dates are already locked in, with the event taking place on 24-25 May next year. Seats are already available [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pioneers18-tickets-34934836035).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Stromkind Founder Talks Pioneers'17 Success](https://pioneers.io/stromkind-how-we-did-it/)
**Published:** June 6, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Every year, one selected startup gets the boost of a lifetime in our big future tech event at the Hofburg in Vienna. Over the next few weeks we'll profile each of the Top 8 finalists at Pioneers'17, starting with the one that won the day!
**Content:**
This year, at Pioneers’17, it was aquatic drone manufacturer Stromkind that struck gold. And their founder Andreas Desch was as surprised about that as anybody. But it wasn’t down to luck, says the 41-year-old father from Upper Austria. Victory for Stromkind, which focuses hard on its product and less on marketing fluff, is a reward for enormous quantities of work on a serious product for a serious market.
“We’ve worked so hard in the past year, and experienced so many ups and downs,” says Desch. “It’s been 24/7 hard work with a lot of travelling – I’ve gone through three cars! So it’s great to be up there as one of the best at last. Now we have to scale it up in quick time, before the big guys come in.”
“We were at this event two years ago but nobody really realised the scaleable hardware that we had. We realised the spirit and the possibilities here, though, and said we’d be back. That we would return and show everybody that this system is worth showing to the world. And that’s what we have done!”
Desch made full use of the opportunities extended to Pioneers Challenge Top 50 startups, using the Thursday Mentors Day to completely rework the three-minute pitch he would have to deliver the following day on the Amplify Stage.
“The input at the Mentors Day was great. Our mentor told us about what investors want to hear and how we needed to know what we want exactly to achieve and focus our pitch on one thing. It was extremely good input! So we totally changed everything overnight, working until 4am. And then, after we got through to the Pioneers Challenge Finals, we changed it tremendously again – working until 3am this time!
It wasn’t Desch’s first time on a big stage like that inside the Hofburg – he used to be a DJ! He is considerably above the typical startup founder age, but it’s hard not to read some kind of destiny into the fact that the registration number automatically assigned to KAT 300 spells out his exact birthday.
“I was pretty much the oldest guy, so that experience might have helped,” he say as he reflects on other factors that made his pitch a winner. “Also, there’s the fact that we already have revenue coming in, and we initially used a lot of our own money so far to do that.”
Still, despite the clear confidence in a product with multiple industrial applications, most notably its ability to perform automated algae removal, Desch was taken aback to end up going all the way. It’s the first time Stromkind has achieved recognition like this at a major event.
“I didn’t believe that we were going to get into Pioneers500. I really didn’t believe we’d make the Top 50. And I never imagined we’d be a finalist. To win Pioneers Challenge? That’s incredible.”
Ultimately, the genuine ability of the water drone to do something useful for the world played a key role in Stromkind going as far as it did in an event looking to showcase exactly that kind of solution. Its product is a ground-breaking one that takes drone tech to the next level. It’s active technology that offers solutions, not passive technology that presents a neat package of problems.
“You can use KAT 300 for quite a lot of applications,” Desch explains. “You have surveillance, cargo transportation, firefighting, environmental protection and of course water cleaning. The markets are huge. We aren’t just a drone that takes photos. We don’t want a passive product that just says ‘shit happens’. We try to prevent shit from happening. That’s our mission.”
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Stromkind Triumphs In The Pioneers Challenge at Pioneers’17](https://pioneers.io/stromkind-wins-pioneers-challenge-pioneers17/)
**Published:** June 3, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Stromkind walked away with one of the highest honours in the startup world when it claimed the Pioneers Challenge today. Not only did the maker of the KAT 300 aquatic drone emerge victorious from 50 hopeful startups at the Hofburg Palace, but it also took the Best Austrian Startup award.
**Content:**
Pioneers’17 once again brought together a full house of 2,500 tech innovators from over 100 nations, including 500 selected startups and over 80 speakers, in the annual celebration of technology in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace. While the automated Pioneers Match & Meet service sparked connections and dialogues by helping to arrange 2,800 meetings over the two days, [Stromkind](http://stromkind.at/) walked away with the Pioneers Challenge powered by PwC. The maker of the KAT 300 aquatic drone also took the Best Austrian Startup award.
Victory means not only global recognition, but also a trip to San Francisco with Pioneers, during which Managing Director Andreas Desch will enjoy mentorship with legendary investor Tim Draper, communications expert Nancy Duarte and Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel. In addition, Desch and KAT 300, which automates a number of aquatic problem-solving processes, including cleansing water of algae, will be featured on CNBC.com. CNBC will showcase the winner as part of its new digital franchise entitled [The Brave Ones](http://www.cnbc.com/the-brave-ones/), a series that charts the rise of some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.
Stromkind beat over 4000 applicants by achieving Pioneers500 selection, and then getting chosen for the Pioneers ChallengeTop 50. Clearing the latter hurdle meant the chance to pitch yesterday, after which the company was announced as one of the eight finalists who would pitch again today.
“I didn’t believe that we were going to get into the selected 500," enthused Desch. "I really didn’t believe we’d make the Top 50. And I never imagined we’d be a finalist. To win Pioneers Challenge? That’s incredible.”
“The people we will meet in California are people we most likely would never otherwise get to meet. We want to break into the US market, but it’s not easy to go over there without some kind of backing or momentum. You need some positive vibes. With the coverage we’ll get, they might just say, ‘Ah, you are the guys from Austria – we’ve heard of you!’’
Pioneers’17 (previously Pioneers Festival) sought to address issues around human augmentation this year. Namely the future-facing tech that will enhance human capacity to address world challenges.
In the opening session, Atomico’s Siraj Khaliq shared his thoughts on Europe’s deep tech potential in a stage interview with Pioneers co-founder Jürgen Furian. Atomico also launched its [Europe Meets China Games Report](http://news.atomico.com/europe-meets-china/) to co-incide with the first day of Pioneers’17.
“We are approaching US levels in terms of numbers of deep tech startups in Europe, with over 1000 founded since 2014,” said Khaliq. He also pointed out the importance of talent when it comes to investment potential. “Money follows talent, and that talent is spread across Europe.”
Artificial intelligence then formed the major thread in the first day’s programme. Among the sessions were Artificial Intelligence Masterminds, featuring AI guru Babak Hodjat of Sentient Technologies and Google Assistant architect Behshad Behzadi.
“Artificial Intelligence itself in its nature is not the driver of that,” said Hodjat when asked about possible threats to future employment. “As new technology comes in, people get left behind and they have to catch up. This momentum is increasing, and as a society we have to ask how we deal with the people who get left behind. I think the question is misplaced, if we direct it at those working on AI technology.”
Later Skype co-founder and Future of Life Institute co-founder Jaan Tallinn offered his thoughts on the ultimate long-term impact (and risks) of technology on our lives. And in the Automation & The Future of Work session, a panel of experts, including Kathryn Myronuk of Singularity University, Andrus Ansip, VP of the European Commission, former Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and Dr Markus Braun of Wirecard looked ahead to what implications this rapid technological progress will have in the medium term.
“No way am I in favour of taxing robots!” said Ansip. “The aim of tax is not just to get revenue to raise salary of policement and teachers. I agree we should tax bad habits like smoking or alcohol, but taxing progress? If we slow down progress, somebody else will simply take the lead on that.”
The second day of Pioneers’17 tackled a range of cutting-edge tech. Among others, these included cyber security, biotech and sextech. The Listen to Your Body session dove into biotech, and the growing possibilities for us to diagnose our own health. Later on ‘Ethical Hacker’ Ralph Echemendia, a former security advisor to Nasa, Google and the US Marine Corps, performed live hacking into a random audience member’s phone! Virgin Galactic astronaut trainer Beth Moses spoke with passion about the dawn of the era of space tourism and what it means for humanity.
“As William Gibson said, the future is already here, but it’s just not very evenly distributed,” said Moses. “That is true, but it’s about to change. We’re at the dawn of space as a travel experience. This is a new frontier for humanity. Members of the public are going to be able to travel to space, or send goods to space, any time now. Some of those who have signed up are in their nineties. It’s going to be the journey of their lives and their souls.”
In the afternoon Adam Cheyer (the inventor of Siri) gave entrepreneurship lessons with the aid of magic – and magician Till Haunschild. And in Getting Intimate With Tech, ‘sextech’ had its moment in the spotlight, through a panel discussion featuring MysteryVibe’s Chief Pleasure Officer Stephanie Alys.
In the startup exhibition, attendees had the chance to experience tech that will change the way we live and work. Highlights included humanoid robotics from Humanizing Technologies and professional locomotion solutions for VR by Cyberith.
The broad selection of side events gave opportunities for small, curated communities to meet and discuss issues and technologies. One of the highlights was the Diversity, Inclusion & The Future panel discussion, which featured five thought leaders including Gesche Haas of Dreamers // Doers.
With this year’s flagship Pioneers event now completed, attention turns to Pioneers’18. The dates are already locked in, with the event taking place on 24-25 May next year. Seats are already available [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pioneers18-tickets-34934836035).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Raiffeisen Bank International Launches First Accelerator](https://pioneers.io/raiffeisen-international-announces-elevator-lab/)
**Published:** June 13, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Central and Eastern European behemoth Raiffeisen Bank International has just launched its very first accelerator program, in partnership with Pioneers Discover.
**Content:**
When you walk into your local bank in a decade’s time, what will it be like? Well, anything’s possible. Not even the world’s top banks know for sure just yet, but they do know that new tech is critical to a better experience for their customers. That’s why Central and Eastern European behemoth Raiffeisen Bank International has just launched its very first accelerator programme.
When it comes to choosing the best technological path, the smartest companies always look to the startup world. Because a lean, two-person startup has that extra freedom to give new ideas a stab than a multinational does. Elevator Lab will give five of the very best innovators the chance to work with Raiffeisen over a four-month period starting in October.
“We banks see startups as allies, and they should also see us as allies,” said Raiffeisen Plenipotentiary Michael Höllerer when Elevator Lab was announced at Pioneers’17 earlier this month. “We can provide them with expertise, a marketplace and customers, so there’s quite a lot of room for co-operation. And a win-win from my perspective would be if we could integrate the product or service of the winning startup into our business model.”
Without co-operation with startups, says Höllerer, the future would be a tough thing to tackle. And that’s just because new players, working outside the corporate structure, can unravel new solutions faster and more easily.
“Each of our 50 000 employees being innovative is important, but we also want to see how others are working and solving problems. Because companies that don’t innovate are quite simply lost in the medium to long term. There are brands that don’t exist anymore because they stopped innovating.”
Elevator Lab, in which our Pioneers Discover unit will play an important role as a Raiffeisen partner, is proof that even a company with a history dating back to 1862 can keep a watchful eye on the future.
“The big picture is that the whole industry is changing. Banks have a future but we have to fundamentally adapt our business models and services. In particular, the biggest challenge and biggest change will come from the technologies around payments and payment services. Customers want payment services that are very secure and efficient. And this is what we have to fulfil.”
That much is clear from the breakdown of the areas Elevator Lab is targeting. Raiffeisen is looking for applications from operational startups working on solutions in six categories: Payment & Transaction Services, SME Banking, Regulatory Tech, Branch of the Future, Investment & Trading Tech and Big Data Analytics.
“We want this to be a long-term relationship and a success story for both Raiffeisen and the startups,” concludes Höllerer.
So then, if you’re a startup with a Fintech solution for one of Europe’s true banking giants, get your application in before 31 July at [](http://www.elevator-lab.com/). Or if you’re from a company thinking about an accelerator program of its own, stop thinking and get in touch with [Pioneers Discover](https://pioneers.io/discover/about).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events|Discover
---
### [BroomX: Making The Most Of Virtual Reality](https://pioneers.io/broomx-technologies/)
**Published:** June 20, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As we continue to profile the Pioneers Challenge finalists from Pioneers'17, we meet Spanish startup BroomX, which is taking virtual reality experiences headset-free!
**Content:**
A video call with Ignasi Capellà makes other video calls look positively 20th-century. While the rest of the world makes do with spectacularly synthetic, soullessly whitewashed office backdrops – a palm frond or two is about all you can usually hope for – the BroomX CCO has a series of dynamic visual extravaganzas playing out behind him when we meet on Skype.
And if your company’s business happens to be next-generation virtual reality projections, then why not? There’s no better way of bringing your product into the very heart of the conversation. The feeling that you’re orbiting earth (or, in another part of the show, that you ought to call the fire brigade immediately) certainly beats screen-sharing some tortuous PowerPoint creation.
Virtual reality without goggles? Which can clearly be seen across Skype? Yep, that pretty much sums up the BroomX USP. The Barcelona-based startup does 360-degree VR projections you can enjoy while lying in bed – without the need for a ridiculous-looking headset. And while it’s hard to fully appreciate over video, it’s fair to say that it was something truly fresh: the only familiar part of the experience was that Skype’s audio kept cutting out.
With technology that might hopefully be a first step towards consigning VR glasses to the virtual rubbish dump, plus Ignasi’s endearing stage presence, it’s no wonder that BroomX was chosen as one of the Pioneers Challenge finalists at Pioneers’17 earlier this month. They might not have walked away with the top prize this time, but they were nailing down some exciting deals (this 360 VR in your hotel suite…) even while the pitching played out at the Hofburg.
“This is our baby, one of our very first projectors,” says Ignasi, nodding towards the MK Player360 currently livening up our call no end. Only about 10 of these exist right now. And these elegantly simple (on the outside, anyway) €15 000 machines are the result of four years of hard work from a group of VR aficionados who impishly describe themselves as ‘serious geeks’.
Geeks they may be, but one gets the feeling that the [BroomX guys](http://www.broomx.com/aboutus.php) are fairly in touch with the real world. “Now you can enjoy the full experience of London on New Year’s Eve while drinking a beer on the sofa with your friends at home,” beams Ignasi. “We can take any content built for headsets and display it in this new social and natural way.”
The projections cover your entire field of vision inside a room – ideally with minimal furnishing and outside light blocked by curtains at least – which BroomX says offers the same experience as wearing a headset. But while this kind of thing is an appealing extra for hotels to offer in the VIP suite, it’s not all about watching fireworks in Westminster, riding waves in Tahiti or wandering through virtual Dalí paintings.
“VR is being used in many ways in health care,” says Ignasi. “One of those is to treat phobias, like flying or public speaking. But people sometimes don’t feel comfortable with goggles. Or they can’t wear them for long. We can display the same content in a calm and user-friendly way for a much longer time – even for hours!"
Training surgeons and boosting patient morale are other areas the BroomX vision for VR might well help, he adds. “Wearing no goggles means you can simulate a 12-hour surgery if you want. And imagine if you were hospitalised a long time: we could provide a projection that makes you feel like you are at home. You could leave the hospital atmosphere and go anywhere in the world.
“Education and real estate are other sectors already using VR a lot. Now we have a tool to help these industries to make the most of VR. Today’s headsets are cool in a way, but we’re really going a step forward with MK Player360.”
And will BroomX be making the content itself? Ah, not so much! In what might turn out to be a pretty smart strategic move, the startup is taking a leaf out of the Apple book: a familiar marriage of hardware with curated content. The latter to be made available through its BroomXVR platform.
“Apple is a big reference for us, of course. We’ve studied the UX of Apple, Spotify and other successful companies working between hardware and software. I would say what we have is a mix between iTunes and Spotify.
“Content creators are the kings, and we’re reaching out to the best in the world. We will curate the best VR content, store it in the cloud and it will stream directly to the MK360. It is a win-win model in which our monthly subscription is shared with the content creators, based on the number of views.”
As for the MK360 itself, expect a serious price drop as production scales up: their baby will number in the hundreds soon enough! While the Barcelona Tech City member startup is tight-lipped on details about its first big customers, all we can say for sure is that future projections look good…
*Broomx announced its first hotel partnership in July. Catalonia Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona will offer the full Broomx 360 degree experiences in its Immersive Art Junior Suite.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Turbine Turns Oncology On Its Head](https://pioneers.io/turbine/)
**Published:** July 3, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** What if we could accelerate the process of testing cancer drug hypotheses from a matter of months to a matter of minutes? Meet the Pioneers Challenge finalist that can!
**Content:**
The number one challenge for medical science right now? Finding solutions to cancer would get plenty of votes. Few areas of research have as much resource devoted to them – and few diseases cause as much frustration and suffering.
But what if we could accelerate the process of testing cancer drug hypotheses from a matter of months to a matter of minutes? And what if – just as fast – we could match a cancer patient’s particular cells to the drug that will work best for them? Hungarian startup Turbine has found a way to do the former, and is working hard towards making the latter a reality too.
It’s all down to computer simulation. Instead of finding out whether a cancer drug might work through the traditional (and expensive, and slow) process of laboratory testing, Turbine has developed software that allows you to run that experiment virtually. Which means researchers can now explore literally millions more avenues than ever before.
Technology doesn’t get much more positive and meaningful than this. No wonder, then, that the judges saw fit to pick Turbine as one of the eight Pioneers Challenge finalists at Pioneers’17. And no surprise, either, that Turbine is already working with oncologists at two of the world’s pharmaceutical behemoths.
“The problem with the current approach is that it’s super slow and very costly,” says Szabolcs Nagy, one of four co-founders in what looks to be an impressively balanced team. “So even huge pharma companies usually have very strict limitations on how many experiments they can try – they have to select the experiments most likely to succeed. But 99% of the drug projects they try fail sooner or later, and the ones that do succeed get to market really slowly.
“That’s a lot of wasted money, but the biggest problem is the huge potential still out there to focus on drugs that actually would work, and get more drugs to patients faster. This is the challenge we’re addressing at Turbine. When we started in 2010 the question was whether we could somehow devise a way to bring these trial-and-error experiments out of labs and clinical trials, and into some kind of scalable computer platform. And that’s basically what we’ve done over the last seven years.”
This is heavy stuff, compared to some of the other projects populating the startup world. The Turbine crew are serious scientists, all working with the drive that comes from having lost loved ones. Each of them has been touched by the disease in some way, which means they understand exactly what the hurry is when it comes to trying every hypothesis. And while fast simulations are good, taking the guesswork out of which experiments to do is the critical other side to the equation.
“Say we run a million simulated experiments. After that we can see which 100 or 150 should actually be run. So we narrow drug research down in a more focused way, with a much higher chance of success. Being able to do so many simulations means researchers can find directions they might not otherwise have explored. If you’re a researcher and only have 50 experiment shots, you go for what seems like the sure win. You don’t try the really out-there ideas.”
The Turbine technology essentially replicates how a cell will react and respond to a particular drug, on a molecular level. Having nailed the first phase, which is being able to simulate a drug’s effect on ‘standard’ cells, Turbine is already thinking ahead to the second part of the dream, which would be providing ‘personalised’ patient-to-drug matching.
“It’s still research and it would be unethical to say we can do it already, but we’re working on simulations of the cells of a particular patient,” says Szabolcs. “The vision is that you would have the patient go into the clinic, get a sample taken and sequenced, then the doctor would upload the sequenced data directly to Turbine. Turbine then does simulated experiment and tells the doctor which is the most likely treatment to succeed.”
Best-case scenario of how long that might take? “With the right computing power, it could be as little as a couple of minutes.”
About as long as it took to do a pitch at Pioneers’17, then! Turbine thoroughly deserved their place in the Pioneers Challenge finals, and even though they didn’t win overall this time, any victory in the fight against cancer will be the ultimate triumph.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [mySugr Joins Roche Family](https://pioneers.io/mysugr-joins-roche-family/)
**Published:** July 4, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** The winning entrepreneurs from our very first major startup event six years ago, mySugr, announced last week that their company has become a part of established global healthcare giant Roche.
**Content:**
The winning entrepreneurs from our very first major startup event six years ago, [mySugr](https://mysugr.com/), announced last week that their company has become a part of established global healthcare giant Roche.
The exit for the digital diabetes management company – which sees no change to their brand identity – represents one of the most spectacular success stories from the Pioneers family. Pioneers Festival can trace its lineage to Startup Week 2011, which morphed into our spectacular at the Hofburg from 2012. It was at Startup Week that our champagne celebration tradition began – and the drenched winners at Haus der Industrie that day were Fredrik Debong and Frank Westermann of mySugr.
Back then the company was best described as an extremely early-stage startup. But fast forward six years, to the inking of the Roche deal on Thursday, and it was party time at mySugr’s Vienna offices! Which are now home to 40 employees as their inspiring growth story continues.
So, what now for the four founders behind the revolutionary system that allows Type 1 diabetes patients to take charge of monitoring their own data and make better, more positive decisions about their lives and their therapy? Hammocks under palm trees, perhaps? No way, says Fredrik.
“Under the deal we’re free to leave but none of us will,” says the Swede. “The mission is not to get rich quick. The mission is to change the philosophy of diabetes therapy and make it suck less. And with Roche, our punch has gone from mosquito level to Tyson level!”
This is exactly the kind of spirit we’ve come to expect from the startups who succeed at our events. Fredrik, along with a third of the company, has Type 1 diabetes. That means mySugr are in it for the right reasons – and for the long haul. The million subscribers they already have merely hints at the numbers they could reach, as they play a central role in the refreshed strategy for Roche Diabetes Care.
mySugr has been working alongside Roche since 2014, but Startup Week 2011 played a big role in them becoming one of the small minority of startups that stay around that long – and go on to flourish. “That event was one of the moments that really put the dot on the exclamation mark for us. Even if you believe in something, you really need the outside push of somebody else believing in you. That gives you momentum and confidence, which you need as a founder.”
“The feedback and connections you get when you pitch and win at something like that are fantastic,” says Fredrik, who continues to attend Pioneers Festival each year. “For example we’d met Hansi Hansmann previously, but the event brought us closer together and he became an investor. It also brought us closer to more collaborators and future employees.”
And so to the question every hopeful founder will want to hear Fredrik answer: is there a golden key to enjoying this kind of startup success story?
“Forget yourself,” he says firmly. “A startup with an ego is set up to fail. Everyone at mySugr has had to take a beating a few times. But that moulds you together if you handle it correctly. So just forget yourself: you aren’t in it for you. Your customers come first. Your family and employees come second. Third come your investors. Only then come the founders.”
So, do the crew at mySugr feel they’ve ‘made it’ now? “We’ve grown up,” says Fredrik after careful thought. “We started throwing spaghetti on the wall in 2010, just to see what would work. Since then we’ve gone from being kids, through the teens, and now we’re adults.”
Adults making a real difference to millions of people, whose challenges they truly understand. Still real pioneers are after all these years: long may they continue to do us proud!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Mixing it up with HoloLight](https://pioneers.io/mixing-it-hololight/)
**Published:** July 11, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Introducing Pioneers Challenge finalist HoloLight. Their plans to lead the way in applying mixed reality to industry are founded on an elegant and simple business model...
**Content:**
Imagine having to programme a mixed-reality headset to guide a quality control inspector around the innards of a vehicle. Said inspector will be checking up to 300 labels and parts for that glorious thing called compliance, hoping he or she doesn’t get fired for being the architect of a hideously expensive recall. No more ticking boxes on a complex sheet of diagrams: you want to offer the inspector hologram guidelines controlled by voice, and a hands-free experience.
But teaching a hologram projector to lead you around one particular real-world car model’s underbelly… that’s a heck of a project, right? When HoloLight CMO Luis Bollinger tells me that his company actually has actually developed a process to do this, I assume the set-up must be about as labour-intensive as trying to construct my tax return in German.
But it’s not for nothing that HoloLight went so far at Pioneers’17. This 25-strong Bavarian startup has found a way to come up with a sought-after industrial tool *without* having to build the hardware – or spend months mapping what’s underneath the hood of every BMW in the range.
“The aim is to use information companies already have,” says Bollinger. “In industry, 3D information like CAD files is already out there. That’s the first thing you should be able to do in mixed reality (MR): visualise the stuff you already have.”
HoloLight’s specialist niche, then, is simply to bring existing resources together. The model is startup gold: specialist expertise that’s not only efficient, scalable and tremendously desirable in industry. Expertise big companies rarely have the resources to learn in-house.
Working with headsets like the Microsoft HoloLens and the DAQRI Smart Helmet, and using files from its clients, HoloLight’s game is making mixed reality a reality with minimal sweat. They produce clever software like [Holo-View](https://holo-light.com/holoview/), which can integrate your firm’s existing files into your visual environment – as 3D holograms.
“Imagine you just drag and drop a CAD file you have on your computer,” says Bollinger. “You drop it into an application that converts it on HoloLens and visualise it in a minute. While a lot of people have been working on headsets, this kind of industry software has been the missing part.”
As you might imagine, plenty of companies are already knocking at the HoloLight door for this time-saving, accountant-pleasing software, which Bollinger modestly admits was ‘more challenging than developing something for a smartphone’. HoloLight is already working with auto manufacturers, particularly their giant neighbour BMW. But it’s not just about regulatory checks. There are use cases for maintenance and repair throughout industry. In the construction business too, where it’s useful for visualising plumbing, electricity and furnishings.
“Even with furniture, companies already have 3D models as CAD files. In this case you would just connect to database and ‘place’ the item in a house to see how it looks.”
The price of headsets mean this is not a toy for a consumer market (although consumer marketing could work) at the moment. And just to be ultra-clear, it’s not full-immersion VR. Rather, it’s integrating holograms into your actual environment. But what makes mixed reality mixed reality?
“It’s not the same as augmented reality (AR). AR is just a 2D hologram in front of you, like Google maps, text information or Pokemon,” says Luis. “With an MR 3D hologram you can walk around and see things from different perspectives. If it’s a machine, you can look inside and look at the details. That’s the big difference.”
Right now HoloLight’s impressive technology might be said to be in the pilot stage. They’re working closely with clients on developing their product and bespoke solutions, but the end goal is actually to come up with a licensed product that automates the process for non-specialists.
“Our goal is to deliver a solution a company can already use with the stuff it already has, not an SDK.”
If anyone can deliver that, then you get the feeling HoloLight can. “We’re 25 people only focussing on MR. You cannot find that in other companies, even big companies with hundreds of people. They have their daily business and cannot afford to have 20 people to focus on one technology.”
HoloLight could prove to be a terrific example of startup-corporate symbiosis, in fact. Most companies could use this tech in one way or another. But equally, most companies wouldn’t know where to start!
“We’re focusing on becoming market leader for industry solutions in mixed reality,” concludes Bollinger, whose firm is making enough for steady operation, but is in the market for an investment of a million or so as they focus on growth and marketing. “We’re heading in a good direction.”
So it would appear, as HoloLight develops its core offering while keeping an eye on other innovations in the field. For example, it’s developing HoloStylus, a ‘gesture pen’ that responds to the growing acceptance that human fingers and hands just aren’t as precise as we would like. Then there’s the intriguing [Workspace of the Future](https://holo-light.com/fraunhofer-workspace/) concept it’s building with Fraunhofer: watch that (work)space!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Selects Sean Swarner as its Astronaut!](https://pioneers.io/sean-swarner-pioneers-astronaut/)
**Published:** July 20, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We have the final nominee for our Pioneers astronaut hunt! Congratulations to American cancer survivor and adventurer Sean Swarner, who has conquered Everest and both poles with one lung. A true pioneering spirit, we're delighted to be putting his name forward as a finalist for Space for Humanity's first trip to the edge of space next year. We fired him a few questions just hours after he heard the news.
**Content:**
**What were you doing when you got the news and what were your first emotions?**
I got the message at 3am! It’s weird, actually, because I randomly woke up in the middle of the night and thought ‘I wonder what’s going on with the whole Pioneers thing?’ I checked my phone, and there was a message saying I had been chosen! There was no way I was going to sleep after that! So I got up, did some work and then a workout.
**How do you think you earned so many likes in the first round of voting?**
I think that came just from the emotional connection I have with people, and the emotional connection people have to the cancer world as well as to the adventure world. The process has been short and stressful, but great! It’s been an opportunity to get my story out there to really help other people.
**Has space always been on your to-do list?**
Honestly, yes. I was actually down to do NASA’s space camp when I was a little kid, but I couldn’t do it because the cancers got in the way.
**How would going to space rate against things like climbing Mount Everest or trekking to the poles?**
Physically, I don’t think it would be as demanding as anything like that. As long as I don’t have to blow that Worldview balloon up myself! \[Worldview is one of the possible spacecrafts Space for Humanity will use\] But the experience would rank right up there with Everest – it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a much longer time. When you’re a kid, everybody dreams of going into space.
**What do you think your emotions would be if you get the chance to take the trip?**
It would be like if you could take every emotion that I’ve ever had and explode them all at once, but slowly. Kind of like a firework in slow motion. I saw the curvature of the earth from Everest, but I’d be really excited to see the earth from outside the earth.
**How would you share your story in the most inspirational way when you get back?**
I’m a keynote inspirational speaker already, so that would be an easy transition. I wouldn’t necessarily talk about what I’ve done, but how I’ve done it. That way you can weave messages into a story that is an emotionally impactful and drama-laden one. People can relate to that, and it encourages them to move forward.
**Do you think it’s important for many people to see the earth from the edge of space, and why?**
Yes, I think that experience would really open up people’s minds to what they explore. The world is a humongous place, and so many people are afraid to really get out there and see what it has to offer. But I think it might also help people do more introspection, where they might look at themselves and question why they haven’t done certain things.
**Will space travel give people a new perspective on humanity?**
For sure. Doing things climbing Everest makes you feel tiny, and I can only imagine what it would be like from space. Sharing that with other people might make humanity realise it needs to step away from itself and we need to start respecting each other. Because the problems that you see from space are microscopic.
**What are the qualities that make you the best person to take this trip?**
If Space for Humanity is looking for true Pioneers then look no further! I’ve done something that no other human in history has done before. The next logical step for me is space, and using that as a vehicle to inspire others and help people look in the mirror and question what the potential of the human body and spirit really is.
**Have you started stalking the opposition yet?**
I haven’t had a chance yet! But if you give me some links, I’ll be sure to check them out…
*After we spoke to Sean, we received an encouragement message of congratulations from Space for Humanity’s Executive Director Rebecca Schaeffer.*
“Today, Space for Humanity joins Pioneers in congratulating their nominee, Sean Swarner,” said Rebecca. “Sean’s remarkable journey, overcoming considerable physical odds to summit each of the highest peaks on every continent on earth and bring hope to those in need, is an inspiration to us all.
“Sean’s application will be among the first to be considered for our upcoming mission at the end of 2018. We are expecting over 10,000 submissions for the chance to be one of the first eight diverse individuals selected.
“As the Pioneers’ final nominee, Sean will be guaranteed an invite to our launch party, and you can continue to vote for Sean’s Space for Humanity application at [www.spaceforhumanity.org](http://www.spaceforhumanity.org). We hope to see many more great applicants from the Pioneers community in the coming weeks.”
For more information and details on the Pioneers selection process please [click here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/become-astronaut-pioneers-and-space-humanity)!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Foresight: Lending You Insight](https://pioneers.io/foresight/)
**Published:** July 24, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With smart meters appearing in more and more homes, we should all be able to not only make smarter energy decisions, but take them more easily. Pioneers Challenge finalist Foresight has created the technology to help us do exactly that!
**Content:**
Imagine leaving for work in the morning and instructing an app to start your washing machine at the most cost-effective time before your expected arrival back home. Imagine, too, that this app was actually *supplied by your utility* – in exchange for some kind of tariff incentive. Now, as long it doesn’t seem too Orwellian for your utility to be switching on your laundry, you’re saving money by doing pretty much nothing!
Along with the pleasures of clean socks, that’s rather a nice thought. One that’s made possible not just by the rise of smart meters – coming to your home sooner or later, wherever you may be in the world – but by the likes of data-crunchers like Foresight.
The impressive startup’s role is essentially to make sense of the reams of big data coming from powerful new meters and a variety of different energy sources. They help your utility make good enough predictions to offer those creative new laundry incentives – among other possibilities of course! Foresight’s name, a contraction of ‘forecasting insights’, is a fair summing-up of what they do: bringing predictive tools out of the Stone Age.
“The utility world is changing massively, not just with regards to data but also with decentralization, for example with solar PV and storage systems,” says Head of Business Development Florian Hirschbichler. “The winner in this new world will be the one who can interpret the data the best.”
“We try to translate big data into actionable insights. Firstly to increase efficiency in general, and secondly to allow providers to offer new services and products. Nobody has done it this way before – bringing top notch machine learning and big data tech into every field of the energy world.”
Big data. Actionable Insights. You’ve heard that a few times before, right? Foresight is certainly not the only company out there waving that carrot. That’s exactly why it’s good to specialise – just like they’ve done.
The energy world is getting increasingly complex, with new possibilities in energy production, storage and usage turning up all the time. No longer is it just about reading your meter. What about solar possibilities for your home? Does your electric car really need a full charge every night? Could your living room temperature be regulated without heating in peak hours? This is a web of specialised data that needs better, integrated interpretation, says Hirschbichler. And that’s the Foresight niche.
“Algorithms do an amazing job, but it’s a general problem with big data at the moment that you get amazing results, but then you have to try and understand where the results are coming from. With big data it’s not so easy to directly understand the relationship between inputs and outputs. So we combine expert knowledge with the algorithm output.”
Rest assured, you and I are not going to have to fry your brain with any actionable big data insights in order to use your energy more efficiently in the future. While Foresight’s technology may very well power everyday enhancements like that washing machine app, businesses are their direct customers. These already include big utilities like Wien Energie in Austria and Enerjisa in Turkey.
Foresight’s Engage product is all about suggesting those energy products and services such utilities might think about adding to our offering – which in many cases is still limited to a fat bill in the post.
“As a customer now with a smart meter, you can know exactly when you are consuming and how much. But utilities need to provide a clear benefit in order to convince people to share that data. We’re helping the utilities come up with some real new value they can offer to customers. They won’t make money forever just by selling electricity.”
Automation is a critical factor in that real value offering. Few of us are going to set the alarm early to save a few pennies by switching on the laundry at three in the morning. And customers don’t have the time to keep on actively reporting the latest from their smart meters. If the money-saving process runs itself, though…where do I sign?
Foresight makes automating innovative products a possibility. Where utilities have traditionally worked with aggregated, worst-case-scenario averages based on one reading a year, quality data insights mean they can offer such automated services with confidence that they won’t get the maths horribly wrong.
While working with utilities is the major part of Foresight’s business, and the one that could have the clearest impact on us consumers, they’re also helping smaller businesses and innovators in the energy industry, such as PV solution and virtual powerplant companies, optimise their solutions.
Their Predict tool, a plug-and-play forecasting and insights solution, is aimed at businesses such as smaller workshops. Using historical data, it helps them in a practical way to be more efficient and save costs.
And the setup at Foresight? One part of the firm (the software geeks included) sits in Tel Aviv, while the other half the company is in Vienna. With customers in both Austria and Israel having already clambered on board, the international approach is certainly paying dividends.
How much further can they go? Well, that would be the ultimate prediction, wouldn’t it?
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [What Do Millennials Really Want?](https://pioneers.io/what-do-millennials-really-want/)
**Published:** July 31, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Every company wants to know what millennials think of their product. Yet millennials hate market research. But Pioneers Challenge finalist Appinio has found a cunning way to solve that problem.
**Content:**
“Market research sucks. Nobody wants to take part in it. We all know it’s a pain.”
If you work for a company that wants to learn about its customers (every sensible firm on earth, then), this fact is an uncomfortable truth. Unless you’re the innovative type, of course. In that case, it’s a lucrative problem to solve.
So let’s get back to Jonathan Kurfess, the [Appinio](https://www.appinio.com/) co-founder whose words these are. And we’ll let him finish what he started saying.
“Yet market research is nothing but sharing your opinion! And everybody is interested in opinions: sharing them and comparing them.”
If you don’t believe him, spend a few seconds browsing your social feeds. He’s right. People have an absolute compulsion to share their thoughts on just about anything. So then, if a company could find a way to integrate market research into something resembling social media, thereby making it fun and appealing to millennials, they’d be onto a winner, wouldn’t they?
Enter Appinio. The Hamburg-based startup has developed an app that does exactly that. And when you think about how prized a treasure information has become these days, that makes it an app with *mega*-potential.
Kurfess quit his regular job to co-found Appinio. And his is the kind of startup story we all love to hear – he left full-time work in order to solve a problem he’d encountered in that world.
“I was working in marketing at an FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) company,” he relates. “We didn’t have the tools to get fast, cheap and direct insights from our target group. We had to go through big institutes and the process took weeks or months. It also cost 30 or 40 thousand Euros. And the biggest problem was that we weren’t able to reach the young groups we wanted – the millennials.
“And every major market research company has a problem reaching 14-30 year olds. It’s the biggest issue that industry has. Traditional methods don’t reach those people.
“When I thought about it, I had to admit that I wouldn’t do market research myself either. But on the other hand, we have social networks, and everybody likes to share their opinions, whether they’re being asked for it or not. That’s human nature. And I thought that was a bit of a paradox.”
Thinking about that paradox, and summoning up enough founder chutzpah to quit the day job, quickly led to the genesis of Appinio. Kurfess, as a self-confessed non-geeky type who “still doesn’t have any idea about IT or coding”, needed a tech specialist. He found one in the shape of business introduction Kai Granaß, giving the startup another untypical feature: the co-founders weren’t buddies beforehand.
What they’ve come up with since late 2014 certainly shows that this approach can work. Appinio has built an app that Kurfess describes as ‘Instagram for opinions’. Liking, sharing and peer interaction, along with gamification elements such as badges, rankings and incentives, is proving the right recipe to make people want to use it.
Making the experience more than just a dull ‘survey app’ was critical to getting the enthusiastic engagement levels that would then lead to Appinio’s real revenue stream: selling survey opportunities to businesses. With this kind of user base, Appinio could – and does – allow companies to build highly-targeted surveys. Targeted surveys from which they can then get results from thousands of respondents in a matter of minutes.
When you hear this, it’s not particularly startling to learn that Appinio is already operating in profit. Its business clients (most are large corporates) number over 200 and come from all industries, ranging from Jägermeister to McKinsey, and from Warner Brother to Deutsche Bank to Volkswagen.
“We thought how could we build a product that on one side automates the whole research process to give companies faster, cheaper results, and on the other side would engage people with much higher participation rates than traditional market research. That’s why we did it with smartphones.
“Millennials are only approachable by mobile, so that is what we do. We’ve found a way for people to answer traditional market research that would have previously been on the phone or online.”
Key is that the paid surveys are just one, entirely optional, part of the app experience. But in the context of a mobile community (that already numbers around 200,00 users) already primed to share their opinions on just about anything a consumer-facing business might care to name, it’s proving easy to find enough volunteers to provide companies with market research gold: vast swatches of data in near real-time.
“We’ve solved all pressing market research issues,” says Kurfess in conclusion. “We’re the fastest service worldwide, we’re much cheaper, we’re able to reach millennials and we have the best targeting because people are constantly answering questions through the app, giving us very complex consumer profiles to target the right service to the right people.”
Having initially started in the German-speaking market, and expanded into the US last year, the app is planned for a worldwide roll-out within the next six months. And, as Appinio’s founder also points out, there’s no reason this can’t go well beyond product research.
With the possibility to create surveys for as little as one Euro per response, an Appinio survey can be as relevant for startups, researchers and individuals as for big business. There’s already been some take-up in the academic community, for example.
With the manageable costs involved, consider also the potential for anybody to poll voters or find out all manner of useful information. One of Appinio’s early surveys predicted WhatsApp servers crashing around midnight, after 60% of respondents said they would send New Year wishes by WhatsApp. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. So if you’re thinking of dabbling in predictions markets with such Pioneers friends as Augur, take note!
And here’s one last piece of trivia from Appinio’s huge collection of data: most men consider themselves above-average when it comes to attractiveness. Most women, on the other hand, think of themselves as below-average.
And while that may seem like a completely gratuitous fact, there will be plenty of marketers out there who might find a way to work it into their plans. Consumer data is always valuable to someone…but with Appinio it’s now become affordable.
With all that in mind, investors out there might be interested to know that Appinio is running a final seed round as they look to raise a couple of million for their full app rollout. Definitely worth a look!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Video & Interview: Making Space Accessible](https://pioneers.io/beth-moses-video/)
**Published:** August 1, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Humanity is at last on the cusp of space tourism becoming reality. Find out just how much that means for all of us in our video and interview with Beth Moses. The Virgin Galactic astronaut trainer was a popular speaker at Pioneers'17, so enjoy these highlights of her talk as well as the audio and text of our subsequent Q&A with her!
**Content:**
It’s tempting to say that few topics on earth are as emotive and inspirational as space travel which is why Pioneers has always kept an eye on developments in this field. But then, space travel doesn’t really happen on earth, does it? So let’s settle for saying that it’s simply a hot subject in the world of innovation right now.
When Beth travelled to Vienna to speak at Pioneers’17, as well as talk space experiences with a couple of stage volunteers, those in attendance at the Hofburg got a deeper understanding of why exactly it is that ‘amateur astronauting’ is such a big deal. And it’s not just because it’s a cool thing most of us have fancied trying since we were kids.
For one thing, we at Pioneers are excited about the possibilities space travel brings for those in the startup community. For the same reason, we had [teamed up with the non-profit organization Space for Humanity](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/sean-swarner-pioneers-astronaut) to spread the news of their project to send multiple ordinary people on the ride of their lives.
Saying ‘we’re working on a spacecraft’ would earn any founder some serious street cred at their local co-working space, no question. But the opportunities for the little guy are for real, says Beth – even if she does work for one of the early giants.
“I think there will always be multiple companies offering space travel, which is a great thing,” she says, exemplifying the spirit needed in – if you’ll pardon the pun – the space. “Anyone out there tackling human space flight is a hero – it’s hard! This is an important time in history: we all need to band together and just do it. Even if we’re from different companies or teams, we should all support each other.”
She has nothing but admiration for startups working towards space travel solutions, and says determination is what will win founders the day.
“Keep your persistence even in the face of setbacks and challenges,” she advises. “Focus on human space flight and redundancy, because that is the tricky part to get right. But keep going. There are days when we at Virgin Galactic literally drive home crying. If that happens to you, still go to the office the next day.”
And the reason Beth and her colleagues keep coming back? It’s not just the wonder of doing a job that has never existed until now, or that sense of shared purpose that come with being part of something bigger in scientific history, but also the satisfaction of seeing space’s power at work. She hasn’t even started a formal training program yet, and yet she sees it all the time as some of those early Virgin Galactic ticket buyers test out processes like centrifuge experiences and parabolic weightless flights.
“To me the most interesting thing to see is the sense people have of rediscovering themselves. Many of them have dreamed of space travel since they were tiny, and it brings me to tears sometimes that they are so joyful. I really feel a sense of responsibility to be reuniting these future astronauts with their childhood selves. It brings back a basic sense of humanity and childhood wonder that we all share. The wonder of space unites people that way, from all walks of life.”
It’s a theme we hear over and over again from those in the know. Looking down on earth from way up there tends to put our so-called problems and conflicts into perspective. Perhaps international summits would be a lot more productive if they were held in orbit!
But the real point of Beth’s talk, and what seems to excite her as much as anything, is actually the fact that space is opening up to more than just world leaders and assorted rich folk.
“We will probably look back on this time frame as shockingly exclusive, but history is about to witness a transformative explosion of access to space. I think it will be like any other new technology. Early adopters will pay the early cost, and then prices will come down over time.
“Within a decade or two I hope people and goods will be commonplace in space. And that a holiday in space could be accessible to a reasonable segment of humanity. If the cost of a big family purchase like a car could be traded for the cost of a trip to space, that would be a wonderful place for humanity to be.”
The thought of spring break in space is a pretty interesting one, but holidays aside, what about actually getting somewhere else on earth via space?
“It’s a realistic possibility that in the future humanity could travel point to point through space,” says Beth. “I think it’s probably inevitable in the long run, because who wants to spent a day or half a day travelling from one city to the next?”
There can’t be many regular air travellers who would say no to severely reduced flight time, that’s for sure. (Although the holy grail would surely still be to eliminate all that security and check-in stuff. Not to mention having launch pads a little closer to town!) Whatever the future holds, just bear in mind Beth’s view that not all spacecraft are created equal.
“There are a few spacecraft in existence that I feel are completely safe and reliable, including ours. Then there are others that I feel are a bit more of a risk! Either because they’re ageing, or because they’re not really off of PowerPoint. There are a lot I look at and think, ‘Really, is that safe? Is that going to work?’”
So, choose your ride carefully folks! And whether you’re a founder looking to make a spacecraft dream of your own into reality, or just want to see your childhood space fantasies come true, find out more about Beth and Virgin Galactic’s work at [virgingalactic.com](http://www.virgingalactic.com/).
[Click here to listen to the audio of our interview with Beth Moses](/storage/app/media/Virgin_Galactic_Beth%20Moses%20Interview.mp3)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Ventures Seals Its First Exit](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-ventures-seals-its-first-exit/)
**Published:** September 19, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Ventures has achieved a major milestone in its history, with the announcement of its first exit. Our investment arm recently sold its stake in Hungarian playable advertising technology startup Atmosplay to ZPLAY, a China-based mobile game publishing and adtech company.
**Content:**
Atmosplay met Pioneers Ventures at Pioneers’ annual flagship event back in 2015, after which a deal for a €125K investment was struck. The startup joined other Pioneers Ventures portfolio companies on the annual tour to Silicon Valley last year, which their CEO Balint Turi recalls as a ‘pivotal experience’.
Shortly thereafter, they made the decision to offer their interactive mobile advertising product with their current in-game advertising model. And they haven’t looked back since the switch to being fully B2B: the growth in the space of just a few months has been phenomenal.
“Pioneers Ventures were interested in innovative adtech solutions and looked primarily for companies who provide technologies to the entire industry,” says Balint.
Atmosplay was able to offer that, both before and after its pivot. Every game developer needs to advertise their product, and Atmosplay provides the fastest and best way for them to do that. Namely advertisements that can give potential users a real taste of what the game is like – at one click of a button.
Three things really made Atmosplay stand out, and ultimately led to this deal. First, the sheer quality of the ads: Atmosplay provides users the entire 3D experience, with all the animations and complicated graphics of a sophisticated mobile game. Second, the startup can develop an interactive playable advert in just 24 hours. Third is the company’s impressively independent work process: they can deliver the project themselves 95% of the time, which saves a lot of consultation time and effort for the clients.
With the new investment, Atmosplay now has an opportunity to expand into serving the burgeoning Chinese gaming market.
“The last year has been very hard, but worth it! We received a lot of support from Pioneers and I’m very thankful personally to Markus Lang and Philipp Stangl there for their continuous support. I’d also like to thank all the other Pioneers Ventures portfolio companies for their input along the way. We’ve been looking for a big partner who would use our tech as core, and this is happening now!
“To be honest, stepping into a highly competitive industry with a very early stage portfolio company was challenging. However, the persistence and passion of the founders again turned out to be the critical success factor. We wish Balint and his team all the best and look forward to seeing our next portfolio startup echo their success,” says Markus Lang, Managing Director, Pioneers Ventures.
ZPLAY has been fairly guarded about company plans for Atmosplay, but CEO Jack Ho revealed that “Atmosplay brings us a fresh market opportunity that complements what we do now very well. We feel very fortunate to be working alongside the Atmosplay team going forward, and hope to report great successes in the near future.”
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Pioneers Tests: The Latest In VR Sports Training](https://pioneers.io/sport-vr/)
**Published:** August 9, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Virtual Reality sport experiences are a dime a dozen in startup world. But until now, they’ve been little more than novelty entertainment. Now researchers in Belfast are creating systems that push VR sport out of game-land and into serious coaching.
**Content:**
The outcome of a sports contest can depend on decisions taken in a fraction of a second. These moments can define a player’s entire career, not to mention break or lift the hearts of legions of fans. And in the big business that is professional sport, those blink-of-an-eye responses can also have massive financial consequences.
Yet understanding and improving decision-making in sport has never had much science behind it. While fitness training has been studied to death, the split-second reactive stuff that sets you and me apart from Petr Cech has received limited attention. Coaches make up training drills – with all the human variables that entails – and hope for the best. Technology hasn’t had a major role.
Real-life practice does still make perfect. The experts agree it remains the ideal. But practice isn’t always as practical as you’d wish. In sports like cricket, rugby and football, there’s a physical limit to how many hours you can put in. The weather can spoil the coach’s plans, or your team-mates may tire (or risk injury) before you do.
Beyond those practicalities, there’s also the quality of practice to think about. A goalkeeper can face endless practice penalties, or a cricketer can work on his shots all day, but what does the coach really learn about his decision-making patterns? How can he really see what his player is seeing and understand why he does what he does? Is he even practicing the right thing?
Answering hitherto impossible questions like this is where systems like those being developed at Queens’ University Belfast’s [Movement Innovation Lab](http://www.qub.ac.uk/mil/) (MIL) come in. Cricketers wield a real bat and don an HTC Vive headset before facing up to a virtual bowler. Goalkeepers pull on their gloves and wait for the penalty to curl around the wall. Rugby players hold a ball and watch a gap open up in the defence in front of them, then decide which way to pass it.
So how is that better that real life, you may quite fairly ask? Well, aligning your rugby team-mates for a useful exercise can be time-consuming and like herding cats, while a virtual input can be set up in a precise and accurate way, allowing targeted practice for a specific player. Instead of using five players to give one player practice breaching a line of defence, you could have all five working on individualised versions of the same drill. And while no coach would want it killing off real practice, certainly a more efficient alternative to try at times.
Second, while the limitless ‘mental reps’ involved can only be a good thing for decision-making skills among the players concerned, be they under 10’s or internationals, coaches will be delighted with the analytical capabilities on offer.
“We did some work with some of the injured players at Ulster Rugby, just to keep their decision-making sharp,” says Professor Cathy Craig, who leads MIL. “And we noticed one of the players had a bias in his response. He was happy passing the ball left, with his dominant right hand, but not comfortable enough with his long pass off the other hand.
“So there’s an example of something you can now identify, so you can say ‘right, let’s do more training and get that action capability up so that the decision-making won’t be influenced by that.”
The cricket system, initially the brainchild of PhD student Aishwar Dhawan, is also capable of revealing similar patterns.
“There might be an ideal shot you want to play, but you’re not confident enough you can pull it off,” says Craig. “And if you’re not confident, you’re not going to make that decision. It’s very much interrelated: you know what you’re capable of and that impacts on what you do.”
As we witnessed first-hand in Belfast, experts and coaches can now actually see, plot and analyse the inputs the player is getting. So while he develops his decision-making in immersive scenarios, new worlds open up to the training staff.
Derek Panchuk, Skills Acquisition Lead at the Australian Institute of Sport, discovered the power of that after experimenting with a limited ‘home-made’ VR system for basketball players.
“As a coach, I might be looking at the game film and say ‘why didn’t you pass to that guy?’ But if I’m in that person’s shoes and can be put in that person’s perspective with VR, I know why they didn’t make that pass: they couldn’t actually see them!
“We also found that the ones using the VR stuff for training actually started to score higher. It was really interesting that augmenting normal training with a bit of exposure to immersive scenarios where people can view different plays actually started to help improve some of the decision-making in the game itself.
“I’m really interested in the relationship between perception and action, in understanding how information influences action. And obviously VR is a great piece of technology to do that sort of thing because you can control what the person can see and you can manipulate it.”
The MIL’s systems do just that, but go a step beyond most of what’s out there, says Craig. Because they not only give a person immersion in a sporting scenario (nothing completely unique there) but also lets them make measurable, life-like responses, with real equipment in real time. That’s the biggest step being made in Belfast, and while its training potential needs little further elaboration, it could also begin to play an increasing role in player profiling.
There’s an element of that already happening in American football, where a system from [Strivr](http://strivrlabs.com/) is used at the NFL Combine. But Craig says Strivr doesn’t go as far as the MIL’s systems do in terms of real-time responses.
“Coaches will spend five million on a player,” says Craig, “but they’ll think twice about spending fifty thousand on some sort of technology to tell you if the player is actually worth five million!
“We want to create some sort of action intelligence marker which could help you really understand a young player coming through who was showing exceptional ability.”
While Pioneers hasn’t had the chance to try Strivr or any other systems – and we’d be curious to do so in order to give a full analysis of where the MIL’s competition is – the crew in Belfast seem to be well on their way to achieving that. The cricket and soccer goalkeeping experiences are more than passably lifelike, and are by no means finished products yet. Ulster Rugby, meanwhile, has seen enough value at the MIL to start a comprehensive player profiling programme this autumn.
Of course, these systems don’t come cheap or easy. Dhawan began working on the cricket system in 2011, when he filmed bowlers at the Australian Institute of Sport, and it’s still being tweaked by the folks at MIL. While the cost of headsets and sensor equipment has dropped substantially in recent times, the man-hours and cost in developing the content are inevitably substantial. It’s gotten as far as it has thanks primarily to backing from the European Research Council.
This tech is on the cusp of doing something transformative in sport, but it will need financial backing to reach its full potential for a given use case. So while the MIL isn’t exactly a startup, it’s an excellent case of collaboration (or multiple collaborations) waiting to happen. With some level of buy-in from a well-funded sporting body (or its kindly sponsor), who knows, we might all be able to practice saving penalties in our living rooms. Just move that coffee table before you dive!
**Are you or your startup working on some ground-breaking technology we should try out and introduce to the world? Mail richard.asher@pioneers.io if you are!**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Can You and Your Phone Match Mozart?](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-tests-humming-along-humon/)
**Published:** August 23, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We try out the latest version of the fascinating HumOn app, which lets anybody be a composer. All you have to do is a hum a tune into your phone. And, as we discover in this interview with the man behind it, this Samsung-backed startup could really go places in the social media world...
**Content:**
Of all the places to interview COOLJAMM founder David Choi, Vienna is about as fitting as it could get. For this is the most musical city of them all; once the playground of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Strauss and so many more. Where better to work, then, to fine-tune a piece of tech dedicated to making anybody into a composer?
Granted, David is usually based in Korea. But earlier this summer he spent time in the Austrian capital as part of the Pioneers-supported [Vienna Start-up Package](https://viennabusinessagency.at/start-up-city-vienna/vienna-start-up-package/). He also demonstrated his [HumOn](http://hum-on.com/) app on stage at Pioneers’17, where he got the crowd talking with his simple but delightful piece of technology.
The concept is this: hum any tune you like into your mobile phone. Then let the HumOn algorithm turn your musical creation into score. Then, you choose whether you’d like to hear your basic melody rendered in say, piano or guitar.
Or – and here’s where it starts to really impress – you can let it generate a piece combining multiple instruments. A symphony orchestra performance, say. Here the AI truly shows its power as it lets the system work out combinations of 128 virtual instruments on offer via the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) protocol.
Sitting on a park bench on Schillerplatz, I’ve just done exactly that. Not being all that musical (unless you count intermediate didgeridoo skills), I started without any idea about how I would finish. The result is a hopeless muddle of notes.
Still, I’m intrigued to hear a virtual orchestra play that hopeless muddle (I can almost hear the viola players rolling their eyes) after just a few seconds of processing. Nondescript as my input was, the end product doesn’t sound nearly so bad.
I play around with a few more instruments and combinations, unable to resist choosing the glockenspiel at one point. In all honesty, it doesn’t sound half as great as the word *glockenspiel* does. And judging by David’s polite but mystified reaction, I think I might be the first to try this option in his presence. I gather that it’s a little-known instrument in South Korea.
Here are the links to some of the final products I made with one dull hum and practically zero effort thereafter.
[Classical – harp](https://soundcloud.com/6g4zufydwzcg/2017_06_19_17_53_23-m4a/s-cVqRX)
[Classical](https://soundcloud.com/6g4zufydwzcg/classical/s-IDxje)
[R&B](https://soundcloud.com/6g4zufydwzcg/rnb-db/s-obxzZ)
[Melody – glockspiel](https://soundcloud.com/6g4zufydwzcg/glockspiel/s-RwgQF)
Just one of a new wave of innovations transforming the music industry and opening up opportunities to those with a good ear but little technical ability, it’s worth noting that HumOn might never have happened without the backing of Korean electronics giant Samsung.
Having graduated in electronic engineering in Seoul, David joined the corporation as an employee. Then the keen musician – he plays seven instruments, including piano, viola, flute, drums and various guitars – took the chance to revive a failed university project through Samsung’s internal employee innovation scheme.
His idea was selected and he was able to ‘hire’ colleagues for his project. Starting in August 2015, he had one year to make it work. Suffice to say he and his team did exactly that: HumOn is now an official Samsung spin-off.
“Everyone should be able to be a composer,” says David. “Every human being has their inner musician, even if they don’t have skills on an instrument. Every human wants to express their emotional story through music.
Here are some of David’s own favourite tunes, which also began as simple hums.
“Music has logical and mathematical properties,” he adds. “So I thought composing it could be automated by machine learning.”
That part is already working impressively well. But what’s the business model and where’s it going? Sure, it’s a fun toy, but there has to be more to it than that. David’s answer is really an intriguing one.
“We want to build musical social media,” he says. “Right now people are expressing their emotions through pictures and text; they think that music belongs to trained or gifted people.
“But with the right tools, people can do that through music as well. With an easy way to compose, they will realise it’s not that difficult to be a composer!”
Will sympathy-seekers switch from text rants to sharing mournful bassoon melodies on some new social media platform? Or might teenagers swap tunes they just hummed on a whim, Snapchat-style? It’s the kind of thing that will either be a craze or a flop, but a worthy idea. And if Samsung were to throw their weight behind it, who knows?
While that’s just an idea for now, a good start is that the technology clearly works. And well enough, we think, that even professionals could find it useful to ‘jot down’ inspirations while they’re on the go. They could also use it to choose a broad direction without the time and expense of studio recording every option.
While the core product remains free when the next version releases on Android and iPhone at the end of this month, HumOn is looking at freemium models under which the upgrade might include cloud storage, high-quality accompaniment generation personalised for style or genre, file export capabilities or copyright purchase of the accompaniment track.
As I keen whistler myself, there’s one more thing I have to ask David before we wrap up our interview by way of a visit to the imperious statue of Mozart around the corner. Why humming, and not singing or whistling?
“A singing voice is very hard to detect compared to humming,” he says. “We could have done whistling, but not everybody can whistle, you see…”
And I’m not going to argue with that any more than I’d argue with a raging Beethoven!
*HumOn was a [category winner](https://blog.midem.com/2017/06/presenting-the-2017-midemlab-winners-humon-truelinked-soundcharts-and-vinci-smart-headphones/) at MIDEM in June. The specialist music industry event took place in Cannes, just after Pioneers’17.*
**Are you or your startup working on some ground-breaking technology we should try out and introduce to the world? Are you a competitor who thinks they’ve got a better version? Mail richard.asher@pioneers.io and get set to show us your tech!**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Review: Hello, Robot at the Vienna MAK](https://pioneers.io/mak-blog/)
**Published:** August 31, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** When we heard that an exhibition exploring the growing relationship between robots and humanity was visiting Vienna as part of the Biennale, we felt duty-bound to go along and take a look. Here's what we found at the MAK museum...
**Content:**
Fourteen questions guide you through the *Hello, Robot* exhibition currently showing at the MAK in Vienna. Some are broad (‘do we really need robots?’) while others have a tighter focus (‘do you want a robot to take care of you?’). These words are physical: they hang suspended above the exhibits. Much like their respective answers, really.
The ever-present big questions (all in English) and the division of the exhibition into four broadly time-sequential ‘chapters’ ensure plenty of structure. But despite that logical flow from past to present to future, there’s no escaping the timeless jumble of conundrums we hit when the subject is robots. The future’s fears and challenges are much the same as the past’s, it turns out. And the same big themes hit you no matter where you are in the museum.
The moments that really follow you home are those intuitive responses you had to individual pieces. It’s surprising just how violent these can be. While you’re inclined to reserve judgement on those bigger questions (‘Do You Want To Become a Producer?’) until you know more, reactions to some of the pieces of current or future tech can be a sudden and violent ‘yes please!’ or ‘no way!’. Which is, one supposes, the point of an exhibition like this. The individual provokes emotion, leading reflection to the general.
Those swift intuitions are exactly the ones we need to experience, never mind which side of the robotics fence we sit one – if we’ve chosen a side at all. It’s nourishing to see that not everything about the robotics world has to be apocalyptic. And it’s equally healthy to meet the aspects of it that might revolt you. Because when it comes to the bigger questions in this area, all we can really do is break them down into smaller ones.
As something of a cynic myself, it’s the positive applications of robots that stayed strongest in my mind after leaving the museum. I never knew about the corruption-proof traffic officer robot a group of female engineers created and built in unlikely Kinshasa. Then there are the water drones that look for refugee vessels in distress, or military machines like Dragon Runner, which carries out bomb disposal and other dangerous tasks.
It was also a fun thing to meet Kip (I think robot might need surnames soon), the ‘Empathy Robotic Object.’ Guided purely by tone of voice, it (he? she?) takes on the pose of a curious, fascinated cartoon animal when people are talking nicely. Or cowers and trembles when folks get nasty. One can imagine Kip being a useful therapy for those with anger management issues.
While on the subject of therapies, we simply cannot forget the positive influence robotics and artificial intelligence is having in the medical context. On display is the EksoGT robotic exoskeleton – yep, the one that stole the show at Pioneers Festival 2013 – which can help a paralysed person get up and walk. So too is Leka, the ‘smart toy’ designed to help autistic kids. Further compelling examples – from bionics to brain implants for Parkinson’s sufferers – make the TV presentation in the fourth ‘chapter’ well worth a watch. Intuitive reaction? Overwhelmingly positive. I’m certainly not in favour of telling any of the people who need these things that we want to outlaw this helpful technology.
But, on the other side of the emotional coin, the video of ‘Alice’ in action stays with me. It showed a Dutch robot taking the place of a carer and companion for the elderly. I instantly disliked her: she’d crossed some deep-rooted line governing what should be human and what shouldn’t. Similarly, the clip of Joaquin Phoenix discovering his robot companion ‘cheats’ on him in the movie Her was freaky. And not in a good way. I can’t tell you that my part in the free-for-all discussion with award-winning chatbot Mitsuku was any more satisfying, either.
Nor could I say I warmed to the idea of Frebble, a pair of devices that allow for some kind of long-range exchange of ‘touch’. For me it lacks the human touch (pardon the pun), but I suppose a spot of ‘teledildonics’ can’t do any major harm. Kevin Grennan’s Smell of Control, in which sweat glands were built into robots, was the kind of thing that makes you wonder what the point is in trying so damn hard to replicate something we’ve already got. Help the sick, break down bombs and manage traffic, by all means. But recreating humans and their experiences for the sake of it? That’s where a line began to appear for me.
Mixed up with the examples of specific tech are more ‘arty’ pieces that simply show points of view in memorable ways. Dystopian futures are of course a common theme here. Even on the most marvellous of days in the office, who could resist a music video called Kill Your Co-Workers? This amusingly over-the-top creation shows what might happen when our colleagues are robots…
As if to illustrate the impossibility of categorizing this exhibition, that particular piece is not part of the chapter cover the future of work. What you will find there is Edward Burtynsky’s giant photograph of a 450-metre-long assembly hall in Xiamen, China. Full of practically faceless workers in identical uniforms, it makes you wonder if some of us aren’t basically drones already.
But while people performing that kind of menial task may surely only benefit from being freed to do something more fulfilling, the Alice (surnames, I tell you!) character in the disturbing The Last Job on Earth cartoon looks more than a little upset when her computer boots up and says ‘We’re upgrading our workforce, and we’re sorry to tell you…’
And as you think about these things, you notice a framed story from Der Spiegel, the headline of which screams ‘100 million unemployed in 40 years?’ The date on the story is 1982. Which may be a lesson that some things don’t change all that much. And when they do, it might take longer than we fear. Not that that’s a reason to delay thinking about where we’re heading.
A final note for those with a soft spot for sci-fi and the like. The first chapter of the exhibition might be a treat. You can meet a phalanx of (mostly Japanese) post-war toy robots, eye up Jan de Coster’s ‘transgender’ Robin and enjoy Nintendo nostalgia in the shape of the rather primitive R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) from 1985.
There certainly isn’t space here to start digging deep enough to draw major conclusions about exactly how we should handle our robotic potential. And, if you’re cynical, you might very well say that those with power and money will make the decision for us anyway. However, it never hurts to be educated, and exhibitions like this have real value in summing up where we are and where we might going.
*Hello, Robot. Design Between Human and Machine* runs until October 1. It’s just one of the future-facing exhibitions in the Vienna Biennale 2017, the overall theme of which is Robots, Work, Our Future. The exhibition then moves to Ghent (October 2017-April 2018) and Winterthur (May-November 2018).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Apply for ‘What The Data!?’ Hackathon and Win a Pair of Tickets to Pioneers’18!](https://pioneers.io/apply-what-data-hackathon-and-win-pioneers18-tickets/)
**Published:** August 29, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers has teamed up with Cybus as it gears up for the second edition of the ‘What The Data!?’ Hackathon in Hamburg next month. Do you and your startup have what it takes?
**Content:**
In the latest open call by our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover, we’re looking for startups who’d like to be among the participants in the three-day hackathon, which runs from September 15-17. Applicants should be confident they can develop new data-driven digital business models and applications in the areas of Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 and Energy.
There will be a multitude of challenges to tackle at what is one of Germany’s biggest hackathons. Some of these will be issued by the event sponsors, led by principal partner TenneT. A variety of interesting prizes including Bitcoin vouchers and hi tech sensors will be on offer, with a pair of Pioneers’18 tickets going to the overall winner of the ‘What The Data!?’ Award.
Further event partners include Deutsche Bahn Mindbox, SICK Sensors, Harting, Danfoss, Pfannenberg and Schunk.
The hackathon isn’t just limited to technical challenges, but also offers 11 keynote talks, masterclasses and workshops from external experts. It takes place in the Research Institute at HAW Hamburg’s futuristic and fascinating Energie-Campus, which was opened just two years ago.
Pioneers Discover is working with Cybus not only to source the very best selection of relevant startups for the ‘What The Data!?’ Hackathon, but also in the planning, promotion and on-site operations.
Startups can apply [here!](https://www.what-the-data.com/)
For more details on Pioneers Discover startup opportunities, please visit: [](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls/)
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Next Wave of Health.Pioneers Startups Confirmed](https://pioneers.io/next-wave-healthpioneers-startups-confirmed/)
**Published:** September 7, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Almost 40 of the 100 startups for Health.Pioneers in Amsterdam next month have now been confirmed. Here’s a few of the worthy innovators we’ve chosen so far.
**Content:**
While they attack a variety of different problems with an exciting mix of solutions, they’re all advancing healthcare in their own special way. Data analytics, machine learning tools and new deployment methods feature prominently as these innovators find ways to contribute to the transformation of the entire health industry.
Among the startups you’ll be able to meet at B.Building Business on October 25 in the Dutch capital is [Contextflow](http://contextflow.com/de/), which is developing breakthrough technology for radiologists. It’s best described as an image-based search engine that uses machine learning to draw useful parallels from a variety of essentially unstructured medical data.
[Anvajo](http://anvajo.com/), a spin-off from the University of Technology in Dresden, will also be joining us in the Netherlands. It has developed a ‘minilab’ that can test blood with minimal invasiveness, providing immediate results with lab-grade accuracy. Their product is cheap and small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, adding a highly effective tool to improve diagnostics and prescriptions in new contexts.
Hungarian cancer-fighters [Turbine](http://www.turbine.ai/), who were Pioneers Challenge finalists at Pioneers’17, are also coming to Health.Pioneers. They’ve developed a method to replicate slow, expensive laboratory testing of cancer drug hypotheses with computer simulations. These ‘virtual experiments’ exponentially grow the amount of drug ideas oncologists can assess a given time frame – and Turbine is also developing the tech to be able to offer personalised cancer drug recommendations.
Also on the cancer warpath are [Active Needle](http://www.activeneedle.com/), a British startup who have developed a highly accurate ultrasonically vibrating biopsy needle. The device aims to outperform current techniques by reducing bending and improving visibility of the needle tip.
Another of our Health.Pioneers startups, [Atlas Biomed](https://atlasbiomed.com/), is among those advancing the move towards putting more of health management in the hands of patients. Their easy-to-use DNA and microbiome tests can produce personalised food and fitness recommendations, inspiring people to positive lifestyle changes for a healthier future.
We’re also thinking outside the box by inviting [Animacel](http://www.animacel.com/), a Slovenian company that has developed stem cell technology to treat animals suffering from diseases affecting locomotor apparatus. They’re working to help horses and dogs with joint and ligament problems.
You can view the ever-growing list of confirmed startups (including [Holey](http://www.holey.it/), one of whose smart orthopaedic solutions is pictured above) by visiting the [Health Pioneers website](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/), scrolling down below the agenda and selecting ‘startups’.
It’s not too late for your startup to apply for Health.Pioneers, but we’re already screening plenty more great ones so the sooner the better! The final deadline is September 18 and you can apply [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/healthpioneers).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Time For Art And Tech Innovation To Come Together: Introducing CultTech](https://pioneers.io/dimitri/)
**Published:** September 14, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Ahead of the ground-breaking VC CultTech Hackathon in Vienna on September 19-21, Russian businessman Dmitry Aksenov, Chairman of the Board of viennacontemporary, shares some of his insights on the genesis of the event, innovation in the arts and why Vienna is the perfect hub for a global CultTech ecosystem.
**Content:**
The time for art and tech innovation to meet has well and truly come, says the successful Russian businessman and art expert who came up with the idea of this hackathon – which will be organized by Pioneers Discover and VC Artevents. New business models have long been overlooked on the cultural scene. Yet the need to look ahead and embrace new tech is as pressing in the arts as it is in industries such as Fintech or engineering, where hackathons have long been understood as critical to long-term competitivity.
“Radical change is already there,” says Aksenov of the challenges facing galleries, concert halls, festivals, art fairs, museums and even entire cities. “If you don’t see it then you’re dead already.”
“Cultural institutions are all experiencing diminishing funding and disruption of existing models. The most popular video on YouTube this summer collected over 3 billion views – that’s what culture is facing! Institutions have to think about how they can fit into this. The answers to next week’s hackathon challenges will help promote their products but also to gain revenue.”
The VC CultTech Hackathon challenges have been issued by such players as the Vienna State Opera (‘How do we enhance customer experience?), the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum (‘How can we improve the ticketing and purchasing process for art institutions’) , the Wiener Festwochen (‘How can you communicate the programme of the festival in a new way?’) and viennacontemporary (‘How to guide the decision making process of various target groups?) . Startups will work to solve these and other problems on September 20-21, the hackathon running in parallel with the annual viennacontemporary art fair.
“In practical terms there hasn’t been much interaction between culture and technology,” explains Aksenov, who will sit on the panel of judges that picks the overall winner from all the startup solutions at the hackathon. “At VC Artevents we had knowledge of both technology and culture, so we decided to take on this specific sector. We decided we wanted to create challenges and test the water. So we invented the name ‘CultTech’ and set up the hackathon.
“There are tons of great cultural institutions in Vienna, and we chose to work with the ones with both a need for new models and the competence to allow us to establish a dialogue with them. It’s difficult to talk to someone about Blockchain, if they don’t really know why they need it.”
And all of this comes not a moment too soon, because both challenges and opportunities are on the rise when it comes to culture. With the inevitable automation of society and work that lies ahead, Aksenov believes that art is about to play a bigger part in our lives than ever before.
“My belief is that culture will be the winner from ‘digital destruction’. Productivity will be such that everyone will be able to have a nice car, a nice phone and a nice apartment relatively easy. But how to make life more inspiring? Culture! There’ll be much more demand for culture because basically people will have more free time. And that means more opportunity for new models.”
“We’re very interested to see a technology we think can become a game-changer. We want to develop an ecosystem, investing in the future in that way, but at the same time we are also ready to invest in a specific startup that can make money. For us, art is both passion and business. It’s beautiful and useful at the same time.”
Aksenov believes Vienna is the ideal place not only to host the novelty of an arts hackathon, but also to become a global CultTech hub.
“Vienna has a great cultural structure and institutions, along with a very educated and sophisticated culture-consuming audience. I believe it’s the perfect place to consolidate all the innovations in culture and become a cultural Davos.
“One of the reasons viennacontemporary has been really successful is that Vienna is a strong brand in culture. 100 years ago it was the capital of culture, and now it is in a unique position to become that again. This is a window of opportunity.”
Technology is already being excitedly embraced when it comes to performance itself. For example, Abba have just announced a ‘virtual and live experience’ for 2019. Institutions will need robust new models to survive and ensure that these wonders can continue to reach their audiences. Next week’s hackathon is the first step on that path.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Top Speakers Take Centre Stage at Health.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/health-pioneers-speakers/)
**Published:** September 13, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers is pleased to announced that two key expert speakers from healthtech industry startups are on board for our Health.Pioneers event in Amsterdam on October 25.
**Content:**
Johannes Schildt, founder of video doctor appointment platform KRY, will deliver a keynote talk on digital transformation in health care. Schildt’s company has redefined the notion of ‘going to the doctor’ by providing primary health care consultations via video in more than 20 languages. It’s the only app-based service of its kind in Sweden that has been certified with the CE (Conformité Européene) health and safety standard, and leads the market there.
The KRY app offers patients online appointments of up to 15 minutes, allowing them to skip the long and unhealthy waits that dog most medical practices. Another convenience is that doctors are available until as late as midnight. KRY also arranges home delivery of medication, issuing sick notes and the paperwork involved in a referral to an offline specialist.
All of the KRY doctors carry a Swedish medical licence, and while basic consultations cost a reasonable 25 Euros, these are free for patients under 20 or over 85. Payment, appointment requests – both ‘drop-in’ and scheduled are available – and the video call itself are all handled within the KRY app.
KRY already has a substantial user base of over 100 000 and recently raised $22.6 million in its Series A round, which was led by Accel. Creandum. Index Ventures also invested in the highly promising company.
Staying in Scandinavia, we’re also pleased to confirm that Finland’s Tommi Lehtonen, Founder of Blueprint Genetics, will be speaking at Health.Pioneers.
Blueprint Genetics works to make easy, quick and actionable genetic knowledge to the medical community. Using the OS-Seq technology co-developed by its Chief Technology Officer Samuel Myllykangas
to keep the costs reasonable, it provides the most comprehensive clinical-grade next-generation sequencing (NGS) on the market.
The company’s primary goal is to help practitioners find the best care solutions for those patients with rare inherited diseases, at low cost and in a short time frame. To this end it offers a comprehensive test menu covering 14 specialist areas from dermatology to cardiology to neurology.
Blueprint has bases in Helsinki, Dubai and San Francisco, and already works with around 400 hospital customers in over 40 countries.
Applications for startups to be selected for Health.Pioneers are still open until September 18, this coming Monday. Apply via this .
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Industry Pioneers Hackathon: Calling Startups & Corporates!](https://pioneers.io/industry-pioneers-hackathon-calling-startups-corporates/)
**Published:** September 18, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re excited to introduce Industry Pioneers, the international hackathon to drive the future of Industry 4.0. Taking place at the Tabakfabrik in Linz, Austria on November 6-8, the door is now open for both corporates and startups to join up and work together for innovative new solutions.
**Content:**
Industry Pioneers offers interested corporates the chance to solve a real-life business challenge, working with the collective brainpower of 20 hand-picked startups from around the world. The keen innovators will be tasked to build workable prototypes in 48 hours.
One of the first companies on board is [KEBA](http://www.keba.com), which will ask startups to help in its quest to build an online community to support technology users. They’re looking for solutions that could include an intelligent database and use smart interface technologies and tools.
Any further companies from around the world who would like to gain new solutions and a presence in the startup ecosystem by issuing challenges to the approximately 80 bright minds taking part in the hackathon can contact Pioneers Discover via [this link](https://pioneers.io/discover/industry-hackathon) or mailing discover@pioneers.io.
For international startups with an Industry 4.0 focus, applications are open! Those selected will gain valuable access to major industrial companies who could become their future partners, solve real-world challenges and improve their skills as they go. They’ll also receive mentorship and tickets to Pioneers’18. Startups can apply for the hackathon [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/industry-hackathon).
Industry Pioneers is supported by Stadt Linz, Land Oberösterreich and Industriellevereinigung Oberösterreich.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Industry Pioneers Hackathon: Calling Startups & Corporates!](https://pioneers.io/industry-pioneers-hackathon-calling-startups-corporates/)
**Published:** September 18, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re excited to introduce Industry Pioneers, the international hackathon to drive the future of Industry 4.0. Taking place at the Tabakfabrik in Linz, Austria on November 6-8, the door is now open for both corporates and startups to join up and work together for innovative new solutions.
**Content:**
Industry Pioneers offers interested corporates the chance to solve a real-life business challenge, working with the collective brainpower of 20 hand-picked startups from around the world. The keen innovators will be tasked to build workable prototypes in 48 hours.
One of the first companies on board is [KEBA](http://www.keba.com), which will ask startups to help in its quest to build an online community to support technology users. They’re looking for solutions that could include an intelligent database and use smart interface technologies and tools.
Any further companies from around the world who would like to gain new solutions and a presence in the startup ecosystem by issuing challenges to the approximately 80 bright minds taking part in the hackathon can contact Pioneers Discover via [this link](https://pioneers.io/discover/industry-hackathon) or mailing discover@pioneers.io.
For international startups with an Industry 4.0 focus, applications are open! Those selected will gain valuable access to major industrial companies who could become their future partners, solve real-world challenges and improve their skills as they go. They’ll also receive mentorship and tickets to Pioneers’18. Startups can apply for the hackathon [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/industry-hackathon).
Industry Pioneers is supported by Stadt Linz, Land Oberösterreich and Industriellevereinigung Oberösterreich.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Qiue's Hot Idea Wins VC CultTech Hackathon](https://pioneers.io/qiues-hot-idea-wins-vc-culttech-hackathon/)
**Published:** September 22, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Austrian startup Qiue has taken overall honours in the VC CultTech Hackathon, which concluded in Vienna yesterday. Organised by Pioneers Discover and VC Artevents to coincide with the viennacontemporary art fair, the hackathon saw a selection of eight international startups work on innovative solutions for top art institutions in the city.
**Content:**
Despite the challenge of competing in their very first hackathon, [Qiue](http://playqiue.com/) impressed the judges with their ‘emotional heat map’, a true hack that was conceived and built during the 48 hours of the hackathon – which began on Tuesday, September 19. In a departure from the ‘Quests in Urban Environments’ experiences they’ve been building day-to-day, their hackathon idea emerged from thinking about the ‘sharing’ and ‘always on’ culture of the mobile generation. With that inspiration they came up with a basic system that could plot the results of users voting on their mood using emoji.
The system allows event organisers to map the overall mood in different parts of an exhibition, concert hall or even a single theatre seat. They could do this in real time, or retrospectively over a defined time period. The data and customer insights this offers could be an invaluable tool for art institutions as they gauge audience reactions in any number of ways.
The simple backend and functionality to communicate with visitors via push notifications could easily be used by a multitude of institutions – and even well beyond the arts scene.
“The emotional map becomes relevant in relation to an environment,” says Qiue co-founder Paul Deitch. “If you have an entrance area, you can see over time how the emotion of our audience changed as they passed through. Or how the mood changed in a single room over a period of time. The wider use cases are potentially enormous, and extremely varied.”
“It was a nervous thing pitching for the first time in front of such a significant and relevant audience, especially with the four-minute limit. I was also quite concerned about going up there last after all those beautiful presentations, but it all worked out in the end!”
“It was a real team effort,” added fellow co-founder Michael Wittinger. “The only way for us to win this was to come up with something creative. It’s our first hackathon and we had no idea what to expect. It’s kind of overwhelming to be here at all actually – especially after I almost accidentally deleted the initial email from Pioneers Discover!
“We don’t understand completely where this idea might go, but we won’t let it fall away. We still believe in Qiue a lot, but there might be even bigger potential for this concept. This is so easy and wide-ranging: you could build it into anything that wants to find out about people’s feelings.
“We might have conceived this idea for an art institution, but you could extend it to a whole city. It could be politically very relevant to have an emotional map, for example.”
There were also four category winners at the hackathon. These were the startups who responded best to specific challenges issued by the four project partners. [Festivality’s](http://www.festivality.co/) ‘Smart Festival App’ earned them the nod from Wiener Festwochen, who asked startups for new ways to communicate the programme for the enormous annual arts festival.
The Wiener Staatsoper eventually chose [Procedural Design](http://procedural.design/) for the way its internal navigation system answered the challenge of finding ways to enhance the customer experience. Viennacontemporary went for [Garwan’s](https://www.garwan.sk/) personalised art fair tool, which helps match art lovers to the art they’ll like – an impressive response to the hackathon host’s wish to find new ways to guide the decision-making process of various target groups.
The final category winner was [Oveit](https://oveit.com/), which came up with the best solution for the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum’s challenge to improve ticketing and purchasing processes for art institutions. Beyond Oveit’s payments platform, this also included the idea of museum visitors using Near Field Communication technology to select their favourite works and thus ‘take home’ part of their experience.
Following the clear success of this ground-breaking arts and culture hackathon, its patron Dmitry Aksenov, the Russian businessman who is also Chairman of the Board of viennacontemporary, announced exciting plans for a similar hackathon to take place in Moscow in February 2018.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Interview & Video: Stromkind Makes Waves in the USA](https://pioneers.io/interview-stromkind-makes-waves-usa/)
**Published:** September 26, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Challenge 2017 winners Stromkind have returned from their prize visit to Silicon Valley with a plan to set up shop in California, plus plenty of lessons and a host of leads - including one they picked up on the beach in the shadow of Alcatraz! We caught up with their MD Andreas Desch as he reflected on the trip - and we've also put a highlights reel together...
**Content:**
The Austrian startup’s week-long trip to San Francisco with Pioneers, their prize for coming out on top at Pioneers’17 back in June, included mentorship sessions with legendary investor Tim Draper, communications expert Nancy Duarte **(above)** and Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel. We also introduced them to a number of other potential mentors and partners.
A chance seashore encounter at Fisherman’s Wharf **(below)** at the end of the week might just have been the most graphic illustration of the market potential of the [Stromkind](http://stromkind.at/) water cleaning and management drone that turned so many heads Pioneers’17 – and has now done the same in Silicon Valley.
“At first thought the park rangers would definitely call the police, since we were just cruising this strange device around without permission,” chuckles Andreas Desch, Stromkind’s Managing Director, who was joined on the US trip by Stromkind partner Hans Waldherr. “But actually they wanted to buy one right away! They were really interested in the product’s potential to localize seaweed where the boats come into the harbour. And we ended up meeting with some of their superiors last week…”
You know you’ve got a great product when it can generate business leads on the beach as well as in the boardroom. Ditto when legendary investor [Tim Draper](http://www.draper.vc/) takes a keen interest in it. Desch rates the meeting with Draper as the standout moment in the week-long trip, which they shared with the Pioneers Ventures team and [portfolio companies](https://pioneers.io/ventures).
“Talking with Tim was just about the first time I met someone who completely understood our plan and our vision,” Desch enthuses of the meeting, which is pictured **below**. “He was very aware on the hardware side. We talked a lot about business cases and he suggested that the true business case might be the big data services we could provide using the drone. Existing systems do more or less nothing apart from collecting data. Our drone could gather data while performing operations at the same time. This double possibility was very interesting to him.
“He was also very impressed by the propulsion system and our solution for cargo security – we had to reveal a few of our patent-pending secrets on that one! He also offered some connections and help in relation to our battery technology.”
While it might be premature to talk about a partnership, Desch says Draper is definitely the kind of associate Stromkind would like to work with.
“Tim thinks really big. He doesn’t just invest $100 000 and wait to see what happens. When you have him on board, it’s a very big and long-lasting relationship.”
The week’s schedule had earlier kicked off with ‘friendly pitching’ among the startups who joined the trip, which helped the founders get to know the other companies and their products, as well as build a positive energy in the group.
Then came the meeting with [Y Combinator](http://www.ycombinator.com/) CEO Michael Seibel **(below)**. “Michael really grilled us! He stressed we should define our focus to one super business case. If we fail with that business case, then we can always focus on another. Also, we should do as much as we can on our own. It’s all about hard work, and nothing is for free – he really put our feet back on the ground!”
The subsequent meeting with growth hacker Andrew Chen gave a similar takeaway in terms of encouraging Stromkind, as a revenue-making company, to keep working under their own steam.
“Andrew said we should do as much as we can by ourselves. We shouldn’t team up, he said – why should a company do that, if they are getting money already? He said if we need more money we can get it from an investor.
“He reminded us of the Valley adage that ‘first you burn money, then you earn money’. We’re already at the stage where we are earning money, so growth for us is about how big we want to go and how good our contracts are. As such he was interested in the big potential of our market – he knows Asia well, where they have a lot of problems with water quality and cleaning.”
Next up came a day-long workshop and private mentoring session with Nancy Duarte and her team of storytelling experts at [Duarte](http://www.duarte.com/).
“It was extremely useful: I can recommend going there and seeing how they do things – these guys are really good! We learnt about how engaging the audience is about presenting your vision, not just the hard facts and the technical stuff.”
Stromkind also received valuable input on visual presentation – stay tuned for a new and improved look! Indeed, almost every meeting they had in California had a tangible and positive outcome. Pioneers took them to see Mikhail Holst, Portfolio Manager at Singularity University Ventures, which led to useful connections at NASA Research Park, while our introduction to Advantage Austria ultimately earned Stromkind meetings with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense.
“The whole trip was very well planned and executed,” reflects Desch. “It was inspiring for us to work with the young and motivated guys in the group. The trip has really changed things for us.
“It’s starting to get serious for us now. We’re in a good position because not so many people have the time in Silicon Valley to develop hardware like ours. Tim said we’re true pioneers in that we have created a new business field. And the guys at Duarte pointed out that by working with water we’re using 80% of the surface of the earth to create a business while the rest of the world focuses on the remaining 20%! So even if we get a small part of this market we can still be really big.”
And the next steps? Heading back to the States! An apartment and shared office in San Francisco is already on the cards. The inspiration they picked up on this trip has convinced Stromkind that they need to have a presence there as they execute their learnings and push to the next level. We wish our 2017 Pioneers Challenge winners all of the very best!
*Startups who’d like to follow in Stromkind’s footsteps and apply for the chance to pitch at Pioneers’18 click [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/pioneers-500).*
***Here’s the video of Stromkind’s trip to California!***
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Discover Teams up with Booking.com B.V. for Global Series of Regional Startup Events](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-teams-bookingcom-global-series-regional-startup-events/)
**Published:** September 27, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover, is pleased to announce that it will partner with Booking.com B.V., one of the world’s largest travel e-commerce companies and a digital technology leader, to launch Booster Labs, a global series of regional events aimed at helping startups make an impact through sustainable tourism, starting in Barcelona on December 1-3.
**Content:**
Organised together with Pioneers Discover, the Booster Labs are short, compact weekend programmes dedicated to giving early-stage startups the insights, tools and skills they need to grow and make an impact, including the chance to pitch for funding of up to €25,000 from Booking.com. After the first Booster Labs weekend in Barcelona, the Booster Labs roadshow will head to North America, Asia and the Middle East in 2018, with future cities and timings to be announced shortly.
Following up on the success of the company’s Booking Booster programme, a three-week accelerator that ran at their Amsterdam HQ this year, Booking.com B.V. has decided to take the concept to other parts of the world in a condensed weekend format, focussed on empowering early-stage startups from specific regions, beginning with Europe.
“Our goal with the new Booster Labs is to identify, mentor and support sustainable tourism startups at an earlier-stage in their development,” said Wendy van Leeuwen, Program Manager for Booking Booster at Booking.com B.V. “Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth.”
Over the three days of the weekend programme, startups selected for the Booster Labs will participate in hands-on workshops and insightful talks from the best industry experts, and be paired with mentors from Booking.com B.V. – an inspiringly successful company with a host of sustainable tourism initiatives. And a company, let’s not forget, that began as just another typical startup back in the 90s.
After two days of networking, workshops, mentorship and talks, the weekends will conclude with a pitching day. If the startups’ projected impact and growth plans are impressive enough, they could win a grant of up to €25,000.
Pioneers Discover will be responsible for driving startup scouting and for executing and managing the events. For the first Booster Lab weekend in Barcelona, we will be looking for 10-15 of the most innovative and inspiring European-based startups in sustainable tourism to apply. (Deadline to apply is October 15.) More specifically, startups should be early-stage and working in one of the following two areas:
Innovative solutions to overcrowding that prevent negative economic, environmental and sociocultural effects associated with mass tourism; and/or
Business concepts which promote inclusive growth that supports and develops local economies and communities.
For more information and to apply for the first Booster Lab in Barcelona on December 1-3 visit our [Pioneers Discover Open Calls page](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Introducing The Business Model Canvas For GovTech Startups](https://pioneers.io/introducing-business-model-canvas-govtech-startups/)
**Published:** September 28, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Frederik Groce, the GovTech specialist investor at Storm Ventures in Silicon Valley who’ll join us at GovTech Pioneers in Vienna on May 23 next year, has today published an invaluable resource for startups looking at opportunities in GovTech. We chat exclusively with him as he reveals his blueprint.
**Content:**
Frederik’s nine-step process is packed with the GovTech-specific questions startups should ask themselves as they assess their viability. And it draws heavily on his specialist knowledge of how the ‘B2G’ space differs from the B2B.
Frederik’s detailed advice in this area is definitely worth a close look. After all, he’s spent many months speaking to stakeholders throughout the GovTech space and understanding their needs. He’s done a lot of ‘investor homework’, in other words.
“In the last 10 months I’ve spoken to somewhere between 45 and 60 founders. I’ve also spent five months talking to civil servants. I needed to understand their needs and what problems they see compared to the problems startups are telling me they see.”
The great news is that Frederik has turned those insights into a practical plan in the form of the GovTech Business Model canvas. A terrific starting point for the growing number of GovTech founders out there, who still face a relative lack of content and resources specific to what is still a relatively nascent field.
“What I’ve done is re-purpose the well-known Business Model Canvas for GovTech,” says Frederik. “It’s basically nine steps you should work through and address before you decide if you should really go after a particular piece of GovTech business. These are all things we think about in the enterprise world, but with certain twists and nuances you have to understand if you’re dealing with government.”
Certainly worth doing, though, because the rewards for startups getting it right could be very satisfying indeed. Frederik agrees with a growing number of investors when it comes to the incredible potential of GovTech.
“I look at the tech stack governments are using today, and it’s largely antiquated stuff from the nineties! The tech in the enterprise runs circles around it. Yet the stakes are really high: in fact I would argue that government is the world’s largest enterprise. Governments are often the largest buyers, the largest spenders, the largest revenue collectors and largest employers in a country, city or state. That’s how big an opportunity GovTech is from a market perspective. The potential is huge.”
Critical to that is his firm belief that there’s a widespread willingness from government employees to look at new technology. “I found that the civil servants were extraordinarily willing to talk about new ideas. They were excited that a VC was willing to spend a couple of hours with a police chief of Mountain View or a clerk in San Ramon.
“Are there challenges in closing a deal in government organisations? Yes. You have an ageing generation of people who are still in decision-making roles and may not be so open to change. But the reality is that change is coming, and there are a lot of people in government who are digital natives. And they’re frustrated that they cannot, in their jobs, do things in three clicks like they do in their personal lives. Some are using carbon copy papers, dot matrix printers and green screens.
“But these people need to be part of the conversation, not be forced to bond with new technology.”
That’s exactly where some founders have been missing a trick, says Frederik. And where his specialist Business Model Canvas comes in.
“A surprising number of founders I’ve spoken to were building companies without spending a lot of time with the ideal user profile. They saw an inefficiency and they just decided to build a product around that. In the B2B world that works to some degree, but in government it’s a little bit different. You really need to spend time with those stakeholders!
“There will be complexities in the workflow that a founder may not understand from the outside. How exactly does a piece of paper really move through government? These are questions they need to answer, and I’ve tried to sum all of that up in the GovTech Business Model Canvas. It’s all about doing the right type of research and going through the right steps. Then startups can set up their business for success.”
One last piece of advice Frederik has for founders? Target local, not national, government as your early customers.
“The most strategic go-to-market is at state and local level,” Frederik believes. “Going after national tends to be overly burdensome. Your product road map will end up specifically answering a problem that agency has, with very specific requirements. That can be addictive because they will pay a lot of money for that – but at the end of a six-month deployment you may have a product that you can’t deploy across 100 different departments.
“On the other hand a lot of states or cities – altogether around 89,000 agencies just in the USA, for example – can make decisions on their own. And they’re also the ones who need innovation the most! Go after them and you are developing a product more likely to be widely applicable, because they all have the same sorts of problems.
“I would not likely invest if a federal deal was the only customer the startup had in their early days. It’s really tough to see how that scales.”
Frederik is excited about travelling to Vienna to share his expertise and network at the expanded second edition of GovTech.Pioneers next year, which will take place in the same week as Pioneers’18.
“GovTech.Pioneers sounds like an amazing opportunity. The ecosystem needs more of this, where we bring civil servants, investors and companies all together. And it’s great that it’s on such an international level, because companies in GovTech are going to scale internationally faster than those in the B2B world.”
*The Business Model Canvas for GovTech is pictured above and can be downloaded [here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxfdPHMASZCvMjJIVF8xbnlsOFE/view?usp=sharing). Here’s more from Frederik on the nine key areas it walks you through:*
**Issue/Opportunity** — This is the problem that you’re trying to solve. Similar to B2B enterprise startups, GovTech startups are all fundamentally software solutions to existing problems.
**Ideal User Profile** — This is who you expect to use the product. This may be a single individual, a team, or a group of people. This are the folks your software engineers and product people will spend the most time with iterating over the product. Once you identify the IUP, I recommend you spend a day or two shadowing them — you might be surprised by what you learn.
**Stakeholders and Buyers** — These are the gatekeepers, and you need to understand who they are in government. This could be a manager, a city manager, another department like procurement or IT. The more complex, the longer the expected sales cycle will be.
**Urgency** Why now? What’s changed that makes the job of the ideal user profile more difficult? Is there new regulation? A new law? Urgency helps accelerate the go-to-market by creating a pull in the market, it’s ideal that there’s some level of urgency though product strength network effects can help if there isn’t any clear urgency in the market.
**Buying Process** — Understanding the buyer isn’t all it takes, this is government after all! You also need to understand HOW a purchase is made. Does there need to be an RFP/RFQ? Can you come below a procurement threshold?
**Product & Features** — This is often where people want to start after they define the issue/opportunity. I urge every GovTech founder not to jump to product. It’s 6th on this list because everything above is key for you to understand before you start writing a single line of code.
**Funding** — How do you plan to finance your business? Do you know who the players are? At Storm Ventures, we like to fund startups that are just post product market fit. We define this as a company with a few customers buying the product for the same reason. We
urge every GovTech company to always have a line of sight to cash flow breakeven.
**Risks & Competition** — What are the challenges you expect on the go-to-market? Who are the competitors? What are they doing well and not so well? How are you differentiated?
**Thought Leadership** — This is something you won’t find on the standard Business Model Canvas, but it’s key. Thought leadership is how you define the “new way” in any new category. It’s likely that the average civil servant hasn’t used a product like the one you want to build, so you need to help civil servants talk about the product you’ve built. You need to create rich content that talks about the benefits. You need to show people what the “new way” is and how to join “the movement.”
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Video & Interview: Plenty to celebrate for Gustav and Pioneers Ventures in Silicon Valley](https://pioneers.io/highlights-video-ventures/)
**Published:** October 2, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** The end of September was an exciting time for Pioneers Ventures, as our investment arm took six of its 25 portfolio companies - and Pioneers’17 winning startup Stromkind - on the annual trip to Silicon Valley. The month also saw innovative recruitment platform Gustav become the first of our startups to join the Y Combinator family.
**Content:**
Highlights of the trip to San Francisco included the group of early-stage startups meeting [Y Combinator](http://www.ycombinator.com/) CEO Michael Seibel and a group workshop with communications expert Nancy Duarte and her team at [Duarte](http://www.duarte.com/). The startups also spent time with [500 Startups](https://500.co/) Partner Marvin Liao, who gave them some of his invaluably honest feedback!
In total the startups enjoyed 15 group sessions and 15 individual meetings with growth experts, accelerators, academic institutions and investors including [Speedinvest](http://speedinvest.com/) and other top-tier VC’s. To get a flavour of all the networking, learning and fun – check out the following video!
Also joining the highly productive and educational sessions in the United States was Austrian startup [Gustav](https://hellogustav.com/), which was able to provide its fellow Pioneers Ventures portfolio companies with plenty of inspiration following its acceptance to Y Combinator.
It’s little more than a year since Gustav launched its idea of creating a single method for companies to access staff from multiple agencies. Critically for Gustav as it took its first steps was that Pioneers Ventures showed faith as one of the initial investors.
“They were the first we got on board and it was really important to get us off the ground,” says Gustav’s founder Jan Jedlinski. “It was essential for the further development of the company. The connections, introductions and partnerships we’ve gotten through Pioneers, particularly at Pioneers Festival, have helped a lot. So has the Pioneers network of other investors.”
Notable among these is Pioneers partner fund Speedinvest, which subsequently joined as an investor in Gustav. Both of the Vienna-based companies remain on board as Gustav spreads its wings in the USA with the help of Y Combinator.
“Joining Y Combinator is really big for us, considering we came from Austria where the startup scene is small,” adds Jedlinski. “We’ve built up a really cool network through them already. It’s an honour to be among companies like Airbnb and Dropbox. We’re really lucky to be part of the network.”
Jedlinski believes that although the product remains in the early stages of development, it’s the quality of both the team and the concept that have spoken to Pioneers Ventures, Speedinvest, and now Y Combinator.
“We’re doing something pretty unusual in a huge and growing market which is still very offline, with companies that have been around for 50 or 60 years. We’re building a tech layer on top of a very large industry, and that’s attractive to a lot of people.
With the strategic, networking and financial boost that comes with being a part of Y Combinator, that big revenue stream has definitely come a step closer now. Pioneers Ventures and Speedinvest are both excited to see Gustav progressing so rapidly, as well as proud to have been the companies to have shown early faith.
“It’s been an intense journey with Gustav so far. The persistence and passion of the founders again turned out to be the critical success factor. Therefore, we’re 100% sure that we’ll hear more success stories from them in the future,” says Markus Lang, Managing Director, Pioneers Ventures.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Health.Pioneers Countdown: Startups and Sessions!](https://pioneers.io/100-startups/)
**Published:** October 5, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re excited to be able to reveal the full list of 100 startups we’ve selected for Health.Pioneers in Amsterdam on October 25! And with just under three weeks to go, read on for more news on our corporate-startup collaboration session.
**Content:**
Among our startup selection you’ll find **Labfolder**, a Berlin-based firm with a B2B SaaS ‘operating system for laboratories’ that solves the problem of research data management. Also from the German capital comes **Baze**, which is developing and marketing the first truly personalized nutrients and supplements, bringing a data-driven approach to what a $120bn global market.
Meanwhile **Criamtech** will be coming from Lisbon to introduce their portable blood type and disease detection device, which will be able to determine blood type, ABO and Rh in three minutes, drastically reducing time possible errors.
Travelling all the way from Seattle in the United States is **Immusoft**, which has come up with a way to program a patient’s B cells to cure disease through its ‘Immune System Programming’. One example application is the treatment of MPS I.
We’ll also have some ‘home’ companies from the Netherlands in the room. These include **Fited**, a startup that creates elegant and accurate 3D printed medical braces and prosthetics from images, saving on costs and improving efficiency by moving away from plaster-casting and hand-molding.
View the selected startups [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/participants/102/startups).
If you’re a health corporate and the idea of meeting 100 startups with great healthtech innovations sounds pretty tantalizing, then you won’t want to miss our session dedicated to corporate-startup collaboration in the health sector.
In that session, entitled *Health Startups and Corporations – Models of Collaboration*, Min-Sung Sean Kim of **Allianz Ventures** and Dr Jama Nateqi, co-founder of **Symptoma**, will take to the stage to discuss the ways health startups and corporates to innovate together.
Allianz Ventures enables the digitalization of Allianz through investing in and partnering with innovative start-ups, while Symptoma is a search engine that enables physicians to search for relevant diagnostic information based on patients’ symptoms, age, location and gender.
Kim’s credentials also include being an investor in **Pioneers alumnus MySugr** – a hugely successful diabetes management startup which was recently acquired by Roche.
For the full agenda click [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/agenda/102).
To buy tickets click [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/healthpioneers-tickets-35235172349).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Interview: Health.Pioneers Speaker Krzysztof Chylinski Talks CRISPR/Cas9](https://pioneers.io/interview-healthpioneers-speaker-krzysztof-chylinski-talks-crisprcas9/)
**Published:** October 9, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** CRISPR/Cas9 co-inventor Krzysztof Chylinski will take to the stage at Health.Pioneers in Amsterdam on October 25 to speak about the vast potential of the genome editing method. He’s just one of a host of top speakers we’ve got lined up, which now also includes Mapfre Chief Medical Officer Ana Villanueva.
**Content:**
With CRISPR/Cas9 among the most powerful of emerging health technologies, hearing Krzysztof speak at Health.Pioneers should be an opportunity not to miss.
“I’ll be talking about how our idea of CRISPR/Cas9 system arose almost as an accidental discovery,” says Krzysztof, who co-authored the fundamental papers describing Cas9 and proposing CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing tool with lead researcher Emmanuelle Charpentier. At the time, he was pursuing his PhD at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories, at the University of Vienna.
“Then I’ll look at what’s already been done with the method, what people are trying to do with it now and what the long term possibilities are.
“I’ll explain why CRISPR/Cas9 is considered a revolution compared to the previous system, looking at the opportunities and challenges around it. Scientists are publishing about 20 papers a week on its applications, and that’s been going on since only a few months after we proposed the system. So I believe that the sky’s the limit!”
But why exactly is this method generating such a level of excitement in the scientific community that Krzysztof can make a full-time job out of helping implement the technology into other scientists’ research projects at Vienna Biocenter Core Facilities?
We pushed him for a little more detail on use cases for the ‘cut and paste’ technology that makes it possible to remove from and add to genetic sequences.
“Basic research is one simple application. It’s a great tool to modify cells or organisms, particularly in small doses in the context of scientific work. This is a big revolution because the system is cheaper and faster and easier than everything that went before.
“Big companies have no problem using earlier systems when it comes to costs and time, because for them it’s just a drop in the ocean anyway. But it makes a major difference for everyday scientists working in research labs without a lot of funding.
“The bigger-picture applications could include crop modifications, different experiments on therapies for genetic diseases and anti-cancer treatments. There are even plans to revive species. They’re trying to get mammoths back – or something like that!”
While scientists should probably be careful about sending a herd of hairy elephants galumphing onto an unwitting campus without warning, the revival of extinct species could still be a great example of human technology correcting human mistakes. And the potential doesn’t stop there.
“There are also new possibilities for therapy in which you modify only the cells that help the patient,” continues Krzysztof. “That’s a positive given the challenges around delivery: it’s super-hard to deliver anything to the whole organism.
“Then there’s the team led by George Church and Dong Niu that has used the method to create ‘humanized pigs’. In other words pigs that would be a safer source of organ transplants. They were able to use CRISPR to remove certain retroviruses from the pig genome. Those retroviruses would be harmful for people who might one day get organs from a pig.
“There are plenty more applications,” he concludes. “There are thousands of papers being written, and scientists are working on so many fields that it’s hard to keep up!”
And in a twist that could serve as a lesson to all those innovators out there, CRISPR/Cas9 really was a bit of an opportunistic discovery. We might not have this incredible new technology if it weren’t for Krzysztof and his colleagues keeping their eyes – and minds – wide open as they worked on a different project.
“Our project wasn’t originally research into a genome engineering tool. It was research on the mechanism of bacterial defence. And basically we saw an opportunity that could lead somewhere. When you’re doing basic research sometimes something cool happens. If you have your eyes open and a bit of brains, then you can take something good and applicable out of it.”
Krzysztof’s talk will form part of the Genomics and Its Transformative Impact session, in which Blueprint Genetics founder Tommi Lehtonen will also speak, as previously revealed. The latest confirmed speaker for that session is Villanueva, who is an expert on risk assessment, Chief Medical Officer at Spanish insurance and financial services group Mapfre and Board Member at the International Committee for Insurance Medicine.
KRY Founder Johannes Schildt is another healthtech innovator who will give a talk at Health.Pioneers, where the creator of the Swedish video doctor appointment platform will deliver a keynote entitled KRY – Shifting the Healthcare Paradigm.
And in subsequent Patient Empowerment and Data-Driven Innovation in Healthcare session, attendees will be able to learn from Daniel Nathrath of ADA Health, Péter Adorján of SAP and Bart de Witte of IBM.
For the full agenda click [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/).
[Join us](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/healthpioneers-tickets-35235172349) at Health.Pioneers.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Wienerberger and Fronius join Keba as Industry 4.0 Hackathon Partners](https://pioneers.io/wienerberger-and-fronius-join-keba-industry-40-hackathon-partners/)
**Published:** October 10, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover is pleased to welcome Wienerberger and Fronius as partners for the international Industry 4.0 Hackathon our consultancy arm is organising in Linz, Austria on November 6-8. They’ll join Keba in issuing real-world challenges to 20 industry-focused startups, developers and students Pioneers Discover is currently scouting.
**Content:**
Pioneers Discover is inviting **single developers** and **students**, as well as **startups**, to answer any of our partners’ challenges during 48 hours of problem-solving. We’re looking for those well-acquainted with big data, remote maintenance, predictive analytics, machine learning, big data, VR/AR/MR, HoloLens, wearables, sensors and communication tools including conversational and natural interfaces.
Startups, students and developers selected for the Industry 4.0 Hackathon will have the unique chance to meet with the top management of some leading international industrial companies, as well as to win tickets to Pioneers’18 in Vienna on May 24-25 next year.
**Wienerberger**, the world’s largest producer of bricks and leader of the clay roof tiles market in Europe, is asking the hand-picked innovators to come up with virtual assistance and intelligent support solutions for machine maintenance.
Meanwhile **Fronius**, which is a global industry leader in the fields of welding technology, photovoltaics and battery charging tech, is putting out a challenge for the bright minds contesting the hackathon to prototype need-based virtual assistance systems for commissioning, operation and maintenance of their systems. These could will need to work with existing backend systems such as PLM, CRM and ERP.
And as previously announced, international automation solutions company **KEBA** will ask participants to help in its quest to build an online community to support technology users. They’re looking for solutions that could include an intelligent database and use smart interface technologies and tools.
While some participants are already on board for the event at Tabakfabrik, applications for the Industry 4.0 Hackathon are still open until October 22. Application is via the [Pioneers Discover Open Calls page](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls).
Even more pressing is the October 15 deadline for startups to apply to Pioneers Discover to be selected for for Booking.com Booster Labs. These are weekend programs to boost early-stage sustainable tourism startups, who could also win funding up to €25,000. the first Booster Lab takes place in Barcelona on December 1-3, and interested startups can apply [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls).
Time is also running out to get a foot in the door for another project we’re running with Wienerberger, namely the Wienerberger Innovation Day, which takes place in Vienna on January 25 next year. Here Wienerberger is looking for top startups to co-create the future of urban living. You can read more about the programme [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/co-create-future-wienerberger-innovation-day) or apply right away [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls) by October 31.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Interview: Speech Therapy Goes Digital With BlubBlub](https://pioneers.io/interview-speech-therapy-goes-digital-blubblub/)
**Published:** October 11, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With Healthtech the theme of the moment as the countdown to our Health.Pioneers event in Amsterdam on October 25 continues, we profile BlubBlub, a Pioneers Ventures portfolio startup working in the niche speech therapy space.
**Content:**
Every startup, no matter what field it’s working in, sets out to solve a problem. But none of those are more satisfying to fix than those in the healthcare arena. ‘Changing lives’ is an overused term in the startup world, but it’s entirely apt when we’re talking about ideas that might take a disease, disability or discomfort out of someone’s daily existence. Nothing matters like health matters.
Take, for example, a child with speech difficulties. The bullying, frustration and lack of confidence that’s a frequent consequence can affect their long-term future in any number of ways. The Slovenian founders of BlubBlub know this only too well. All of quartet had their challenges growing up. In their case they dealt with them early enough – their dedication to fixing their problem giving a hint of things to come in adult life.
And though these entrepreneurs may have succeeded in fixing their speech issues – even mastering the devilish Slovenian ‘r’ sound – many kids don’t. Not all kids have the same commitment to doing the rather dull speech exercises tradition demands. Not all parents know how to help their kids, and not all therapists know that the homework they prescribe is being done. Jernej Fuzir and Mitja Mavsar, who met at a startup event in 2012, thought there must be a better – and somewhat more digital – way of doing it.
Enter Blub Blub and its interactive, gamified speech skills app. Their platform not only offers a standalone home speech exercise system (Speech Blubs app), but a way for therapists to use it for personalized treatment (Pro Blubs).
Speech Blubs primarily features fun video exercises that are actually engaging for kids. Wonderfully simple it may be, but sometimes the best products are exactly that. What’s really important is that this is a tool that can solve a problem worth solving.
“If you take your child to a speech therapist, you usually end up with a really ugly piece of paper that’s not engaging for kids,” says Fuzir. “And a sheet of paper isn’t going to win against Minecraft on the tablet.
“Kids should be practicing daily, but parents don’t know how to motivate them apart from by nagging. Actually a lot of parents don’t know how to play with their kids in general, which can result in speech delay. That’s an issue and that’s the main problem we wanted to fix.
“So we started digitizing practice. Video is the next best thing to real face to face interaction. We got a speech therapist on board and created an app to launch in Slovenian market. We just posted it on a blog and on Facebook, along with the story of why we’re doing it – and we had people calling us the same day! Parents, speech therapists and media, they all wanted to know more.
“After that response we thought ‘we’re onto something. This is a problem worth solving.’ And from then on we really fell in love with the problem.”
In 2015 the pair had another two founders on board, had applied for a grant from their government, and launched the Slovenian-language app that December. Two years later, with Pioneers Ventures now among their backers, they’ve picked up over 50 000 users after developing an impressive array of interactive ‘Speech Blubs’: Early Sounds for the youngest toddlers, Mouth Gym to work on oral muscles and First Words for kids ready to move to the next level (words).
Along with the Snapchat-style fun elements that really ramp up the engagement, video of real kids talking is another essential feature. Today’s typical child growing up with a tablet doesn’t see as much of that as you might suppose.
“Most content on screens shows characters that are animated and don’t make natural movements. If you want to learn language, you need to stare in somebody’s eyes and watch their mouth. It’s imitation. We see our app as a solution because it’s a child looking at another child’s face, which triggers the right natural brain imitation processes.”
The founders are keen to stress that none of this is meant to be used in isolation. The app is for kids and parents to use together. It’s certainly not an excuse for parents to check out – rather a chance for them to use technology as a guide to enhance the natural speech learning process.
While Speech Blubs are simple and effective to use without professional help, Pro Blubs gives a child’s therapist the chance to get involved by embedding their own exercise content into the app. This not only means tailored content that can address that child’s particular issues, but also solves the problem of therapists not knowing whether time really has been spent on exercises. In essence, Pro Blubs digitizes and tracks daily speech homework.
With Pro Blubs, therapists can upload a variety of media content (for example ‘selfie’ videos the child should imitate) as well as pick and choose the most relevant existing Speech Blubs exercises. These come together within an additional, personalized tab in the user’s Speech Blubs. The therapist can set daily targets for exercises to be completed, and also able to view which steps a child has gone through on a given day.
All of this is coming together very nicely from a traction point of view. App currently has 50000 users, while therapist take-up has also been impressive. Over 2000 qualified speech therapists are already using it in schools and clinics.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that Speech Blubs are not just a tool to tackle relatively subtle speech issues taking root, but have also had a positive impact on kids afflicted by Apraxia, Autism, Down’s syndrome, ADHD and SPD. And so, as for every startup working in the healthcare arena, we take our hat off to them. Because they really can change lives.
\*Search for “Speech Blubs” in App Store (Android coming soon) and download it for free. Or follow [this link](http://apple.co/2kB4sZG).
If you are a speech therapist you get Speech Blubs for free on a permanent basis, and are also entitled to a two-month trial of Pro Blubs.\*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Interview: Health.Pioneers Speaker Vishal Gulati On Reinventing Healthcare](https://pioneers.io/interview-healthpioneers-speaker-vishal-gulati-reinventing-healthcare/)
**Published:** October 12, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers is pleased to confirm that Vishal Gulati, healthtech investor at Draper Esprit, will deliver a keynote at Health.Pioneers in Amsterdam on October 25, for which we’ve also just confirmed the 15 startups who’ll pitch. Here he shares insights on the subject of patient empowerment and data-driven innovation in healthcare - plus some concrete advice to the attending startups!
**Content:**
“If we invented the healthcare system fresh today, would it look the way it does now?”
That’s a question Vishal is passionate about answering – and one of the key themes he’ll be tackling during his talk in Amsterdam. He believes healthcare needs radical change to reach its full potential. What’s holding it back isn’t technology. Rather, it’s systems and delivery that haven’t kept pace with the vastly improved tools available. These being big data and new patient empowerment possibilities.
“There’s a negative power of legacy there that prevents us from doing the best we can,” he told us in an exclusive interview yesterday. “The biggest risk is that we end up making digital copies of the bricks and mortar system we have. Are we in healthcare just going to make an online Wal-Mart, instead of an Amazon? Because those are very different things.”
The first example of technology that necessitates a total rethink of the healthcare landscape is the arrival of massive data sets.
“One of the fundamental changes now is that the number of data points you have in front of you before you make decisions for people is so big. In the past, you didn’t know much about the person so you treated them based only on major parameters. But now you can have say 3 billion DNA nucleotides, and you can make the system more precise. So you end up giving people more appropriate treatment.
“And yet we’re *not* doing that. And it’s because the system we’ve built is unable to deal with it. We have a great product, but because of the size of the shelf in our store, we can’t sell it. Our store has a stupid design, so we can’t get people to buy.
“Another thing we don’t do is try to understand the many unplanned admissions in hospitals. People are coming to hospitals that shouldn’t be doing so, and nobody seems to want to find out why that is happening.
“A further example of unused data potential is that we don’t sequence the DNA of every child born. It’s a one-time cost, and you can maximise its value in terms of interventions by doing it even before they are born.”
A change of mindset is also needed when it comes to facilitating the wider use of those new patient empowerment technologies, says Vishal.
“Some patients want to try it and some don’t. But if the trade-offs are made more clear, if the tools are provided, then people would make the change. We just don’t treat patients with as much responsibility as they should.
“Right now if you have high blood pressure you have two options. One is to go to your doctor every two months. They check your blood pressure and they change your dose. The other option is you give the patient a blood pressure machine, educate them on the process, and then they’re able to test their own blood pressure. And every study that’s been done suggests that if you give patients more control, their outcomes are better. Better than actually going to the doctor.”
The challenge for the industry, then – especially those health startups and corporates who’ll listening to Vishal’s talk with interest – is to innovate with ground-up thinking.
“Having this discussion should give entrepreneurs ideas about what they want to build,” notes on of Europe’s top healthtech investors. “We need to change the mindset out of the legacy system. All the things we can possibly do are actually in front of us – but how should we do it?”
“If you landed from Mars today, and somebody gave you a challenge to keep people healthy, would the first thing you do be building a hospital? Probably not. You’d go to food stores and ask why people are eating what they’re eating. Then you might go to schools, and ask what kids are being taught about health.
“The startups that would excite me the most are the ones trying to solve a very big problem with the patient more in control.”
The task facing everyone innovating in this space is a major one, and which Vishal believes is best approached by risk-taking. Big-thinking startups should be encouraged to try, and, if necessary, fail.
“A lot of startups begin trying to solve the problems of the existing system, but then they get pushed into the low-value end of it because healthcare professionals say, ‘This is never going to happen, why don’t you try and do something else?’ That’s like taking the Amazons of the future and sending them to make an online Wal-Mart. We should stop doing that and take risks.”
We’re giving 15 of the 100 selected startups in Amsterdam the chance to pitch at the event. They’ll be pitching in three different sessions: Transformative Medical Technologies; Preventive Medicine & Digital Patient Pathways; and Personalized Medicine & Health Management. The startups who’ll take to the stage and compete for a pair of tickets to Pioneers’18 are as follows.
- Medicus
- hiMoment
- OurPath
- meemo-tec
- Cardiomo
- Elysium
- Karlsson
- Contextflow
- Baze
- Diagnosia
- Atlas Biomed
- Immusoft
- Bitome
- Criamtech
- YIO Health
View the full list of 100 attending startups [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/participants/102/startups).
Join us in Amsterdam [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/healthpioneers-tickets-35235172349).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Ready to Meet Your Match at Health.Pioneers?](https://pioneers.io/ready-meet-your-match-healthpioneers/)
**Published:** October 16, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With Health.Pioneers on October 25 in Amsterdam just over a week away, our renowned Pioneers Match & Meet networking service has just gone live once again. To make the most of it, here’s what you need to do to prepare - you can start making connections today!
**Content:**
First step is to head [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/match-and-meet-health) and log in with the same email address under which you bought your Health.Pioneers ticket.
If you’ve already filled out your own matchmaking preferences, you’ll be able to start viewing your automatically-generated list of top matches right away. They’ll be the Health.Pioneers attendees whose interests align most closely with yours, whether you’re a corporate looking for innovators, a startup looking for corporate partners or an investor seeking the next genius founder.
When you find someone you want to talk to, you can request a meeting. Your counterpart will then have the option to confirm. Don’t be surprised if meeting requests start coming your way too – and remember to confirm them when they do! Once meetings are mutually confirmed, you can also send each other messages.
In order to ensure that the system can automatically schedule a time and place for confirmed meetings to go ahead, it’s important that you set your own availability during the course of this week. Within Match & Meet you can take a look at the schedule of sessions and talks, and then set the times you’ll be free to meet somebody.
Once you’ve done that, you can sit back and let Match & Meet take charge of arranging everything. Two days before the event, you’ll receive a personalized agenda. Meetings confirmed by both parties will be scheduled for a time that’s free for both, automatically assigned to one of our dedicated locations. No more juggling ‘where and when?’ texts!
Your meetings will also be sent in the form of Google Calendar or Outlook invites.
Look out, too, for the PioBot link which we’ll send out the night before Health.Pioneers. This is our on-event chatbot assistant, which is now even smarter at handling and redirecting queries. The latest iteration also has speaker profiles, agenda information and Match & Meet built in, so you’ll have the option to arrange your entire event via Messenger.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [All Systems Go For Health.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/health-pioneers-preview/)
**Published:** October 19, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With less than a week to go until Health.Pioneers in Amsterdam on October 25, here’s all you need to know about the ultimate meeting point for innovators advancing digital healthcare across Europe and beyond. 250 of these forward thinkers will be taking part in startup pitches, keynotes and dozens of pre-arranged 1:1 meetings.
**Content:**
100 carefully-selected [healthtech startups](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/participants/102/startups) will join industry-leading speakers, top health corporates and specialist investors at B.Building Business, where our automated Pioneers Match & Meet service will once again make it easy for people with common ground to meet each other and connections to spark.
How exactly to proceed once synergies have been found remains a big question, however. This is particularly true for corporates and startups in health, where for respect for patents and data confidentiality are often a concern. Our focus on **open innovation**, one of three major themes we’ll address at Health.Pioneers, seeks to provide solutions. How should agile startups and big corporations work together in practical terms?
A quartet of experts will thus share their insights on this topic in *Health Startups & Corporations – Models of Collaboration*. Among those bringing their ideas and experience to the session will be **Rocco van den Berg**, Innovation Lead at Philips HealthWorks, which leads the Dutch giant’s constant search for innovative healthtech partners. Joining him will be **Magnus Ljungman**, Founder of Doctrin, a Swedish startup providing smart e-health tools to healthcare systems.
The second major theme of Health.Pioneers is **patient empowerment and data-driven innovation**. KRY founder **Johannes Schildt** will visit this topic in his keynote, which opens proceedings at Health.Pioneers following the networking breakfast. His talk *Shifting the Healthcare Paradigm* will look at the new possibilities in a landscape transformed by digitalization, drawing on his experience establishing his market-leading online video doctor service. KRY recently raised $22.6m in a Series A round led by Accel.
The keynote in the subsequent *Patient Empowerment & Data-Driven Innovation in Healthcare* session will be delivered by **Vishal Gulati** of London-based investment company Draper Esprit. Not only is he one of Europe’s leading healthcare investors, he’s also a qualified physician and Chairman of the Digital Health Forum. Meanwhile of the experts bringing a corporate perspective is **Bart de Witte**, IBM Germany’s Director of Digital Health for the DACH region.
In the third major topic to be examined at Health.Pioneers, the **revolution in gene-editing** will take center stage in the *Genomics and Its Transformative Impact* session. We’re excited to have CRISPR/Cas9 Co-Inventor **Krzysztof Chylinski** on board to deliver a keynote on the exciting possibilities for this ‘cut and paste’ gene-editing technology.
This game-changing scientist will be joined in a subsequent discussion by risk assessment expert **Ana Villanueva**, who is Chief Medical Officer at insurance and financial services company Mapfre and Vice-President of the European Life and Health Underwriters’ Association (ELHUA). She will share her expertise on the broader consequences of CRISPR/Cas9, which could disrupt the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and necessitate new legal frameworks.
15 of the startups attending Health.Pioneers have also been selected to pitch or exhibit their innovations, with the final winner of the pitch competition getting fast-tracked into a Pioneers Challenge pitching slot at **Pioneers’18**, our flagship annual event in which 2,500 tech innovators from around the world gather at the Hofburg in Vienna. This takes place on May 24-25 next year.
It’s not too late to join us in Amsterdam on Wednesday – there are still a few places remaining! To snap one of them up, click [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/healthpioneers-tickets-35235172349******).
View the full agenda for Health.Pioneers [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/agenda/102).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Baze Takes Health.Pioneers Glory](https://pioneers.io/health-pioneers-summary/)
**Published:** October 25, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Personalized nutrients startup Baze was crowned winner today at Health.Pioneers, the ultimate meeting point for innovators advancing digital healthcare across Europe and beyond. 205 health industry attendees including corporate executives, investors and 100 health industry startups took part in 226 one-to-one meetings, with startup pitches and keynotes completing a packed programme in Amsterdam.
**Content:**
Baze emerged as the winner from a day’s worth of competitive startup pitching at the event. In total 15 hand-picked startups pitched in three different categories, with the Berlin-based startup the finalist in the Personalized Medicine & Health Management category. Startups were judged on the quality of their team, their potential impact on society, their initial traction, the size of their potential market and finally their technology and IP protection.
Today wasn’t the first time Baze took part in a Pioneers event, having also pitched at Pioneers’17. They’ll get another chance next year, as their prize for winning Health.Pioneers is to be fast-tracked into the Pioneers Challenge Top 50 for the next edition of the flagship event in Vienna.
“We’ve not had a success like this before,” said delighted Baze CEO Philipp Schulte. “I think the judges saw the huge unmet need in the space of using nutrition to keep us healthy, make us fitter and drive our well-being. And I think they saw that we offer an integrated solution to that need, and one with huge business potential. It would be great to be up on that big stage at the Hofburg Palace in May!”
In the meantime Baze hopes to use this boost to drive their investment round and kick-start the sales launch with which they’re currently busy. While their sampling kits (the first step towards the individual nutrient doses they then make using the blood sample) aren’t available in the shops just yet, they can already be ordered on Baze.com.
“I would definitely think this will open doors for us,” continued Schulte. “Publicity is always good! We’re currently doing a funding round for our launch into the US market, and also looking for partnerships to help us drive that launch, including concrete sales partnerships.
“We’re definitely open to working with big corporates: we all know that a great product is wonderful and a great team is even better, but obviously sales are just as important. So we would love to have strong partners on that.”
“We had a difficult decision to take,” said Pioneers Ventures Managing Director Philipp Stangl, who sat on the judging panel during Baze’s pitching session. “All the startups who presented in our session were of high quality and delivered very appealing pitches. Baze impressed us with their bottom-up approach to putting the tools to improve nutritional status in a patient’s own hands, thereby disrupting this huge industry with a data-driven approach.”
The other two startup finalists were DNA and microbiome testing and analysis company Atlas Biomed in the Transformative Medical Technologies category, and ‘digital health gym’ app hiMoment in the Preventive Medicine & Digital Health Pathways stream. In addition to those startups selected for the pitching contest, another 15 chosen innovators showcased their technology as exhibitors.
Apart from the startup contest and all those meetings engineered by the automated Pioneers Match & Meet service, the Health.Pioneers attendees enjoyed a full day’s action on the stage.
Johannes Schildt co-founder of market-leading Swedish video doctor platform KRY, opened the morning session on the main Theatre Stage with his Shifting the Healthcare Paradigm keynote, during which he underlined just how big a digital revolution is hitting the health industry.
“90% of primary healthcare will be moving online,” he said. “There’s just so much volume we can take into digital, and the lion’s share of it is definitely going to be there. By moving that volume mobile we can create a system that’s easier and more convenient, while saving the people paying for health care a lot of money. Most importantly, we can save patients a lot of time and effort.”
Then attention turned specifically to data, in the subsequent the Patient Empowerment and Data-Driven Innovation in Healthcare session.
“Data is going to be the foundation of the transformation in health care,” said panellist Bart de Witte, Director of Digital Health in the DACH region for IBM Germany. “Because in 10 years 80% of diagnosis will be performed by algorithms. And bear in mind that even something like voice can be a perfect dataset for something like diagnosing mental diseases.
“The terms and conditions we’re seeing in healthcare exits and takeovers are increasingly showing the importance of data acquisition. Going forward we need to start thinking in terms of a platform economy, stop using data protection as an excuse to block innovation and put more money into the market. And there’s going to be a huge battle to become the platform that’s a kind of Google for health data.”
After that Vishaal Gulati, Healthtech VC with London-based investment company Draper Esprit, took to the stage to deliver a confident presentation in Healthcare Rebooted. He gave a few telling hints to startups looking for ways in which they can bring real value.
“There are a few things we need to focus on to change the health system in a dramatic way,” said Vishaal, who is also a qualified physician and Chairman of the Digital Health Forum. “Genomics is a key area: we are actually capable of sequencing everybody on the planet by 2020, and using that to transform healthcare. We need to work on growing telecare and connectivity: virtual medical appointments will surpass physical ones by 2025. We also need to address the inequalities in the healthcare system.
“But the biggest thing we need is data we can learn from. The most powerful thing about digital platforms is you can learn from every encounter – and this is something that old-fashioned companies don’t do. We should be using data obsessively to learn to serve the patient better in the next encounter.”
Later in the day, during the Health Startups & Corporations – Models of Collaboration session, which explored the concept of open innovation, Rocco van den Berg, Innovation Lead at Philips HealthWorks, summed up the importance of such collaborations.
“Big companies like us need small companies that can take big risks, try big ideas and very often move quicker than us because they have no legacy. Corporates on their side can help with access to internal networks of experts, exposure to their own collaborations and perhaps funding and IP sharing.
“No single company can face today’s challenges in healthcare on its own. We need to do it through this kind of collaboration.”
“Events like Health.Pioneers are a great platform for startups to meet ‘slow’ corporates like us!” added Rocco’s fellow panellist Min-Sung Sean Kim, VC for Allianz Ventures in response to a question from the audience.
The final session of the day focused on the huge potential brought by gene editing. CRISPR/Cas9 Co-Inventor Krzysztof Chylinski on delivered the keynote, which outlined on the exciting possibilities for this ‘cut and paste’ gene-editing technology.
Pioneers’18, our flagship annual event in which 2,500 tech innovators from around the world gather at the Hofburg in Vienna, takes place on May 24-25 next year. Meanwhile the next event in the Pioneers calendar is Mobility.Pioneers, which takes place in Munich on February 8. For more information click [here](https://pioneers.io/events).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Argodesign: Shedding Light on Future Tech](https://pioneers.io/argodesign-shedding-future-light-future-tech/)
**Published:** October 23, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** If you visited Pioneers’17 and tried out the mixed reality, headset-free air hockey exhibit, chances are you haven’t forgotten the experience. Rest assured that Argodesign, the company behind that particular demo, is not your typical startup. Here its co-founder Mark Rolston shares his thoughts on the death of the screen and ‘MetaMe’
**Content:**
Just when you think you’ve got all those Startup World stereotypes nailed, along comes something that makes you think again. Like a founder with over 20 years of experience in an industry leadership position, and whose company does a lot of work for nothing. Mark Rolston, Chief Creative at [Argodesign](http://www.argodesign.com/), is one such example.
Formerly Chief Creative Officer at Frogdesign, Rolston is one of four founders working at a company that likes to get creative and play around with big concepts for future tech. The air hockey demo that featured at the Hofburg was just one graphic illustration of the technologies Argodesign has been experimenting with over the last four years – in this case the potential for projection to take computing ‘off-screen’ and into the real world.
And when they work on something like that, it’s not like there’s always a particular customer in mind already. This is a company that makes time to dream.
“Although it eats into our margins, we spend 20% of our time looking at new tech and new models for interaction,” says Mark as he explains the essence of Argodesign’s philosophy. “We come up with different ideas about commerce, wearables, interaction in physical space and more. Some of those ideas just sit there and some stick: the ratio is about one in ten. We put ten ideas out there and one of them becomes magic.”
It’s fair to say that not every founder will have the resources or the time to take such freedom. Argodesign was started with the money in the pockets of four ‘partners’ – Rolston, Jared Ficklin, Kevin McDonald and Mark Gauger – whose average age certainly surpasses the startup norm. Some had established reputations that earned them early media coverage, which led to their first customer, which came from Japan of all places.
The experienced quartet was in a position to take a longer-term view of their business, such as doing startup client work for equity rather than cash, or doing royalty deals. Nonetheless, through ‘taking risks incrementally’ growth has already been remarkable, and they’re now employing over 35 people. Clients range from Intel and United Rentals to Cognitive Scale, which has also grown rapidly from startup status during its time working with Argodesign.
But a conversation with Rolston makes you realise that talking about business isn’t really the thing that gets him going. He’s excited about exploring new technology and its possibilities. And while he and his team frequently do that for a specific client, they’re just as happy doing it for ‘the passion of the act of making.’ Much of the Argodesign website is simply concept or ‘provocation’, whether it be an ambulance drone or new seating and embarkation ideas for Hyperloop.
What Argodesign showed off at [Pioneers’17](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers17#/) – namely the emerging possibilities to enjoy headset-free mixed reality – is especially exciting for Rolston. Driven by better and cheaper projection technology and computer sight (a computer’s ability to recognise space and objects) these could mean we slowly start saying goodbye to physical phones and tablets.
“Imagine annotating items in the physical world, instead of diving into a little screen,” he says. “Like a busy kitchen counter or office desk. And it could be any kind of information that helps us in that moment, say assembly instructions or cooking guidance.
“On a humanistic level this means clearing away the machines from those moments – hiding them in the woodwork. We think that’s pretty cool and we’re enamoured with the possibilities.
“What people want is information at the time they need it. If we could have screens that just appear when needed, it would be wonderful. So we’re exploring that model, a new way of interacting with tech.”
And if Rolston had any doubt that such new forms of interaction can catch on, then the reactions he sees to demos like the one at Pioneers’17 put those to bed. Passers-by took very little time to get used to bouncing a sliver of light off blocks of wood or glasses of water.
“People quickly take that digital object for granted as part of the space. Once you see it bounce off a physical object, which is kind of magical the first couple of times, you begin to play as if all the objects are together. That’s the most convincing moment to me, just in a simple game.”
And one big reason why this kind of digital interaction is starting to be taken so naturally is that you no longer need to wear some kind of glorified paintball mask to enjoy it.
“I’m not going to wear ridiculous headgear to go and eat lunch with you,” says Rolston. “But I would like the access to computing! I don’t think headsets work for casual computing. It might work with an eye implant – but that’s way out there in the future!”
Speaking of which, Rolston has some graphic ideas on how digital augmentation is set to revolutionize our very identities. Ideas you’ll find either scary or exciting, depending on your point of view!
“When we have more access to computing, it changes us as people. And our ideas about our independent selves change. Today, you’re probably very comfortable about the idea of what you know and are good at, which defines who you are. Moving ahead, you will have abilities which do not come from within but are driven by access to technology.
“Tech becomes less distinct from you and more entwined. Capabilities blur, and we become inseparably digital and analogue creatures. Down the road we can imagine systems that know us so well they can start to make decisions for us, meet people and have conversations. Like an independent version of us in the cloud that can operate for us. We could send that version out to buy a new car, or go out and talk to a friend about what he is doing on the weekend.
“My computer and my friend’s computer could agree to have lunch on the weekend. But in the broader sense that’s still us – it’s ‘MetaMe’. It sounds wild, but just look at how LinkedIn suggests you ‘congratulate’ somebody with just a click. Today everyone gets the same script, but tomorrow you’ll get a script written just for you.”
One gets the feeling that big thoughts like these are where pretty much any conversation with Argodesign would lead. And the list of things they might work on is potentially endless. It’s only limited by how much technology is out there, concludes a founder who isn’t shy of an impactful quote or two.
“We like to take some form of new tech and make it useful to the world. There’s enough raw tech out there. What we’re doing is exploiting raw technology, not inventing it. So think of us as exploiters.”
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Tests: Carv's Digital Ski Coach](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-tests-carvs-digital-ski-coach/)
**Published:** November 3, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We took a couple of keen Pioneers guinea pigs to an Austrian glacier, where they tried out the ‘digital ski coach’ developed by Pioneers’17 alumnus Carv. Here's our video and written review of their findings on one of the most ambitious innovations to hit the slopes in a long time…
**Content:**
If there was any doubting just what a buzz [Carv](http://www.getcarv.com) has built up in ski circles, it evaporated moments after we arrived in the car park at [Stubaier Glacier](https://www.stubaier-gletscher.com/). When the guys who pulled up next to us spotted Carv CCO Ross Murray-Jones in his branded gear, they did a double take and started babbling excitedly. Obviously familiar with Carv’s work and as hungry as the next skier for a cool new performance-enhancing toy, they came over to find out when they would be able to get their hands on one.
The answer? Very soon. Carv’s already shipping the 1500 kits it owes to those who backed its Kickstarter campaign. To be sent from China at the end of November, they should arrive in time for the ski season. As for the other 1500 units in batch one, orders are already open.
It’s fair to say that the idea of an automated, artificially-intelligent ski coach that joins you on the slopes is certainly generating a fair bit of interest. A crew from The Times in London flew out to test Carv a week before we did, while Club Med, a major seller of ski vacations, have also been in touch to talk about possibilities.
Carv’s work has already starting hooking the corporates, too. Having gotten to know Pioneers by attending our flagship event in Vienna for the last two years, they were recently announced as one of the four startups selected to come up with new digital business models in Energie Steiermark’s [Next-Incubator](https://next-incubator.e-steiermark.com/), for which our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover is a partner.
Our venue for today’s test is the Stubaier Glacier in Austria’s Tyrol region. A 45-minute drive from Innsbruck and near enough to the Italian border to command views of the distant Dolomites, it’s one of very few places in Central Europe where you can ski all the way from October to June. Perfect, then, for us to get an autumn trial in before Carv goes ‘live’.
Our ski testers are Pioneers staffers Philipp from Finance and Lisa from HR. Both have been skiing since a very young age, as is the case with so many Austrians. The country’s love affair with skiing, in fact, is a big part of why Carv, a startup born out of London, has actually based itself in Tyrol.
After a gondola ride up to the station at Eisgrat (2900m), our test team get kitted up to use Carv. This means ‘smart insert’ pressure pads inserted into the inner sole of the ski boot, and a tracker device – a combined battery and data processor that transmits to the (beta) iPhone app via Bluetooth – that’s clipped to the outside heel.
Ross hands each an iPhone and does a quick calibration test on the pressure pad. When our testers press down on one toe, it shows up in the corresponding foot map on the app interface. In all, the smart inserts have 48 pressure sensors plus an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. And all seems to be working well!
At first, the mission is to get our skiers back into the groove of hurtling down the slopes (it’s been a few months for both) and gather some baseline performance data. All our skiers need to do is press ‘start’ before tucking their phones safely away and skiing to their hearts’ content. But all the while, the system in their ski boots gathers info that goes way beyond the altitude and speed stats you might get from your phone.
Carv’s sensors busily pick up stats on the following four performance areas, which Ross tells us match BERP system that the PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America) uses to assess ski teachers.
**Balance** How is your weight distributed forwards or backwards?
**Edging** What’s the angle of your skis as you turn?
**Rotary** How parallel are your skis as you move?
**Pressure** How is your weight distributed between inside and outside ski when turning?
After one run, the Carv algorithm processes all the data (each category has its own sub-sets) and gives you a ‘Ski:IQ’ rating of your ability. This proprietary concept could prove to be a stroke of genius for the startup. A simple metric you can compare with friends at après ski, or indeed with the community of Carv users who’ll be active on the app, it provides a competitive incentive to improve. It’s the sort of feature that might make users stick around for the long haul.
So how do you set about improving that Ski:IQ? After a quick bite, our testers jumped back into the ski lifts to find out. This time, their kit included earphones plugged into the mobiles. They’d be essential to trying out the beta exercises designed to help you improve your game in those four disciplines, which are delivered via audio.
While Carv will be ready with a full range of exercises when the first kits are delivered, they had one drill in each category available for test purposes when we visited. The startup was playing with different instruction concepts, trying out a variety of voice and musical techniques.
The rotation drill, for example, was all about positive affirmations, in which the skiers receiving some fairly general feedback in the ear.
“I liked the voice instruction,” reported Lisa, who achieved a score of 95% on the drill. “It was very soft and pleasant, similar to Siri. She said things like ‘excellent skier’ and ‘keep it up’ a lot, which made me feel good!”
The voice content differed for the edging drill, in which the skier was encouraged to practice getting those angles up as high as possible. Here, it was more a case of simply hearing the numbers as you went along.
It’s not hard to envisage something like the edging exercise becoming de rigueur for instructors coaching skiers negotiating a particular course. Particularly when put together with the amazing video feature Carv has developed with precisely such professional customers in mind.
More akin to something out of Formula 1 than winter sports, CarvPro is smart enough to let you watch the video playback along with the real-time data logged by Carv. Surely a dream for any ski instructor wanting to pinpoint just where that turn-in is going wrong! For now CarvPro will remain in beta while the primary training tool launches, but it’s got intriguing potential. Could it become a must-have in future Winter Olympics?
A combination of rapidly fading daylight (too much time getting our video shots, if we’re to be perfectly frank!) and a smart insert sizing issue for Lisa meant we were unable to fully try out those pressure or balance drills. Which is a shame, as both of our skiers would have liked to have used the ‘stereo’ drill for pressure, which uses music volume in each ear to tell you which which ski needs more weight.
Phillip came away convinced of the tool’s potential for both skiing newcomers and those who’ve been hurtling down slopes all their lives.
“I think rotation is especially useful skill for beginners, while pressure and balance are great parameters even for experienced skiers to work on improving. Those are the two things every ski instructor always talks about: whether you have too much weight forward or back, and whether there is too much on the outer or inner ski.”
While we didn’t get to try all of the drills, we had enough of a taste to understand just what all the fuss is about. It would be premature to judge the beta training exercises ini too much detail anyway: what’s clear is there’s a basis on which to build an awful lot more. For Carv that means a whole range of drills in each category, along with the constructive tips skiers would need.
“We’ve optimised real-time audio feedback,” explains Ross. “While you’re actually on the run, basic sounds or numbers are as much as you need. When you’ve safely stopped, Carv gives you more detailed technique analysis with customised tips and target zones integrated directly into the app.”
“I’m definitely looking forward to trying it with some more analysis, tips or interpretation of the data in terms of everyday language,” said Lisa. “Otherwise I wouldn’t always be sure what to do with the information!”
The overall concept, the app and interface look solid, simple and well thought-out to the point that it’s all but impossible to stump Carv with a product question. With such a multitude of data points being recorded, the startup looks essentially well-prepared to take the digital ski coach to the next level once the numbers from those early adopters start flooding in.
It’s hard to imagine there might not be the odd early glitch, sure, but one doesn’t imagine users would lose faith on the basis of an initial snag or two – not when Carv is the kind of ambitious product for which so many skiers have been waiting for so long.
“Both of the drills I tried worked very well and I’d definitely want to try it next time I go skiing,” concluded Lisa. “I think I could use Carv to work on my balance: I always tend to have my weight too far back!”
“I’d use it on a ski trip too,” added Philipp. “I’d love to work on pressure, as I think I usually have my weight too much on the outside ski. But the more real-time practical advice that can be built in, the better.
“At first, £199 (approx €225 at time of writing) does seem a bit expensive, but you have to compare it to the cost of a ski instructor. This isn’t just for an hour or two – it’s an investment. Personally, I wouldn’t use an instructor on a ski trip anyway – I’m there to have fun! Yet I do want to improve my skiing and Carv is a nice alternative which you don’t have to use the whole time. If you get tired of the audio input you can just switch it off!
“I like the gamification elements and Ski:IQ. It’s good to be able to compare yourself to other people or even to a given standard, like when you try to improve your EcoScore on car2go. I also like the fact that you only had to switch the data logging on once for a whole day’s skiing, and that you can activate the training exercises with the headphone switch. It makes a big difference not to have to take your phone out all the time!”
An innovation that looks truly set to shake up an entire industry in one way or another, Carv is definitely the kind of technology we like to keep an eye on. And now that we’ve given it a try ourselves, we see no reason to start doing otherwise. We’re intrigued to see where the Carv story goes from here.
**Are you or your startup working on some ground-breaking technology we should try out and introduce to the world? Mail richard.asher@pioneers.io if you are!**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Breaking Frontiers in the Automotive Sector at Mobility.Pioneers 2018](https://pioneers.io/breaking-frontiers-automotive-sector-mobilitypioneers-2018/)
**Published:** November 6, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers is pleased to announce the first details for Mobility.Pioneers, the next in our ongoing series of industry-focused events, which takes place in Munich on February 8th, 2018. Here’s a sneak preview of the program, including the names of our first three speakers. If you’re a startup, read on to find out how you can apply to attend!
**Content:**
The second edition of Mobility.Pioneers will once again be the ultimate meeting point for tech innovators in the space, where OEMs, manufacturers and mobility providers meet the 120 most promising early- and growth-stage startups working on truly game changing technologies.
As in 2017, industry decision-makers will gather at Muffatwerk in the heart of one of Europe’s most important automotive hubs. Only this year, the number of attendees has more than doubled to 500 industry experts.
This year’s event will cover five broad topics that are key to driving the industry forward. These are automation, connectivity, shared use, electrification and the changing landscape around regulation and business models.
On the speaker front, we’re pleased to reveal that Volvo Cars Mobility CFO & Head of Growth Marcus Spickermann will be joining us to take part in our Future Business Models of OEMs panel discussion.
Meanwhile door2door Co-Founder Dr Tom Kirschbaum and IOTA Co-Founder Dominik Schiener will also be taking to the stage in Munich. Tom is one of the strongest influencers in the German mobility startup scene, while door2door is a mobility software company dedicated to providing an on-demand mobility platform. IOTA is just one of several Blockchain startups founded by Dominik, and has many applications in the shared mobility space.
As always, our selected startups will be invited to attend the event free of charge. Both early-stage and growth-stage startups are now able to apply for Mobility.Pioneers [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/mobilityhpioneers), with the deadline for applications not that far away on December 18th.
20 of the early-stage startups will be selected for pitching across four tracks: automation, electrification, shared use and connectivity, while at least 20 will have the chance to solve challenges for four corporate partners in our 48-hour hackathon.
Meanwhile the growth-stage startups will be able to attend exclusive workshops around hiring staff and raising a Series B round. They’ll also have the chance to be invited to a side event with just 50 invitees, which will feature a curated selection of high-level corporate executives.
Early bird tickets are already available at the reduced price of €490 excluding VAT, with the price set to rise on December 14th. Join us at Mobility.Pioneers [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mobilitypioneers-tickets-37723311440).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Video: Highlights From Health.Pioneers 2017](https://pioneers.io/video-highlights-healthpioneers/)
**Published:** November 7, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Check out the film from Health.Pioneers, which recently took place in Amsterdam. Here's where you can get a taste of (or relive) the best moments from the latest of our industry-focused events, which was the ultimate meeting point for innovators advancing digital healthcare across Europe and beyond.
**Content:**
While German personalized nutrition innovators Baze swept to startup glory ahead of fellow finalists Atlas Biomed and hiMoment, 205 health industry attendees including corporate executives, investors and 100 startups took part in 226 one-to-one meetings during the course of the day. Meanwhile startup pitches and keynotes completed a packed programme in Amsterdam…enjoy the movie!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Discover Open Call: Henkel Innovation Day](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-open-call-henkel-innovation-day/)
**Published:** November 7, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Our consultancy arm is excited to announce that startups can now apply for the Henkel Innovation Day in Vienna on December 18. This one-day event is designed to grow a culture of innovative thinking among employees at Henkel and foster possible collaborations between the global chemical and consumer goods company and startups.
**Content:**
The event will consist partly of keynote speeches and workshops targeted towards innovation within the company’s three business units, which are Laundry & Home Care, Adhesive Technologies and Beauty Care. But with technology showcases and startup pitches also on the agenda, we need those founders out there to step forward!
We’re specifically looking for early-stage European startups with expertise in chatbots, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, machine learning, smart packaging, big data analytics and delivery marketplaces and platforms.
The nine startups selected by Pioneers Discover will be those most relevant to the three main innovation topics of the day: End Consumer Solutions, Smart Retail and Process Optimization.
Pioneers Discover will be responsible for the organization and logistics of the Henkel Innovation Day, as well as the startup scouting. Selected startups will be notified by the beginning of December.
The Open Call closes on November 28 and startups can apply via the Pioneers Discover Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Success Story: Craftworks and the Art of Rapid Prototyping](https://pioneers.io/craftworks-hackathon-kings/)
**Published:** November 13, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** The story of how a series of hackathons with Pioneers Discover paved the way to success for digital transformation startup Craftworks. Rapid prototyping, as you’ll read, is a perfect match for last week’s Industry 4.0 Hackathon winners’ flexible approach to finding product-market fit.
**Content:**
Talking to startup founders on a daily basis, one gets used to hearing about how their product is the way, the truth and the light – give or take the occasional pivot. Talking to [craftworks](https://craftworks.at/) is a somewhat different experience. Because three years into the startup’s story, they don’t have a definitive product at all.
But that’s absolutely fine. It’s policy, actually. And what craftworks *does* already have is a string of promising, profitable projects going on with major corporate partners. And most of those came from taking part in hackathons organised by our consultancy arm, in which the Vienna quartet have time and again been recognised for rapid prototyping in the strictest sense of the word.
Having joined the ÖBB (Austrian Railways) Open Innovation Challenge Workshop in December 2016, craftworks’ took part in their first hackathon at the ANDRITZ Hackathon in January. They came away from that with third place for the pulp mill machine learning model they developed, and then followed this up with victory in the Alpine Tourism Hack, thanks to the chatbot they created. In June they took part in the Porsche Holding Hackathon in Salzburg, and then, just last week, emerged victorious in Linz after building our partner KEBA a mobile app for machine diagnostics and problem-solving.
More importantly than winning prizes, though, is the connections and business leads craftworks have made after proving themselves in the pressured environment of these events. It’s no coincidence whatsoever that they now count ANDRITZ, Porsche and ÖBB among their biggest corporate clients. And following the Industry 4.0 Hackathon, there’s every chance KEBA could join that list in the near future.
But while hackathons invariably give worthy startups a stage, they still have to perform. And one reason craftworks do this so well, reckons Partnership Manager and Co-Founder Michael Hettegger, is that the rapid prototyping a hackathon requires is really the company’s ‘consultancy’ business model in microcosm.
“Right now we’re making money with basic consulting around software development and machine learning applications,” says Hettegger. “80% of our revenue comes from those individual solutions.
“The consultancy approach is rare,” he admits. “And any investor would say that we should shut it down because it distracts us from building a product. I do agree with that…at some point! We eventually want to focus 80-100% on a product and pushing it to market, but at the moment we’re building up a team that will be capable of working on such a product full time.”
Speaking of investors, craftworks don’t actually have any. And we mean that as a complement: the four co-founders have used their own money and brainpower to build up an operation that’s winning business as well as hackathons. Consultancy is working well right now, but when they really find a winning idea, they’ll move swiftly.
“We want to use the money we’re making now to finance building products. We don’t want to use investor money to build a product that *might* solve a problem, or *might* get used. By consulting, we will already know what the problems are. That’s the idea.”
And how will they know when they’ve found that one use case really worth going after?
“We have some KPIs, but the basic idea is that if one product makes up 20% of revenue then we only do that one.”
“This approach is about finding something with market fit. Maybe we’ll go slower but it’s more efficient.”
And on the subject of efficiency, this is where the four graduate software developers (and now self-made machine learning experts) consistently wow the corporates. 48 hours isn’t a long time to come up with an all-new solution to a corporate challenge, after all. And the fact that craftworks doesn’t have a fixation on an existing product probably helps them do that.
“We can build something from scratch, really trying to understand the problem and find the best solution. In Linz we built a mobile app, and while it might not be fancy innovative like Blockchain or something like that, it solves the problem 100%. And I think that’s what really matters to the companies sponsoring a hackathon.
“We’ve *only* done Pioneers hackathons, come to think of it. We like that they are really competitive with a really high quality of startups compared to ‘weekend hackathons’. Everybody is really engaged and we want that. Like Pioneers Discover is always saying to us, it’s not about beer and pizza, it’s about solving an issue and providing a good solution.
“At the ANDRITZ hackathon we were so impressed by the other pitches, we thought ‘wow, what are we doing here?’ But we did our best all the same, and ended up getting third place. That gave us a huge push….and we sealed a contract with ANDRITZ just a couple of weeks ago!”
craftworks’ success thus far, and especially the way they’ve gotten it, gives SaaS or digitalization founders in particular something new to think about when considering how they build their startup’s business model. Whichever way you choose to go, though, one thing’s abundantly clear: taking part in hackathons is good for business!
For upcoming hackathon and workshop opportunities, see the [Pioneers Discover Open Calls page](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Discover Update: Barcelona Booster Lab Taking Shape](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-update-barcelona-booster-lab-taking-shape/)
**Published:** November 13, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With Pioneers Discover all set for the Booking.com Booster Lab in Barcelona on December 1-3, our consultancy arm is thrilled to announce details of the programme and startups for this first in a global series of regional events aimed at helping innovators make an impact through sustainable tourism.
**Content:**
Organised together with Pioneers Discover, the Booster Labs are short, compact weekend programmes dedicated to giving early-stage startups the insights, tools and skills they need to grow and make an impact, including the chance to pitch for funding of up to €25,000 from Booking.com.
Following our scouting process, we’re pleased to reveal the eleven sustainable tourism startups that will be invited to take part in an event that could be a game-changer in their stories as young businesses.
They are:
- tripUniq
- STUDIOMAPP
- Clean Travel
- Outdoor Journal
- Nexto
- subcultours
- Alternative Athens
- European Safari Company
- One Planet Rating
- Xmigrations
- CloudGuide
These startups, the best-quality fits from no less than 262 applications, are working on all manner of impactful tourism solutions, ranging from supporting local artists through a ‘creative experience’ booking platform to a ‘TripAdvisor for sustainability.’
The weekend event will begin with an inspiration day on the Friday, in which startups get to know each other and learn more about Booking.com B.V. and the importance of sustainable tourism and social impact.
On the Saturday, the focus will switch to giving the participating startups the tools they need to effectively scale their businesses, and giving them the opportunity to put them into action through practical one-on-one trainings and mentor meetings.
The Sunday programme will culminate in a final pitch session, after the startups finalise their scaling strategies and pitch presentations. The jury will then deliberate and evaluate the winners and potential grant allocations.
Our Open Call for the next Booster Lab, slated for March 2018, will go live in the first part of December. The same goes for next year’s Booking Booster, a three-week accelerator programme that will go ahead in May in Amsterdam, where Booking.com B.V. is based. Stay tuned to our channels for the details!
**Interested in Pioneers Discover running a workshop or hackathon on your behalf? EMail discover@pioneers.io**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Exclusive Interview with Steve Blank: ‘Start Planning for Acquisition on Day One’](https://pioneers.io/exclusive-interview-steve-blank-start-planning-acquisition-day-one/)
**Published:** November 16, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers was delighted to welcome serial entrepreneur and founder of the Lean Startup Movement Steve Blank to our buzzing Pioneers Community Event in Vienna earlier this week. In the first of two exclusive interview pieces with the legendary Silicon Valley mentor, here he shares some invaluable tips for startups.
**Content:**
Times have changed since Steve Blank failed – and then succeeded – at building successful businesses from the ground up. And one of the biggest changes that has occurred in Steve’s career lies in the ultimate goals startups set for themselves. Where once an IPO was the holy grail for entrepreneurs, now founders are far more likely to set their long-term sights on being acquired.
“Most startups in the Valley today are acquired,” says Steve. “Partnering mostly means acquisitions. Especially in segments like medical devices and diagnostics, almost nobody goes public. So you need to be thinking about who is going to acquire you, and why.”
We were curious to hear his practical thoughts on how startups can help themselves in this regard. How do you get yourself noticed by a corporate, and make yourself attractive to those large companies? You won’t be surprised to hear that it’s definitely not a case of sitting back and waiting for an innovation manager to come knocking.
“If you want to get acquired nowadays, this is actually a spreadsheet problem,” says Steve. “If you’re in a specific domain, there’s not an infinite number of companies who want to acquire you. So there’s a thought process and a strategy to follow. It’s not scattershot: you can engineer what the steps are.
“Here’s how it would go if I was on the board of your startup. At the first board meeting I’d say, ‘Give me a list of 20 or 50 likely acquirers. Just write down their names. That’s all.’
“At the next board meeting, six weeks later, I’d ask, ‘Okay, who are the business development people who do talent scouting or technology acquisition at those companies? There’s your homework assignment. Go find them.’ Now your spreadsheet starts filling up!
“At the next board meeting, my question would be, ‘So what shows do those people go to? What books do they read?’ Then if they’re reading certain magazines or going to certain events, it’s time to go to the press or turn up at these shows. Or it’s time to accidentally spill coffee on one of them!
“So there’s how you start thinking about corporate acquisition from a startup point of view. I want you thinking about acquisitions one step at a time. Yes, it’s about personal connections, but they start with a plan. Do it from day one.”
But as you might expect, there’s a very serious balance to be struck here. To let some distant corporate acquisition dominate your thoughts from the very outset would be to risk taking away everything that makes a startup the lean and gamble-happy beast that it should be.
“If getting bought out is primarily on your mind, you tend to take less risk and have less passion,” continues Steve. “It becomes a transaction. Which is why I suggest your spreadsheet can’t permeate the entire employee body. Or else everyone’s looking at their watch instead of thinking about when they’re going to change the world.”
“If you tell all your startup’s people that you’re designed to be acquired, you will kill motivation.”
But, behind the scenes, you as a startup leader should always have an acquisition strategy in mind, assuming acquisition is what you hope for. Certainly not at a priority level that prevents you from being a great innovator, but you should nonetheless have that spreadsheet bookmarked.
If you’re in a regulated industry such as life sciences, you should particularly be thinking about the broad landmarks in your (hopefully) successful story, and how this might fit with any acquisition.
“When it comes to medical devices in the US, there’s almost a kind of known game you play,” says Steve. “How much money do you want to raise? When do you want to be acquired? And how much do you do until that point? Are you going to pay to go through clinical trials? Are you going to hire a sales force, or rather get acquired just after you get FDA approval?”
Even in the wilder world of apps and services, there are still broader strategy questions you can keep in mind as you make your startup journey.
“If you have something like a web app, the real question is how many users do you need, whether you need revenue, and what it is that people are looking for. Can you fulfil those needs?”
That need might be something as simple as customers, rather than a flow of profit, he points out with a smile. “What’s that company that got acquired by Facebook? The one that had 300 million users and no revenue? WhatsApp, wasn’t it…?”
There is, of course, the option to go old-school. Which means you don’t set out with getting acquired as your dream. You want to get big on your own, and keep hold of your company – maybe even through an IPO.
“Do you want to roll the dice and say you never want to be acquired? Just remember that you’re never going to raise venture capital, because that’s not a venture capitalist’s goal. And if you do want to get acquired, then great. But think about what kind of return are your investors going to look for. 2x or 200x? You better be sure about your goal and make sure it’s aligned with your investors.”
Having those goals completely clear in your mind is also important to executing Steve’s final bit of startup advice, which was his reply to our question about how you as a founder can ‘just do it’. How do you avoid distractions and focus on the important stuff?
“You have to have your eye on the prize. Just remove everything between you and the goal…with violence! A startup is an act of aggression. It’s not a polite activity. Time management means having your eye on the prize: everything else is an obstacle so remove it. Everything else is a distraction.
“If you are doing Lean Startup methodology, you might learn a lot or your target might change along the way, but there still has to be a relentless focus on the prize. Otherwise you confuse motion with action.”
“For example, in a startup you have very smart people. And there’s always some smart engineer who comes up with the one in a million corner case about ‘why this won’t work’. But I ask, will that corner case occur by the time you run out of money? If the answer is ‘no, not for another four years,’ then guess what, that corner case is no longer on your critical path.
“Another example is with decision-making. Whether the button is red or green, make the effing decision. You’ve got to move on. What language you are using? I really wouldn’t care – you’ll probably be refactoring this code in 18 months anyway. But people get hung up on those kinds of things. Your job is to move toward the prize. Don’t get hung up on tactics.”
Click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/steve-blank-exclusive-part-ii-corporate-innovation-essentials) to read the second of our interview features with Steve, in which he talks abour corporate innovation essentials.
**Stay tuned to our social channels and newsletter to hear about the second of our exclusive interview pieces with Steve Blank, in which he talks about corporate innovation.**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Steve Blank Exclusive Part II: Corporate Innovation Essentials](https://pioneers.io/steve-blank-exclusive-part-ii-corporate-innovation-essentials/)
**Published:** November 21, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In our second interview feature with Steve Blank, who visited us in Vienna last week, the Lean Startup Movement founder and innovation guru switches topic from startup advice to corporate advice. Here he talks about the challenges and solutions facing corporates in a climate where disruption is more relevant than ever before.
**Content:**
There’s never been a more dangerous and precarious time for large companies as now, Steve told us in an exclusive chat before he gripped the invite-only audience at last week’s Pioneers Community Event in the Austrian capital. Recognising that fact is step one in making sure that your company keeps ahead of the pack. It pays to remember that Nokia and RIM weren’t the first tales of woe – and nor will they be the last.
“You need to worry about startups as disruptors,” Steve said. “And that never used to be the case. In the 20th century startups were just ‘ankle-biters.’ Now, startups are better-funded than the corporations they compete with.
“I can’t think of an industry where large companies are not threatened by disruption. Especially the retail business. Stores like Macey’s and Sears are all going to be ex-companies…there is no survival path for them.
“Another thing: billions of dollars are now flowing into startups that are designed to break the law. This is something large corporations cannot do. Think about Uber or Airbnb. It’s not that taxi companies or Marriott couldn’t have thought of those ideas…but they would have gone to jail! In a startup, on the other hand, an investor says ‘sure, break the law, go ahead!’ They know that if that startup succeeds they’ll disrupt an entire industry.”
So then, does that mean you’re left with a rather unappetizing choice of bankruptcy or time behind bars?
Of course not. Smart and efficient internal innovation is the answer – and that includes looking at partnerships with those edgy disruptors out there. In this, good practice applies as much as in any other area of your business.
“I am a big fan of the [McKinsey Horizons of Growth](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/enduring-ideas-the-three-horizons-of-growth), and I would say you need to have a broad ‘Horizon 3’ portfolio. Remember that VCs typically invest in 20 to 25 startups – and usually only two of those succeed. So don’t only have two! In a company you want a pretty broad and fast portfolio that’s continually creating stuff.”
Who makes those decisions in your company is another question. Does anyone have the skills to choose that portfolio wisely? Do you need to hire specialists? Maybe, but you’ll have to think of a way to make it attractive for them. And show them you understand that the definition of success is very different in their world.
“We already have people that identify the good stuff, they are called VCs. The question is, would they want to work in a company without any huge upside? Remember that 8 out of 10 failure is considered success for a VC.”
Remember too that there’s no point having brilliant VC-style brains in your company if their work isn’t going to be understood and signed off at boardroom level. The answer there, says Steve, is to ensure there’s always an element – no more – of insanity in the room.
“The boardroom very rarely has crazy people in it. And when you’re dealing with innovation, if a third of that board aren’t crazy, then you’re not innovating hard enough. Richard Feynman was insane while being a complete genius. He was crazy in the sense that he didn’t follow protocol and status quo. But if you have too many of those people you lose sight of execution – generating profit and revenue for shareholders.”
A vivid imagination – enough so to see well beyond the moment – is a large part of what Blank’s getting at. “On day one, to a senior executive, disruption always looks like a toy. The first people who saw the iPhone laughed and said ‘It doesn’t have a keyboard!’”
Assuming you’ve got the right people in place to spot – and sign off on – the innovation worth pursuing, your company might want to start looking at [hackathons and innovation days](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/does-your-company-need-hackathon) that will bring them in contact with startups that might be far better to have on your side than on that of a competitor.
But it’s not *just* about looking outside your four walls. Innovation can often come from within, too. You never know what talent and ambition might be lurking in your employee base – and there will always be some in a large corporation. Blank firmly believes this, but also warns against buying into too much of the hype around the internal innovation theme.
“To say that ‘everybody is an innovator’ is a disaster,” he says. “To say ‘everyone is an entrepreneur’ is a going-out-of-business strategy. Entrepreneurs are artists – it’s not a job, it’s a calling. And not everybody in a company is called. Only two percent of people inside large companies are artists.
“So let’s not think that everybody in the company is going to create the next Big X. But, like teaching art appreciation, we should teach innovation appreciation. Be able to separate out the artists, and teach everybody else innovation appreciation.”
So to sum it all up, create a strong culture of innovation in your company and ensure that ‘the called’ are allowed to pursue it without distracting the rest from execution. Bring in the right people – experienced VCs and a few unbalanced individuals, perhaps – to ensure the best innovation decisions at senior levels. And take an active approach to meeting startups and their ideas as you pursue a broad and ever-evolving portfolio.
“This whole notion of an ambidextrous corporation that can execute and innovate simultaneously is no longer just nice to have,” warns Blank. “It’s a matter of survival!”
Click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/exclusive-interview-steve-blank-start-planning-acquisition-day-one) to part one of the interview with Steve, in which he shares wise words on startup acquisition.
**Want to meet the best startups? Then grab a ticket for Pioneers’18, where we’ll have a select 500 of them at the Hofburg in Vienna. For a dedicated project such as a hackathon, contact our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover at discover@pioneers.io**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Community News: Skymatic Secures Deal with German Cloud Giants](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-community-news-skymatic-secures-deal-german-cloud-giants/)
**Published:** November 27, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Today one of the startups that we invited to attend our GovTech session at Pioneers’17 is celebrating as it announced a major deal with German cloud storage brands GMX and WEB.DE. As Pioneers celebrates with Skymatic, we talk online security and GovTech applications with its co-founder Christian Schmickler.
**Content:**
Less than two years old and still with only four full-time employees – the quartet of co-founders, to be precise, Skymatic can be proud that its Cryptomator software has been chosen to bring unprecedented end-to-end encryption to cloud services with around 30 million users. To be branded GMX Tresor and WEB.DE Tresor (*tresor* translates loosely to ‘vault’ in English), it’s a dream deal for a young startup.
To put it in layman’s terms, the Cryptomator software provides an easy way for you and me to ensure that any data on our devices is securely encrypted before it leaves home and travels to clouds such as Google Drive, Dropbox and many more. Until now this has only been an add-on you would download for your iPhone or Android device, or for Apple, Windows and Linux computer operating systems.
Critical is the fact that the encryption comes from a third party. The idea being that while your files might live in the iCloud or the like, Tim Cook (or similar) cannot read them.
While the software remains available for individual users as before, now all the cloud storage customers from the two German behemoths can expect this level of third-party security as a standard feature. And that level of security, says Schmickler, is something that Google and Dropbox are not yet providing.
“Our clients want to emphasize that they stand for security, and
differentiate themselves from the providers in the USA such as Dropbox or Google Drive by providing maximum security to their users,” says Schmickler. “Dropbox functionality is probably unbeaten while Google doesn’t do a bad job either, but in terms of privacy protection and information security, none of the really big cloud providers have end to end encryption integrated yet. In this case we’re white labelling our software and integrating it with the GMX and WEB.DE brands and functionalities.”
Skymatic look to have chosen a very smart niche in which to seek business. As our lives and our work move more and more into ‘the cloud’, so security becomes more and more of an issue for those providers. And the responsibility for that security lies squarely with those storage owners. It’s a bit like selling new cars: no driver is going to check up that you’ve sold them safe brakes, but you better be prepared for one heck of a storm if there’s a failure. Even the likes of Google or Dropbox will take a hard hit if there’s a major leak.
That’s why it’s no surprise that Schmickler sees deals like this – in which providers get to say ‘hey, look, use us, because we brought these guys in to make sure we can never spy on your files!’ – will be the big earner for Skymatic.
“I’m certain this will be the case,” he says. “People do want their data protected, but at the same time they are not ready to spend money on it and not ready to have any additional effort – not even downloading an app! We sell a few hundred apps every month but that is a niche market.”
Another reason it’s a smart place to be is that business opportunities exist far and wide. In GovTech, for example. Which is why Schmickler participated in the sessions at the Hofburg back in June, and is hoping to return to this year’s expanded GovTech.Pioneers event on May 23rd.
“Wherever there are documents that need high protection, this is where we can adapt our software to different use cases. Since governments have a lot of important data that has every need to be protected and saved in a very secure cloud, we think we may be able to provide a solution for government technology in the future.
“One example might be if there was a ‘public cloud’ that every citizen can use, where they have all the important documents that government entities need to provide, and which they can access it all in real time. It could also be updated in real time. We could make it very safe because we could combine the password with biometric ID functionality.
“I look forward to coming back to GovTech.Pioneers if we can! This year was the best startup conference I’ve attended so far and I really like the idea of an exchange between startups and politics. In my experience the most interesting conversations often take place if people with very different backgrounds come together. That’s what I particularly enjoyed during Pioneers’17 in general and at the GovTech session in particular.”
For now, though, Skymatic’s focus will be on making sure things run smoothly with GMX and WEB.DE. The team is well aware that if all goes without a hitch, it could open a lot of doors for them. They’re not the only open-source solution operating in this space – so they need to show they’re the best at user-friendliness, ease of integration and, of course, not getting hacked!
“We’re looking forward to learning from the experiences of such a high number of users. We hope this market validation, and this kind of test for our software, shows that it will withstand any attacks. We hope this will be proof of the quality we can provide and bring us publicity. Then we would have the chance to go into sensitive areas like insurance, finance or even military, in order to protect data in those areas where high-end security is a must-have.”
A fun fact to end off? Schmickler doesn’t recommend that we be using WhatsApp, even though it’s the one place where many of us might have first seen the phrase ‘end-to-end encryption.’
“Messages might be encrypted but meta-data isn’t encrypted, so they do have info about who communicates with who and when. They also download your whole phone book, and in their privacy agreement you even agree that everyone in your contact book agrees for you to share their data with WhatsApp! I would recommend Signal, an open-source solution that provides all the aspects of privacy that are important.”
Because in this day and age, you simply can’t be too careful…
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Startups Get Set for Pioneers’18: Applications Are Live For 'Blurred Frontiers' Event!](https://pioneers.io/startups-get-set-pioneers18-applications-are-live-blurred-frontiers-event/)
**Published:** November 28, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers is inviting startups from around the globe to apply for our flagship event Pioneers’18 on May 24th-25th, for which the theme is 'Blurred Frontiers'. The best startups can join us in Vienna for free as part of the Pioneers500 program, earning the chance to showcase their innovations in front of a community of 2,500 leading tech innovators from over 100 nations. A selection of these will also have the opportunity to pitch and attain worldwide recognition through top media such as returning key event partner CNBC.
**Content:**
Our biggest and broadest event of the year, the 2017 edition of which recently won the beaworld ‘Best Conference 2017’ Award, welcomes startups from a wide range of technologies. Our focus for next year is *Blurred Frontiers*, in which we explore the ever-fuzzier boundaries between deep tech and humanity, ultimately redefining human tech frontiers.
Applications are now live for both seed and Series A startups who would like to earn a pair of free tickets to join us at the magnificent Hofburg Imperial Palace. The Pioneers500 program is our annual selection of the 500 most promising early-stage tech start-ups identified in cooperation with the global tech community and selected key players.
Once the Pioneers500 is determined, we’ll select 50 of the startups to be part of Pioneers Challenge, which means they will have the chance to pitch. From the day-long pitching session in the cauldron of the Hofburg’s Amplify Stage, eight finalists will emerge. These will earn the chance to pitch on the Arena Stage in the Pioneers Challenge Finals, the grand finale of the two days at Pioneers’18.
In 2017 the spoils of Pioneers Challenge victory for winning startup Stromkind included a networking and business development trip to Silicon Valley. In their trip to California the Austrian startup met figures including Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel, ace investor Tim Draper and communications expert Nancy Duarte. They also earned feature coverage with CNBC.
Startups can apply for Pioneers500 [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/pioneers-500). **Applications close on March 31, 2018.**
It’s also time for GovTech startups to start getting their application together for GovTech.Pioneers, the specialist event we’ll be running on May 23. A welcome addition to Vienna’s most impactful annual week of innovation last year, we’ve expanded GovTech Pioneers into a full-day event that will dive even deeper into this fast-growing, high-potential area. Later in the week, during Pioneers’18 itself, there will also be a two-hour GovTech stage session.
Startups working on technology that would be of specific interest to governments and government departments, whether at city, state, national or even United Nations level, can apply [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/govtechpioneers).
Finally, if you are a startup working in the mobility space, don’t forget you can also apply for our Mobility.Pioneers event in Munich on February 8. Time is running out for this event – also even bigger than last year’s inaugural edition – with applications closing on December 18th. Apply [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/mobilityhpioneers)!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pride of Pioneers: How B2B Pay Grabbed Their Big Chance](https://pioneers.io/pride-pioneers-how-b2b-pay-grabbed-big-chance/)
**Published:** November 30, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** When Pioneers Discover scouted cross-border business payments startup B2B Pay as a good fit for the BBVA Open Talent Fintech for Companies competition, founder Neil Ambikar filed the application and then promptly forgot about it. But, as you’ll read, it was the start of something big for the Berlin-based crew, who went on to do our consultancy arm proud with a victory.
**Content:**
Pioneers Discover played an important scouting role for both the Fintech for Companies and Global Trends competitions, part of the diverse and international BBVA Open Talent programme. They brought their trademark efficient and result-driven, three-phased approach, which including making use of the Pioneers brand and its highly-curated top-notch network of ecosystem stakeholders to attract the right companies.
“When we got the email from Pioneers Discover,” recalls the cheerful Ambikar, “I remember having a look and thinking ‘this is interesting for us as a Fintech company!’ So I applied. And then I totally forgot about it for months, as you do!
“Then one Friday I started getting calls from Spain. But I was travelling and I ignored them – I get a lot of spam calls, you see! Towards the end of the day I finally picked up an email saying ‘hey, we’ve been trying to reach you all day, we need confirmation in the next hour if you want to come to London as a finalist…otherwise we’ll have to give the place to someone else.’”
Ambikar got in touch right away, as you might imagine. And now he’s certainly relieved to have made the trip to the English capital in September. Because after two days of learning the inner workings of the banking giant and then pitching, [B2B Pay](https://www.b2bpay.co/) emerged as the BBVA Open Talent Fintech for Companies (F4C) winner. They saw off nine other finalists, of which two more were also scouted by Pioneers. Also in the ten were our 2017 Fintech.Pioneers finalists Bitbond.
“There were about 30-40 people from BBVA in London – top management who were taking it really seriously. And there were also really good startups! I was pretty confident that one of the others would win.”
Happily for B2B Pay, Ambikar was wrong on that. His pitch went down well. And victory in the United Kingdom was far from the end of the story. Along with €30 000 in prize money, they also won an invitation to join BBVA for an Immersion Week at the Spanish giant’s Madrid headquarters in late October. There, they joined winners from Global Trends, for which Pioneers Discover also scouted three of the finalists.
The trip to Madrid proved to be a positive experience for Ambikar. As reflected by the fact that the team is now working on a Proof of Concept for BBVA.
“I’ve been in the startup world for two or three years, and nobody has ever flown me anywhere or provided me a hotel room,” grins Ambikar. “I’m usually sleeping on couches!”
More importantly than the lodgings, B2B Pay had the chance to really learn how best they might be able to tailor their virtual bank accounts product to BBVA use cases. Unsurprisingly for a company that runs such a broad innovation programme as Open Talent programme, Ambikar and his new ideas felt very welcome at HQ.
“The vibes were really positive and the interaction very genuine and intense. You could see that BBVA is really serious about working with startups. It does a lot more with startups than most banks…most banks talk about it but BBVA actually does it! They’ve taken over a lot of startups and invested a lot of them too.
“They really showed us around everything, and it was amazing to dive so deep into how BBVA is thinking, meeting their design guys and so many other people."
While meeting the right people in a large organisation is obviously a major step for a startup in any space, they still need a good product or concept. And Ambikar is confident B2B Pay has got one that really solves both sides of a pain point, namely reducing payment fees and paperwork for small businesses who have customers in Europe’s SEPA \[Single Euro Payment Area) zone, but don’t actually operate there.
“There are so many small exporters to Europe but they can’t do banking there,” explains Ambikar. “If you are a small Turkish or Indian merchant, be it e-commerce or traditional import/export, you cannot get accounts in Europe. Payments are a painful process and very expensive. PayPal is not in Turkey anymore. There is no payment solution in Europe for them. There is this entire market of customers who are underserved. We thought, how can we solve this via technology?”
The answer is a virtual SEPA account provided by B2B Pay. It’s a bit like VPN, which gives you an online identity in your country of choice without actually being there. The technology, of course, is something that might be white-labelled by a large bank. There’s a clear benefit for the institution, explains Ambikar.
“We’re creating a new market. It’s good for banks like BBVA because those big cross-border and exchange fees were probably going to another bank or broker anyway. In a way we would be creating a new revenue stream for them. Now, by taking money in Euros through us, they can make money on the FX on the payments between Europe and, say, Turkey.”
Turkey is a use case on which B2B Pay is focusing as it develops its Proof of Concept, given PayPal’s [loss of licence](https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/31/paypal-to-halt-operations-in-turkey-after-losing-license-impacts-hundreds-of-thousands/) there last year, the high number of Turkish exports to the Eurozone and the fact that BBVA owns Garanti, one of the biggest banks in Turkey.
What happens, though, if (or when…) Blockchain adoption means the international payments problem falls away industry-wide? Well, B2B Pay are thinking ahead such a large-scale infrastructure change without fear. In fact, they’re eyeing a solution that would make them a major part of it.
“What we want to do in the future is basically replace the IBAN infrastructure using Blockchain. Our concept is EBAN – an electronic bank account number. We should be able to create a global bank account number that’s not tied down to any country, not tied down to a bank. Banking should be like email – there should be no difference between domestic and international. Whether you are from Turkey or Europe should not matter.
“For me the future is to build the whole virtual account directly on the blockchain, and bypass the need for this whole stupid system of creating multiple accounts globally.”
A significant pivot has to be a possibility, then, but like any startup operating in the complex, conservative and highly regulated Fintech environment, it’s almost impossible to say when that might be necessary. Companies like B2B Pay have to watch the landscape changing and adapt when the moment is right. In the meantime, it’s about timing and fortune…and building relationships like the one they’ve started with BBVA.
“In two years of being a startup I have learned that it’s all about timing and a little bit about luck,” Ambikar reflects. “Like getting an email from Pioneers, and then a phone call from Spain on that Friday afternoon!”
Interested in getting on the Pioneers Discover radar? View the opportunities on our Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Adds Dedicated Series A Startup Programs for 2018 Events](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-adds-dedicated-series-startup-programs-2018-events/)
**Published:** December 5, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re excited to announce that we’re introducing tailored programs for Series A startups at our events in 2018, including Mobility.Pioneers in Munich in February and Pioneers’18 in Vienna in May. We’ll be running dedicated sessions at both of these events, such as the exclusive ‘Raising Series B’ workshop led by Wunder CEO Gunnar Froh at Mobility.Pioneers.
**Content:**
While our investment arm Pioneers Ventures continues to look out for the most promising pre-seed and seed startups, we’re now taking a more focused approach to our long tradition of serving early-stage startups. In line with this we’re now customizing our event programming more tightly to the specific needs of seed-stage and Series A companies.
Series A startups who already have a product out there and are now looking to scale and develop a repeatable business model will have the opportunity to take part in exclusive and targeted sessions, networking and workshops at next year’s events. Such startups should have raised funding up to $15m.
Series A startups selected for Pioneers’18 will receive two free tickets to our flagship event on May 24th-25th, as well as the opportunity to sign up for specialised workshops and round tables with selected corporate executives. The application process is already open [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/pioneers-500).
At Mobility.Pioneers on February 8th, meanwhile, we’re offering our chosen Series A startups exclusive workshops around the topic of raising Series B funding, hiring staff and corporate acquisition. There will also be an exclusive side event for just 50 curated attendees, in which the startups can mingle with high-level corporate executives. Startups can apply [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/mobilitypioneers).
We’re pleased to confirm that [Wunder](https://www.wunder.org/) CEO Gunnar Froh will be running a session on raising Series B and decisions around corporate collaboration and acquisition in Munich. Froh was one of the first 50 employees at Airbnb after the (now) giant platform acquired Froh’s previous startup Accoleo as part of its growth process. He’s now overseeing Wunder’s rapid growth, with the carpooling startup, whose platform targets developing megacities such as Manila, having completed Series B funding earlier this year.
Startups in the post-Series A phase often find themselves at a critical juncture in their journeys. Froh agrees with the idea that it’s just about the last opportunity to pivot successfully.
“I think that’s probably so,” says Froh, who is pictured with the growing Wunder team above. “It’s still possible at this stage and maybe not later than that. Although mostly people don’t like to talk about changes even being needed!”
Other big decisions founders need to make after Series A could be big ones regarding collaborations and acquisitions. Froh’s session will explore these challenges in the specific context of mobility, in which he’ll share insights gained from Wunder’s involvement with all three of Germany’s automotive giants over the last two years. Including how he turned down an acquisition offer from one of them.
“Collaboration between corporates and startups has changed a lot in recent years,” he says. “Corporates are becoming much more aware of the benefits of the way startups work. This provides many opportunities for startups.
“That doesn’t just mean in terms of short-term funding or early exit opportunities. It can also mean you as a startup positioning yourself as a supplier to these companies – even in the long term. We could have sold to Volkswagen at the first opportunity…but we didn’t do it. We’re seeing more willingness for corporates to ‘innovate their network’.”
Froh’s learnings from his involvement in scaling Airbnb will no doubt intrigue a lot of the Series A founders who make it to Munich too.
“Airbnb managed to convince some very good investors to make them the winner in that space. They didn’t create the sharing economy or even renting your apartment, there were many doing that at the same time – we were monitoring 40 of them every week! But Airbnb managed to get enough investors behind them to provide them with so many resources that they could withstand some problems and try a lot of things without it mattering if they didn’t work out.”
While the Airbnb experience is hardly likely to be typical for most startups, there are still important learnings to be had, says Froh.
“It’s good to create a reference point of companies that are very similar to you. It’s also good to identify those next-level investors and speak to them early on about what the metrics they care about are. Here it can be contradictory: some would say revenue is the really important thing at Series B stage, others say it’s all about reach, in other words early indicators of ultimate revenue opportunities.”
In short, Series A is a tricky but exciting time in the growth of any business. The right way to go on those big decisions isn’t always clear-cut. Which is exactly the reason why we’re going deep into the topic with speakers such as Froh.
In addition to his session for the growth-stage startups, Froh’s busy schedule in Munich will also see him take part in the Startup Corporate Collaboration panel discussion. Among his fellow panelists will be Dr Tom Kirschbaum from Door2Door.
While our selected startups can attend Mobility.Pioneers free of charge, corporates and investors wishing to purchase tickets can do so [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mobilitypioneers-tickets-37723311440).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Sustainable Tourism Startups Get a Boost in Barcelona](https://pioneers.io/sustainable-tourism-startups-get-boost-barcelona/)
**Published:** December 6, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Six tourism startups earned themselves substantial grants at the Booster Lab in Barcelona over the weekend. Our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover was not only responsible for developing the content and framework of the event for Booking.com B.V., but also selected the startups who took part. The Barcelona Booster Lab was first in an international series aimed at helping startups make an impact through sustainable tourism.
**Content:**
Cultural destination gamification platform [Nexto](https://booster.bookingcares.com/new-blog/2017/11/23/gamifying-cultural-destinations-nexto) earned the largest of half a dozen grants awarded by Booking.com B.V. at the end of a busy weekend of learning, mentoring and pitching. The startup received their full scaling needs of €25,000.
Meanwhile five other startups impressed enough to earn themselves grants as well. While Outdoor Journal & Voyage and Cloud Guide each received €20,000, TripUniq were granted €15,000. Finally, funding to the tune of €10,000 went to both XMigrations and Alternative Athens.
Pioneers further awarded a pair of Pioneers’18 tickets to two impressive innovators in the shape of STUDIOMAPP and subcultours. All participants will continue to work with their Booking.com B.V. mentors over the next six months.
“This has exceeded all our expectations of what a three-day acceleration programme could be,” declared Cristina Pérez Ferrer, CMO of smart sightseeing app Cloudguide. “It was great to see the whole Booking.com B.V. team so involved and helpful! Now it’s time to make the most of the follow-up mentorship programme.”
“The first Booster Lab in Barcelona was incredibly inspiring!” said Irene de Bot, Program Manager of Booking Booster. “We’re impressed by the hard work of all the ventures and are looking forward to continuing working with them over the upcoming months as they grow their businesses and their impact in the tourism industry.”
In the Friday to Sunday program, 11 startups chosen from 262 applications participated in hands-on workshops and engaged in direct mentorship from the best experts in tourism industry. The weekend concluded with a pitching day on Sunday, when the entrepreneurs put some of their new-found insights up for public scrutiny. Booking.com B.V. will accompany all startups throughout the next six months with their expertise and network.
“The event was intense but well worth it because we had our [outdoorvoyage.com](https://www.outdoorvoyage.com/) concept validated by some of the smartest people in the industry,” said Lorenzo Fornari, Co-Founder of The Outdoor Journal. “We also got to spend three days with 10 other amazing startups with whom we found some great synergies and even friendships. And we plan to take full advantage of generous mentorship program that Booking.com B.V. has granted us for the next six months.”
Want to make your mark at the next Booster Lab? Note that the next of the weekend Booster Lab events will take place in Tel Aviv on March 1st-3rd. Pioneers Discover will open the starting scouting process for early-stage startups on December 11, so stay tuned to our social media channels for a reminder when the Open Call goes live.
Another startup opportunity that’s already live and at which founders should take a look is the Booking Booster, a three-week accelerator program taking place in Amsterdam in May 2018 for later-stage startups. Featuring the opportunity for sustainable tourism scale-ups to pitch for grants of up to €500,000, it was in fact the success of last year’s inaugural Booking Booster that has led to the creation of the Booster Lab roadshow. Read more details about the requirements and apply [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/) by January 7th!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Electrification Game Changers Set to Speak at Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/electrification-game-changers-set-speak-mobilitypioneers/)
**Published:** December 7, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re excited to announce that Mate Rimac and Walter Kreisel, two of the biggest names in the mobility electrification business, will be speaking at Mobility.Pioneers in Munich on February 8th. Rimac Automobili and Kreisel, which brought us the world’s first electric hypercar and most efficient electric battery pack and ecosystem respectively, will help ensure that electrification, one of the event’s primary themes, will be a real highlight.
**Content:**
Since founding Rimac Automobili in Croatia in 2009, Mate Rimac has been committed to building the next generation of electric supercars. Not yet 30 years old, Mate represents the bright new future of mobility as he continues to redefine propulsion possibilities on both two and four wheels.
Rimac Automobili first made headlines when it created the renowned Concept\_One, the world’s first electric hypercar, with more than 1000bhp, which Mate presented during the ‘Battle of the Supercars’ at our flagship event in Vienna in 2015.
In 2013 Mate founded Greyp Bikes, which has since produced high-performance electric motorcycles such as the Greyp G12S, which can reach 90km/h and has a range of 120km. A true founder success story, Mate now employs over 250 people.
Asked why he has chosen to make room for Mobility.Pioneers in his busy schedule, Mate referenced the first of his two visits to our flagship event five years ago. "Since then I’ve used every opportunity I could to join and feel the vibe and measure the pulse of the startup scene. It’s good to get out of your everyday environment, take two steps back and listen to peers – no matter how busy your days are.
"We’re tackling many things at the same time in a country that never had an automotive industry, nor a history of venture capital financing or technology-based startups. We’re trying to develop and manufacture the world’s most exciting and powerful electric sportscars and supply key electrification, hibridisation and connectivity components to the big names of the industry.
"It’s a greater than life challenge with barriers on many fronts. We still have a long way to go but our path so far has proven that it’s possible – even if considered impossible by most people."
Another electrification giant from an unlikely corner of Europe is Kreisel, which began as a family startup based in the Austrian country town of Freistadt, a stone’s throw from the border with the Czech Republic.
Kreisel is known for developing the lightest and most efficient electric battery pack on the market, thanks to its ingenious cooling system. This has featured in high-profile prototypes such as the world’s first electric Hummer H1, as driven by Arnold Schwarzenegger. With this has come rapid growth, with the former garage business now employing over 100 people.
Having perfected its technology and moved into a remarkable new research and development center outside Freistadt, Kreisel’s mobility focus is now on creating prototypes and solutions for bespoke business customers to then produce under licence. But with its battery production capacity set to scale exponentially over the next two years, now Kreisel is also looking to help build the grid and network infrastructure around which future mobility can be built – Walter’s key area of expertise.
Kreisel shares a similar outlook for the very bright future for electrification in mobility.
“Our dream is to be a leader in electrifying the world and bringing down electricity costs. It’s good night oil, good morning electricity,” says Walter, who believes Kreisel’s technology is now in a position to help decentralize grid power and thus lower costs. “The big advantage for electric-driven mobility is that we can share the energy and share that mobility even faster.
“Autonomous cars will drive us, our parents, grandparents, our kids, handicapped people. Kids will drive to kindergarten and football! So we need much more mobility than now. If we share a little bit it will help, but if we don’t run all this on renewables it’s going to be a big problem in big cities.
“Electrification and digitization are the two main goals for the next generation of mobility. Together these represent exponential possibilities for new companies. The possibility of 100% renewable energies is a huge opportunity for them.”
Other key themes for Mobility.Pioneers are [Automation](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/mobilitypioneers-interview-how-startup-driven-innovation-fuels-automation), Connectivity, Shared Use and Changing Landscape.
There’s just one week to go before our Early Bird ticket offer ends, and the €490 price jumps up to €690. So buy tickets [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mobilitypioneers-tickets-37723311440) now!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Ready to Help us Out at Mobility.Pioneers? Volunteers Wanted!](https://pioneers.io/ready-help-us-out-mobilitypioneers-volunteers-wanted/)
**Published:** December 11, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With the days left in 2017 distinctly numbered, it’s already time to look ahead to opportunities that lie ahead in the New Year. If you’re looking for first hand experience of the startup and innovation scene, then make sure to volunteer for Mobility.Pioneers in Munich on February 8th. And for a little extra motivation, here we chat to three Pioneers employees who first joined our community as volunteers!
**Content:**
Mobility.Pioneers will once again be the ultimate meeting point for tech innovators, where OEMs, manufacturers and mobility providers meet the 120 most promising seed and Series A Startups working on truly game changing technologies. But, as with the first edition earlier this year, it’s the volunteers that will go a long way to making it so special once again in 2018.
There’s just something about volunteering for Pioneers events that keeps people coming back for more. Only last week we invited our past and future helpers to our office for our traditional evening of *punsch* and *glühwein* drinking, and we were pleasantly surprised that some of our alumnis traveled as many as three hours to be with us in Vienna!
And why do people come from so far away? It surely wasn’t just because the *glühwein* was great (though it was indeed as tasty as anything I’ve tried in a Christmas market) and the vibe homely as ever, but because of the lasting connections we make with our volunteers.
Indeed, we even have a few ex-volunteers now working on our staff. For example Lorela Blakcori, who joined our flagship event as part of the Media Team in 2016 and the Event Management Team in 2017, now has a job as a Research Assistant on Pioneers Discover.
“For me volunteering was a great opportunity to gain first insights into the startup world and the newest technologies out there,” reflects Lorela. “I was able to get to know new interesting fields, which helped me to get an idea of where and how I I want to work in my future career. Actually it kind of awoke my inner entrepreneur!”
And then there’s Antonia Egli, six months ago an Event Management Team volunteer at Pioneers’17, but now responsible for our Social Media & Communications.
“I mainly helped the guests at Pioneers’17 find their way around and make the best of their time at the Hofburg,” says Antonia. “I liked the fact that people were completely open, as well as the spirit we all showed. The volunteer team’s motivation will definitely be hard to beat next year! Now that I’m working for Pioneers full-time, I can’t wait to see the volunteers do what they do best at Mobility.Pioneers and Pioneers’18.”
Aurelia Hummelbrunner is yet another former volunteer who now works with us. Having worked as Lead Volunteer for the Speakers Team at our flagship event in 2016, she’s now an Analyst at our investment arm, Pioneers Ventures.
“We made sure that all the speakers experienced a great festival and a smooth stay in Vienna,” recalls Aurelia. “It was so much fun, working with so many different, cool volunteers while really meeting opinion and technology leaders from all around the world. All of them were so kind and truly inspiring.
“Now that I’m with Pioneers, I think back on the volunteering as a pretty important moment in my career – and those connections and lessons are still helpful for my work today.”
Essentials for anyone thinking about volunteering at Mobility.Pioneers are an interest in the startup scene, a good level of spoken English, a cheerful personality and availability to be in Munich on February 8th. More information can be viewed [here](https://pioneers.io/volunteer-mobilitypioneers) – and remember applications close on January 26th.
And fir those who can be in Vienna on May 23rd-25th next year, see more details on volunteering at GovTech.Pioneers and Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/volunteers)!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Mobility.Pioneers Interview: Dr Eileen Mandir Talks OEM Business Models](https://pioneers.io/eileen-mandir-talks-oem-business-models/)
**Published:** December 14, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Having previously scaled urban mobility startup moovel, built digital services and worked in various leadership roles in the automotive industry, Dr Eileen Mandir is now coaching corporates on their own innovation strategies. And she’ll be joining our ‘Future OEM Business Models’ panel discussion at Mobility.Pioneers on February 8th…
**Content:**
While Pioneers events are typically packed with corporates and startups looking to get together and collaborate, sometimes it’s good for both sides to get an outsider’s perspective. That’s where Dr Mandir comes in. Having worked in both the startup and corporate innovation world, and now putting that experience to use as a consultant, she’ll add a fascinating dimension to the panel discussion.
Already confirmed to join Dr Mandir on stage as they discuss future mobility business models is Marcus Spickermann, Head of Growth and CFO at Volvo Cars Mobility. And if our exclusive interview with Dr Mandir is anything to go by, she won’t be afraid to tell it like it is when it comes to best innovation practice and the future of automotive.
“The tricky part about OEMs is that they were so specialised,” she told us. “They were very good and very efficient about producing very complicated things, and now that needs to get remodelled.
“It could be that OEMs will become B2B industry partners. So it’s very important that they not only invest in digital services and digital skills but also learn how to build partnerships in a very complex market and a competitive landscape.
“This is something they’re not used to. They have a lot of partnerships, but more in the sense of partners as suppliers. They don’t partner so much in the market.”
Getting that right could be a life-and-death matter for corporates as the mobility sector holds its breath for fundamental change to really take hold. Mandir was positive when we asked if she thought the new landscape, in which sharing platforms are expected to dominate, won’t have room for as many OEMs as there are right now.
“In the platform urban case I do believe that. All the platform models show that the market at some point consolidates. You have some players that hang around and it’s not as fragmented as at the beginning. But there will still be use cases for private car ownership, but the market will of course be much smaller and having a private car will be a luxury even more than it is today.”
While Mandir doesn’t want to join those predicting certain dates for a switch to an autonomous urban mobility landscape, she does believe that when adoption and acceptance comes, it could do so very rapidly.
“I think the public perception of how safe self-driving cars are could at some point in the future shift quickly. We’re seeing more and more self-driving vehicles with and without safety drivers in some test areas or countries with a progressive regulation. If people get used to seeing driverless vehicles and they show good stats when it comes to accidents and mileage, then there could be a scenario where a single trigger-event could lead to a ban of human-driven vehicles.
“One example might be a fatal child accident caused by a drunk driver in front of a primary school. I think the perception of what should be allowed could change as radically and fast as banning smoking from restaurants.”
With all this change coming up, corporates need to make sure they’re a step ahead of the game if they want their place at the mobility table going forward. Coming to Mobility.Pioneers and meeting startups with great ideas is a good place to begin. But still, they’ll need to make the right decisions about which ones they want to partner with. And Mandir says they have to overcome some traditional problems in this area.
“One problem is that the innovation experts are not ultimately the ones in the room choosing. Often it’s finance people, sometimes it’s legal people. Those people are among a company’s most brilliant people for quick analytical assessments. But how they are conditioned in a company is that they are very prone to over-value risk. They’re looking for risk, seeing it everywhere, and their role is to minimize it!”
“But with innovation, of course, the higher the risk, the higher the potential gain. You’re looking at a lunatic idea. So I do think you need more interdisciplinary people on the board, and also people from different levels.”
It’s not the first time we’ve heard that lately. Having people ready to tune into those ‘lunatic’ ideas in the boardroom is something Steve Blank also touched on in his recent [exclusive interview with us](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/steve-blank-exclusive-part-ii-corporate-innovation-essentials). In addition Mandir believes a younger profile can help.
“With very new technologies, things like voice recognition, it’s just very hard even for people in their thirties to imagine how people are going to use this kind of thing.”
Another best practice corporates can learn from Mandir centers around the happy integration of any acquired startups into the company. Here, she says, even small things can be big.
“With startups and young tech talents it is very important that they can choose their tools – especially tech tools. That could simply be a desire to use Slack, for example. If you don’t allow Slack it will be a super downer. It might not make sense to a large company but it’s the way it is. So be really cautious about forcing them to use something else, because it will be a real problem.”
To buy tickets for Mobility.Pioneers follow this [link](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mobilitypioneers-tickets-37723311440).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Celebrates Its First Estonian E-Resident](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-celebrates-its-first-estonian-e-resident/)
**Published:** December 18, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With the countdown to GovTech.Pioneers on May 23rd in Vienna well underway, Rainhard Fuchs from Pioneers Public Sector reflects on the learnings from his recent visit to Estonia, where he took part in the Startup Nations Summit and met key GovTech figures. And then the trend-setting Baltic nation made Rainhard the first Estonian e-Resident from Pioneers!
**Content:**
When Estonia gained a sudden freedom to think creatively on GovTech as they went from being part of the world’s largest state (the USSR) to independently governing their own relatively tiny population in 1991, it was the start of great things from the little Baltic nation. With the impetus to do things their own way and shake off Soviet legacy systems also came a willingness to make mistakes and learn from them. That’s a great combination in the world of innovation, and e-Residency is a great example of what such a mindset can achieve.
e-Residency is the innovative digital citizenship system that allows offshore entrepreneurs to set up businesses and access services as if they were fully-fledged Estonians. The ‘digital nation for global citizens’ gives people from all over the world a crucial business foothold in the European Union and was launched in 2014 – and there are already over 27,000 of them.
“I believe that ten years from now, we’re going to see e-Residency as a genius move,” Rainhard says. “I think the Estonians really saw the future of the digital world. And visiting there underlined the fact that it’s still a pioneering country doing pioneering work. What’s happening there now is only the beginning.”
Whilst in Tallinn Rainhard met with some of the visionaries who had so much to do with helping to make Estonia arguably the world’s leading state when it comes to the digitalization of government. These included both current Chief Information Officer Siim Sikkut and his predecessor Taavi Kotka, who spoke at the Pioneers Hong Kong Ecosystem Meetup in Hong Kong earlier this year.
“I also got to meet with Kaspar Korjus, who carries the unusual job title of e-Residency Managing Director. Unusual because Estonia is the only country to have one of those – for now! With a target of 10 million Estonian e-Residents by 2025, he’s got a big task ahead of him. But exponential growth is easy to imagine – I can certainly testify that the application system is a pleasure to use and getting that e-Residency envelope in your letterbox is exciting…
“I don’t believe that such an excellent system for attracting entrepreneurship won’t find its way into other governments in time, either,” he added. “It may not be possible for bigger countries like France or Spain or Austria to implement exactly the same system, but adaptations have to be possible. Yes, being a country of little over a million citizens has been an advantage for Estonia in terms of the flexibility to try things, but being larger shouldn’t serve as an excuse for others not to follow.
“Indeed, I can foresee e-Residency programs ultimately becoming something of a competition among nations. Every country knows that a healthy startup ecosystem can only be good news for its economy, and nations who come up with attractive programs could lure some of the thousands of entrepreneurs currently operating businesses virtually in Estonia. At the moment these are coming largely from places like India, Turkey and Ukraine, where an official presence in the European Union is a huge pull. Other EU member states have the same carrot to offer.”
The startup landscape in Estonia is unique in more ways than just being the first to have its own e-Residency scheme, says Rainhard.
“A visit to Estonia makes you realize that the ecosystem is certainly no Silicon Valley – it’s small! However, the ‘startups per capita’ ratio is dense, which makes it a fundamentally entrepreneurial society. Considering the Soviet history didn’t exactly encourage startups, it’s all the more startling. Another thing you notice is that the startups there are good at scaling internationally. With such a small domestic market, they simply have to be.”
Estonian GovTech started setting trends long before 2014, of course. According to their [timeline](https://e-estonia.com/) the country first conceptualized e-Governance in 1997, when the Internet was still a pretty hazy concept to most of us. The first layer of service as it built its digital state came arrived in the form of e-Tax in the year 2000. A year later came the famed Digital ID system, as well as X-Road, the ‘open-source backbone for e-Estonia’.
Speaking of which, it was also Rainhard’s pleasure to meet with Riho Oks, the architect behind the latter.
“Even though so many years have passed, talking to him convinced me once more that this is just the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “With a powerful foundation like that, so much more is possible. Blockchain technology, on which most of the Estonian healthcare system already runs, is only adding to the possibilities.”
One of the inevitable conclusions Rainhard reached was that Estonia is the one country every other government should be studying.j
“While most European states might consider such GovTech experimentation a little dangerous, they should rather follow Estonia’s ‘try it’ mentality. It’s refreshing to see the way the Estonians don’t fear making mistakes when it comes to innovation.
“Other countries can also learn from how Estonia’s government is so open about looking for partners and startups to help them execute their next GovTech iterations. Neighbour Finland is now following Estonia’s lead in many areas, and tech leaders from government further afield are also known to be fishing for advice.”
Our events at Pioneers are another place you can meet Estonia’s free-thinking GovTech minds. At our flagship event earlier this year, for example, we had none other than Andrus Ansip join us in Vienna. Estonia’s Prime Minister from 2005 to 2014 oversaw much of the development of ‘e-Estonia’ and is now Vice President of the European Commission.
In addition to joining a panel discussion on the main stage, Andrus joined our two-hour GovTech session at the Hofburg. With GovTech.Pioneers growing to be a full-day event in 2018, participants will have the chance to meet many more tech-savvy political leaders of his calibre.
Early-bird tickets for GovTech.Pioneers are still available at €490 excluding VAT. Get them [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/govtechpioneers-tickets-38143008766).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [What An Innovation Day Can Do For Your Business](https://pioneers.io/what-innovation-day-can-do-your-business/)
**Published:** December 19, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In the light of the countless hackathons, incubator and accelerator programs, startup weekends and co-creation workshops offered by our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover, we take a closer look at what the benefits of an Innovation Day can be for international businesses. We use yesterday’s Henkel Innovation Day as a case study and talk to previous clients Rehau and Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich about their experiences at past Innovation Days.
**Content:**
Innovation Days are a way for corporations to take their first steps towards embracing a culture of innovation and collaboration with startups. While the details vary according to the client, Pioneers Discover typically inspires the attending employees through tailored sessions and presentations specific to the client’s business challenges, through startup scouting, pitches and introductions, and through co-creation workshops.
“Innovation Days are ideal for introducing a company to its first experience of the startup world,” says Pioneers Discover Project Manager Anton Schilling. “They’re designed to inspire top staff to think in innovative terms and give them the opportunities for first contact with relevant startups. The ideal outcome is that the participants become ambassadors for startup collaboration within the business.”
Yesterday’s Henkel Innovation Day, run in Vienna for around 100 staff from the Integrated Business Unit, was a case in point. The spirit of innovation in the room was almost palpable, with both the throng of employees and the nine invited startups really giving it their all. A short but effective startup-corporate collaboration session in the afternoon, in which different teams from Henkel met with the startups to discuss both pain points and solutions, produced a real buzz. And the outcome was nine great pitches that really were the result of a joint effort.
While choosing the best of a terrific bunch was unusually tough, Henkel invited four startups to travel to its international headquarters in Düsseldorf where they can form a deeper connection with the company and discuss potential collaborations. From tools that can forecast local sales patterns to AI-driven chemical fomula optimization solution, each of 7LYTIX, CCS Digital Education, DEEPSEARCH and serial Pioneers event winners [Craftworks](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/craftworks-hackathon-kings) showed something concrete they could build for Henkel.
“The nine startups were super,” said Dr Paolo Bavaj, Henkel’s Head of Corporate Venturing, who travelled from Düsseldorf to keep an eye on proceedings from a collaboration and investment perspective. “I attend a lot of pitch events, but not many with such a high quality of startups. They had very well thought-through business models and were at a very good maturation stage, having first business and traction already. You rarely see that at normal pitch events. I was pleasantly surprised to have such a lot of problems picking the winners.”
Also pleased with outcomes was his colleague Dr Wolfgang Binder, EIMEA Head of Process Consulting, who is driving the initiative to grow the innovation culture in the Integrated Business Solutions unit.
“I wasn’t really expecting anything much,” said Binder, “but I’m amazed with the amount of ideas that popped up in the end. There were far more on the table than made it onto the stage in the end, and we’ll be following up on all of them.
“Such an event was a first for us, and our experience with startups is in its infancy. What happened today wasn’t typical for us – and the outcomes were much more beneficial for Henkel than we thought they might be.
“I was impressed with the amount of interaction and questions from our employees in the audience. Our people showed such a lot of interest in new ways of working. They started thinking about topics they hadn’t connected with before. When I looked around the collaboration session this was really visible, as I saw the ideas going up on the canvas.
“This was a pilot for us and the conclusion is that we would like to take this format further in one way or another, adapting for local requirements of course. It also shows we’re ready and open for other formats, like hackathons, where we have concrete issues or problems to address.
“For sure we would be happy to work with Pioneers Discover on these: the co-operation worked really well and it was obvious that they are experts in doing such events! We were only going to invite three startups to Düsseldorf, and the fact that we decided to invite four was an indication of their quality.”
Pioneers Discover has delivered similar innovation days for the likes of Porsche, Rehau, Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich and the Austrian Post Office.
Rehau, a leading systems and service provider for polymer-based solutions in construction, automotive and industry, wanted to inspire employees in various departments to think innovatively and co-create with startups specifically in the areas of Smart Retail, Smart Industrial Solutions and Smart Furniture Applications. This was a two-stage innovation program that started with an Innovation Day and then led into co-creation workshops with startups.
“Pioneers Discover connected us to first-class international startups and introduced us to the vibrant and intriguing startup world,” said a representative from the Rehau Research & Development Department. “The co-creation workshops with the startups inspired us to think in completely new ways and business models. We can definitely recommend Pioneers Discover to facilitate the venture into the startup world as a corporate and to introduce fruitful collaborations with top-notch startups.”
Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich, meanwhile, were looking to meet FinTech startups to help develop innovative solutions for Austria’s leading regional bank. Their program culminated in an Innovation Day and resulted in the implementation of mobile payment solution developed by Blue Code, one of the attending startups.
“The Innovation Day at the not only revealed many exciting new additions, services and solutions for the financial industry, it also provided insights into the efficient operation and organization of start-ups,” said Dr Heinrich Schaller, General Director of Raiffeisenlandesbank OÖ. “The exchange and cooperation with Austrian and international FinTechs is an essential component of our innovation strategy.
“The resulting cooperation with Blue Code represents an important extension of the service spectrum to our customers and has also closed a gap in mobile payments for smartphones using the iOS operating system.”
Innovation Days, of course, are just the beginning of what our consultancy arm can offer. Once they’re on board with the startups world, companies may consider diving deeper into bespoke tech solutions by means of a hackathon. For more on what a Pioneers Discover hackathon entails, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/does-your-company-need-hackathon).
To get in touch with Pioneers Discover, email discover@pioneers.io
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pride of Pioneers: Top 50 Pioneers’17 Startups Celebrate Funding, Deals and Acquisitions](https://pioneers.io/pride-pioneers-top-50-pioneers17-startups-celebrate-funding-deals-and-acquisitions/)
**Published:** December 28, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As we round out the year, here’s the story of how the startups we chose for our Pioneers Challenge Top 50 raised millions of Euros since their moment of glory at Pioneers’17. And just a few examples of the big collaboration and acquisitions they’ve been able to make - not to mention some of the honors for which they’ve been named!
**Content:**
With three industry-focused events and another excellent edition of our flagship event behind us – the latter honoured as Best Conference/Congress in 2017 at the beaworld Awards – it’s fair to say 2017 has been the busiest year yet for Pioneers. The action began with Mobility.Pioneers in Munich in February (the [second edition](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility-pioneers) of which is just a few weeks away now on February 8th 2018), after which we moved our roadshow to Berlin for Fintech.Pioneers later in the same month. Then in October we were to be found in Amsterdam, where Health.Pioneers, the third of our specialist events, took place.
In between all that, though, came our biggest event of the year: Pioneers’17 at the Hofburg in Vienna. As usual, we chose a select 50 of the invited Pioneers500 startups for the chance to pitch on the Amplify stage. While Stromkind was the one that went [all the way](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/stromkind-wins-pioneers-challenge-pioneers17) to glory on the final day, winning themselves a [networking trip to Silicon Valley](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/interview-stromkind-makes-waves-usa), an incredible variety of their Top 50 companions have also had plenty to celebrate in the second half of the year.
Take for example [Sunflower Labs](https://sunflower-labs.com/). Three months after pitching at the Hofburg they announced a strategic partnership with Stanley Black & Decker to work together on new and innovative security solutions. The Zurich-based creators of smart, drone-based lighting and camera systems for the home also brought their funding up to $6m after a round from General Catalyst, which included investment by Stanley Ventures.
Having already won our pitching contest at Fintech.Pioneers, Blockchain payments startup [Bitwala](https://www.bitwala.com/) was another to make the Top 50 at Pioneers’17. The next month they raised €1,6m and they’re now looking to complete another round of funding early in the new year.
Underlining just how many completely different types of startup can make our Top 50 and succeed, the smartphone-controlled herb and food growth ‘mini fridge’ known as [LEAF](https://www.getleaf.co/) earned $2,5m in funding in August. Proof, too, that there’s every chance for an American startup to succeed when they make the trip to join us in Vienna!
[Surematics](https://surematics.com/) is another of our Top 50 startups that had a great second half to the year. Their technology, which helps commercial insurance brokers structure complicated deals for cases such as oil rigs, using ‘a dash of blockchain’, got them accepted to Y Combinator. That brought them a $120,000 funding boost, and following that success, they were acquired by cryptocurrency platform Radix DLT.
And since pitching in Vienna, intelligent network tracking analysis startup [GREYCORTEX](https://www.greycortex.com/) celebrated signing a collaboration agreement with the ESET Technology Alliance. That’s allowed it to scale sales internationally, opening offices in Poland and Japan. Having also released several new features for its MENDEL product, it’s growing sales to government and enterprise customers – look out for news of an interesting technical partnership in Q2 next year. Finally, its CEO Petr Chaloupka was also named on the New Europe 100 list in November.
Meanwhile [Iris.ai](https://iris.ai/), which semi-automates the process of accurately finding relevant scientific research literature for given use cases, ended a year of fast growth by announcing a $2m seed round earlier this month. Having doubled its revenue every quarter this year, the startup was named among the Most Innovative Companies of 2017 in a selection by Fast Company magazine.
There was also success for Top 50 startups from the life sciences. [Oculyze](https://www.oculyze.de/en/), which offers a ‘mobile microscope’ with the aim of simplifying microscopy, was accepted into the Merck Accelerator Programme in September. And biology data analytics startup [Genialis](https://www.genialis.com/) also had reason to celebrate in the weeks following Pioneers’17. They announced a partnership with Swift Biosciences in October, with the Slovenian company played a key part in delivering the Swift Accel-Amplicon Custom NGS Panels intuitive analysis software.
In October one of our mobility startups from the Top 50 also had cause for cheer. That month saw the announcement that [Commsignia](http://www.commsignia.com/) would work with listed corporate Spirent Communications in order to guarantee full compliance with OmniAir Consortium standards for certifying V2X devices.
And then there was [Zylia](http://www.zylia.co/), the genuinely innovative portable audio recording technology startup hailing from Poznan in Poland. Using the Indiegogo route to crowdfund their product launch, they overfunded to 233% of their target in October.
In other highlights for Pioneers, our young investment arm Pioneers Ventures celebrated its first exit following the acquisition of Atmosplay. This year also saw its portfolio company Gustav accepted into the Y Combinator accelerator.
For those startups interested in celebrating success stories this time next year, the road to Pioneers Challenge Top 50 in 2018 begins with an application for Pioneers 500. And startups can already do so [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/pioneers-500).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Community Tips: How to Test a Startup Idea](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-community-tips-how-test-startup-idea/)
**Published:** December 21, 2017
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** It’s never been easier to find out if your startup idea is a goldmine or a dud. While the traditional challenge of ‘getting out of the building’ to test the market can seem daunting, especially for working people, the internet offers far quicker and simpler ways to quickly gauge interest in a product or service. Nowadays it’s not nearly as scary as knocking on doors...
**Content:**
We all have our lightbulb moments. Even if you don’t consider yourself much of an entrepreneur, hasn’t there been a time you’ve said ‘Hey, someone should invent that!’? Or maybe, over a few drinks in the corner of some bar, you’ve muttered something along the lines of ‘That’d be a great business idea!’
Most people beyond their student years just let these moments pass us by. Amongst folks in full-time employment, only the precious few will actually try to turn those carelessly-flung words into deeds.
If you’re looking for an excuse to stick to the day job rather than try to bring your own business idea into being, it’s never going to be difficult to find. You can’t spend your kids’ college money on a startup gamble. You’ve got a mortgage to pay. If it doesn’t work out, you’ll never get back into a job as good as the one you’ve got. Your friends (all thoroughly grown-up and settled in comfortable employment) will think you’ve gone loony and accuse you of having a mid-life crisis.
But when you spend enough time talking to founders, who generally don’t buy into phrases like ‘I don’t have time’ or ‘I can’t’, you realise that at least a couple of those excuses simply don’t wash anymore. Because in the case of most startup ideas, there are now simple digital processes to find out whether it’s loony or not. All *without* quitting your job to spend your days doing market research. Testing consumer interest in 2017 is something you can do in an evening or three, perhaps with a weekend and a couple of dozen Dollars thrown in.
Speaking to a startup like Pioneers Ventures portfolio company CodeBerry really wakes you up to this fact. Its quartet of Hungarian founders are great believers in a slick and efficient idea testing process. They tried out no less than 30 different ideas – spending just a few days on each – before they hit a rich vein of interest for one of them. That’s how CodeBerry, a startup which teaches coding to non-English speakers, was born.
With the right tools in place, it never took them long to figure out whether their idea was one worth pursuing. They didn’t need to actually start a business to test out what the interest might be. You just *pretend* to start the business. To create that impression, a basic landing page and a low-cost advertising campaign will suffice. All you need then is a call to a measurable action – clicks, a traffic indicator or perhaps a sign-up page. Worry about delivery once you’ve got customers, is the philosophy many founders share.
“One Monday we decided we want to set up CodeBerry,” recalls CodeBerry co-founder Békéssy László István. “On Tuesday we put up the landing pages. By Thursday we had the payment option running and on Friday morning somebody actually paid us for a coding course! And we thought, *whoa, this is happening!* We had nothing prepared at all. So we invited this first customer to our Slack channel and gave them some assignments – just some links to some online games. That gained us an hour or three to make the next documents or assignments…and so it went!”
Granted, there were four guys working on CodeBerry that week – full-time. And yes, they’re computer geeks who know how to code their own landing pages properly. So their timeline might not be quite so realistic for the average office employee. Nonetheless, you can cover essentially the same process without being a tech wizard.
“You have great options for making landing pages, with a lot of boxed solutions out there,” says István. “You have to do the copywriting effort, but it’s actually not that big. And you can test it with really small money (cost per click). We test with Google Adwords marketing.
“We have some framework for experimenting. We’re very proud of this methodology, and the clear answers it gives you. Without a clear testing process for an idea that might be bad but which you might love, you’ll go further with the idea than you should before you ditch it.
“We tried our ideas for around a few days each. We would take the idea, check it with the market. Usually it came out this it’s not a good idea – or that we couldn’t make it work without lots of money. But with CodeBerry it was different…”
Their tried and trusted testing methodology didn’t stop with being just a way of validating a workable startup idea. It continues to serve as the perfect way for them to feel out which language markets are keen on their product. The perfect growth tool for a product like theirs, all they have to do is put up a CodeBerry landing page in, say, Latvian, apply the usual measurement parameters, and see what the interest is.
And it’s worked. Having founded in 2016 with next to no idea of what markets might be interested in learning to code in their own languages, CodeBerry is already offering courses in tongues as diverse as Portuguese, Polish, Bahasa Indonesia and Vietnamese.
“In Indonesia we got customers for something like 40 cents each. We got people to actually fill a form to give their email address and sign up. We had to tell them we weren’t quite ready yet! But we knew there was a market for us and that was the main thing.”
While the way CodeBerry execute all this is relatively advanced, don’t let that put you off. It’s essentially the same thing you can do with a basic website builder and, say, Facebook and MailChimp. Perhaps a little reading and research on keywords, too, and a spot of Google Analytics. Nothing too scary.
For the likes of CodeBerry as well as for you and me, the big step is to go through the process once. Once you’ve got your method, your accounts and your template, you’re not far away from Plug ’n Play idea testing. From that point on, if you’re willing to give up just a couple of evenings a month, there’s no reason you couldn’t validate an idea every 30 days. It’ll keep the creative juices ticking, if nothing else.
Another startup founder in our community who’s pretty hot on the idea of the quick validation is Luke Peng, the Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur behind [AnyaUp.com](https://www.anyaup.com/), a platform linking businesses to curated freelance creatives. Pioneers Discover scouted Luke to join the Vienna Start-up Package this year, and AnyaUp.com is the fourth in a list of startups that have met with varying degrees of success.
Unafraid to fail and a firm believer that there’s little to lose in at least testing out a new idea, he’s written a [step-by-step methodology](https://www.howmuchtodomarketing.com/blog/how-to-test-your-startup-idea-in-three-steps) for doing so that just about anybody could master.There’s also a neat sum-up video about the process [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0EhKNnCagQ&feature=youtu.be).
And yes, it’s something you could get started on during your next lunch break – so there’s no more excuse for excuses!
And because we like to practice what we preach here at Pioneers (even though our lunch breaks are often short…), we’ve taken a slightly wacky business idea and actually tested it out. Read all about it in part two [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-case-study-testing-startup-market).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Open Call: Booster Lab Tel Aviv & Booster Accelerator - Five Days Left to Apply](https://pioneers.io/open-call-booster-lab-tel-aviv-booster-accelerator-five-days-left-apply/)
**Published:** January 2, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We know it’s the first working morning of the year...but there’s already a Pioneers Discover Open Call deadline looming! Middle East regional startups who’d like to apply for the next Booking.com Booster Lab in Tel Aviv on March 6th-8th, and worldwide ones hoping to join the Booking.com Booster in Amsterdam in May, need to get their applications in by January 7th. Growth hacking, mentoring and grants of up to €500,000 are at stake.
**Content:**
The first opportunity on which the sands of time are fast running out is the Booking.com Booster Lab event to be held in Tel Aviv at the start of March. Following the [Booster Lab in Barcelona](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/sustainable-tourism-startups-get-boost-barcelona) last month, this is the second leg in an international series aimed at helping early-stage startups make an impact through sustainable tourism.
Once again our consultancy arm is driving the startups selection process as well as developing and managing the content and framework for the event. And what kind of startups should be looking to apply this week? As in Barcelona, Pioneers Discover is keen to hear from early-stage startups seeking to tackle the challenge of sustainable tourism. This time they should be based in the Middle East region, however. Applicants also need to have a Minimum Viable Product that has been validated with customers.
Those selected for the Booster Lab in Tel Aviv will have a unique opportunity to explore experimentation and growth hacking initiatives with Booking.com experts, as well as the chance to pitch for grants of up to €25,000. Cultural destination gamification platform Nexto earned just such a grant in Barcelona, with several others also getting significant cash injections.
Meanwhile, if you’re a growth stage startup from anywhere around the world and dedicated to sustainable tourism, then the Booster Accelerator in Amsterdam could be for you. To be run over three weeks in the city that’s home to Booking.com headquarters, it will culminate in the chance to pitch for grants of up to €500,000.
For this second edition of the Booster Accelerator, Pioneers Discover will be driving the startups scouting process.. Applicants should have a proven business model with demonstrable local impact, and a readiness to scale to multiple destinations. They also need to have generated some revenue up to a limit of €1,5 million annually.
Startups applying for both open calls need to be registered as for-profit businesses.
If you fit the bill for either opportunity, don’t hesitate to apply via the [Pioneers Discover Open Calls page](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/) right away before Sunday!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Case Study: Testing a Startup Market](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-case-study-testing-startup-market/)
**Published:** January 4, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In part two of our series about running a cheap exploratory test of market interest in that startup idea you’ve been pondering, we try out the theory in real life. In this case, we check out the viability of a service that takes care of making a video resume for job-seekers. Read on for the results and some hands-on tips.
**Content:**
First up, if you missed part one of this series and are wondering what this is all about, head [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-community-tips-how-test-startup-idea) and give our introductory (and hopefully inspirational) blog a read.
**THE IDEA**
A little background to start. A couple of years ago, fed up with the professional pigeonholing so rife in the job market, I decided that a video resume might be a better way to get my message across. Something that would speak louder to the time-pressed skim-reader, and bypass those unimaginative, keyword-crazed search tools altogether.
I wrote a script, spent hours in the middle of a field rehearsing the words, hired a cameraman and ironed a shirt. Three hours of filming in London (in the graffiti hub that is Shoreditch, if you’re curious) later, we had all the footage required. After the tedious business of video editing – the cameraman took care of that, too – a video CV was finally born. You can watch it below.
Now to the genesis of the business idea itself. The response to that video CV – both execution and concept – was overwhelmingly positive. And when you get a resounding approval from all and sundry, and hear people say things like ‘I should get one of those…’, it gets you thinking. If the reaction to what we’d done was so good, could my cameraman and I start making CV videos for others? Would they be willing to pay for such a service?
It didn’t seem a completely mad idea to think that people might consider it a worthwhile once-off investment to get a proper CV video made. And that they might want to hand over as much of the creative concept and technical donkey work to an experienced specialist.
It’s true that by its very nature this would be a highly individualized service. Like tailoring a suit, it’s not something you could automate or scale all that easily. The hours involved would mean a fairly chunky fee. But if you think about such issues before you’ve even found out whether people are interested in your product, then you’re putting the donkey before the wagon. It seemed worth a little trial at least.
A trial that deliberately avoided a serious ad budget and the use of any web development skills. In other words, a trial that anybody could copy.
And even if we messed it up, our readers could learn from our mistakes…
**THE TEST**
We took the risk of running this test over the holiday period. Our Facebook advertisement campaign ran from December 27th until January 2nd. The thinking? Yes, most of the world is offline, but equally, that time of year is the number one week for reflection and resolutions. More than at any other moment, people think about major life changes during those few days. In that sense, there couldn’t be a better slot for a pop-up offering the chance to make a fresh new resume. One that might lead to a fresh new job.
Facebook’s targeted adverts seemed as good a place as any to start. First, though, a landing page had to be made. Using Wix.com, the market-leading website builder hailing from the startup hub that is Tel Aviv, we threw one together in double-quick time before the holidays began. It wasn’t pretty and didn’t pretend to be: basic is the word. Just a homepage. The embedded CV video was the centerpiece. It was paired with a simple drop-in sign-up form that allowed us to access names and emails directly within Wix.
It was nice to discover the latter feature. We had thought a MailChimp account setup would be on the cards, but this proved not to be necessary. Good! When you’re testing business ideas on your lunch breaks, the last thing you want to be doing is spending precious minutes signing up for ten different accounts and learning to navigate any more platforms than necessary.
The site also had a custom domain, which made it look like ‘CV Film Studios’ was a proper company, rather than the made-up experiment that it was. Generally custom domains mean parting with cash, but we did this without paying a dime. That’s because with Wix.com, you can go for a premium plan (which includes custom domains) and then get a refund if you cancel within fourteen days. Which we’ve subsequently done. For an advertising experiment, two weeks can be enough of a lifespan for a website. Your work will be saved in your account anyway, so you can always re-activate and improve the site if you want to pursue the idea further.
We also added Google Analytics to the site, which is simple enough on most platforms. Depending on what web building service you use, this may be a premium feature. Again, take advantage of free trials! Google Analytics is worth having for the information it tells you about anybody who does end up visiting your site.
We then set up a Facebook page for CV Film Studios. Through this we planned an advert and a post that we’d boost with further cash when it went live. Both would feature the video CV people liked so much. For the advert, this needed to be uploaded, while for the post it was possible to simply use the YouTube link.
The general idea? Put the video in front of the right people, and hope they watched enough of it to think, ‘That’s cool, I want one! Where do I sign up?’
Ideally, they would then actually sign up.
The ad post offered the possibility to include a simple sign-up form as part of the advert, an option we jumped at. We defined sign-ups (leads) as our goal here. The page post didn’t offer a form (go figure), so the hope there was simply driving traffic to the website, where our alternative sign-up form lay in wait. And here, in the pre-Christmas rush, we messed up the goal-setting: it should obviously have been click-throughs, but somehow we picked impressions.
Anyway, here’s a look at the construction site for our page post!
Using Facebook’s extensive array of demographic options, for both adverts we targeted an 18-45 age range in the United Kingdom only. There was no specific gender targeting, but we were able to hone in on people who described themselves as ‘job hunters’ or similar. Facebook also offered the possibility to target those who had at some point expressed an interest in the term ‘video resume’. Naturally, we did that too.
**THE RESULTS**
We’ll skip the details and keep to the basics here. Overall, we ‘reached’ 7,294 users, with the ‘impression’ count at 12,198. In essence, that means a lot of those users saw the advert or post multiple times.
When it came to engagement and views (three seconds of watching time defining a video view), more women came to the party, with a 56% female bias. Around 46% of the viewers and engagers fell into the 35-44 age bracket, with a clear peak in the hours between 1pm and 3pm. All potentially useful information about a possible audience.
Whether that really was an interested enough audience, however, is debatable at best. There were just four likes and one share on the page post, and a three-second view of a six-minute video probably doesn’t count for a lot.
Four people signed up to the form on the advert, which is hardly a terrific return. Still, it was better than the signup count on the form we’d put on our website, which we may best describe as four fewer signups than we achieved on Facebook.
It’s not like casual viewers flocked to the website in droves either. Google Analytics tells us we had 16 visitors (thank heavens we didn’t actually pay for the premium plan in the end), 14 of which came – logically enough – from the United Kingdom. One American and one Peruvian also popped in for a look. Unsurprisingly for a time of year in which offices are barren, 100 percent of the traffic came from mobile devices. More curiously, half of it came from ‘direct’ sources. In other words, not from Facebook. A hard one to fathom.
For a comparable spend, the page post outperformed the advert roughly threefold in terms of reach and impressions. Overall, we put around 70 Euros into the campaign. It could have been less, of course: you can set whatever spend limits you like.
Those four signups came at a cost of around 8 Euros each: way too much, you’d think. Impressions, overall, only cost a couple of cents each, but only a handful led to the click-throughs (and then website sign-ups) we actually wanted.
But hey, two of those four sign-ups came from the relatively insignificant city of Reading. Coincidence, or a tiny little nugget to work with on the next campaign, perhaps?
Or maybe we’ll just leave it there. Experiments don’t always deliver the results you want, but we’ve heard it from enough founders in our community: rather try something and fail than try nothing at all. Most ideas don’t work, and that’s perfectly normal.
And remember, we didn’t need to quit our day jobs to do this little test. And you don’t either…
**PRACTICAL LEARNINGS**
- If you’re going to need profile or cover pictures for a Facebook page or similar, get these sourced and correctly sized before you do anything else. Otherwise they’ll be an irritating speedbump when you’ve got a nice flow going on the creative stuff. If you need a photo or two, help yourself to a few via the [free trial from Adobe Stock](https://stock.adobe.com/promo/firstmonthfree).
- Another thing to do up front is choosing your ‘company’ name and picking your web builder plan. When that’s done you can get signing up for accounts such as Wix and Google Analytics out of the way. Type your cat’s name twice and let your browser save it once and for all. Then you can start some real work.
- Get Google Analytics up and running on your website *before* you upgrade to premium and start your campaigns running. It can take a few days to get the data flowing. Test that it’s all working by getting a few friends to visit your site: you should see it in real-time when they load it up. Remember that you may need to manually ‘activate’ a few specific aspects of demographic data-gathering.
- Whatever your advertising method, think very carefully about your goals up front. Is it sign-ups? Click-throughs to your page? With Facebook, at least, it’s the first question you answer, and one around which every subsequent step and your budget spend is built. Changing your mind on your goal at the last minute means doing everything again. And if you’re doing this in your time-squeezed evenings, that’s a catastrophic thing.
- Don’t rush it. You can fine-tune almost everything before you start playing with real money. Ideally, don’t be on holiday when your ads go live. We did that. Silly.
- Make sure you keep a daily eye on developments with your campaign. You don’t need to commit your full spend up front. For example you could plan a couple of days, see what works, and then quickly duplicate your ad with one or two small changes. We could have tried switching our audience to the USA after two or three days, for example. This doesn’t take long, but, again…don’t be on holiday!
- Keep notes of the small tweaks in your campaign, why you did them, and what the results were. It’s not at all easy or fast to trawl through Facebook ad manager and retrospectively look at what you changed and when.
- If you’re hoping that embedding your YouTube link in a Facebook post you’re paying good money to boost will kick-start your YouTube channel into viral territory, the news is not good. None of those views show on YouTube itself. Not cool, but there you go.
- While we thought sharing the final video product would logically be the best advert for a CV video service, a six-minute video is not ideal to grab an audience on Facebook. The platform itself [recommends 15 seconds as ideal](https://www.facebook.com/business/m/tips-for-creating-short-form-videos), with the first three seconds critical. Keeping it under a minute also means you’ll have the option of Facebook distributing the video on Instagram too.
- Even with the basic version of ads manager, setting up Facebook ads is slower and more confusing than it might be. The multi-layered structure makes sense for professionals running multiple campaigns over a period of time, but it’s frustratingly complex for a part-timer who just wants to run a single ad or two. That said, learning the basics is time well invested if you’ve got a bunch of ideas you’d like to trial.
*If you try a startup marketing experiment of your own, let us know via our social channels! We’ll definitely give your post a like…*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Blockchain in the Spotlight at Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/blockchain-spotlight-mobilitypioneers/)
**Published:** January 15, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Blockchain and related technologies will play a major role in the future mobility landscape, and feature heavily in our Shared Use topic at Mobility.Pioneers in Munich on February 8th. Here we chat to key speaker Dominik Schiener, Chairman of IOTA, which enables cars to automatically pay for services. And we find out what blockchain challenge the ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) will issue at the concurrent Mobility Hackathon.
**Content:**
With blockchain (and various interpretations thereof) currently taking the world of innovation by storm, it’s no surprise that the mobility sector is eyeing its potential closely. While we’ll examine numerous use cases in Munich, two of the clearest examples are in the provision of efficient shared mobility services and secure data management for integrated transport services.
Dominik Schiener, Co-Founder and Chairman of IOTA, will speak on stage at the Muffatwerk and demonstrate the potential of one such variation can contribute to the former use case. Meanwhile the ÖBB will be looking for innovative solutions on the latter application in its role as a partner for the Mobility Hackathon, which our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover will be running at the same venue from February 6th-8th.
The talk by Schiener, an industry character who declares in his Twitter profile that he’s ‘very pragmatic, very direct and likes to swear a lot,’ will be a highlight for far more than entertainment value. The IOTA platform (and cryptocurrency) is a major player in the race to smarten up the sharing mobility resources in the Internet of Things era to come. Founded in 2015, it uses a ‘blockless distributed ledger’ called the Tangle to enable fee-free, scalable business-to-business payments.
While his on-stage Car eWallet demonstration will graphically illustrate the full workings and potential of IOTA to enable a car to automatically pay for services like charging and parking, Schiener recently gave us a layman’s overview of the technology in an exclusive interview.
“The overall problem we’re solving is how machines can pay each other,” he said. “We pioneered the vision of a machine economy – our hope is that in the future machines start trading with each other. Trading resources, trading services and thus making our lives more seamless and efficient by replacing the human as the centre of these processes.
“To achieve this machine economy, you need to give a machine a wallet. Then it can start paying for resources and services, but also start earning money. IOTA is the protocol that enables these wallets and the transactions to be settled between machines. That’s our foundational layer.
“Car eWallet is part of our strategy when it comes to mobility. I’ll talk about how it is at the core of this new sharing economy, enabling all of these technologies. It’s at the core of the new business models and new applications.”
IOTA’s technology and vision, which envisions enabling real-time leasing of everything from drones to computational power, continues to attract considerable attention. Just last week the foundation announced it will partner with the International Transportation Innovation Center (ITIC) to build a global alliance of smart mobility testbeds.
Schiener is already working with major corporates in the mobility industry, and says he’ll be looking to meet more at Mobility.Pioneers.
One of the many large companies guaranteed to have representation in Munich – and also a strong interest in blockchain – will be our Mobility Hackathon partner ÖBB. The hackathon, which is open to single developers and developer teams as well as fully-fledged startups, will see contestants (selected by Pioneers Discover) build prototypes answering transport challenges or problems pre-defined by each of our partners, which include both ÖBB and Deutsche Bahn (German Railways).
ÖBB has already issued its challenge, namely *Blockchain for Passenger Name Record*. Using blockchain for seamless and secure personal data management in a future integrated transport booking system featuring multiple service providers has been an ongoing area of interest for ÖBB ever since the Open Innovation Challenge Workshop organised for them by Pioneers Discover in late 2016. That’s where they were introduced to Markus Sabadello, Founder & CEO of Danube Tech, a company our consultancy arm scouted. It works on technologies in the field of digital identity and personal data, including personal clouds and blockchain identity.
Since that connection sparked, Sabadello has developed a first Proof of Concept for the ÖBB: a future booking solution that would place the necessary identity data ownership and permissions squarely with the customer. Furthermore, the system could allow a company like ÖBB to offer a multi-modal and multi-service transport platform with a one-stop customer identification solution that’s simpler and more secure for all. ÖBB will use this Proof of Concept as the basis of their challenge at the Mobility Hackathon, and ask contestants how they might further improve the concept.
“The winner of the hackathon will be the one with the most thought-through or most holistic concept to build on our existing idea, or the broadest network of solutions,” says Peter Zehetbauer, Innovation Manager at ÖBB. “There will be one winner, but in the long run maybe we can bring people who work on the same ideas together and help make their vision reality.
“The benefit for us will be that we could play an important role within that mobility ecosystem. A long term future for companies like ours is not specifically bound to the railways. But mobility as a public good will always be important. There is a future in terms of taking care of people’s mobility needs.
“Our vision of future mobility is intermodal transport. Nobody will book a train or a car. You’ll simply book a ride, and it won’t matter how you travel. We at ÖBB will still have our core competence, the railway network, however we believe that the future product is the booking process and not the train itself.
“A lot of important players and big companies are also going toward shared mobility solutions, but what will be the standard underneath all these platforms? While the answer isn’t certain, blockchain could solve that by allowing you to transfer the personal data you always need for travelling.”
“We have a good innovation network within the company but at the same time we believe we need to push the boundaries when it comes to visionary concepts for mobility,” concludes Claudia Falkinger, fellow Innovation Manager at the ÖBB. “That’s why we’re going for the hackathon now. We’re not just looking for a headline but a concept of how it really might be done in the future. In the long run we will profit from that.”
The Mobility Hackathon is the first one that the railway giant is running in conjunction with an external partner. If you’d like to join ÖBB and DB as partners contact Pioneers Discover on discover@pioneers.io. Read more about the benefits of partnering in a hackathon [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/does-your-company-need-hackathon).
Startups and developers can apply to contest the Mobility Hackathon [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/mobilityhpioneers).
Get tickets for Mobility.Pioneers [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mobilitypioneers-tickets-37723311440).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Office Hours with Pioneers Ventures Starts 2018 Roadshow Strong in Slovenia](https://pioneers.io/office-hours-pioneers-ventures-starts-2018-roadshow-strong-slovenia/)
**Published:** January 17, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Our investment arm Pioneers Ventures hit the ground running in 2018 as it kicked off its latest international initiative in Ljubljana last week. As announced earlier this month, the ‘Office Hours with Pioneers Ventures’ roadshow will visit several cities throughout the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region in the first half of this year as it seeks to meet and empower the most outstanding pre-seed startups in each ecosystem. The next stop is Budapest in February!
**Content:**
With almost 30 highly promising pre-seed startups from across Europe already in its portfolio, Pioneers Ventures has long understood the importance of staying close to communities of pioneering entrepreneurs. That’s why it has committed to organising a series of events in the CEE region, which will see the Pioneers Ventures team connect with local ecosystems in various capital cities throughout 2018. Office Hours with Pioneers Ventures aims to empower the most promising startups with our global network of corporates, industry experts and entrepreneurs.
The Office Hours roadshow kicked off at ABC Accelerator in Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana last week. In the city that’s already home to portfolio company [Blub Blub](https://blubblub.org/), Pioneers Ventures’ Philipp Stangl met with ten startups working in a variety of industries. Laurenz Simbruner and Lukas Püspök of PUSH Ventures joined him to see the entrepreneurs showcase their concepts in 10-minute pitch slots followed by 20-minute Q&A sessions.
“It was a great opportunity to connect with the local ecosystem and meet with very interesting pre-seed startups,” said Philipp. “I learned that Slovenia is a very crypto-friendly country, also I met quite a few marketplaces: we’ll be back in Ljubljana again for sure! The excellent development of our existing portfolio company, BlubBlub, has already shown that a good team based out of Ljubljana can be successful internationally, especially in the US.
“Such examples are the reason why we’re constantly keeping a close eye on the CEE region and have close collaborations with relevant key partners in local ecosystems. I’m looking forward to meeting more talent throughout CEE at the upcoming stops on our roadshow.”
Next stop on the Office Hours schedule comes next month in Budapest, where Pioneers Ventures already has two portfolio companies in the shape of [Codeberry](https://codeberryschool.com/en/) and [Shapr3D](https://shapr3d.com/). The Hungarian capital is also the place where our investment arm’s first successful exit story began, when our team saw the early potential of playable advertising technology startup Atmosplay and decided to support them.
The roadshow will then visit Bratislava in Slovakia (where another existing Pioneers Ventures portfolio startup, Cloudo, is based) in March, followed by Warsaw in April, Sofia in May, Bucharest in June and Prague in July. The pitching format will be the same as it was in Ljubljana.
If you’re a founder we need to meet in the Office Hours series, then please click [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/pioneers-ventures) to apply for one of the limited spaces as soon as possible. And mention ‘CEE Office Hours’ and the name of your city in your application. If you have an account already, simply update it accordingly.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Pioneers Ventures Adds Doctorly to Growing Health Tech Portfolio](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-ventures-adds-doctorly-growing-health-tech-portfolio/)
**Published:** January 22, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In the latest piece of exciting news for our investment arm, Pioneers Ventures has joined the pre-seed funding round for Berlin-based startup doctorly. Barely six months old, the company is developing cutting-edge software that reduces the administrative burden faced by doctors worldwide, ultimately allowing them to better serve patients. And it’s the fifth health tech addition to the Pioneers Ventures portfolio.
**Content:**
Founded in the second half of last year by a quintet that includes an established neurosurgeon who put his career on hold to lend the startup his medical experience, doctorly’s primary product will be a SaaS (software as a service) solution designed to save doctors time and increase their efficiency. The doctorly software aims to address the inefficient administrative processes and outdated – sometimes analog – processes that remain a feature of the medical landscape in most countries.
“We’re disrupting the way doctors run their day because right now they’re not supported very well,” says lively Londoner Samir El-Alami, CEO & Co-Founder of doctorly. “They’ve got old tools and aren’t given the right ones to do their job. Some doctors are still stuck with Windows 95 and saving patient data on discs! And yet these are the people we rely upon to help us live well and heal us. So we’re going to give them something that allows them to focus more on what they actually do, which is seeing patients.”
“It’s an area super ripe for disruption,” continues Samir. “Our co-founder Dr Archil Eristavi really has put his career as a neurosurgeon on pause after 17 years because he was so distressed with what he and other doctors had to go through in order to do their jobs. But though Archil is stopping to build doctorly, he has every intention of going back, because being a neurosurgeon is what he does. And when we tell doctors that story, they really buy in. They see that we have their best interests at heart. The doctor community has really embraced us so far and we’re excited about going live with our product by Q4 this year.”
El-Alami believes that an approach in which the first step is to serve doctors deserves more attention from health innovators. His startup sees improving the efficiency of medical practices and doctor workflows as the best way to improve the lot of patients frustrated by the service they get, poor or outdated communication, and issues with medical data management and access.
Doctorly also plans to spread the benefits of this system to patients of the doctors who’ll work with their system. They’ll do that via their health app, which will act as a one-stop shop for data management, appointments, test results and personalised analytics. It will be able to centralize everything for a patient visiting multiple practitioners.
“We feel that the correct way to really make meaningful change in health is first to help the doctor, then help their patients, and repeat. It’s incredibly scalable: once you’ve built it then it’s just about getting it in front of doctors. And it’s universal: every country needs this, except maybe some of the Nordics or places like Estonia, which are quite small countries and have already rolled out some pretty decent national health standards.”
Doctorly is the fifth health tech startup to join the [Pioneers Ventures portfolio](https://pioneers.io/ventures) of pre-seed startups, which now numbers almost 30 after this deal was closed last week. The others are [ivary](https://www.ivary.io/), [Blub Blub](https://blubblub.org/), [Medicus](http://medicus.ai/) and [OurPath](https://www.ourpath.co.uk/).
“We strongly believe that the health industry is still awaiting its digital revolution,” said Philipp Stangl of Pioneers Ventures. “Doctorly is another building block in that revolution – and it’s a super-relevant one, because it digitizes one of the key parts of the health system: the doctor-patient relationship. We’re pleased to be adding it to our already-strong digital health portfolio, which already consists of four excellent startups.
“Another of our portfolio companies, Habitalix, is using a similar technology stack to that of doctorly, and we’ve seen that this approach can be very efficient.”
Pioneers Ventures was joined as an investor in the pre-seed round by Target Global and Seedcamp.
“We’re definitely looking forward to working with Pioneers Ventures,” added El-Alami. “It’s a really strong pre-seed round with three great VCs. It’s not common for a pre-seed startup to be backed by three really big VCs, and this is really strong backing.
“Actually I’m not sure we came across super well in our first pitch to the guys at Pioneers Ventures! Luckily they gave us a second meeting though, and it went a lot better. I feel our investors believe our founder team has the ability to execute. When you have a good passion for what you’re doing, I do feel like it makes a little bit of a difference to investors.
“We did have choices on who we took money from, but the feedback I got from people who have Pioneers Ventures as investors is that their network is really strong. You get good introductions, the guys you deal with are smart, and the events Pioneers arranges really add value too. I heard about [Health.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/) last year, which sounded really cool – I hope there’s another one soon. I’d like to be at [Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/) too!”
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Regulating the Unknown at Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/regulating-unknown-mobilitypioneers/)
**Published:** January 24, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** You can’t tackle the future of mobility without considering how regulators might handle innovations such as flying cars and autonomous vehicles - and keeping them safe in particular! That’s why we’ve lined up a panel discussion dedicated to the topic at Mobility.Pioneers on February 8th in Munich. Here we talk to panellists Lucy Yu, former UK government new mobility services regulator and now Director of Public Policy at autonomous vehicle tech company FiveAI, and Juraj Vaculik, CEO and co-founder of flying car startup AeroMobil.
**Content:**
With dialogue around regulation such a critical aspect of future mobility, we’re also pleased to announce that the winning startup in Munich will, in addition to being fast-tracked into the Top 50 at Pioneers’18, be invited to Brussels to meet with European Union Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, who leads the EU’s ‘Energy Union’, as well as with the Directorate-Generale for Research & Innovation. This will be a golden opportunity to discuss key aspects of the regulatory framework around mobility innovation in the EU.
And they’ll get plenty of ideas for discussion topics from Lucy and Juraj. Both panelists have to consider regulation on a daily basis as they work towards shaping the future mobility landscape, and each brings unique perspectives and experience on the issue. It’s the reason we’ve invited them to share their thoughts in our panel, entitled How can innovators and policymakers can work together to propel new regulatory frameworks?
Lucy’s background is in policy and regulation as well as technology and startups, having worked at the Department for Transport and the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles in the United Kingdom. Now she’s advising on public policy at FiveAI, a venture-backed European leader building autonomous vehicle technology to deliver urban travel that’s safe yet inexpensive. They’re pushing the boundaries to make Level 5 autonomy – the highest on the scale – a secure and workable prospect.
Vaculik is an old friend of Pioneers, after his brave crew from Slovakia gave the AeroMobil 3.0 flying car its [world premiere at our flagship event in 2014](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDk35VGhhCg). Last year the company unveiled its latest iteration, AeroMobil 4.0, and in 2018 will be working to achieve regulatory approval from both aviation and road authorities as it aims for a market launch in 2020.
As each panellist took time out to speak to us in the run-up to Mobility.Pioneers, some common themes emerged around the subject of regulation. One of those, unsurprisingly, is the primacy of safety in the job regulators have to take on – a task neither of them pretends is an easy one.
“Safety standards are the most important thing – and they’re usually underestimated by a lot of companies,” says Juraj. “If there was a crash it could impact a lot of activities in this field, so it’s safety, safety, safety!”
“Regulators can learn by looking at areas such as aviation, aerospace and pharmaceuticals,” adds Lucy. “These are areas where safety is a priority of extreme importance, but equally where if something has been developed that’s a real improvement, you don’t want to hold that back from the market longer than is necessary.”
Indeed, there’s an important balance to be struck between ensuring safety whilst still allowing innovation to thrive and better services to hit the market. One route to that is close consultation with industry, while another is simply easing regulatory processes – as opposed to standards – to make them a little more ‘founder-friendly.’ The latest changes to the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) CS23 standard for Normal, Utility, Aerobatic and Commuter Aeroplanes is one example of this being done, says Juraj.
“Usually regulation is seen as a kind of enemy,” he says. “But we see regulators as partners. CS23 for example has really simplified the whole procedure and so made things easier for small companies like us. It gives us much more chance to be able to succeed compared to big global players.
“For the regulators it’s important that they recognise innovation can come from smaller companies. They don’t need to change the final result, just simplify how we can get there in terms of procedures, timings and requirements. They’ve already understood that, helping to open the field to new players.”
“With emerging technology around autonomous vehicles, a lot of companies have different approaches,” adds Lucy. “That makes it difficult for regulators because they don’t want to dictate too early on which approach should be the one that’s safest. It’s the challenge of keeping the market’s research and development as open as possible in order to help people innovate and to explore all the possibilities.”
Dialogue isn’t just important in terms of regulators meeting that challenge, but for startups hoping to play a part in shaping the future regulatory landscape. AeroMobil already has a good working relationship with the EASA, for example, and although the lack of a unified ‘flying car’ certification means they have to get the 4.0 separately approved as both plane and car, they hope that they’ll be part of the conversation going forward.
“We definitely believe that in the future there will be a unique category for flying cars, and we want to influence that future regulation,” says Juraj. “We’ve had a lot of respect from EASA and those kinds of regulators, and on our part we’re respecting current regs on AeroMobil 4.0. Then we’ll be able to talk about and to influence the future regulation.”
But while any mobility startup would be wise to keep its communication channels with the authorities open, that’s not always the case, says Lucy.
“A lot of disruptors coming into the market in our field are not necessarily pursuing models that are very collaborative with the city,” she says. “It’s one of the areas where we at FiveAI have a clear distinction: right from the outset, we’re taking an approach where we absolutely have to collaborate with the cities where we’ll be operating.
“We want to complement public transportation networks, we want to be sure that the service we’re offering benefits consumers living in those areas. There are other disruptors coming into the market who are purely commercial plays. They don’t have that relationship with the cities and it’s not core to their business models at the moment. But that big picture is challenging regulators because if you have models where public transportation is almost driven out of the market and people choose to use new disruptive services, that potentially leaves quite a difficult future.”
“In an ideal world regulation would follow innovation, but that would be naive because you need safety to be confirmed first,” concludes Juraj, returning to that number one theme. “And that’s a good thing, because in the end it’s human beings in the vehicle.”
Other themes the panel discussion will touch upon could range from public consultation processes to broad government policy to timescales for consolidating mobility regulations on a global scale.
“We’re arriving at a turning point in the transport and energy systems transformation,” concludes Šefčovič, the man the winning startups will get to meet in Brussels. “Innovation will be decisive to determine who stays ahead of the curve in the international leadership race, and who will be able to compete with new products and services to serve the needs of our modern, clean and social fair economies.”
*Also, check out the latest media partners for this second edition of [Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility-pioneers#/). Both [der brutkasten](https://www.derbrutkasten.com/) and [NGIN Mobility](http://ngin-mobility.com/) are on board with us, so tune in to their channels for plenty of additional coverage from the Muffatwerk!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Discover Joins University of St Gallen on Business Ecosystems Project](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-joins-university-st-gallen-business-ecosystems-project/)
**Published:** January 25, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover is excited to announce that it will contribute its experience to a major two-year Business Ecosystems workshop program at the Helvetia Innovation Lab (University of St. Gallen) in Switzerland. The CTI-Project, which launches today and ends in November 2019, aims to define practical approaches for establishing and managing Business Ecosystems. We will take part in the full international program as one of the Lab’s selected expert partners.
**Content:**
Pioneers Discover is excited to announce that it will contribute its experience to a major two-year Business Ecosystems workshop program at the Helvetia Innovation Lab (University of St. Gallen) in Switzerland.
The Project, which launches today and ends in November 2019, aims to define practical approaches for establishing and managing Business Ecosystems. We will take part in the full international program as one of the Lab’s selected expert partners.
Business Ecosystems are defined as ‘a network of multilateral linked companies, such as suppliers and distributors, who interact with each other, primarily complementing or supplying key components of the value propositions within their products or services.’
That being so, the University of St Gallen’s Institute of Technology Management sees Business Ecosystems as a trend worthy of increasing attention. The Institute of Technology Management is one of Europe’s top business schools and leading European research and consulting institutions for the management and use of innovation and technology.
The Institute believes that Business Ecosystems support innovation, enhance profitability and drive market advantage. This applies most obviously to emerging fields such as Internet of Things and Industry 4.0, but has a relevance to businesses in almost any area.
And as we know very well at Pioneers Discover, even large corporates cannot keep pace with every aspect of technology all on their own. With networks of cooperation of such importance going forward, the university has chosen Business Ecosystems of the subject of this major workshop series. The ultimate aim of the two-year Program is to define practical approaches to establishing and managing Business Ecosystems, including a management toolbox that will enable partners to establish their own.
11 corporate partners from various industries have chosen to reap the benefits of joining the program, and Pioneers Discover will contribute its expertise to the thematic workshop on startups. The Institute will run six workshops during the course of 2018. These will cover Business Ecosystem Establishment, Strategy, Management and Technology. We’ll also remain on board next year, when the program moves to four add-on events including Exchange, Elevator Pitches and a final closing in November.
“This Project is a perfect match for our expertise in growing innovation through cooperation and collaboration,” says Pioneers Discover Program Manager Anton Schilling. “Ensuring quality connections between companies is not only central to building a successful Business Ecosystem, but also central to so much of the consultancy work for which we’re known.
“We’ve got a vast body of experience in this area, as well as plenty of varied real-world cases on which we can draw. We think we’ll be able to contribute plenty of valuable input to the Project and we’re excited to be taking part in such a program. It’s a terrific milestone in our story at Pioneers Discover.”
In addition to the partnering corporates and experts including Pioneers Discover, startups will also take part in the Project. And beyond the rich insights the project will deliver, partners will benefit from a trust-based exchange of experience and networking. The Institute of Technology Management will define the program and participants.
Our participation in the project in St. Gallen, an attractive town and seat of learning that’s home to a baroque monastery with an world-famous library, is not the first time Pioneers Discover will travel to Switzerland to share its expertise. Last year our consultancy arm ran the Alpine Tourism Hack in St Moritz, in which startups developed rapid prototypes for the tourism industry in the Südbunden region.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Mobility.Pioneers Interview: Assaf Harel on Automotive Cyber Security](https://pioneers.io/mobilitypioneers-interview-assaf-harel-automotive-cybersecurity/)
**Published:** January 29, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With Mobility.Pioneers coming up in Munich next week on Thursday, we chat with Karamba Security co-founder and CTO Assaf Harel. The Israeli startup is a leader in fighting the current and future dangers around cars (and more...) getting hacked. In addition to a glimpse at the tech Assaf will demonstrate on stage, we also reveal the names of several more speakers.
**Content:**
While most of us have a concept of a worst-case scenario when it comes to our data getting hacked, it’s probably fair to say that ‘mobility hacking’ is a subject that remains on the fringes of our thoughts. But that doesn’t make the threat any less of a reality. The consequences of a self-driving car getting taken over by a malicious hacker don’t take a great deal of imagination to picture.
The more that automation features in our mobility landscape, the more OEM’s need to worry about making sure their systems are safe from intrusion. And though OEM’s are rapidly digitizing, they typically lag behind newer entrants to the mobility market when it comes to cybersecurity. That’s because such safeguarding hasn’t traditionally been a part of their core business. This is where companies like Karamba Security come in.
“Elon Musk said that if someone gets into our autopilot ECU and drives all Teslas to New Jersey, then the company is gone,” says Assaf. “So autonomous vehicle companies are taking cyber-security very seriously. But autonomous vehicles are being designed with cyber security in place from the beginning. With OEM’s the difference is that current vehicles were designed without cyber security, and then the cyber got added. But they are taking it very seriously too.
“The worst thing a hacker could do to an OEM today is attacking a fleet. Not just Amazon trucks or Walmart deliveries – it could be the entire fleet of BMW or General Motors. We saw that in 2015 when Chrysler had to recall their entire fleet of Jeep Cherokees. Fiat Chrysler reported half a billion Dollar loss over that. The media was all over Jeep, but Dodge and other vehicles were vulnerable too.
“With a fleet hack, though, the driver can step out of the vehicle and nothing will happen. The future worst case is much more severe. In the future, when the car drives itself, then it’s a nightmare. You’re locked in a car that goes wherever the attacker wants it to go.”
Is it all terrible, dystopian, catastrophic news, then? Luckily not, with startups like Karamba working hard to make sure our current and future travel is safe. And if you want to get an idea of how, you can do so in Assaf’s stage demonstrations in Munich.
“What we do is rely on the fact that automotive ECUs are different from laptops and smartphones in that they don’t change. Updates aren’t in the hands of the user, and from a security point of view I don’t need to allow for that. On the contrary, I need to block that. If an update comes, it should be a valid, certified update from the manufacturer or it should be blocked.
“This sounds very easy but it’s very complicated. Attacks don’t try to impersonate updates, they look for vulnerabilities to exploit. What we do is integrate into the software environment, into each and every place where the software can change. And we don’t allow that change. We do this in a strict way that we think is impossible to bypass.
“I’ll also demonstrate another aspect of our tech on stage: the encryption of the in-vehicle network. It relies on the same concept, and with a click of a button we encrypt the network. Then the ECU becomes resilient to the attack.
“Everything is encrypted in run time and with zero overheads, which is the great innovation. Because when you come to OEM’s with a cyber security solution and say ‘it’s going to add 10 or 20% to the network’, they say ‘I don’t even have one percent to give you – maybe next time!’”
If you’re thinking that technology like this might have application in the air as well as on the road, then you’re absolutely right, according to Assaf. Cyber security is a mobility issue in the broadest sense of the word.
“Unfortunately someone could hack into a plane too. We’re trying to work with plane companies and I can tell you that they are aware of the problem. But there are not that many companies in the industry and they try to do everything in-house as much as they can.
“The auto industry is the same but at least there you have is more competition and the challenge is immediate. There are many more vehicles being sold every day. It’s different in terms of supply and demand but the problem is the same.”
While Assaf’s stage session promises to be a real highlight, we’re also happy to announce several more of the speakers you’ll be able to meet at Mobility.Pioneers. We’ve completed our line-up for the *What Could Future OEM Business Models Look Like* panel discussion. Lars Klawitter is Executive Director of the Strategic Business Unit at InMotion Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover’s mobility business and venture capital arm, while Alexander Hotowy will join the panel as a representative of industry consultants Accilium. As previously announced, Executive Coach Dr Eileen Mandir and Marcus Spickermann, CFO and Head of Growth for Volvo Cars Mobility, will also be sharing their insights in the session.
Meanwhile Kobi Marenko and Georg Kopetz will share the stage in the *Autonomous Driving: A Deep Dive into Real Time Mapping and Sensors* session. Georg is a successful European entrepreneur, co-founder and member of the executive board at high-tech growth company TTTech. Kobi is an entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in radar engineering, and is currently CEO and co-founder of Arbe Robotics. And they’ll be joined by Andy Marchant, who is Head of Product Marketing for the TomTom Maps group.
There’s also another name to add to those of [Lucy Yu and Juraj Vaculik](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/regulating-unknown-mobilitypioneers) on the *How Can Innovators and Policymakers Work Together to Propel New Regulatory Frameworks?* panel discussion. This is Kirstin Hegner, who head the activities of Digital Hub Mobility, a German-based collaboration between automobile companies and mobility providers, suppliers, science and the digital sector for the mobility of the future.
In the *Changing Landscape: Models for Startup Corporate Collaboration* panel, we can now announce the additional names of Thomas Daiber and Tanja Kufner. Thomas is CEO at Hubject, an international digital B2B marketplace for services related to the charging of electric vehicles, and previously worked with Porsche and Daimler. Tanja is Partner at global consultancy MHP and responsible for its startup and investment programs, such as MHP’s new accelerator. They’ll join the previously-announced Dr Tom Kirschbaum of Door2Door and Gunnar Froh of Wunder.
As for the action on our Garage stage, we can also reveal the names of the three experts who’ll take part in the afternoon *Investing in the Transformation of Transportation* session. We’ve lined up Gitte Bedford of Robert Bosch Venture Capital and Lorenz Hartung, the co-founder of Munich-based accelerator TechFounders.
Don’t forget that our Match & Meet service opens up in two days. Attendees do keep an eye on your email – it’ll be time to start scheduling those one-on-one meetings soon!
And if you’re not yet an attendee…get your tickets [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility-pioneers#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Startups Cross Continents to Join Wienerberger Innovation Day](https://pioneers.io/startups-cross-continents-join-wienerberger-innovation-day/)
**Published:** January 31, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover was proud to welcome three startups from well beyond our European heartland to last week’s Wienerberger Innovation Day. In a sign of our consultancy arm’s increasing global reach, construction-industry innovators from Indonesia, Brazil and the United States joined the event in Vienna, where they got to share their ideas and co-create with Wienerberger, the sustainable building and infrastructure solutions giant.
**Content:**
Pioneers Discover was proud to welcome three startups from well beyond our European heartland to last week’s Wienerberger Innovation Day. In a sign of our consultancy arm’s increasing global reach, construction-industry innovators from Indonesia, Brazil and the United States joined the event in Vienna, where they got to share their ideas and co-create with Wienerberger, the sustainable building and infrastructure solutions giant.
The startup scouting process for this event was more international and more exciting than any yet. In the quest for innovators whose goals matched those of Wienerberger, we identified an Indonesian startup developing mushroom-based building materials, a Brazilian one exploiting the potential of 3D printing in the industry and an American one that brings a tireless bricklaying robot to the party.
Having travelled all the way from Bandung City in West Java, mycotech intrigued delegates with its different and sustainable approach to construction materials. They brought samples of their mycelium-based board and brick, which though not yet strong enough to act as supporting walls, can already have multiple industry applications. The startup has showed some of those possibilities by supplying materials for the [MycoTree](https://www.mycote.ch/mycotree) exhibit at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, which showed how stability could be achieved through geometry rather than through material strength.
Crucially to mycotech’s appeal, and a primary reason they were invited to meet Wienerberger, is their sustainability cred. Their customizable products are based on mycelium, a fast-growing root network of mushrooms that can act as natural glue. This can ‘digest’ plant-based waste products to become a structurally active material composite, which could have terrific circular, cheap and sustainable construction potential for farming communities worldwide. Not only can this building material be grown locally, it can also be composted after use.
“This empowers local communities with great impact at low cost,” said CMO Ronaldiaz Hartantyo, who was visiting Vienna for the second time after mycotech made the Pioneers500 cut for Pioneers’17. “We dream of local communities being able to build their own local houses.
“We want to shift mindset from extracting and mining materials to growing and harvesting them,” he said in his stage pitch. “It’s about changing a linear process to a circular cycle. We’re making materials better, stronger, more durable and sustainable, as well as lightweight and fireproof.”
Apart from local, rural applications, a startups with materials that are 100% organic and without formaldehyde emissions, clearly needed to meet Wienerberger, who are keen to develop sustainable building solutions. Even without considering those load-bearing possibilities, Hartantyo says mycelium materials could, for example, be used as insulation or for interior panelling.
But still they needed to get on a plane to meet the players who can appreciate such industrial use cases for the product, just as they did last week. Finding synergies as a startup sometimes needs a global approach.
“The sustainable or green-minded market in Indonesia isn’t really growing yet. We’re ahead of our time there. But in Europe they are sustainable-minded. We want to give Wienerberger opportunities to enter green global industries. It’s better to be pioneers in this industry and start something circular.
“People are always talking about getting bigger and stronger – growing, growing, growing! But we think we should stop making bigger things, rather make better things. It’s not about growing, it’s about keeping a balance. How can we make it more sustainable and get profit while saving the planet? That’s the real deal.”
A world apart in both technology and geography was Anielle Guedes, who travelled from Sao Paulo in Brazil. She’s the founder of Urban3D, a global startup whose work centres on the Internet of Concrete. Using the power of 3D printing, she wants to completely rewire the construction industry through intelligent building materials. Working at the cutting edge of what’s digitally possible, she was a terrific candidate to deliver a keynote to Wienerberger management delegates at the start of the day.
“We’re adding billions of people to cities but the building process is broken,” said Guedes in forthright and stirring talk. “It’s not cheap enough or fast enough. We lose 30-50% of all raw materials in the supply chain.
“McKinsey has reported that construction is less productive and competitive than fishing! Right now it’s somewhere between Industry 1.0 and 2.0. So how do we advance it all the way to 4.0? Because we don’t have time to go through all the steps.
“Automation is the solution and the biggest trend. Everything we know is going to be automated and digitized. Change is inevitable and the only competitiveness possible today is digital. You have to be competitive not just against your competitors but also against new entrants.
“Technology could and should be a business tool,” she told the audience as they passed around samples of some of her 3D-printed materials. “Both Urban3D and Wienerberger are doing work where cities are going to grow the most. You have to decide what that 3D printer is going to do for your business.”
Another startup with plenty to offer in terms of improving efficiency was Construction Robotics, based in Rochester, New York, and represented at the Wienerberger Innovation Day by their Business Development man Christopher Raddell. In his stage pitch he introduced the company’s SAM100 bricklaying robot, which has already laid over a million bricks on 30 projects in the United States.
The startup has been on such a fast growth track domestically that they haven’t had so much as a moment to explore collaborations in Europe. It took an outreach from Pioneers Discover to give them impetus to get on that plane across the Atlantic, even in the same week as the enormously important World of Concrete event in Las Vegas.
“We’ve always talked about sending people to Europe and getting that going,” said Raddell. “But we’ve been so busy in the US that all we’ve done is field phone calls saying ‘yes, we’re coming to Europe sometime’ – now this accelerates it. This kind of pull gets us connected to the right people and things that we know are out there. When partnering for technology, there are no boundaries.”
“SAM enables keeping to schedule or doing things faster. Does that help Wienerberger? Yes it does, because sometimes bricks are taken off a proposal because the decision-makers don’t feel like bricklaying can be fit in a tight schedule. They’ll switch to another material.
“There will be demand and call for unique products better suited to work with the automation. Just like we need to work with architects, owners and contractors, that information exchange with companies like Wienerberger is important. We have tools that increase bricklaying speed – but how do we make their product and the tools match up? Talking could help Wienerberger have a vision for how they add more value to the market.
“For example, can they put other materials in a brick because automated bricklaying means a brick can be bigger and heavier? Can they add the insulation already? We need to communicate those things so that the tools match up with that.”
It’s fair to say that both the startups and Wienerberger came away from the innovation day with plenty to think about. In addition to those from closer to home, our visitors from far afield added a considerable energy and diversity to the solutions on offer for the global corporate. For more on what an innovation day can do for your business, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/what-innovation-day-can-do-your-business).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Mobility.Pioneers Top Startups & Jurors Revealed: Let the Pitching Begin!](https://pioneers.io/mobilitypioneers-top-startups-jurors-revealed-let-pitching-begin/)
**Published:** February 1, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With exactly a week to go until Mobility.Pioneers in Munich on February 8th, we name the 20 startups who’ll be taking to the stage to compete across four different topics. We also talk to Trillium, who not only came out on top in the autonomous track a year ago but also sowed the seeds for a major collaboration with Volkswagen at Mobility.Pioneers. Ahead of a return to the Muffatwerk stage to take part in a panel discussion, they share insights on what it takes to impress the jurors - whose names you’ll also learn, if you read on!
**Content:**
If ever you wanted an illustration of why a startup might want to attend an event like Mobility.Pioneers, look no further than automotive cyber security company Trillium Secure. Having travelled all the way from Japan to Germany for the first edition of Mobility.Pioneers last year, they impressed the jury enough to enjoy the glory and publicity that came with victory in the autonomous track, one of three broad categories in which startups competed.
That in itself was a great return for a company making its first foray to a European event. But there was more to cheer than that. Trillium also got talking to automotive giant Volkswagen at the event, a connection which directly led to an ongoing collaboration with the corporate. And the impression they made last year also earned them an invitation to return, this time to take part in a panel discussion that reflects their growing status in the industry. Trillium’s CEO David Uze will be taking part in the *What Could Future OEM Business Models Look Like?* discussion on stage.
“We were humbled that the jury recognized the importance of securing vehicles and how that is fundamental to enabling autonomous drive,” recalls their Strategic Business Development Manager Adrian Sossna, who will also be present in Munich once again. “Without cyber security, there’s no autonomous drive.
“On the opening night, at the ice-breaker event, I happened to sit at the same table as Dr Zach Izham. He’s Project Manager of the Volkswagen Data:Lab in Munich. We kept in contact and he was very interested in what we were doing. Then in October last year we were selected for the VW Data:Lab program, and are now working continuously with them. So that contact was made at Mobility.Pioneers. On the day itself we had a demo set up and we got a lot of attention at our little booth. We got a lot of leads and discussions from that too.”
Fond as those recollections are, Trillium is looking forwards rather than backwards as the company continues to grow fast. And they see great value in taking part in the panel discussion next week.
“What these panels give you is the opportunity to begin a conversation about things that are industry-wide problems, with the right parties,” says Sossna. “Cyber security solutions won’t come from a startup. Nor from an OEM. And nor from a Tier 1. They’ll come from a group of companies coming together to solve different parts of a major problem. Panels enable us to start that conversation.
“One of the key reasons we’re coming back is to meet the right people from the right mobility companies. People who have an interest in our type of disruptive business model and want to do this together with a startup like ours. Having deployed and built our value system for Japan, we’re looking to have the right Go To Market partners for Europe this year.”
So which are the startups jostling for a chance to emulate Trillium’s success when the second edition of Mobility.Pioneers rolls around next week? Having narrowed down the invitation list to 100 startups, we can now also name the 20 who we’ve selected to pitch on stage – and the experts who’ll judge them. The program has been expanded from last year, and now includes four pitching tracks.
The details for each track are as follows:
**SHARED USE TRACK**
**Startups:** Caroo Mobility, MOVTZ, 2hire, Getaway, Utopian Future Technologies
**Judges:** Julius Rüßmann (Earlybird Venture Capital), Tian Tian Feng (Cherry Ventures) and Jens-Philipp Klein (Atlantic Labs).
**ELECTRIFICATION TRACK**
**Startups:** CIRRANTiC, AVILOO, EcoG, Lennahc, ChargeX
**Judges:** Olaf Joeressen (High-Tech Gründerfonds), Julien Etienne (Aster Capital)
**AUTONOMOUS TRACK**
**Startups:** TheWhollySee, Sensible 4, Humanising Autonomy, emotion3D, embotech AG
**Judges:** Ulrich Eisele (Fluxunit), Boris Shulkin (Magna International), Phillip Stangl (Pioneers Ventures)
**CONNECTIVITY TRACK**
**Startups:** Capricode, WeNow, High Mobility, German Autolabs, Susi & James
**Judges:** Christian Lindener (Wayra), Gitte Bedford (Robert Bosch Venture Capital), Marie-Helene Ametsreiter (Speedinvest)
The winning startup from each track will then get the chance to pitch on the Muffatwerk’s biggest stage at the end of the day, as they shoot for a chance to win overall. Picking the best of the quartet will doubtless be a tough job, and one we’ve entrusted to Tobias Jahn of BMW i Ventures, David Murray-Hundley of Tech London Advocates Automotive and our own Pioneers Ventures expert Stangl.
Perhaps the final word on pitching should go to Sossna, who was happy to share some advice on what helped get Trillium the thumbs-up from the judges a year ago.
“Focus on the problem that you’re solving, but be mindful of the applicability and the feasibility of what you’re doing,” he suggests. “Tie things into reality by presenting a clear business case for what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. If you have excellent tech and you don’t have the business model that goes with it, then you won’t be able to win. And if you have an excellent business model, but don’t have the tech for it, you won’t be able to win either. You have to marry the business with the technology.”
One last thing: our Match & Meet networking service is now live ahead of Mobility.Pioneers. If you need to get set up to use this great piece of tech, read on!
First head [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/app/matchmakingdashboard/104) and log in, using the same email address that you used to buy your ticket for Mobility.Pioneers. The next step is to check out the [agenda](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/agenda/104) and then fill out the slots in which you’ll be free for meetings. Then, if you haven’t previously filled out your match-making preferences – whom you’d like to meet, in other words – please do so.
Your personalised meeting schedule will be ready for you on February 6th, two days before the start of Mobility.Pioneers. It will also be sent in the form of Google Calendar or Outlook invites. Look out, too, for the PioBot link we’ll send out the night before Mobility.Pioneers. This is our on-event chatbot assistant, which is now even smarter at handling and redirecting queries. The latest iteration also has speaker profiles, agenda information and Match & Meet built in, so you’ll have the option to arrange your entire event via Messenger.
See you next week? Last-minute tickets are still available [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility-pioneers#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Ready, Steady Go for Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/ready-steady-go-mobilitypioneers/)
**Published:** February 5, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Mobility.Pioneers week is finally here! The second edition of this industry-focused event will once again serve as the ultimate meeting point for tech innovators in the mobility space. This Thursday in Munich, the world’s biggest OEMs, manufacturers and mobility providers will meet the most promising early- and growth-stage startups working on truly game changing technologies. The over 300 attendees will also include selected investors and international media.
**Content:**
Mobility.Pioneers week is finally here! The second edition of this industry-focused event will once again serve as the ultimate meeting point for tech innovators in the mobility space. This Thursday in Munich, the world’s biggest OEMs, manufacturers and mobility providers will meet the most promising early- and growth-stage startups working on truly game changing technologies. The over 300 attendees will also include selected investors and international media.
The Mobility.Pioneers schedule will tackle five broad topics that are key to driving the industry forward. These are automation, connectivity, shared use, electrification and the changing landscape around regulation and business models.
Blockchain, Cyber Security and regulation will be three themes to get particularly close attention across a number of stage sessions during the day. A key Blockchain session will be IOTA Chairman Dominik Schiener demonstrating live just how this new technology can enable a truly shared economy, while our concurrent Mobility Hackathon will also focus on Blockchain.
Meanwhile Assaf Harel’s stage demonstration of Karamba Security’s technology and a panel discussion featuring Trillium Secure’s CEO David Uze will be among the sessions exploring Cyber Security.
On the regulation front, former UK government new mobility services regulator Lucy Yu and flying car entrepreneur Juraj Vaculik (of AeroMobil fame) will take part in a panel discussion around developing new regulatory frameworks.
Electric supercar innovator Mate Rimac, whose company Rimac Automobili developed the Rimac Concept\_One, is also guaranteed to be a popular stage highlight.
As usual at our events, the room will be heaving with innovators from the startups scene. 20 of the 100+ entrepreneurs attending Mobility.Pioneers have also been selected to pitch or exhibit their innovations, with the final winner of the pitch competition getting fast-tracked into a Pioneers Challenge pitching slot at Pioneers’18, our flagship annual event in which 2,500 tech innovators from around the world gather at the Hofburg in Vienna. This takes place on May 24-25.
The startup competition, which will run in four separate tracks before the finalists emerge for a final round on the big stage, will be judged by expert corporate investors and venture capitalists. You can learn their names [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/mobilitypioneers-top-startups-jurors-revealed-let-pitching-begin).
As part of the expansion of Mobility.Pioneers in this second year of the event, we’re also running an invite-only side event and workshop dedicated to Series A startups. The latter will include a focus on raising Series B funding and mutually beneficial collaboration models.
Meanwhile our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover will also be busy in Munich, organizing the [Mobility Hackathon](https://pioneers.io/discover/mobility-hackathon) that runs in parallel with the event this week.
It’s not too late to join us in Munich on Wednesday – there are still a few places remaining! To get your hands on one of them, click [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility-pioneers#/).
View the full agenda for Mobility.Pioneers [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/agenda/104).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pride of Pioneers: Parkbob Claims Its Spot](https://pioneers.io/pride-pioneers-parkbob-claims-its-spot/)
**Published:** February 13, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Last week at Mobility.Pioneers in Munich, we caught up with exhibiting startup and Pioneers Ventures portfolio company Parkbob to learn more about its success in digitizing the world’s parking spaces. Two years ago, after meeting at our flagship event, our investment arm backed the startup with €250,000. Since then Parkbob has gone on to expand into over 30 cities, including a recent move into the United States market for the first time.
**Content:**
Almost every motorist has been there: you’re driving around in circles, looking for a parking spot. You begin to despair, wondering if your journey will ever end. Then your desperation turns to anger, because it shouldn’t be this way.
It was one such experience that led Christian Adelsberger to try and make things better. It was a Sunday evening in Vienna: never the best time to look for a parking spot. He’d just driven four hours from Zagreb, had a screaming baby in the back of the car, and it was a hot night into the bargain. But the biggest challenge of his trip came now, right at the end: he had to spend another 40 minutes driving laps around the packed streets of the Austrian capital, looking for somewhere, anywhere, to leave his vehicle.
“At the moment, the navigation process is broken,” said Adelsberger when we caught up with him at Mobility.Pioneers. “The navigation systems tell you that you’ve reached your destination, but what then? Do you just leave your car in the middle of the street? You still have to take a lot of decisions about parking. What’s available? Am I allowed to park there? All those questions are currently not supported in a digital way.”
With this in mind, Adelsberger founded Parkbob in 2015. Since then, the company has been making strides on solving exactly that problem – starting in that self-same city, Vienna. And in early 2016 Pioneers Ventures joined the story, investing in what was only its second startup with a €250,000 deal, having first made contact with Parkbob at our flagship event.
Adelsberger says his ongoing relationship with Pioneers has been key to Parkbob’s impressive rate of growth, which has seen its footprint shoot up to 32 cities – first in Europe, but more recently in the United States, with Portland and Seattle having just joined the list. Over the last two years Parkbob has seen its employee base rise from “one and a half” to a current count of 20. Unusually for a tech company, the majority of these are women.
In addition to attending our flagship event every year since 2015, and each of the Mobility.Pioneers events staged thus far, the company attended Pioneers Asia in March 2016, where they were among the winners of the 90 Seconds Pitch contest. They also joined the Pioneers Ventures portfolio companies on the annual networking trip to Silicon Valley in 2016 and 2017.
“We were always looking for venture partners who could help us on a strategic level, networking in the industry and taking us forward. I thought Pioneers Ventures might be a good match. What’s different from working with any other type of VC investor is that you get the full support of the organisation and the fantastic network. This has enabled us to meet companies and people we wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
“Markus Lang and Philipp Stangl \[the Pioneers Ventures Managing Directors\] are from the startup scene and they know how founders tick. That works very well: Ventures can push you and pull you at the same time.”
So what’s the business model that’s proving so successful in making that last mile easier? Parkbob leverages existing real-time information from partners such as parking payment and navigation services, so it can form a digital picture of free spots available at any given time. Having fully digitized the rules and regulations for each city in which it operates – something Adelsberger describes as a primary USP – Parkbob can then guide drivers directly to a spot that’s both legitimate and available.
Rather than focus primarily on a consumer app, the idea is more to integrate this service for white-label partners such as from manufacturers and ride-sharing services. Parkbob underlies improved navigation systems that won’t just take you to the address you’re looking for and abandon you in the middle of the street (and then yelling at you to make u-turns the moment you move on and start to look for parking), but which will rather take you straight to the nearest available spot where you can actually leave your car.
“We don’t monetize consumers directly but see our role as main players in this ecosystem. We do work with the large organisations in this ecosystem: the OEM’s, the big Tier 1’s. We’re proud to be official suppliers to BMW and working with Porsche Austria, and have a partnership with Car2Go.
“We in a position to help the big players in the car sharing industry to avoid parking fines. They’re in competition with the Ubers and Lyfts of the world, of course, who don’t have a parking problem.”
What’s next for Parkbob, other than growing these partnerships and expanding to over 100 cities around the world by the end of the year? There is, of course, the anticipated driverless future mobility landscape to think about. It seems likely that Parkbob can find its niche there too.
“Driverless technology is a question of timing. On street parking will still play a role because there’s not enough off-street capacity for all the driverless cars that might come. Yes, it will all be fully digitized, but we’re the first company digitizing all the rules with technologies that are fully scalable.
“We believe this business case is viable for the next 10-20 years. But the adaptability of startups is super high, so who knows what we will do in five years?”
"Pioneers can help startups in many different areas, but it takes a strong founder to actually make best use of the resources and achieve something great with them," says Stangl. "Christian is just such a founder and that’s why Parkbob and Pioneers Ventures are such a winning combination. We’re impressed with what’s been achieved since we invested and we’re happy that Pioneers has been able to add such real value."
As a final takeaway, let’s reflect back on Adelsberger’s words from two years ago, when we first invested in Parkbob.
“We’ve talked to hundreds of drivers on how to improve their daily parking experience. We’re convinced that we will be able to solve the hassles of on-street parking once and for all," he said back then. And judging by the phenomenal growth of the startup, it’s hard to argue that they aren’t well on their way to doing exactly that.
*Whether you’re the next big thing in the startup world, another eagle-eyed investor or a corporate hunting down the partnership that defines your future, you need to be at our flagship event too! Get tickets for Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/) or apply for free startup access [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18/startups).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Video: Highlights From Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/video-highlights-mobilitypioneers/)
**Published:** February 15, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Here's your chance to relive last week's buzzing Mobility.Pioneers event with our highlights video. This second edition, which took place at the Muffatwerk in Munich once again, was the ultimate meeting point for tech innovators in the mobility field, and brought together the world's biggest OEM's, manufacturers and providers with the most promising early and growth-stage startups working on truly game-changing technologies.
**Content:**
The second edition of Mobility.Pioneers, which again took place at the Muffatwerk in Munich, was the ultimate meeting point for tech innovators in the mobility field, bringing the world’s biggest OEM’s, manufacturers and providers together with the most promising early and growth-stage startups working on truly game-changing technologies.
If you were with us in Germany, click below to relive this buzzing event. And if you couldn’t make it, give it a watch to find our why you shouldn’t miss out on our next event – [GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers#/) and [Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/) in Vienna May.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Video: Highlights From Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/video-highlights-mobilitypioneers/)
**Published:** February 15, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Here's your chance to relive last week's buzzing Mobility.Pioneers event with our highlights video. This second edition, which took place at the Muffatwerk in Munich once again, was the ultimate meeting point for tech innovators in the mobility field, and brought together the world's biggest OEM's, manufacturers and providers with the most promising early and growth-stage startups working on truly game-changing technologies.
**Content:**
The second edition of Mobility.Pioneers, which again took place at the Muffatwerk in Munich, was the ultimate meeting point for tech innovators in the mobility field, bringing the world’s biggest OEM’s, manufacturers and providers together with the most promising early and growth-stage startups working on truly game-changing technologies.
If you were with us in Germany, click below to relive this buzzing event. And if you couldn’t make it, give it a watch to find our why you shouldn’t miss out on our next event – [GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers#/) and [Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/) in Vienna May.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Community Story: How a White House Alumnus is Taking the Fear out of US Immigration](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-community-story-how-white-house-alumnus-taking-fear-out-us-immigration/)
**Published:** February 20, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With GovTech.Pioneers coming up in Vienna on May 23rd, we meet an American startup that’s making a real difference to how citizens (and hopeful citizens) deal with the United States immigration authorities as they apply for marriage-based green cards. Read on for our exclusive interview with former White House employee and Boundless co-founder Doug Rand.
**Content:**
There’s something rather refreshing about a startup whose boss looks you in the eye and tells you that their product *isn’t* driven by Artificial Intelligence.
“At present what we do is not AI,” smiles [Boundless](https://www.boundless.co/) President Doug Rand. “As much I would love to throw around a buzzword, there’s plenty of sophisticated technology to deploy long before you get to AI and machine learning.”
Yet this candid admission is far from the only thing that’s atypical about Boundless. Your average startup founder can’t list his previous employer as Barack Obama. Not many are amateur playwrights and willing to quote poetry. And then there’s the problem Boundless is solving, one of the most down-to-earth on the long list of those being tackled in startup world: the nightmare of filling out government forms.
This is a different approach to GovTech, which doesn’t just have to mean making improvements on the governmental side of equation. Nor does it inevitably have to be about startups working directly with governments. Boundless does neither of these just yet, despite Rand having worked in the White House for six years as Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship in White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, until Donald Trump was sworn in. (“It was time to move on, as it was for many folks,” he says diplomatically.)
Yet in its own unique way, this startup still brings together government, technology and entrepreneurship. It’s GovTech, all right.
Rand and his co-founders Xiao Wang and Serdar Sutay all believe immigration to the United States needs to be a less draining, confusing and expensive experience. Anybody who has ever been faced with one of the arcane, lifeless forms favoured by the US bureaucracy won’t need much convincing of this. But it’s not just about saving applicants from the guesswork and jargon that could send any sane person over the edge. It’s also about fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in the country.
“Immigration is a huge driver of entrepreneurship,” Rand learned during his time working for the state. “Immigrants tend to be very entrepreneurial and start companies at a higher rate than the native-born.”
Rand and his White House colleagues were among those who worked to push the International Entrepreneur Rule into the United States system. A startup-friendly piece of policy that would allow foreign startup founders working in the US to extend their stays based on certain traction parameters, it was pushed through three days before the change in government. And with that ‘startup visa’ now meeting with resistance from the Trump regime, Rand is pleased with his decision to strike out and make a difference in the private sector rather than from within government.
While Rand was born in the United States, he’s strongly aware of his immigrant heritage: several of his ancestors came through Ellis Island. And his co-founders have navigated the system more recently – Wang is from China and Sutay hails from Turkey.
“For my co-founders and I, this is personal. It’s part of the fabric of my family and the United States as a nation of immigrants.”
While their opinions might not always coincide with those currently occupying the White House, the crew at Boundless are showing that there’s plenty of opportunity to make a difference to individual lives by harnessing (non-AI!) technology. Specifically, Boundless wants to smooth and ease the application process for marriage-based green cards: in other words the spouse of a US citizen (or permanent resident) requesting living and working rights in the country.
According to Rand, around 400,000 people apply for such visas in the United States every year. The process, of course, is a nightmare of scary forms, guesswork, big cheques and waiting several months to find out whether that Sri Lankan wedding certificate really *did* need that vital third signature on it or not.
While an expensive lawyer can always offer some help if you have a few thousand Dollars lying around, Boundless claims to offer a better way. They’ve developed a natural-language alternative to filling out those forms. The idea of their platform is that you answer regular questions in normal English, while the underlying programme ‘translates’ this into US government language and completes the forms.
Included in the $500 flat fee for this is access to help via a chat interface, and a qualified human lawyer performing a final review of the machine-completed application. If all goes smooth, you get a filled-out application pack in the mail, and all you need to do is sign in a few places, add the government fees and send it away.
“It’s a reinterpretation of government forms and instructions that is more efficient, compassionate and easier to understand,” says Rand. “You get only the questions you need to answer, in the right order, with extra help for common head-scratchers.
“Our mission is to empower families to navigate the immigration system faster, more confidently and affordably. We want to make the system not just less scary and intimidating, but actually delightful and confidence building.
“We can’t guarantee positive outcomes, but we can provide a layer of services on top of the standard government process that brings a much better experience and hopefully maximises the chance of success.
“The good news is that fundamentally the system is set up to keep couples together. If you do it right and you are eligible then you should have every chance of getting that green card.”
“When our customers say things like ‘you took so much of the fear out of the process’ or ‘we’re delighted and our grandchildren will thank you’, that’s very gratifying for us. These people have been on a precipice worrying about the future of their family.”
We can’t honestly claim to have tried Boundless ourselves, but it sure sounds wonderful. The startup’s focus for now is on just one niche of immigration in one country, but if its early success continues, the sky is surely the limit. Considering just how many forms need filling out in pretty much every country (Austrian tax springs to mind…) and the fact that they’re usually a struggle on the language front (either because of puzzling jargon or because the applicant isn’t a native speaker), the potential to take the concept broader has got to be there in the longer term.
Expansion aside, why shouldn’t some forward-thinking government people call on a startup like Boundless to help it simplify things for its citizens at source. Collaboration, after all, is a huge part of the GovTech equation.
“Yes, we’re very open to working with the government to make the entire process more streamlined and appealing,” says Rand. “That would be good for the government in terms of cost savings and process improvement.”
*Interested in the rapid rise of technology around government? Europe’s first GovTech event, GovTech.Pioneers, takes place Vienna on May 23rd. Find out more [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Nine Startups Named For Tel Aviv Booster Lab](https://pioneers.io/nine-startups-named-tel-aviv-booster-lab/)
**Published:** February 28, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With the second Booking.com Booster Lab all set to go ahead in Tel Aviv next week, we reveal the nine sustainable tourism startups selected to join us in Israel from March 6th-8th and stand the chance to win grants of up to €25,000. Our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover, is driving the process of international startup selection as well as developing and managing the content and framework for this international series aimed at helping early-stage startups make an impact through sustainable tourism.
**Content:**
The Booster Lab series is designed to give the startups selected for each event the tools, guidance and possible funding that will boost their impact and drive their future success. As in the first leg of the series, which took place in Barcelona in December, the selected ventures will participate in hands-on workshops, attend insightful talks and keynotes, and be mentored by the best minds from Booking.com.
At the end of the three-day programme, each startup will deliver a pitch in front of an audience of industry experts and our Booking.com.B.V. jury. The judges will evaluate their growth roadmaps and impact, awarding grants of between €10,000 and €25,000 to the programme’s most promising ventures.
Booster Lab is just the beginning of the relationship between the participating startups and Booking.com B.V. Each startup’s dedicated mentor and a pool of additional experts will support them in executing their growth plans and achieving positive impact over the subsequent months.
The startups chosen reflect a wide variety of impactful concepts, including two that cater specifically to travellers with disabilities. They are:
- **accessibleGO** A full-service accessible travel platform
- **bitemojo** Independent food tours with nothing but your smartphone
- **Citynsider** A web community of young, curious travellers sharing local tips in cities they’ve lived in
- **Knowers** A platform connecting travellers to locals for info, tips and services
- **FarmGuests** Establishes a connection between rural tourists and agribusiness owners
- **Paratrek** Treks and outdoor activities for the physically impaired
- **Light Heat** Solar energy for heating and cooling buildings, factories and hotels
- **Trailze** The ultimate outdoor navigation platform for non-adventurers
- **Questo** A mobile app for playful self-guided tours
Stay tuned to our channels at the end of next week for all the news of how things go in Tel Aviv. For a reminder of the success some startups took away from the series opener in Barcelona, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/sustainable-tourism-startups-get-boost-barcelona).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Insights: How Blockchain Will Drive FinTech Innovation in 2018](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-how-blockchain-will-drive-fintech-innovation-2018/)
**Published:** March 1, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With innovation in the FinTech industry continuing to explode, and investment in the sector having reached $40bn in the last four years, we look at some of the ways Blockchain will shape its landscape in the year to come. In the first of a series of blogs written by our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover, we’ll look at how Artificial Intelligence, Initial Coin Offerings and regulatory developments will be key topics as corporates and startups weigh up opportunities, risks and collaborations.
**Content:**
Most people see Italy as the home of love and romance, thanks mainly to movies like La Dolce Vita from Federico Fellini. But for a long time it’s also been a center of banking and finance. Indeed, the oldest bank in the world was founded in 1472 in Siena. At that time, merchants from all over Europe used to meet in Tuscany to buy and sell.
Fast-forward to today, and finance has changed a lot thanks to financial technology, referred to as FinTech in the industry. Fintech startups have changed how financial services are structured, provided and consumed, but have not successfully established themselves as dominant players.
Many small, technology‐enabled new entrants came into existence with the goal of overtaking incumbents as the new dominant players in financial services, but most have shifted to build partnerships as they struggle with scaling and customer adoption. FinTech has evolved from startups that want to take on and beat incumbents to a broader ecosystem of different businesses looking in many cases for partnerships.
This has been a mutually beneficial relationship. Startups need capital and customers, while at the same time existing players need fresh approaches and thinking to drive change and deliver innovation.
For those reasons, Fintech is undoubtedly one of the fastest-growing global business sectors. Over the past four years alone, investments in FinTech startups have increased with an annual growth rate of 41 percent, gathering more than $40 billion in funding. 2017 was a record year for FinTech-related deals.
With the rapid growth of the sector is unlikely to slow any time soon, here are some of the most significant risks and opportunities likely to drive growth in 2018.
**Blockchain Meets Artificial Intelligence**
Blockchain is a decentralized, heavily encrypted, distributed ledger that enables the secure and transparent documentation of monetary transactions. A new, permanent ‘block’ is created to represent new transfers of a given cryptocurrency.
Taken together, these immutable and incorruptible blocks form a full record of a digital currency’s transaction history that cannot be disputed or changed without broad authorization from the entire blockchain network. With the large back-office cost saving and transparency gains from a regulatory and audit perspective that blockchain can provide, it is imperative for their survival that existing companies understand the potential impact of blockchain on their activities.
There are numerous positive use cases for the technology that will be critical for corporates looking to compete. As shown in the latest PwC report on Global Fintech, the use of advanced methods, tools and technologies means new possibilities for detecting and analysing fraud. This is the most important of Blockchain-related trends.
Furthermore, Artificial Intelligence can process countless data and play a fundamental role in supporting decision. It can also use those data to predict the future. If we combine Blockchain and AI potential, we can envision the magnitude of the changes (and challenges) ahead. And plenty of startups are doing just that!
**Risky Buzzword: ICOs**
Recent growth in the FinTech industry, specifically within the cryptocurrency sector, has given rise to a new method of capital funding. ICO (Initial Coin Offering) is the most debated element of the crypto world.
An Initial Coin Offering, or ICO, is a method of crowdfunding increasingly used mainly by FinTech startups developing applications for Blockchain technology. In an ICO, a startup initiates a fundraising period in which investors can exchange their money or cryptocurrency to buy tokens in a new cryptocurrency that is not yet in circulation.
But despite the temptations here, caution is needed: with ICO’s currently operating outside of the regulated security scene, we can expect the toughest regulations to be applied to them in 2018.
The current framework (as a FinTech crowd-investment ) is arguably inefficient due to the lack of awareness and domain knowledge of investors. Moreover, forty-six percent of the initial coin offerings launched in 2017 have already crashed and burned, despite raising an astonishing $104 million! The high failure rate is a good reason to be skeptical and be aware of fraud.
**Trend to Watch: Regulatory Developments**
As outlined already, one factor that has long impacted this sector is the lack of a regulatory framework surrounding cryptocurrencies and ICO’s.
However, as governments around the world quietly observe the growing impact of Blockchain-based technologies and look for ways to safely integrate them into their wider economies, new regulatory developments will create new boundaries for FinTech firms. For example, China recently banned the use of cryptocurrency exchanges. While this is an extreme case, future government efforts to regulate cryptocurrency sales and introduce consumer protections could slow the pace of growth and innovation in the sector.
At the same time, more government involvement also has the potential to foster innovation. Regulatory agencies in Australia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom have recently begun collaborating with the FinTech sector to discover how new technologies could help to solve national challenges, as well as how to enable future advances in the area.
Going forward, government agencies around the world will determine how to ensure consistency in the FinTech field , and hopefully without preventing innovation.
**Conclusion**
Clearly, we are at the dawn of a new era. Finance has changed a lot thanks to the myriad startups shaping future service and business models. Incumbents, meanwhile, continue to grapple with new threats and opportunities centres around Blockchain.
The main obstacles to wholesale change are not the technical and business difficulties, but rather the pace of customer adoption. Digitally savvy customers will move fast, but the real challenge is to convince the masses.
Putting the customer at the center of their business plan and humanizing this sector might be the golden path to follow. In the same way that it’s easy to forget Italy’s historical financial muscle in the face of all that romance, neither should the financial powerhouses forget that the battle will be won in the hearts of their customers. Innovation is the foundation, but those wanting to reshape the system need a little dash of X-Factor…take it from an Italian!
*Francesco Rubino, who hails from Puglia in southern Italy, is a FinTech specialist at Pioneers Discover*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [embotech’s Autonomous Driving Tech Takes Startup Victory at Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/mobility-pioneers-wrap/)
**Published:** February 8, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Swiss startup embotech, which provides critical motion software for the self-driving car industry, won the second edition of the Mobility.Pioneers event today. The industry-focused gathering in Munich saw a selection of the world’s biggest OEMs, manufacturers and mobility providers meet the most promising early-stage startups working on truly game changing technologies. The over 350 attendees also included selected investors and international media, taking part in 350 1-to-1 meetings.
**Content:**
After an event in which autonomous and shared driving emerged as perhaps the most dominant talking points, it’s perhaps no surprise that the overall winner was the finalist that emerged from the Autonomous Pitching Track Powered by Magna. embotech was joined on the final pitching stage by Electrification winner ChargeX, Connectivity winner High Mobility and Shared Use finalist Getaway.
Whilst the ideas of all four finalists evidently got the audience and judges thinking, it was the pitch from embotech CTO Alexander Domahidi that suggested the most convincing long-term business potential. embotech provides motion planning software that kicks in at the post-sensing phase, controlling a self-driving car’s steering, braking, acceleration and parking in real time via calculations performed 50 times per second.
Based primarily in physical models, embotech’s system can be applied to any vehicle once the car’s unique specifications are input. The company is already working with automotive giants Renault and Volvo, and even boasts a project with the European Space Agency concerning rocket landings.
As always with the winning startup at one of our industry-focused events, embotech’s prize included being fast-tracked into the Pioneers Challenge Top 50 at Pioneers’18, which means an automatic pitching slot at our flagship event in Vienna on May 24th-25th.
embotech also earned themselves an invitation to travel to Brussels and meet with European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, who leads the EU’s ‘Energy Union’ and opened Mobility.Pioneers with a video address.
“Thanks to your ideas, today’s kids might never have to to learn to drive,” he told the audience in the Muffatwerk. “The concept of car accidents might be something they learn about in their history books. Air pollution could sound like a medieval epidemic to them.
“There are still many challenges to overcome, however, and these require a joint and holistic approach between various industries, between private and public sectors and between various European countries.
“Let us all change gears, and let 2018 be the year we accelerate towards clean, connected and automated mobility.”
While 20 selected startups pitched all day on the Grand Prix stage, the Mobility.Pioneers Arena Stage schedule tackled broad topics that are key to driving the industry forward. These are automation, connectivity, shared use, electrification and the changing landscape around regulation and business models, with key issues Blockchain and related technologies as well as Cyber Security coming into sharp focus.
In a session that really got the audience talking, IOTA Chairman Dominik Schiener covered just how distributed ledgers can enable a truly shared economy from a mobility perspective.
As well as inevitably being asked for his thoughts on cryptocurrencies, Schiener explained how IOTA technology’s mobility use cases include cost-free micropayments that make a range of machine-to-machine payments possible, data security and ensuring secure over-the-air vehicle updates.
Electric supercar innovator Mate Rimac, whose company Rimac Automobili developed the Rimac Concept\_One, made two appearances on stage, first participating in the afternoon panel discussion on electrification alongside Kreisel CEO Walter Kreisel, and then rounding out the day’s talks with a popular keynote that not only got the attendees excited about next month’s unveiling of the Concept Two in Geneva, but the autonomous, electrified mobility future in general.
“Autonomous driving and new mobility will be the enabler for widespread electric vehicles. In a few decades it should be illegal for a person to drive a car. In an automated environment, a human driver would be the weak link in the chain.”
Facebook’s Christoph Stadeler delivered a keynote around the contribution the social media giant can make to the mobility sector as a partner to startups.
“We are not going to build cars or systems to operate self-driving cars, we’re clear on that,” he said. “But mobile is at the forefront of the changes in the car industry, and we have a little bit of experience in this area! We’re also working on the same tech as companies in that industry, such as Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence. We can bring scale, innovation and partnering.”
Meanwhile Assaf Harel’s talked about Karamba Security’s technology on stage, touching on important Cyber Security points that will be of increasing concern to the industry.
“We’re entering an era of autonomous vehicles that are being controlled from afar,” said the CTO of the Israeli startup, which seals software according to factory settings. “There are already attacks today and OEM’s are worried. Why should they get all the bad publicity when their cars get hacked via an insurance company’s dongle?”
In the panel discussion *Autonomous Driving: A Deep Dive into Real Time Mapping and Sensors* four participants delved into one aspect of an issue that would ultimately win the day.
“Sensors can see everything around them,” pointed out TomTom’s Head of Product Marketing Andy Marchant. “But they cannot see what’s over the horizon or around the corner. So we need a map, for localization and to give context to the sensors.”
In the afternoon, another panel looked into potential future business models for major OEM’s, most of whom had representatives at Mobility.Pioneers.
“If I make money then Lars makes money, and if I make money Marcus makes money,” said David Uze, CEO of Cyber Security startup Trillium, as he underlined the importance of cooperation to his corporate co-panelists, Lars Klawitter of Jaguar Land Rover and Marcus Spickermann of Volvo Cars Mobility. “It’s a wild west time in mobility right now and you’d have to be a fool to not make money, but if you try to do it alone someone is going to come after you profit – probably your customers. So collaboration is everything.”
Then on the regulation front, former UK government new mobility services regulator and Director of Public Policy at FiveAI Lucy Yu and flying car entrepreneur Juraj Vaculik, founder of AeroMobil, took part in a panel discussion around developing new regulatory frameworks.
“Keeping up with technology is always a challenge for regulation,” said Lucy. “Policymakers will always be quite guarded. When ‘horseless carriages’ first arrived the regulators required them to be accompanied by red flags or lanterns, and the speed limit was four miles per hour!
“Automation is another example of a challenge, but we have to remember that rapid changes in technology and more complexity doesn’t necessarily equate to less safety. My vehicle at home has far more tech under the hood than it did 50 years ago, but it’s much safer.”
The last panel of the day, before the four finalist startups took to the Arena Stage for the final pitching, saw lively debate around the subject of models for startup-corporate collaboration, featuring among others Wunder founder Gunnar Froh, who turned down a major offer from Volkswagen to remain independent, and Dr Tom Kirschbaum of urban mobility startup door2door.
“If a corporate asks you for exclusivity, make sure you ask for exclusivity in return,” commented Kirschbaum, who believes in fair collaboration. “It’s a litmus test of whether they take you seriously. You have to go in on the same level.”
A total of 100+ hand-selected startups attended Mobility.Pioneers. As part of the expansion of the event in its second year, the day also featured an invite-only side event and workshop dedicated to Series A startups. The latter included a focus on raising Series B funding and mutually beneficial collaboration models.
Along with the startups, numerous specialist investors and dozens of corporate executives packed the venue and took part in 350 one-to-one meetings enabled by our Match & Meet networking service.
Another opportunity for the innovators was the Mobility Hackathon, which ran in parallel with Mobility.Pioneers and was organized by our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover in partnership with the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB).
Slovakian developer group FinID were named the Mobility Hackathon winners after three days of exploring the use of Blockchain technology to enable transport to be more intelligent, sustainable and cost-effective. The trio from Bratislava developed a prototype answering an ÖBB mobility use case for a frictionless travel experience using mobile and decentralised technologies.
Our events focus at Pioneers now shifts to May, which features both [Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/) on May 24th-25th and the inaugural [GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers#/), which takes place in Vienna on May 23rd.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Ventures Portfolio Gains Sixth Health Tech Company In ThinkSono](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-ventures-portfolio-gains-sixth-health-tech-company-thinksono/)
**Published:** February 26, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re pleased to announce that Pioneers Ventures has added a sixth exciting health tech startup to its portfolio. This time the investee is London and Berlin-based company ThinkSono, which has impressed our investment arm with the life-saving Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) diagnosis software it’s currently developing. Designed for hand-held ultrasound devices, the ThinkSono technology will bring diagnosis into the palm of your hand.
**Content:**
We all know that a successful startup needs a real problem to solve. When you consider that Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) can and does kill, making its diagnosis cheaper, easier and more accessible certainly qualifies as a worthy problem to solve. And the fact that the founders found it by accident is neither here nor there.
“We spoke to a lot of doctors and accidentally stumbled on DVT as a problem,” admits the company’s co-founder and CEO Fouad Al-Noor. “We didn’t really understand that it was such a huge issue until we kept digging deeper into the problem.”
What Al-Noor and his co-founder Sven Mischkewitz, who met at an accelerator in London in September 2016, discovered was this: DVT diagnosis continues to present major challenges to doctors and hospitals. Central to the problem is that DVT symptoms – pains in the leg – don’t inevitably mean a patient has this rather serious condition. But medical professionals can’t take chances, of course, which means many unaffected patients are sent for costly ultrasound scans – typically in overstretched emergency departments. At the same time as that unnecessary waste of resources, many patients in real need go undiagnosed – a mistake that can prove deadly.
What makes the diagnosis problem all the more exciting to solve is that the actual treatment of DVT is a straightforward procedure. Making diagnosis easier, in other words, is the essential step towards saving lives.
“With DVT the problem is diagnostics and not the treatment, which is a widely available anticoagulant blood thinner,” explains Al-Noor. “Doctors aren’t worried about treatment. They’re worried about catching the patients before they die.
“And the main reason people die is when diagnosis is unavailable or difficult to do. Traditionally you need a radiologist with a massive ultrasound machine costing around €100,000 to accurately diagnose it.”
But what if a family doctor could accurately diagnose their patients right there in their own surgery, without needing any special radiology skills or large, confounding equipment? This is exactly where ThinkSono comes in. Now that hand-held ultrasound machines have come onto the market – and quite possibly into your local surgery – the startup has built the software that can give general practitioners wielding such devices a quick yes or no on the DVT question.
“We can replicate the radiologist with our software and a small hand-held scanner,” he says of the tech, which uses machine learning to train ThinkSono’s core algorithm to recognize DVT from the ultrasound images. “In 15 minutes you can diagnose someone with DVT. And a GP can do it: you do not need a professional radiologist.”
And it’s not just about saving patients an unnecessary hospital visit, taxpayers money and urban doctors a guilty conscience. It’s also about bringing diagnosis to patients who might not otherwise get it at all.
“Now you can go to a remote area and give a nurse this machine,” says Al-Noor. “And with our software she will be able to diagnose DVT. It’s the democratization of diagnosis!”
While the final software is still in development, ThinkSono is already pursuing its primary business model. It wants to develop partnerships with the several manufacturers of the hand-held ultrasound devices, and licence their software. That way, the manufacturers can offer a product with out-of-the-box DVT diagnosis capability, while ThinkSono can leverage their existing sales networks. The fledgling company has already signed one NDA, and is confident of sealing deals as soon as it delivers proof of clinical effectiveness.
While Pioneers Ventures agrees with the strong business case, the potential impact and robust sales plan, ThinkSono sees the investment partnership as a major boon to its development.
“There are quite a few of companies out there doing machine learning on a variety of medical images,” said Pioneers Ventures Managing Director Philipp Stangl. “But ultrasound is a tough nut to crack for AI. We trust the team behind ThinkSono is able to do just that, so we were happy to invest and look forward to supporting the team in the future.”
“We were connected to Pioneers Ventures via one of our angels,” added Al-Noor. “I spoke to Philipp and Markus Lang \[Stangl’s fellow Managing Director\] on the phone and pitched the idea. They jumped in pretty quickly because they really got the idea quicker than most VCs we spoke to.
“I think they have an amazing network, industry connections and there is of course their annual flagship event Pioneers’18! I think once we mature a little bit, and reach a stage where we can have serious conversations, then their ability to connect us to the European market in terms of large ultrasound companies and hospitals could be very useful for us. As tech people, it’s important for us to get these industry connections, especially from the commercial side.”
*Are you a startup from CEE? Then we have good news for you: our Pioneers Ventures team recently launched a series of 1:1 meetings, entitled Office Hours with Pioneers Ventures. Their purpose is to meet with the best local startups in six locations across the region. The next of these events takes place on March 1st in Budapest. For more information check out our event page [here](https://www.facebook.com/events/163635050954174/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [United Nations Speakers To Star At GovTech.Pioneers and Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/united-nations-speakers-star-govtechpioneers-and-pioneers18/)
**Published:** March 5, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers is excited to welcome speakers from the biggest international body of them all, the United Nations, to our back-to-back events in Vienna in May. First, at GovTech.Pioneers on May 23rd, Irakli Beridze of the UNICRI agency will speak about the role of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in the UN. Then at Pioneers’18, which follows on May 24th and 25th, UNICEF’s Chris Fabian, together with the Irish One Foundation will present a talk on how Blockchain can help effectively manage the very topical theme of humanitarian rights and refugees.
**Content:**
Pioneers is excited to welcome speakers from the biggest international body of them all, the United Nations, to our back-to-back events in Vienna in May. First, at GovTech.Pioneers on May 23rd, Irakli Beridze of the UNICRI agency will speak about the role of Artificial Intelligence and robotics in the UN. Then at Pioneers’18, which follows on May 24th and 25th, UNICEF’s Chris Fabian, together with the Irish ONE Foundation will present a talk on how Blockchain can help effectively manage the very topical theme of humanitarian rights and refugees.
Beridze leads the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Unit (UNICRI), a UN agency which among other things promotes national self-reliance and the development of institutional capabilities in the fields of crime prevention and justice. And at GovTech.Pioneers he’ll address a question well worth answering as he delivers his talk “AI in the UN: Solving Global Issues and Minimizing Risks”.
“In these times, more and more stakeholders are affected by AI and the awareness among governments rises. While the technology bears huge potentials, it also comes with considerable risks, which we are going to observe and put a spotlight on them,” explains Beridze. This starts from the very crucial element of preventing crimes from being done and reaches to the fulfilment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Especially two aspects are of relevance for the Pioneers community: firstly providing access to the huge network of the United Nations and its member states and secondly participating in the educational training programs run by the Center for AI and Robotics. “For the very first time in the history of the UN, we are organizing these courses which take place all over the world, including Turin, Boston, Beijing, The Hague, Cambridge etc."
Responsible for initiating and organizing the UN’s training, educational and mentoring programmes worldwide on AI and Robotics for a wide range of stakeholders, Beridze focuses on finding synergies with traditional threats and risks as well as identifying ways in which AI can contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which were defined in 2015 and cover a broad range of social and development issues.
*Beridze discussing the creation of the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the United Nations General Assembly (© UNICRI)*
The next day at Pioneers’18, our flagship event just across town at the Hofburg Imperial Palace, attendees can also look forward to elements of GovTech within the event’s traditional broad programme of breakthrough technologies, the theme for which this year is Blurred Frontiers. And here, once more, in perfect keeping with the event’s aim to redefine human and technological frontiers with profound social impact, a United Nations speaker and the strategic head of the Dublin-based ONE Foundation will tackle strategic responses to the refugee crisis.
This time the global organization will be represented by Christopher Fabian, who co-founded the Innovation Unit at UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund). Chris advises on open-source overlaps of tech, design, development, startups,and academia, and also works with UNICEF Ventures, which co-operates with industries to show how certain technologies, if built in the right way, could have positive impact on the lives of children. UNICEF Ventures also demonstrates how such technologies offer new research, markets, and opportunities to its partners.
One of the forward thinkers with whom Fabian is currently working is Lye Ogunsanya, who will be joining him on stage at the Hofburg. Ogunsanya is Portfolio Manager of the ONE Foundation and has initiated several innovation projects in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
Together they work on several ground-breaking projects, such as the Humanitarian Change Maker Labs, centered around the Za’atari (just to get a glimpse of importance: one of the biggest refugee settlements in the world with almost 90,000 inhabitants) and Azraq refugee camps in Jordan and how latest technologies can create a better life for those living in the camps. Not only will Chris and Lye cover up-and-running projects with ether-based tokens in their showcase, but will also talk about the very necessary element of empowerment of the people through social entrepreneurship labs. In short: they show how relevant GovTech is nowadays and that it is here to stay.
*Aerial view of the Za’atri Refugee Camp*
An update on the project including the announcement of its next phase will be presented on stage, however further details cannot be revealed at this stage due to the secrecy mode of most of their projects (believe us, they tackle some of the most relevant global crisis topics at the moment, featured across several continents and we caught Lye for this story in a war room meeting in South America…).
Finally, for startups interested in attending GovTech.Pioneers and Pioneers’18, there’s now less than a month to go before the open call closes! D-Day is March 31st, so apply sooner rather than later. Click [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers/startups) for GovTech.Pioneers applications and [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18/startups) for Pioneers’18 applications.
Tickets for GovTech.Pioneers and Pioneers’18 are available [here](https://pioneers.io/events).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Four Startups Win Big Grants at Tel Aviv Booster Lab](https://pioneers.io/four-startups-win-big-grants-tel-aviv-booster-lab/)
**Published:** March 13, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** A diverse quartet of international sustainable tourism startups walked away with grants of up to €25,000 at the Booking.com Booster Lab in Tel Aviv last week, for which Pioneers Discover drove the process of startup selection as well as developed and managed the content and framework. After three days of workshops, talks and mentoring, accessibleGO, bitemojo, Questo and Knowers convinced the jury with their four-minute pitches on the last day.
**Content:**
A diverse quartet of international sustainable tourism startups walked away with grants of up to €25,000 at the Booking.com Booster Lab in Tel Aviv last week, for which Pioneers Discover drove the process of startup selection as well as developed and managed the content and framework. After three days of workshops, talks and mentoring, accessibleGO, bitemojo, Questo and Knowers convinced the jury with their four-minute pitches on the last day.
This was the second event in the Booster Lab series, which began in [Barcelona](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/sustainable-tourism-startups-get-boost-barcelona) in December. The series, run by Booking.com B.V., is designed to give early-stage sustainable tourism startups the tools, guidance and possible funding that will boost their impact and drive their future success.
“It’s been terrific to win a grant here,” said Miriam Goldman, co-founder and CEO of accessibleGO, which won a grant of €25,000. “This is a real validation of all of the planning we’ve been doing up until now, and of our direction.”
The Jerusalem-based startup, co-founded by Galia Kut, has developed an online community and platform that offers content, reviews and relevant booking information for the disabled traveller.
“We don’t do a lot of pitching contests,” she continued. “Galia and I both left families with kids to come here, to learn and participate, because this opportunity was with Booking.com.”
“The information we got from the Booking.com representatives here confirmed that there’s a market need for what we do. What we’ve learned here is going to help us ensure that our execution is spot-on going forward.”
bitemojo, also based in Jerusalem, took away €25,000 to grow their business. They’ve developed food tours in conjunction with local outlets, which users can purchase and enjoy via the bitemojo app. Each ‘bite’ on the tour is claimed by showing the phone to the vendor, who gets paid by the startup at the end of each month.
“We’re tremendously honoured that one of the world’s biggest brands recognized bitemojo as an impactful startup,” said CEO Michael Weiss. “And as a startup that’s really making a change in sustainable tourism, in how people travel and how they experience destinations. I hope this will be another step on the path to success, and hopefully we can work with Booking.com one day!”
“bitemojo connects urban travellers with great food done by great people: small and medium businesses that are striving to make a living and want to be recognized for their great food. What we want to do with this grant is to add functionality to our product that will enable you to add purchases while at the store: upsells and even tipping.”
Questo, a startup that’s developed mobile app for playful self-guided tours and traveled from Romania to join the event, also earned a handsome grant to help grow their business, with a boost of €20,000. Meanwhile Knowers, a platform that connects travellers to the right locals for info, tips and services, was granted €15,000.
None of the startups emerged empty-handed. Paratrek, FarmGuests and Lightheat all won €500 Booking.com travel vouchers, while Trailze and Citynsider were each awarded a coveted pair of tickets to Pioneers’18, our flagship event in Vienna.
But the takeaways from the event will run far deeper than just the grants and prizes. The Tel Aviv startup scene is brilliant at harnessing the power of connections, and talk of collaboration was already in the air as proceedings wrapped up. bitemojo and Questo were openly discussing the possible ways in which their products could complement each other.
Furthermore the three-day Booster Lab is just the beginning of the relationship between the participating startups and Booking.com B.V. Each startup’s dedicated mentor and a pool of additional experts will support them in executing their growth plans and achieving positive impact over the subsequent months.
“It was amazing to see the commitment and energy everyone put in,” said Marianne Gybels of Booking.com. “The startups took it very seriously and saw it as a massive opportunity. Their willingness to learn was also very inspiring.”
“The startups showed the variety of how many different things ‘sustainable tourism’ can mean. It’s not just about being green. It’s about inclusive travel, bringing local back to local, and investing in communities when you travel. All while preserving local culture and natural resources. That came across really well today.”
“At Booking.com we’re so used to asking about what we’ll do in six months, or dealing with massive numbers, but the question of what to do to deal with tomorrow is still relevant to us. We can tend to forget that, so an experience like this is very helpful for us as well.”
Does your business want to connect with the startup world? Email Pioneers Discover on discover@pioneers.io.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Discover Joins UNIQA, Pfizer and INiTS on HealthHubVienna Accelerator Program](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-joins-uniqa-and-inits-healthhubvienna-accelerator-program-2/)
**Published:** March 15, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover is pleased to announce that it has partnered with UNIQA, Pfizer and INiTS in a joint project to host and run the HealthHubVienna international startup acceleration program this spring. HealthHubVienna, a collaboration between our consultancy arm, corporates and academia, aims to position the Austrian capital as a hub for innovation in HealthTech. With the spring program not far away, we can also share the names of the 10 startups selected for the latest intake.
**Content:**
Pioneers Discover is pleased to announce that it has partnered with UNIQA, Pfizer and INiTS in a joint project to host and run the HealthHubVienna international startup acceleration program this spring. HealthHubVienna, a collaboration between our consultancy arm, corporates and academia, aims to position the Austrian capital as a hub for innovation in HealthTech. With the spring program not far away, we can also share the names of the 10 startups selected for the latest intake.
This is the first joint project between Pioneers Discover, UNIQA, Pfizer and INiTS. UNIQA is one of the leading insurance groups in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region, Pfizer is an global pharmaceutical giant and INiTS is one of the world’s top academic incubators. The latter has led many life sciences startups to success, including mySugr, the winners of the first edition of our flagship event in 2011.
“We’re proud to be part of such an amazing initiative,” says Pioneers Discover Program Manager Anton Schilling."The HealthHubVienna program showcases very well how corporates and academia can support and collaborate with startups to innovate and solve future challenges in the HealthTech industry.”
At the core of the three-month spring program lie four ‘Sprint Workshops’, featuring an intense transfer of knowledge on areas critical to a startup’s success, such as product certification and the regulatory framework. But an even greater emphasis will fall on the exchanges between the young companies and their mentors, who will include experienced managers, successful founders and innovation coaches. The mentors’ skill sets will provide a strong boost to the startups and their existing solutions as they scale their businesses.
HealthHubVienna’s focus on startups who already have a product and their first clients, but who now need to manage their market entry. Pioneers Discover drove the process of selecting the most fitting candidates through direct outreach to our extensive life sciences network. Ten startups were chosen for a pitching event in Vienna, at which the a jury representing all stakeholders in the HealthHubVienna partnership was so impressed with the quality that all the startups were ultimately invited to the accelerator.
“Startups bring new ideas and technical solutions for existing health care challenges,” said Professor Robin Rumler, Country Manager of Pfizer Austria. “We’re supporting the implementation with market know-how and our international network, because together we can make people healthier sooner.”
“Our collaboration with startups allows us to immerse ourselves in modern technologies and processes," added Andreas Brandstetter, CEO of UNIQA. "In this way we can offer our clients added value, which is both demanded and expected in the digital age.”
Among the chosen ones are two Pioneers Ventures portfolio companies. One is smart healthcare startup Medicus, which helps individuals understand and act upon their own health data. The other is ThinkSono, which has developed Deep Vein Thrombosis diagnostic software for hand-held ultrasound devices.
The ten startups, who hail from right across the European continent, are as follows:
- mHealth Pioneers (Germany)
- ImageBiopsyLab (Austria)
- GoClinic (Netherlands)
- SzelesTIM (Austria)
- Medicus (Austria)
- Contextflow (Austria)
- ReFlex (Romania)
- Healthbank (Switzerland)
- B-Wom (Spain)
- ThinkSono (United Kingdom)
Between 20 and 25 startups per year are selected for the HealthHubVienna program, there will be further intakes in autumn 2018 and spring 2019, so if you’re a startup anywhere around the world, stay tuned to our channels for news of the open calls!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Discover Joins UNIQA, Pfizer and INiTS on HealthHubVienna Accelerator Program](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-joins-uniqa-and-inits-healthhubvienna-accelerator-program/)
**Published:** March 15, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover is pleased to announce that it has partnered with UNIQA, Pfizer and INiTS in a joint project to host and run the HealthHubVienna international startup acceleration program this spring. HealthHubVienna, a collaboration between our consultancy arm, corporates and academia, aims to position the Austrian capital as a hub for innovation in HealthTech. With the spring program not far away, we can also share the names of the 10 startups selected for the latest intake.
**Content:**
Pioneers Discover is pleased to announce that it has partnered with UNIQA, Pfizer and INiTS in a joint project to host and run the HealthHubVienna international startup acceleration program this spring. HealthHubVienna, a collaboration between our consultancy arm, corporates and academia, aims to position the Austrian capital as a hub for innovation in HealthTech. With the spring program not far away, we can also share the names of the 10 startups selected for the latest intake.
This is the first joint project between Pioneers Discover, UNIQA, Pfizer and INiTS. UNIQA is one of the leading insurance groups in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region, Pfizer is an global pharmaceutical giant and INiTS is one of the world’s top academic incubators. The latter has led many life sciences startups to success, including mySugr, the winners of the first edition of our flagship event in 2011.
“We’re proud to be part of such an amazing initiative,” says Pioneers Discover Program Manager Anton Schilling."The HealthHubVienna program showcases very well how corporates and academia can support and collaborate with startups to innovate and solve future challenges in the HealthTech industry.”
At the core of the three-month spring program lie four ‘Sprint Workshops’, featuring an intense transfer of knowledge on areas critical to a startup’s success, such as product certification and the regulatory framework. But an even greater emphasis will fall on the exchanges between the young companies and their mentors, who will include experienced managers, successful founders and innovation coaches. The mentors’ skill sets will provide a strong boost to the startups and their existing solutions as they scale their businesses.
HealthHubVienna’s focus on startups who already have a product and their first clients, but who now need to manage their market entry. Pioneers Discover drove the process of selecting the most fitting candidates through direct outreach to our extensive life sciences network. Ten startups were chosen for a pitching event in Vienna, at which the a jury representing all stakeholders in the HealthHubVienna partnership was so impressed with the quality that all the startups were ultimately invited to the accelerator.
“Startups bring new ideas and technical solutions for existing health care challenges,” said Professor Robin Rumler, Country Manager of Pfizer Austria. “We’re supporting the implementation with market know-how and our international network, because together we can make people healthier sooner.”
“Our collaboration with startups allows us to immerse ourselves in modern technologies and processes," added Andreas Brandstetter, CEO of UNIQA. "In this way we can offer our clients added value, which is both demanded and expected in the digital age.”
Among the chosen ones are two Pioneers Ventures portfolio companies. One is smart healthcare startup Medicus, which helps individuals understand and act upon their own health data. The other is ThinkSono, which has developed Deep Vein Thrombosis diagnostic software for hand-held ultrasound devices.
The ten startups, who hail from right across the European continent, are as follows:
- mHealth Pioneers (Germany)
- ImageBiopsyLab (Austria)
- GoClinic (Netherlands)
- SzelesTIM (Austria)
- Medicus (Austria)
- Contextflow (Austria)
- ReFlex (Romania)
- Healthbank (Switzerland)
- B-Wom (Spain)
- ThinkSono (United Kingdom)
Between 20 and 25 startups per year are selected for the HealthHubVienna program, there will be further intakes in autumn 2018 and spring 2019, so if you’re a startup anywhere around the world, stay tuned to our channels for news of the open calls!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Lightning Labs and Lilium Founders Set to Speak at Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/lightning-lab-and-lilium-founders-set-speak-pioneers18/)
**Published:** March 19, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re excited to announce that Lighting Labs Co-Founder and CEO Elizabeth Stark and Lilium Co-Founder and Head of Calculation & Design Patrick Nathen will feature as speakers at Pioneers’18 on May 24th-25th. Lightning Labs, which aims to make cryptocurrency transfers faster and easier, just last week announced a $2.5m seed funding round. Meanwhile Lilium, the world’s first electric vertical take-off and landing jet, could also become the first on-demand air taxi.
**Content:**
We’re excited to announce that Lighting Labs Co-Founder and CEO Elizabeth Stark and Lilium Co-Founder and Head of Calculation & Design Patrick Nathen will feature as speakers at Pioneers’18 on May 24th-25th. Lightning Labs, which aims to make cryptocurrency transfers faster and easier, just last week announced a $2.5m seed funding round. Meanwhile Lilium, the world’s first electric vertical take-off and landing jet, could also become the first on-demand air taxi.
With Lightning Labs has been impressing investors including none other than Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey and a significant cryptocurrency player in the shape of Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, Elizabeth’s credentials in the field are also remarkable.
She has taught at Stanford and Yale, where her students studied peer-to-peer technology, privacy, open source software, and memes. She’s an active contributor to the Bitcoin community, advises startups in areas ranging from cryptocurrency to decentralized technology to AI, and is a fellow at Coin Center. She also has a law degree from Harvard!
Elizabeth will take part in a fireside chat Laura Grimmelmann, a Vice-President investor from Accel, as a part of the Changing Landscapes topic.
Turning to our Future of Mobility topic and Lilium, the company Nathen co-founded is a real pioneer in showing what’s possible in the mobility space – one of several key topics we’ll be covering at our flagship event this year.
Patrick Nathen is a self-declared technology maniac dedicated to changing the way individuals get around, particularly in sustainable and scalable ways. And while the Lilium Jet ticks both of those boxes, this mobility expert’s talk will cover more than just the fascinating and acclaimed machine from Munich.
Nathen’s broad talk will take a look at the future of personal transportation, and how innovation and technology can change lives in this area. Apart from founding one of the world’s most exciting technology companies, he has a Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering and a PhD in fluid dynamics, and has worked in both Oxford and Stanford.
One of the reasons he brought his skills to the Lilium project was the chance for him and his three co-founders to have a real social impact.
“I never wanted to be just a small gear in a big company, in which decisions are always made from a profit point of view and the context of social and political impact gets negligible,” says Nathen. “Lilium started as a crazy idea that would change the way everyone approaches transportation. For me, everybody really does mean everybody. It’s not only for the richest of the rich.
“For me as an entrepreneur, it’s extremely important to take the chance I have to improve everyone’s life in both a sustainable and scalable way.”
The Lilium Jet is not only proving an inspiration in the innovation space, but it’s also attracting some serious investor money. In an investment round led by Chinese investment giant Tencent, Lilium raise $90m in autumn last year. With an agile machine well-suited to crowded urban areas, the company is working towards its vision of an on-demand air taxi service.
The Lilium Jet pushes mobility boundaries in several ways. It has an impressive range of 300 kilometres, yet can also reach mighty speeds of 300km/h. And it does all of this with electric power, meaning limited noise and air pollution.
The ambitious machine’s first test flight last year attracted plenty of media attention. You can watch it [here](https://youtu.be/ohig71bwRUE). Buy tickets to attend Pioneers’18 and meet a host of top speakers including Elizabeth Stark and Patrick Nathen, [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Tests (and Tastes!): bitemojo](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-tests-and-tastes-bitemojo/)
**Published:** March 28, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As we continue to trial some of the innovations our community of startups are working to bring to the world, we join Israeli food tourism platform bitemojo in Tel Aviv to try out one of their mobile-based foodie tours. One of the startups that took part in the recent Booking.com Booster Lab, bitemojo ultimately won a grant of €25,000 to help scale up their mobile app, which links city tourists to a series of far more insightful food and learning experiences than they’d otherwise find - all without the need to carry any cash.
**Content:**
It was with great excitement that four hungry members of the Pioneers crew assembled at Cafe Levinsky in Tel Aviv to try out Israeli food tourism platform [bitemojo](http://bitemojo.com/). It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in Israel and we were more or less fresh off the plane from Vienna. It would be the perfect chance to relax and explore ahead of the recent Booking.com Booster Lab week, for which our Pioneers Discover crew drove the process of startup selection (which included bitemojo) as well as developed and managed the content and framework.
We were looking forward to trying the bitemojo experience, since it hasn’t yet come to our hometown – although you can already try it in Jerusalem, Berlin, Barcelona, Ljubljana, Rome, Budapest and Singapore.
As we found ourselves standing next to a clearly out-of-service vehicle that had now turned into what might be described as an urban herb jungle on wheels, it seemed clear we were in the perfect place to begin a tour dedicated to hipsterism. The Hipster Tel Aviv Tour is one of four bitemojo offers in the city, and comes recommended by its Business Development Manager Ben Peres, who joined us on the day.
As with any bitemojo tour, we would be trying out numerous ‘bites’ at different outlets, whilst at the same time getting to learn the story of the people who make those tastes what they are. And whilst following the route via the slick bitemojo app, we would also learn a few interesting things about the Florentin neighbourhood. Originally settled by immigrants from Bulgaria and Thessaloniki, it’s an authentic part of town that tourists don’t always discover. It teems with life, graffiti and, yes, hipster joints.
Despite what looks like quite a bustle going on around us, Ben tells us he’s never seen the neighbourhood so quiet. It’s the day after the Purim festival, so perhaps more people than usual are nursing sore heads. Nonetheless, if this goes down as ‘quiet’ then Tel Aviv certainly does operate on a separate scale to everyone else. If ever a city deserved the ‘work hard, play hard’ tag, then Tel Aviv is it.
Logically enough, most bitemojo tours start with a drink, before moving on to a few savoury dishes and finishing up with something more in the realm of coffee and sweetness. Claiming that first drink at Cafe Levinsky couldn’t have been any easier. It was simply a case of hitting the ‘claim bite’ button in the app, and then showing our phones to the vendor. It’s a strange feeling not to hand over any payment for your fruity gazoz, but every bite is included in the €30 tour price. bitemojo sorts out paying the vendors at the end of each month.
As we enjoy colourful glasses of soda-and-syrup, which are packed with seasonal fruits and spectacularly refreshing, we consult the app for a bit of the back-story. Here’s where you learn how cafe owner Benny makes his zingy syrup by fermenting fruit and herbs himself. You discover that the fresh herbs and spices in the drink are as local as you can get: they’re actually plucked from the garden on the pick-up truck! The vehicle, incidentally, also serves as a good place to grab a seat – a prized thing in a neighbourhood where hole-in-the-wall outlets without tables abound.
We move on, following the green line on our app. But it’s a lot more interesting than Google Maps navigation. When we pass an interesting deli specialising in Balkan food, it tells you about how the owner here came from Thessaloniki after losing all of his family during the Nazi occupation of Greece, and how, since his passing in 2014, it’s being run by his son and grandson. As with many stops on the tour there’s no ‘bite’ included here, but certainly a morsel of knowledge. One that might even inspire you to strike up a conversation with the owners.
These tidbits about ordinary people are not the kinds of stories you’ll find in traditional guidebooks. And in an age where travellers look for experiences and connections, bitemojo is surely delivering some unique value here.
Next thing we know, our Pioneers crew is fuelling up on flaky and filling Turkish borekas, with pickles and eggs on the side. This no-nonsense cafe, we discover, grew out of a humble street cart – a reminder that scaling even the simplest of startups is something they’ve always been good at in Israel!
Then it’s on to claim some gorgeous fish and chips. More of a taster portion, these crispy beer-battered bakala really do come in ‘bite’ size. Which is a good thing, because we’re already starting to feel a little sated. We sit on bar stools on the sunny pavement and get served through the window, while we marvel at the ‘crazy costume’ stores that abound on this particular intersection. Despite all the fancy-dress of Purim, they’re still brimming with stock.
We move on again, plunging deeper in the Florentin. We learn about Bauhaus buildings and furniture stores, unpack specific works of graffiti, meet vintage art store owners, see Spanish-style streets and synagogues with stories, and discover the connection between black Hebrews and veganism in Israel. (Well, you couldn’t have a hipster tour without a dash of veganism, could you?)
There’s more food along the way, of course. Things get traditional with hummus, falafel and fatoosh salad, again eaten in the al fresco fashion of the Tel Aviv spring. We grab cortado coffee (in Israel, that’s espresso with a dash of cappuccino foam) at a corner hatch that’s even cuter than the first.
We’re so full by the end that we actually leave one of our ‘bites’ unclaimed. But that’s okay, because bitemojo does not expect you to eat until you burst. Our tour is loosely designed as a three-hour affair, but you can claim your bites any time you like, as far apart as you like, and in whatever order you like. So you could stretch it out over a week, if you wanted to.
Where good food and travel is concerned, it’s hard to find much to complain about. The concept is hard to flaw as a travel experience, and lends itself particularly well to places where the language is tricky and ordering anything is tricky. Japanese and Chinese cities must be a prime candidates for bitemojo tours.
It’s easier to think of additions than ‘corrections’ as such. There’s room to add more value at little cost to bitemojo, in terms of fleshing out more information about the restaurant owners. And why not include the actual recipes in a follow-up email? Recreating food memories, after all, is one of the best ways you can relive a holiday.
And while our tour was a terrific mix of cuisines and an interesting route, there must be room for a tour that focuses on purely local food. Trying the famous staples in any country is often more of a challenge than it should be, and having a bitemojo tour group them all in one tour would surely get more than a few takers from the foreign tourist market.
One thing we’re curious to see is how bitemojo overcomes the challenge of data roaming charges.
Simply put, most tourists strongly resist turning on the mobile data, because it usually makes for an expensive bill. Our group was no exception, although it’s worth pointing out that tours for multiple people can be managed from a single connected phone.
Could it be an idea to partner with mobile companies providing a local SIM? Bundling a SIM pickup as the first stop on the tour could be a useful extra option for uncertain clients and revenue stream for bitemojo. Because getting data does have its similarities with ordering food in another language. The process of figuring out the best deal, or even where to start, is such a hassle that it’s often too much to bother with on a short trip.
As is the case for almost all Israeli startups, scaling this idea from a tiny domestic market remains the biggest challenge. With its presence in various international cities, it has made a start on its global expansion already.
But while having a product on three continents is one thing, netting a mass of customers there is another.
Key is for bitemojo to grow from a primarily B2B product – many of its early ‘bites’ have been guzzled down by corporate employees – to a product consumers choose to use directly. With the Booster Lab’s primary emphasis on such expansion tasks, however, bitemojo came away from the event with – if you’ll excuse the pun – plenty of food for thought.
“Bitemojo has done a great job of providing a niche product in the food experiences segment,” said the startup’s mentor at the event, Karan Wallia, Business Development at Booking.com B.V. “Their differentiating factor is in the self-service experience for travelers to discover local food vendors at a very affordable price. This is what Bitemojo does uniquely well so its important for Bitemojo to continue to keep this at the core of their offering in order to create value for the venue as well as the customer." “A key challenge will be maintaining the quality of supply as Bitemojo expands into new markets and has to rely on local partners, Bitemojo will need to invest more in ensuring customers have access to high-quality local supply.”
*Are you or your startup working on some ground-breaking technology we should try out and introduce to the world? Mail hi@pioneers.io if you are!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Insights: Growing Female Entrepreneurship In Israel](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-how-israel-growing-female-entrepreneurship/)
**Published:** March 22, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With the recent Booking.com Booster Lab in Tel Aviv having concluded on International Women’s Day, it was fitting that all-female startup accessibleGO won one of the two €25,000 grants on offer at the event, for which Pioneers Discover drove the process of startup selection as well as developed and managed the content and framework. In this piece we hear their thoughts on juggling family and founding an accessible tourism platform, and then dive deeper into the Israeli female entrepreneurship scene.
**Content:**
With the recent Booking.com Booster Lab in Tel Aviv having concluded on International Women’s Day, it was fitting that all-female startup accessibleGO won one of the two €25,000 grants on offer at the event, for which Pioneers Discover drove the process of startup selection as well as developed and managed the content and framework. In this piece we hear their thoughts on juggling family and founding an accessible tourism platform, and then dive deeper into the Israeli female entrepreneurship scene.
Considering that the founders of bitemojo, the other startup to win a €25,000 grant in Tel Aviv, are a husband-and-wife team, then the only three women from the ten participating startups certainly defied the odds with their success. And in Israel, as most places, women entrepreneurs are quite used to having to do so.
While the innovative energy of the ‘Startup Nation’ is certainly exceptional, the representation of women in the scene is a familiar story. Raw numbers are low, and they’re even lower when it comes to high-tech startups.
According to the Startup Nation Finder, the innovative discovery platform from Start-Up Nation Central (a tech NGO serving the Israeli innovation ecosystem), of the 4,247 founders of technology companies founded in Israel between 2014 and Q3 2017, 3,802 were male and only 445 were female. In percentage terms that’s a little over 10%. Additionally, women founders are most often seen in HealthTech, Social Media & Advertising and FinTech & E-commerce. After that, there’s a steep drop-off as you look at other industries.
In a country where, unusually, women and men are both required to take part in compulsory military service, which can often involve working in technical environments, you might expect the entrepreneurial picture to look a little more balanced than it does elsewhere. But this is also a country with one of the highest birth rates in the developed world, with a particularly high expectation to raise a family.
This pressure goes a long way to cancelling out the ‘entrepreneur DNA’ many Israeli women no doubt share with their male counterparts. But the founders of accessibleGO are both parents. With their success in building their accessible tourism platform, they have shown that motherhood need not be a barrier for female entrepreneurs. They’re in no way interested in talking about glass ceilings.
“Israel is a very family-centred country,” says Co-Founder & CEO Miriam Goldman, whose Silicon Valley background gives her a broad perspective on things. “It’s a very important part of the culture. But you can juggle. You have to figure out how to manage your schedule.
“I was pregnant when we signed our agreement. We formed our company in September and I went on maternity leave at the end of February. I was maximizing every day until I gave birth. Then I was two weeks overdue, which was great! More time for the baby to cook, but also more time for projects!”
“But after that she did take a real, proper maternity leave,” adds her co-founder Galia Kut. “Having a baby is the most amazing thing in life and I told her not to be sorry about that. We’re both efficient, driven project managers, and when it comes to maternity you have eight months of planning to get it right!”
Other Israeli female entrepreneurs are also showing that such things are no barrier. Orit Hashay, who emerged from the Orthodox Jewish community to develop automated bra recommendation platform Brayola, raised the money for the company while six months pregnant and launched it four weeks after giving birth. It’s been a huge success and she has raised several million Dollars since.
Another pioneering woman on the Israeli startup scene is Sigal Bareket. She founded mobile advertising tech company Taptica in 2012, and it’s now listed on the London Stock Exchange. Her co-founder, incidentally, is Kobi Marenko, who took part in a panel discussion at Mobility.Pioneers earlier this year.
And there are plenty more: Social Media & Advertising companies HoneyBook, Houzz and Kaltura all have female founders and have now gone past the Series C funding stage. Meanwhile HealthTech company Ornim Medical has done the same.
Things are clearly happening, albeit slowly. Much of the growth in female startup success in Israel can be attributed to the establishment of a women’s ecosystem and community. This is important even within an overall innovation culture that’s extraordinarily good at support, connection and collaboration.
One example is non-profit organization Yazamiyot. This started as a few women entrepreneurs meeting for wine in co-founder Hilla Ovil Brenner’s back garden, and has now grown to include around 3000 members. Yazamiyot has run programs such as Google Campus for Moms, a startup school for women on maternity leave, of which Goldman and Kut are alumni.
“It’s not about getting together and talking about the glass ceiling,” says Brenner. “It’s about giving women tools. Women have a passion for each other and want to help each other out. This was the need we saw and that’s why we started. We didn’t think this would be so big, but it’s working.”
As an investor herself, Brenner understands that building up the number of female entrepreneurs in Israel – or anywhere, for that matter – depends a lot on building up investor diversity. While she’s another to have convinced investors while pregnant, when she raised funding for her WhiteSmoke startup, she says more women in the room would make a difference to dealing with preconceptions around, for example, a pregnant woman’s ongoing commitment to her startup.
Right now, though, only around 14% of partners in Israeli VC firms are women.
“Most investors are men, and people invest in people who are similar to them,” Brenner continues. “Getting more women investors is chicken and egg, but we need more of them. The more women investors there are, the more investments in women there will be – that’s how it’s going to work.”
And she’s not just talking about VC funds hiring more women investors. It’s also about successful female entrepreneurs choosing to stay involved in the ecosystem and supporting others.
“A lot of my female friends who have really successful companies and have a lot of money are not becoming investors. Meanwhile, a lot of my male friends who sell companies automatically become investors. A woman friend of mine just sold her company for $100m, and she’s thinking ‘I’ve made my money.’ We’re not seeing enough serial women entrepreneurs and investors.”
The numbers from Startup Nation Finder certainly back this up. Only nine female founders have established two companies, while just one has built three. The respective male numbers are 154 and 10. But one who has been bucking the trend since 2005 is Revital Hendler, who first founded successful human resources marketplace AllJobs and then went on to launch another two international startups.
Another strong community of women is she codes, which is specifically for software engineers and thus addresses the high-tech imbalance in particular. It now numbers 10,000 members, and has the goal of seeing 50% female software developers in the high-tech industry within a decade. she codes has received a government grant to support it as it runs free events and courses all over the country – and any success it has will almost certainly have an effect in the tech entrepreneurship world.
On Tel Aviv’s prestigious Rothschild Avenue there’s a temporary exhibit dedicated the ‘glass ceiling.’ It’s a tunnel through which you can walk – as long as you’re prepared to hunch. And if you can read Hebrew, you even can take in a few interesting statistics about the topic whilst you’re doubled over. In such a prominent part of the city, it’s a clear sign that Israel is one of the countries waking up to some of its imbalances in the workplace.
But while the exhibit succeeds very well in illustrating a point, what’s far more revealing is how many women here are choosing to ignore the existence of glass ceilings – symbolic or otherwise – and take charge of their own destiny as entrepreneurs.
As one notices fairly on in Israel, everything is about moving forward and getting the next thing done. The country’s female founders are no exception to that. And while they’re still a small group, they might yet be the first such to really explode.
*Are you a female founder from anywhere in the world? Pioneers would like to invite you to apply for [GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers/startups) on May 23rd and for [Pioneers500 or its Series A program](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18/startups) and thus earn an invitation to Pioneers’18 on May 24th-25th. The deadline is at the end of next week, on March 31st.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Asian Innovation Gets Leading Role at Pioneers’18 and GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/asian-innovation-gets-leading-role-at-pioneers18-and-govtechpioneers/)
**Published:** April 3, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Visitors to Pioneers’18 and GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna in May can look forward to meeting a strong contingent of speakers from the Asian continent. Glosfer CEO Taewon Kim, whose company recently raised $14m in a matter of hours in a domestic ICO, will be joining us at our flagship event on May 24th-25th. Meanwhile Executive Advisor to Japan’s CIO Toshiyuki Zamma will feature at GovTech.Pioneers on May 23rd. We also announce our new media partner, Techsauce, a leader in the South East Asian region.
**Content:**
Visitors to Pioneers’18 and GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna in May can look forward to meeting a strong contingent of speakers from the Asian continent. [Glosfer](http://www.glosfer.com/) CEO Taewon Kim, whose company recently raised $14m in a matter of hours in a domestic ICO, will be joining us at our flagship event on May 24th-25th. Meanwhile Executive Advisor to Japan’s CIO Toshiyuki Zamma will feature at GovTech.Pioneers on May 23rd. We also announce our new media partner, Techsauce, a leader in the South East Asian region.
Glosfer is a leading Blockchain company in South Korea, and one of those aiming to maximise the real-world value of cryptocurrency by establishing online/offline exchanges. It aims to contribute to a transparent and fair society based on Blockchain technology by working with public institutions.
Having developed Nowon Cash, a cryptocurrency, which is the first local cryptocurrency in the world, specifically for Nowon-gu, an innovative residential district of the national capital Seoul, Glosfer is continuing to contribute to the practical integration of Blockchain technology in the everyday economy.
Nowon Cash is a new unit of value in an alternative local economy for donations and volunteering. The currency can be used in such places as stores and parking lots. As a use case backed by a true local authority, thanks to the contract between Glosfer and the Nowon-gu office, it has significance that will attract plenty of interest from the international crypto and Blockchain community.
At Pioneers’18, Taewon Kim will deliver a talk and demonstration of Nowon Cash technology in action. To add to the fun he will do so in Korean, with real-time translation making it possible for those lucky enough to be at the Hofburg to gain some exclusive insights behind the language barrier.
"Nowon Cash is a good case that combines Blockchain technology, which provides transparency, with social values, into an actual business,” says Kim. “We will continue to commit ourselves to applying blockchain technology to projects for institutions that require transparency including the government and NGOs."
Last year Glosfer also made headlines by raising around $14m in just eight hours at their Initial Coin Offering, for their HYCON cryptocurrency. Considering this ICO was open to the domestic Korean market only, it was a strong indication of interest ahead of the global ICO set to follow this Friday.
HYCON is set to be the basis for the company’s Infinity Project. This shows another way in which Glosfer is working to bring cryptocurrency into everyday life, as Kim explained after the initial ICO.
"The overwhelming support is the reflection of high expectations for our Infinity project, which aims to use cryptocurrency in the real economy. People showed great interest in our projects of applying Blockchain technology in real businesses."
Meanwhile another speaker from East Asia will be present at GovTech.Pioneers, which takes place the day before Pioneers’18. Toshiyuki Zamma will represent the continent in the competitive ‘Europe versus Asia’ discussion on the main stage. Zamma has been Executive Advisor to the Chief Information Officer of the Japanese Government since 2012.
He will face up against Andrea Servida, who will represent Europe in his capacity as Head of the eGovernment and Trust Unit in the European Commission’s DG CONNECT.
In yet another link to Asia, Pioneers’18 also welcomes its latest media partner, Techsauce, which is the leading source of all tech and business news in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Techsauce Global Summit is one of the best SEA Conferences where tech experts gather.
And in a great piece of news for those startups applying for our Pioneers500 program, one of the prizes for winning the Pioneers Challenge Award will be a trip to the Techsauce Global Summit 2018 in Bangkok. This will include flights and accommodation for one person, plus a booth and pitching slot at the event!
Speaking about Thailand, we are also happy to announce that the National Innovation Agency of Thailand will also join us at Pioneers’18 with 8 stellar startups flying in from Asia and showcasing what the country has to offer. More information on their integration and on the new, massive startup initiatives the country is running with a focus on deep tech-solutions will follow soon.
Buy tickets for Pioneers’18 [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pioneers18-tickets-34934836035). Due to the great demand from our community and the ‘work hard, feast hard’ mentality we saw over this Easter weekend, we’ve extended the deadline for startups to apply [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18/startups) by one week. Deadline ends April 7th!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Asian Innovation Gets Leading Role at Pioneers’18 and GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/asian-innovation-gets-leading-role-at-pioneers18-and-govtechpioneers/)
**Published:** April 3, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Visitors to Pioneers’18 and GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna in May can look forward to meeting a strong contingent of speakers from the Asian continent. Glosfer CEO Taewon Kim, whose company recently raised $14m in a matter of hours in a domestic ICO, will be joining us at our flagship event on May 24th-25th. Meanwhile Executive Advisor to Japan’s CIO Toshiyuki Zamma will feature at GovTech.Pioneers on May 23rd. We also announce our new media partner, Techsauce, a leader in the South East Asian region.
**Content:**
Visitors to Pioneers’18 and GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna in May can look forward to meeting a strong contingent of speakers from the Asian continent. [Glosfer](http://www.glosfer.com/) CEO Taewon Kim, whose company recently raised $14m in a matter of hours in a domestic ICO, will be joining us at our flagship event on May 24th-25th. Meanwhile Executive Advisor to Japan’s CIO Toshiyuki Zamma will feature at GovTech.Pioneers on May 23rd. We also announce our new media partner, Techsauce, a leader in the South East Asian region.
Glosfer is a leading Blockchain company in South Korea, and one of those aiming to maximise the real-world value of cryptocurrency by establishing online/offline exchanges. It aims to contribute to a transparent and fair society based on Blockchain technology by working with public institutions.
Having developed Nowon Cash, a cryptocurrency, which is the first local cryptocurrency in the world, specifically for Nowon-gu, an innovative residential district of the national capital Seoul, Glosfer is continuing to contribute to the practical integration of Blockchain technology in the everyday economy.
Nowon Cash is a new unit of value in an alternative local economy for donations and volunteering. The currency can be used in such places as stores and parking lots. As a use case backed by a true local authority, thanks to the contract between Glosfer and the Nowon-gu office, it has significance that will attract plenty of interest from the international crypto and Blockchain community.
At Pioneers’18, Taewon Kim will deliver a talk and demonstration of Nowon Cash technology in action. To add to the fun he will do so in Korean, with real-time translation making it possible for those lucky enough to be at the Hofburg to gain some exclusive insights behind the language barrier.
"Nowon Cash is a good case that combines Blockchain technology, which provides transparency, with social values, into an actual business,” says Kim. “We will continue to commit ourselves to applying blockchain technology to projects for institutions that require transparency including the government and NGOs."
Last year Glosfer also made headlines by raising around $14m in just eight hours at their Initial Coin Offering, for their HYCON cryptocurrency. Considering this ICO was open to the domestic Korean market only, it was a strong indication of interest ahead of the global ICO set to follow this Friday.
HYCON is set to be the basis for the company’s Infinity Project. This shows another way in which Glosfer is working to bring cryptocurrency into everyday life, as Kim explained after the initial ICO.
"The overwhelming support is the reflection of high expectations for our Infinity project, which aims to use cryptocurrency in the real economy. People showed great interest in our projects of applying Blockchain technology in real businesses."
Meanwhile another speaker from East Asia will be present at GovTech.Pioneers, which takes place the day before Pioneers’18. Toshiyuki Zamma will represent the continent in the competitive ‘Europe versus Asia’ discussion on the main stage. Zamma has been Executive Advisor to the Chief Information Officer of the Japanese Government since 2012.
He will face up against Andrea Servida, who will represent Europe in his capacity as Head of the eGovernment and Trust Unit in the European Commission’s DG CONNECT.
In yet another link to Asia, Pioneers’18 also welcomes its latest media partner, Techsauce, which is the leading source of all tech and business news in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Techsauce Global Summit is one of the best SEA Conferences where tech experts gather.
And in a great piece of news for those startups applying for our Pioneers500 program, one of the prizes for winning the Pioneers Challenge Award will be a trip to the Techsauce Global Summit 2018 in Bangkok. This will include flights and accommodation for one person, plus a booth and pitching slot at the event!
Speaking about Thailand, we are also happy to announce that the National Innovation Agency of Thailand will also join us at Pioneers’18 with 8 stellar startups flying in from Asia and showcasing what the country has to offer. More information on their integration and on the new, massive startup initiatives the country is running with a focus on deep tech-solutions will follow soon.
Buy tickets for Pioneers’18 [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pioneers18-tickets-34934836035). Due to the great demand from our community and the ‘work hard, feast hard’ mentality we saw over this Easter weekend, we’ve extended the deadline for startups to apply [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18/startups) by one week. Deadline ends April 7th!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Live Stage Demo of Potential Water Crisis Fix at Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/live-stage-demo-potential-water-crisis-fix-pioneers18/)
**Published:** March 26, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With water among the most critical issues facing the planet in over the next decade, one of the prime speakers at Pioneers’18 will undoubtedly be Jonathan Risley, the CEO & Co-founder of ThinAir. A startup taking the extraction of drinkable water from the atmosphere to the next level. His stage demonstration of ThinAir’s technology will be a highlight in the sustainability session at our flagship event, which takes place in Vienna on May 24th-25th.
**Content:**
With water among the most critical issues facing the planet in over the next decade, one of the prime speakers at Pioneers’18 will undoubtedly be Jonathan Risley, the CEO & Co-founder of [ThinAir](http://thinairwater.com). A startup taking the extraction of drinkable water from the atmosphere to the next level. His stage demonstration of ThinAir’s technology will be a highlight in the sustainability session at our flagship event, which takes place in Vienna on May 24th-25th.
Risley and three co-founders, who all came together as students at Imperial College London, believe the technology they’ve been working on since late 2016 can make a significant contribution to tackling one of the most pressing issues of our time. Right now in Cape Town, a major city is on the verge of seeing its taps running dry – and water industry experts are unanimous that unless major change occurs, this kind of crisis won’t be a one-off.
“Currently around 844 million people worldwide lack access to clean water,” says Risley. “And by 2025, with increasing population, 44% of the world’s population will face water shortages. There are fears that by 2040, there will be wars fought specifically over water in North Africa and the Middle East.”
While methods such as filtration and desalination of seawater are there to tackle some of those issues, these aren’t very useful, if you have a fundamental shortage of any kind of water – or you don’t have a coastline. Everywhere, however, has air. And this is where ThinAir comes in.
“The atmosphere contains 140 quadrillion litres of water,” says Risley. “We were inspired by the African fogstand beetle, which lives in the Namib Desert and can condense water from the atmosphere. We looked at those principles and have been able to replicate that process onto a synthetic material. Our surface can condense water 370% more efficiently than existing solutions, applying these principles onto a cooled metal surface.
*ThinAir technology*
And as just announced recently, on World Water Day, 22nd March, that ThinAir are among the 5 Global finalists in the Water Abundance XPRIZE competition, which has a $1.75M prize fund for the most efficient technology that can harness atmospheric water whilst relying only on sustainable power.
“The ultimate aim is to create a passive solution that you can attach to different surfaces and condense water. For example water-generating billboards, fences, or even solar panels.”
While the difference between the air temperature and the temperature of a surface are the essential factors in generating condensation, ThinAir improves the output by creating the ideal surface.
“The higher the temperature and the cooler your surface, the greater the rate of condensation” explains Risley. “But surface chemistry and surface structure also play a role. So by us optimizing both of the latter, we can effectively make the required temperature difference between the air and the surface smaller. Then it can work in a wider array of climates. This opens up the number of markets it can work in.”
That said, local climatic conditions will still play a role in efficiency and usefulness. High humidity and ambient temperature work best with the ThinAir technology.
“70m2 billboard, based on 80% relative humidity, could produce close to 2000 litres per day,” continues Risley. “Indonesia or UAE are prime locations – really hot but humid. But our technology works even down to around 30% humidity. Southern Europe would be a good example of where we could deploy and meet a need.”
While the startup is still working with scale models, Risley will use one of these to demonstrate the four-fold improvement in condensation efficiency that ThinAir has achieved. During his talk he’ll compare the performance of existing solutions with his company’s tech, allowing the audience to see the difference in generated water unfold before their eyes.
ThinAir’s participation in our flagship event, and the sustainability session we’ll be running this year, dovetail nicely with the fact that the Pioneers Challenge Award winner from 2017 also worked with solving clean water issues.
*Interested in seeing water appear out of thin air? Buy tickets for Pioneers’18 [here](http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pioneers18-tickets-34934836035).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Insights: How Startup Collaboration Can Enable a More Innovative Public Sector](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-how-startup-collaboration-can-enable-a-more-innovative-public-sector/)
**Published:** April 5, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In the latest blog post written by a team member from our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover, we take a look at how thinking with a ‘design’ mindset can accelerate innovation in the public sector and make dealing with governments a more pleasant, efficient and productive experience for both regular citizens and business people. And with GovTech.Pioneers now less than two months away on May 23rd, it’s a fitting time to examine both the methodology, the problems it addresses and some of the early successes it’s already having.
**Content:**
In the latest blog post written by a team member from our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover, we take a look at how thinking with a ‘design’ mindset can accelerate innovation in the public sector and make dealing with governments a more pleasant, efficient and productive experience for both regular citizens and business people. And with GovTech.Pioneers now less than two months away on May 23rd, it’s a fitting time to examine the future potential of design and collaboration models in the public sector.
It’s safe to say pretty much everyone hates appointments with public institutions. Why? Because they almost always mean a lot of wasted time and a dull, impersonal experience.
Considering the tools available to us in today’s digital age, this is no longer good enough: the public sector needs a radical change towards a more human-centered organization. Because the purpose of the public sector is to help and assist its citizens – not to make their lives more complicated.
One of the methodologies that’s become something of a buzzword when it comes to improving public sector services is design thinking. In Denmark, for example, its potential to transform services for the mentally disabled, reduce tensions in prisons and reshape waste management has already been discovered.
Companies such as IDEO, whose Portfolio Director Peter Jackson will speak at GovTech.Pioneers on May 23rd in Vienna, are among those leading the way in bringing design principles to governments. apolitical, a global network helping public servants inspire each other with their ideas and successes, and which will have a representative join us in Vienna, is another bringing design thinking to the forefront.
A further increasingly important aspect in the discussion around innovating the public sector are public-private collaborations, both on a large scale and, perhaps more importantly, on local levels, where we at Pioneers see the biggest impact.
Pioneers Discover recently kicked off a project in Carinthia – a rather rural but beautiful part of Austria. The state of Carinthia sees the importance and future potential of startup-driven innovation especially for the traditional SME structure of the regional economy and is therefore trying to push this topic and inspire entrepreneurs. Pioneers Discover and Start.Net, a local network of companies with a focus on SMEs, organized a Collaboration Day during which Carinthian entrepreneurs where introduced to the world of innovation and startups. This one-day event aimed to inform SMEs about potential collaboration possibilities with startups, showcasing the advantages and potential of innovation and supporting them in building a community of entrepreneurs to drive the innovation and startup community in Carinthia forward. As small scale SME business structures will face large upcoming change and, with this, even bigger challenges, innovation and new collaboration models are becoming crucial especially for the smaller players in the eco-system.
Pioneers lead the participants through a day which first gave them theoretical input through different key notes and best practice examples and challenged their insights with workshops in the afternoon.
To see two completely different business ideologies come together – the rather traditionally coined SME structure and the dynamic, young startup culture – was eye-opening. But what really stood out was the mutual interest in each other: As the day continued, the Pioneers Discover team noticed growing confidence and interest for one another among the participants, who began to take first steps towards getting to know each other. In the afternoon, similarities prevailed and differences were set aside in order to innovate and create using new collaboration models.
For the Pioneers Discover team, this was a perfect example of how a local initiative can create real impact through new forms of collaboration – creating a symbiosis of two different ideologies both interested in driving innovation.
**With Change comes Challenge**
Even though such success stories might make it look like design-led innovation is disrupting the public sector, there are still major challenges to overcome.
*Creating empowered environments in the public sector* / Although new entities are being created to help design principles take root, there’s still a formidable challenge in embedding this approach within government. Many design-centered initiatives are still struggling to find their place as a legitimate part of the policy-making infrastructure.
*Embracing Uncertainty* / It requires a system of adequate incentives for bureaucrats to engage in this experimental mode, under which failures would be considered and valued as much as concrete progress. We need more hands-on initiatives, similar to the Collaboration Day in Carinthia, to start impactful startup-driven innovation which can engage local communities, the level at which a change of innovation culture has to start.
*Opening up bureaucracy to co-production* / When public sector organizations start taking a more user- or citizen-centric approach to innovation, they invariably discover how many other entities and stakeholders play critical roles in people’s lives. Human-centered design forces these organizations to have a much broader, collaborative, and inclusive view of who needs to be part of the process of co-creating initiatives that will can be applied in day-to-day life.
*Perception of Public Sector as a Target Market* / Public sector organizations cannot rely solely on internal expertise for design-led innovation – they simply don’t possess enough of the required skills. The market for consultancy services for public sector design, however, is still immature, and in some countries even declining. Even in Denmark, a country with a proud architecture and design heritage, there’s no design consultancy which has yet singled out the public sector as its main client.
**The Way Forward**
Design thinking and new collaboration models in the public sector are still at the beginning of their journey. But a number of factors may help us all appreciate the nature and benefits of them sooner rather than later.
The ability of founder minds to spot opportunities to solve real problems, such as was seen in Carinthia, are a real push factor in this case. Sometimes, using a window of opportunity is all it takes.
Providing an agile human-centered service that evolves with technological and social challenges is a job perfectly suited for startups. We at Pioneers believe startup-driven innovation is the way to improve old systems that are simply no longer able to cope with the tremendous changes reshaping the world around us.
The environment around government changes quickly and so do their challenges. This means startups will inevitably play a key role in showing the potential of any new methodology such as design thinking.
Let’s believe in the innovation process, and what it can ultimately do to enable governments and the public sector to help, support and engage with entrepreneurs and citizens. Let’s believe it can be a route to less frustrating interactions at your local public sector office and maybe even bring up new models of collaboration were startups can gain a significant role and enlarge their eco-system. Now we all need to work to give innovative ideas like this the chance to flourish.
*Interested in what design thinking and a host of other new approaches and technology can do for the public sector? Then join the likes of Peter Jackson and GovLab Director Beth Noveck at GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna on May 23rd. Buy tickets [here](http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/govtechpioneers-tickets-38143008766).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Video Game Streaming King Emmett Shear To Speak At Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/video-game-streaming-king-emmett-shear-speak-pioneers18/)
**Published:** April 9, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** The latest star to join the line-up of speakers at Pioneers’18 has now been announced. Emmett Shear, the man who founded Twitch.tv, the world’s top live-streaming platform for eSports and video gamers, will be with us at the Hofburg in Vienna next month. He still heads up the company after selling it to Amazon for almost a billion Dollars in 2014. He’ll also be representing leading Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator at our flagship event, which takes place on May 24th-25th.
**Content:**
The latest star to join the line-up of speakers at Pioneers’18 has now been announced. Emmett Shear, the man who founded Twitch.tv, the world’s top live-streaming platform for eSports and video gamers, will be with us at the Hofburg in Vienna next month. He still heads up the company after selling it to Amazon for almost a billion Dollars in 2014. He’ll also be representing leading Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator at our flagship event, which takes place on May 24th-25th.
As a serial internet entrepreneur, Shear will grip the audience at the Hofburg with his broad insights around opportunities in the digital space. Specifically, he’ll reveal more about the massive industry around live streaming of eSports (the streaming of competitive video game contests), for which he has built up a platform that now attracts close to ten million visitors per day.
Having co-founded all-round video streaming site Justin.tv in 2006, the phenomenal growth of interest in the video gaming section led Shear to spin off Twitch.tv, which would be dedicated to the general video game streaming and eSports market, in 2011. This in turn proved such a worthy business that it was acquired by Amazon for a reported $970m in the summer of 2014.
Shear remains CEO of the Twitch.tv, which continues to prove the off-the-charts levels of interest and opportunity around streaming in the video game community. Gamers like to watch each other game as much as other people like to watch football, and Twitch.tv is dominating that online broadcast market. Twitch.tv even features live audio commentary and studio analysis similar to those of traditional sports broadcasts.
With Twitch.tv an alumnus of Y Combinator, the links between Shear and the famed American accelerator are strong. More so since he became a partner there in 2011. He’ll thus bring a broad investment perspective from Silicon Valley to the stage (and networking areas) in Vienna as well.
We’re pleased to welcome another Y Combinator representative to our flagship event, especially in view of the existing links between Pioneers and ‘YC’. Stromkind, the winner of last year’s Pioneers Challenge Award, won the chance to meet with the accelerator’s CEO Michael Seibel in California as part of their prize.
Buy tickets to see Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Corporate Innovation Open Calls: Apply for Investments, Grants and Growth Opportunities Now!](https://pioneers.io/corporate-innovation-open-calls-apply-investments-grants-and-growth-opportunities-now/)
**Published:** April 11, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover is inviting startups from around the world to apply for several incubator, hackathon and accelerator programs offering prizes of up to €50,000 as well as investments, collaboration and mentoring opportunities. Amongst an exciting selection of new open calls, our consultancy arm is looking for startups to take part in this year’s Next-Incubator program and the second edition of the Industry 4.0 Hackathon.
**Content:**
Pioneers Discover is inviting startups from around the world to apply for several incubator, hackathon and accelerator programs offering prizes of up to €50,000 as well as investments, collaboration and mentoring opportunities. Amongst an exciting selection of new open calls, our consultancy arm is looking for startups to take part in this year’s Next-Incubator program and the second edition of the Industry 4.0 Hackathon.
To list the first of several new opportunities following the end of Pioneers’18 and GovTech.Pioneers applications, Pioneers Discover is once again working with **Energie Steiermark**, one of Austria’s leading regional energy providers, to scout the startups for the company’s Next-Incubator corporate venture team. This year **Next-Incubator** is increasing its commitment to long-term strategic collaborations with startups, and is looking to invest in the best companies following interviews, a bootcamp and a two-month program in Graz. The open call, which runs until **April 29th**, is primarily **for European startups** with rapidly scalable business models – especially those from the DACH region.
Following the success of our first **Industry 4.0 Hackathon** in Linz in November last year, the second edition goes ahead at the same factory300 venue (home to our partner startup300) from **May 7th-9th**. This time we’re welcoming four new industry-leading companies as partners. PALFINGER, Engel, Rotax and EBNER are next in line to set real-world challenges for the best startups who apply. If you think your startup can develop solutions like last year’s winners did, then get your application in by **April 20th**. This call is **open to any European startups**.
In a brand-new program for Pioneers Discover, we’re also looking for **5G** and **IoT** startups from both **Europe and Israel** to take part in Hub:raum, **the incubator for** Germany’s telecommunications giant **Deutsche Telekom**. With three separate programs ongoing in **Berlin, Krakow and Tel Aviv** between June and December, this is a **rolling open call**. Benefits include co-prototyping, mentoring, commercial co-operations and partnerships, access to Deutsche Telekom’s powerful connectivity solutions and financing.
Another recurring partnership for Pioneers Discover is that with Spanish banking group **BBVA**, as we once again **scout worldwide** innovators for BBVA Open Talent, the **biggest FinTech startup challenge** in the world. Applications are open in three categories, namely FinTech for Business, Fintech for Future and FinTech for People. The finalists will advance to pitch at the BBVA Open Summit in Madrid in October, just like our startup B2B Pay did last year. The three category winners will also win an increased prize of €50,000, so make sure to apply before the open call closes on **May 3rd**.
The time has also come for startups to apply to take part in the **GoAustria 2018 autumn program**, which runs twice each year. The two-week incubator will take place in Vienna and Styria, starting on September 17th and ending on October 3rd. As always the non-specialist program will give participants the opportunity to explore the Austrian and European markets, as well as to find new investors and/or collaboration partners. Selected startups will also be allocated a personal mentor, who will support them as they validate their business model and design an internationalization plan. Applications close on **June 4th**, and preference will go to startups from Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Israel.
View more information and apply for all open calls [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).
Startups can also join the waiting lists for [Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18/startups) or [GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers/startups).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Insights: Talking Trends With the Israel Innovation Authority](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-talking-trends-israel-innovation-authority/)
**Published:** April 12, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With a unique input into one of the most thriving startup ecosystems in the world, the views and plans of the Israel Innovation Authority are always worthy of note. Recently, we had an exclusive interview with Danny Biran, Vice President of its International Division. The chance came thanks to an introduction from Dalit Poliva, our Pioneers Networking Partner in Israel, who stages the Internet of Sound event in Tel Aviv later this month. The winning startup at this specialist music industry event will be fast-tracked into Pioneers500, thus earning tickets to Pioneers’18 on May 24th-25th.
**Content:**
No matter where you’re from, visiting Israel for the first time is usually a big surprise. And if your business is entrepreneurship and innovation, then don’t expect it to be any different.
Enough has been written about how uniquely energetic, co-operative and adventurous the startup culture is in Israel. But it’s now so deeply entrenched that it’s easy to forget that it hasn’t been this way for all that long. The Israel Innovation Authority, known as the Office of the Chief Scientist until 2016, played a big role in developing this phenomenon.
“20 years ago there was no venture capital industry in Israel,” points out Danny Biran, Vice President of its International Division, in our exclusive interview at the IIA’s offices near Ben Gurion Airport. (For anyone with an interest in fizzy drinks, the IIA is located just across the road from the headquarters of SodaStream). While many of Israel’s entrepreneurs are barely old enough to remember that far back, clearly this is a man who knows the bigger picture.
We’ve come to meet an entity that played perhaps the greatest role of all in building the ‘Startup Nation’ over the last couple of decades. And following that rebrand, it’s a good time to catch up with a body from which governments and ecosystems worldwide can learn plenty. It’s especially interesting to hear their thoughts on innovation industry trends, and how they’re working to drive things to even greater heights in Israel.
Despite the complete change of name and a slightly more non-governmental image and definition, the basic work and ethos of the IIA hasn’t altered much since it was the OCS, which was set up by the state in 1974. It’s primarily about stimulating economic opportunity by supporting technological innovation with state money. Just as it did when it addressed that VC void – a move that paid off exponentially as the startup ecosystem has flourished and flown, now largely sustaining itself.
“The government in the early 1990s identified the lack of VC’s as a market failure,” continues Danny. “If you want to have a thriving hi-tech industry you need to have venture capital. So the first VC funds in Israel were started by the government (via the OCS), which dedicated $100 million to set up ten of them. Fast forward to now, and it’s a five billion Dollar industry. And the government doesn’t get involved in VC funds at all.”
The concept of a market failure remains central to the IIA’s work to this day. But examples of these can change over time. The interesting question is, where do they lie in 2018?
“In areas like healthcare, life sciences and agriculture, it takes forever and the private industry is reluctant,” says Danny. “That’s exactly where we like to fund.”
“We need to intervene, if it’s a market failure. Most investors won’t give you money just to get to a Proof of Concept or a feasibility study, and that’s an example of a market failure.”
Unsurprisingly the IIA can offer a totally different perspective on the overall innovation scene. Because while they do take a percentage of revenue (usually no more than payback), if a project succeeds, any funding is a write-off, if it doesn’t. Although, they only support projects with ‘economic potential’, they’re spending an allocated national budget and have never been in it to make profit themselves. As such Danny and his colleagues can look long and hard at areas that both VCs and entrepreneurs might ignore. So it’s interesting to hear what they see as the most important technical trends going forward.
“Well, obviously we don’t know for sure!” smiles Danny with the refreshing honesty of someone whose business doesn’t depend on getting it right every time. “But we have some ideas. There’s been a move towards autonomous driving, and now that move is continuing towards personal autonomy. So we see a lot of things in personal medicine, which is related to digital health. That’s a big thing for us and Israel in general.
“There’s also precision agriculture. Things are becoming more individualized, with big data analytics, sensors and all of that. That’s something we definitely believe in, and we will see it in healthcare, in agriculture and in the supporting technologies that you need for that.
“Quantum is also something very interesting. And not just quantum computing, but also quantum communication and systems…we’re expecting to see some things there.
“Then of course there are the things we really don’t know, the things someone will come along with. Who would have thought ten years ago that autonomous driving would be so big? People would have said you were nuts, if you said cars would drive themselves, but people thought about it, started to develop technologies for it and now it’s happening!”
And is there anything that’s over-hyped at the moment?
“Cyber used to be a market failure a few years ago. Now, if you want to do something in cyber, it’s very easy to get money. And usually when it gets to that point, then there are probably too many companies and too many VCs…”
Another trend, more in terms of market fit than technology itself, is that Israeli companies are more willing to look eastwards for opportunity, despite Israel’s participation in Horizon 2020, the EU’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, and the traditional tendency to expand in the direction of the United States.
“I don’t think there’s any shift between expanding to Europe or the US,” he says. “But one change is that more startups are becoming interested in doing something in China.”
While the Office of the Chief Scientist may still take the headlines for establishing a VC industry and all those tech incubators that are such a feature of the scene here, its evolution the IIA is certainly not resting on its laurels. Inspiration can be taken not just from the body’s past, but from its ambitious current plans. Solving the Israeli innovation scene’s biggest issue – human capital – is just one example of that. And of how it’s about more than just funding.
“One of the challenges we have here is that only about 8.3% of the workforce is in hi tech. We’d like that number to go much higher and are doing a number of things to attract more people. This is an example of an expansion, rather than funding per se, that helps the hi- tech ecosystem.
“We also need to encourage parts of the population that are under-represented in hi-tech to participate more. One of them is women, and not just in Israel. Also Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews… We have programs in place to encourage and help and train people from those sectors. Our 8.3% hasn’t grown for a while. We have very aggressive goals for ourselves. Right now it’s around 270,000 and within ten years we want it to be half a million.
“We’d also like to help the traditional manufacturing sector modernize and be more productive too, because while hi-tech here is very successful and very productive, that’s not the case for other parts of industry. We have specific efforts around Industry 4.0 techniques and that sort of thing.
“There are a lot of countries that have the equivalent of IIA,” concludes Danny. “But they don’t always operate the way we operate. Definitely the things like human capital are quite unique. So I don’t know, if there is one entity doing exactly what we are doing, how we are doing it.”
Israel certainly has some unique circumstances and the advantage of being a small country. So it’s should probably come as no surprise that the IIA does things its own way, too. If you or your country has a similar (or better) model, why not tell us all about it on our social media channels?
Government entities looking to support innovation, and ultimately gain from it, can do exactly that at GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna on May 23rd. Buy tickets [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers).
Buy tickets for the Internet of Sound in Tel Aviv-Yafo [here](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/internet-of-sound-conference-workshops-startups-competition-tickets-44645323364?aff=es2). Startups can apply [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdI8Q-6rO6EAPpICMdWmt0qwvy0pDAzki_gPovqueZzkNYGmw/viewform).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Amazon Vice President & CTO Werner Vogels Set For Pioneers’18 Keynote](https://pioneers.io/amazon-vice-president-cto-werner-vogels-set-pioneers18-keynote/)
**Published:** April 16, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re pleased to announce that Werner Vogels, the Chief Technology Officer at Amazon.com, will be joining us at Pioneers’18 to deliver a keynote on the future from the perspective of the global retail and services giant. The man responsible for driving the company’s customer-centric technology vision will share his passion for helping young businesses reach global scale at our flagship event, which goes ahead on May 24th-25th at the Hofburg in Vienna. For which we’ve now got 200 of our startups confirmed!
**Content:**
We’re pleased to announce that Werner Vogels, the Chief Technology Officer at Amazon.com, will be joining us at Pioneers’18 to deliver a keynote on the future from the perspective of the global retail and services giant. The man responsible for driving the company’s customer-centric technology vision will share his passion for helping young businesses reach global scale at our flagship event, which goes ahead on May 24th-25th at the Hofburg in Vienna. For which we’ve now got 200 of our startups confirmed!
As one of the forces behind Amazon’s approach to cloud computing, the Dutchman is not only passionate about **helping young businesses reach global scale**, but also about transforming enterprises into fast-moving digital organizations.
Vogels joined Amazon in 2004 from Cornell University where he was a distributed systems researcher. He has held technology leadership positions in companies that handle the transition of academic technology into industry. Vogels holds a PhD from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and has authored many articles on distributed systems technologies for enterprise computing.
Vogels describes himself as an ‘engineer, architect, scientist, programmer, troublemaker, executive, revisionist, investor, mentor, advisor, analyst, academic, sales guy, entrepreneur, data analyst, system administrator, product owner, evangelist, debater, father, musician and biker.’
With all that on his plate, along with the massive role of **leading technological innovation** at one of the world’s leading e-commerce services, we’re proud that he has chosen to join us at our flagship event!
And with just a few weeks to go until the greatest innovative minds and brightest new ideas gather at the Hofburg, we’re pleased to announce that we now have **200 of our startups selected** to attend the event as part of the Pioneers500 program. You can view those confirmed so far [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).
Stay tuned for news of the complete Pioneers500 selection in the coming days. Thereafter we’ll announce the 50 seed startups chosen to pitch on stage as they bid to win the Pioneers Challenge Award. Seed startups are defined as those with a prototype or product ready, and which have raised up to €3m in funding.
In due course we’ll also be sharing the 50 **Series A startups** invited to Pioneers’18. These are startups who already have a product on the market and are generating revenues, validating their business model and have raised up to €15m in funding.
Buy tickets for Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Insights: Opportunity Amidst the Global Water Crisis](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-opportunities-amidst-global-water-crisis/)
**Published:** April 18, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With Cape Town (and more cities worldwide than you might think) still hovering on the brink of the taps running dry, water is just about the fastest-emerging critical topic facing the planet today. With awareness that even one t-shirt can costs thousands of litres beginning to grow, the water issue will feature strongly at Pioneers’18 on May 24th-25th in Vienna. As part of our build-up to the event, we chat to water experts in industry-leading Israel, learning about the nature of the problem, where water innovators can have impact and why its vital for industry to engage with them right now.
**Content:**
If ever there was a graphic illustration of just how serious it can be to ignore innovation, then the current water crisis facing the planet is it. Right now at the bottom of Africa there is a city where people are stockpiling supermarket water and digging boreholes to prepare for the worst-case scenario. And while Cape Town’s most in the news right now, it’s not alone. Everywhere from California to Europe, the fear of a similar situation lurks ominously in the background of daily life. And while drought is sometimes a factor, few places really have an excuse for allowing things to get so bad.
While countries like the UK have moved to private models, the provision of water is still the job of national, local or city governments in most places. That means profit and efficiency isn’t always at the core of the average public water utility’s business. It’s also a highly regulated environment. That’s made it pretty stagnant ground for innovation – and right now many parts of the world are fighting to avoid paying a massive price for years of neglect.
On our most recent visit to the innovation network in Israel, we decided to meet some local experts who could shed some light on the global water situation. Arguably one of the few countries that has shown measurable and effective improvement in almost all things water – despite the desert dominating the southern regions – there would certainly be a thing or two we could learn here.
First, we tried to understand just how deep the world’s water problems run. Is it fake news? Propaganda? Absolutely not, says Oded Distel, the ultra-passionate Director of Israel New Tech & Eco Systems in the national government’s Ministry of Economy and Industry.
“Last summer, Rome was almost at the point of having a few areas shut down,” says Distel (pictured below). “In Brasilia, every neighbourhood is without water for at least one day a week. Delhi, Mumbai, parts of China and Africa…and just an hour and a half from here, in Amman, they don’t have water! So it’s everywhere. And it’s usually not a lack of water but mismanagement of water.”
“We’ve doubled water consumption per capita in the last 100 years,” says Amir Peleg, the serial entrepreneur who founded TaKaDu, which has become a real success story with its data-driven network management software for water utilities. “That’s because we’ve upgraded our lifestyles, consuming more clothes and other things. Meanwhile the world’s population is also growing, and at the same time we’ve got less water resources. How can that be sustainable? We need to find the equilibrium.”
So the problem is for real. But how does it break down? It’s not only about water utilities being rubbish.
While Israel has long made enough noise at its own population to make people understand the value of water, on a global scale a general apathy and lack of education has played its part in the issues we face now. Both individuals and companies have been taking it for granted that water is a limitless resource.
“People are not necessarily aware that everything is connected to water!” says Distel. “That means whatever you touch, use, eat, wear, drive…even your phone calls!”
“Just one t-shirt represents seven or eight thousand litres of water,” elaborates Peleg. “And one pair of jeans is 15,000 litres. A nice beefsteak is about 22,000 litres. It’s insane when you realise that every time you save a t-shirt you can actually save a few thousand litres of water.”
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, those undermotivated utilities certainly have been sluggish to deal with some horrendous inefficiencies.
“Go to a place like Cape Town, and they’re losing 30-40% of their water to leaks and bursts,” says Peleg. “You make all that effort to pump water, clean it and so on, and then the water utility loses a third of it! And this is just on average. Some places are efficient, with just five or six percent loss, while others are losing more than half. It doesn’t make sense.”
With users (including industry) largely ignorant and unconcerned, and utilities typically set in their ways, every aspect of the water game should have been disrupted long ago. But, with slow returns making investment hard to come by and little glamour attached for founders, companies like TaKaDu have been exceptions. Even in Israel, building an innovation culture in water has taken a lot of work over the years. And the challenges remain.
“There is an issue around whether the typical VC model is suitable for this arena,” says Distel. “Or whether you should find different models where you’d need to find a VC with a longer life cycle. Our feeling is that we have a lot of great companies here with great technology but they are struggling to find money.”
If that’s still an issue in Israel, you can bet it’s still an issue elsewhere too. But with people starting to sit up and take notice of the water crisis, this is slowly beginning to change. Water has just become a sexy problem to solve, while sustainable investment funds with a long-term outlook are also joining the ecosystem. And apart from that, say the experts, it’s a use case crying out for the technology and data that’s currently at play. The water problems today’s data-savvy entrepreneurs can now solve are manifold.
“The revolution of digitizing everything is happening in water too,” says Distel. “And there’s so much room for innovation there it is amazing. In terms of monitoring water quantity and quality, precise irrigation, efficient desalination and so on. The ability to collect data, analyse it and take concrete recommendations out of it.
“It’s a huge ocean of opportunity for the water geeks of the world to improve the performance of this sector!”
“There are lots of opportunities,” agrees Peleg. “I come from the data-driven side of things and I can see that across the board everything will have more data. And wherever you have data, you have to bring data technologies.”
“We’re now in a world with sufficient data,” says Oded Rahav, another serial entrepreneur. He works with Supplant, a company exploring just such data opportunities, right at the intersection of water and agriculture innovation. By harnessing sensors and algorithms, they provide efficient irrigation strategies to large and small farmers all around the world. “We have sensors in soil and on plants. We have climatic data. We’re now answering the question of what to do with this data.”
“Agriculture is the biggest problem to solve from a water perspective,” stresses Peleg. “That’s where 70% of water goes. It’s 70% agriculture, 20% industry and 10% residential. It’s a huge challenge and I’m not saying it’s easy to solve. The market is trending towards megafarms and if you can make that macro economy more efficient then you can save a lot of water. Which crops should you grow? What irrigation techniques should you use? Agriculture has to be upgraded with a lot of new tech.”
And while the likes of Supplant are showing ways this could be done, industry is another area where new water management ideas are sorely needed. Both Distel and Peleg reference Intel’s facility in Kiryat Gat, Israel, and just how its water usage dwarfs that of the city itself. The chips in our devices have a high water cost most of us don’t appreciate. But this kind of dark secret exists across all sectors: another area where startups can make real change.
“The opportunities there are rich,” says Distel. “In all those large global industries, from oil & gas to pharma to metal to chemicals and textiles. All of it is connected to water and all of those sectors are under pressure to minimize the amount of water that they use. And to upgrade their water treatment once they are done with this resource.
“And for many years it was taken for granted. Water was there, we used it, we disposed of it – done. But this concept of business as usual is wrong. Those large companies all understand this, and are looking for ways to improve their performance and discuss things with entrepreneurs and innovators.”
Most companies are aware of the need to innovate, but some could do with a stronger focus on this area. Certain public water utilities, meanwhile, are almost a caricature of the stuck-in-its-ways corporation.
“The two major pain points in the water industry are the ageing infrastructure and the ageing workforce,” concludes Peleg. And that’s a bit of a worry, if we consider that these are the people responsible for water flowing from our taps at home. But TaKaDu has seen plenty of them embrace change, and Peleg believes many more can and will transform.
“The challenge is, how do you make everything more digital? How do you know about things before they happen? How do you know when a leak starts instead of waiting for the pipe to burst? How do you create a change of culture? Then you can plan your activities instead of being in firefighting mode.”
Places like Cape Town are already well and truly in firefighting mode. The challenge now is for the rest of us to avoid getting into that kind of pickle. But thankfully, innovation is starting to happen in this space. As in the life sciences, the race for profit may also be accompanied by a race to glory. Because when it comes to having an impact, there are few opportunities greater than water right now.
Among the speakers to discuss water issues at Pioneers’18 are Jonathan Risley of ThinAir, who will [show off his startup’s technology](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/live-stage-demo-potential-water-crisis-fix-pioneers18) for extracting water from the atmosphere.
Interested in meeting the latest water innovators and their technology? Buy tickets for Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Insights: Opportunity Amidst the Global Water Crisis](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-opportunities-amidst-global-water-crisis/)
**Published:** April 18, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With Cape Town (and more cities worldwide than you might think) still hovering on the brink of the taps running dry, water is just about the fastest-emerging critical topic facing the planet today. With awareness that even one t-shirt can costs thousands of litres beginning to grow, the water issue will feature strongly at Pioneers’18 on May 24th-25th in Vienna. As part of our build-up to the event, we chat to water experts in industry-leading Israel, learning about the nature of the problem, where water innovators can have impact and why its vital for industry to engage with them right now.
**Content:**
If ever there was a graphic illustration of just how serious it can be to ignore innovation, then the current water crisis facing the planet is it. Right now at the bottom of Africa there is a city where people are stockpiling supermarket water and digging boreholes to prepare for the worst-case scenario. And while Cape Town’s most in the news right now, it’s not alone. Everywhere from California to Europe, the fear of a similar situation lurks ominously in the background of daily life. And while drought is sometimes a factor, few places really have an excuse for allowing things to get so bad.
While countries like the UK have moved to private models, the provision of water is still the job of national, local or city governments in most places. That means profit and efficiency isn’t always at the core of the average public water utility’s business. It’s also a highly regulated environment. That’s made it pretty stagnant ground for innovation – and right now many parts of the world are fighting to avoid paying a massive price for years of neglect.
On our most recent visit to the innovation network in Israel, we decided to meet some local experts who could shed some light on the global water situation. Arguably one of the few countries that has shown measurable and effective improvement in almost all things water – despite the desert dominating the southern regions – there would certainly be a thing or two we could learn here.
First, we tried to understand just how deep the world’s water problems run. Is it fake news? Propaganda? Absolutely not, says Oded Distel, the ultra-passionate Director of Israel New Tech & Eco Systems in the national government’s Ministry of Economy and Industry.
“Last summer, Rome was almost at the point of having a few areas shut down,” says Distel (pictured below). “In Brasilia, every neighbourhood is without water for at least one day a week. Delhi, Mumbai, parts of China and Africa…and just an hour and a half from here, in Amman, they don’t have water! So it’s everywhere. And it’s usually not a lack of water but mismanagement of water.”
“We’ve doubled water consumption per capita in the last 100 years,” says Amir Peleg, the serial entrepreneur who founded TaKaDu, which has become a real success story with its data-driven network management software for water utilities. “That’s because we’ve upgraded our lifestyles, consuming more clothes and other things. Meanwhile the world’s population is also growing, and at the same time we’ve got less water resources. How can that be sustainable? We need to find the equilibrium.”
So the problem is for real. But how does it break down? It’s not only about water utilities being rubbish.
While Israel has long made enough noise at its own population to make people understand the value of water, on a global scale a general apathy and lack of education has played its part in the issues we face now. Both individuals and companies have been taking it for granted that water is a limitless resource.
“People are not necessarily aware that everything is connected to water!” says Distel. “That means whatever you touch, use, eat, wear, drive…even your phone calls!”
“Just one t-shirt represents seven or eight thousand litres of water,” elaborates Peleg. “And one pair of jeans is 15,000 litres. A nice beefsteak is about 22,000 litres. It’s insane when you realise that every time you save a t-shirt you can actually save a few thousand litres of water.”
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, those undermotivated utilities certainly have been sluggish to deal with some horrendous inefficiencies.
“Go to a place like Cape Town, and they’re losing 30-40% of their water to leaks and bursts,” says Peleg. “You make all that effort to pump water, clean it and so on, and then the water utility loses a third of it! And this is just on average. Some places are efficient, with just five or six percent loss, while others are losing more than half. It doesn’t make sense.”
With users (including industry) largely ignorant and unconcerned, and utilities typically set in their ways, every aspect of the water game should have been disrupted long ago. But, with slow returns making investment hard to come by and little glamour attached for founders, companies like TaKaDu have been exceptions. Even in Israel, building an innovation culture in water has taken a lot of work over the years. And the challenges remain.
“There is an issue around whether the typical VC model is suitable for this arena,” says Distel. “Or whether you should find different models where you’d need to find a VC with a longer life cycle. Our feeling is that we have a lot of great companies here with great technology but they are struggling to find money.”
If that’s still an issue in Israel, you can bet it’s still an issue elsewhere too. But with people starting to sit up and take notice of the water crisis, this is slowly beginning to change. Water has just become a sexy problem to solve, while sustainable investment funds with a long-term outlook are also joining the ecosystem. And apart from that, say the experts, it’s a use case crying out for the technology and data that’s currently at play. The water problems today’s data-savvy entrepreneurs can now solve are manifold.
“The revolution of digitizing everything is happening in water too,” says Distel. “And there’s so much room for innovation there it is amazing. In terms of monitoring water quantity and quality, precise irrigation, efficient desalination and so on. The ability to collect data, analyse it and take concrete recommendations out of it.
“It’s a huge ocean of opportunity for the water geeks of the world to improve the performance of this sector!”
“There are lots of opportunities,” agrees Peleg. “I come from the data-driven side of things and I can see that across the board everything will have more data. And wherever you have data, you have to bring data technologies.”
“We’re now in a world with sufficient data,” says Oded Rahav, another serial entrepreneur. He works with Supplant, a company exploring just such data opportunities, right at the intersection of water and agriculture innovation. By harnessing sensors and algorithms, they provide efficient irrigation strategies to large and small farmers all around the world. “We have sensors in soil and on plants. We have climatic data. We’re now answering the question of what to do with this data.”
“Agriculture is the biggest problem to solve from a water perspective,” stresses Peleg. “That’s where 70% of water goes. It’s 70% agriculture, 20% industry and 10% residential. It’s a huge challenge and I’m not saying it’s easy to solve. The market is trending towards megafarms and if you can make that macro economy more efficient then you can save a lot of water. Which crops should you grow? What irrigation techniques should you use? Agriculture has to be upgraded with a lot of new tech.”
And while the likes of Supplant are showing ways this could be done, industry is another area where new water management ideas are sorely needed. Both Distel and Peleg reference Intel’s facility in Kiryat Gat, Israel, and just how its water usage dwarfs that of the city itself. The chips in our devices have a high water cost most of us don’t appreciate. But this kind of dark secret exists across all sectors: another area where startups can make real change.
“The opportunities there are rich,” says Distel. “In all those large global industries, from oil & gas to pharma to metal to chemicals and textiles. All of it is connected to water and all of those sectors are under pressure to minimize the amount of water that they use. And to upgrade their water treatment once they are done with this resource.
“And for many years it was taken for granted. Water was there, we used it, we disposed of it – done. But this concept of business as usual is wrong. Those large companies all understand this, and are looking for ways to improve their performance and discuss things with entrepreneurs and innovators.”
Most companies are aware of the need to innovate, but some could do with a stronger focus on this area. Certain public water utilities, meanwhile, are almost a caricature of the stuck-in-its-ways corporation.
“The two major pain points in the water industry are the ageing infrastructure and the ageing workforce,” concludes Peleg. And that’s a bit of a worry, if we consider that these are the people responsible for water flowing from our taps at home. But TaKaDu has seen plenty of them embrace change, and Peleg believes many more can and will transform.
“The challenge is, how do you make everything more digital? How do you know about things before they happen? How do you know when a leak starts instead of waiting for the pipe to burst? How do you create a change of culture? Then you can plan your activities instead of being in firefighting mode.”
Places like Cape Town are already well and truly in firefighting mode. The challenge now is for the rest of us to avoid getting into that kind of pickle. But thankfully, innovation is starting to happen in this space. As in the life sciences, the race for profit may also be accompanied by a race to glory. Because when it comes to having an impact, there are few opportunities greater than water right now.
Among the speakers to discuss water issues at Pioneers’18 are Jonathan Risley of ThinAir, who will [show off his startup’s technology](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/live-stage-demo-potential-water-crisis-fix-pioneers18) for extracting water from the atmosphere.
Interested in meeting the latest water innovators and their technology? Buy tickets for Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [GovTech.Pioneers News: Workshops & 70 Startups Confirmed!](https://pioneers.io/govtechpioneers-news-workshops-70-startups-confirmed/)
**Published:** April 19, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With just over a month to go until GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna on May 23rd, we’re announcing details of seven workshop sessions, starting the day before the event and continuing on the day. Partners include the European Commission, Austrian Federal Ministries, and the Cities of Amsterdam and Vienna. We’re also revealing some of the 100 startups we’ll have at the event, as well as details of the pitching sessions that will form part of a packed schedule at Europe’s first full-day GovTech event.
**Content:**
With just over a month to go until GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna on May 23rd, we’re announcing details of seven workshop sessions, starting the day before the event and continuing on the day. Partners include the European Commission, Austrian Federal Ministries, and the Cities of Amsterdam and Vienna. We’re also revealing some of the 100 startups we’ll have at the event, as well as details of the pitching sessions that will form part of a packed schedule at Europe’s first full-day GovTech event.
Starting from the top of the tree at European level, the **European Commission and ConsenSys** will stage a headlining, invite-only workshop on behalf of the recently-launched **EU Blockchain Observatory & Forum**. Set to run on May 22nd, a day ahead of GovTech.Pioneers, and hosted by the City of Vienna, this will see experts from around the continent build a diagnostic of the current Blockchain innovation landscape in Europe. It will also lay the foundations of the Observatory and Forum for the next two years.
The remainder of the workshops will take place at Palais Wertheim on event day, May 23rd. Here the **European Innovation Council**, which is funded by the European Commission, will also host a workshop. This will showcase and develop some of the opportunities startup founders can enjoy when they work with these two bodies.
A leading national government will also be represented on the workshop agenda. The **Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance** will stage one in which they and selected startups tackle the ministry’s ongoing mission to try to **automate employee tax assessment** as much as possible. For several years they have been looking for a solution that will increase efficiency for the taxpayer and make the refund process an ongoing one throughout the year.
Austria’s Federal Ministry of the Interior, Federal Ministry of Digitization and Economy, and Federal Computing Center will also host workshops on event day, focusing on the enhancement of the Austrian digital state and on Blockchain in the public sector.
Two of Europe’s most forward-thinking cities will also be a part of the workshop program. **City of Vienna CIO Ulrike Huemer** and her team will host an Open Innovation workshop on the topic of citizen collaboration, specifically geared towards startups working in this area. Meanwhile the **City of Amsterdam’s CTO Ger Baron** and the Amsterdam Innovation Exchange Lab will run a workshop to learn and share best practice with public servants from other countries and cities.
On the startup front, we’re excited to have **70 out of 100 top GovTech entrepreneurs confirmed** to join us for the event. Not only will there be plenty coming from around Europe, but we’re also welcoming startups from **as far afield as the USA, Canada, Singapore, Japan and Thailand**.
**24 of the startups** will be selected to **pitch** their concepts in the competition. The pitching will be divided into **four pitching tracks**, with six startups taking part in each track session before the winner advances to pitch against the three other track winners on the main stage at the end of the day. The overall winning startup will be fast-tracked into the Pioneers Challenge Top 50, giving them an automatic pitching slot at Pioneers’18 the very next day.
The pitching tracks are Citizen Collaboration, Blockchain, Public Safety & Security and a general GovTech track. And we’re already able to reveal the first few contestants in each track.
*View the latest confirmed startups and buy tickets for GovTech.Pioneers [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Turning Saltwater into Light: Meet The Latest Energy Tech Leap At Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/turning-saltwater-light-meet-latest-energy-tech-leap-pioneers18/)
**Published:** April 25, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As we continue to profile some of the top speakers at Pioneers’18 on May 24th-25th, we meet SALt, a ‘social movement’ startup with potentially enormous impact on a world striving to make better use of resources. The brother-and-sister founders, Raphael and Aisa Mijeno, are travelling from their base in the Philippines to Vienna to introduce their efficient sustainable lanterns, which can run for hours using nothing more than salted water.
**Content:**
As we continue to profile some of the top speakers at Pioneers’18 on May 24th-25th, we meet SALt, a ‘social movement’ startup with potentially enormous impact on a world striving to make better use of resources. The brother-and-sister founders, Raphael and Aisa Mijeno, are travelling from their base in the Philippines to Vienna to introduce their efficient sustainable lanterns, which can run for hours using nothing more than salted water.
The siblings’ project was originally inspired by a visit to Kalinga in northern Luzon with Greenpeace Philippines, of which they’re both members. Noticing that the villagers in this mountain region were still using kerosene lamps, they spotted a problem they could use their skill set to solve.
“The little ones were inhaling the fumes and it was making them sick,” says Raphael. “Also, the people were having to travel eight hours every other day to get a new bottle of kerosene! We had access to research equipment at De La Salle University – Lipa, where my sister is a part-time lecturer in the Engineering Faculty, and four years ago we started to work on a solution.”
That solution, built locally in the Philippines and dubbed SALt v1.0, is a **$20 ecological lantern that uses salt water to activate the fuel cell and generate electricity.**
“It doesn’t have to be ocean water,” explains Raphael, who is working full-time on the business whilst Aisa, the scientific brains behind the project, is still combining her work on SALt with part-time work at the university. “Adding a tablespoon of salt in a glass has the equivalent effect. And one glass of water can provide enough electricity to power the lantern for four days straight.”
While Raphael says the concept of a salt-powered lamp isn’t their invention, the duo believe they’ve improved the efficiency of the core and the circuit to the point where there can be no good reason for people to stay with kerosene.
“As on other current systems the anode does corrode,” he says. “But based on optimal usage of our lantern, which means using it for up to eight hours before changing the water, **you now only need to change this part (costing $1.50) once every six months**. On older systems that would be every two weeks – so by extending the lifespan we’re making it **more sustainable and efficient**.
“People have tended to abandon new systems and go back to fuel-based lamps. We want to be the technology that breaks the spell. What we hope to achieve is to clearly replace that old system with something clean and healthy.”
The by-product is completely non-toxic, according to Raphael, so there’s no environmental issue with throwing that lantern water away every day. You could even use it to water the plants!
If the market consists of all people disconnected from the power grid, then clearly it’s huge. But it’s also a very low-income one. So the business model for the moment is to sell to NGOs, foundations and corporates with CSR programs. Raphael and Aisa are also currently in talks with a potential European distributor to another market that might prove enthusiastic: campers and hikers.
But the most ambitious part of the long-term vision? To develop a whole generator powered by salt water. The kind of thing that **might power a whole village**, in other words. While that would be another truly game-changing technology, the immediate challenge is to achieve widespread uptake for the lamps. And to wow the crowd at Pioneers’18, of course!
“We’ve never been to Vienna before so we’re very excited,” says Raphael. “I had a look at the Hofburg venue online and…wow, it’s a little bit daunting! But I think we’ll be OK.”
We think so too – and we’re looking forward to taking one of those lanterns on a mountain hike later in the year as part of our ‘Pioneers Tests’ series!
SALt certainly isn’t the only startup lighting up the world in innovative ways. Another of them, pawame, will also be present at the Hofburg as part of our Pioneers500 selection. They’ve developed a low-cost solar power system for the home, and have been busily proving their concept in Kenya. pawame also aims to achieve great impact by replacing kerosene lamps and providing affordable access to energy.
*Want to meet SALt and pawame at Pioneers’18? Get your tickets [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Deep Dive Into Open Innovation Insights at Pioneers’18 with Pioneers500 Report](https://pioneers.io/pioneers500-report-dive-open-innovation-insights-pioneers18/)
**Published:** April 23, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Today we’re pleased to unveil our Pioneers500 Report, a limited publication exclusive to Pioneers’18 visitors, co-authored by PwC, our key partner to the Pioneers500 program, and our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover. Visitors to Pioneers’18 in Vienna on May 24th-25th will receive a copy and gain valuable insights on not only the Pioneers500 startups who’ll be at the Hofburg, but on startup-corporate collaboration as a whole. There’s also exciting news from last year’s winning Pioneers500 startup and for those pitching this year aiming to head to Silicon Valley...
**Content:**
Today we’re pleased to unveil our Pioneers500 Report, a limited publication exclusive to Pioneers’18 visitors, co-authored by PwC, our key partner to the Pioneers500 program, and our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover. Visitors to Pioneers’18 in Vienna on May 24th-25th will receive a copy and gain valuable insights on not only the Pioneers500 startups who’ll be at the Hofburg, but
on startup-corporate collaboration as a whole. There’s also exciting news from last year’s winning Pioneers500 startup and for those pitching this year aiming to head to Silicon Valley…
Central to the Pioneers500 Report will be the issue of Open Innovation and how this can best be achieved by working with the kinds of quality startups such as those we’ve chosen to feature at Pioneers’18 under our Pioneers500 program.
The section authored by Pioneers Discover will break down startup-corporate collaboration into different possible formats, explore the factors critical to success and look at best practice. To illustrate this we’ll draw on examples such as the startup collaboration projects we’ve done with international corporations across a wide range of industries.
“Open Innovation approaches offer a great chance for corporates and startups to strengthen their innovation power on the market,” says Head of Pioneers Discover Anton Schilling. “They have strong complementary assets they should make use of, as the projects we have worked on in the past have shown.”
The report will also feature first-hand insights from PwC’s experience in the innovation arena: In PwC’s Experience Centers with sites in more than 20 locations worldwide a community of makers from around the world help clients with the development of innovative and digital solutions through user centricity and a focus on experience.
“Digital transformation is about people. Technology is changing the way people stay in touch, and organisations will have to respond to these changes. Our Experience Center allows companies to experience what an organisational change will mean for their customers, buyers, or employees”, says PwC’s Digital Leader Gerald Dipplinger (above).
Naturally it will also be the best possible source of information on the Pioneers500 startups themselves: look out for the infographics and statistics illustrating where these innovators come from, what they do and other key measurables.
There’ll be deeper individual introductions to the Top 50 startups, which are those chosen for the chance to pitch on stage during Pioneers’18. It’s the perfect way to get to know those whom you’ll see pitching their hearts out for the Pioneers Challenge Award, which last year went to Austrian startup Stromkind. The water drone gurus, who won a networking trip to Silicon Valley as part of their prize, are also profiled in the report.
The printed report, will be available in strategic locations around the Hofburg, including the PwC Lounge, where one of our longest-standing partner will offer a glimpse into its BXT approach to developing innovative digital solutions. You can also pick one up at the Media Lounge or the Speakers Lounge and in various other key meeting areas.
Returning to Stromkind, we’re pleased to share that our winning Pioneers500 startup from last year has just announced further success in the shape of the Joint Development Agreement they’ve signed with the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), for developing autonomous electric technology solutions. The deal signed in Beijing (above) is another sign that our Pioneers Challenge Award judges were right about the relevance of autonomous technology for sea and ocean applications – and an indication of the doors that can open as a result of glory at our flagship event.
“Winning the Pioneers Challenge Award was a strong signal to our corporate partners,creating trust in Stromkind’s team and technology, says Hans Waldherr, Partner at Stromkind. “Without this it wouldn’t have been possible for us to partner with such corporate giants in the maritime and autonomous segments on a global scale in such a short time.Pioneers was also particularly helpful for us to talk with US investors and corporations. We’ve already learned a lot from this and will be investigating a US strategy.
“In 2018 we’ll keep investing in innovation and growing our team and customer base. In addition to our headquarters in Austria, later this year we’re opening of a branch office in the Mechatronics Cluster of Linköping, Sweden.”
And finally, we’re gladly announce that this year’s winning startup will also have the chance to take advantage of such a Silicon Valley networking trip with two team members. Furthermore, we are topping the prize and heading East: the Pioneer of The Year will also be offered a trip to the Techsauce Global Summit 2018 in Bangkok, organized by Techsauce, our media partner and leading source of tech and business news in Southeast Asia. This includes flights and accommodation for one person, plus a booth and pitching slot at the event.
*How would your company like to meet our selected Pioneers500 startups in person? Buy tickets for Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers’18 News: Extra Pitching Challenges And Another California Trip on Offer!](https://pioneers.io/pioneers18-news-extra-pitching-challenges-and-another-california-trip-offer/)
**Published:** April 30, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As the countdown to our flagship event on May 24th-25th gathers pace, this week we’ve got news of pitching challenges with Bosch and Honda to take place on the second day at the Hofburg. And so the list of prizes at Pioneers’18 continues to grow: Honda is offering its winner a trip to California to work with its tech team in Mountain View! Read on for more details, as well as a reminder of all the other startup opportunities for corporate innovation available through our consulting arm, Pioneers Discover. But be warned that the deadline to apply for some of these is getting dangerously close...
**Content:**
Kicking off with the latest opportunities for startups at Pioneers’18, the second day on 25th will see more than just the Pioneers Challenge Top 8 finalists fighting it out on the Arena Stage. Honda and Bosch will lend their weight to additional pitching challenges, which will go ahead on the Amplify Stage. The startups for these are being scouted and selected by Pioneers Discover, who will also take charge of moderating the pitching sessions.
**Honda** is keen to see pitches from European startups offering disruptive solutions in mobility, consumer robotics and electric devices, including smart grid and smart homes. Startups, who should have a Minimum Viable Product available, will compete for the chance to enjoy international growth support from Honda. The best company will get to spend time with the mobility giant’s tech team in Mountain View, California – flights and accommodation included.
The only way in is to have been selected for the Pioneers500 program, from which Pioneers Discover will be choosing the best-fit startups for Honda. And while applications for Pioneers500 are already closed, it’s possible to join the waitlist here.
The topic for the **Bosch Pitching Challenge** is *The Air Around Us*. The global engineering and electronics company is looking for European startups with creative solutions for measuring and tackling air pollution in big cities. Anything from the IoT world that addresses this problem will be of interest, whether it’s sensing, components, measurement or app technologies. But it’s a quick turnaround for this one: application deadline is **May 3rd – that’s this Thursday!**
As always, there’s the potential for startups who impress in one of our pitching challenges to engage in a long-term collaboration with the partner concerned. And that goes for the other Pioneers Discover programs running throughout the year as well. Applications are also open for several of these…some of them also with deadlines bearing down.
One of the tightest is that for the **Startup Exhibition at Börsianer Messe** in Vienna on September 19th-20th, for which founders need to put their names forward by next week Monday, May 7th. Pioneers Discover will scout and evaluate FinTech startups from the DACH region, with 12 game-changers with radical ideas to be selected for the event.
Meanwhile with applications closing later this week on May 3rd, it’s also just about last-chance saloon for those still wanting to apply for **BBVA Open Talent, the biggest FinTech startup challenge** in the world. Pioneers Discover is scouting worldwide for candidates in three categories, namely FinTech for Business, Fintech for Future and FinTech for People. The finalists will advance to pitch at the BBVA Open Summit in Madrid in October, just like our startup B2B Pay did last year. The three category winners will also win an increased prize of €50,000.
And don’t forget our ongoing open call for 5G and IoT startups from both Europe and Israel to take part in **Hub:raum**, the incubator for Germany’s telecommunications giant **Deutsche Telekom**. With three separate programs ongoing in Berlin, Krakow and Tel Aviv between June and December, benefits include co-prototyping, mentoring, commercial co-operations and partnerships, financing and access to Deutsche Telekom’s powerful connectivity solutions.
There’s also still time to apply for the **GoAustria 2018** autumn program. The two-week incubator, which runs twice a year, will take place in Vienna and Styria, starting on September 17th and ending on October 3rd. Applications close on **June 4th**, and preference will go to startups from Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Israel.
Apply for opportunities at the Pioneers Discover Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Open Call: Apply For Airbus BizLab Season #4 With Pioneers Discover](https://pioneers.io/open-call-apply-airbus-bizlab-season-4-pioneers-discover/)
**Published:** May 3, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Startup scouting has begun for Airbus BizLab, an exciting global corporate innovation project for Pioneers Discover. Season #4 of the international accelerator for the French aerospace company kicks off with selection workshops in Bangalore, Hamburg and Toulouse later in 2018, which will be run by our consultation arm. We’re now looking for the best startups to invite for the chance to ultimately win equity-free cash funding of up to €50,000. And with applications now open, we talk to Bruno Gutierres, Head of Airbus BizLab, about the kind of startups they want to work with...
**Content:**
Although Airbus is best-known for building planes, the need for it to expand its competences means that hopeful [BizLab](https://www.airbus-bizlab.com/) startups don’t necessarily need to be actual ‘flyers’. Those in fields including Blockchain, Cyber Security, Satellite Imagery Services and Data Analytics, as well as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are invited to apply for the chance to impress experts and top management at the new-for-2018 round of pre-selection workshops, which will take place in Bangalore, Hamburg and at the original BizLab campus in Toulouse.
The two-day workshops, which replace short and sharp pitching sessions, are intended to narrow down the candidates to a maximum of seven in each city. These startups will stay on for the full six-month program, in which they will have access to BizLab coaches and a large number of experts in various domains (e.g. technology, legal, finance, marketing), free co-working space, dedicated executive mentors, learn and act sessions, access to prototyping and test facilities and a Demo Day with Airbus decision makers, partners, customers, and venture capitalists.
With luck, they will also get the chance to qualify for funding of up to €50,000 and to remain for the post-acceleration program, which is open to those startups who have signed some kind of formal agreement with an Airbus division. As did 42% of the 33 startups taking part over the first two seasons.
BizLab is mainly targeting startups around Series A level of maturity. But should they get picked and make it to one of the pre-selection workshops, what will make Gutierres and his colleagues really sit up and take notice of them as candidates for the full six-month program?
“We’re betting on the team,” says Bruno Gutierres, Head of Airbus BizLab. “It’s very easy to see during a pitch how a team is functioning, and for us it’s important to recruit a strong team. Creating your own business involves a lot of obstacles, and you need to go through them as a team, not one by one. So it’s important to see that the team is interacting – people with team spirit is the profile we are looking for!”
While unity might be the most important thing of all, the startups will of course also need to have some exciting technology to offer. And as the list of focus areas suggests, there’s plenty of room to impress here, too.
“We’re an aerospace specialist and digitalisation is not our core competence,” explains Gutierres. “Our wish is not to acquire startups but to create partners – this is very important. We also know that our industry is not easy to access and we really want to help startups do that.”
When it comes to creating a steady flow of partnerships between BizLab startups and Airbus, Gutierres is proud of the conversion rate since the first BizLab season ran in 2016. The ‘hybrid’ approach, which sees entrepreneurs working closely alongside Airbus ‘intrapreneurs’ taking part in their own internal acceleration projects, could go some way to explaining it.
“We realized that it was important for us to take benefit of new technology in areas where we didn’t have so much expertise, and it quickly appeared that the way to do that was to interact with some startups,” recalls Gutierres. “But like all big companies we’re not really built to work with them, especially at the early stage.
“So we went with creating an accelerator platform to ease that interaction. But we realised that the main challenge with accelerators wasn’t to accelerate but to transfer that value you create internally and to impact your core business significantly.
“When you mechanically separate internal and external innovation it creates a kind of competition between them. This means that when you try to internalize what you have developed thanks to the accelerator, all the internal systems are in resistance.
“How could we prevent that? We said, why not mix up intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs? Even if they are not working on the same project then they can help each other. This is how we developed the hybrid concept when we opened the first BizLab in Toulouse in 2015.
“We mix the intrapreneurs, working in startup mode but developing their own project, with entrepreneurs coming from all over the world. We ask them to be dedicated and negotiate with their management to free them for six months and work on the project like any entrepreneur.
“It’s hard to say that you are unique, but at the moment I haven’t seen the same concept at this scale.”
With a method that seems to be working well at bringing hungry startups together with keen internal innovators and getting them to form partnerships, BizLab nonetheless saw room for improvement in the selection process ahead of Season #4. Hence not only engaging Pioneers Discover, but the creation of the two-day workshop concept.
“The old selection system was quite frustrating,” admits Gutierres. “First of all for the startups because they had to come a long way only to pitch for 10 minutes. And for us because it was a bit short. That’s why we were going for the longer selection process, which is more valuable even for the startups that are not selected.
“Whether they are chosen or not, the startups will benefit from two days close working with our experts, which is always valuable. And on our side they will know the startup far better. So it’s more valuable for the startups and more efficient for us in terms of selection.”
“If one of your startup’s dreams is to disrupt or to integrate or to penetrate the aerospace market, there is no place to be other than the BizLab,” concludes Gutierres. “This is where you will be able to benefit from all the market access and expertise. And for all the passion you’ve got, we’ve got it too!”
The deadline for Airbus BizLab Season #4 applications is June 24th. Apply for this and all other startup opportunities at the Pioneers Discover Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Driving Creativity With Artificial Intelligence and Google at Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/driving-creativity-artificial-intelligence-and-google-pioneers18/)
**Published:** May 7, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Artificial Intelligence - or Machine Learning as it’s often called today - is touching many areas of our lives, and art is no exception. That’s why we’re showcasing the impact this technology can have on bringing culture and creativity to a wider audience at Pioneers’18. Expert speakers addressing this topic at our flagship event on May 24th-25th will include Suhair Khan, Program Manager at Google Arts & Culture, as well as Ed Newton-Rex, Founder and CEO of Jukedeck, which creates unique, royalty-free music with AI. Meanwhile we’ll also be bringing a Klimt masterpiece to life outside the Hofburg using Augmented Reality!
**Content:**
Artificial Intelligence is touching every area of our lives, and art is no exception. That’s why we’re showcasing the impact this technology can have on bringing culture and creativity to a wider audience at Pioneers’18. Expert speakers addressing this topic at our flagship event on May 24th-25th will include Suhair Khan, Program Manager at Google Arts & Culture.
Google Arts & Culture was launched in 2011 and since then has been working with a variety of technologies to not only bring art to life in new ways, but to take it to a wider audience. A non-profit partnering exclusively with non-profit cultural institutions, museums and galleries around the world, its work may come as a surprise to some. But when you stop and think about the potential you’ve got when a company with such reach and so much technology pairs up with the art world, the possibilities are endless.
A brief visit to the Google Arts & Culture platform serves as a far better introduction to what it offers than words can. Be warned, though, that such a visit can turn out to be a lot less brief than planned! Our extended stay saw us watch the making and unveiling of the Millicent Fawcett statue in London earlier this year, learning some fascinating nuggets about Egon Schiele and (thanks to Google Street View) virtually wandering through the Bogd Khaan Palace in Mongolia.
And if we’d had a Google Cardboard viewer (developed out of a pizza box at the Google Arts & Culture Lab in Paris) for immersive virtual reality experiences, we’d probably still be busy playing on the platform!
Inspiring and fascinating a worldwide audience (and perhaps people who didn’t think they liked art much) in this way is just one of the goals for Google Arts & Culture, says its Program Manager Suhair Khan.
“It’s always so much better to see something in real life,” she says. “But at the end of the day technology means you can have access to a collection in ways that were never possible: most people in India are never going to get to the Tate Modern! Our role is to make art more accessible to an audience that could not get there, or might even be intimidated by the thought of going to a museum.
“Our most important impact is to provide a resource to cultural institutions that might not have the expertise, engineering resources or global presence that we do,” she adds. “We also provide a voice to their collections through our global platform – through social media and marketing resources. That can help push out their content in a way that they couldn’t probably do otherwise.
“We think of Google Arts & Culture as a place of innovation too. Because we are able to integrate tech with artists, curators and collections, we’re actually incubating a lot of new ideas that will find their places over time – whether in the tech world or the art world. That’s something we can’t really quantify or measure.”
For the audience at the Hofburg, the technology itself and the surprising levels of innovation now hitting the art world will be of great interest.
“At Pioneers’18 I’ll walk through the technologies we bring to cultural institutions,” says Suhair. “Everything from gigapixel-level photography to experiments in machine learning to our work in education. And how we’re really thinking about creating new aspects to the collections in museums.”
Another speaker bringing his insights on the topic of artificial intelligence is Ed Newton-Rex. The founder of Jukedeck is a composer and is passionate about uses of AI in music. His company has built software that autonomously composes music, and Ed will be speaking about whether this technology will foster or diminish creativity.
Visitors to Pioneers’18 will be also able to experience first-hand the difference Augmented Reality can make to the exploration of art. To celebrate the centennial of Klimt and the Viennese modernism movement, we’ve paired up exclusively with Cuseum, a Boston-based tech company focused on digital engagement for museums, to bring his iconic *Tree of Life* to life (!) right outside the entrance to the Hofburg.
Attendees will be able to view and experience this immersive, larger-than-life artwork on one of the multiple iPads at the installation. The technology leverages Augmented Reality with Apple’s ARKit.
Finally, visitors to Pioneers’18 will be able to meet the following startups active in the field of arts, culture and music. These are now confirmed as part of our Pioneers500 selection, which means they’ve earned two free tickets to our flagship event and will be eligible to be selected to pitch their ideas in the Pioneers Challenge Award.
The startups are:
**Imusify** – Music platform built on Blockchain
**[Artivive](http://artivive.com/)** – Links classical and digital art with AR
**[iazzu](http://iazzu.com/)** – The ultimate art app experience (using Augmented Reality)
**[musicbooking](http://musicbooking.at)** – Bookings platform for live music
**[VRART](http://vrart.com/)** – Fine art in virtual reality
*Ready for the most advanced art experiences you’ve ever seen? Buy your tickets for Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [A Peek Behind The Scenes At Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/peek-behind-scenes-pioneers18/)
**Published:** May 10, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** While our speakers and startups rightly take center stage at our flagship event on May 24th-25th, sometimes it’s worth keeping in mind that it takes the best part of a week to build that stage! Here we take a look at what goes into transforming the Hofburg into a unique blend of history and innovation, which last year won the Best Conference/Congress at the beaworld Awards. We also chat to our MC Chris Wells about how smoothly (or not) things go when he’s running the show. Plus we introduce the latest of his lovely assistants...
**Content:**
If you’ve been to our flagship event at the Hofburg before, you might have some idea of just what an undertaking it must be to transform a 500-year-old palace into the venue for a cutting-edge innovation event, including four stages, networking areas, workshop spaces, exhibition areas, media and speaker lounges, and of course a makeshift kitchen and dining area for 2,500 people!
We’ve been working with our local partner Media Apparat since even before we began staging our event at the Hofburg in 2012. They’re primarily responsible for the full set-up of the venue, including stage, sound and lighting. This year they’ve got an extra challenge in the shape of a new-look Arena Stage: let’s just say you’ll be watching your keynote speakers and final pitching for the Pioneers Challenge Award from a very different angle in 2018!
“This year we’re giving the stage much more of an ‘arena’ feeling,” says Andreas Göltl, CEO of Media Apparat, who has overseen their operations at the Hofburg in recent years. “One thing the audience might not know is that different parts of the ballroom have different weight restrictions. Where the stage is going to be this year has a lower restriction, so this has meant a complete redesign for us.”
Still, there’ll be a solid eight tonnes of equipment arriving in four trucks when setup begins on the Monday of event week. The first couple of days see the most manpower involved, with around 80 people on site from Media Apparat and their partner companies. And that doesn’t even include our own Pioneers Events operations team, which deals with every logistical detail as well as liaising closely with Media Apparat.
“This is our biggest and most important project every year,” continues Göltl, whose company works on around 120 events annually. “It’s a difficult thing to produce this event in such an old building, which is probably the most famous in Austria. The new stage layout is something that hasn’t been done at the Hofburg before and means we now need the sound to work in three directions rather than just one. We also need to find completely new hanging points for the projector lights, which is another challenge for us.
“But the most important thing in our job is to bring the innovative Pioneers spirit into the event. It’s very special for us and probably the biggest highlight during my time working on it was to win that beaworld Award last year. I presented it to the jury of experts and it was very satisfying that they recognized us.”
Another aspect of the Media Apparat remit is filming and camerawork, the multimedia show concepts and stage direction. Their Stage Director works closely with the Master of Ceremonies Chris Wells, who once again flies all the way from Tokyo to take charge of proceedings this year.
“To be MC is a trip!” he tells us. “The whole thing is so bizarre. You’re in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, so the setting is incredible. As an event it is wonderful. Wolfgang, the Stage Director, is amazing, and everything is so professional.”
Inevitably, though, things don’t always go to plan. That’s where Chris’s background in improvisation theatre – he teaches improv at the Tokyo Comedy Stores and runs his own show called Improvizilla – dovetails very nicely with the cool instructions Wolfgang frequently whispers in his earpiece.
“Everything is smooth from the audience’s perspective, but what people don’t realize is that while you’re interviewing someone, you can have the director saying ‘we need a few more minutes: the next speaker hasn’t arrived…’
“This is where the improv comes in. It’s fine…I just vamp! If I’m talking to someone I ask more questions. And if I need to extend even more, I do have little bullet points of things to discuss, which I can pull out any time we need padding.”
Wells, who first got to know us at our Pioneers Asia event in Japan in 2016, will be making his third trip to Vienna. A year ahead of making his MC debut last year, he helped startups during the Mentors Day we traditionally run for our Pioneers Challenge Top 50 selection on the day before the event. Since this clashes with the pre-event sound checks on the Arena Stage, he hasn’t been able to do so since taking the MC job. But it did give him a glimpse into the amazing personalities founders tend to be, as well as the chance to impart some knowledge on the dark arts of pitching.
“Mentoring the startup people is so much fun! They’re so full of energy and they’ve got such great ideas. They’re special, they make you think ‘what did I do on my Saturday again?’
“At the Mentors Day I ran a workshop called ‘improvising your way out of mistakes.’ It uses improv techniques to practice your pitch and learn how to cope with mistakes when your brain throws the wrong word at you. So that you don’t stumble and have to go back to the last paragraph. Sometimes people memorize their speeches too well – you need to have some fluidity.”
Any founder will tell you just how draining it can be to prepare and deliver a three-minute pitch, so spare a thought for Wells, who’ll be in the spotlight for two long and exhausting days at Pioneers’18.
“Altogether it’s something like a 16-hour day for me. And then you’ve got side events in the evening! But I always make sure that I cut out and get home to get sleep. That is the most important thing, because Pioneers is like a marathon for your brain and you have to be on top of your game.
“On stage it’s 12 hours of constantly listening, constantly monitoring, constantly juggling things that change. But it’s exciting and a fun challenge.
“And if something does go wrong up there, you acknowledge it – and it’s funny! That’s life…I’m not going to commit hara kiri on stage because something got messed up!”
Anyway, Chris will not have to work alone this year. He might be the only human MC, but he’s going to have a few tech-driven helpers. And while we’re going to keep the details a secret, you might want to take note that Pepper, one of the world’s most famous robots, has been granted a ticket to return to our flagship event.
A talking, anthropomorphic robot in the most classic sense, Pepper is brought to life by Humanizing Technologies, an innovative and dynamic company specializing in Pepper and telepresence solutions. With their passion for software development, their goal is to bring humans and technology closer together.
Finally, with impact a key consideration in so much of the content we’ve lined up for the event, it’s fitting (no pun intended) that everyone on the Pioneers crew will be sporting Fairtrade T-Shirts throughout the event days. The same goes for our appearances at our other events throughout the year. It’s a small thing for us, but as anyone in the startup world can tell you, every success starts out small!
*There’s still time to grab tickets for Pioneers’18. Snatch one of the last available spots [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/)!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [The Speakers and Startups Who’ll Explore New Frontiers at Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/speakers-and-startups-wholl-explore-new-frontiers-pioneers18/)
**Published:** May 14, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As we enter the last few days before Pioneers’18 in Vienna next week, we’re pleased to confirm three speakers who will embody our flagship event’s ‘Blurred Frontiers’ theme in real style. One is Aaron VanDevender, Chief Scientist at Founders Fund, who'll deliver the opening keynote about the intersection of humanity and technology on May 24th. On the same morning futurist Jonathan Knowles and marine scientist Gaelin Rosenwaks join an ‘Exploration of New Spaces’ panel discussion that will draw on their expertise in deep-sea and space exploration. We also reveal the names of the Top50 pitching startups for our Pioneers Challenge Award!
**Content:**
We’re pleased to announce that **Aaron VanDevender** will be the first speaker to take to the Arena stage on the opening morning of Pioneers’18 on Thursday May 24th.
He is Chief Scientist and a Principal at Founders Fund, which believes in investing in entrepreneurs pursuing the most ambitious technical challenges. His daily work includes monitoring the scientific impact of the portfolio companies and assessing technologies, making him an ideal candidate to give an opening overview of how to navigate the fuzzy boundaries in our future technical landscape.
VanDevender’s broad scientific interests include energy, biotech, nanotech and computing. Prior to his current role at Founders Fund, the keen researcher co-invented yoctotechnology (named after the smallest unit prefix on the SI scale), patented the fastest transparent optical switch, developed next-generation DNA sequencing tech at Halcyon Molecular and designed single-photon and single-atom quantum computers in academia and government.
Outside of all that, he is also a professional skydiver!
Later on that first morning, attendees at the Hofburg will be able to enjoy *Exploration of New Spaces*, a discussion on how **deep-sea and space exploration technologies** can be applied in a broad range of new fields.
The line-up includes **Gaelin Rosenwaks**, a marine scientist and the founder of Global Ocean Exploration, a company devoted to bringing cutting-edge exploration science to the public. She is also a US Coast Guard Licensed Captain and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Also represented on the panel will be explorer, scientist and futurist **Jonathan Knowles**. Currently serving as the Science and Exploration Fellow at Mission Blue, whose mission is to inspire action to explore and protect the ocean, Knowles explores the dynamics of large-scale, long-term change with a focus on beyond-horizon technologies.
The panel will be moderated by **Guillermo Söhnlein**, an American social entrepreneur with a special interest in the commercialization of outer space, the exploration of the world’s oceans and the universal connections between the two.
We’re also happy to announce the names of the fifty startups we’ve selected to pitch for the Pioneers Challenge Award over the two days at the Hofburg. After a full day of pitching in seven different tracks on the first day of Pioneers’18, the seven track winners plus one wildcard will progress to the Pioneers Challenge Top 8 Finals, which will as always be the pinnacle of the event on Friday evening.
The startups, and the tracks in which they will pitch, are as follows:
**BUSINESS & PRODUCTIVITY TRACK:**
FiliGrade, Dotphoton, Timeular, Koruza, HUBBIG, Gustav, Flowtify
**ENERGY & BIOTECH TRACK:**
Nanomass Corporation, GEAENZYMES, HeatVentors, WoodCube, KITRO; Digi.Bio
**GOVTECH & FINTECH TRACK:**
Skymatic, GOVWISE, MyMy, Capratio, Combine, CitizenLab,
**HEALTHCARE TRACK:**
SzeleSTIM, PocketDefi, Libra@Home, Bisu, PBimmunomics, FreeFlow Medical Devices, meemo-tec, GenSmart, Baze
**INDUSTRY & AGTECH TRACK:**
Ribbon Biolabs, SkaD Labs, recalm, Materialize.X, Batchforce, Skysense, Exomys, Agribot
**LIFESTYLE TRACK:**
Hushme, hiMoment, Artivive, Steed Equine Monitoring Solutions, Smokeless, iazzu
**MOBILITY TRACK:**
RoadBotics, AVILOO, Hyper Poland, EcoG, cycuro, Sono Motors, Pure Watercraft, Embotech
*To join our top speakers and hand-picked startups in Vienna next week, buy your tickets for Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Life Sciences and Translation Meet Artificial Intelligence At Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/life-sciences-and-translation-meet-artificial-intelligence-pioneers18/)
**Published:** May 17, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** One week ahead of Pioneers’18 kicking off on May 24th-25th, we look at some of the speakers who’ll be sharing insights in the high-impact field that is the life sciences - and on how artificial intelligence is beginning to transform its potential everywhere from drug discovery to healthy longevity to ‘brain wearables’. We’ll also introduce those who’ll showcase AI’s increasing power in the translation industry and announce details of our Pitch the Media session. Read on for details of speakers including Josef Penninger, Olivier Oullier and Dr Alex Zhavoronkov.
**Content:**
Undoubtedly one of the headline acts on the first day of Pioneers’18 will be geneticist Josef Penninger, who will dissect some of the life sciences’ extreme potential in a keynote entitled: *The Age of Impact: Why Curiosity Leads The Way*. This renowned researcher, who is founding director of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, will be discussing how humans can be made stronger from the inside out.
And with Penninger moving to Vancouver later in the year to take over the leadership of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of British Columbia, it could be one of the last few chances to see him speak in his native Europe.
Penninger will not be the only game-changing life sciences hero on the Arena Stage at the Hofburg. The second afternoon will see Olivier Oullier, President of pioneering EEG company Emotiv, showcase the fascinating concept of a ‘wearable for your brain’ in his keynote talk. He’ll dive into how neurofeedback will empower individuals to understand their own brain and accelerate brain research globally.
We’ll continue to delve into the grey zone between the life sciences and artificial intelligence as Insilico Medicine CEO Dr Alex Zhavoronkov showcases how Artificial Intelligence can contribute to humans living not only longer, but more healthily so. Insilico is a leader in the next-generation AI and blockchain technologies for drug discovery, biomarker development and aging research.
Moderating this session with Dr Zhavoronkov on the second afternoon of Pioneers’18 will be Danny Crichton, the Editorial Manager at TechCrunch. And it will be a busy day for him, because he’ll also be chairing our *Found in Translation* discussion, which will unpack how Artificial Intelligence can break down international language barriers with real-time translation. The stars here will be Waverly Labs CEO Andrew Ochoa and Unbabel CEO Vasco Pedro, whom Pioneers’17 visitors will remember from his Arena Stage appearance last year.
The session will examine just how far translation technology has moved on with the help of AI in the last 12 months, specifically exploring Unbabel’s automated video subtitling service and the Waverly Labs translation earbuds.
Crichton will also have a role to play on day one, as one of a four-strong panel judging a selection of three startups in our *Pitch the Media* session on the Amplify Stage. This takes the form of a panel discussion and interactive workshop, in which the startups try to convince the media to cover their stories – and then learn how to do it better!
The other members of this session’s jury will be TechTrends Deputy Editor Tom Atkinson, Startup Europe Research Director Natalie Novick, and Heatmap’s Alice Bonasio, who in addition to Editing Tech Trends and contributing to the likes of Wired and Ars Technica is also the author of *VRgins: Love, Sex and Relationships in the Virtual Age*.
*Pioneers’18 gets underway at the Hofburg in Vienna one week from today. Grab one of the last remaining spots at Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers’18 Audience To Choose Eighth Pioneers Challenge Finalist](https://pioneers.io/pioneers18-audience-choose-eighth-pioneers-challenge-finalist/)
**Published:** May 21, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In a new twist for our flagship event later this week, attendees at the Pioneers Challenge Top 50 pitching sessions on Thursday will be able to vote for which startup should get our ‘Community Choice’ spot in the Top 8 pitching on Friday. With this eighth and final spot being thrown open to a wider vote, it’s the first time our guests will get to play a role in the jury process. And it could make all the difference to one lucky startup, as reaching the Top 8 gives them the chance to win a networking trip to Silicon Valley and a pitching slot at the Techsauce Global Summit in Bangkok...
**Content:**
In a new twist for our flagship event later this week, attendees at the Pioneers Challenge Top 50 pitching sessions on Thursday will be able to vote for which startup should get our ‘Community Choice’ spot in the Top 8 pitching on Friday. With this eighth and final spot being thrown open to a wider vote, it’s the first time our guests will get to play a role in the jury process.
Last year the Top 50 startups have pitched in eight separate tracks, with the winner of each – decided by jury – advancing to the final pitching competition. For Pioneers’18 we’ve shaken it up a little, with seven tracks for the initial pitching and one ‘Community Choice’ slot for a wild card startup voted for by the innovation community joining us in the Hofburg.
At the end of each of the seven pitching track sessions on Thursday, the audience at the Amplify Stage will be able to log on to [sli.do](https://www.sli.do/) and vote for the startup they think should advance to the final stage. The precise link they can visit in order to vote will be revealed to those in the room on the day.
The startup with the most audience votes across all pitching tracks, after the jury choices have been confirmed, will get the final slot in the Top 8. And it’s a big responsibility, considering just how high the stakes are for those eight startups who make it to the Arena Stage on Friday afternoon.
Once again the winning founders will earn themselves a networking trip to Silicon Valley, just like Pioneers’17 winners [Stromkind](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/interview-stromkind-makes-waves-usa) last year. The one week program is customized for the winning startup, so that they can get the most valuable introductions and access to our Pioneers network.
In 2017 Stromkind had a workshop with Nancy Duarte of Duarte Designs, met Y Combinator partner Michael Seibel and had a meeting with legendary investor Tim Draper. They also had a meetup with Andrew Chen, Silicon Valley’s number one growth hacker.
In an additional incentive for the winning startup at Pioneers’18, our winner will get an automatic pitching slot at next month’s Techsauce Global Summit, with travel to Bangkok included.
Want to play your part in Pioneers’18 voting? Then grab one of the last tickets for the event [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers’18 Ready To Kick Off Following Acquisition of Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/pioneers18-ready-kick-following-acquisition-pioneers/)
**Published:** May 22, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers’18, our flagship event in Vienna, and GovTech.Pioneers, Europe’s first full-day GovTech event, go ahead in Vienna this week. As usual, the meeting of over 2,500 tech innovators and 550 startups from around the world takes place in the 500-year-old Hofburg Imperial Palace. We’ll continue to tackle key global issues and showcase high-impact innovation under the ‘Blurred Frontiers’ theme, with the aid of a host of top speakers. But new this year will be the company ownership, with startup300 having now taken over 100% of the shares in Pioneers.
**Content:**
Pioneers’18, our flagship event in Vienna, and GovTech.Pioneers, Europe’s first full-day GovTech event, go ahead in Vienna this week. And these two events coincide with a major milestone for Pioneers, which has been acquired by Linz-based startup300, a business angel group consisting of 142 angels and investors. Pioneers will continue with its brand name and daily operations unchanged following ownership change.
“As part of the startup300 family Pioneers can play an increasing role in the Austrian ecosystem, and thanks to its global status it can at the same time lend greater support to connecting the local scene internationally,” says Oliver Csendes, Chief Executive Officer of Pioneers.
We’ll start Pioneers’18 with a bang **when Aaron VanDevender** kicks off proceedings on the new-look Arena Stage with his opening keynote about the intersection of humanity and technology. He’s **Chief Scientist and a Principal at Founders Fund**, which believes in investing in entrepreneurs pursuing the most ambitious technical challenges. His daily work includes monitoring the scientific impact of the portfolio companies and assessing technologies, making him an ideal candidate to give an opening overview of how to navigate the fuzzy boundaries in our future technical landscape.
Two of the world’s biggest tech giants, Google and Amazon, will also be represented on the speaker roll. **Amazon’s Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels** will deliver a keynote, with the man responsible for driving the company’s customer-centric technology vision sharing his passion for helping young businesses reach global scale. We’re also pleased to welcome **Google Arts & Culture Program Manager Suhair Khan**, who’ll walk the audience through some of the technologies she and her team are bringing to cultural institutions as they help make art accessible to a wider audience.
Another two speaker who will embody the *Blurred Frontiers* theme in real style are futurist Jonathan Knowles and marine scientist Gaelin Rosenwaks, who will join an ‘Exploration of New Spaces’ panel discussion that will draw on their expertise in deep-sea and space exploration.
Turning to some specific technology with clear impact, attendees will get to see how water is made from air with with a live stage demonstration from ThinAir, and how water can be transformed into light with Filipino startup SALt.
Another hot topic is Blockchain and a major speaker at Pioneers’18 will be Lighting Labs Co-Founder and CEO Elizabeth Stark, whose company aims to make cryptocurrency transfers faster and easier.
We also welcome video game streaming king Emmett Shear, who sold Twitch.tv to Amazon for almost a billion dollars, David Bishop, former President of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment, and Jeff Burton, a co-founder at Electronic Arts and HolodeckVR. In addition to his *YC Office Hours* talk on the Academy Stage, Shear will also take part in a Pioneers Fireside chat with Atomico Venture Partner Alexis Bonte.
And with mobility at the forefront of our mission as always, visitors can also meet and learn from Patrick Nathen, Co-Founder and Head of Calculation & Design at Lilium, the German startup behind the world’s first electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) jet. Also on stage will be Ryan Holmes, CEO of SpaceVR, a company creating ‘virtual space tourism’ through a combination of virtual reality and satellite technology.
Life sciences will also get their fair share of attention at Pioneers’18. Olivier Oullier, President at Emotiv, will showcase ‘A Wearable For Your Brain’ in a keynote on the second afternoon, while our closing keynote on the first day will be delivered by biotechnologist Josef Penninger. The internationally renowned geneticist will send attendees home with both inspiration and food for thought ashe discusses how humans can be made stronger from the inside out in his *The Age of Impact: Why Curiosity Leads The Way* talk. And Insilico Medicine CEO Dr Alex Zhavoronkov will showcase how Artificial Intelligence can contribute to humans living not only longer, but more healthily so.
The final afternoon will climax with the Pioneers Challenge Top 8 pitches, in which the best of 500 startups selected under our Pioneers500 program will try to convince the jury to crown them Pioneer of the Year. As in previous years they will win a networking trip to Silicon Valley, but this year they’ll also get a trip to the Techsauce Global Summit in Bangkok next month, where they will have a guaranteed pitching slot. They’ll be looking to emulate Austrian startup Stromkind, which walked away with the spoils last a year ago.
Other novelties for 2018 include a dedicated program aimed at Series A startups, a broadcasting partnership with Red Bull TV Live, an increased presence from our partner PwC in its PwC Lounge, the use of NFC wristbands for attendees and an intriguing Pitch the Media session in which startups try (and learn) to pitch a panel of journalists to cover their stories.
Also, for the first time, we’re an industry focused event in the same week. GovTech.Pioneers, Europe’s first full-day Govtech event, takes place the day before Pioneers’18 on May 23rd, at the nearby Palais Wertheim in central Vienna.
As for our renowned networking opportunities, our Match & Meet service will again provide personalized recommendations that will automate the process of getting like-minded startups, corporate executives and investors talking. It will work hand-in-hand with our Piobot chatbot for a smooth schedule and meeting management experience.
Finally, visitors to Pioneers’18 should also look out for a special announcement from Raiffeisen Bank International, which will reveal how it is expanding its startup activities beyond its already-successful Elevator Lab accelerator.
For the full Pioneers’18 agenda, click [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/).
For more on GovTech.Pioneers, click [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Fleksy Secures Startup Honours At GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/govtech-pioneers-wrap/)
**Published:** May 23, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Communications security startup Fleksy was today crowned winner of the first full-day Govtech innovation event in Europe, as we staged GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna. The Barcelona-based company was the champion of the 100 startups from as far afield as North America, Singapore and Nigeria that we selected to join us at the continent’s first gathering for leading politicians, public CIO’s, startups, corporations and VC’s. And the benefits for Fleksy will be immediate: victory means they’re fast-tracked into a pitching slot in the Pioneers Challenge Award Top 50 tomorrow. This forms part of Pioneers’18, our flagship event taking place in the nearby Hofburg.
**Content:**
Communications security startup Fleksy was today crowned winner of the first full-day Govtech innovation event in Europe, as we staged GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna. The Barcelona-based company was the champion of the 100 startups from as far afield as North America, Singapore and Nigeria that we selected to join us at the continent’s first gathering for leading politicians, public CIO’s, startups, corporations and VC’s. And the benefits will be immediate: victory at GovTech.Pioneers means they’re fast-tracked into a pitching slot in the Pioneers Challenge Award Top 50 tomorrow. This forms part of Pioneers’18, our flagship event taking place in the nearby Hofburg.
Fleksy ultimately saw off competition from over 350 startups, hailing from 65 countries and four continents, which applied for GovTech.Pioneers. Of the 100 selected to attend, who travelled to Vienna from four different continents, 24 were selected to pitch in four different tracks. These were Citizen Collaboration, Blockchain, Public Safety & Security, and an Overall Govtech Solutions track. The four finalists to emerge from these and pitch on the main stage at the end of the day were Civocracy, iComply, Polyteia and the ultimate winner Fleksy.
Fleksy, which advanced to the final as winner of the Public Safety & Security Track, offers a secure keyboard that it licences to governments to protect their internal mobile communications. With data and privacy a controversial battleground at the moment, the three-year-old company has already inked a couple of deals with governments, which will soon be announced.
“It’s always amazing to win,” said Olivier Plante (below), the French-Canadian CEO and co-founder who pitched on stage in front of a jury including legendary Silicon Valley Tim Draper, who promised to he’d be talking with the Fleksy in the near future. “And the best part is to see reward for what we as a team are building. All of the pitching startups did a lot of work to get this far, but we’re in a hot space right now. Big companies controlling so much of our data is a matter of public safety.
“The French government is already developing its own messaging alternative to WhatsApp, which shows how much of a concern this is. What’s more, we met a key person here at this event who can connect us to the government in Paris.”
That was just one example of the connections made at GovTech.Pioneers, a unique opportunity for the innovators behind a $400bn market to come together and discuss the latest trends in Citizen Collaboration, Blockchain and Security. Whilst using our Match & Meet service to automate the process of finding and meeting with like-minded attendees, they found additional inspiration in a number of high-quality speakers.
Draper introduced ‘The Next Era’ of startup-driven innovation in the public sector with a typically powerful keynote on the main stage at Palais Wertheim. “If you have artificial intelligence, smart contracts and Blockchain, then you have the perfect bureaucrat. Someone who is fair, honest, completely distributed and can treat everyone the same. That’s an incredibly powerful thing.
“This is going to change health-care, real estate, insurance and a ton of industries. These are all providing bad service at high cost. But governments provide the worst service at the highest costs – and they will be the biggest opportunity here.
“There will be a terrestrial part of government and a virtual part. A country like Estonia has recognized there is this part that does not need to be tied to a land mass – and other countries are starting to recognize that. Governments are realizing that they are going to start to compete with each other like businesses.”
Former Estonian Chief Information Officer Taavi Kotka, whose country is indeed considered one of the front-runners when it comes to digital governments, followed Draper on the main stage, shedding some light on how the Baltic country achieved such heights in Govtech.
“Government services should be seamless,” he said, using the example of child support payments being made to a mother automatically as soon as a child is born. “We have all the facts; we just need to connect them.”
“And there is no reason why we can’t serve someone like Tim Draper in Silicon Valley. 99% of our services are digital and seamless, so it doesn’t matter, if you live in San Francisco or Singapore.”
Kotka also echoed Draper’s sentiment that the arrival of virtual services means governments are now entering a competitive era.
“If there is a service out there that is better, people will go for it. And if your government isn’t willing to change, then for you winter is coming. And for a country like Estonia, that will be a perfect storm.”
Another fascinating speaker, who provided a unique perspective having worked in both the United Kingdom and the United States, was Carrie Bishop, who now oversees the digital strategy for the City of San Francisco. As well as sitting on the startup finals jury, she spoke on stage about the differences in design and governmental structures between the US and the UK.
“All over the UK we’ve seen a 30% cut in funding for public services, and you only deal with that by automating,” she said, revealing that at least some parts of Europe are well ahead of the USA when it comes to government technology. “Such economic pressures don’t yet exist in San Francisco, so we’ve only just begun our journey there.”
“Persistence is essential,” she implored the entrepreneurs after sharing tips in selling technology to America’s more complex and fragmented governments. “Never, ever give up on what you’re doing!”
Other visitors from the US included IDEO Portfolio Director Peter Jackson, whose talk covered how design can push governments forward, and Stonly Baptiste of Urban-X, who joined a discussion about accelerating Govtech startups and also sat on the jury.
From another corner of the planet came Toshiyuki Zamma, the Executive Adviser to the Japanese government’s Chief Information Officer. He took part in an international ‘Govtech Around the World’ session, which compared the approaches of the Japan and Canada to new technology in the public sector.
The audience also heard from some individuals charged with leading the digital revolution into action at both national and European level. Among them were Margarete Schramböck, the Austrian Federal Minister for Digital & Economic Affairs, and Peteris Zilgalvis, Head of Unit, Startups & Innovation, Digital Single Market, DG CONNECT at the European Commission.
Schramböck gave some insights into her ministry’s work, which includes overseeing Chief Digital Officers in every other government ministry, a specific focus on new mobile solutions, the establishment of a permanent rapid prototyping center involving startups and an ongoing project to implement the ‘once-only’ data principle pioneered by Estonia. She also dropped a hint to the audience to watch out for news of Austria establishing an innovation fellowship program in the very near future.
Zilgalvis, meanwhile, elaborated on role being played by Fintech regulatory sandboxes now established in as many as 13 European Union member states. Another beneficial form of prototyping for heavily-regulated environments, these allow for live experiments under regulatory supervision, which gives innovators ongoing clarity as to the legal status of their work.
In addition GovTech.Pioneers saw the staging of several workshop sessions, with partners including the European Commission, the European Innovation Council, the Austrian Federal Government and the City of Vienna. These also addressed the event’s key topics, with a particular focus on Blockchain.
Want to join Fleksy at Pioneers’18 tomorrow? You can still grab a ticket [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pioneers18-tickets-34934836035).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Photo Highlights: Pioneers’18 Day 1 Gallery](https://pioneers.io/photo-highlights-pioneers18-day-1-gallery/)
**Published:** May 25, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** It was non-stop action at the Hofburg yesterday as Pioneers’18 kicked off in Vienna. Today features top speakers representing startups, academia, investors and companies including the likes of Google - and as always it will climax with the Top 8 startups pitching for our Pioneers Challenge Award. Stay tuned to all our social media channels for regular updates, plus a full blog report here at the end of the day. In the meantime, here’s our gallery of yesterday’s highlights from all around the 500-year-old Imperial Palace...
**Content:**
It was non-stop action at the Hofburg yesterday as Pioneers’18 kicked off in Vienna. Today features top speakers representing startups, academia, investors and companies including the likes of Google – and as always it will climax with the Top 8 startups pitching for our Pioneers Challenge Award. Stay tuned to all our social media channels for regular updates, plus a full blog report here at the end of the day. In the meantime, here’s our gallery of yesterday’s highlights from all around the 500-year-old Imperial Palace…
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Video: Highlights from GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/video-highlights-govtechpioneers/)
**Published:** May 30, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Europe’s first GovTech event, GovTech.Pioneers, which took place at the Palais Wertheim in Vienna last week, was the ultimate meeting point for tech innovators in the public sector, bringing leading politicians, public CIOs, corporations and VC’s together with the most promising early stage startups working on truly game-changing technologies.
**Content:**
Europe’s first GovTech event, GovTech.Pioneers, which took place at the Palais Wertheim in Vienna last week, was the ultimate meeting point for tech innovators in the public sector, bringing leading politicians, public CIOs, corporations and VC’s together with the most promising early stage startups working on truly game-changing technologies.
If you were with us at GovTech.Pioneers, click below to relive this buzzing event. And if you couldn’t make it, give it a watch to find our why you shouldn’t miss out on our next event – [Health.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/) in Vienna in October!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Interview: The Pain-Beating Tech That Earned SzeleSTIM Pioneers’18 Glory](https://pioneers.io/szelestim-interview/)
**Published:** June 4, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With our flagship event having crowned SzeleSTIM as its Pioneers Challenge Award winners just 10 days ago in Vienna, we speak to the high-impact startup that won the coveted honour. In an exclusive interview, SzeleSTIM’s co-founder tells us more details about the exciting wearable, personalized chronic pain treatment device the Austrian company has developed. He also looks ahead to reaping the rewards of success at the Hofburg, which will include a networking visit to Silicon Valley later in the year and a trip to Thailand to pitch at the Techsauce Global Summit on June 22nd-23rd...
**Content:**
It takes an extraordinary startup to see off 50 other hopefuls and win the annual Pioneers Challenge Award at our flagship event in Vienna. And with an idea that has its roots in the 1980s and its unusual mix of founders, it’s fair to say that SzeleSTIM ticks that box loud and clear.
The brains behind the technology certainly doesn’t fit the usual founder age bracket. Jozsef Szeles, born in Hungary, but who made his medical name in Vienna decades ago, is in his sixties. Also unusual is that he’s held patents relevant to the startup’s exciting new pain therapy device for about three decades!
SzeleSTIM’s earpiece, which the company is preparing for CEE approval towards the end of the year, delivers auricular (via the ear) treatment via a steady rhythm of electrical pulses designed to stimulate the pain-critical vagus nerve. While that’s not an entirely new idea – in fact the same group has already marketed such a device under the Multisana brand – the idea of developing one that can be tailored to each patient is SzeleSTIM’s USP.
“What we do is minimally invasive, so we don’t need to implant anything,” says co-founder Stefan Kampusch, who pitched his way to success on the Arena Stage last week. “But we’re still directly triggering the brain, because we’re stimulating in the ear, where there is a nerve that goes directly to the brain.
“That’s the vagus nerve, which controls nearly everything in the body. It’s very powerful and one of the most important: a cranial nerve that comes down directly from the brain and goes to the lungs, the heart, the gut and all the way to the colon.
“The vagus nerve transports information from the organs to the brain, and it’s very important in telling the brain if everything is OK. If anything is damaged, you get a ‘something is wrong’ signal. But if you can put the right signals on this nerve, then you have the gateway to the brain.
“So we can help the brain when it comes to regulating the pain. This is done by blocking the pain, or helping the body to release its own ‘opiates’ such as endorphins and enkephalins.”
“What we’re trying to do now is to optimize this for every patient. Personalized medicine is a huge topic, and we’re trying to do this with these electrical processes, shaping them in the right way for each patient.
“Our new device works with on and off cycles, which are also individual. Everybody needs different cycles. Our device tries to measure when it should be stimulating, and when it should not. The doctor would give you the device, send you home and you’d wear it day and night.Then you’d come again in around ten days – when the doctor checks the status. And then you get the next device.”
As is typical in the life sciences, the build-up to this point has been long and steady. Kampusch got involved in researching this technology in 2009 as a Vienna Technical University student, where his professor was Eugenijus Kaniusas – now also a co-founder of SzeleSTIM. In 2013, with Kampusch providing the real drive to turn all this research into a viable business, SzeleSTIM was founded. And now, on the back of Pioneers’18 success, they’re almost ready to move from prototype to production.
“We’ve already tested enough to know that it’s safe, and although, it’s not yet approved we have prepared everything necessary for the CEE marking. We’re now aiming for full production and investing in tools to make this a manufactured product. We want to get this done by the end of the year and then we’ll submit for certification – when the product is absolutely final.”
Investors, though, have already seen enough: SzeleSTIM is currently closing a funding round. Right now building up a customer base is a priority, and that’s where Kampusch says the trip to Silicon Valley will play a role.
“I’m sure Pioneers has a huge network, and we’ll try to make the best of that for our business,” he said. “We definitely want to expand to the US, so it’s very important for us to go there to get some connections in Silicon Valley. We know we’ll need more funding later on, but this round will be enough for us to go to market. We want to build up Austria and Switzerland on our own, and then try to find licensing partners.
“I think we’re addressing a real problem here,” concluded Kampusch, pointing to the most likely reason nobody on our five-strong jury gave SzeleSTIM a score of less than four out of five after his pitch. “Everybody has had pain; everybody knows somebody who has had pain or even chronic pain. Everybody has a relation to this topic and knows it’s very severe.”
Our jury consisted of entrepreneur (and father of the ringtone) Ralph Simon, Speedinvest CEO Oliver Holle, Samsung Catalyst Fund Europe Managing Director and Ekaterina Almasque. Joining them were David Bishop, who has led two multi-billion Dollar global media companies in Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment, and Aaron VanDevender, Chief Scientist and a Principal at Founders Fund. The latter pair also featured as speakers on the Arena Stage during Pioneers’18, with VanDevender delivering the opening keynote.
Read the full story of Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-18-wrap).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Video: Highlights From Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/video-pioneers18-highlights/)
**Published:** June 7, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Our flagship event, which went ahead on May 24th-25th at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna, brought together 2,500 international innovators, 550 startups and a top line-up of 70+ fascinating speakers, all united under the ‘Blurred Frontiers’ theme. Our highlights video from Pioneers’18 offers a flavour of how the high-impact innovation was showcased and which key global issues were discussed.
**Content:**
Our flagship event, which went ahead on May 24th-25th at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna, brought together 2,500 international innovators, 550 startups and a top line-up of 70+ fascinating speakers, all united under the ‘Blurred Frontiers’ theme. Our highlights video from Pioneers’18 offers a flavour of how the high-impact innovation was showcased and which key global issues were discussed.
If you were with us at the Hofburg, give the video below a watch for a reminder of the event’s buzzing vibe that also included 80+ on-stage sessions and thousands of 1:1 valuable business meetings. We hope it gets you thinking about our next event, the second edition of [Health.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/), which takes place in Vienna on October 10th!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [International Startup Opportunities Worth Over €1m Opening...and Closing!](https://pioneers.io/international-startup-opportunities-worth-over-1m-openingand-closing/)
**Published:** June 13, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Several opportunities for startups around the world, with prizes totalling over a million Euros, are currently on offer via our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover. New open calls we can announce today include exciting global projects with Visa and Wien Energie, while applications are still open for the chance to work with Airbus and Raiffeisen Bank International. Deadlines are approaching for all of the above, but the most pressing of all is that for the EIT Digital Challenge, for which all startup submissions need to be in tomorrow!
**Content:**
The latest major international company to begin working with Pioneers Discover is Visa, a name most of our readers around the world will probably be able to find in their wallets! We’re scouting startups for the first **Visa’s Everywhere Initiative**, to be focused on the German-speaking DACH region. Startups going all the way can look forward to support from Visa and its partners as they pilot new solutions. There’s also a prize fund of €50,000 to be shared out amongst the most deserving young companies.
While [applications](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/) for the Visa Everywhere Initiative are open until **August 20th**, founders do not have so much time on their side for all of our startup opportunities! **Applications for the EIT Digital Challenge close tomorrow**, so today really is last-chance territory if you want to be among the growth-stage startups in the mix for prizes totalling €750,000. If you’re a fast-growing European startup with a product in Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital Wellbeing, Digital Infrastructure and Digital Finance, then the clock is ticking. The winners in each of these five categories will receive a prize package worth €100,000, including 12 months in the EIT Digital Accelerator.
Once again, **applications close at midnight CET tomorrow (Thursday June 14th)**, so don’t delay and don’t miss out! Put your name forward [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).
Returning to Visa’s Everywhere Initiative, startups who feel able to solve *Innovation for a Cashless World* challenges in the German-speaking market are encouraged to submit their ideas. The two challenges are to find new solutions for daily customer payments experience and a future ecosystem for payments.
Visa’s Everywhere Initiative is a global project which began in the United States in 2015. Last year it expanded to Europe for the first time, and now, with the help of Pioneers Discover, it includes this DACH-specific competition as well. Among last year’s regional winners was bitemojo, the Israeli food experience startup which was also a winner at our Booking.com Booster Lab in Tel Aviv [earlier this year](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/four-startups-win-big-grants-tel-aviv-booster-lab).
In another major international opportunity, European startups are invited to apply to take part in its **Innovation Challenge 2018** with **Wien Energie**, the major power supplier in Vienna. Pioneers Discover is not only scouting the external startups who will pitch and demonstrate concepts at a Demo Day in December, but will also support in the execution of the program itself, including the Bootcamp in September and the Demo Day. Both will take place at Wien Energie’s headquarters in Vienna.
We’re looking for startups with smart energy solutions in the following main areas: infrastructure, e-mobility, Work 4.0, PV systems and innovative customer services. For more details on the specifics of each, and to apply, head to the Pioneers Discover [Open Calls page](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/) and make your voice heard by the **July 15th** closing date.
Fintech startups will be pleased to learn that we’re once again scouting for the Raiffeisen Bank International Elevator Lab – but here time is also short! International startups with proven and innovative technologies in Advanced Analytics, RegTech, Corporate Banking, Investing & TradingTech, New Branch Experience and Open Banking are invited to [apply](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/) for the 2018/19 accelerator program before **June 24th**.
The **same deadline** applies to the Airbus BizLab program, which ultimately offers the opportunity for startups to win equity-free funding of up to €50,000 and the chance to collaborate closely with the French aviation giant. While we’ve [written previously](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/open-call-apply-airbus-bizlab-season-4-pioneers-discover) about the program’s unique hybrid concept and how it runs across both Europe and Asia here, we’re happy to add that the Chief Procurement Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Digital Transformation Officer from Airbus will all sit on the jury. With these amazing connections waiting to be made, worldwide startups are invited to head here to read more and [apply](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/) by **June 24th**.
*Access all ongoing startup opportunities via the Pioneers Discover Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Making Bill Payments a Breeze with Pioneers Challenge Award Top 8 Finalist Pago](https://pioneers.io/making-bill-payments-breeze-pioneers-challenge-award-top-8-finalist-pago/)
**Published:** June 18, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With Blockchain and automation among the most frequent themes in the world of payment innovation, the idea of a simple system that gives customers more ‘manual’ control is a surprising one at first glance. But, as 2018 Pioneers Challenge Award Top 8 finalist Pago explain in this exclusive interview, the payments landscape in Eastern Europe makes their tech a promising solution to a particularly local problem. Read on to hear about how their collaboration with Mastercard really got them going, the investment connections they made at Pioneers’18 and their plans to apply for one of our many ongoing startup opportunities...
**Content:**
If you’re reading this blog in somewhere like Western Europe or North America, the concept of an app which aggregates your utility bills, stores your credit card information and then allows you to ‘manually’ pay by clicking a button might sound like something from the 1990s. In these parts of the world, direct debit and other automated payment methods are firmly entrenched in customer mindsets.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a use case for such a system elsewhere. In Romania, where Pago is based, the bills are paid very differently. Cash payments are still wildly popular and people feel more need to control their spending. In fact, says co-founder Adrian Cighi, the concept of direct debit simply hasn’t caught on in Eastern Europe at all.
“In Western Europe people are used to direct debit addendum in contracts,” he says. “But I think in Eastern Europe people would not accept them. In fact, banks in Poland already tried investing quite a lot to promote direct debit, and the result was only an increase of 4%. Direct debit is used for only around 10% of utility payments. And that’s the highest in the region – in Romania it’s 3%!
“The main reason is that with direct debit you don’t have control over your payments. You don’t know how much you have to pay or when you have to pay it – and it usually comes as a surprise. You just see money missing from your account, and sometimes the bills are quite different in value from month to month. For mid to low income people, you don’t really want that to happen.
“So throughout Eastern Europe, most people still need to manage their own payments and bills. For a long time I was struggling to pay my own bills. It was a pain.”
To solve that pain point, Pago’s app elegantly blends existing technology, user permissions and partnerships with over 70 suppliers to access all major utility accounts and provide the user a clear summary of how much needs to be paid and when. Having added their credit or debit card, the user can then pay these with a single confirmation click. Alternatively, they can also set them up to be paid automatically on certain dates, but with the ability to easily switch this on and off at any time – a key difference to direct debit!
“Our automatic system is an improvement on direct debit,” says Cighi. “It’s the way it should have been all along.”
Pago’s solution is already an established and validated platform in its home market of Romania, with all the big utilities on board and paying the commissions from which Pago earns its money. One of the country’s largest banks, Banca Transilvania, is a shareholder. But much of the growth is thanks to a classic case of startup-corporate collaboration. This win-win situation all came about thanks to a chance meeting with Mastercard.
“We decided to do this app after I met the CEO of Mastercard Romania at an event in 2015,” says Cighi. “He told me that more than 80% of bills in Romania were paid in cash. I thought ‘This needs to change. Let’s do something together to change it!’ We followed that up with a proper meeting and Mastercard has been a partner ever since – they’re financing our marketing with their own budget and are very keen to help us do the same thing in all the other countries. For them it’s quite a high priority to move these payments from cash to card!”
As for Pago’s future plans to expand to various markets across Eastern Europe, ideally with a local banking partner for each country, connections made at Pioneers’18, also look quite likely to play a role.
“We met a few angels and investment funds and Pioneers, and a few were interested,” says Cighi. “We never pitched at such a big event, and certainly never on such a cool stage! That’s once in a few years opportunity, if not once in a lifetime.”
The 2018/19 Raiffeisen Bank International Elevator Lab accelerator program, for which details were announced at Pioneers’18 and for which our Pioneers Discover consultancy arm is scouting startups, also piqued their interest.
“We know about Raiffeisen, but they don’t know about us yet! They could be a good partner in the region, as they have presence in all these countries. We’re looking at [applying for Elevator Lab](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/) and we’ll see how it goes.”
While moving beyond Romania, with Hungary and Poland their near-term priorities, is one part of the Pago expansion, broadening the offering from the initial utility bill payments is another ongoing project, says Cighi.
“We started with utility payments, now we’ve moved to insurance as well. We’ve made it possible to see the offers from all the insurers much faster. You can see the offers just by inserting the licence plate and Vehicle Identification Number. You don’t need to fill in all the other details.
“Our plan is to add as many payments as possible and make them as simple as possible.”
Read the full story of Pioneers’18 [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-18-wrap).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Insights: How Intrapreneurship Breeds Corporate Innovation From Within](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-how-intrapreneurship-breeds-corporate-innovation-within/)
**Published:** June 20, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Innovation is key to success in today’s business world and - innovative companies outperform their competitors. While in the past innovation was mainly driven by the R&D department, new concepts with the potential to transform corporate innovation have recently appeared. One of these is Intrapreneurship, which involves empowering ‘internal entrepreneurs’ within an organization. In the latest article written by one of our Pioneers Discover consultants, we look at how Intrapreneurship can change the entire innovation culture of your corporation.
**Content:**
Implementing a sustained culture of innovation in a corporate takes much more than a budget and an innovation department. Involving employees in creative tasks about which they are passionate, as well as encouraging them to share and implement their innovative ideas, helps not only to generate new ideas and solutions but also increases the acceptance of innovations within the company.
This is becoming a fairly accepted concept, but the ‘how’ rather than the ‘why’ that’s problematic for most corporates. Many companies engage in multiple initiatives and projects, spending a lot of money on ‘innovation’ – but most often the result is a stand-alone project rather than a sustained innovation culture. While external innovation – new ideas, specialists or startups from outside the company – is usually essential, internal ‘intrapreneurship’ opportunities can make an equally critical difference to retaining that competitive edge. And these opportunities are often overlooked.
**So, what is an Intrapreneur?**
Intrapreneurs are creative, motivated, proactive employees. They are eager to operate what amounts to their own startup within an organization – solving a specific problem or developing new products and markets. In the most open-minded cases, these don’t necessarily have to relate to the company’s traditional core business.
But Intrapreneurship isn’t something you can just build – you have to recognize it within the organization. It’s people being intrinsically motivated to actively change existing systems. Intrapreneurship represents a bottom-up approach to driving innovation internally.
Companies have to make sure to incentivise their employees and to implement a dynamic innovation process to keep up with the new challenges of this competitive, digital business world. Here’s a step-by-step guide.
**How To Start An Intrapreneurship Program**
*Find the Intrapreneurs*
The most important asset and resource are the Intrapreneurs themselves. Therefore, the initial focus should be on clearly identifying passionate people who are driven by a deeper purpose. They should have problem-solving skills, think outside the box and enjoy being challenged. An Intrapreneur should also be highly adaptable and thrive in a different environment. At this stage you also need to define the possibilities for releasing them from their ‘day job’ for a period of time, and clarify this with their management.
*Match the right teams*
The next step is to put these internal innovators together in the right teams. Like a startup, an intrapreneurship team should consist of people with different roles: It needs the ‘crazy’ creative person, the hands-on operations person, someone with the right technical expertise, the ‘marketeer’ pitching the idea to others and of course someone overseeing the whole project. Adding external mentors, who can share advice and insights, is a good idea. There should also be coaches who guide the teams and support with experience.
*Define the use case*
“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution,” should be the mantra at this stage. Before actually trying to solve a problem, teams have to understand it. A workshop can be used to define innovation topics and select the best for the program. This can be either done in small teams or by a crowd rating method, which involves even more people within the company selecting the best ideas. That broader engagement can also push a cultural change towards innovation. Innovation software can also be used to manage crowd raters.
*Get to know your customer*
To find the best solution for any use case, first innovators have to understand the target group. Who are they, what do they want and what are their biggest pain points? To get more insights on customers, Intrapreneurs must get out there, get to know them and simply ask them. Qualitative interviews help a lot to explore target groups. They can learn to think like a customer with Stakeholder and an Empathy Mapping.
*Start prototyping*
This done, Intrapreneurs should try to imitate and prototype the solutions they have in mind (and probably on hundreds of post-its). Whether it’s a click-dummy, a pop-up store, a first web application or a test day with first customers, they should get out there and take the first steps to realize your idea. The goal is to create a first prototype: it doesn’t have to be perfect nor market ready, but it should already include the essential functions and characteristics. The first customers should understand and experience what makes a solution unique and special.
*Demo Day*
It’s time for the final ‘go or no-go’ decision directly from the key decision-makers in your company. This day is the most important one for every Intrapreneur team: having all decision makers right in front of them and pitching their business models. A demo day is also what makes an Intrapreneurship program so special: no lengthy decision processes and intercompany bureaucracy – one pitch, one chance to get the funding approved and work on a Proof-of-Concept. And this is where us, Pioneers Discover as an external consultant can come in to prepare the teams for a perfect pitch, manage operations for the Demo Day and brief the internal decision-makers.
Despite the contributions external consultants can bring, Intrapreneurship is an innovation process that comes from within. It’s not a stand-alone project which will end up in some folder and will be forgotten about – it will incrementally change the innovation culture of a company.
Intrapreneurs – creative people who get empowered and supported by an organization – could be the next big thing for the world of innovation. Small teams can change a whole company culture, and we’re excited to be playing a part in establishing and scaling this business trend.
*If you’d like to learn more about how we work with corporates from all industries throughout the world, read more [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/about) or contact us on discover@pioneers.io*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Launching Your Startup In Two Countries: Tips from a Pioneers’18 Top 8 Finalist](https://pioneers.io/launching-your-startup-two-countries-tips-pioneers18-top-8-finalist/)
**Published:** June 27, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Challenge Award Top 8 finalist Protera Bio, which pitched under its previous GEA Enzymes name at the Hofburg last month, are a fine example of the exciting and growing startup scene in Chile. But calling the Santiago-based crew a Chilean startup would actually be an oversimplification: they’re incorporated in the USA for sound business reasons. In an exclusive interview we speak to founder Leonardo Alvarez about the thinking and learnings around this move, as well as about the name change that came shortly after our flagship event.
**Content:**
Protera Bio are living proof that no matter where your idea might be born (and Chile is far-flung from pretty much everywhere!), there are no barriers to thinking about international possibilities from the very beginning. The startup has leveraged America throughout its journey, which only began formally after Alvarez and his colleagues joined the IndieBio accelerator in San Francisco for four months in 2015.
They emerged from that with a validation of their highly promising technology: a powerful tool to engineer and design proteins exponentially faster through the use of a deep learning algorithm that applies the patterns it can recognize in nature. And while the science was always going to be executed in Santiago, the entrepreneurs still chose to remain in the USA for another four months after they were finished with the IndieBio program. Because even at that early stage, while things were taking shape, they realized that incorporating in the USA had certain advantages. They now hold a sales office there, despite their technical base and ‘DNA’ being thoroughly Chilean.
“There’s a lot of talent and highly-skilled people in Chile, but we believe that by splitting our operation we can use our money in a very smart way, decreasing operational costs fourfold compared to having our lab in USA,” says Alvarez. “One drawback of this is the longer lead times to get new equipment and very specific reagents – but we compensate for that with a well-prepared operational plan.
“Our experience has told us that the USA, mainly San Francisco, is the main hub for business connections in many different industries, so I would encourage everybody to expand there as soon as possible, even just with a small office or through an acceleration program. This decision was key to our startup growing and client acquisition.”
Another big decision for Alvarez was the recent name change. Along with a pivot in technology or business model, this is something many startups go through during their lives. Sometimes there’s a better name that can reflect the revised technology or speaks more clearly to a redefined customer. Or sometimes it’s just a case of the original name having been a rushed job that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue.
While solving a real problem and the impact your business has are always the most important things in the long run, your name is nonetheless the first contact most partners or clients will have with your startup. It’s like that book cover by which everyone judges you. It needs to be catchy – but also adapt along with the business.
“We named the company GEA Enzymes because we wanted something related to nature, our main inspiration,” explains Alvarez. “At that moment the only focus was enzymes. In this context GEA means earth and is also the Spanish name of Gaia.
“Now that the company has grown and raised US$ 1.7m in funding, our scope has changed. We’re working not just with enzymes but with proteins in general – small proteins that can work as antibiotics or larger proteins that are actually enzymes. Because of this we decided to change the name to Protera Bio which has a similar meaning, mixing PROTeins and TERA, from the Latin Terra (earth).”
Would he do anything differently if he had the chance to go back in time?
“If I could, I would dream even bigger starting from the first day! That’s something that we learned through IndieBio.”
Another thing they learned, a little more recently, was that it never hurts to allow extra travel time when multiple flight connections are involved! These are a frequent feature of travelling anywhere from Chile, and having to do things this way almost resulted in the startup missing their Pioneers Challenge Award Top 50 pitching slot on the first day at the Hofburg.
“We missed our connection from Spain to Venice, which meant we then missed our connection to Vienna. We had to spend the night in Venice – practicing our pitch in a hotel near the airport. We arrived on the morning of Pioneers’18 – without our luggage, which only came to Vienna later – and basically we went straight to the pitching stage.
“I’ve done a lot of pitching over the last two years, but I still get nervous just before I have to pitch. This time, though, it was pure adrenaline! I can’t even remember the jury questions – but I do remember Alexander Hoffmann from Merck Ventures was there as a judge. And we ended up having a meeting with them later – we actually made several good connections with investors in our space at Pioneers’18.”
For the full story of Pioneers’18, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-18-wrap).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Six Fundraising Secrets: Learnings From Securing Investments Into Happiness](https://pioneers.io/six-fundraising-secrets-learnings-healthpioneers-finalist-himoment/)
**Published:** July 2, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Sooner or later, every startup needs some serious investment in order to grow. Raising a funding round is a daunting prospect for most founders, but when you adhere to some key principles there’s no reason why it shouldn’t end in success. Some of which you can read in this article, written by hiMoment co-founder Christoph Schnedlitz. With the 2017 Health.Pioneers finalist having exceeded expectations by raising €250,000 in its seed round last year, the lessons he learned make invaluable reading for any startup.
**Content:**
The trickiness of raising a (pre)seed round for your startup boils down to an inherent contradiction. On the one hand, raising your first round is very easy, as you have to show very little to get funding. On the other hand, it’s really hard, because you have very little to show.
This really sums up what we experienced when we tried to raise funds for hiMoment – and app that makes people happier by combining neuroscience and smart algorithms into an entertaining user experience. At that early stage in our startup’s journey, investors were focusing their attention on how experienced our team was (answer: very), whether we are trying to solve a problem in an attractive market (we were, and still are), and whether our “algorithm for happiness” vision was bold enough. And they were happy with the answers to those questions: so far so good.
Then it became tricky: Our early prototype showed some promise, but it was far from being a consumer-friendly product that drew in user numbers without a marketing budget (which we didn’t have). It was buggy,difficult to use and the onboarding was basically non-existent, resulting in a high user churn on the first day after installation.
So how did we – with only 500 test users under our belt – manage to raise a seed round at a valuation that was about 50% higher than the average Austrian startup raises in its first investment round?
Looking back, there are **six key lessons** from our successful fundraising experience. I learned them along the way and want to share them with you – so hopefully your fundraising process doesn’t take as ours did!
**Investing is intuitive, so build trust and faith**
Should you (like me) come from a corporate finance or M&A background, the first thing you need to ditch is everything you think you know about investing. It doesn’t apply here. Trust me: none of your due diligence expertise and NPV calculations will help you find the right valuation or understand potential investors.
An investment at this stage is a bet. The investor takes this gamble on your ability to address a promising market with your vision. Given so few data points, the decision-making process is largely intuitive. Once you understand this, you realize that the two most important things you need to instil in them are trust (in both you and your team) and faith in your vision. All our investor relations activities were focused around these two pillars.
**FOMO: What keeps your investor up at night is missing out, not misinvesting**
I got this piece advice from one of my investors (unfortunately, it came after they’d invested!), and it blew my mind. He explained that there are two types of concerns an investor has. The first is that they might invest in a startup that fails. The second is that they might not invest in a startup that succeeds. Which one do you think keeps the investor up at night?
To invest in a company that eventually fails is part of the investor’s business plan. It’s unfortunate, but expected. Not investing in a startup that ends up being the next Airbnb? That will haunt them for the rest of their lives. (How much did a Bitcoin cost when you first heard about it and decided not to buy? Feel that sting in your chest? THAT’S the feeling!).
I’m not advocating shady tactics to increase FOMO. But it didn’t harm us in the slightest to present our startup as a moonshot rather than a solid business case – even though that may seem counterintuitive.
**Fundraising is a sales process…have a funnel**
Fundraising takes months and involves several investors, with whom at any given point you will be at a different stage of the ‘selling’ process. The only smart thing to do is to approach it the same systematic way you’d approach customer acquisition: Have some sort of funnel tracking (for the first round, a spreadsheet was enough; for Series A, I use a CRM system). And understand that if the funnel is not constantly filled up on the top, your chances are diminishing at the bottom. Don’t stop working on the top of your funnel just because you’re in promising negotiations with another investor.
**At events, forget the elevator pitch: Practice your three-second pitch**
Events such as Pioneers’18 are a great way to get to know investors. The only problem is that those investors are usually bombarded with pitches left and right, hardly getting a moment to catch their breath. They’re interested in finding new ideas, but they certainly don’t have time for an elevator pitch. It’s something that I realized fairly quickly, so I developed what I call a “three-second pitch”, one that I could pitch even to investors who were just walking past.
“Do you invest in happiness?” is a long way from a complete pitch. But it was definitely one that got them to at least do a double take when passing by. Funny story: I said those very words to an investor at Pioneers’17 and his response was a confused look, a “No”, and walking away. He is now invested in my company – the question never left his mind.
**Pitch for interest, not completeness**
On a similar note, my co-founder Jan gave me this one idea that made us win almost any pitch competition that we entered. When I pitched, I never even tried to cover everything in the 90-180 seconds they typically give you on stage. If you’re busy trying to follow the pitch protocol that self-proclaimed pitch experts give you (problem, solution, market, team, traction, competition, financials), you could well use up all that time without being able to achieve what the pitch was supposed to: raise interest.
We never talked about competition, never showed revenue or user projections, and never spent time explaining our go-to-market strategy. All of these things were asked in the follow up Q&A – which came after we managed to excite jury and investors with our idea of sending users algorithmically curated sequences of important moments of their lives that could trigger their brains to train any mindset. Had we not spend time explaining this, no revenue projection or hockey stick graph would have been able to raise an eyebrow. The same logic applies to the emails you send to investors: Focus on the one thing that makes them open the attachment that contains the full information, not the whole damn pitch.
**If you can’t get an intro, you’re not worth their time**
Apart from events, the only other viable way to get to know investors is through introductions. Cold emails don’t work. Some Silicon Valley investment funds don’t even have an email on their website, let alone a deal flow management tool. One prominent investor summed it up like this: “I have two thousand connections on Linkedin. If you can’t convince ONE of them to lay an intro, you’re not worth my time.” So turn off your spam email server this instant, and start leveraging your network for meaningful contacts.
*Read more about hiMoment [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/how-become-irritatingly-happy-guy), and visit their website [here](https://himoment.com/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [SzeleSTIM Does It Again: Two Winning Pitches in Four Weeks!](https://pioneers.io/szelestim-does-it-again-two-winning-pitches-four-weeks/)
**Published:** July 5, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Nobody could ever accuse our Pioneers’18 startup winners of wasting the opportunities that came with victory at the Hofburg. Part of the prize for Austrian life sciences startup SzeleSTIM was the opportunity to pitch at our South-East Asian partner’s event, the recent Techsauce Global Summit in Thailand. Not only did they emerge victorious there, but they returned with some hugely promising prospects in a market they’d never seriously considered before. In this interview, they look back on a valuable trip - and ahead to part two of their Pioneers’18 prize: a networking visit to Silicon Valley!
**Content:**
Making serious business connections isn’t the first thing that crosses your mind when someone tells you they went 48 hours without sleep in Bangkok. But that’s exactly how it was for the SzeleSTIM team of Project Manager Stefan Kampusch and Regulatory & Quality Affairs Manager Sarah Lechner on their visit to the Techsauce Global Summit at the end of June.
The Austrians certainly made the most of their visit, despite a 20-hour journey that led straight into a hot and humid early-morning tour of Thailand’s tumultuous capital, followed by the day of networking and masterclasses that kicked off the event. But the sleeplessness was worth it in the end, because the connections they made opened their eyes to a world of possibility for their chronic pain therapy in Asia.
Aside from actually winning the pitching event, two contacts in particular stood out for Kampusch.
“There was a very promising connection with OpenTeleHealth,” he says. “They have a telehealth solution in place in Thailand – it’s already in the major hospitals. They have a certified medical product, and from first impressions we can build on this quite fast. This way we could integrate our technology quickly in major hospitals there, as a kind of pilot. That’s very promising.
“As it happens they’re also doing a pilot study with Austria, and he actually knows the guys with whom we wanted to do our own study at home! So that was very lucky.”
Beyond the madness of meeting someone in Thailand who could help with connections all the way back in their own country, the second big connection was with a platform with which SzeleSTIM might easily integrate.
“We also made contact with a surgeon who won an accelerator program in Thailand,” Kampusch continues. “He has a platform for medical tourism, helping people from outside to find the right doctor in Thailand. We could easily give our therapy as an option for foreigners. He also has a huge network of contacts in the clinics in Thailand.”
Before Pioneers’18 and the ensuing trip to Bangkok, SzeleSTIM were not aware of either the telehealth or medical tourism angles to approaching a market like Thailand. As a result of meeting people on the ground there, a country they had not been seriously considering now represents a real opportunity.
“We made really interesting contacts – we had a booth and a lot of people approached us,” says Lechner. “We found people more open-minded when it comes to new approaches in medicine.
“The people we met really gave us good advice about which markets in South-East Asia to approach, how to do it – and how not to do it! It was really insightful for us to learn about these markets.”
Another thing they learned was that South-East Asia could act as a kind of ‘back door’ to the more complex and regulated (but highly coveted) Japanese market.
“We always wanted to go to Japan, because it’s one of the three major players worldwide, but we knew that it was very complicated,” says Kampusch. “However, there’s a good relationship with Thailand. Now we know that we can try things early there, and that would make it easier to go to Japan.
“More generally we learned that there are three major countries in South-East Asia that you have to tackle: Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. If you have those three countries, and the major players there, it’s much easier to go to the other countries.
“We didn’t know about this before – and we wouldn’t have got those connections without going to the event. Asia now seems much more attractive for us!”
Having found the first part of their Pioneers Challenge Award prize to have exceeded expectations, SzeleSTIM are now more excited than ever about part two: an autumn networking trip to Silicon Valley.
“We didn’t expect to reach such a big network at Techsauce Global Summit,” concludes Kampusch. “If Silicon Valley is just as effective in terms of the people we meet – and I am sure it will be – then that will be very good for our business!”
*SzeleSTIM won the Pioneers Challenge Award at Pioneers’18. To read more about SzeleSTIM’s technology, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/szelestim-interview).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Time To Change Your Core Product?](https://pioneers.io/time-change-your-core-product-tips-bellabeat-founder-urska-srsen/)
**Published:** July 9, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** When Urška Sršen won our flagship event in 2013, pitching her Babywatch startup to glory at the Hofburg, few could have predicted just how quickly she would become a global entrepreneurship sensation. While Babywatch remains operational five years on, it was only after a pivot that Sršen really made her name - wowing the health wearables scene with Bellabeat. In an exclusive interview with Sršen, we learn what inspired the change in focus and grab advice for startups facing a similar decision.
**Content:**
It’s remarkable how fast everything happened for Urška Sršen and her co-founder Sandro Mur. The duo – Slovenian artist and Croatian scientist respectively – launched Babywatch in 2013. The wearable pregnancy health tracker proved a hit, achieved funding and quickly grew to acquire a couple of dozen staff. But by the start of 2014, the pair had already made that big call to change direction. Their new venture, Bellabeat, was still playing the women’s health wearables game, but this time the tech would have far broader application. And the products would be beautiful – it was to be the lifestyle brand that Babywatch wasn’t.
While Babywatch was by no means a failure, and is still live and selling today despite its founders having stopped development, Bellabeat was the new ‘baby’ that went on to grab headlines worldwide. We asked Sršen for the story what pushed she and Mur switched tack.
“It was mostly driven by the opportunity we saw on the market at that time,” says Sršen, who trained as a sculptor and had a natural eye for design. “The only competition were really clunky wearables that weren’t really designed for women.
“With my background, I thought it was ridiculous the way things such as Fitbit were designed. They made no sense to me. But then, they were mostly designed by male engineers driven by technology. We saw that nobody else was so interested in the design aspect.”
This was the USP that nobody else had. So Sršen and Mur settled on this as the idea with the ultimate business potential.
“What we then did was a classic pivot. We started with one company, one vision, one idea. Soon after, we realized that we wanted to build a different kind of vision, and invest more innovation into design. We decided to go in a completely different direction, developing a new brand and a new name.
“Babywatch had already got some funding by the time we won in Vienna. We had about 23 people working for us. It was quite successful, but we felt we had more space to grow with Bellabeat. Babywatch wasn’t a flop and it didn’t die.”
If the switch was driven by a bigger market opportunity and inspiration rather than any experience of failure, the success that followed was off the charts. Think offices on three continents, a triple-figure employee list, a ton of media coverage…and even a Wikipedia page! What does Sršen see as the primary reason for the spectacular growth?
“For us it was really critical to be able to invest so much in the design, and to be brave in that sense,” she remarks, reflecting on how they nailed that USP. “Our first Bellabeat Leaf was made from natural wood. That was a completely new thing, not just in wearables but in the tech sense too. So we focused on new materials and on designing the product as a pure piece of jewelry. It really made a difference on how we were able to position ourselves in the market, and how much media response we were able to get.
“If we had designed in a more conventional way, we might not have been as successful. So while we saw that there was a gap in the market, what we did also went back to the skills we had at that time.”
While her pivot to products like the one above (the more recent Leaf Urban) is clearly a fine advertisement for changing direction, hindsight is of course perfect vision. What advice does she give to founders considering what might be the toughest business move they’ll ever make?
“It’s crucial to try to stay as objective as possible, and stay critical towards everything,” Sršen says. “As a founder, what can you do and what are you good at? How does your idea resonate with people in the market?
“For hardware companies, in the past couple of years sustainability and profitability have become really important. Founders really have to find business models that make sense financially – that’s the first thing you really have to evaluate. Secondly, where is your core knowledge? For us, we realized it was actually design and brand building, and that fitted a lifestyle brand best.
“You get a lot of advice too. Sometimes it’s hard to filter that, especially when you’re young and inexperienced. What’s important is who that advice is coming from. For us, the best advice came from people who’ve been through situations like us. People who’ve built really successful companies – especially in the hardware, lifestyle or fashion space, since ours was at the intersection of those areas.
“Of course, if you’re making a brand or a thing that is really innovative, you can’t find a person who’s done exactly the same thing. But then you have to get advice from people who are masters of the fields you’re working in, or of the components you’re incorporating in your brand. That can be a problem in Europe compared to Silicon Valley – so it’s good to travel and try to get to the right people. Once you get at least one connection that’s really good in terms of networking, it’s really much easier.”
Sršen got to a lot of the right people by joining Y Combinator – an opportunity that came via winning Pioneers flagship event five years back.
“The Hofburg was where we met Michael Seibel, and he encouraged us to come to Y Combinator. He’s now one of our investors and friends. Winning was a big thing for us – we got credibility, a lot of media attention, and were able to position ourselves in Europe.
“Winning this kind of event proved that we knew what we were doing, at least a little bit – we weren’t just a bunch of idiots! It was some sort of validation and gave us confidence to go forward. And it’s great to get that from the professional community.”
And finally, we just had to ask one of the world’s ultra-successful female founders what advice she can share with women looking to emulate her.
“Our core mission at Bellabeat is to inspire women to be healthier so that they can be successful at other things. So I believe it’s really important to have a healthy life and work balance. It’s okay to take care of yourself first, because if you’re falling apart, you won’t be able to do your job.
“That’s not gender-specific, but I do think women tend to forget that more than men. They tend to be focused more on everything else than themselves. Jobs comes first, relationships come first, kids come first, and they themselves come last. So my main advice to female founders is that it’s okay to be selfish sometimes!”
*Stay tuned to our channels for reviews of Bellabeat’s upcoming products!*
*Visit the Bellabeat website [here](https://www.bellabeat.com/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Insights: Virtual Reality Impacting Healthcare](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-virtual-reality-impacting-healthcare/)
**Published:** July 11, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Whilst human instinct sometimes makes us wary of new technology, it would be completely wrong to ignore something that could have far-reaching impact in the health sector. In this article Pioneers Discover consultant Francesco Rubino looks at how virtual reality is already opening up new worlds in medical treatment and training, while also considering some of the potential pitfalls of one of the biggest buzzwords in the world of innovation and entrepreneurship.
**Content:**
Throughout history, artists and engineers have combined images and ideas to enable us to see the world in new ways.
In the 1890s, for example, the film era was disrupted by the Lumiere brothers. Legend has it that one of their first films created a real panic: the audience fled their seats after seeing an image of a train hurtling toward them on a screen. The audience wasn’t used to seeing images like this. Then as now, perception is a powerful thing.
In 2018, thanks to virtual reality (VR), we could perceive that train with even more frightening reality. Many think it could be the next breakthrough in a multitude of industries. It’s already proven so in entertainment and games. But what’s happening in the health ecosystem shows that it could have a remarkable social impact too.
Teams of innovators around the globe are using VR to push the boundaries of human ability. In a recent example, headset maker Fove undertook a crowdfunding campaign to create an app called Eye Play the Piano, which would allow kids with physical disabilities to play the piano using the headset’s eye tracking technology.
This is just one example of VR’s therapeutic potential. The power of immersion in VR is one of a kind in the realm of technology. It can warp our sense of time, or even let people forget about what’s happening to their bodies. Combined with what doctors call CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), VR can be used to calm patients, and even reduce pain during invasive procedures.
One such treatment is exposure therapy for patients with phobias. Psychiatrists are using VR technology to help patients deal with fear of flying, claustrophobia and more. In this way patients can experience things in a controlled, safe and private environment – an effective way to break patterns of avoidance.
Virtual reality is also augmenting the learning experience for medical professionals, allowing surgeons to plan prior to operations, or for medical students to learn anatomy faster and more practically. Surgical training has traditionally involved cadavers and a gradual process of assisting more experienced doctors before taking greater responsibility for the surgery. Virtual reality provides another means of practice, without any risk to real patients.
Take the example of a difficult tumor at the base of the skull, wrapped around the blood vessels that supply circulation to the brain. It’s important to know exactly where everything is located ahead of time, because it’s far from ideal to plan going in one direction and then finding out that you can’t see some critical element of the anatomy. Ideally, surgeons must have a clear picture in their mind. And the best way to do that is to immerse yourself in the operation. VR allows you to fly inside the skull and look at the tumor from every angle.
This is called Surgical Theatre. Invented by two former air-force officers now working at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), it combines 3D medical-scanning technology with a flight simulator to create a patient’s virtual brain. You’re not just looking at something – you actually feel like you’re there.
It might feel strange to enter and navigate a virtual world that reflects a physical world, especially one that we could never see without cutting someone open. But it’s powerful for surgeons to be able to study every blood vessel and its relationship to the tumor, rehearsing every step required to separate the tumor. It’s like having extraordinary perception, the ability to see that which is hidden. We can easily envision a day when surgeons will remove tumors with the precision of a skilled samurai, using knowledge from a virtual world that their eyes alone could never reveal.
But the ultimate challenge for VR in this decade would be the seamless integration with real world. With the help of a robot, could a surgeon sitting quietly in their office treat patients in a war zones? To achieve such goals, 5G connectivity will come in handy. Deutsche Telekom, throughout hub:raum 5G prototyping program, is already starting to test this technology with VR and AR applications
Although it remains in its infancy, VR’s applications are making strides in multitudes of industries. But in some cases there’s a flip side: users can start to feel redundant. They feel that they’re escaping from the real world and sometimes this feeling has proven to be an isolating one. We must guard against creating isolated digital junkies, because making human connections will always be important in life and work. We have to bear in mind that our perceptions alter how we view and function in the real world, whether what we perceive is real or imagined.
So while we have important choices to make around VR, I believe that the virtual world has the potential to bring us together in ways that would otherwise been impossible. I also believe this is the beginning of a powerful new means of examining the world.
When artists and engineers invent new ways for us to perceive things, it’s not simply to entertain us but to make us see the world we inhabit in new ways and improve our lives. The question is whether VR will bring us together or tear us apart. If we could live a day in somebody else’s life, could this help us appreciate the other’s point of view? Would we find empathy from one another? Could it become a powerful tool to teach compassion?
With such intriguing possibilities, one thing is clear for me: virtual reality is not a train we should run away from!
*Interested in the latest developments in health technology? Then join us at Health.Pioneers in Vienna on October 10th. Tickets and more information are available [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [How An Academic Researcher Can Build A Startup: MaterializeX Share Their Formula](https://pioneers.io/how-any-academic-researcher-can-build-startup-materializex-share-their-formula/)
**Published:** July 16, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Every startup needs its crazy dreamer. Universities abound with such characters - and the world of innovation needs them. While some stay in the faculty forever, others find ways to turn their research into successful startups. The latter was the case for MaterializeX, which offers non-toxic wood adhesives powered by machine learning. But there’s a fine line to walk on the path from academia to business, especially when it comes to choosing a team and understanding customers, as we hear in this exclusive interview with its co-founder Haidin Rashid.
**Content:**
With two masters degrees under his belt, and offers for a corporate-backed PhD on the table, there’s a chance Haidin Rashid could have stayed in academia for good – or at least ended up working for someone else. But, having discovered a biodegradable, sustainable adhesive “purely by accident” during his Innovation Design Engineering masters at Imperial College London, he decided in late 2016 that he wanted to take his technology down the **entrepreneurship trail**.
Despite no experience of running a business for the Iranian-born Rashid or his motley crew of co-founders (one Swiss-French, one Italian), that journey is going well so far. Manufacturers, who are facing increasing regulatory pressure to clean up their chemicals, are keen to buy. But in Rashid’s mind, things look bright because they’ve gone about things **in the right order**. For a technical idea like this, he says, freestyle academic research was absolutely the place to start. He wouldn’t suggest starting out with a business mindset at all.
“If I went back to my masters again, with what I know now, I wouldn’t come up with anything innovative,” he says. “You need the naivety of thinking you can make it happen, and that naivety makes you explore areas that you otherwise would not. For me, I was required to be able to use certain aspects that right now I would never even consider: reagents and chemicals that were far too expensive for a viable business.”
Maybe so, but exploring these ‘unviable’ avenues was essential to that **serendipitous discovery**. One which has nonetheless morphed into a highly ‘viable’ venture!
“In the early days you need to be as free-flowing as possible in terms of your creative aspiration. Later on you will realize, if an idea makes sense as a business or not. Then you can move it slightly to the right or the left – you begin to iterate. You just need that idea, that first phase of innovation, and then after that you will find an application.”
For Rashid, that process involved meeting a co-founding team at Deep Science Ventures, a venture-focused science institute in London, and then working with them to find a real **customer use case**. By January 2017, they’d completed that process and founded MaterializeX. So what were the learnings from the experience of finding partners and potential clients?
“I can size people up very well,” says Rashid. “I think I have that intuition to be able to see, if a person is somebody I want to work with or not. Setting up a company is very emotion-driven: there’s no revenue, nothing tangible, no working technology. There’s a lot of belief in something higher, so having a clear vision was one of the elements for us to stick together and push the company forward.”
But finding the **right fit for the market** wasn’t easy. The team looked at the viability of everything from biodegradable roads to biodegradable coathangers – before understanding that ‘biodegradable’ wasn’t the keyword industrial clients were looking for. In a changing regulatory environment, non-toxicity was what would sell. They only learned that from talking to customers – and then they had to be strong enough to change tack.
“If you are from an academic, research or technical background, then the worst thing you can do is fall in love with your idea. You yourself as a technical person need to go out there, find the customers and talk to customers. It plays such a big role in how you’re going to develop the technology.
“As a technical founder it’s really good if you say, ‘I want to found a company, and now I want to find the customers I want to serve.’ Then you start to question a lot more about what they need, and that influences the research directly. There needs to be a clear drive from your side to be able to engage on the business side, and early on.”
Then, and only then, says Rashid, comes the **magic moment**…
“Once you can say ‘I have this product and this is exactly what they want’, then you sell to them.”
It takes some restraint to wait until that point – and have the discipline to first perfect the product. But after founding the company and discovering the customers’ needs, the MaterializeX crew ‘stuck’ to their guns and fine-tuned the technology immediately after founding. Even now, that continues to be the focus – they still keep their event appearances very limited.
It was late last year before they started making serious business contacts – largely through spending two autumn months at the Vienna Start-up Package, for which they were **scouted by Pioneers Discover**. And only now are they getting close enough with their product to consider ramping up sales. Which could mean the time is right for the crazy innovators finally step aside from that side of operations.
“None of us are business people, but we came to a decision early on. We asked ourselves, if we wanted an MBA – but we decided we needed to create a product first. Create it, work it out really well. And now we’re hiring an MBA. In the early days it doesn’t make any sense to hire somebody from a business background – because they almost bias the research too much.”
So there you have it: if you want to innovate your way to a gap in the market, it’s good to start out as a mad scientist! And when you decide to skip madly down the entrepreneurship path, do things in the right order – make sure you never put the cart before the horse!
*MaterializeX was one of the Top 8 finalists at Pioneers’18. To read more about our flagship event, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-18-wrap).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [How To Deliver An Impactful Pitch? Tips From Renowned Storytelling Expert](https://pioneers.io/patti-sanchez-part-1/)
**Published:** July 18, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Just in case you missed her session on the Academy Stage at Pioneers’18 in May, we’ve spoken to storytelling and communications expert Patti Sanchez in an exclusive interview. In this first article in a two-part series, the Chief Strategy Officer at leading Silicon Valley storytelling consultancy Duarte shares some thought-provoking tips on some of the principles by which founders can tweak those ultra-short pitches to have maximum effect on investors, potential partners and juries...
**Content:**
Unless your startup idea is so obviously brilliant that customers and investors are knocking at your door without invitation, chances are you’re going to need to weave a compelling story and master the art of pitching if you want to meet with success. And with events like Pioneers’18 typically offering a tight three minutes in which to sell your concept on stage, it’s imperative to get it spot-on.
Patti Sanchez, who flew to Vienna from California to share her insights in the *Leaders Illuminate the Path* session at our flagship event at the end of May, says that the most essential ingredient to resonating with your audience is to hone in on the pain your startup is going to save. And, says the co-author of *Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies & Symbols*, replacing peripheral details with anecdote is something a lot more founders could think about doing.
“Be clear on your ‘big idea’,” she advises. “Many founders have a grand vision but have a hard time boiling it down and stating it succinctly. The big idea is a sentence that articulates a problem, your point of view on that problem, and the stakes of solving that problem.
“Why is this problem worth solving, and how are you uniquely able to solve it? If you can sum *that* up in a sentence, you can build a presentation structure to support that. This also helps you leave out all the things that aren’t relevant to that ‘big idea’.”
Such details might include team member biographies, too deep a dive into the workings of your technology, vague ‘revolutionary talk’, meaningless buzzwords and sometimes even too much on how the business model is going to work. Making the big idea real and human is much more relevant than any of that.
“Founders get into too much of the weeds,” says Sanchez. “The first thing is always to explain what your promise is. What are you trying to do, why do you exist and how are you going to solve your problem better than anyone else?
“So get really concrete about the people who would potentially buy your product, and how they would use it. There’s a temptation to sell a brand vision – but tell me the three ways in which your service is going to change the lives of your customers in some way! It’s about making the way in which your product will be useful more tangible.”
One way to do this is to use a graphic example. Even in a three-minute pitch, says Sanchez, storytelling in its most literal sense can have more impact than the very best slides in your deck.
“Storytelling can take you through an anecdote of a scenario situation that a real company or person is facing. The classic three-act story structure fits perfectly there: the likeable hero facing a challenge at the beginning, then encountering a mentor or helper who helps them overcome these challenges, and in the end they are transformed. In the context of your startup those elements are customers, challenge and resolution.
“If you only have three minutes then for sure you only have time for one such anecdote. But it’s a great way to make your promise very concrete.”
One way to make it thoroughly vague, on the other hand, can be the **unthinking use of buzzword terms** like Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Shouldn’t startups be careful when considering whether to throw them around in their pitches?
“Yes, I think that’s good advice,” says Sanchez. “People and companies are jumping on the bandwagon, and saying they’re using things like AI when maybe they’re not. Or they’re using the buzzword without explaining why it’s necessary for their solution. It’s always a **mistake to use a buzzword instead of a benefit.**”
Finally, says Sanchez, you cannot expect to pitch successfully without considering exactly whom you’re pitching to.
“**Know your audience** and what really matters to them. What types of investments do they usually fund? What are the requirements or capabilities of companies they fund? Know them and tailor your talk to them.
“It’s a **mistake that a lot of founders make to tell the same story to everyone all the time**. A quick way to lose your audience is if they don’t see themselves in it. So have the short few slides summary of who you are, what you do and why that’s a problem you’re solving, but then **go into modules** – how your solution applies to this or that market segment. Those become slides that you swap in and out depending on who you are talking to.”
When you’ve sat through enough pitches that still leave you bemused on the most fundamental questions about what a startup does, Sanchez’s advice makes a lot of sense. While it can arguably be tough to illustrate ‘the big idea’ on an engaging level for some startups in less ‘sexy’ technology, there are still powerful ways and means of doing so. For more on this, the profound impact of physical interactions at events and learning from the Hyperloop One’s storytelling strategy, stay tuned to our channels for part two of this interview!
*Read the story of our Pioneers’17 winning startup Stromkind travelling to Silicon Valley and taking part in a communications workshop with Duarte [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/interview-stromkind-makes-waves-usa).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Insights: The Power of Blockchain To Disrupt The Energy Sector](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-power-blockchain-disrupt-energy-sector/)
**Published:** July 26, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We dive deep into the reasons why Blockchain technology can - and will - disrupt the energy sector. In particular we look at use cases where this technology’s efficiency, transparency and cost savings can represent a revolution in the way energy is distributed. With dozens of startups already looking at playing their part in that upheaval, every stakeholder in the energy industry should be getting set to do things very differently in the near future.
**Content:**
At Pioneers Discover we explore new trends and technologies with our corporate partners and exceptional entrepreneurs on a daily basis. In these conversations, Blockchain has become a recurring theme. Not only do our clients want to learn about it, but many are already defining first use cases and running their first proof of concepts projects.
The reason Blockchain technology is so exciting for us as startup-driven innovation consultancy is that its raison d’être is to disrupt traditional business processes by providing a viable decentralized alternative to mainstream centralized systems. With disruption also the basic goal of startups, it’s a perfect technology choice for entrepreneurs aiming to change entire industries or provide new products to large enterprises.
Blockchain is already attracting large investment, with venture capital financing in 2017 of over $ 1 billion. Additionally Blockchain-specific Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), the sale of cryptocurrency tokens in a new company, increased to $ 5 billion.
**Blockchain Basics**
A Blockchain is a decentralized, distributed network architecture in which a public ledger of all transactions within the network is shared among all its participating nodes (essentially connected computers). Constantly growing as ‘completed’ blocks, with the most recent transactions, recorded and added in chronological order, this ledger allows market participants to keep track of digital transactions without central record-keeping. Each node gets a copy of the Blockchain, which is downloaded automatically. The result is the elimination of a central server, with authorization and authentication of transactions being carried out by the entire network.
**Benefits of Blockchain**
Since there are no fees to be paid to third-party intermediaries, Blockchain allows for faster transactions at greatly reduced costs.
Not only is settlement is achieved in near real time, but the transparency of all transactions provides a basis for traceability and trust between actors. Trust is created by reading the Blockchain together, which reduces the number of intermediaries. In turn a smaller number of intermediaries reduces compliance, coordination and transaction costs, thus creating marketplaces with lower barriers to entry, allowing smaller-volume trading.
By simplifying processes and infrastructures, Blockchain also increases operational efficiency. Allocation mechanisms can be designed to provide incentives for ‘good’ behavior throughout the value chain. Efficiency is further enhanced by the digitization of assets. Control and security are inherent in Blockchain design. Encryption levels are better for increased privacy, limited compliance and fraud risk. Decentralization prevents market abuse by monopolies and requires correspondingly less legislation, regulation and cost.
**Blockchain’s Opportunity To Disrupt the Energy Sector**
No less than 122 Blockchain startups are now active in the energy sector, and since the beginning of last year more than 50 new companies have started operations, according to GTM Research.
Meanwhile the global electricity market is estimated at about $2 trillion, and is largely monopolized by a few corporations. These key players in the sector control the dynamics of the market, focusing on higher energy production levels to ensure maximum profits. The contribution of consumers and end-users to this model is limited to subscribing to energy services.
**Energy Sector Use Cases For Blockchain**
Blockchains have already found effective use cases in banking, payment processing, music licensing and online gaming and much more. Blockchain was a focal topic in Davos: a survey by the World Economic Forum predicted that by 2027, 10 percent of global GDP will be stored on the Blockchain.
Blockchain technology is now also catching up to the energy sector. According to research more than 70 demonstration projects are currently running in the electricity industry alone.
With Blockchain’s ability to build a decentralized power supply system, there’s a strong possibility that it will connect energy suppliers directly with energy consumers. This will simplify today’s systems, whereby each party in the energy sector operates at different levels.
With Blockchain, the energy sector could also be controlled through smart contracts. These would signal to the system which transactions should be triggered at a given moment. This would be based on predefined rules designed to ensure that all energy flows are automatically controlled to balance energy supply and demand. Smart contracts can ensure that the right amount of energy is automatically delivered to storage.
A Blockchain in the energy sector means that all energy flows and business activities are stored securely and decentrally. With smart contracts controlling the system and distributed ledgers securely documenting all activities, this would also have a direct impact on network and storage operations.
A decentralized energy transaction and supply system has huge potential. Energy generated in distributed generation plants would be transported over smaller networks to the end users, who could pay with cryptocurrency. Smart meters would measure the amount of energy generated and consumed, while energy trades and payments would be controlled by smart contracts and executed through the Blockchain.
Blockchain-based energy processes would no longer require third parties such as energy companies or banks for transactions. A decentralized energy transaction and supply system would enable consumers to manage their electricity supply contracts and consumption data themselves.
**The Challenges**
There are many technical, regulatory and sovereignty issues need to be resolved before Blockchain-based solutions are widely implemented in the energy markets.
Current systems that rely heavily on human input reduce the value proposition of Blockchain in the energy sector. A more autonomous system based on the ‘Internet of Things’ is preferable, although this will require extra time, thought and expense if the entire system is to be reliable, secure, and relevant.
Blockchain technology is still in its infancy, and the circle of stakeholders who understand it is still far too small. Standards for its use are often weak, ambiguous or fragmented where they exist. It will take time and active coordination between public and private actors to create a critical mass around different applications for Blockchain in the energy sector.
*We at Pioneers Discover are doing our part to drive blockchain adoption in the energy sector, by working on a Blockchain Hackathon for the end of this year. Stay tuned – and in the meantime read why your company needs a hackathon [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/does-your-company-need-hackathon)!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [The Million Euro Funding Tip: How Mentorship Learnings Can Launch Your Founder Journey](https://pioneers.io/million-euro-funding-tip-how-mentorship-learnings-can-launch-your-founder-journey/)
**Published:** July 23, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Before you go out there and found your own startup, learning from the best can be a great way to avoid costly mistakes. Getting a job in ‘the scene’ - particularly in a buzzing local ecosystem - and taking inspiration from the people who’ve been there and launched companies can be a smart move for successfully kick-starting that founder mindset. One to have taken this approach is Daniel Kilger, who has raised almost a million Euros in funding already. Here he shares his thoughts in an exclusive interview.
**Content:**
Munich-based startup Smokeless has developed a smart e-cigarette, which is designed to wean people off nicotine in personalised fashion, according to their smoking habits. Combined with a competitive gamification element that tackles the psychological elements of addiction, its potential to solve a huge health problem is clear. Even though details of the product remain under wraps until their upcoming launch, the basics were enough to convince the jury at Pioneers’18 and for Smokeless to have raised almost a million Euros in funding already.
It’s been a fast rise for the German startup, no doubt about it. Talking to co-founder Daniel Kilger, it becomes clear that one of the main reasons for that is the fact that he and his co-founders took the time to learn from the best before embarking on their project. Following his studies, Kilger spent time working as a startup scout, startup evangelist and mentor in the Munich scene before deciding the time was right to start building a team and an idea in 2017.
Most notably, it was his attitude to challenges and obstacles that changed to optimal after rubbing shoulders with the good and great of the entrepreneurship world.
“For me it was important to spend as much time as possible with like-minded people I could learn from, until I really felt that there was an idea worth chasing,” says Kilger.
“I got my mentality from meeting a lot of super inspirational people,” he continues. “I attended speeches from Richard Branson, Eric Schmidt and met the founders of Airbnb. People like their co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk had a big influence on me and the mindset. And how I deal with challenges. Because when you hear some of the stories from Airbnb…you realize that was real challenge!
“I could see that you need to think big, and believe big, in order to have the big results. This sounds like a stupid motivational line, but hearing it from people who worked through this made me really believe it.”
Another to inspire him to push through choppy waters was Andy Goldstein, Kilger’s former boss at the LMU Entrepreneurship Center.
“Andy always says that ‘every breakdown is opportunity for a breakthrough.’ And that’s exactly how I see it now. Difficulty is not an obstacle for me, or something that stops me, but it’s a challenge.
“It doesn’t matter how big the obstacles are – there’s always a way to solve them. We had a lot of those so far with Smokeless, especially developing a groundbreaking new product that has never existed. There’s no classification for such products and no standardized accreditation process. We are basically pioneering the market and the change of regulations, which is not the easiest task.”
Such tasks are quite familiar in the life sciences, and Kilger says it was one of many.
“From day one we faced not only small hills, but real Mount Everests. It turned out that by by being creative and not surrendering, they all vanished. With the right people you can solve nearly everything.”
And solving these isn’t just an opportunity to get your project back on course, says Kilger. It’s also a chance to steal a march on the opposition.
“With every challenge you overcome, you move further away from the people trying to do the same thing. When we climb Mt Everest, it doesn’t mean just anybody else can do it – even if they have the same idea, same resources and the same training. It doesn’t mean we will both end up at the top. So now we’re happy to welcome every challenge!”
And they’ll make sure they tackle them quickly, says Kilger. Because, again, the competition will be trying to do the same.
“One important thing I’ve learned is that you need to move super fast. There’s always somebody moving faster!”
And, finally, when racing to overcome those Mount Everests on your startup journey, it’s important that you don’t forget that mentality of learning from the best. Help is usually at hand if you’re willing to look for it.
“Whatever you know, there will be someone who knows better. Whatever I know about hardware or medical, there’s always a doctor who knows more.”
The power of the minds in the broader world of innovation, then, will always be something you should try and tap into. So while immersing yourself in general inspiration ahead of founding a startup is certainly an avenue to consider, never forget to stay open to more specifically relevant tips once you start your journey!
While the advice in this article will have general application to startups and their founders worldwide, both Smokeless and we at Pioneers are awaiting the public launch of their product with keen anticipation. Stay tuned to our channels over the next few weeks for the first glimpses of it!
Looking for more amazing health innovations? Then learn more about Health.Pioneers in Vienna on October 10th [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Health.Pioneers Returns For Second Edition: Startups Applications Deadline Approaching!](https://pioneers.io/healthpioneers-returns-second-edition-startups-applications-deadline-approaching/)
**Published:** July 19, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With startup applications for Health.Pioneers in Vienna on October 10th closing on August 17th, it’s high time for founders to start letting us know why they should get one of our free startup tickets and a possible chance to pitch at this industry-focused event. If you want the world to see your impactful, transformative medical technology and meet decision-makers from the pharma, biotech, insurance and public health sectors, make sure you read on and apply today!
**Content:**
With startup applications for Health.Pioneers in Vienna on October 10th closing on August 17th, it’s high time for founders to start letting us know why they should get one of our free startup tickets and a possible chance to pitch at this industry-focused event. If you want the world to see your impactful, transformative medical technology and meet decision-makers from the pharma, biotech, insurance and public health sectors, make sure you read on and apply today!
Startups interested in taking part in the second edition of Health.Pioneers can read more about the event and apply [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/).
Read the full story of the first edition of Health.Pioneers, which took place in Amsterdam in October 2017, [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/health-pioneers-summary).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Knowing Your Target Audience: Communication That Resonates](https://pioneers.io/importance-knowing-your-audience-patti-sanchez/)
**Published:** July 30, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In the second part of our exclusive interview with American storytelling and communications expert Patti Sanchez we take a step beyond the basics of pitching. In this article she shares more on how to tailor a message to specific audiences, how attending live events can help you bring that message home in the most powerful way, and draws learnings from the way her client Hyperloop One successfully positioned itself in a cynical market.
**Content:**
Having covered the general essentials required to deliver an impactful pitch in [part one](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/patti-sanchez-part-1) of this interview with Patti Sanchez, one of the things on which she lends her insights this time is how companies with highly technical products or solutions can sell a vision that non-specialists might find dull or overwhelming.
“This is a challenge we face every day,” admits the author of *Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies & Symbols*. “Tech companies talk about their ‘thing’, instead of talking about why their thing is important and how their thing helps people and organizations.
“Founders can forget, I think, that technology is just a tool used by humans. Yes, you do at some point have to explain in greater detail all the components of the platform, how they work together. But that doesn’t excuse you from the responsibility of helping people understand how this is actually *useful* to them.”
Even when you might be talking to a specialist and informed audience, says Sanchez, the basics of storytelling still apply. It’s not necessary to show off your technical knowledge in order to be taken seriously – and it’s not likely to achieve that elusive resonation with your listeners.
“As with any pitch, I often advise them to use storytelling to describe use cases. For example, what are the four scenarios in which a platform can be used? That always helps to make something very abstract tangible. It helps with the sales process too: identifying situations in which the tech can be applied can mean getting a jump start on identifying potential reasons to buy.”
After all, just because you’re selling something like cloud data protection software doesn’t mean you’re not dealing with human beings and their less-than-robotic decision-making processes.
“You don’t want to go too far with your story and tug at the heartstrings of human impact if that product doesn’t really play a role like that. But you’ve still got something that can make life easier for employees in a business, or help it save money – and that represents an emotional appeal. What does data protection do for the managers of the IT division of that business? Why is it urgent? What pain is it taking away?”
But while selling a business-to-business vision is one thing, isn’t there going to be a key difference in your storytelling when you’re communicating something oriented towards consumers instead?
Yes, the story may well need to be tailored, as per the modular approach recommended by Duarte, the Silicon Valley presentations consultancy of which Sanchez is Chief Strategy Officer. But the thinking and your goals are still exactly the same, she says. The basics are universal.
“I believe humans are humans. The fundamental things that drive people to make decision are the same: we feel first and we rationalize later.
“We are all emotional beings. If you know that, you can create communication that resonates with either businesses or consumers. Because you understand what they’re afraid of and what they’re excited by – and you communicate around that – you’re more likely to be successful.”
While a company like Hyperloop One might have been blessed with a product with more eye-catching appeal for the layperson, this Duarte client still had its challenges. Sanchez points to their solution as an example of how important it is to consider (and communicate) your startup’s positioning.
“When they first came to us and explained what they wanted to do, I said ‘Holy Cow, this is going to be hard!’ It’s a feat of engineering to build this form of transport that never existed, but it’s also a political nightmare. There are so many people who have to say yes to this for it to be successful, and all kinds of potential sources of opposition to something this big.
“But what they did that was brilliant was they positioned this mode of transportation as complementary, not competitive. Their story was that Hyperloop One makes everything else better rather than replacing it – which was a way to diffuse the resistance they would get.
“They also explained in very simple terms what it is and why it’s going to be good for humans. The value proposition they landed on was that it removes the barriers of distance and time, moving goods and people faster and more efficiently.
“This positioning challenge is a hard thing for startups to do in storytelling. They have to be clear about not just what business they are in, but how they position themselves relative to the other businesses around them. How do you use them to help you instead of allow them to stop you?”
One place to connect with other players in your immediate business environment is at innovation events such as our flagship in Vienna, at which Sanchez was a speaker this year. She’s a firm believe in the power of live experience when it comes to selling a vision.
“People do not value events as much as they should,” she says. “Events are opportunities to create a moment that people won’t forget. They’re a collective experience. We can all be moved to a certain degree when we’re sitting by ourselves, but when you’re in a room full of hundreds of people all experiencing the same thing, it’s a whole other level of momentum.
“In a sociological context this is called collective effervescence – a phenomenon you only get when a group of people gets together and has a shared experience. That’s especially important as a vehicle for storytelling, because storytelling is inherently emotional. When you’re trying to get people to see and feel the vision that you have for something that doesn’t exist yet, you want people to be seeing people around them all nodding and saying ‘I’d totally buy into this!’”
But it’s not just about the collective experience. Events also offer the chance to show off your vision in a more personal (and therefore memorable) way. It could be a physical exhibit, a demonstration, or even sound – such as when Aiva Technologies co-founder Pierre Barreau took to the stage at Pioneers’18, a talk which culminated in the playing of the first official tech conference theme tune composed by artificial intelligence.
“I won’t forget that talk,” says Sanchez. “Hearing the music, and seeing and feeling the audience resonate with that…is exactly what I’m talking about. Right after that I went on the Aiva website, played the sound clips and read all about what they do. Being in that room with all those other humans and feeling awed by the music, sharing that experience of being moved…seared it into my memory in a way that anything I heard or saw by myself couldn’t have done.
“It’s a fact proven in studies that humans are more likely to remember things we experience with other people than things we experience on our own. That peak experience is then more memorable and we carry it with us longer. And sure enough, I’ve told that story a few times to people: the moment when I saw and heard music composed by a robot!”
*Ready for some memorable experiences at our next innovation event? Grab tickets for Health.Pioneers in Vienna on October 10th, or apply as a startup, [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Ventures: Pioneers, Speedinvest and startup300 restructure cooperation](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-ventures-pioneers-speedinvest-and-startup300-restructure-cooperation/)
**Published:** August 1, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Following startup300 AG’s recent acquisition of JFDI GmbH, the company behind the Pioneers brand, a reorganization of pre-seed Venture Capital Fund Pioneers Ventures became necessary. Read on for further details of the future plans for our investment arm.
**Content:**
Pre-seed Venture Capital Fund Pioneers Ventures, founded in 2015 by Pioneers and Speedinvest, has a new structure. Following startup300 AG’s recent acquisition of JFDI GmbH, the company behind the Pioneers brand, a reorganization became necessary. As of today, more than thirty of Pioneers Ventures’ existing investments in Business Tech, Consumer Tech, Financial Tech and Health Tech startups are to be taken over by Speedinvest and integrated into the fund’s portfolio. The current Pioneers Ventures management team, comprised of Philipp Stangl and Markus Lang, also moves to Speedinvest and will lead the newly-created pre-seed unit. Pioneers Ventures itself will continue to be operated by Pioneers and its new investment team, which will be further strengthened by startup300 group of experts. As before, it will invest in pre-seed startups, whilst also taking on the existing tech investment portfolio of startup300.
**Speedinvest takes over and integrates existing team and portfolio**
“To us, Pioneers Ventures is a real success story! The 32 portfolio companies currently employ around 500 persons, have already gained a total of over €20 million in follow-on funding, and many are regarded as technological leaders in their field. For these reasons, it was a logical step to work more closely with the team in the future,” remarks Michael Schuster, Managing Partner at Speedinvest, with regards to the integration.
**Pioneers Ventures starts afresh under the startup300 umbrella**
Pioneers and startup300 will seamlessly continue the work of Pioneers Ventures as a pre-seed investment vehicle, investing as normal. “Pioneers Ventures is a further professionalization of our investment activities. Soon we will further strengthen the team – probably under the leadership of a prominent name in the business angel scene. Pioneers Ventures portfolio companies will not only continue to enjoy all the benefits that the Pioneers community has to offer, but will also enjoy the advantages of being a member of the startup300 family. Moreover, we’re considering establishing a new Venture Capital fund under Pioneers Ventures to significantly increase our investment performance” says Michael Eisler, chairman of startup300 AG.
“We’re excited to offer to our Pioneers Ventures portfolio companies an even wider scale of added-value support going forward. Besides the direct financial investment and follow-on funding opportunities, the extensive corporate and public sector partners network and events of Pioneers, business scaling consultancy and guaranteed publicity, our portfolio companies will also benefit from access to startup300’s coworking areas,” added Oliver Csendes, CEO of Pioneers.
**A strong ecosystem: The common goal of Pioneers, startup300 and Speedinvest**
In the future, the three organisations seek to cooperate closely to keep strengthening the Austrian startup ecosystem. “What unites Pioneers, startup300, and Speedinvest is the drive to support outstanding founders from all across Europe with know-how, financial resources and a valuable network. In doing so, they aim to increase the economic and societal impact of young entrepreneurs,” all parties agree.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Purpose, BANG, Relevance, Stories and Hook: Five Tips For Successful Startup Pitching](https://pioneers.io/purpose-bang-relevance-stories-and-hook-five-tips-successful-startup-pitching/)
**Published:** August 7, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As we continue to look at the best ways in which founders can achieve their goals whilst they get those precious few moments in the spotlight, Startup Live Managing Partner, former founder and Pioneers Challenge Award moderator Georg Kuttner shares five practical lessons he’s learned from years of both pitching and moderating. Founders who face the daunting prospect of pitching can read on and learn how to start, how to finish, and everything you might want to say in between...
**Content:**
The memory of my first pitch still haunts my dreams from time to time. I can still remember the four and a half hour train ride from my (then) hometown Innsbruck to Vienna, which I spent preparing for that pitch competition, as if it was yesterday.
Even though I’d already been working on our startup for about two years at that time, I had absolutely no clue what I should talk about in my ‘three minutes of fame’. Countless pieces of paper and hundreds of different concepts later, I delivered what I still consider the worst pitch I’ve ever witnessed.
Somehow, I managed to present for a full ten minutes without being cut off by the moderator – yet I said basically nothing. And I wore a suit. At a startup pitching competition. A full suit!
Fast forward a couple years, and here I am being asked by the nice folks at Pioneers to write a blog post about pitching. How did it come to that?
I’ll make a long story short. Even though we had quite a good run with our startup back then, we eventually pivoted and I took over as Managing Partner of Startup Live, the leading acceleration program for ideation-phase startups in Europe.
I’ve spent the past three years hopping from one startup event to another. By hosting our famous Startup Live programs all over Europe I discovered my passion for public speaking, moderating and mentoring startups.
During this time, I’ve seen over a thousand pitches and perfected the ‘Art of Pitching’ along the way. Now I’d like to share the five most important lessons I’ve learned.
**Pitch with purpose**
You know those founders who take part in every single startup competition in your region? Every time the chance comes along, he or she grabs a microphone and pitches the same story you’ve heard a thousand times before. You keep asking yourself “why are they still doing this?”.
Unfortunately, many founders don’t have a clear purpose on why they’re pitching in the first place, so they just got out there and do it as often as they can. While this is not completely wrong, it’s kind of like going on a hunt with a minigun, blindly shooting as many bullets as you can, trying to hit anything.
Successful founders, by contrast, operate like sharpshooters. Before they go out on a stage, they always ask themselves the question “Why am I here today? What’s my goal? What do I want to achieve with this pitch?”
Maybe they’re fundraising, thus pitching for investment. Maybe they’re hiring, so they’re pitching to attract talent. Or perhaps they want to sell their product, in which case their pitch is more like a marketing one.
Don’t ever go on a stage just for the sake of pitching. Always think about the purpose of your pitch first and set yourself tangible goals for it.
**Start with a BANG**
You’ve probably heard this before, but during the first couple of seconds of your pitch the audience will decide, if they continue to listen to you or not. So the first words that come out of your mouth are crucial to the success of your whole pitch.
Still, a lot of founders decide to open with a classic “Hi, my name is Thomas Müller and I am here to present my idea today.” I don’t know about you, but opening lines like that don’t generally grab my attention at all.
If you really want to have people on the edges of their seats, start with something unusual. This could be anything from going on stage wearing a yellow hard-hat at an Industry 4.0 event to turning the lights off and playing ultrasound noises while pitching a gadget for pregnant women.
Another great way to get the attention of the audience early on is by letting them actively participate through asking questions. Just be sure to pick a question where you know you’ll get the answers you need…or have a backup plan.
I once saw a startup where the pitcher started with the question “How many of you have texted while driving a car?”. Only a few hands went up, so he immediately followed that up with “Come on, be honest guys!” Only when almost every hand went up, did he announce that this is exactly the problem his startup was solving.
**Talk about relevant stuff**
A couple of weeks ago Christoph Schnedlitz, founder of HiMoment, wrote a blogpost where he advised against following a strict pitching structure like problem-solution-market-team-traction- competition-financials.
Even though guidelines like this can greatly help first-time entrepreneurs and pitchers in some respects, I completely agree with him on this when it comes to pitching.
It goes back to step one: having a clear-cut goal for your pitch. Because your pitch can have different goals each and every time you give it, you should also adapt the content accordingly. Investors and VCs are more likely to be interested in the numbers and metrics of your business than different product features. On the other hand, you’d never present a detailed financial plan when your goal is to sell your product to potential customers.
In both cases, though, your job is not to explain every single detail about your business or product. Rather, it’s to raise enough interest to actually achieve the goal you’ve set for yourself.
It’s not about what you want to tell, but what others need to hear.
**People want to hear stories**
Everybody talks about storytelling and I could probably write a whole essay about it. But I won’t. Instead, I’ll just leave you with this clip from one of the best storytellers I’ve ever seen.
If you want to learn anything about storytelling, just watch this [video](https://youtu.be/5AhRqg0ADbk).
**Throw out your hook**
Imagine you deliver an amazing pitch which is 100% tailored to your audience and aligned with your goals. You could still ruin the whole thing by ending on a vague note like ‘thank you for your attention.’ Don’t assume the people you want something from will automatically know what to do. They won’t.
It’s your job to tell them what you want them to do directly to their face. While doing so, never give them options. If you do, they won’t take any of them.
A couple of years ago I gave pitches in front of 400 students, the ideal target group for our startup back then. I ended each pitch with something like, “If you like what you heard, sign up to our website or subscribe to our newsletter. You can also like us on Facebook or grab a leaflet on your way out. Or simply talk with me later.”
After every pitch we got a handful of new sign-ups to our website, which was obviously our main goal. Sarcastic yay! As soon as I changed it up and simply finished with, “If you want to earn more money during your studies, just sign up to our website here!”, we got about 60 new sign-ups.
So whenever you throw out your hook at the end of your pitch, make sure to be as precise as possible. Give them a benefit and never give them options.
*If you want to learn more about the ‘Art of Pitching’ and take your startup to the next level, join one of our upcoming [Startup Live programs](http://www.startuplive.org/events/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Opens New Base In Munich](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-opens-new-base-munich/)
**Published:** August 9, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers is pleased to announce that we’re expanding our reach in Europe and have decided to add a member to the team in Munich. Local startups, investors, corporates and partners will now be able to establish face-to-face contact with us in the innovative heart of Bavaria!
**Content:**
Pioneers is pleased to announce that we’re expanding our **presence in Germany** with the addition of a team member **based in Munich**.
Having already staged three of our industry-focused events in Germany, including two in Munich (namely Mobility.Pioneers in 2017 and 2018), the time is right for us to establish a stronger foothold in the innovative heart of Bavaria.
We’re also looking forward to being closer to the **innovation community** in Germany, expanding our existing network of startups, investors, corporates and network partners across the nation.
All of the above can now reach out directly to **Lisa Kohl**, whether regarding events and other partnership opportunities, open innovation projects or investment connections. You can email her at lisa.kohl@pioneers.io.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [To Exit Or Not To Exit? How To Get That Dream Acquisition Deal](https://pioneers.io/exit-or-not-exit-how-get-dream-acquisition-deal/)
**Published:** August 12, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** One of the toughest decisions you’ll ever make as a founder is whether accepting an acquisition offer is right for you. For some advice on how you might go about making that decision, we spoke to our first flagship event winners mySugr. Just over a year ago, the Viennese health startup announced an acquisition by industry giant Roche - and so far it’s proved a great decision. Read on for their insights - and details of how your startup can apply to meet them and other healthcare innovators at Health.Pioneers on October 10th.
**Content:**
In June 2017, we were proud to announce that diabetes management startup mySugr had ‘exited’ via an [acquisition by healthcare giant Roche](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/mysugr-joins-roche-family). The news rocked the Vienna startup scene, but was particularly pleasing for us, coming as it did six years after the company won the very first edition of our flagship event in 2011.
One year on from the deal, mySugr continues to grow and thrive under its original brand name and co-founding team. Not only that, but it has retained its independence and its freedom to work with Roche competitors as well as its owners. A dream exit scenario: plenty of benefits and none of the drawbacks.
How did they manage it? For the answers, we interviewed Frank Westermann, one of the four co-founders and CEO of mySugr, who is currently based in Encinitas, California and focusing on building up the mySugr US business.
“It wasn’t initially driven from our side,” says Westermann of a process that was negotiated over the course of a full year. “We weren’t looking to get acquired, rather to raise another round of financing. But the first time we were asked it kick started a thought process.”
From there, it was certainly a long way from being an impulsive deal.
“It was a very conscious decision to take their offer. We were talking to not just Roche but other companies too. It took more than a year to make the decision.”
One key to making the right call without major conflict was having the right people on board, so to speak. It went back to **having a good synergy with their original investors**. Another illustration that your very first funding round is about people as much as money – get it wrong and it can bite you when it comes to big discussions down the line.
“We were lucky to have a great board and a great relationship with them. I totally trusted them and we had great discussions about whether acquisition would be the right step – and at the end of day we decided that it was. But we were never forced or driven by our investors.”
And with multiple offers on the table, that **personal connection was also critical** in mySugr’s decision to go with Roche. They already had a relationship with the firm, both as collaborators on developing products, and via Roche Ventures having been one of their early investors.
“We’d been working with Roche for a long time already, so there was a **level of trust** with their people. We knew the company from inside and knew their goals and mission – and that ours aligned very well.”
Still, negotiation was important. There were important boxes mySugr wanted to tick, if they were to accept an offer.
“Independence was one thing we insisted on,” says Westermann. “That we could continue to work with other companies in the diabetes space, even direct competitors. That would have been a deal breaker.”
So, with the deal made and that all-important freedom still in place, what have proven to be the biggest benefits for mySugr?
“Access to markets, access to resources and access to internal budgets,” he answers. “The latter is certainly a lot less stressful than raising financing, which means we can focus better on pursuing our vision!”
Not every deal will necessarily be as sweet as it has been for mySugr, of course. But even though you may not be thinking ‘exit’, be advised that it may try to seek you out.
“Getting acquired wasn’t our goal when we started mySugr,” says Frank. “It wasn’t our intention to start a company to make an exit. But as a founder you get into the system, and as soon as you raise capital from venture capital companies, exits are on your radar. It’s something investors will actively pursue from a certain point in time, which is absolutely fine.
“But every case is different and individual, so it should be a very cautious decision. **The most important thing is to get to know the people at the acquiring company.**
“You also need to **see what chances you have as an independent company to dominate a market**, and if the chances are higher with a partner than alone. It doesn’t have to be an acquisition, either. A partnership is also an option.”
“Talking on an industry-specific level, most healthcare companies need market access to get reimbursement. In this space it’s very hard to get, and complicated to set up, so it makes sense to have strong strategic partners. A close alignment of some sort is a lot more beneficial in the healthcare space than, say, in the consumer space.”
Speaking of industry-specific, mySugr will be at the second edition of Health.Pioneers in Vienna on October 10th. Having grown beyond being a dreamy, disruptive startup, Westermann says it’s important to be keeping an eye on the next generation that might disrupt them!
“A lot of innovation comes from smaller companies than us, and it’s good for us to see what the industry and technology trends are. At events you can get a pulse of the direction things are going.”
Startups hoping to meet this success story as well as a host of other healthcare investors and corporates are running out of time to apply for the chance to attend Health.Pioneers for free. The deadline is August 17th – this Friday!
“We met our first investor, Hansi Hansmann, at a Pioneers event, and now we attend to find companies in which we’d like to invest on a private basis,” concludes Westermann. “For every young company, these are a great opportunity to get in touch with investors, as well as pitch. It’s simply great for matchmaking!”
*Apply for Health.Pioneers [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/) by Friday August 17th.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Insights: Reaching Sustainable Development Targets Through Open Innovation](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-reaching-sustainable-development-targets-through-open-innovation/)
**Published:** August 16, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** The topic of sustainable development is now firmly on the agenda of successful corporations and is being integrated into the very heart of their strategies. By bringing sustainable innovations to their products and services, companies strengthen their ‘human credentials’, benefit the environment and achieve financial gains too. In this article we look at case studies of how top corporates are achieving these sustainability goals through collaboration programs with impactful startups.
**Content:**
Ongoing issues in society, the economy and the environment have drawn a huge amount of attention to the topic of sustainable development. It’s becoming an essential part of how we live. The concept of sustainable development centers around ways to secure responsible production, as well as the allocation and consumption of resources, goods and services with the prospects of future generations in mind.
**Corporate Innovation & Sustainability**
While awareness is growing, the majority of the companies are still missing a link between innovation activities and sustainable development goals. The major difference between these two topics is in the strategy your company is pursuing: are you motivated to innovate by sustainability goals or motivated to sustainability by innovation goals? By answering these questions, it’s easier to specify which innovation agenda will lead to the best results, both short and long-term.
Having innovation as your primary motivation implies such goals as revenue, profitability and market share as the first priority. In this case, sustainability is one of the means of reaching these goals. When sustainability is the main driving force, on the other hand, there’s a shift in focus from financial KPIs to the impact on society and the company’s contribution to resolving global challenges related to sustainability.
Whatever a corporation’s sustainable development motives with respect to innovation, almost all of them have certain innovation strategies in place. And various forms of startup-corporate collaboration usually feature.
**Startups as drivers of sustainability**
Being fully focused on radical innovations and developing products/services that solve real problems for this generation, startups are the key drivers of sustainable development – sometimes without even being aware of it! Of course, not all startups develop impactful solutions, but a high percentage of these solutions have either a direct or indirect impact on sustainable development.
Some startups directly tackle directly the issues of water scarcity (eg. **Desolenator**), air pollution (eg. **polisens.io**), agriculture waste (eg. **mycotech**, pictured above), etc. Other startups develop solutions which have positive applications and use cases for sustainable development, such as sensors for smart cities (eg. **Terabee**). Many solutions like this might be directly applicable to your company, both in terms of your own innovations and of creating net positive impact on the society.
**Formats and Approaches**
There are two approaches on integrating sustainable goals into your company’s innovation activities. Depending on your industry and strategy, company can either host an innovation challenge focusing solely on sustainable solutions or integrate the topic of sustainability into existing innovation activities.
In the first case, such an initiative could fall under the remit of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) department. A call can go out for innovators tackling the sustainability-related topics relevant for the company. The program can be organized as an acceleration program, startup weekend, ideation hackathon, challenge competition or venture investment fund. One example is the CSR department at **Booking.com**, which is running three initiatives for sustainable tourism startups.
In the second case, a company defines two or three sustainability topics and integrates them into their existing innovation programs. Here the company has to make sure that the topics do indeed bring value to its development and that these areas play an important role as a part of the program. For example, **Airbus** has called for startups with innovative concepts and technical solutions for sustainable development goals to take part in its BizLab acceleration program.
**Innovating for Sustainability: Leading Case Studies**
*Tourism Industry*
One of the great examples of the sustainable initiatives is **Booking Cares**, the Booking.com CSR department focusing on promoting sustainable tourism. Through Booking Cares, the company runs three initiatives such as Booster, Booster Labs and Cares Fund. Booster is a three-week acceleration program working with later stage startups and supporting their scaling activities. Booster Labs are weekend programs supporting early stage startups to develop their ideas and promote sustainability. Booking Cares Fund is a €2 million fund programme to champion changemakers in sustainable tourism. With these programs, Booking.com is showing its support for making tourism a force for good.
*Energy Industry*
A leading utility company, **Engie**. The company is running the Engie Factory, a startup accelerator in Latin America. Engie supports startups in the world of sustainability, making them grow rapidly until they can bring real contribution to the market with excellent products and services. With this initiative Engie is seen as contributing to a real change of mentality and behavior regarding the importance of sustainability in the world.
*Interested in learning more about collaborating with startups to achieve your sustainable development goals? Then find our what our consultancy arm can do for you [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/about).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [GovTech.Pioneers: The Challenges of Planning Europe’s First GovTech Event](https://pioneers.io/govtechpioneers18-challenges-planning-europes-first-govtech-event/)
**Published:** August 20, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** When we look back on the first half of 2018, GovTech.Pioneers is a clear highlight. May 23rd saw us stage Europe's inaugural event on startup-driven innovation in the public sector. We brought governments, startups and investors to Vienna to discuss new collaborative potential between the private and public sector - and how the latter can make use of startups’ new technology solutions. Because at Pioneers, we believe in the power of entrepreneurship and technology to change society for the good.
**Content:**
GovTech is a term that hadn’t been used a lot until recently, especially in Europe. This played a role in some of the challenges we had when we went out with our idea and pitched it to others, including key partners in our country and the region. We defined GovTech as startup-driven innovation for and within the public sector.
Since governments play a role in every industry – as regulators, suppliers, clients and more besides – we saw public sector innovation as a mother industry to innovation everywhere. Governments had already played a massive role in fields such as mobility, but now we had to define a specific sector centred around technology’s role in government itself.
Within that came **challenge #1** – we had to nail the exact content areas! In a field where we could have taken numerous directions, we had to keep our focus. We needed to slim down the choices to three lead topics. Those were chosen through consultation with partners in government and beyond, as well as using Piobay, our online dealflow management service, to assess hundreds of startup solutions in the various fields relating to GovTech. In the end we settled on Citizen Collaboration, Public Safety & Security and Blockchain as the most relevant key themes.
Having defined our lead topics, it was time to move on to **challenge #2** – how could we entice partners with a model which had never been tested in Europe before? We knew that we were staging the continent’s very first full-day conference on the issue of startup solutions for the public sector, but often people struggled to see how this ‘event innovation’ was beneficial for everyday life and business.
But thanks to dedicated internal champions and the persistence of people who believed in the GovTech.Pioneers vision to make the public sector more effective, efficient and therefore improving daily life for every citizen, we managed to get the first key partners on board. As is so often the case with partnerships, these were those closest to our headquarters: Austrian ministries, public organizations and the City of Vienna. After months of discussions, we had our initial funding. And from this moment on, we knew we couldn’t fail anymore.
During several intense months of preparation, we got enough positive feedback from potential speakers and participating startups – the latter were excited to finally have the chance to pitch their solutions in front of specialist GovTech decision-makers, rather than at a catch-all event. We had our first draft agenda ready within a month.
But what we still lacked was attendees. Although we were acquainted with the famous ‘hockey stick’ (exponential growth in ticket sales during the last weeks before the event) we weren’t sure we were reaching the right people. Tech conferences are tech conferences, startup conferences ditto, but public sector events are different…very different! Our project required new sales channels and other means of engaging attendees: we undertook countless one-to-one calls and meetings all over Europe to convince people that GovTech.Pioneers was something they couldn’t miss.
Our attendance KPI? That was **challenge #3** – to get 300 people at the event. A very tough ask first time out, but after a lot of effort and hours on the road, we managed to surpass our goal. In the end we had more than 400 people from over 40 countries, which turned the venue into a melting pot of ideas on how to advance governments via tech solutions.
Our next post will focus on the learnings we had from running the actual event itself – it’s fair to say we encountered a few surprises on the day!
*For the full story of GovTech.Pioneers, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/govtech-pioneers-wrap).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [How Videos Can Take Your Startup To €200K In Revenues...Fast!](https://pioneers.io/how-videos-can-take-your-startup-200k-revenuesfast/)
**Published:** August 23, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** There aren’t many better ways to build up your startup’s brand than regularly creating entertaining, informative videos. And while it can seem a daunting prospect, it’s not as tricky as you might think. In this article we speak to Rok Starič, a Slovenian founder who successfully used Facebook videos as the principal tool to put his peanut butter business on the map in a very short space of time. In fact, he’s gone from ‘a handful of peanuts’ to €200,000 in annual revenues in just three years!
**Content:**
Rok Starič, a former member of our team at Pioneers, is right up there with the most visibly enthusiastic founders in our community. The passion he has for his product – all-natural peanut butter – is totally fitting for someone who has put his very own name onto every jar of Rok’s Nut Butter. And the way he lives and breathes his business lent itself perfectly to the founder starring in weekly short, breezy clips featuring everything from recipes to peanut-grinding demonstrations and even riding on tractors!
“You have to be enthusiastic,” says Starič. “You have to show passion for the product, or else you won’t sell the product. If you don’t know what the product is, then you have a big problem. It’s the same if you don’t like it or know how to use it properly.”
If you’re running a startup that’s a little more tech-heavy or ‘geeky’ than the highly shareable topic of food, you might be thinking that this ‘fun’ video thing doesn’t really apply to you. But, says the Ljubljana-based peanut butter king, tech companies and personality do mix – just ask anybody with an iPhone in their hand.
“It’s more likely that they will like the product when they see the face. Steve Jobs was the face of Apple. No company is just a factory shooting out products – there’s always a person behind it. This person sells the story – and the story then sells the product.
“If you are a deep tech or B2B startup, it might be different. But if your startup is for the end consumer, then I think you should have a ‘face’. Customers have to know you.
“You have to show people that this is yours – and this is how you do it. Go out there, expose yourself and say what you have to say about your company.”
Starič has been good at that since day one, which is a huge part of why in three years he’s now become Slovenia’s national ‘peanut butter guy’, who’s now enjoyed national television appearances and has his jars on the shelves of the country’s biggest supermarket chain. Weekly Facebook videos were the kick-starter for it all, though – and there are a few lessons any founder can follow.
“In all our videos, we’re honest. We do not prepare, so it looks natural. Of course you have to have some guidelines, of what you would like to say and do, but we never prepare texts. Some ideas actually only come to life during the whole mess of filming. Ones that wouldn’t come if you would just prepare, brainstorming ‘by force’.”
“We tried to squeeze as much as possible in our filming time – so be prepared. We knew what we wanted to film. I already had everything in my head – and then it was all inspiration. We didn’t rehearse, we just went with it. Just like startups do!
“Even so, we’ve learned recently that we actually have gotten too professional in some things: it has to look more self-made. Like my early videos did. If it looks too perfect then people instantly think it’s an advert. But if it doesn’t look quite perfect, people think it’s organic.”
So pouring excessive preparation time and filming budget into videos isn’t a necessity, founders will be relieved to hear. Nor do they need to be feature films, says Starič.
“You want short, explainable videos. Show again, how it’s done and what the benefits are. But never go over one minute. After 15 seconds it can already get boring. If there is no ‘pop’, or no funny inputs, people will just say, ‘okay, what’s next?’ and move on.
“You also have to put it up on a regular day – Thursday for us – so that people get used to it. They know it’s happening and it’s like a habit for them.”
What about choosing a platform?
“It depends on the company, but Facebook is the way to go. Most of our community is there because that is where we started. We tried YouTube as well, but we saw we had a better reach on Facebook and people were more engaged there.
“With each video we just do an organic post at first, and if we have a good reach then we boost it a little. It’s really hard to get organic reach right now – even videos are dropping in general, like pictures. Streaming or live video is the thing now. Probably it will be Facebook TV just like we have Instagram TV, so we are moving our focus to live video and also to Instagram, which is the second-largest of our social networks. We share a few insights on stories and then link this to our Facebook page.”
While eye-opening recipes won’t be appropriate content for a startup that’s produced an app, the principle of ‘show them how it works’ still applies.
“It’s important for us that people see how the peanut butter can be used: with apples, meat, cakes, bananas…even carrots! We try to make it easy, just like Jamie Oliver. If you’re a digital platform, that means showing that it’s not too many steps or clicks. Or if it’s not that easy, at least try to explain it in the easiest way, in a few steps.”
Still a little nervous about going on camera? Relax: it’s not about an Oscar-winning performance. As long as you know your product and what it can do, inside-out, you’ll come across well. The more informed you are, the less you need a script.
“You just have to know your stuff: the secret ingredient is confidence and trust in your own knowledge.”
*Check out Rok’s Nut Butter videos via his Facebook page [here](https://www.facebook.com/pg/roksnutbutter/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Start Small, Think Big: How To Win Clients For Your Startup](https://pioneers.io/start-small-think-big-how-win-clients-your-startup/)
**Published:** August 27, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Any startup will tell you that making your first sales can be a tough, slow process. But, as we hear from Civocracy co-founder Benjamin Snow, beginning with smaller sales targets can have a long-term payoff. Read on to find out how this GovTech.Pioneers finalist startup used that philosophy to work its way up to leaving a serious mark on Europe, with major French cities including Lyon and Nice now on its client list.
**Content:**
Any startup will tell you that making your first sales can be a tough, slow process. But, as we hear from Civocracy co-founder Benjamin Snow, beginning with smaller sales targets can have a long-term payoff.
Civocracy is a burgeoning citizen collaboration platform that won the pitching track of the same name at GovTech.Pioneers back in May. And although they didn’t win overall honours in Vienna that day, their team has scored more than its share of wins on the sales front since it made its first deal with a public sector entity in 2015.
Considering that this first client was Losser, a tiny speck of a place in the Netherlands, it’s all the more impressive that Civocracy had their first major city, Nice in the south of France, on board the very next year. But not exactly a surprise, says co-founder Benjamin Snow on reflection.
“We set ourselves the goal to find someone who is going to **prove a good reference**,” explains Snow. “And in Losser we were able to find that one city that said ‘we’re really ahead of the times and excited about what this new opportunity is.’
“We solve a problem that’s actually more urgent for larger cities than smaller ones. But actually thinking small so that we could think big was useful. Especially when it came to proving what we could do.
“With government there’s often a temptation to say, ‘the biggest customer is the national government, so let’s focus on that.’ **But starting small and working your way up means you’re not waiting on a three-year sales cycle or something.**”
Not only can decision-making be a lot less sluggish in smaller jurisdictions, but it can also be a lot easier for an unknown to reach a decision-maker.
“We had a lot of success, especially at the early stage, with smaller cities and towns. Just because it was easier to get a decision-maker looped in.
“It was a matter of weeks between when we met Losser for the first time and when we signed. It was early days and I don’t think we even had a complete product then… but we were in direct conversation with the Alderman!”
That first deal came out of an everyday introduction any startup might stumble across – and, of course, being open to talking to a town that doesn’t really register on the glamour map.
“We were based in Amsterdam at the time, working in an accelerator program,” recalls Snow. “Someone we were connected to there gave us an introduction to the Alderman. This was someone who happened to live in that area…sometimes somebody just knows somebody. Especially at the very beginning, that can have all the impact.
“When you’re first starting out, you want to take advantage of any opportunity – but there is a risk. Not solving a problem, creating a bad case study, is a big liability.”
Fortunately that didn’t happen. Instead, Snow and his team had a great success story in their pockets when they began talking with cities in France. And targeting that country was no accident: it was a case of knowing where the market was most ready for them.
“We really saw France moving quickly on Govtech, and focused there. They are one of the earliest movers we have seen globally, which has been very exciting.”
It was energy well-spent, with Nice, Lyon and the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region becoming partners whilst the rest of Europe was busy playing catch-up.
“Now have customers in Germany, Belgium and some more in the Netherlands. Adoption and awareness in these parts of Europe are enough that we see the opportunities in a way that we didn’t two or three years ago.”
So, from that humble start in a small town on the Dutch-German border, Civocracy is now in a position to look at America too. A country which, in Snow’s experience, has also been playing Govtech catch-up.
“We’re just starting to see some of the mentality we saw five years ago in France in the US now,” he says.
All of which underlines what we said at the start: it’s a long-term game. Sales in the Govtech world are a curious mix of patience and opportunism.
“You have to be impatient – trying to push the market and push yourself,” he concludes. “But you also have to simultaneously have the patience to know that it’s always going to be harder and slower than you want to be. Especially when working with government. It’s a hard nut to crack, but we think it’s a very valuable market – so we keep at it. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
*For the full story of Europe’s first full-day Govtech event, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/govtech-pioneers-wrap).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Scouting The World’s Best Fintech Startups: Two Years And Counting!](https://pioneers.io/scouting-worlds-best-fintech-startups-two-years-and-counting/)
**Published:** August 30, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Since Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) announced its inaugural Elevator Lab program at our flagship event last year, Pioneers Discover has gone on to scout over 700 startups for 2017/18 program and the ongoing 2018/19 Elevator Lab. One of these startups has already signed a commercial partnership with RBI. In this article we look at how Pioneers Discover, our online dealflow management service and RBI come together to over-achieve on this partnership program.
**Content:**
When Pioneers Discover took on the task of scouting startups for RBI’s inaugural Elevator Lab program, which was announced at Pioneers’17 last June, they promised to deliver at least 150 innovative Fintech companies with which the Vienna-based international banking group might want to work on new products and services. But our consulting arm over-delivered just a touch: With their support, Elevator Lab received 336 startup applications!
“The experts from Pioneers supported us in communicating to the Fintech ecosystem, so all interested Fintechs could easily understand what RBI is looking for and how we want to cooperate,” says Maximilian Schausberger, Program Lead of Elevator Lab.
RBI’s internal mentors, drawn from all over the CEE region, then had the task of narrowing that giant selection down to a shortlist of around 40 ‘semi-finalists’ who would be interviewed for the partnership program. With so many to choose from, this might have seemed daunting. But with the more than 50 executive mentors all working through a dedicated account on Piobay, the Pioneers online dealflow management service, trimming down the initial list of applicants quickly and efficiently was an easy business.
“Screening, evaluating and rating the application data of over 300 startups with so many people from the whole RBI Group involved needs a tool like Piobay – developed by people who have experience with such processes,” adds Schausberger.
Pioneers Discover didn’t end their work with the initial scouting and giving all the mentors a personal login, of course. Our consultants provided a full onboarding for Piobay, and continued to support RBI as they worked towards selecting just five startups to work with during the four-month Elevator Lab program.
The selection process ultimately paid off in the form of a commercial partnership with kompany, a growth-stage RegTech company based in Vienna. Whilst conversations are ongoing with all five participants from the 2017/18 program – the other four Fintechs come from Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and the USA – kompany has already developed a KYC product as a result of participating in Elevator Lab. We’ll have more from their founder’s perspective in a follow-on article in September.
Meanwhile, RBI and Pioneers Discover are already well into the process of finding the next Fintech gem together. The initial selection for the even bigger Elevator Lab 2018/19 has already been made, and a much larger group of around 150 mentors are trimming down our initial scout of 407 startups on Piobay at this very moment.
“New Fintech startups are appearing every day, so it’s a non-stop process to keep spotting the high-quality ones with the best ideas and potential,” says Harald Federspiel, Senior Innovation Consultant at Pioneers Discover. “But it’s both exciting and satisfying to make these connections happen, and we’re confident that our selections for the 2018/19 Elevator Lab and beyond will lead to even more collaborations!”
Keep an eye on our channels in September and October for news of which startups get chosen to go all the way with RBI’s Elevator Lab!
Read more about Pioneers Discover’s corporate innovation projects [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/about).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [3D Bioprinted Organs, AI Powered Diagnostics And Health-Enhancing Jewellery: Speakers Revealed For Health.Pioneers!](https://pioneers.io/3d-bioprinted-organs-ai-powered-diagnostics-and-health-enhancing-jewellery-speakers-revealed-healthpioneers/)
**Published:** September 3, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With the second edition of Health.Pioneers coming up at the Vienna BioCenter on October 10th, we’re pleased to announce the first round of top speakers and startups for the event, which will once again be the ultimate gathering for innovators in healthcare. Attendees can look forward to talks from the likes of inspirational women’s health tech leader Urška Sršen, 3D bioprinting pioneer Melanie Matheu and Chris Edson, who’ll share insights on his company’s world-beating Open Innovation experience. Read on for more speakers, startups and ticket info - the most important being that our early bird price ends this Friday!
**Content:**
The second edition of Health.Pioneers, headlined *Catalyzing Innovation: from prevention to personalized treatment*, will take place in Vienna on October 10th. With Open Innovation at the heart of the event’s philosophy, we’re bringing together innovators and decision-makers from the pharma, biotech, insurance and public health sectors at the Vienna BioCenter.
The line-up of both speakers and startups is now taking shape, and the quality is just as exciting as that of the first Health.Pioneers event in [Amsterdam](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/health-pioneers-summary) last October. And this year, all the talks and startup pitches will take place on a single stage.
The founders who’ll be pitching across two different tracks at Health.Pioneers will need to look no further for inspiration than keynote speaker **Urška Sršen**. Just over five years ago, the **Bellabeat** Co-Founder was also pitching for startup honours in front of a Pioneers audience, at our flagship event in 2013. Since taking victory at the Hofburg, she and her smart jewellery company have gone on to become leaders in the field of women’s health.
At Health.Pioneers she’ll talk about how a greater focus on beautifully-designed health tracking products for women can be used to bring more attention and understanding to the topic of their health. As she told us in an [exclusive interview in July](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/time-change-your-core-product-tips-bellabeat-founder-urska-srsen), it’s an area where there’s plenty of opportunity to make an impact.
Another of the keynote speakers will be **Visulytix** Co-Founder and CMO **Sameer Trikha**. He’ll demonstrate the fascinating diagnosive power of his company’s AI-powered software, which can help detect a range of diseases purely through analysis of the retina.
The Visulytix technology can already offer clinical decision support for the detection of diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, as well as early insights into Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Another exciting technology with huge potential in healthcare is of course 3D bioprinting, and one of the leaders in this area is **Prellis Biologics** CEO and Co-Founder **Melanie Matheu**. She’ll deliver a keynote around the laser-based technology that can create functional human tissues and organs.
With the company having recently reached unprecedented speed and resolution in **3D printing tissue with capillaries**, few are better-placed to explore what this technology has achieved and where it could take us. Applications include organ transplants, drug discovery and toxicology testing.
Neurostimulation is another healthcare technology getting plenty of attention in the industry. And while it has many applications, keynote speaker **Balder Onarheim** will be demonstrating how it can make individuals more creative and productive. He’s the Co-Founder and CEO of **PlatoScience**, a company that’s developed the world’s first headset to support brain training and enhance cognitive performance.
Open Innovation – the power of collaboration between startups and larger organizations – will be a key theme at this industry-focussed event as well. And there’s no better illustration of that potential than OurPath, which last year became the first ever online behavioural change program to be commissioned by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.
That’s why we’re welcoming **OurPath** Co-Founder and CEO **Chris Edson**, who will give insights into the company’s experiences of working with not only the **NHS**, but the likes of international pharma corporation **Roche** too. Edson will take part in our Open Innovation panel discussion together with **Olivier Heyning**, Co-Founder and CEO of **LUMICKS**, who will speak about the startup’s recent collaboration with AstraZeneca and the University of Cambridge to form the first ever Center of Excellence for Dynamic Single-Molecule Analysis for Accelerated Drug Discovery and Biology.
On the startup front, we’ve already finalised a number of the 50 seed-stage entrepreneurs we’ve invited to the event. These include Finnish smart pill tracker solution **Popit** and Hungarian innovators **Healcloud**. The latter startup brings two innovative software solutions to the table. One provides actionable insights from electronic health records through big data analytics, while the other is a real-world evidence tool that helps cut the duration of clinical research.
Oncology startups include **CytoSwitch** and **MicroQuin**. The former has a targeted chemotherapeutics solution currently in pre-clinical development, with promising in vivo data. MicroQuin is at a similar stage, and working on a cell-penetrating peptide that conjugates with existing chemotherapeutics to selectively target cancer cells.
Stay tuned to our channels in the coming days for news of which of these seed startups will be selected to pitch!
As part of our commitment to Series A startups, we’re also inviting 20 of these more advanced enterprises to Health.Pioneers. They won’t be taking part in the pitching contest, but they will take part in workshops, office hours and networking sessions dedicated exclusively to their stage of development. They’ll also be automatically considered for speaking slots.
*Get your Health.Pioneers tickets at the early bird price of €390 (excl VAT) [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/) until Friday September 7th – after that it’s €590!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Govtech:Pioneers: What We Learned For Next Year!](https://pioneers.io/govtechpioneers-what-we-learned/)
**Published:** September 10, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In our last feature, we highlighted a few of the challenges of staging Europe’s very first Govtech event back in May. GovTech.Pioneers was a resounding success, but as with any pioneering venture in a new area, we did learn a few things for next time! In this article we share a few things we learned about what the public sector really needs from a technology event, speaking to its people on an engaging level and kick-starting innovation in governments.
**Content:**
Pioneers has been organizing startup programs and innovation technology events for the better part of a decade now – but the focus has mostly been on the private sector. It has become increasingly apparent to us that public entities are now playing a greater role in the innovation landscape. Hence the need for an event dedicated to the public sector…but staging such an event is a very different challenge! It’s still key to push people out of their comfort zones, but there are a few things to consider when doing so.
**Learning #1** was an absolutely key takeaway for us: don’t let your preconceptions slow you down! Contrary to what some people believe, we can actually trust our public servants. They’re ready for the challenges of the 21st century, ready for tech engagement and ready for more citizen-centered services and startup solutions. A lot of people suggested that we should engage with the public sector along known lines and structures, but we never wanted to have a typical, dull governmental event. There were enough of those out there already.
Such events have their place of course, but we wanted to think outside of the box and put our attendees into more of a startup environment. And for this, they were grateful. They were happy to have a bustling event just for them to engage with the tech entrepreneurs trying to change society for the better.
When it came to the content, the feedback was also extremely positive. This included fields such as local and federal government, public accelerators, the future of government, startup lessons and even sharing mistakes other governments experienced in setting up their digital infrastructure and putting citizens at the heart of every process.
The old adage that less is more proved to be a truism for us: this was **Learning #2**. Enthused by the surprising openness of the B2G sector and the enormous potential for innovation in this area, we provided around 30 hours of content across several stages within one day. Valuable as it was, such a deep dive was overwhelming. Next time, we plan to ease up on the intensive content, extend the breaks and add further networking sessions away from the main event day. Of course, we’re still firmly convinced that content is key, and won’t compromise on quality.
Another thing we came to realise was that you still need to be aware of the specifics of bureaucracy when it comes to a public sector audience. When we look back on this first event, **Learning #3** was that knowing the specifics of how ‘business’ decisions are made in government is vital. That sounds easy, but it’s not – believe us! Not only do you need to get high-level political support, and CIOs and departmental leads who own their topics, but also the people who work on those issues every day. Also, since procurement is so critical to ensuring innovation in the public sector, it’s crucial to have public procurement officers involved.
Governments still need to make sweeping cultural changes for innovation to truly flourish, and the need for us to be more aware of that was **Learning #4**. This was something that came up in many meetings with our event partners, but to be honest, we underestimated its importance when it came to building our content. For all the great best practice examples we showcased, they won’t survive without a real change of culture in the public sector. Failing, ideating, prototyping, testbeds and so forth are crucial for every 21st century digital unit – and it should be the same for governments too. With this in mind, we’ll target the public sector’s innovation culture and mindset as a matter of priority in our upcoming events.
For the full story of GovTech.Pioneers, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/govtech-pioneers-wrap).
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [How Vienna BioCenter Inspires Open Innovation](https://pioneers.io/vienna-biocenter-how-vienna-biocenter-inspires-open-innovation/)
**Published:** September 5, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As we continue to look forward to Health.Pioneers in Vienna on October 10th - for which our early-bird ticket price closes this Friday on September 7th! - we take a look at what makes Vienna BioCenter the perfect host venue. As one of the leading life sciences organisations in the world, and the home of breakthrough biomedical discoveries, there’s nowhere better than this international research and business hub for our attendees to soak up the spirit of healthcare innovation! In this article we talk to its Chairman Harald Isemann about its exciting plans for future expansion.
**Content:**
When Pioneers decided to stage this year’s second edition of Health.Pioneers in Vienna, the search for a suitable venue wasn’t a long one. With over 20 biotech companies, four major research institutes, three universities and public education facilities represented on the campus of Vienna BioCenter, the home of this umbrella life sciences association is the obvious life sciences hub in the city. Moreover, it’s only a short tram ride from Vienna’s glamorous center.
Having grown steadily around a single institute founded in 1985 by pioneering biotech company Genentech and Boehringer Ingelheim, Vienna BioCenter now boasts 90,000 square meters of laboratory and office space, 1,700 staff, 1,300 undergraduate and Master’s students and 250 PhD students from 70 different nationalities. Its member researchers have received 11 Wittgenstein Awards and 43 European Research Council (ERC) grants since 2007. Only the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the Karolinska Institute and the Institut Pasteur have received more in ERC life sciences grant.
When you consider that this was the starting point of Emmanuelle Charpentier’s research into CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, along with the fascinating range of impactful research happening here, the industry recognition comes as no surprise.
“Researchers at Vienna BioCenter have made seminal discoveries that increase our knowledge, provide valuable tools for the scientific community worldwide and lay the foundations for advanced healthcare in the future,” says Harald Isemann, Chairman of Vienna BioCenter Association, who joined us at the [first edition of Health.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/health-pioneers-summary) in Amsterdam last year.
“Research at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories has contributed to the foundations for a genome-editing tool that has revolutionized biomedical research: the CRISPR/Cas9 system allows targeted and precise changes to the genome of living cells and opens up entirely new possibilities for molecular biologists around the globe.
“By studying the regenerative capabilities of the Mexican salamander, axolotl (pictured below), scientists at the Institute of Molecular Pathology have identified genes and pathways that control how severed tissues can regrow. This knowledge could eventually open new avenues for regenerative medicine.
“Moreover, researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology have developed technologies to grow three-dimensional organ structures in a petri dish. These organoids provide valuable model-systems to study development and diseases with improved therapies in mind.
“Across Vienna BioCenter, a lot of basic and applied research is going on in the field of cancer immunology, which is one of the hot fields in cancer research at the moment. There’s also a lot happening here in neuroscience.”
Where great minds come together, you can usually expect an international cocktail. Vienna BioCenter is no exception, with staff hailing from Argentina to Vietnam. And, says Isemann, there’s room for many more to join them!
“Our researchers come from universities all over the world. The biotech scene here wants to attract well-educated staff and of course also attract the investors that can ensure continued funding.
“Having grown from zero to 1,700 staff in just over 30 years, we see room for much more expansion. The Vienna BioCenter campus adjoins empty space that can accommodate more buildings.
“So we want to be more visible globally – that’s why we teamed up with Pioneers, who were looking for a suitable and appropriate location in Vienna for Health.Pioneers. We think it’s a good match!”
Those who were in Amsterdam last year will recall Krzysztof Chylinski’s talk on CRISPR/Cas9. Chylinski (who has worked with Charpentier) is just one of many leading scientists using Vienna Biocenter Core Facilities, a pool of shared scientific infrastructure and experts, to conduct his research. This facility, as well as the regular seminars and talks open to all Vienna BioCenter members, are indicative of the collaborative spirit on the campus.
This sharing and co-operation amongst Vienna BioCenter members, who are essentially a mixture of basic researchers and corporate businesses, is constantly bearing fruit.
“Vienna BioCenter is an example of how industry and universities, along with city and government funding, can bring things together and make things grow. There was never a masterplan here. It was just a case of more and more groups getting interested in joining, because this was clearly very fruitful ground!”
Now startups – that crucial final piece in the innovation puzzle – are also set to play an increasing role at Vienna BioCenter. From next year the campus will feature Vienna’s first open laboratories for pre-seed startups.
The collaborative spirit in the air ought surely to rub off on our Health.Pioneers attendees too. And that will be a good thing, as corporates, investors and startups from pharma, biotech, insurance and public health come together to explore new ways to collaborate and pioneer!
*Our early-bird ticket price of €390 (excl VAT) ends this Friday on September 7th, so get your Health.Pioneers tickets [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/)!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Choose Well, Set Clear Goals And Prioritize: How To Succeed In Open Innovation](https://pioneers.io/choose-well-set-clear-goals-and-prioritize-how-succeed-open-innovation/)
**Published:** September 11, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Throwing yourself at every opportunity is a distraction you can ill-afford as an entrepreneur. A core skill for founding teams is the ability to identify the best-fit opportunities - and then commit to them one hundred percent. It’s essential to choose the right moment and program, make it a central company priority, allocate the right team resources and manage expectations from the beginning. We learn more from the RBI Elevator Lab participant that went all the way to a commercial partnership with the international banking group!
**Content:**
With the global ecosystem around startups and innovation continuing to mature all the time, a lack of opportunity is a problem startups are meeting less and less! Accelerators, incubators, networking events, pitching events, even investor money…there’s plenty of chances for founders to say ‘yes, sign us up!’
But throwing yourself at every opportunity would be a distraction you can ill-afford as an entrepreneur. Nowadays, a core skill for founding teams is the ability to **identify the best-fit opportunities** – and then to make sure you **commit to them** one hundred percent.
Vienna-based Regtech (regulatory technology) team **kompany** went about things in just such a fashion when they applied for the first Raiffeisen Bank International Elevator Lab partnership program, which ran in 2017/18. Their reward? A long-term commercial partnership with RBI.
While you can read more about Elevator Lab in our recent blog post [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/scouting-worlds-best-fintech-startups-two-years-and-counting), in this article we speak to kompany **CEO & Founder Russell Perry** as he reflects on what they did right to get into an ongoing, post-program relationship with RBI.
“A lot of other startups have contacted us for advice since we completed the program, and I’ve told them two things,” says Perry (pictured with his team below, right). “One was the importance of the fact that RBI Elevator Lab is a **partnership**, more than just an accelerator, as you might find in other financial institutions and groups. Once we saw the program and calendar we understood it was super-intensive, professional, and really something that could benefit us.
“The other thing I told them was that you should take it really seriously: only apply, if you really want to participate and do so at full-scale. Only apply if you actually want to commit for six months.”
But what does committing actually mean in practical terms? It’s not about preparing to put in a few extra evening hours on top of everything you’ve been doing thus far. It comes down to an honest appraisal of priorities.
“One thing we did right was to look at the program and make it **top priority for our management**. We really made this a central project in the company and allocated the resources to it. That’s difficult for a small organization, but giving it a high priority from the start was correct.
“We made sure we had project management at a level a corporate would expect. Not only did that mean we’d get the best results, but it showed RBI that we really meant it: we wanted to work together and make the program a success.”
**Setting expectations** was also key to building a great relationship with RBI, which grew stronger over the several months of the Elevator Lab and convinced the banking giant that kompany was the kind of partner they could work with.
“We were very open about what we could do and could not do,” continues Perry. “Because the wish-list of a Proof Of Concept outcome is always more than you can develop in a short period of time! So we really wanted to be open about what we could do, but then get that right and nail it down.”
So picking a good corporate partner, being honest with them and prioritizing correctly are key success factors. But what’s the **right moment** to do all this? Much depends on the general pace of your industry. kompany was founded in 2012, so around five years of age when it entered Elevator Lab. But more than anything, it’s about the **stage your resources and team are at**.
“Our timing was really perfect for a company at our stage of maturity,” says Perry. “Looking at the requirements for the POC, I don’t think we could have delivered if we were only a year old. The maturity of the team and platform would not have been there. You really have to look at whether you’re ready to commit to six months, to allocate the resources and the time. You have to have an organization that can support that.”
That POC included developing a business KYC solution by integrating multiple services into a complete and unique cloud-based platform that lowers the cost and time involved in achieving regulatory compliance.
One last question to Perry: once accepted to Elevator Lab, would he have contemplated saying yes to similar opportunities?
“I’d advise startups to focus on one program. If it’s something like the RBI program, which is very intense, very compact and where you have to get every stage right, commit to that! But with a good program there is a payoff, because it can go beyond that very quickly. As we saw for ourselves!”
*To view and apply for current Open Innovation opportunities with our consultancy arm, visit the Pioneers Discover Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).*
*kompany provides real-time access to company data for KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti Money Laundering), EDD (Enhanced Due Diligence) and verification purposes. Their platform connects government trade and commercial registers in 150 jurisdictions and provides access to audit-proof company information of more than 100 million companies.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [The Art of Free Publicity: How To Hook Media With Your Startup’s Story](https://pioneers.io/art-free-publicity-how-hook-media-your-startups-story/)
**Published:** September 17, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With the carrot of free publicity always a lucrative one for founders, it definitely pays off to know how to tell your startup’s story to journalists. It’s your job to give them a hook and an angle that will work for their audience - otherwise they’ll just move on to the next pitch. In this article we draw learnings from our Pitch the Media session at Pioneers’18, the most important of which is to boil your story down to a simple angle with real relevance to the lives of each reader or viewer.
**Content:**
It’s easy for founders to get consumed with their next pitch to win a startup event, or what they’re going to say to their next potential investors. And that’s understandable: event pitching slots have concrete deadlines, and hooking investors is essential for survival. But it’s a shame if you let pitching to the media fall to the bottom of the pile just because it’s ‘optional’.
It may never have the same feeling of urgency for a startup, but in the early days, when your marketing budget is low to non-existent, perhaps it should. Because getting journalists to take notice of your story costs nothing but time and effort. And the reward – coverage in respected consumer media – is worth more than any advert.
This is the reason why we dedicated a panel discussion to pitching the media at Pioneers’18. Four startups pitched their stories to a panel of three tech journalists, who then gave feedback on why (or why not) they would run the story. While you can watch the full video of this stage session [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etN_1mIjw70), in this article we’ll take a short look at the themes that emerged.
For starters, it’s unlikely that using the same pitch you use for investors or juries is going to work. Media are a quite different audience: they’ve got hooking their audience in mind, not so much partnerships, traction or sales figures. Sure, you have to convey that you’re legitimate, but that’s not at the core of your pitch.
While the chance to meet media in person is rare, it pays to seek them out at events wherever possible. This is, far and away, when they are at their most approachable. Phoning their office when they’re on deadline probably won’t win you favour. But whether you meet them or email them, don’t bog them down with technicalities. Hook them with a simple **human angle** first.
“Most people get lost in the details,” said panellist Tom Atkinson, Deputy Editor of TechTrends. “You need to explain how this would affect a person. You need that example, that person whose life is going to be changed and improved by your product.”
“You need something you can interact with on a human level,” added Moderator Natalie Novick, of Tech.eu. “It’s about bringing in that human element and really using that to tell the story.”
And while you may have dozens of amazing use cases, don’t think it’s a good idea to try and sell all of them to the press. Pick the **one most likely to get their audience clicking**, and keep it to that.
“Less is more!” added Alice Bonasio, another panellist and Editor in Chief of TechTrends and freelance contributor many of the likes Forbes, Wired and Quartz. “And once we start that conversation with you, then we will learn more and expand on it.”
Another trick most startups miss is offering the media the chance to **experience their product or service**. Inviting them to see or try something makes that thing come to life for them better than any email. Do that, and they’ll probably figure out the story for themselves.
Bonasio put this well when responding to the Equator Aircraft pitch that ended the session. “If I was the person flying the plane, then I’d be able to tell that story. If you had an event where I could go and look at the production, fly or at least be near a flight, then that experience would be near a story I could communicate. But I wouldn’t run it straight off a press release.”
*There’ll be plenty more founder learnings at Pioneers’19. Our Pre-sale Offer for tickets is already open, so get yours [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers19#/)!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Want To Scale Up In The USA? Pack €5 Million And A Killer Story!](https://pioneers.io/want-scale-usa-pack-5-million-and-killer-story/)
**Published:** September 20, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** If you’re a founder looking at expanding your business into America, there are more than a few things you need to consider. The costs will be much higher than you think. Your storytelling needs to highlight life-changing customer benefits. Your clients will think differently and you might need to simplify your product’s functionality. In this exclusive interview with successful entrepreneur, startup consultant and Pioneers Discover partner Martin Bittner, we share the keys to launching and scaling in the United States.
**Content:**
Founder dreams come in all shapes and forms. But for those outside of the USA, the prospect of taking your startup to America is usually high on the list. Rightly or wrongly, nothing says ‘you’ve made it’ quite like growing your business in the land of stars and stripes. And if you can say ‘we’ve got an office in Silicon Valley’, so much the better.
But if you’re going to take **scaling your business in America** seriously, then there’s a lot more to consider than just buying a plane ticket, getting used to drive-through pharmacies and learning the rules of baseball. Because what worked in your home market might not work in the States.
**Martin Bittner**, a partner of Pioneers Discover, serial entrepreneur and now CEO of acccoi partners, a corporate innovation consultancy in Vienna, knows this better than most. He built up SaaS technology business SolveDirect in Europe, then successfully took the company to America. But he didn’t succeed by doing things the same way.
“Your pockets have to be much deeper,” is the first thing Bittner tells us. “Because without that you’ll burn all your money on operations, before you spend anything on sales and marketing. That was a big learning for us, and I still see a lot of European companies underestimate the amount of money you need for sales and marketing in the US.
“You’ll need **five million Euros** to get going over there. If you’ve only got €1m or €1.5m, it’s too early.”
Money aside, another essential to gaining early traction in America is **presence**. Both being present in person as a founder, and being near your first (or likely first) customers.
“Stay close to your first and most important customer,” he continues. “Try to enter their ecosystem. We already knew Cisco from Europe so we set up close to them in California. And three months afterwards, they acquired the first licence.
“It’s magic if you’re over there: you can’t be a travelling salesman. That won’t work. In Europe, people probably won’t buy software from Azerbaijan, will they? They don’t know the country, don’t know if it will be there tomorrow, they lack trust. But you have to be aware that for the US, Europe is just like Azerbaijan!”
Being in the right place and having a budget to get your message out there is a good start, but that’s just the beginning. You have to learn to **sell like an American sells**. The differences in style aren’t entirely surprising.
“In terms of messaging, we Europeans tend to be very feature, facts and figures driven,” says Bittner. “But we’re not that good at telling the story around what will really change the world. Americans are excellent at this kind of engagement, and they’re the ones you are competing against. Those stories of what this tech could do for the world.
“This more visionary part is really important. European entrepreneurs are getting better and more experienced at this. But the typical European pitch is still ‘this is the problem and this is how we solve it, and this is why it’s better than others with the same feature.’ But the customer benefit, the effect on society and how we live, play, learn and work…we have to match them on those emotional types of things.”
A few final tips from Bittner? Make sure you hire a diverse mix of Americans and non-Americans in your team. Don’t rule out other parts of the country where the time difference to Europe isn’t so crushing. And ramp up your video-conferencing skills, because personal meetings are rare in such a large land. And finally, if yours is a software product, simplify the functionality to one core problem solved: versatility isn’t always a selling point for the American mentality.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [From Neurotech To Superpowered Protein: The Final Health.Pioneers Mix](https://pioneers.io/neurotech-superpowered-protein-final-healthpioneers-mix/)
**Published:** September 24, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With the second edition of Health.Pioneers coming up very soon on October 10th, we reveal more headline speakers for the industry-focused event in Vienna. We also confirm the startups we’ve selected to pitch and exhibit at Vienna BioCenter - and the jury members who’ll judge them as they compete for the Health.Pioneers Challenge Award powered by UNIQA. Plus, we’ve got details of our dedicated Series A program.
**Content:**
Having already announced our first few speakers in an [article earlier this month](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/3d-bioprinted-organs-ai-powered-diagnostics-and-health-enhancing-jewellery-speakers-revealed-healthpioneers), we’re excited to announce a few more names who’ll take the spotlight on our non-stop-action single stage at Health.Pioneers in Vienna on October 10th.
Fittingly for what will be World Mental Health Day, we’re proud to be hosting psychotherapist **Benjamin Fry**. As the founder of NeuralSolution, as well as an author and broadcaster, his mission is to make ground-breaking emotional and mental health treatment accessible across the United Kingdom and beyond. A former mental patient himself, Fry will talk about demystifying the field.
We’ll also be welcoming **Professor Siegfried Meryn** of the Medical University of Vienna. As General Secretary of the International Society of Men’s Health, and the man behind preventive healthcare initiatives, he’ll bring perspectives from a variety of angles.
The audience will also get to hear from **Verena Kretschmann**, Head of European Operations at Medicus, an AI-based platform that converts health data into an interactive experience with personalized insights and smart coaching for the user’s wellbeing. She’ll be taking part in our Open Innovation panel discussion, which will delve into the power of collaboration between startups and corporates.
We’ve also confirmed the 10 pitching and 15 exhibiting **startups** for the event. This small group has been hand-selected from over 200 applications, and represents a variety of the most innovative companies in the healthcare scene.
The Health.Pioneers Challenge Award Powered by UNIQA **pitching contest** will be divided into two pitching tracks, with each startup having three minutes to convince the jury of their solution’s ultimate potential and win a pitching slot at Pioneers’19, our flagship event on May 9th-10th next year.
Among those pitching in the **Digital Health** track will be Germany’s **Doctorly**, whose software solution helps doctors simplify and speed up administrative tasks in their practices, **Cognuse**, an Estonian startup offering a comprehensive rehabilitation platform, and **GoClinic**, who will get the chance to explain more about their Blockchain-based digital healthcare system.
In the Medical Technology track, the audience will hear from companies such as London-based **ThinkSono**, which has developed a hand-held Deep Vein Thrombosis detection device, and ‘protein superpowering’ startup **VALANX Biotech**. MicroQuin and CytoSwitch, mentioned in our previous blog, have also been chosen to pitch in this track.
Their fates will hang in the hands of our jury of industry experts, who’ll be travelling from as far afield as Texas to join us in Vienna.
The confirmed **jury members** are:
Dr Hubert Zajicek (Health Wildcatters)
Casper Smeets (Rockstart Digital Health)
Tony Chang (Merck Ventures)
Philipp Ritterhaus (HTGF)
Katharina Ehrenfellner (CONDA)
Lucanus Polagnoli (Speedinvest)
Peter Lasinger (capital300)
Nikolaus Wrabetz (UNIQA)
Andreas Nemeth, CEO at our partner UNIQA Ventures, is already excited about the power of the new technological solutions these hopeful founders will be pitching.
"I see exponential medical technologies as a key catalyst for innovation and transformation of the healthcare system," he says. “I believe in the transformative power startups have on changing entire industries, and this will play out in healthcare too.”
There’ll be plenty of exponential technologies in the exhibition area too, led by our Pioneers’19 winning startup **SzeleSTIM**, who will show off the latest iteration of their chronic pain treatment earpiece solution.
A few of the other exhibiting startups include Active Wearables, Braincontrol, Cooltec, HappyMed, ReFlex and VivoSensMedical.
Meanwhile, in keeping with our growing tradition of offering a dedicated program for **Series A startups** at our events, we’ll be running a ‘Hot Seat’ session on the topic of raising follow-on funding. In this discussion, founders will have the chance to pick the brains of a panel experienced investors.
There will also be opportunities for them to gain one-on-one life sciences-specific insights in the Office Hours session, and to learn about startup-corporate collaboration in a workshop run by Pioneers Discover.
*There’s still time to buy Health.Pioneers tickets…just head [here](https://pioneers.io/events/health-pioneers#/)!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Silicon Valley Trip Sets Up SzeleSTIM To Storm America](https://pioneers.io/silicon-valley-trip-sets-szelestim-storm-america/)
**Published:** September 27, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** One of our favourite traditions at Pioneers has just played out. Around this time every year, the winning startup from our flagship event gets to claim the most exciting part of their prize: a networking and learning trip to Silicon Valley, in which they get to meet some of our most important American connections. Pioneers’18 winners SzeleSTIM were the lucky ones this time around - and they’ve just gotten home to Vienna. In this article we talk to their Co-Founder about how the trip went sets up the chronic pain treatment startup to get going in the USA.
**Content:**
Meetings, meetings, meetings. For many of us, these three words translate to a bad day. Wasted time, nothing getting done! But that absolutely wasn’t the case for SzeleSTIM in Silicon Valley. For our Pioneers’18 winners, it was about connecting with some of the brightest minds in the US innovation scene – as many of them as possible, actually!
The chronic pain treatment startup from Vienna enjoyed appointments with the kind of people you don’t just phone up and book a diary date with. These were introductions from Pioneers: the real value here was far more than that of a plane ticket – though the latter was part of the prize too! It was about learning, feedback, validation and contacts. Actionable insights, to use a bit of life sciences jargon!
“We made a number of valuable contacts and got inspired by the startup culture in the San Francisco Bay Area,” said SzeleSTIM Co-Founder Stefan Kampusch. “Everybody saw the need and tremendous market for our solution, but thanks to the feedback we received, we got more focused on the essentials of our business. This will definitely help us to evolve further.”
Just as was the case for last year’s winning startup Stromkind, the session with communications specialists Duarte was one of the highlights for SzeleSTIM too.
“Storytelling is very important, and the workshop with Nancy Duarte was very impressive with respect to this,” said Kampusch. “In the workshop we had to build a personal story, for instance around how we came so far with our business. Such stories can be included in the company’s pitch to generate trust and send the message of why what they’re doing is important.”
Meeting Michael Seibel from Y Combinator also left a strong impression on Kampusch and his Co-Founder Dorian Szeles, the company’s sales specialist, who also travelled as part of the Pioneers’18 prize.
“The session with Michael was very impressive,” says Kampusch. “With his ability to dive deep into the matter within minutes, he gave incredibly valuable feedback on our product and the business model. He encouraged us on a number of points, but also gave us valuable new thoughts with respect to the US market.”
The duo also took part in a growth hacking workshop with digital growth agency Growth Masters and growth hacker Eva Reder, learning how best to exploit communication channels and walking away with some valuable growth hacking resources.
Investors were also on the agenda, of course. SzeleSTIM met with NEA, Accel Partners, Startup500, and Greylock Partners. “All of them provided valuable, high-quality feedback on our product and our pitch. They could be interesting for us in future fundraising rounds and we’ll be keeping them updated.”
The trip dovetailed nicely some of the plentiful good news that has come the way of SzeleSTIM since winning Pioneers’18. Specifically the signing of a Joint Venture and Licence Agreement with a yet-to-be-announced ‘strategic US partner.’
“We also used our time in San Francisco to meet with our new American partner and discuss details around entering the US market. The agreement paves the way to this and enables us to industrialize our prototypes fast. It also gives us access to telehealth solutions, which we can use to build our closed-loop therapy management solutions for chronic pain patients.”
With a greater presence in the United States already on the agenda going forward, the trip proved extremely useful from the point of view of giving SzeleSTIM a perspective on how big the challenge is – and how to rise to it.
“It’s very competitive there. At our growth hacking workshop the situation for a founder in the Valley was described as ‘having a gun to your head’. The incredibly high costs of living and the pressure from investors for a fast return means you can’t make mistakes.
“You’ve got half a year to be successful, otherwise you run out of money and can’t survive. That means burning money fast to earn money fast. That’s why everything coming out of this area is very good and very competitive.
“One of our biggest learnings from the trip was that to do business in Silicon Valley and the US in general, you have to have an office there. You need to fully commit and actually be there.”
So then, SzeleSTIM will clearly be going into this bright but challenging future well-informed, well-connected and well-equipped. And that’s thanks in no small part…to all of those meetings!
*Read more about SzeleSTIM’s chronic pain treatment solution [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/szelestim-interview). And grab tickets to see who’ll be crowned at Pioneers’19 in our ticket pre-sale [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers19)!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Alistair Croll Talks GovTech: The Infinite Potential of Digital Government](https://pioneers.io/alistair-croll-talks-govtech-infinite-potential-digital-government/)
**Published:** October 1, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As we begin the countdown to the second edition GovTech.Pioneers next year, we talk to our first confirmed speaker about about some of the key themes in digital government today. Alistair Croll, who is Founder of Fwd50, Canada’s digital government conference (not to mention trainer of White House Presidential Innovation Fellows) will be joining us in Vienna: here’s an exclusive glimpse into just a few of the insights he’ll be sharing on stage!
**Content:**
Following the huge success of the [first GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/govtechpioneers18-challenges-planning-europes-first-govtech-event) in 2018, which exceeded even our own expectations, it’s clear that the increased role of digital technology in government is a subject for which there’s plenty of appetite.
As we look ahead to next year’s second edition, we were interested to hear the perspectives of author, entrepreneur and Founder of Fwd50, Canada’s digital government conference, Alistair Croll. Our first confirmed speaker for next year’s GovTech.Pioneers has a long list of credentials, including his role as a Harvard Business School Visiting Executive. He’s also previously trained the White House Presidential Innovation Fellows.
For starters, this ambitious and high-energy individual believes it’s already time to banish limited thinking about ‘digital government’ and take the concept to the next level.
“For a long time, people equated digital with digitization – that is, taking an existing process and replacing paper with pixels,” says Croll. “But that belies much of what is possible. Lately, civil servants are starting to realize that digital is about user-centricity, because it is possible to personalize a digital process in ways you can’t tailor a physical process to each individual.
“There’s a realization that this takes a very different kind of builder, which explains initiatives like the Canadian Digital Service or Code for Canada. They’re relying on Lean and Agile methodologies, Continuous Deployment, and so on to build things.”
A philosophy of continuous deployment, in fact, is one thing Croll considers to be the single most important change in mindset that governments need to accept if they want to move ahead and transform digitally.
“When you build a battleship, you have to get it right the first time. That means a ton of up-front planning and no chance to fix things without political consequences. But a digital process is continually updateable.
“For example, when someone used a Word Processor a decade ago, the company that created it learned nothing from that user. Today, every keystroke teaches the software how to be better. New versions of a SaaS product like Slack or Google Docs can be pushed to millions of users all the time.
“That’s fundamentally different, from how complete the first version is, to how we learn what to build next, to how we handle problems. But civil servants – and citizens – have got to change their expectations. Perfect really is the enemy of good enough.”
Why is all of this so important, anyway? Well, if increased opportunities for democratic input, more visible accountability (potentially helped along by Blockchain) and smoother processes for citizens aren’t already good enough reasons, Croll reminds us of one that will make any government sit up and take notice.
“In the short term, one real advantage is cost,” he says. “But there’s also increased personalization. Things get really interesting when the government becomes a platform atop which to build things. Think about ecosystems like the Apple App Store, Amazon Web Services, Linux or WordPress. Those got really interesting when people built atop them in similar ways.
“That’s the great thing about digital government: The more we create, the further others can go with our creations! Unintended consequences and innovation, are what offer the greatest payoff in the long term.”
Turning to specifics, we also asked Croll to highlight a few under-the-radar pilots and projects going on in the world of Govtech right now. Things that might be better-known by the time our event rolls around next year.
“I’ve seen one company training machine learning algorithms by feeding them WhatsApp chats of aspiring immigrants trying to navigate Byzantine immigration processes. Anything that can weave a path through bureaucracy is cool!
“Meanwhile in British Columbia there are projects underway to improve judicial processes by essentially codifying law into decision systems that make things more just, and transparent, for anyone interacting with the legal system.”
Speaking of British Columbia, Croll is Canadian and will be bringing interesting Govtech perspectives from the North American continent, just like speakers such as San Francisco Chief Digital Services Officer Carrie Bishop did at GovTech.Pioneers in 2018.
“I think North America is a bit late to the game on Govtech,” he says candidly. “In the US, Healthcare.gov was a shock that woke people up, and led to the creation of several good initiatives. The first generation of civil servants who learned on that project, and in places like 18F, are now finding their way into the private sector, which accelerates things.
“In the US there’s much more private sector involvement at the moment than in Canada. The Cloud First initiative there helped accelerate the pace of experimentation.
“In Canada, a recent cabinet shuffle made digital government even more prominent, and we’re lucky to have a minister focused on it—Scott Brison—who has actual Agile training. Some of our departments have embraced change more than others, too. Transport Canada is pretty aggressive at trying to reinvent itself – but maybe part of that is because our minister of transportation, Marc Garneau, is an astronaut!”
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Discover Bootcamps Concept Takes Off With Airbus BizLab](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-bootcamps-concept-takes-airbus-bizlab/)
**Published:** October 3, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In recent weeks Pioneers Discover rolled out its new Bootcamps concept on a grand scale for the fourth season of Airbus BizLab - and it proved its value in no uncertain terms. Read on to find out how and why our consultancy arm’s latest format, tailored to the French aerospace giant’s requirements, ensured that the company’s multi-city accelerator will work with the best 24 startups. The number of initial applications, by the way, totalled almost 500!
**Content:**
August and September were exciting months for Pioneers Discover. As the Northern Hemisphere summer began to draw to a close, our consultancy arm pressed its all-new Bootcamp concept into action for Airbus.
The Airbus BizLab Bootcamps was specially designed to help the French aerospace giant to efficiently select the best startups for the fourth season of its BizLab accelerator program. Over an intense few days between August 29th and September 11th, we ran four two-day Bootcamps, all running content and workshops specially developed for Airbus, which took place in Toulouse, Hamburg, Madrid and Bangalore.
From each of these, up to seven startups have emerged that will now take part in the next BizLab program, which will start on October 8th and culminate in a Global Demo Day in April. They’ll stand the chance of €50,000 in equity-free funding, as well as long-term collaboration possibilities with Airbus.
“The concept of Bootcamps as a selection workshop for acceleration program proved to be a win-win for both the startups and Airbus,” reflected Natalia Gricovkanics, Senior Innovation Consultant at Pioneers Discover and Project Lead for the Airbus BizLab Bootcamps. “Having validated it over three weeks in four different countries, we’re now certain that it’s something worth doing before any kind of open innovation program.”
One of the reasons it worked so well was senior management participation, exemplified by Airbus Chief Technical Officer Grazia Vittadini sitting on the jury in Toulouse.
“It’s a great way to involve top management and employees in a program before it even begins. When top management get to vote on the Bootcamp winners, they’re already committed. That’s really significant for the efficiency of the accelerator itself, because the startups need to worry much less about convincing internal stakeholders during the program. Ideally, they can get going straight away! When you’ve had a Bootcamp like this, you’ve validated the worth of the startup solutions and a large part of your company has already participated in the process.”
Indeed, the program’s success wasn’t just down to the contributions of senior decision-makers. The participation of large group of experts (briefed by Pioneers Discover) from across the company also played a key role in guiding the startups to find their sweet spot: use cases that were genuinely appealing to Airbus.
“64 experts and 11 coaches participated across the four Bootcamps, with a total of 198 meetings between them and the startups,” added Gricovkanics. “The startups and experts could use the matchmaking wall to choose who they wanted to speak to, and that worked really well. The value of these exchanges and the role they played in the final solutions presented can’t be understated.”
While the Airbus BizLab campuses in Bangalore, Hamburg and Toulouse (the original) were already established and known in their startup communities thanks to earlier editions of BizLab, the Bootcamp in Madrid represented the start of the first program for BizLab’s new Spanish location. With startup scouting also falling under the Pioneers Discover remit, it was a new challenge in terms of outreach.
“Madrid worked really well,” said Gricovkanics. “The local startup ecosystem was really good and the startups created a special energy there. The experts were really engaged there too, and excited about contributing to the first season in Madrid.”
Meanwhile India was also an exciting new region for Pioneers Discover to explore.
“There was certainly no shortage of startup use cases – at this Bootcamp the biggest challenge was to narrow down the startups’ five or ten ideas to the use case that was most promising. But our program is structured to achieve exactly that.”
Application numbers swelled significantly for this edition of BizLab, with 495 total startup applications (from 64 countries) answering the global Open Call. In consultation with Pioneers Discover Airbus distilled these to a selection of 14-18 startups for each city. Primarily from the field of AI & Data Analytics, these would shoot for BizLab selection at each Bootcamp.
With Pioneers Discover having an overview of the entire program, the selected startups across all four campuses could be kept highly complementary in terms of their use cases and technologies. Collaboration possibilities are already emerging between some of the Bangalore and Madrid participants.
Bruno Gutierres, the Head of BizLab, was also pleased with the results: "Thank you to the BizLab and Pioneers teams for their contribution to this year’s recruitment process. We are looking forward to welcoming the diverse cohort of innovators that will join us in Toulouse, Hamburg, Bangalore and Madrid!"
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [ThinkSono Wins Health.Pioneers 2018](https://pioneers.io/healthpioneers/)
**Published:** October 11, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Deep vein thrombosis detection startup ThinkSono was named the winner at our industry-focused event at the Vienna BioCenter on October 10th, and rewarded with a fast-track into a pitching slot at our flagship event next year, Pioneers’19. Key speakers at the event included inspirational diagnostics innovator Sameer Trikha and technologies ranging from 3D bioprinted organs to insights into biohacking the nervous system.
**Content:**
Startup ThinkSono was crowned the second winner of Health.Pioneers in Vienna today. The winner of the *Medical Technology* pitching track saw off nine other startups selected for three minutes of glory at our industry-focused event, including doctorly, which won the *Digitally Connected Health* pitching track.
ThinkSono follow Baze, which won the first edition of Health.Pioneers a year ago in Amsterdam.
Stage content for this year included keynote speaker **Sameer Trikha** and his talk about how his AI-based retina scanner has become a leader in the field of diagnostics support.
“We simply don’t have enough eye care providers around the world to deal with increasing demand,” said Trikha on stage. “One of our key focus points is to develop a system which can generalize around the world – which is a big deal – and that has been developed without bias.”
Trikha demonstrated the diagnosive power of his company’s AI-powered software, which helps detect a range of diseases purely through analysis of the retina.
Fittingly for what was World Mental Health Day, we were also proud to host psychotherapist **Benjamin Fry**. As the Founder of **NeuralSolution**, as well as author and broadcaster, his mission is to make ground-breaking emotional and mental health treatment accessible across the United Kingdom and beyond.
“When you work in mental health, you’re very familiar with diagnosing, but you never really know where the issue comes from,” said the founder, whose technology can be used to deduce neural state measures and thus reveal and predict behaviour. “In theory you can use our technology to predict anything – if I were a Chinese state I would want to put this camera everywhere and measure everyone’s nervous system. So I do think care has to be taken.”
Also in the spotlight was the **SLAMseq** success story, which brought together scientific research and entrepreneurship. Speaking about their pioneering RNA sequencing technology on stage were **Stefan Ameres**, group leader at **IMBA**, and **Alexander Seitz**, Founder and CEO of **Lexogen**.
Another exciting technology with huge potential in healthcare is of course 3D bioprinting, and one of the leaders in this area is **Prellis Biologics** CEO and Co-Founder **Melanie Matheu**.
“My hope is that regulatory structures will fall into place once we have, say, a fully functioning kidney,” said the Pioneer on stage. On open collaboration, she mentions: “You get a lot more done collaborating than just playing in your own sandbox.”
“The best investors that we’ve had haven’t been afraid of what we’re doing. Only the bravest will really react, and your job is to validate that,” Matheu adds when asked about her experience with investors.
“Research, read and start to talk to everyone about what it means to start a business. Do your own due diligence and absolutely believe in what you do.”
Then came **Balder Onarheim**, the Co-Founder and CEO of **PlatoScience**, a company that’s developed the world’s first headset to support brain training and enhance cognitive performance.
“I think we all know the feeling where your brain is just not helping at all – that’s where I would use this technology,” he explained.
In our *Open Innovation* panel discussion, **Verena Kretschmann**, Head of European Operations at **Medicus**, an AI-based platform that converts health data into an interactive experience, was among the experts delving into the power of collaboration between startups and corporates.
“We need to learn that we will have to adapt to the mechanics \[of the health industry\] to implement something new in an old system – and that means to disguise it,” she said during the panel. “Your product is never a replacement, it’s always a support.”
A fellow speaker on the panel, **OurPath** Co-Founder and CEO **Chris Edson**, gave insights into his company’s experiences of working with not only the NHS in the United Kingdom, but the likes of international pharma corporation Roche too. During the panel, he had some advice for corporates: “Please don’t waste a startup’s time, they’ve got very limited resources.”
“Stay humble and try to fit in with what’s already there,” were the words of wisdom for startups that followed.
In addition to the ten pitching startups, 15 were chosen to exhibit at the event. These included **SzeleSTIM**, the chronic pain treatment startup that won of our flagship event earlier this year, Pioneers’18. Applications from startups totalled over 250.
Meanwhile, in keeping with our growing tradition of offering a dedicated program for Series A startups at our events, we ran an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on the topic of raising follow-on funding. In this discussion, founders had the chance to pick the brains of a panel of experienced investors. There were also opportunities for them to gain one-on-one life sciences-specific insights in the Office Hours session, and to learn about startup-corporate collaboration in a workshop run by Pioneers Discover.
In additional workshops for our Health.Pioneers attendees, a small group enjoyed an interactive experience at the Vienna Open Laboratory (part of Vienna BioCenter). In this fun, experimental workshop participants isolated DNA from their cheek cells. Meanwhile, IST Cube gave insights into intellectual property strategies for startups during a further workshop at Health.Pioneers.
Our next event will be the industry-focused [Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility2019#/), which takes place in Munich on February 7th.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Taiwanese Takeaways: What We Learned On Innovation Island](https://pioneers.io/taiwanese-takeaways-what-we-learned-innovation-island/)
**Published:** October 16, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** While Taiwan is known for its economic achievements and companies such as Foxconn and TSMC, its startup scene tends to get far fewer column inches. That’s starting to change, however, as we discovered on a visit there this September. Some aspects are incredibly strong, while others still have some way to go - but nobody is standing still in Taipei. Here are a few of the trends we noticed after meeting with some of the key players in Taiwanese innovation ecosystem.
**Content:**
While Taiwan is known for its economic achievements and companies such as Foxconn and TSMC, its startup scene tends to get far fewer column inches. That’s starting to change, however, as we discovered on a visit there this September. Some aspects are incredibly strong, while others still have some way to go – but nobody is standing still in Taipei. Here are a few of the trends we noticed after meeting with some of the key players in Taiwanese innovation ecosystem.
**Want tech talent? Taiwan’s got it!**
A shortage of bright developers, coders and engineers is a recurring theme in the western world – not even Silicon Valley can ignore it right now. But Taiwanese startups don’t need to go hunting for such talent: there’s plenty at home.
A young population, early education programs with a tech focus and some renowned universities have made it a happy hunting ground for any company needing techies. Microsoft, Google and Amazon are planning (or have already established) R&D facilities and data centers in Taiwan, making it a real hub for our generation’s key technologies. That’s making it a little harder for startups now, but that’s only relative: the last ten years were a recruitment paradise for them.
Another talent advantage worth mentioning is that Taiwan isn’t just about coders: creating, manufacturing and assembling products is deeply rooted in the culture. If there’s a shortage of anything, in fact, it’s good marketing and sales people.
**There’s a defined innovation focus**
Unlike a lot of countries in the region, Taiwan has a clear picture of the innovation profile it wants to have. They’ve targeted prime technologies like Blockchain, 5G and Artificial Intelligence, and have an industry focus on IoT, FinTech, food production and life sciences. The country appears to have moved away from internet startups and e-commerce solutions, rather aiming at deep tech.
Aside from this clear distinction to other markets in the area, there’s a competitive edge in terms of labour costs too. From a financial perspective, Taiwan is cheaper than prime startup locations in the USA and Europe, but still with a quality work ethic and considerable tech knowledge.
**It’s easy to get going in Taiwan**
Taiwanese people are super helpful, and happy to lend a hand to founders from abroad. The startup scene offers a lot of possibilities. AppWorks, an accelerator/investor that’s been in the game since 2009, is currently hosting its 17th intake of startups, with a focus on AI and Blockchain. FutureWard, essentially a company builder with a strong commitment to fostering a community and owning co-working spaces, is another great landing spot for people landing in Taipei with great ideas. And Anchor Taiwan offers a 30-day starter program for businesses setting up in the country.
**The government’s getting involved**
Taiwan’s government kept out of the startup scene for a long time, but finally it’s pushing entrepreneurship in a big way. Bodies such as the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are providing funding, both directly and through initiatives such as the Asian Silicon Valley and Taiwan Startup Stadium. These look to attract foreign founders at events overseas, and recently the latter has started to bundle investors resources too: the concept is best described as a kind of incubator without specific batches of startups. Another government program worth mentioning is the Taiwan Rapid Prototyping League for Entrepreneurs, which helps to rapidly turn creative ideas into actual products.
Behind all of this is the National Development Council, which serves as the strategic lead behind many of these activities.
Then there’s a landmark new space, the Taiwan Tech Arena. It’s in the heart of the city and run by the government. Actually located inside a sports stadium, it offers startups several floors to engage and work on their ideas. And another sporty startup space is the even bigger Startup Terrace, currently in development in the former athletes’ village from the 2017 Taipei Universiade.
**Startup-corporate collaboration is still in its infancy**
While it’s true that big Taiwanese companies have been supporting startups and looked to work with them on breakthrough technologies, few have succeeded so far. A lot of corporates have burned money with minimal outcomes. They’re now turning their attention to innovation units that build their own innovation culture whilst still involving startups. Tech company Lite-On is one example – their Group CTO Bruce Bateman told us he’s seeing promising signs already when we met with him.
Big corporates like these are typically market leaders in their fields with have access to advanced manufacturing possibilities. Combining their might with startup vision as already making Taiwan something of a crystal ball for tech inventions.
**There’s already a Civic Tech culture**
‘Tech for good’ is an overused term nowadays, but you do get the sense that it means something in Taiwan. Our meetings with Wu Min Hsuan (Deputy Director of the Open Culture Foundation) and Shu Yang Lin (Co-Founder, Public Digital Innovation Space) gave us a sense of that.
Since community tech leader Audrey Tang was elected as Digital Minister two years ago, Civic Tech has made its way into government. There are weekly hackathons where issues can be fixed and discussed, and in vTaiwan the country has a platform that’s prototyping an open consultation process, with more than 50,000 regularly active users swelling to 100K for hotly-debated topics.
**A unique geographical position**
Taiwan is surrounded by innovation leaders such as South Korea, Japan, mainland China, Hong Kong and Thailand. Flights as far afield as Singapore are reasonably-priced and last no more than four hours. No other country can tell this story. Startups are increasingly interested in this part of the world as a market, talent pool and a broader innovation community that might one day leave America clutching at its shirt-tails.
**Conclusion**
As FutureWard’s Daniel Lin so elegantly puts it, “Taiwan has all the ingredients.” Even a surprisingly high unemployment rate among people under 30 could count as one of those, since it means plenty have incentive to get into the startup scene.
What’s still missing is an acceptance of risk, which is an old problem in the region. Finding that entrepreneurial mindset could help Taiwan position itself as one of the world’s prime startup destinations. In the next few months and years it will be very interesting to see how that plays out.
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Insights: Assessing The Risk Of Entering A New Market](https://pioneers.io/facing-unknown-assessing-risk-new-market-or-product/)
**Published:** October 23, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** When you as a startup or a corporate spin-off start operations, you’re entering a new ecosystem. And one thing’s constant: any ecosystem is full of unknowns and insecurities! We’d like to introduce you to an easy framework that allows you to assess the risks as you weigh up your chances of success.
**Content:**
When you as a startup or a corporate spin-off start operations, you’re entering a new ecosystem. An ecosystem in this sense is the aggregation of companies, institutions and other players inevitably connected through their shared goal or mission. Depending on the nature of your business, it could be local, global or even both. But one thing’s constant: any ecosystem is full of unknowns and insecurities.
For that reason, you want to be able to estimate the risk and the chances of being successful with the given resources and the competition in that ecosystem. And you want to do it upfront, right?
There are several ways to achieve that, but the best and most effective of these is talking. Having genuine conversations with potential stakeholders to see if they’re really aligned towards the same goals can help prevent failure. To facilitate that, we’d like to introduce you to an easy framework that allows startups and also corporate spin-offs to keep track of conversations and to determine their position within the ecosystem they want to enter.
**Value Blueprints: Getting an overview of your ecosystem**
We recommend Ron Adner’s ‘Value Blueprints’ to help you see the bigger picture. They help you find the right players to talk to and then to assess the risk when it comes to collaborating with them. For the purpose of analyzing the entry into an entrepreneurship ecosystem, we’ve extended the blueprints to include competitive and non-competitive players, as well as players with a good overview of the ecosystem itself.
To map out your blueprints, first, you have to define your end customer. This is always the player that ultimately benefits from the service/product provided. Next, map out the suppliers – the players you need to create value. Then come intermediaries – the players standing between you and the end customer. Finally you map the complementors or those who smooth the intermediaries’ path to the customer.
That done, you add players with a good overview of the ecosystem, as well as competitive and non-competitive players. Once they are on the blueprint, the outcome should look like the following graphic.
**How to assess the risk**
There are two questions which you should always ask yourself: “Are they able to perform the task I need them to?” (co-innovation risk) and “Are they also willing to perform the task needed?” (co-adoption risk). To be able to answer those questions before entering an ecosystem is crucial, because agreeing on the vision inside of an ecosystem does not necessarily mean agreeing on the way to reach it. If all players’ strategies are heading towards collaboration, they also partly assume underlying structures.
Therefore, a system using traffic light colors has been developed in order to best rate and visualize the risk within the ecosystem. Green lights mean “We’re good to go,” a yellow light means “They can’t do it yet,” or “They don’t want to do it yet,” and a red light means “No way this will work.” It’s important to mention that a few yellow lights at the beginning are no major problem and can be solved by coming up with various incentives to turn them green. Red lights, however, can represent major issues, meaning that you might have to find another player to fill that gap or even change the business model. In the following graphic, the blueprints are extended by said traffic lights.
**The process and outcome**
Let’s pretend you own an online bookstore, ready to launch. Before drawing the blueprints for the first time, the players with a good overview about the specific ecosystem, as well as competitive and non-competitive players, have to be approached to find the gap in the existing ecosystem. Competitive players would be other services like Amazon and physical bookstores. Non-competitive players would be platforms which offer complementary goods to your customers.
After doing that and knowing where to start, you have to come up with a structure of the value blueprints (image 1) and assess the risk with the help of the traffic lights (image 2). Suppliers, in this case, could be publishers and IT infrastructure services. Intermediaries are resellers of your bookstore and complementors are delivery services. Last, the risk of collaboration has to be assessed as described.
After the first sketch, chances are that some alterations might be needed to the blueprints. So you sit down, adjust them according to the feedback and validate again and again and again…
These value blueprints could be perceived as rather unusual, especially for managers in bigger corporations, because they involve a lot of upfront conversations and agreements with outside parties. However, the “we’ll talk about that later in the process,” approach is just not appropriate and justifiable in a complex ecosystem and can eventually lead to major problems on the way. We suggest modifying the notion of “If we build it, will they come?” and instead ask, “If we build it, how will they get here?”
And if the answer is “We’re not sure,” you definitely want to know that before you commit your resources!
*For more on innovation opportunities for both corporates and startups, visit the [Pioneers Discover website](https://pioneers.io/discover/about).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Open Call: Join Us In Switzerland For The Energy Blockchain Hack](https://pioneers.io/open-call-join-us-switzerland-energy-blockchain-hackathon/)
**Published:** November 6, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As Pioneers Discover partners with Swisspower, Iberdrola and the Energy Web Foundation to organize a hackathon dedicated to finding use cases for Blockchain in the energy industry, we take a closer look at the topics participating startups can tackle in Bern from December 3rd-5th. Our consultancy arm is looking for startups to take on this pioneering challenge, so read on to find out if your company can help solve specific real-world problems! Apart from exposure and connections, the winner will also receive tickets to Pioneers’19. Applications are still open - but only until November 9th.
**Content:**
Pioneers Discover is excited to be working with Swisspower, Iberdrola and the Energy Web Foundation to organize and execute a hackathon dedicated to finding use cases for Blockchain in the energy industry in. The **Energy Blockchain Hack** takes place from **December 3rd-5th, at INNOSpace in Bern**.
**Swisspower** is a strategic alliance of Swiss energy utilities, while **Iberdrola** is a well-known multinational energy utility based in Spain. The **Energy Web Foundation** is a global non-profit organization focused on accelerating Blockchain technology across the energy sector.
The potential for Blockchain in the energy industry has received relatively little attention from the innovation community thus far, but it’s a sign of the times that such major organizations are making a concerted effort to engage with startups on this subject.
With **applications closing on November 9th**, a reminder that we’re primarily targeting startups from the DACH region – Germany, Austria and Switzerland. However those from Europe and all over the world are welcome to apply. Travel and accommodation costs will be covered up to a value of €500.
The startups will have the opportunity to show their skills as they hack real-world challenges related to the decentralization and the digitization of the energy sector, coming up with a developed concept and minimum viable product in 48 hours. Each of the three sponsors has issued a specific challenge:
**Energy Web Foundation**
Design an end-to-end provenance platform for goods to capture the CO2 footprint throughout the lifecycle (extract, process, package, distribute, consume/destroy) based on different criteria such as emission and combustion factors. Offset the CO2 footprint on a marketplace. Provide a mechanism based on common standards/specifications to prove the footprint and offset.
**Iberdrola Challenge**
Register a device with attributes like OEM, capacity, operating specs, calibration criterion, etc. Provide a reputation score based on the device performance. Provide a mechanism to create a blacklist of rogue devices. A possible approach could be to use machine learning algorithm to detect abnormal behavior.
**Swisspower Challenge**
Demonstrate/model a photovoltaic electricity production system connected to the Blockchain network. Demonstrate/model aggregated consumption of households, along with forecasting of the individual household load demand (based on real data if possible). Show the ability to trade locally-produced electricity through contracts.
At the same time as working on creative solutions to these challenges, the startups will also be able to show off their own products as they **meet international industry players**. And there’s potential to work with the hosts or sponsors in follow-on projects.
The winning startup will also receive two tickets to **Pioneers ’19**. Our flagship event takes place in Vienna on May 9th-10th.
The Energy Blockchain Hack partners believe that decentralized technology has the potential to accelerate the transition towards a cleaner, more resilient, and more cost effective energy system.
“The Energy Blockchain Hack provides relevant answers to the challenges municipal utilities face today,” comments **Ronny Kaufmann**, CEO of Swisspower. “I’m convinced that this hackathon will further foster the application of blockchain applications within the energy industry.”
**Hervé Touati**, CEO of the Energy Web Foundation adds: "The Energy Blockchain Hack is an exciting way to see the potential of blockchain in the energy sector being realized: it will produce actual solutions to real challenges faced by utilities and other energy companies globally."
*Apply for the hackathon and other opportunities via the Pioneers Discover Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/)!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Video: Highlights From Health.Pioneers 2018](https://pioneers.io/video-highlights-healthpioneers-2018/)
**Published:** November 7, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** The time has come for our highlights video from Health.Pioneers! The second edition of this industry-focused event took place in Vienna on October 10th, and you can check out our brief film to get a glimpse of the innovative vibe at Vienna BioCenter. You'll also hear from key speakers including NeuralSolution Founder Benjamin Fry and Prellis Biologics Co-Founder Melanie Matheu, as well as Balder Onarheim, CEO of PlatoScience.
**Content:**
The time has come for our highlights video from Health.Pioneers! The second edition of this industry-focused event took place in Vienna on October 10th, and you can check out our brief film to get a glimpse of the innovative vibe at Vienna BioCenter. You’ll also hear from key speakers including NeuralSolution Founder Benjamin Fry and Prellis Biologics Co-Founder Melanie Matheu, as well as Balder Onarheim, CEO of PlatoScience.
Clik below for the video!
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Meet The Startups We Sent To BBVA Open Talent Glory](https://pioneers.io/meet-startups-pioneers-discover-sent-bbva-open-talent-glory/)
**Published:** October 25, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Last week we were pleased to learn that two of the three winning startups in the BBVA Open Talent contest were scouted by Pioneers Discover. Success for Sedicii and Dunforce represented an excellent strike rate for our consultancy arm, which provided 166 of the approximately 900 startups that were considered for the world’s biggest Fintech competition - and five of the eight finalists! In this article we interview ‘our’ pair of winners and learn more about the tech and use cases that so impressed the Spanish banking giant.
**Content:**
Last week, when the winners of the **BBVA Open Talent** contest were announced in Madrid, we were pleased to learn that two of the three winning startups were those scouted by Pioneers Discover. That represented an excellent strike rate for our consultancy arm, which provided 166 of the approximately 900 startups considered for the world’s biggest Fintech competition – and five of the eight finalists!
Now in its tenth year, the global-scale innovation contest concluded last week with competitive pitching and an awards ceremony at the Casino de Madrid, in the city where BBVA has its headquarters.
With five of the eight finalists having been brought to the contest by Pioneers Discover scouting at the very beginning of the process back in February, we were watching the proceedings with interest from our own Vienna headquarters. And were then delighted to hear that ‘our’ startups **Sedicii** and **Dunforce** won the Fintech for Future and Fintech for Business categories respectively.
Congratulations also to Chargeafter, which triumphed in the Fintech for People category and, like all three winners, earned a prize of €50,000.
For **Dunforce**, however, the opportunity to work together with BBVA is far more exciting than the money. And they’re already building a Proof of Concept for the banking giant.
“Money is really just something that exists in the moment for us,” its Business Developer **Joachim Carpentier** (above right) told us in an exclusive interview. “But collaboration really gives you a future. It’s a huge opportunity to work with BBVA. There are product features that we simply cannot develop without a partner like them, so it’s very important for us going forward.”
He also explained more about how Dunforce’s ‘Smart Virtual Collection Agent’ makes life easier for small and medium-sized companies. It turns out that their tech promises to solve invoicing headaches that trouble our very own finance department at Pioneers on a daily basis!
“Imagine you’re a company sending out 1000 invoices per month,” he says. “You have to check who paid you, and how, at regular intervals. Big companies generally have their own ERP (enterprise resource management) systems, but for smaller companies, this kind of thing is all happening manually at the moment. Sometimes credit managers spend all day checking this stuff.”
We can see our own accountants smiling knowingly as they read that. While someone from outside the field might think keeping track of invoices isn’t such a big deal, Carpentier explains that for proper accounting, it’s not always such a simple matter to just tick off payments as they happen. Accurate reconciliation isn’t always that easy.
“Sometimes you might have three different invoices for the same amount to the same client. If the clients pays the amount, or a partial amount, which invoice was it? And of course you have to keep track of which invoices haven’t been paid, and spend time on chasing too. We can automate this whole process.”
Below is Dunforce’s illustration of the mess that a **manual approach** can involve.
Less amusing, but undeniably simpler, is their illustration of how their **automated process** works.
**Sedicii** is coming at the future of Fintech from a completely different angle, bringing what its Founder **Rob Leslie** (above center) calls a ‘cryptographic piece of magic’ to the thorny business of digital identity verification.
The Irish startup’s name is loosely derived from ‘Secure Digital Credential’, which does sum up what it does pretty well. The USP of their tech is that it will match your name or date of birth (for example) with that held by your bank or your government – but without betraying the actual information.
“It allows for information between two parties to be matched without the information being shared or disclosed to the other,” says Leslie. “That’s the secret sauce.”
The idea behind this ‘zero knowledge proof’ (it’s not Blockchain-based, before you ask!) is to streamline and secure digital verification for all concerned, making it efficient in ways never possible before. Instead of waving your passport hopefully at a camera when you sign up for a bank account, for example, Sedicii could allow the bank to digitally cross-reference your claimed information with that of your national authorities.
“With our system, you could get an answer on that source data in about a second. You get an immediate decision.”
Assuming all major players buy into the network (something Leslie admits is their biggest challenge), we might also dare to dream that updating our details in a hundred places could become a thing of the past. Ditto receiving mail for tenants from six years ago!
“We’re trying to get to a scenario where, say, you move house but don’t need to inform everybody. Because your electricity company knows you’ve moved and you’ve given them permission to inform everyone else. Then, in the backend, the electricity company effectively update all those parties needing to be updated.
“A scenario like moving house is a real pain for both you and organizations you deal with. Them trying to contact you at an old address is a hugely expensive and wasteful exercise. If they were able to maintain information in its most current state without hassling you in the process, that would be a really good thing.”
With you controlling permissions and the **‘secret sauce’** matching information without sharing it, the concept of an **‘identity hub’** becomes possible – as illustrated in the sequence of graphics below.
While managing our data like this is very nice for you and me, why is it so appealing for BBVA? Clearly it could make various regulatory checks smoother and cheaper, but Leslie also sees a longer-term use case related to the expected economy around machine-to-machine payments and smart contract.
“Let’s say in the future your fridge is connected to you, and enabled to execute a smart contract for the purchase of milk. Now, the organization selling that milk to your fridge would like to know that that sale isn’t going to be repudiated because your identity and the fridge’s identity aren’t bound to a legally enforceable contract. They want to be able to check and prove that at the point of contract.”
While that’s obviously interesting for any organisation expecting to execute or validate such futuristic payment processes, it’s a long-term vision. In the nearer future, a possible initial proof of concept for BBVA might actually tackle an internal use case.
“It could be around GDPR and how information sharing across the bank can happen – without actually sharing the information.”
*Could your startup be a winner too? View and apply for current Open Innovation opportunities with our consultancy arm, visit the Pioneers Discover Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Tests: The Future Of Mobility In Vienna](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-tests-future-mobility-vienna/)
**Published:** October 29, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With preparations for the third edition of our Mobility.Pioneers event in Munich already in full swing, we’re in a heightened state of awareness when it comes to future transport solutions. So when Vienna recently launched a pilot step towards the kind of integrated public transport offering that’s bound to be up for discussion at our industry-focused gathering on February 7th, naturally we went along to take a look. Here follows our mini-review of the WienMobil Station.
**Content:**
In a world where personalized convenience is now part of everyday life, consumers rightly expect to be able to get seamlessly from door to door. Yet even in the most efficient public transport systems, they can’t quite do that: there’s always that walk to the bus stop, isn’t there? Welcome to the ‘last-mile’ problem…one that many a mobility-innovator is trying to solve!
With efficiency, sustainability and killing congestion all on the future mobility agenda, even carmakers are accepting that nobody should buy a car just so that they can reach their nearest station, or because their place of work isn’t near a bus stop. Current technology can (and should) make that a ridiculous notion, at least in the developed world.
Thanks to established Uber-type services, car-sharing schemes like DriveNow and the latest craze in e-bikes and e-scooters, the personalised journey is already here. Never mind exactly when self-driving taxis hit town: convenient options for short journeys, driven by mobile app, are clearly viable and loved.
These options are cheap enough for most of us to use on a whim, and often comparable or cheaper in cost to running a car. So, what can improve?
Well, linking the best of ‘old’ infrastructure and ‘new’ options in a practical way is still an unsolved issue. Do we really need to be running around with seventeen different transport apps clogging our smartphones? Wouldn’t it be great if all the options were simply a part of a single ticket? If a single app calculated your best way of getting from A to B, integrating the latest ‘last-mile’ solutions with the existing transport network, and took payment too?
Uber is one company trying to make that a reality, but it seems logical that city transport authorities should have a role to play here.
In Vienna, where public transport is arguably the best value in the world, integration makes huge sense from a customer point of view. An annual public transport pass costs just one Euro a day. Which means a lot of people have them. If that pass could also unlock shared cars, e-scooters and the like, it would be next-level stuff. Even more people would invest in yearly tickets: perhaps even going for a next-level pricing option!
Wiener Linien, which runs transport in Vienna, is eyeing the future here. Last month they launched their first ‘WienMobil Station’ at the Simmering transport hub. So we crossed town with Metro Line U3 and checked out this pilot project.
Set up next to a major junction where trains, metro, trams and buses all come together, this hub for last-mile services should be hard to miss. But miss it we did: when you’ve got multiple station exits, seamlessness still needs signposts!
After hunting for several minutes as an evil autumn wind howled around Simmering, we finally found the kerbside spot. It featured several docks for shared e-bikes, a charging station for electric vehicles, a reserved parking spot for shared cars, lockup storage containers for bikes (or similar) and a fixed air pump.
Curious to find out just how intuitive and smooth it would be, we’d made deliberately done no research in advance. But, with an annual Vienna transport pass and driving licence in our pockets, we were hoping it might be possible to drive back to the office using a shared car or e-bike. Maybe we just had to touch our cards on a given vehicle and it would unlock? After all, the city has your full identity if you own a yearly ticket. They’d know who we were if we stole something!
It quickly became clear that such simplicity remains a dream. Unfortunately the WienMobil Station in its current form was a place where you had to stand in the freezing wind and download apps, registering with a bunch of different providers. These included Car2Go, DriveNow, Stadtauto and SIMBike (e-bikes), while the lock-up was provided by SafetyDock. Unlocking anything, though, appeared to require its own app and tedious sign-up process.
The exception, quite literally, was SafetyDock, which let us have an easy free trial without hassle. We put our mobile number in the touch screen, received an SMS code to punch in and quickly had a door open up for us! To be fair, giving access to an empty box is less of a big deal than letting people drive off in a car. But still it was nice to try something out so effortlessly, not to mention get away from the gale for a minute. (It was very tranquil in there – and there’s a power socket too.)
**Life inside a bike lock-up in Simmering!**
SIMBike offered a ‘free’ trial, which briefly had us considering registering for a ride back to the office. But then we found you had to pay a €10 sign-up fee to get the free hours. Not a free trial, then.
What we *did* do was download the WienMobil app, which showed all the ‘new’ mobility options in a given radius (not just the WienMobil Station itself) including shared vehicles, electric car charging and taxis. While many of the options were there long before last month, a convenient app and the visible impact of the Station bring their existence to the front of mind.
Likewise there’s nothing new about riding your bike to the train station and locking it up for the day either, but if the presence of a sleek, safe lock-up system gets more people thinking about that option, then the WienMobility Station has done part of its job. After all, the biggest future mobility challenge of all might be nothing more than getting people to change their habits.
Still, we’re waiting for the day our yearly ticket becomes a true magic wand. The day when all those ‘partners’ and ‘providers’ get white-labelled into the city transport system, and we don’t need twenty-three accounts and passwords. The day the WienMobil app handles your route and any payments, rather than just redirecting you to partners.
Why not include as much as possible in our transport passes, linking one payment method to the app for extras (car usage over a certain quota, perhaps), and then let the transport authorities take care of the payments behind the scenes? That, to us, should be the dream for multi-modal transport.
Only Stadtauto had really made a visible effort to link their service with public transport. Alongside Wiener Linien branding were special tariffs for owners of yearly tickets. Some of the deals looked good, and you didn’t have to pay a registration fee if you had an annual pass. We even found an offer for new customers, where you could drive free for two hours. But you had to upload documents first, and there was no guarantee of how long approval would take, so we didn’t invest our limited time in that either. (We have done so since, stay tuned to social media for a follow-up!)
The fact that there were no e-scooters also raises an interesting issue. The leave-it-where-you-want model favoured by companies like Lime makes it hard for a key transport hub like this to guarantee that anything will be available. One reason why fixed docking points must surely have a place in an integrated future!
We didn’t see anybody else stopping by the WienMobil Station during the hour we were there, but still, it does give alternative transport possibilities a well-presented stage in a logical location. While it might be a good way of bringing business to existing providers, though, we’ll get excited when Wiener Linien negotiates an all-in-one for us. We certainly didn’t have to drive anything or ride anything to reach that conclusion!
*To attend our full-day event on the future of mobility and meet corporates, startups, investors and innovators in the space, click [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility2019#/)! Mobility.Pioneers goes ahead in Munich on February 7th.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [No Pivot, Full Steam Ahead: The Rise And Rise Of Our 2014 Flagship Event Winner](https://pioneers.io/no-pivot-full-steam-ahead-rise-and-rise-our-2014-flagship-event-winners/)
**Published:** November 26, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** When we look back at the history of our flagship event, names like inaugural victors mySugr and 2013 winning founder Urška Sršen (now famous as the woman behind Bellabeat) always stand out. But our 2014 winners Oradian have been quietly achieving ever since triumph in Vienna. Four and a half years on from getting the thumbs-up from the jury at the Hofburg, the Fintech is building and succeeding with exactly the idea they pitched on stage. We caught up with their Co-Founder Antonio Separovic to find out just how well their original idea is working.
**Content:**
When we look back at the history of our flagship event, names like inaugural victors mySugr and 2013 winning founder **Urška Sršen** (now famous as the woman behind Bellabeat) always stand out. But our **2014 winners Oradian** merit a closer look too, because they’ve been quietly achieving ever since triumph in Vienna.
**Four and a half years on from getting the thumbs-up from the jury at the Hofburg**, the financial inclusion startup is building and succeeding with exactly the idea they pitched on stage. Which was to provide a functional cloud-based toolset to banks in remote or developing markets such as Nigeria, where access to financial services can be limited to non-existent.
“The judges definitely bet on the winning horse!” Oradian’s Co-Founder **Antonio Separovic** tells us from their Zagreb headquarters. “We’ve pretty much stayed on the same path. We’re on track with our growth and we haven’t had a reason to pivot.
“We had years of experience in the sector, so we had a detailed comprehension of the problem and a detailed vision of the solution. 1.7 billion people not having access to financial services is quite a large problem – so the opportunity is there. For us the idea is right, the model is right, and the approach is what makes us different to our competitors. That’s allowing us to grow quickly.”
When Oradian pitched in Vienna, their only investment was from ‘family and friends’. In funding terms, they’re now **well past the Series A mark**, and heading for that next rung on the ladder. They’re still regularly winning awards. The employee base has grown from 20 to 130, spread across offices in Croatia, Nigeria and the Philippines. Now servicing eleven countries and 75 clients, the number of end users has grown from just under 200,000 then to just under three million now.
It’s not often that a company can tell such a simple story of steady success. And it’s particularly impressive given that Oradian is operating in some particularly **tricky markets** – not many founders have to worry about kidnappings when they visit their clients.
“Northern Nigeria was our first project, and one of the reasons for that was the harsh conditions,” recounts Separovic. “We figured that if it works there, it works anywhere! We were in the heart of Boko Haram territory, but our first customer bank managed to grow twofold. That goes a long way to tell a story.
“It’s not a comfortable place – but it’s not a comfortable place for our client either! And they really appreciated us taking the initiative to really understand their business. That went a long way to establishing that initial trust – at the end of the day they’re handing all their data to you.”
Nowadays, with trust all set up, Oradian meets its north Nigerian clients on safer ground, such as Zagreb (above). But those early trips to tricky places provided invaluable validations of their concept, which is primarily about eliminating the need for hardware in places where it doesn’t make a lot of sense (or isn’t affordable) for financial institutions.
“The most pleasant surprise from our earliest visits to Nigeria was something you don’t think about,” says Separovic. “The fact that there isn’t a good power supply, and that it’s the mobile phone towers that have the best generators. That meant cloud technology actually worked better than on-premise technology, because you had less dependency on diesel and self-managing of energy. You could effectively outsource that by a GPRS or 2.5G connection.
“Would cloud work in the bush? Actually cloud worked better than having a desktop and a server on-site! That was a crystallization moment for us. \[Enabling the shift to cloud\] allowed our customers to grow because they no longer needed to have servers on site.”
From there Oradian hasn’t looked back. But such growth just isn’t sustainable without a **great team of people**. That can be tough when you’re based in Croatia, says Separovic.
“In Eastern Europe, a lot of people are trying to leave. Everyone wants to go to Dublin, London, San Francisco. But one of the things smart people quickly realize is that if you can get a competitive salary and live in Zagreb, a European capital, at a fraction of the price, then you’re making more money. Your net positives are much greater!
“Those are the kind of people you want – smart people, not blind sheep! Let the sheep run away. You can’t make an impact at Google in Dublin. If you want to create and do something new, you have to get in early, go to the unpredictable places. We’re still constantly looking for talent. We seek Champions League players to go and solve problems in emerging, frontier markets.”
This is where Separovic says victory in what was then known as Pioneers Festival came in most handy.
“It raised our awareness locally and **helped us in terms of recruitment**. Pioneers helped us get recognition in our local environment. People say ‘these guys are winning awards, there must be something there of merit.’”
And, all these years later, that’s proven to be exactly the case!
*Startups can apply to take part in Pioneers’19 [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers19#/). Investors and corporates looking to meet them can buy tickets [here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pioneers19-tickets-45929643801).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Exclusive Interview With Betsy Ziegler and Nicolas Colin Part II: Inclusion In Europe And The USA](https://pioneers.io/exclusive-interview-betsy-ziegler-and-nicolas-colin-part-ii-inclusion-europe-and-usa/)
**Published:** November 29, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** In the second part of our exclusive interview with Betsy Ziegler and Nicolas Colin, we look at the topic of female and minority representation in the world of innovation. Why is it still such a burning issue? What successes are we already seeing, and how can innovation communities ensure more? In this post the respective leaders of the American incubator 1871 and European investment firm The Family share more first-hand insights and learnings from either side of the Atlantic.
**Content:**
When Betsy Ziegler was announced as the first female CEO of top United States incubator 1871 earlier this year, that particular statistic was underlined in most news coverage of her appointment. The fact that her being a woman even merits a mention in 2018 is revealing in itself, and tells us that she’s still in a comparatively rare position. Which made her the ideal expert to share insights on Inclusive Leadership at our recent Pioneers Community Event in Vienna.
In [part one](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/exclusive-interview-betsy-ziegler-and-nicolas-colin-why-size-matters-innovation-communities) of our exclusive interview with Ziegler and her fellow guest Nicolas Colin, who leads the European investment firm The Family alongside a female Co-Founder, we looked at the range of opportunity that comes with being part of large-scale innovation communities such as theirs. This article moves closer to the central theme of the evening, exploring their views and experiences around inclusion, minority representation and women in tech.
“Companies that have a more diverse team have better financial performance and higher returns,” Ziegler tells us. “There is study after study after study that keeps proving that these are more creative, do a better job at problem-solving and solve harder problems.
“It’s also interesting that in the USA, those with physical disability have a higher rate of entrepreneurship that any other segment of the population, because they’re often solving problems nobody else knows about.
“So, rational human behaviour would be to give more money to companies that have such a team, but that is not the case at the moment!”
Behind all of that typically lies a human tendency to stick with what – and who – is familiar to your own background or frame of reference. It’s a worldwide thing, as Colin points out.
“When French entrepreneurs pitch to London venture capitalists, it can be very hard,” he says. “It’s a different mindset, environment, and language. You can be an excellent entrepreneur but if you have difficulties expressing yourself in English, you sound stupid, and well below your actual level. And when the VC has so many opportunities, they won’t make an effort to try and understand exactly who you are, your mindset and your environment. It’s very hard to change that.
“There’s something similar in Israel, where everybody prefers to invest in people who were in the army intelligence units. If weren’t part of those units but you’re a good entrepreneur anyway, you can’t raise funds in Israel.”
Issues like these are well-documented, but plenty has already begun to change where balanced representation is concerned.
“We’re making a lot of progress with female role models,” Colin points out. “I’ve even seen that with my daughter – it’s so easy now to find online videos of women playing drums or electric guitar. That didn’t exist when I grew up, but now you can find hundreds of brilliant women playing all instruments on YouTube. If you have a daughter, you can get her interested in something that way.”
Meanwhile Chicago (and also 1871) are leading the way when it comes to their female founder population. The figure for both the city and the incubator is 30%, which is as close to parity as it gets in the USA.
For Ziegler, close relationships with universities – 1871 has seven of them with a presence at their location – has a part to play in their figures, since the population of graduates tends to be much more of an even split. But education is also the answer to going well beyond 30% in the future.
“It has to start in primary school,” she says. “Everyone in Chicago now has to be trained in computer science, both male and female. The curriculum is certainly changing in big cities. Less so in the rural areas, which is a problem and part of the reason the current president got elected in the USA. There’s definitely not a talent problem.”
1871 is certainly doing its part, with private accelerator programs for under-represented groups, including the disabled community, a big part of its activities. All its founders also go through training with the YWCA, in which they cure bias and work on being culturally appropriate. Ziegler hopes this will be one way if ensuring the status quo doesn’t self-perpetuate.
“If you get told when you’re a team of less five how to have a healthy culture and how to scale in an appropriate way from a people (not business) perspective, then hopefully that sinks in. It’s my hope that when they go outside our walls they follow that early training. If we can have a legacy of spinning out companies that perform well from a people perspective, then it’s a great thing for us too.”
*Watch the video of the fireside chat [here](https://www.facebook.com/Pioneers.io/videos/1148652425285839/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Blurring Industries: Why You Might Be A Mobility Startup After All!](https://pioneers.io/lisnr/)
**Published:** December 6, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With startup applications for February’s Mobility.Pioneers event closing this weekend, we interview LISNR, one of our three finalists from the first edition of the event in 2017. The American ultrasonic data platform has gone from strength to strength in that time. Having really defined their business focus, they’re now close to Series C funding and have achieved widespread recognition across multiple industries. But they could easily have sidestepped their mobility space applications completely...our interview underlines just how the lines between innovation in all industries are blurring.
**Content:**
Are you a mobility startup? No? Keep reading, because you might want to double-check that.
While flying cars, e-vehicle charging solutions, multi-modal sharing platforms and other more obviously ‘mobile’ technologies will probably always come to mind first when we think about the sector, there’s so much more to it. The presence of a ‘search company’ like Google certainly underlines the fact that pigeon-holing is a thing of the past in a space that needs so much tech it never thought about before.
Equally, if you’ve got a solution that works for mobility – cybersecurity, say – then chances are you’ve got a solution that works for a bunch of other stuff. It works both ways. Definitions are more fluid than ever: just look at LISNR.
One of our startup finalists of the first Mobility.Pioneers in 2017, LISNR is an ultrasonic data platform. It doesn’t scream ‘mobility’ at first glance, and indeed their technology does have a huge range of applications. But if our visitors from America hadn’t been open to seeing where it might fit into the ever-changing transport landscape, then they wouldn’t have embarked on their very first startup event in Europe. They wouldn’t have ended up winning our Connected Cars category. And they wouldn’t have made automotive contacts they’re still talking to almost two years later.
“We connected with partners at Porsche, Mercedes and VW Group at Mobility.Pioneers,” says Rodney Williams, LISNR’s Co-Founder and CCO. “And it was extremely helpful for us across a number of other industries. We’re still working with a lot of the partners that we met.”
But LISNR was never just about mobility. The potential applications for such high-speed and secure ultrasound data transmission had always been too broad for them to limit themselves. But what they’ve done since winning in Munich is to really fix down the problem they can solve: making transactions more reliable, fast and secure for merchants.
“We’re broader than mobility. It was always just one of the industries we were involved in. We are vertical- and system-agnostic, simply powering transaction moments. It’s really about empowering merchants to own the transaction moment more securely and seamlessly than ever before. We’ve learned that this is our core value proposition today.
“For us, a merchant is anyone that sells a good or service. There are mobility merchants, retail merchants, ecommerce merchants…it’s actually a pretty broad term, but they all have a transaction moment where sound can help make that experience more seamless and secure.”
With LISNR having worked since Mobility.Pioneers to define their offer better than ever, they can continue to work in a variety of industries effectively. The chances of getting distracted by a wide variety of use cases seem to be diminishing, so there’s less reason than ever for them to pigeonhole.
“While our tech has extremely widespread use across a number of different industries and verticals, our business is now more focussed,” says Williams. “The use case we are focussing on is laser sharp.
“We still work with auto manufacturers but we’re now focusing on the use case of the transaction moment. So instead of talking to the mobility manufacturer around entering the vehicle, we would probably talk more about how that vehicle could pay for parking or check out. Or rideshare, or fleet identification. These are all transaction moments in and around mobility.”
They’ve found a market opportunity that exists in a bunch of different worlds, in other words. And with the technical connections between the different spheres of our lives growing all the time, finding an offer that fits into a number of them is an opportunity every startup could look out for. When it can take time for the big rewards of collaboration to bear fruit, LISNR’s example makes a great deal of sense.
“For us mobility is very compelling and it’s still something we’re going after. But it is a longer sales cycle, especially if you’re going after auto manufacturers. For a startups it can take a significant amount of time for traction, adoption and being ready to go to market. So you have to be very sensitive to the time it could take, as you think about the strategy.”
LISNR were smart not to put every egg in the mobility (or any other) basket. And it’s really working, with Series C funding now close to being tied up and the team having grown to around 25 people.
“We continue to work with Jaguar Land Rover. We’re also starting to get a ton of traction with car share and ride share. There are a number of those in the US such as \[taxi apps\] Flywheel, RideYellow and a ton of other mobility-like customers that will be moving forward with our solution.”
And that’s just the good news in the mobility space. LISNR could have limited their work to just that, but doing so would have been narrow-minded. Equally they could just as easily have skipped mobility altogether! Makes you think, doesn’t it?
More than ever, is a time to really stop and consider your answer before you say who you are and what your company does…
*Are you a mobility startup after all? There are only a few days left to apply for Mobility.Pioneers! Do it [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility2019#/) by Sunday December 9th!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Insights: Plastic And The Power Of Printed Electronics](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-plastic-and-power-printed-electronics/)
**Published:** December 10, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** The recent Greiner Ideation Hackathon in Vienna, which was organized by Pioneers Discover, explored how printed electronic technology could combine with the company’s existing plastic products. Since that’s a lot of long words for most of us, this article looks at what printed electronics actually means in this context, and the ways in which this obscure-sounding concept could become a part of our everyday experience. In an exclusive interview with our hackathon winner, we begin to understand what might make printed electronics a huge growth industry.
**Content:**
Like it or not, plastic is woven into the fabric of our lives. But it took a visit to the **Greiner Ideation Hackathon** in October for a non-specialist like myself to understand a blooming technology that effectively weaves information into the fabric of plastic.
The **ideation format** went down a treat with both our partner Greiner and the participating startups, which were selected by hackathon organiser Pioneers Discover. Its unique feature was the absence of specifically-defined problems or challenges for the participants to solve. Rather, it was a free playground to discover any potential ways for printed electronics to integrate with Greiner plastic products, which range from yoghurt containers to shampoo bottles to shower heads.
(While plastic is undeniably a dirty word these days, it’s worth mentioning that our 150-year-old partner Greiner is working hard to use less of it. Just a month after the hackathon, in fact, Greiner Packaging received a Special Innovation Award at the Austrian Smart Packaging Awards.)
Ultimately it was German company **Prismade** that took honours at the hackathon, with its experienced crew impressing Greiner by showing how invisible conductive ink could be used to **embed interactive ID tags in plastic**.
That’s a bunch of long words again, we know. But let’s try and unpack it a little. In essence, **printed electronics is about using inks that can give a material ‘smart’ abilities**, for example allowing the surface of a bottle to function as a next-level QR code or measure its own liquid levels.
‘Printed electronics’ is somewhat misleading, because we non-specialists tend to associate the word with some kind of visible outcome. But, although you’d be using printing technology to get to that interactivity you want in your physical product, don’t always expect to see it with your eyes. As the presence of ‘invisible ink’ in Prismade’s solution makes abundantly clear!
Nonetheless, printed electronics is not a new concept. Prismade’s founders have in fact been tinkering around with its potential since 2004. It’s been seen already in other materials, with plastic having been considered a tougher nut to crack until recently.
Still, we had a bunch of burning questions for Prismade Co-Founder Jan Thiele when we interviewed him. Why would you want this? Are we solving a real problem with printed electronics or is it just another nifty way for milk bottles to play cartoons for the kids? If so, what’s wrong with a QR code anyway? And if there’s more to it, how big a potential are we talking here?
“Marketing applications are just a minor additional thing with printed electronics,” says Thiele. “The real benefit for our technology is the added level of security. In Asia, South America and Africa, for example, there’s quite a big issue with counterfeit pharmaceuticals. With our tech the consumer can easily make sure they have an original product.
“Right now you would use a hologram, but consumers don’t know what a hologram is actually meant to look like! Now your smartphone can tell you it’s the correct product. Plus you can add value like a digital leaflet or video. With serious applications like this the long-term value is much higher.”
With plastic banknotes also growing in popularity, perhaps there could be a serious application in terms of spotting counterfeit money too. (Trust me, getting a fake 50-Peso note for change in a Mexico City is enough to spoil a morning!)
Even holograms themselves could be made more effective, says Thiele. “One application could be an interactive hologram, where you don’t need to know how the real one looks like, but instead your smartphone can verify it for you. And since it is electronic and not optical (like a QR code) it’s very hard to copy.”
Another interesting possibility he points out would be the (always exciting) prospect of eliminating a few PIN’s and passwords from our lives.
“Placed inside a credit card, printed electronics technology could serve as a separate PIN code to verify any type of transaction. This means that you need to have the real card placed on your smartphone. Just knowing someone else’s credit card data won’t be enough to shop online.”
There’s a whole extra article you could write about that, given that technology in general seems to be moving away from physical, and one might have assumed we wouldn’t have cards at all in the near future. Also, there needs to be a commonsense system in place (still a roadblock for many services) for anyone who has lost or broken their phone to still get money. Plus, what about the millions of people who can’t afford a smartphone? Technology that makes the rich richer (and more securely so) should be debated.
Returning from that aside, the advantage over something like a QR code is pretty clear in these examples. “Whenever you want to put value into a product so that you don’t want people to copy it, then you can’t use optical systems any more,” says Thiele.
He also points out that conductive ink has both a cost and environmental edge over another secure alternative, the RFD chip.
“If you want more security, you could choose an RFD chip…but this comes with a drastically higher cost for the chip. And what most people don’t consider is the electronics waste. A simple piece of paper would become electronics waste. And there are regulatory implications for manufacturers. So that’s unthinkable for mass markets.”
If you’re not convinced that any of this is real problem-solving, consider the solution from one of the other finalist teams at the hackathon. Mechatronics graduates Christoph Beisteiner and Dominik Hofer, entered as **MedGauge**, used printed electronics to make a plastic container smart enough to monitor how much liquid is inside it.
The application in mind was a hospital, where levels in urine or infusion bags could be digitally monitored, eliminating the work and error potential that comes with the traditional nurse-and-clipboard method. And like with Prismade, their concept would integrate seamlessly with existing Greiner production lines. According to MedGuage they would print a “resonant sensor structure” on the surface, merely “replacing coloured ink with conductive ink.”
Clearly there is plenty to talk about when it comes to the potential impact of printed electronics, particularly with plastic. Thinking of its further applications is a fun challenge that has no limits, and it’s certainly possible to imagine it as something that creeps into our lives in the fairly near future.
Whatever the long-term potential of printed electronics, one thing’s for certain: the fact that showing a working product is always going to give you an edge at a hackathon. Especially if it fits well into legacy systems.
“One of the reasons I think we won was that we could prove everything we showed would be available now,” concludes Thiele. “We used a yoghurt container to show Greiner that you could put this invisible electronic code into the plastic directly, making an interactive product by using conductive ink. And they understood that this is really feasible with the machines they already have.”
*Startups with something to offer in printed electronics should consider applying for the LOPEC Startup Island in Munich on March 20th-21st next year. They can do so via the Pioneers Discover Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Exclusive Interview With Betsy Ziegler and Nicolas Colin: Why Size Matters For Innovation Communities](https://pioneers.io/exclusive-interview-betsy-ziegler-and-nicolas-colin-why-size-matters-innovation-communities/)
**Published:** November 28, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Earlier this week we welcomed international innovation leaders Betsy Ziegler of 1871 and Nicolas Colin of The Family to our Pioneers Community Event at Braintribe in Vienna, where they took part in a fireside chat on the topic of Inclusive Leadership. Before they went on stage we sat down for an exclusive interview with them, and in the first of two articles we share examples on how the scale of the innovation communities they lead not only helps entrepreneurs in everything from getting cheaper t-shirts to reasonably-priced technical support, but opens doors for the wider economy too.
**Content:**
Whilst Betsy Ziegler and Nicolas Colin both lead organizations that help develop and nurture startups, it’s fair to say there are a few points of difference between the entities they lead. 1871, of which Ziegler is CEO, is an internationally-recognized non-profit incubator based in Chicago. The Family, by contrast, is a venture capital firm operating in Paris, London and Berlin, albeit one that works equity-free at many levels. But while our Pioneers Community Event guests come at things from fundamentally different perspectives (and geographies), they also have plenty in common.
And one of the most interesting of these common denominators to come up in our exclusive interview with the duo was that of size. Or more to the point, what you can do with it.
As you’ll read, their organizations have creatively leveraged the sheer scale of their communities – both have been working with hundreds of startups in just a few years of existence – in ways that benefit both their local economy and the young companies under their wings.
One example comes from The Family’s community in Paris, which used its weight of numbers to make a material (you’ll get the pun in a minute) difference to their early journeys as companies. Happily enough, this proved to be a win for the wider ecosystem too.
“Every startup buys t-shirts, mugs and so on to make their team proud and affirm their brand,” says Colin. “And we saw that Paris startups had a very hard time with those. Either they were cheap but very low-quality, or good quality but extremely expensive. And if you wanted quality that was affordable, you had to wait several weeks, since it was all manufactured in China. A startup can’t afford to wait three weeks for their stuff!
“So we spotted a market failure here, and took part in creating what is now the leading outfit company for startups in Paris. A manufacturing company that redesigned the entire supply chain to offer small quantities at affordable price and high quality, specifically for startups.
KYMONO now is the union of a long-term textile corporation & The Family, describing themselves as "a team of people who care for both startups and style".
“Based on that, they have been expanding to restaurants, universities and more. But the reason they were successful early on was that we passed on the message to our portfolio that there was a new provider in town and said ‘you should buy from them!’
“We could do the same with law firms and anyone else who has something to sell to startups. Scale gives us market purchasing power. We can shift the market and correct many market failures thanks to the strength of the portfolio.”
At 1871, the clout of a hub brimming with 470 startups can have in terms of dealing with the costly headaches all founder face is also evident.
“We partner with legal firms who are willing to do pro bono work for our startups,” Ziegler tells us. “We also have these kinds of partnerships for real estate, accounting & payroll, all the HR-related stuff.
“We don’t want our startups wasting time trying to figure this stuff out. We say ‘It’s not worth you as a founders becoming an expert in these areas, so we give you the experts for free.’ Then it’s off their worry list and they can focus on solving the problem they’re solving.”
Where an isolated startup might struggle to get pro bono deals like this, it’s no problem at all when they belong to a collective as big as 1871.
“It takes zero convincing from me,” says Ziegler. “The providers are lining up. Every law firm in Chicago wants to be involved on the legal side. It’s deal flow for them, and it’s a cool thing for them to be able to work with small companies too.”
Just before coming to Vienna, Ziegler also finalised a deal to help founders with technical services.
“A lot of our founders aren’t technical, and in some cases they’re getting cheated out of their money by ridiculously expensive agencies. Now we’ll be working with one in Miami that uses developers in Latin America, and offers founders flat fees for set products. There’s a clear process, a relationship with us and a guarantee. And they can make it cheap just because of the volume we bring.”
A big portfolio is also great for all concerned when a startup fails, as startups inevitably do, adds Colin.
“Another advantage is that when a company closes down, we know the people who work in it, so we can redeploy people and pick talent. We can say ‘It’s good that you’re ceasing operations, because your talent will be required by that other company!’ So scale makes it easier to do matching inside the portfolio.”
Then there is of course the most intuitive benefit of all. In a large association you’ve simply got a greater chance of great connections.
“The benefit we get from scale is the density of founders in that space helping one another,” says Ziegler. “It’s super hard to be a founder and to build something, so we surround them with six venture capital firms headquartered in our location, seven university partners with physical space there, 125 corporate partners and 500 mentors. And we put on 1000 events a year.
“So everything is big, and the scale and scope of all that creates these very powerful collisions that happen every day. You bump into somebody that can help you. Some of our most successful companies say that they met everyone they needed to meet in their first couple of years at 1871.”
You don’t need to be building an incubator or an investment firm to take something from Ziegler and Colin’s examples. They could be emulated by just about any innovation-related program of reasonable size. And if you’re a startup weighing up joining any similar community, it’s worth asking yourself if it’s been known to offer the kinds of founder benefits and opportunities Ziegler and Colin mention. If its not, maybe you should keep looking…
*Read part two of this exclusive interview [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/exclusive-interview-betsy-ziegler-and-nicolas-colin-part-ii-inclusion-europe-and-usa)!*
*Watch the video of the fireside chat [here](https://www.facebook.com/Pioneers.io/videos/1148652425285839/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Home Team Leads The Way At Energy Blockchain Hack](https://pioneers.io/home-team-leads-way-energy-blockchain-hack/)
**Published:** December 12, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Local startup Papers.ch won €2,500 and tickets to Pioneers ’19 after taking overall honours at the ground-breaking Energy Blockchain Hack in Bern last week. Switzerland’s first hackathon focused on Blockchain solutions for the energy sector, which was organized by Pioneers Discover along with partners Swisspower, the Energy Web Foundation and Iberdrola, saw 14 teams from four continents rapid-prototype for 48 hours in the Swiss capital. And, as you’ll read, they really showed what’s possible when you add a dash of Blockchain to the energy industry!
**Content:**
Swiss startup **Papers.ch** was the overall winner of the **Energy Blockchain Hack** in Bern last week. The ‘Current’ app they pitched after 48 hours of prototyping in Switzerland’s capital earned them €2,500 and tickets to Pioneers ’19 in Vienna on May 9th-10th.
The Energy Blockchain Hack saw 14 startup teams from 12 countries and four continents come together to explore use cases for Blockchain the energy industry. Switzerland’s first hackathon focused on this topic was organized by Pioneers Discover and co-hosted by **Swisspower** and the **Energy Web Foundation (EWF)**.
The Papers.ch solution ‘Current’ qualified for overall victory as the winner of the PV-centered challenge from Swisspower, which is a strategic alliance of Swiss energy utilities.
‘Current’ is a consumer-facing mobile app that allows users of photovoltaic (PV) energy to track and optimize both energy consumption and their footprint, including in-app green energy certificate trading powered by smart contracts. Targeted at larger residential complexes, the Papers.ch developed it as a ‘win-win-win solution’ in which the consumer saves money whilst PV investors get faster returns on investment and the relevant utility earns a better margin.
The other category winners also impressed their respective partners. Russian team **DAO IPCI** produced the best response to the EWF challenge, in which the global non-profit organization asked teams to design an end-to-end provenance platform to capture goods’ CO2 footprint throughout the lifecycle. DAO IPCI, which also won Pioneers ’19 tickets, is a smart contracts and Blockchain-based independent ecosystem designed for carbon markets and societal costs mitigation instruments.
**FlexiDAO** was the third category victor, also walking away with tickets to Pioneers ’19 after winning the challenge from **Iberdrola**, the multinational energy utility based in Spain. This was about developing a system to police ‘honesty’ in measuring devices such as meters. The Barcelona startup impressed the judges with their concept for a low-cost, fast-performing, decentralized system to track and regulate a meter’s ‘reputation’, under which irregularities could be challenged by incentivized users. A meter’s ‘honesty’ could be confirmed (or otherwise) by uploading a photograph of the meter reading.
Prize-winners aside, this latest Pioneers Discover innovation event saw all the participating teams come away enriched. Even those who didn’t win got priceless access to industry leaders and bonded with potential new collaboration partners. The intense prototyping format also opened their eyes to new markets and use cases they might not be thinking about in their existing models.
“We’re not industry experts, so winning the hackathon came as a huge surprise for us,” commented **Papers.ch Co-Founder Lukas Schönbächler**. “We could have never developed a solution for the energy industry without taking part in the hackathon.”
While the majority of startup teams (which were scouted by Pioneers Discover) were European, one travelled 26 hours from Australia to take part! Others coming from far afield included competitors from the USA, India and Kazakhstan.
*For upcoming startup opportunities including hackathons across all industries, keep an eye on the Pioneers Discover Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [A Peek Inside Your GovTech.Pioneers Venue: The Vienna City Hall!](https://pioneers.io/peek-inside-your-govtechpioneers-vienna-city-hall/)
**Published:** December 18, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers is truly excited to be adding another of Europe’s most iconic buildings to its portfolio of event venues, in the form of Vienna’s famous City Hall (Rathaus). With our flagship event having made its home in the Hofburg Imperial Palace since 2012, the second edition of GovTech.Pioneers will be staged at the 135-year-old landmark on April 2nd next year. In this article we take you behind the scenes into the Festsaal, deep inside one of very few Viennese buildings in the same league as the Hofburg.
**Content:**
It was a cold, grey November day when a small group of Pioneers got a sneak preview of the grand and imposing venue for next year’s GovTech.Pioneers. On a brief, wind-whipped visit to the front terrace – normally off-limits to the public – we took in the wintery scene below: a light dusting of snow covered the world-famous Christmas Market and, beyond that, the Ringstraße.
It’ll look quite different come our event on April 2nd. Snow’s not out of the question, but spring is likely to be in the air. And instead of festive treat stalls, the square in front of the City Hall will see preparations for that weekend’s Vienna City Marathon in full swing. The race finishes in front of the Burgtheater, the historic theatre that looks the City Hall square in the eye from the other side of the Ringstraße.
Whatever the season, though, the Vienna City Hall always lies at the very heart of civilian life. Not only is this eye-catching mix of Neo-Gothic and Renaissance architecture the stunning city hall to end all stunning city halls, but the square out front is almost always given over to some event for the people of Vienna, be it markets or marathons, ice-skating rinks or free film festivals.
“The centrepoint of city life, the pride and joy of all citizens of the city,” is how then-mayor Cajetan Felder described it when it was built in the 19th century. The best part of 150 years on, it has stayed largely true to that promise.
This kind of extravagant social hub is typical for a city that continues to achieve recognition as the [best-run on the planet](https://www.mercer.com/newsroom/2018-quality-of-living-survey.html). The Vienna City Hall is far more than a fancy office for faceless, unambitious bureaucrats, but rather home to one of the world’s most forward-thinking cities.
Where are we going with all this? Well, with forward-thinking government pretty much at the heart of the GovTech.Pioneers agenda, there could be no better venue for the third edition of one of Europe’s leading Govtech events. Taking place in the stately Festsaal (ballroom), it’s entirely fitting for politicians, CIOs and innovation managers, startups, corporations and investors to come together under the theme *The Next Era: Future Governments*.
We’ve already confirmed a number of top-class speakers, including:
• Katy McNeil, Lead of the CivTech Intrapreneurship Programme of the Scottish Government
• Sari Ladin-Sienne, Chief Data Officer of the City and County of Los Angeles
• Neil Walsh, Chief of Cybercrime at UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
• Rocio Fonseca, Head of Innovation at CORFO (Chilean Economic Development Agency)
• Irakli Beridze, Head of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at UNICRI (United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute)
They’ll be sharing their insights from the stage we’ll be putting up in the long, rectangular Festsaal. Directly behind the terrace from which we surveyed the city, it takes up the lion’s share of the first floor on this side of the building. With a vast surface area of 1450 square metres, it’s best-known as the venue for the annual Concordia Ball. The Festsaal can accommodate no less than 840 people seated, and even more standing.
Like the Hofburg, which plays host to our annual flagship event, the interior oozes historic and imperial inspiration. Sixteen chandeliers weighing in at 260kg each will keep an eye on proceedings from above, as will ten stern, stately statues of various historic personalities. And thick burgundy curtains come as standard – this is a ballroom after all!
Fun fact: The Festsaal is home to a Jubiläumsflügel, a grand piano from Austrian company Bösendorf. There are fewer than 10 of these on the planet – don’t ask how much it’s worth!
As the centrepiece of the City Hall, the Festsaal is as old as the building itself. This was built between 1872 and 1883, in which year Emperor Franz Josef laid the last stone on September 12th (above). The man behind it all was Friedrich Schmidt, a German-born architect who won a public competition for the best design. With a bit of imagination we might compare Schmidt to some of the startups pitching their Govtech ideas at our event…he hoped to sell an ambitious idea to local government, and succeeded! Founders wanting to visit Schmidt for inspiration might want to stop his statue on the square behind our venue.
The Vienna City Hall is well-known for its mighty central tower, which soars to 103 metres. It wasn’t originally the highest in Vienna, until the Rathausmann was added at the top, allowing the building to out-soar the nearby Votivkirche. His appearance at the pinnacle added another 5,4 metres and a dash of Viennese humour. The 650kg fellow’s comical shoes, if you’re wondering, are a size 63.
But though Vienna’s city leaders – notably long-serving Mayor Michael Häupl, who retired in May 2018 after a 24-year term – have never been shy of a joke, there’s always a time and a place to get serious in the Vienna City Hall. This naturally includes the day of insights, pitching and networking that’ll go on at GovTech.Pioneers!
*Want to join us in the Vienna City Hall Festsaal on April 2? Grab your tickets here! Startups interested in pitching can apply [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers19#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Fresh Energy Leads The Winners At Wien Energie Innovation Challenge](https://pioneers.io/fresh-energy-leads-winners-wien-energie-innovation-challenge/)
**Published:** December 17, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Last week saw a handful of nervous startups gather in front of a jury of top management from Wien Energie, Vienna’s major energy utility. Their task was to convince this jury that their work over the previous few months had ultimately produced a valid, workable use case for the power provider. The quality of their 10-minute pitches proved to be exceptional, and though German startup Fresh Energy was named the winner, they weren’t the only contestant to earn themselves a deal for further collaboration...
**Content:**
“If I told you that your refrigerator contributes €15 per month to your energy bill, what would you say? Put up your hands if you think that’s a lot!”
**Fresh Energy** Co-Founder Christian Bogatu certainly used the creative space afforded by a 10-minute pitch to good effect. The line about the fridge was classic audience engagement. Pretty much everybody is a bill-paying consumer, so what he asked resonated with the room. And so too did the inevitable conclusion: very few of us have a clue how to answer such a question.
Fresh Energy’s lively pitch certainly played some part in its ultimate success in the third **Wien Energie Innovation Challenge**, but ultimately it was its technology that won them a pair of tickets to Pioneers ’19 and a two-day trip to London to visit the innovation scene in the British capital. Having worked on their concept for almost three months since earning acceleration phase selection at a three-day Innovation Camp in September, the startup presented a cheap, easy-to-install ‘app plus hardware’ solution for consumers. One whose primary role would be to answer exactly the question Bogatu posed at the start of his pitch.
“Fresh Energy has a very interesting, data-driven business model,” said **Stefan Kermer**, Head of Innovation and Strategic Projects in Wien Energie’s Corporate Development Department. “Smart meters are a great way for customers to solve some of their own problems – it’s really interesting to see if there are ways you can save money as a consumer! It just offers us a whole bunch of new services we can offer to our customers in the future.
“There are a lot of new companies offering similar services, but it comes down to the machine learning algorithms they have – their recognizing the individual devices isn’t an easy thing to do. You need a good program to detect the right patterns.”
The whole idea is highly topical as Smart Meters become a feature in European homes. But though it was enthusiastically received by the test group Fresh Energy worked with during the acceleration phase, the use cases could go beyond just gaining insights into shaving digits off your bills. Bogatu pointed out how it could be used to make essentially ‘dumb’ devices smart, in turn improving matters for vulnerable people living at home (by alerting carers to unusual usage patterns) and even be linked to automated e-shopping. In the latter case, you might – if it’s not too freaky – find fresh washing detergent landing on your doorstep after you use your washing machine a certain number of times.
As Innovation Challenge winners, Fresh Energy earned Wien Energie’s backing and funding to take their idea further in the form of a much larger pilot project.
While Fresh Energy pitched the only consumer-facing use case, the other startups pitched an outstanding variety of solutions that solved business problems that would save time, money and even lives.
“It’s important to have a good mix, since there’s such huge potential to save money in your own processes,” said Kermer. “Just with some daily routines in power plants, you can save six-figure numbers. But on the other side, you really have to focus on the customers. This is a really important matter for us.”
Turning to those ‘internal process’ solutions, French-based startup **Terabee** was awarded second place. They not only won Pioneers’19 tickets but also a deal to implement the first phase of its concept for the digital management and tracking of toxic waste stock. This will help to address worst-case scenario safety concerns that their Wien Energie mentor freely admitted keep her awake at night!
While it’s definitely a cliche at innovation events, in this case choosing a winner really was a horrible job. Rarely do you see all the solutions made such a strong case for themselves. American participants **Noam** also impressed with their work on an internal search engine designed to whizz through company file structures, jump to page 417 of a PDF and root out the exact diagram or paragraph you might be looking for. Having already verified its usefulness with over 900 internal searches by a Wien Energie department, it’s claimed to be better than (the discontinued) Google Desktop ever was.
Austrian startup **DeepSearch** also got the jury interested as they presented technology that could reduce the time taken to categorize customer queries to mere milliseconds. The benefit would be to save a huge amount of man-hours, customer frustration and, ultimately, money.
Both of the latter two startups could also still have a strong chance of further collaboration with Wien Energie, added Kermer.
“I think the quality of the startups was amazing,” he concluded. “This time there was a very strong focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms – all four startups had an element of that implemented. For me it was very interesting to see where trends are going and it’s an area where we as Wien Energie can learn a lot.”
*Startups interested in upcoming innovation opportunities and companies interested in partnering with us on running an innovation program should check out the Pioneers Discover home page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/about).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Kicking And Screaming: The 2018 PioGames Story](https://pioneers.io/kicking-and-screaming-2018-piogames-story/)
**Published:** December 20, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With an extremely busy year drawing to a close and Pioneers packing up its Palais Eschenbach office for the final time before we move to Talent Garden Vienna, there was one important item of business to clear up. And that, of course, was the inaugural edition of the PioGames table soccer tournament. Read on to find out which of our team members won big on our mighty 'Wuzzeln' table...
**Content:**
It may not come as a complete surprise to learn that at Pioneers we have **table soccer** (aka Foozball, aka Wuzzeln) facilities in our office. After all, we were a tiny startup only a few years ago, and this was obligatory furniture. But though we’ve grown, we’ve never lost our youthful spirit. And to this day, we remain firm believers in taking regular screen breaks.
Still, when it came to table soccer, things were pretty ad hoc until recently. You grabbed a colleague or two and you played. No structure, no trophies. And endless succession of friendlies.
But that all changed this December, when everybody at Pioneers got both creative and nostalgic during our last month at **Palais Eschenbach**. We’ve been based in this historic building for the bulk of our existence. It may have a drafty entrance hallway and we might have had more than our share of employees get stuck in the cranky old elevator, but you accept a few quirks when you work in a building that’s almost 150 years old and which was opened by Emperor Franz Josef I. It’s not every office where you can reach out of the windows and touch statues that keep solemn watch over one of Europe’s most treasured city centers.
Thinking we wouldn’t be able to take our soccer table to our new base across town, our digital guru Emil and Pioneers Discover consultant Michael took the initiative of organizing the first-ever (as far as available documentation suggests, anyway) **PioGames table soccer tournament**. With loosely-seeded teams playing in pairs, a fixture list, a league table, media representation and everything else you’d expect from a major international tournament (FIFA have already been in touch for tips on planning Qatar 2022), the intensity shot up several notches. Lunchtimes in December were a cacophony of rattles, shrieks, high-fives and hugs. Turns out there’s nothing like an own goal to bring out the passion in your colleagues.
The fact that actually completing all the fixtures according to plan was a challenge didn’t matter all that much. With business trips, meetings, Skype calls and early holiday departures all meddling with the schedule, it was hard to get four people to the table at the same time. Sometimes, even if your sales queen partner was in the office, she might have to be dragged away from finalizing Mobility.Pioneers sponsorship deals in order to play. (But the kicking and screaming only started when we actually got you into the game, isn’t that so, Izabella?)
Only by indulging in a bit of **partner-swapping** were we able to complete (in a manner of speaking) the group phase during the allotted two weeks.
For example, Discover’s hard-grafting air-miles collector Harald spent most of the first-round fortnight buzzing around Europe organizing hackathons, leaving his partner Sarah having to borrow a partner in Parnerships Coordinator (well, it’s in the job title!) Barbara for the first game. The trio then mixed it up when Harald returned to take part in four of their five group fixtures on the final Friday – and promptly qualified for the semi-finals!
But by the time the round-robin semi-final phase came around in the final working week of the year, player availability issues worsened. Emil’s partner Verena (shockingly) couldn’t be convinced to cancel the first part of her Christmas holidays in order to challenge for victory, and he had to call in the help of another Discover member, Max, to take her place.
Despite the very best of efforts being made during our Christmas party (which saw us run amok in our grand old office one last time), **the semi-finals only ever got semi-finished**. For the record, the teams to make the last quartet were Emil/Verena/Max, Sarah/Barbara/Harald, Alex/Reka and Anna/Michael. (In the top picture you can see Sarah and Harald taking on Reka and Alex, with Grand Referee Emil watching on in seasonal attire.)
In the end, during the pizza-fueled lunchtime following the party, the ever-philosophical Emil announced that the tournament committee had reached an executive decision to give out prizes without a final having been played. But anyone who witnessed Alex’s intensity as he watched the ball ping around the table, or felt the vibrations as the Discover Consultant shared a high-five with our Program Director Reka would agree that they were a worthy choice as overall winners of the main award for **Most Motivated Team (below)**. The vigour with which the Austrian duo scheduled (and hunted down the opposition to play) their matches may also have proved a telling factor, even if it did nothing for stereotypes about Teutonic punctuality.
And while the presence of members of the organizing committee (below) in the remaining awards may have given rise to a certain level of spirited discussion, nobody could really dispute that Michael and our Digital Marketing Manager Anna were a suitably lanky pair to grab the **Tallest Team** prize. And, having survived the choppy waters of a mid-campaign change of personnel, that Emil/Verena/Max thoroughly deserved their **Best Pivoting Team** award. Both teams did, after all, complete all their games and make it to the semi-finals.
**Michael (left) and Emil (right), Pioneers’ incorruptible answer to FIFA**
"I think it was our shared love of scoring brutal victories that made us a fine team." commented Alex after the awards announcement, which was covered by the international (or should that be internal?) press. "We were the perfect symbiosis – like one person with four hands! This is truly my best moment since joining Pioneers."
**Same old story: sport journalists only come to fill up on free food!**
But the really good news? While we must turn our backs on Palais Eschenbach, **our table has won a reprieve**. It would be madness to leave a team-builder like that out of your portfolio. So we’ll be taking it to our new office after all. Wonder who’ll score the first own goal on our new premises…?
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneering Like It’s 2018: A Look Back On Our Year!](https://pioneers.io/pioneering-its-2018-look-back-our-year/)
**Published:** December 20, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** From Silicon Valley to Bangalore, and from Toulouse to Tel Aviv, we’ve been busy Pioneering right across the globe in 2018. In this article we reflect on several of the events we staged - including Pioneers’18 of course - the evolution of our digital service and non-stop corporate innovation programs that kept the Pioneers Discover team running flat-out all year long! We also touch on other exciting developments during the past 12 months - and those coming up in 2019!
**Content:**
When looking back on another year in the life of Pioneers, Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna is always the fitting place to start. Our flagship event, Pioneers’18, went ahead at the much-loved historic landmark at the end of May. It’s made its home there since 2012 and once again provided suitable inspiration for over 2,500 tech innovators, 550 startups and a host of top international speakers.
Certainly SzeleSTIM will never forget their time at the Hofburg, as they [won the Pioneers Challenge Award](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-18-wrap) and thus became the latest of our startup winners. The Austrian chronic pain treatment innovators earned themselves a [networking trip to Silicon Valley](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/silicon-valley-trip-sets-szelestim-storm-america), a pitching slot at Techsauce Global Summit in Thailand and a place on our ever-growing [roll of honour](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-hall-fame-all-our-winners).
It was a busy week in Vienna, with GovTech.Pioneers taking place at Palais Wertheim on the day before Pioneers’18. We ran Europe’s first full-day Govtech innovation event following the great response we’d had to the Govtech session we’d integrated into the Pioneers’17 program a year earlier. And the expanded event was a runaway success, [particularly for winning startup Fleksy](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/govtech-pioneers-wrap)! We’ll repeat GovTech.Pioneers in 2019, but at the beginning of April, roughly five weeks ahead of Pioneers’19. And this time it’ll take place at a venue with similar stature to the Hofburg: [Vienna’s famed City Hall](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/peek-inside-your-govtechpioneers-vienna-city-hall).
The first of our innovation events for 2018 actually place in February, with a second edition of Mobility.Pioneers staged once again in Munich, a city where we also [opened a new base](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-opens-new-base-munich) during the course of the year. Autonomous driving motion software startup [embotech grabbed the startup spoils](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/mobility-pioneers-wrap) in the pitching event, while Slovakian developer group FinID were named winners of the concurrent Mobility Hackathon.
Health.Pioneers also went ahead for the second time, although in 2018 we switched the venue from Amsterdam to Vienna. [Startup victory at the BioCenter went to deep vein thrombosis detection company ThinkSono.](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/healthpioneers)
Following a popular evening with Steve Blank at our first Pioneers Community Event in 2017, we welcomed two guests for this year’s edition at the end of November. Joining us in Vienna were 1871 CEO Betsy Ziegler and The Family Co-Founder Nicolas Colin. They starred in a panel discussion on inclusive leadership, which led into a vibrant evening of networking.
Click on the event names to check out the highlights videos from [Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/video-pioneers18-highlights), [GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/video-highlights-govtechpioneers), [Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/video-highlights-mobilitypioneers) and [Health.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/video-highlights-healthpioneers-2018).
Our acclaimed Match & Meet system went from strength to strength at all of these events, powering the connections we love to see spark between startups, corporates and investors.
Staying with digital matters, 2018 also saw us take our online dealflow management service, **Piobay**, to the next level. Having revamped the User Experience for all, we ran 55 innovation projects through the platform, which is more than ever before.
Some of the improvements we made to Piobay included functionalities that brought added value to our users, such as a better interface, simpler forms, improved data visualisation and taxonomy along with GPDR compliance. We also introduced completely customizable rating criteria as well as automated ratings that use machine learning algorithms.
Also based on Piobay is the new digital solution we’ve added to our portfolio, which sets out to dramatically improve the experience of startups, juries and audiences during pitching sessions and competitions. Stay tuned for more information!
Over in [Pioneers Discover](https://pioneers.io/discover/about), our consultancy arm, it’s been the busiest year yet as corporate clients continue to knock away at our door for help with their innovation strategies.
Pioneers Discover has answered their calls in a variety of ways in 2018, from scouting startups for their accelerators to taking complete charge of organizing [hackathons](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/key-learnings-industry-40-hackathon-shift-product-service), [Bootcamps](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/startup-bootcamps-your-gateway-high-value-open-innovation-program) or [Innovation Days](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/startups-cross-continents-join-wienerberger-innovation-day).
We were proud to have scouted two of the three winning startups for the **BBVA Open Talent** program, the latest edition of the world’s biggest Fintech competition, which wrapped up in October. Having provided only 166 of the approximately 900 original applicants, we rather liked our strike rate!
Also in Fintech innovation, we returned for a second year of scouting for **Raiffeisen Bank International’s Elevator Lab program**. That followed one of the startups we brought to the first edition, kompany, signing a commercial partnership with the European banking giant.
Pioneers Discover also worked in a number of other fields. It once again partnered with **Booking.com** in managing an innovation program on sustainable tourism, this time for the Dutch company’s **Booster Lab** in Tel Aviv in March. In the related area of aviation, we also designed a global series of Bootcamps that would deliver startups for the fourth season of **Airbus BizLab**. These ran in Madrid, Toulouse, Bangalore and Hamburg.
During the second half of the year our ‘Discover team’ also spent plenty of time immersed in the energy sector, with our endlessly energized consultants organizing both the ground-breaking **Energy Blockchain Hack** in Switzerland and partnering with **Wien Energie on its Innovation Challeng**e.
Highlights on the industrial side included the second and third editions of our own **Industry 4.0 Hackathon** in Linz, as well as the **Greiner Ideation Hackathon**. The latter yielded some [terrific learnings in the field of printed electronics](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-insights-plastic-and-power-printed-electronics).
The year 2018 also saw a new chapter begin for Pioneers as a whole, after we joined the startup300 family in May. And the next step in that journey is a move to new premises from January 2019! While our headquarters remain in Vienna, we’ll be moving closer to the innovation ecosystem by basing ourselves at the newly-opened Talent Garden Vienna campus.
*To be part of our story in 2019, check out our planned events [here](https://pioneers.io/events).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Hyundai Unveils Walking Car Concept](https://pioneers.io/hyundai-unveils-walking-car-concept/)
**Published:** January 8, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With the third edition of Mobility.Pioneers less than a month away, the new year is already giving us all plenty to talk about when it comes to innovation in transport. Among various launches from auto manufacturers and tech companies this week has been a ‘walking car’ from Hyundai, vehicle interiors that can automatically ‘match your mood’ and the latest in computer vision driver monitoring. And these are just some of the trends that will be on the agenda - be it during startup pitching, a keynote or simply a coffee break chat - at our industry gathering in Munich on February 7th.
**Content:**
With the annual CES conference currently taking place in Las Vegas, a flurry of mobility innovations have been announced this week. Without doubt the most futuristic-looking revelation in the space comes from **Hyundai**, which revealed its **Elevate concept**. Not only does this **‘walking car’** (developed with product innovation studio Sundberg-Ferar) look like something out of science fiction, but it has also been designed with impact in mind.
Hyundai is claiming this the first-ever vehicle with moveable legs, saying in its press release that it can traverse terrain beyond the limits of even the most advanced off-road vehicle. Based on a modular EV platform, it has the ability to walk ‘omnidirectionally with both mammalian and reptilian gaits’, but can also fold away its legs and drive in a fashion familiar to us all. The primary concept behind this ultra-adaptable machine is to be able to get a crew to **disaster-stricken scenes** in ways that no existing vehicle can.
But anything that can **step over a five-foot gap and scale a five-foot wall** will surely have uses beyond providing rapid humanitarian relief for tsunami or earthquake areas. And while you might already be thinking about using an Elevate (we’re still waiting for price details…) to vault your way over your friendly neighbourhood traffic jam, there’s more to it than that, says John Suh, Hyundai Vice President and Head of Hyundai CRADLE, the manufacturer’s corporate venturing and open innovation business.
"This technology goes well beyond emergency situations,” he said. “People living with disabilities worldwide that don’t have access to an ADA ramp could hail an autonomous Hyundai Elevate that could walk up to their front door, level itself, and allow their wheelchair to roll right in – the possibilities are limitless."
"By combining the power of robotics with Hyundai’s latest EV technology, Elevate has the ability to take people where no car has been before, and redefine our perception of vehicular freedom," added David Byron, Design Manager, Sundberg-Ferar. "Imagine a car stranded in a snow ditch just 10 feet off the highway being able to walk or climb over the treacherous terrain back to the road, potentially saving its injured passengers – **this is the future of vehicular mobility.**"
Meanwhile **Kia**, another Korean OEM, showed that it’s already thinking about how mobility will look when ‘autonomous driving has become the norm’ as it previewed some interesting technologies that will enhance the experience for those enjoying an automated ride.
One of these was **R.E.A.D**, which stands for **Real-time Emotion Adaptive Driving**. This is all about tailoring the interior of the car **(pictured below)** to the driver’s emotional state, which would be monitored by bio-signal recognition technology based on artificial intelligence. The sensors could pick up on things like ‘facial expressions, heart rate and electrodermal activity’ and then the system would customize the interior of the cabin conditions ‘relating to the five senses’.
It’s not quite clear whether that means matching, enhancing or reversing your current mood. Kia says it’s about sounds and smells that ‘best suit the occupant’s current disposition.’ Interesting. If we’re angry, will the cabin be flooded with corresponding red light to wind us up even further? Or will it try to calm us with a sweet scent and the sound of frolicking dolphins instead? One hopes it’ll be the latter.
For those who prefer a little more control, Kia also revealed **V-Touch**, where future riders can manage their in-car features via a heads-up display. In other words, there are **no screens or buttons**: thanks to a 3D camera they can just use finger gestures when they want to turn up the air conditioning.
One thing is clear: optimizing the future ‘rider experience’ will continue to be a major theme in mobility innovation.
Between now and the autonomous future, though, smart sensors will be more occupied with **keeping an eye on our driving habits** than deciding if we’re in a jealous rage or not. This trend is already driving real change when it comes to accident prevention – with big consequences for **automotive insurance** in particular.
In the latest example of this, **Samsung** and Israeli computer vision company **eyeSight** have just announced a partnership to ‘create the most advanced fully-integrated Driver Monitoring System for installation by car manufacturers’. Also demonstrated at CES, the system monitors a driver’s gaze direction, pupil dilation, eye openness, blink rate and head position.
While eyeSight might be a little large to call a startup now, these are **just the kinds of collaborations** many of the curated startups and corporates in the building at Mobility.Pioneers are looking to establish. Luckily for them, our acclaimed **Match & Meet service** gives the right people the best chance of meeting each other!
*To meet the OEM’s, startups and investors driving innovating on the European mobility scene, make sure you don’t miss out on Mobility.Pioneers in Munich on February 7th. Get your tickets to join us in Germany’s automotive heartland [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility2019#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Mobility Interview: Tommaso Gecchelin On Next’s Modular Play](https://pioneers.io/mobility-interview-tommaso-gecchelin-nexts-modular-play/)
**Published:** January 14, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** If there’s a talk you absolutely shouldn’t miss at Mobility.Pioneers in Munich on February 7th, then Tommaso Gecchelin’s stage appearance has got to be pretty high on the list. Gecchelin is the founder of Next Future Transportation, which is working on one of the most ambitious and elegant of all future urban mobility solutions. In this exclusive interview with Tommaso we find out more about the modular concept that makes Next so interesting - and why he didn’t think it was worth waiting around for autonomous driving to become a reality...
**Content:**
Ask ten people when they think we’re going to see **autonomous driving** arrive on any significant scale, and you’ll get ten different answers. Yet despite wildly varying estimates on the matter, almost everyone is making big bets in this space. Bets that could prove very costly if it does, in fact, take fifty years for us to be whizzing around town in on-demand vehicles that steer themselves.
**Tommaso Gecchelin’s** not taking any bets. Instead, the Italian founder of Next Future Transportation has developed technology that will work in both an autonomous and a non-autonomous world.
“One of the things I wanted to avoid was the necessity of self-driving inside the vehicle,” he told us in an exclusive interview. “This guarantees a fast go-to-market strategy, because if you wait for self-driving to be legal, you will end up waiting ten years.
“What we are leveraging on is not having a general purpose self-driving vehicle, but having a modular vehicle. The **modularity** is the core of the technology.”
What’s this ‘modularity’ all about? Well, the concept, which has its roots in Gecchelin’s industrial design thesis from 2012, is to make transport a whole lot more efficient (and traffic a thing of the past) by deploying a system of 10-person Next modules that can couple together (like building a road-going train) when it makes logical sense to do so.
To explain this flexibility with a concrete example, you and I are both heading for the same address on our daily commute. You leave your house and I leave mine. Each of us joins a single Next module. When we get closer to the city, and our routes converge, our respective Nexts will couple onto a module that’s waiting to take us that ‘last mile’. The connection is such that we will literally be able to step out of our original module and into the new one, which might probably be a longer ‘train’ of modules appropriate for the higher number of riders in the centre of town. The original modules, which brought us this far, will then decouple and go off to their next assignment.
“In the last mile you gather all the people and you concentrate all the people in just one unit. So you have the same ubiquity of a taxi service in the last mile, but the same density of a full bus. You’re optimizing people and traffic – these are things you’re not optimizing with a self-driving taxi.
“You might say it’s expensive, but it’s much less expensive than a taxi service. Less than 50% the cost of a taxi service, in fact, because you can move more than twice the number of people you move with a taxi. And you can create some kind of public transportation service with pricing somewhere between taxi and bus.”
Next’s concept, which is just about impossible to put a label on but rather creates a transportation category of its own, is the kind of truly out-of-the-box thinking that doesn’t come along very often. And it’s hard to argue with the logic that this **efficiency** will help make the **toss-up between convenience and cost** far less dramatic.
To return to our original point, it’s worth underlining that these ‘physically collaborative’ pods have drivers. It has to be that way if the company wants its system to get up and running (apart from just in isolated experimental zones) anytime soon. Only the actual docking part (a very close-range operation that doesn’t rely on friendly regulations or infrastructure) is automated. And because there’s no technology that’s ahead of current laws, Next Future Transportation has already been able to engage cities like Tokyo, Singapore and a number in the USA.
That means a flying start, but when full autonomy does arrive, the economic advantage of the Next system will only kick in stronger.
“When Level 5 self-driving comes, you don’t need to buy a new vehicle,” says Gecchelin. “You just need to upgrade the software, and fire the driver. The optimization of people and traffic won’t change much – but of course the other thing to change is that the cost of the driver will be zero. That’ll change the cost of a ticket. It won’t be comparable with a taxi.”
When will we get to see these pods on our local streets? Well, it’s going to take a forward-thinking city to commit to taking the first leap, but they’ll be able to look to Dubai Expo 2020 for inspiration. Next has sold 12 units for that innovation jamboree, and in the meantime it’s working hard on its second-generation vehicle, which will be compliant for full CEE certification.
So watch this space…or at least watch Tommaso’s talk at **Mobility.Pioneers**!
*To hear Gecchelin and a range of other top speakers, as well as meet leading, hand-selected mobility startups, corporates and investors changing the mobility landscape, get your Mobility.Pioneers tickets [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility2019#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [The Art Of Gathering Feedback: Seven Tips For Making It Count](https://pioneers.io/art-gathering-feedback-seven-tips-making-it-count/)
**Published:** January 17, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Technology is making it easier than ever to gather customer feedback, and doing so is becoming increasingly common practice for both startups and corporates. But going about it the wrong way doesn't automatically mean useful results - it can even lead you to completely false conclusions. In this article one of our Pioneers Discover consultants gives some pointers on how to make sure the feedback you get is truly worthwhile.
**Content:**
Today we’ll tackle a trend that’s not only growing in startups, but also in corporate product development. Early and easy customer feedback to test your assumptions is now common practice. But simply deciding to gather feedback it doesn’t automatically mean useful results. Going about it the wrong way can easily eat up time, or even lead you on the wrong track. A feedback strategy isn’t an easy thing to execute, which is why we’ve put together a few key concepts for getting information that you can really use.
Simply approaching someone and asking them for generic feedback won’t cut it. Whenever you want to get input, be it for your startup, or for ideas within a bigger corporation, I would advise you to keep the following principles in mind.
**Feature ≠ Benefit**
When somebody tells you ‘Your product should be able to do XYZ,’ this is where you have to be cautious. Always try to find out what they actually want that capability to achieve. Try to get ‘beyond the feature’ and ask yourself and the other person what the ultimate benefit would be. What are they looking to get out of it?
**Be curious**
This is closely aligned to the previous point. Be curious, and use the word ‘why’ a lot with your feedback subjects. ‘*Why* do you want to be able to do that? *Why* is that important? *Why* is this more important than that?’ Curiosity can clarify uncertainties and let you dive deeper into a problem. It also reveals the real pain points and fosters a conversation where the person who gives feedback talks and you listen carefully.
**Let them talk**
Just like a good sales conversation, a feedback talk’s distribution should be about 80/20 – and it’s you that gets the 20% share in talking time! In order to find out what people expect from your product or service, you have to listen. A feedback talk doesn’t begin with a 30-minute pitch of your super-awesome product.To have a good conversation it’s also important how you phrase your questions. You don’t want them to steer your subject in a certain direction or even influence answers. I strongly recommend investing a couple of minutes in watching [The Mom Test](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hla1jzhan78). This video gives some great insights into steering conversations.
**Look For The True Meaning**
Confucius said: “When a wise man points at the moon, the fool examines the finger.” Try to see beyond what the person tells you. What they’re really looking for is often hidden behind really generic-sounding claims. Don’t discard what they’re saying, but rather notice what they’re pointing at. Customers might not have predicted the iPhone for Apple, but you can be sure this phone ultimately arose from someone’s (possibly subconscious) desire to be connected on the go. The input came from somewhere, but perhaps it was only obvious to someone like Steve Jobs.
**Empathy is key**
Transforming feedback into prototypes is important when it comes to testing assumptions. One key aspect of prototyping – and therefore to getting the best feedback – is empathy. Try to get yourself in the shoes of the tester. What do they really think? How do they feel about it? At the end of the day, you’re not the one using the product. During interviews, try to understand their way of thinking in this specific situation.
**You are biased**
When interviewing, one of the most important factors to remember is that you’re way more familiar with your product or service – and therefore also with the thought processes – then the person you’re talking with. What might be the most logical thing in the world for you, might not be for them. The language, components, use cases and everything else is basically unfamiliar to them, so they have to figure things out. Start simple and rather question if your product is easy enough, instead of assuming that all of your interviewees are stupid!
**Context is important**
Lastly, putting things in a context people are familiar with helps them understand a product better. So if you show them your prototype or idea, use the scenarios they’re currently in, use their own data or relate it to things they like doing.
Looking at those tips, you might think that most of it goes without saying, right? Some of them might seem really simple points, but remembering and using them right when you need them is the complicated part. Using and working with this list before and in between feedback loops will help you to get more out of each one.
*[Pioneers Discover](https://pioneers.io/discover/about), our consultancy arm, connects innovation-hungry corporates and startups through a variety of programs. Contact them on Discover@pioneers.io.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Mobility Interview: Can Airbus Be Uber Of The Skies?](https://pioneers.io/mobility-interview-can-airbus-be-uber-skies/)
**Published:** January 22, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Nothing epitomizes future mobility innovation quite like the idea of an electric air taxi. But is such a thing really feasible? Absolutely, says Andreas Thellmann, who’ll be one of our speakers at Mobility.Pioneers in Munich on February 7th. In this exclusive interview, Program Manager at Airbus Urban Mobility explains why his company is making a big play in this area - and shares some of the things they’ve already learned in their Voom pilot project.
**Content:**
Flying taxis are pure science-fiction: true or false?
Everyone has their opinion on that – and everyone’s entitled to one, too. But when Airbus, arguably the biggest name in all of aviation, believes that the widespread use of electric VTOL (Vertical Take Off And Landing) taxis is just a matter of time, then it’s worth taking note. That’s why we’ve invited Andreas Thellmann, Program Manager at Airbus Urban Mobility at the French aerospace giant, to deliver a talk at Mobility.Pioneers in Munich on February 7th.
And if our exclusive interview with him is anything to go by, you can expect him not to mince his words.
“We’re sure this will become a huge business for us,” he told us. “We think it could become a kind of mass market in 10-15 years. And we don’t just want to build the air vehicle but the entire value chain, the whole service. We think the one who dominates this value chain will be in a very good position in the market.”
Airbus is confident enough about its ability to grab that spot that it turned down a partnership approach from Uber. The stakes are indeed high.
Thellmann speaks not just with the huge resources of Airbus adding weight to his words, but with the credibility of having gone out there and already starting serious pilot projects. Most significant is Voom, their ‘Uber for helicopters’ concept running in Sao Paulo and Mexico City.
“We’re focusing on the megacities,” he says. “The demand is very high for this kind of transport in those cities, and we can scale it up to be profitable. Those cities alone are enough for the business case for air taxis – and enough for players in the market to be profitable.”
Although Voom uses traditional helicopters for the moment, Thellmann and his team are gathering a world of valid information about what the megacity market is willing to pay for short-distance air travel – and how to keep the prices coming down. It’s all information that will be invaluable for designing the bespoke electric machine that would be central to their future service.
“With Voom we’ve seen that with a sophisticated business model you can reduce prices for a flight from $2,500 to $150. That’s made possible by pooling passengers and doing journeys in shuttle mode. In this way you pay just for what you fly.
“So just by changing the business model you reduce the costs per trip. And now, if we replace the traditional helicopter with an electric aircraft that has few moving parts besides the rotor, we think we could reduce the price per trip even more. Within ten years of going into service we think we can come down to the same level as a ground taxi.”
With that said, Thellmann is quick to add a healthy dose of realism to the outlook.
“When I say it will be a mass market, I don’t mean it will be comparable with all two-dimensional transport. We just think it will become comparable with the ground taxi segment of today, which is 2-4% of overall public transport. Compared to current helicopters that will be a mass market, but in the end it will be a small contribution – not like in *The Fifth Element*! Having all the traffic in the air isn’t realistic in the coming decades.”
Thellmann expects the first regular VTOL taxi market to be longer trips of around 30km, particularly the city-to-airport runs featuring heavily in Voom. Only later, as scaling effects and volume pick up, would we be likely to see them buzzing along shorter routes. And, considering the steep cost increases that come with lifting and flying more than four people, early learnings from Voom is that the first VTOLs would probably stick to that number.
“Voom is a live experiment for us,” says Thellmann. “We’re gaining a lot of data. What is a typical flight in minutes? What is typical occupation per flight? What do these customers need? Do they have luggage with them? Do they travel alone or with a partner? We’re still iterating, but for the moment we think four passengers is a good compromise. We made tradeoff studies from two passengers right up to 16 and found four is a good compromise.”
If you’re thinking Airbus sounds like a company that’s always willing to learn in order to innovate and perform the kind of mini-pivot a move into air taxi service provision would represent, then you’re right. We’ve seen that from the inside, working with them on running their well-established and quite uniquely-structured [BizLab accelerator program](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-discover-bootcamps-concept-takes-airbus-bizlab).
Thus it’s no surprise that Thellmann’s team is also looking to meet startups as it works first to finalize its CityAirbus demo vehicle (which will be much closer to a taxi concept than its [Vahana](https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2018/02/vahana--the-self-piloted--evtol-aircraft-from-a--by-airbus--succ.html) vehicle) and then the final VTOL taxi it would take to market.
“With CityAirbus we are learning about distributed propulsion, because with Airbus we never built a distributed propulsion air vehicle before. There’s a lot to learn about software development, flight control systems and so forth.”
So, if you’re one of the startups we’ve selected for Mobility.Pioneers, don’t be shy to talk to Thellmann.
“When I’m at such events I usually approach the startups and have a short chat with them. I try to understand what they’re doing and where they want to go. That’s normally very interesting.
“I also like talking to companies dealing with drones. Even though non-passenger drones are really something else, there are nevertheless some commonalities such as their management in airspace.”
One final note: Instead of Uber, Airbus is working with car giant Audi on its future strategy for building an air taxi service. Just another illustration of how the traditional lines are blurring in the mobility scene – and how important it can be even for the big giants to learn from each other!
*To be at Mobility.Pioneers at meet the leading lights of European transport innovation, grab your tickets [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility2019#/)! And if you already have yours, watch your email so you can sign up for our Match & Meet networking service.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Govtech News: ePrescriptions Go Live In Europe](https://pioneers.io/govtech-news-eprescriptions-go-live-europe/)
**Published:** January 23, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Ever forgotten to take your prescription pills with you on holiday? Well, ePrescriptions could be the beginning of the end of that problem. As of this week, Finns and Estonians have been able to pick up their medications in each other’s countries without needing to fax pieces of paper around. A tangible victory for digitization in public service delivery at European level, the remainder of EU member nations are set to join the scheme over the coming months and years. With GovTech.Pioneers coming up on April 2nd, we share more on this story and news of further progress on data-sharing in Europe.
**Content:**
**Photo Credit: [Seisdeagosto](https://www.flickr.com/photos/seisdeagosto/)**
The ferry ride between Helsinki (above) in Finland and Tallinn in Estonia is one of the world’s best-known ‘booze cruises.’ It’s common practice for Finns, oppressed by high alcohol costs, to jump on board one of the regular liners crossing the Baltic Sea, pick up as many crates of favourably-priced Estonian liquor as they can carry, and end up drinking half of it on their way back home. The somewhat predictable results have been widely documented online.
Well, now they can also pick up their prescription hangover pills whilst they’re in the Estonian capital. That’s thanks to the first live implementation of ePrescriptions, under which European Union citizens will be able to pick up their drugs in other participating countries without needing a written prescription. This is the eHealth Digital Service Infrastructure in action.
When they’re not getting drunk on boats or sweating in saunas, of course, the Finns and Estonians have a habit of leading the way when it comes to digital innovation in public services, with the latter having even gone as far as offering [e-citizenship](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-celebrates-its-first-estonian-e-resident). So it comes as no surprise that the friendly neighbours were the first two countries in the scheme to hook up their systems to the point that ePrescriptions from one country could be viewed by pharmacists in the other.
This went live on Monday, according to an European Commission press release – but sadly there wasn’t any information as to whether the first medication pickup was a ‘booze cruise’ visitor needing his monthly dose of seasickness pills.
ePrescriptions, which are only common-sense and arguably long overdue considering how much Europeans travel within their union, are being progressively introduced in all EU member states. Also being phased-in is cross-border digital access to patient summaries.
And when will we see ePrescriptions spread beyond the Baltics? Without boring you with the full spectrum of policies, papers and sub-bodies mentioned in the release, the essence seems to be that eight further countries ‘may start these exchanges by the end of 2019’. They are Czechia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Croatia, Malta, Cyprus, Greece and Belgium.
(Britain’s absent, of course. Ironically enough, Theresa May will not be able to seamlessly pick up her headache tablets on any trips to Brussels in the foreseeable future.)
“Congratulations to Finland and Estonia for showing the path in eHealth cooperation between states,” commented Andrus Ansip, the EC’s Vice President for the Digital Single Market, who was among our speakers at Pioneers ’17 in Vienna. “I would like other countries to follow soon. People should be able to use their e-prescriptions across borders. Free movement is a founding principle of the EU: we must make it as easy as possible for people to get treatment or medicines when abroad in the EU.
“The next major step will be to simplify patient access to their very own health data, by developing a common format for exchanging electronic health records between EU countries.”
The roll-out of ePrescriptions came on the same day that the EC announced further progress on the sharing of public sector data. This is a fully GPDR-compliant step towards addressing one of the key challenges facing the Govtech industry: consigning duplicate requests for data to history.
Anything that means fewer forms to fill out (which, more importantly, means less taxpayer money wasted on bureaucracy) gets our vote of confidence. So this framework, which has ‘a particular focus on increasing the amounts of high-value data available for re-use,’ sound a promising move.
You can read the full announcement regarding the new public sector data sharing framework [here](http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-19-525_en.htm).
*Such trends in digitization and improved service delivery will be key topics at GovTech Pioneers, which takes place in the Vienna City Hall on April 2nd. Grab your ticket [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers19#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Uncategorized
---
### [Hyundai Unveils Walking Car Concept](https://pioneers.io/hyundai-unveils-walking-car-concept-2/)
**Published:** January 8, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** With the third edition of Mobility.Pioneers less than a month away, the new year is already giving us all plenty to talk about when it comes to innovation in transport. Among various launches from auto manufacturers and tech companies this week has been a ‘walking car’ from Hyundai, vehicle interiors that can automatically ‘match your mood’ and the latest in computer vision driver monitoring. And these are just some of the trends that will be on the agenda - be it during startup pitching, a keynote or simply a coffee break chat - at our industry gathering in Munich on February 7th.
**Content:**
With the annual CES conference currently taking place in Las Vegas, a flurry of mobility innovations have been announced this week. Without doubt the most futuristic-looking revelation in the space comes from **Hyundai**, which revealed its **Elevate concept**. Not only does this **‘walking car’** (developed with product innovation studio Sundberg-Ferar) look like something out of science fiction, but it has also been designed with impact in mind.
Hyundai is claiming this the first-ever vehicle with moveable legs, saying in its press release that it can traverse terrain beyond the limits of even the most advanced off-road vehicle. Based on a modular EV platform, it has the ability to walk ‘omnidirectionally with both mammalian and reptilian gaits’, but can also fold away its legs and drive in a fashion familiar to us all. The primary concept behind this ultra-adaptable machine is to be able to get a crew to **disaster-stricken scenes** in ways that no existing vehicle can.
But anything that can **step over a five-foot gap and scale a five-foot wall** will surely have uses beyond providing rapid humanitarian relief for tsunami or earthquake areas. And while you might already be thinking about using an Elevate (we’re still waiting for price details…) to vault your way over your friendly neighbourhood traffic jam, there’s more to it than that, says John Suh, Hyundai Vice President and Head of Hyundai CRADLE, the manufacturer’s corporate venturing and open innovation business.
"This technology goes well beyond emergency situations,” he said. “People living with disabilities worldwide that don’t have access to an ADA ramp could hail an autonomous Hyundai Elevate that could walk up to their front door, level itself, and allow their wheelchair to roll right in – the possibilities are limitless."
"By combining the power of robotics with Hyundai’s latest EV technology, Elevate has the ability to take people where no car has been before, and redefine our perception of vehicular freedom," added David Byron, Design Manager, Sundberg-Ferar. "Imagine a car stranded in a snow ditch just 10 feet off the highway being able to walk or climb over the treacherous terrain back to the road, potentially saving its injured passengers – **this is the future of vehicular mobility.**"
Meanwhile **Kia**, another Korean OEM, showed that it’s already thinking about how mobility will look when ‘autonomous driving has become the norm’ as it previewed some interesting technologies that will enhance the experience for those enjoying an automated ride.
One of these was **R.E.A.D**, which stands for **Real-time Emotion Adaptive Driving**. This is all about tailoring the interior of the car **(pictured below)** to the driver’s emotional state, which would be monitored by bio-signal recognition technology based on artificial intelligence. The sensors could pick up on things like ‘facial expressions, heart rate and electrodermal activity’ and then the system would customize the interior of the cabin conditions ‘relating to the five senses’.
It’s not quite clear whether that means matching, enhancing or reversing your current mood. Kia says it’s about sounds and smells that ‘best suit the occupant’s current disposition.’ Interesting. If we’re angry, will the cabin be flooded with corresponding red light to wind us up even further? Or will it try to calm us with a sweet scent and the sound of frolicking dolphins instead? One hopes it’ll be the latter.
For those who prefer a little more control, Kia also revealed **V-Touch**, where future riders can manage their in-car features via a heads-up display. In other words, there are **no screens or buttons**: thanks to a 3D camera they can just use finger gestures when they want to turn up the air conditioning.
One thing is clear: optimizing the future ‘rider experience’ will continue to be a major theme in mobility innovation.
Between now and the autonomous future, though, smart sensors will be more occupied with **keeping an eye on our driving habits** than deciding if we’re in a jealous rage or not. This trend is already driving real change when it comes to accident prevention – with big consequences for **automotive insurance** in particular.
In the latest example of this, **Samsung** and Israeli computer vision company **eyeSight** have just announced a partnership to ‘create the most advanced fully-integrated Driver Monitoring System for installation by car manufacturers’. Also demonstrated at CES, the system monitors a driver’s gaze direction, pupil dilation, eye openness, blink rate and head position.
While eyeSight might be a little large to call a startup now, these are **just the kinds of collaborations** many of the curated startups and corporates in the building at Mobility.Pioneers are looking to establish. Luckily for them, our acclaimed **Match & Meet service** gives the right people the best chance of meeting each other!
*To meet the OEM’s, startups and investors driving innovating on the European mobility scene, make sure you don’t miss out on Mobility.Pioneers in Munich on February 7th. Get your tickets to join us in Germany’s automotive heartland [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility2019#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [How Mobility.Pioneers Sparked Good Times For Electrification Startup](https://pioneers.io/how-mobilitypioneers-sparked-good-times-electrification-startup/)
**Published:** November 19, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As the deadline for Mobility.Pioneers startup applications draws closer, we take a look at the stellar progress of one of our finalists from last year. ChargeX, which won the electrification pitching track at the second edition of our industry-focused event, have hit a number of growth milestones since that day in Munich, including team growth, investment and a project with Volkswagen. In this article we chat exclusively to their Co-Founder Tobias Wagner, who is already excited about attending again on February 7th!
**Content:**
When we talked to ChargeX Co-Founder Tobias Wagner via video interview, we couldn’t help noticing a digital timer affixed to the wall behind him. It was counting down days, hours and minutes. In big red numbers.
“That’s our deadline for CE certification,” smiles Wagner, whose company was working hard to get everything in place for their modular e-vehicle charging solution to get the coveted seal of standards approval for the European Economic Area. The big day, which actually rolls around this week, is just one of the many big milestones in the ChargeX story since Wagner pitched in the finals at the second edition of Mobility.Pioneers back in February.
And if things weren’t busy enough, another landmark came around at the end of last week, when the company finalized a round of funding from a group of business angels, to the value of just over €250K. So clearly the elegance, efficiency and cost-saving of their solution, which lets customers run several charging stations using only the infrastructure and power supply of one ‘master station’, impressed more than just our judging panel in Munich.
While it would be an exaggeration to say that the German startup has had something new to celebrate on a weekly basis, it’s certainly been a year full of positives since they pitched a rough prototype at the Muffatwerk.
“We’re still ashamed of the slides we showed on stage!” admits the Co-Founder, who was one quarter of the ChargeX workforce back then. “But we’ve hit several major milestones since. We’ve finished our design, working together with an agency. Back then we had our first prototype out there but now we have our second iteration of the hardware concept. We’ve also hired another three people and are still looking for more.
“Another of the major things that happened to us after Mobility.Pioneers was working for six months with Volkswagen in Dresden. We moved our whole office there and worked in their Transparent Factory for e-mobility. It was awesome that we were small enough to move our entire operation! They rented us a flat and we really lived our lives there for that period.
“We’re still talking with Volkswagen and have a co-operation. We’re solving a problem for them: if they want to sell electric cars then they need the charging infrastructure – we offer a cost-efficient solution to this.”
After their summer stint in Dresden, the ChargeX crew moved back to their home base in Munich, into a new office that can accommodate their growing team. Which means that once again they won’t have to travel far to return to Mobility.Pioneers. Wagner, for one, is keen to get into the spotlight once more.
“Pitching events are not just about winning,” he points out. “It’s also about the feedback you get. Plus it’s a lot of fun being up there on the stage. We’ll take part again if we’re selected!”
But beneficial as stage time is, says Wagner, that’s only the beginning of what a startup can gain from such an event.
“In the startup area a lot of it’s about collaboration. You can’t revolutionize the world on your own – you need partnerships. Especially for us, because we’re just one part of the mobility value chain. There are a lot of other people involved – installing, operating, infrastructure…we’re just the hardware manufacturer! So networking is hugely important for us. Last year we got a lot of contacts that could be important in the future, and a lot of traction. We’d love to expand our network at this event again.
“We can also give something back, because we have experience from the journey we’ve had so far that we can share. That’s why this event is perfect, because there aren’t many mobility-focused events. Mobility.Pioneers is the best choice for us.”
Another reason ChargeX got so much out of their time at Mobility.Pioneers last year was that they also took part in the hackathon that we run as part of the event. Set to run again in 2019, this gave them the creative space to explore an alternative business model with real potential.
“We had had this in mind beforehand, but used the hackathon’s scheduled time to create an MVP. Our core business is charging infrastructure, but at the hackathon we experimented with a service model for people who don’t have access to a charging infrastructure. This would be some kind of platform approach, where people could hand over their car and it would be charged. This was a good validation and we’re still working on the idea.
“I’d recommend hackathons to every other startup. Take this chance to validate your ideas. It’s always in your mind, these great ideas of revolutionizing the world, but you don’t have time in the office with so many tasks on your core business. So you need to take time out of your daily life to develop ideas like this.”
*To attend Mobility.Pioneers on February 7th for free, and be considered to pitch or exhibit, startups should apply [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility2019#/) by December 9th.*
*Applications for the Mobility.Pioneers Hackathon can be made via the Pioneers Discover Open Calls page [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/) – click on ‘hackathon series’.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Key Learnings From Industry 4.0 Hackathon: The Shift From Product To Service](https://pioneers.io/key-learnings-industry-40-hackathon-shift-product-service/)
**Published:** November 22, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As we look back on the third edition of our Industry Hackathon, which took place at the Tabakfabrik in Linz last week, we dive into a few of the trends highlighted by our keynote speaker from the Austrian Industry 4.0 Association. He underlined the need for companies to ‘disrupt their own business models’ and start moving towards ‘Products As A Service’ thinking. We also find out how our hackathon partners and the startup teams overcame the kind of real-world challenges facing any industrial company as they explore new ways to stay competitive.
**Content:**
At the third edition of our increasingly popular **Industry Hackathon**, which took place in Linz last week, we were pleased to welcome **Paul Trompisch** of the **Austrian Industry 4.0 Association** onto the stage to deliver a keynote on the final day. As a curtain-raiser to the pitching session in which startups presented their answers to challenges from our four corporate partners, his overview of Industry 4.0 trends was a perfect fit.
Trompisch looked first at where we are in the big-picture cycle of industrial history.
“We’re past the product stage, the smart product stage and the smart connected product phase,” he said. “Most companies are now looking at the fourth phase: product systems. This is where the product is still the main focus but needs advanced functionalities, such as the ability to communicate with customers.”
To get ahead of the competition, however, Trompisch suggested that companies need to cast their gazes even further up the road.
“What’s most interesting now is the **fifth phase, that is the shift from products to services**. What the end customer wants is fire prevention – they don’t care about the fire truck itself.
“Technology is the foundation for transformation, but what to do with it is also very important. This is where companies lack understanding. They have to rethink their business models. In fact, they have to disrupt their own business models.”
This fifth phase, of course, is not as easily executed as said. The movement starts from within, and **it’s sluggish right now**, said Trompisch.
“There’s a lack of integration of digital services. Product lifecycle management systems are hardly deployed. It’s the same with manufacturing or prototyping techniques like 3D printing.
“Almost nobody is thinking about human-machine interface either – how to create a safe environment for employees to use this new technology.”
There are valid reasons, of course, why change isn’t coming as fast as his platform, as well as similar initiatives right across Europe, would like. This is especially the case for medium-sized companies.
“When you look at SME’s in particular, the main reason is a lack of money and high investment costs. There’s an unclear Return on Investment (ROI).
“Few companies are using cloud technology. They don’t yet see the benefit and they are scared to give away data. Standards are unclear with so many different platforms and technologies on the market, and they don’t know which ones to trust – so companies are waiting until it’s all consolidated.
“There’s also a big lack of qualified employees with the right skill sets, and its a problem to find those who can guide existing employees. There are big fears of change amongst employees, even with new technology, because they have trouble participating. Many don’t have the right skills and they are afraid of losing their jobs.”
Plenty of excuses, then? Not for Trompisch, who sees **one obvious solution** to all of it. And in the context of a hackathon, his words on stage at the Tabakfabrik couldn’t have made more sense.
“When it comes to new models like Product As A Service, most companies don’t even have an idea of where they’re going! This is where startups can really give a fresh pair of eyes and fresh input.
“How can companies provide next-level systems? You have to connect with partners outside your sector because of this growing complexity. The more complex a system gets, the harder it is for one company to master it. Partnerships and co-operation become even more of a focus.
**“So, try out new co-operations! Don’t be afraid to partner. That’s a major barrier with some of our companies.”**
Not so for our **hackathon partners** sitting in the audience, of course. Among whom were **KEBA**, old friends who took the leap of faith by taking part our very first Industry Hackathon a year ago. They issued a challenge around the training of a factory robot, eventually deciding on Key Concept’s incredibly simple solution (we’ll be exploring this soon in another article) as their winner.
**Key Concept** was also named as an overall winner of the Industry Hackathon, walking away with a year’s membership of factory300. Their fellow overall winner was a joint team of two Hungarian startups, **REACH Solutions and Maxwhere**, who won themselves tickets to Pioneers’19. Their 3D factory floor visualization was selected the as most impressive response to the digital twin challenge issued by **TGW Logistics Group**.
Our other two partners were **Voestalpine** and **Miba**, which issued a Blockchain certification challenge and an image recognition quality control challenge respectively. These categories were in turn won by Croatian startup Katalyo and Vienna-based Craftworks.
“We wanted a solution that fitted our legacy systems the best,” said **Ronald Lachmair**, Head of Quality Management at Voestalpine. “We were also looking for one that really added value for our customers – and with Katalyo we found one!”
“What we really liked about the Craftworks solution was that it could translate to other industrial applications,” said **Martin Zauner**, Head of Digital Office at Miba. “They really looked beyond the immediate challenge.”
*If you’re looking for work with startups to help you navigate the way to new business models, mail Pioneers Discover on discover@pioneers.io.*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [The Pioneers Hall Of Fame: All Our Winners](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-hall-fame-all-our-winners/)
**Published:** November 14, 2018
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We have to admit this is somewhat overdue, but seven years of planning and executing innovation events can be a bit of a blur! But at last we're giving ourselves a moment to take stock of what is becoming a rich history stretching all the way back to 2011. Which means we're publishing a full run-down of all our flagship, regional and industry-focused event winners since we were known as Startup Week. And more importantly, we look at where their journeys have taken them!
**Content:**
Pioneers has now developed a rich history stretching all the way back to 2011. That being so, the time seems right for a full run-down of all our flagship, regional and industry-focused event winners since we were known as Startup Week. More importantly, we check in on where their journeys have taken them since the victory champagne dried.
**FLAGSHIP EVENT**
**2011 mySugr**
Our first winners set the tone by going from strength to strength after victory at what was then known as Startup Week 2011. The Vienna startup’s digital diabetes management solution was at an extremely early stage when they pitched successfully at Haus der Industrie, but their idea ultimately proved so valuable that they were acquired by pharmaceutical giant Roche in 2017.
**2012
Poikos**
As our flagship event took on the Pioneers Festival name and moved into the spectacular Hofburg Imperial Palace, where it’s still held today, Poikos emerged victorious. Founder Nell Watson presented her clothing measurements scanning technology, which allowed for accurate 3D readings with any device. Watson subsequently took the idea to the next level by teaming up with two co-founders to launch QuantaCorp.
**2013
BabyWatch/Bellabeat**
BabyWatch took the spoils after its Slovenian co-founder Urška Sršen wowed the Hofburg with her company’s unique real-time pregnancy monitoring system. Unique because it was for mothers, not doctors – and worked with a mobile app. Babywatch is still operating, but Pioneers Festival was a springboard for Sršen to subsequently launch the world-renowned Bellabeat company. Now based in San Francisco, it has expanded into a broad range of fashionable smart health wearables – an idea one of our jury actually mentioned during the post-pitch questions at the Hofburg. Sršen, an artist by craft, is now one of the startup world’s most inspirational female success stories.
**2014
Oradian**
Croatian startup Oradian aims to boost financial inclusion by enabling institutions to grow and serve more clients – specifically the ‘unbanked’ in remote areas. Their cloud-based toolset makes it easier for institutions to deliver services to such places without great cost and operational investment. After trialling their concept in rural West Africa and moving to a subscription-based service, the company opened additional offices in Lagos and Manila.
**2015
Dronamics**
This was the year that the Rangelov brothers, Svilen and Konstantin, came to the Hofburg to explain their mission to democratize air freight with a low-cost autonomous delivery drone. They exhibited a 1:10 model of their prototype while Svilen pitched to the jury – with great success! In 2018 the Bulgarian startup’s ongoing explorations in autonomous drone technology saw them become a strategic partner of IATA, the primary global air transport regulator.
**2016
Pleo**
Anyone who ever had to spend half a morning hunting for their work expense receipts understands the problem Pleo solves. Their company payment solution includes virtual and plastic cards for employees, with pre-defined limits, automates expense reports and simplifies company spending. In 2018, having grown their employee count to over 40, the Danish company raised $16 million in Series A funding.
**2017
Stromkind**
With our flagship event rebranded to Pioneers’17, it was Austrian aquatic drone manufacturer Stromkind that struck gold at the Hofburg. The first ‘home’ winner since mySugr, it was Stromkind’s autonomous water drone that won them the day. The KAT 300 can actively perform water-cleaning tasks, most notably the automated removal of algae. In 2018 they signed a Joint Development Agreement with the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, for developing autonomous electric technology solutions.
**2018
SzeleSTIM**
This time startup honours went to an Austrian company with Hungarian roots. The first healthcare winner since Bellabeat, SzeleSTIM impressed both the jury and the audience with their wearable, personalized chronic pain treatment device. Worn on the ear and built to stimulate the vagus nerve with a pattern tailored to each patient, the potential impact of their product for the millions of chronic pain sufferers got them over the line at the Hofburg.
**REGIONAL AND INDUSTRY-FOCUSED EVENTS**
**2015 Pioneers Asia
WHILL**
When we staged a one-off event in Tokyo, we discovered whole new worlds of innovation. Such as our winner WHILL, which challenges negative perceptions around wheelchairs with its intelligent personal electric vehicles. With a stylish look complemented by innovative technology, the Japanese company’s work has won wide recognition since Pioneers Asia, including a ‘Best of the Best’ Red Dot Award in 2018.
**2017 Mobility.Pioneers
Palleter**
Estonian startup Palleter wanted to revolutionize the efficiency of the logistics market. Our first Mobility.Pioneers winners had software allowing cargo and the many trucks with spare capacity to find each other. Soon after they were offered a million Euro investment – but turned it down. Further market tests had convinced them that they wouldn’t be profitable, and they wound up the company voluntarily. But later in 2017 a partnership and a pivot brought their idea back to life: global private equity platform TPG Capital believed in Palleter’s core telematics technology, and they founded logistics tracking company Sixfold.
**2017 Fintech.Pioneers
Bitwala**
Many of the startups at our dedicated Fintech event in Berlin were looking for efficient ways to bring together cryptocurrency and ‘traditional’ currency. Bitwala, with its simple, accessible vision for the future of cross-border money transfers, was the best of them. Their goal is to harness the Blockchain in order to finally eliminate high fees and slow transfer times. They went on to raise $1.7 million from German investors in July of that year.
**2017 Health.Pioneers
Baze**
With personalization in medicine all the rage, it was no surprise that tailor-made vitamin startup Baze took the honours at our dedicated healthcare event in Amsterdam. Using a subscription model, the Berlin-based startup offers customers the chance to have supplements customized to their body’s specific needs delivered to their doorstep. All they need to do is a simple blood test at home and send the kit back to Baze. Ongoing monitoring and adjustment is part of the deal. They went on to make the Pioneers Challenge Award Top 8 at Pioneers’18.
**2018 Mobility.Pioneers
embotech**
Swiss startup embotech provides critical motion planning software for the fast-growing autonomous car industry, and was victorious in our second mobility-focused event at Munich’s Muffatwerk. Their technology kicks in at the post-sensing phase, controlling a self-driving car’s steering, braking, acceleration and parking in real time via calculations performed 50 times per second. They’re already working with Volvo, Renault and the European Space Agency.
**2018 GovTech.Pioneers
Fleksy**
Communications security startup Fleksy came out on top at Europe’s first full-day event dedicated to innovation in Govtech, which we staged in Vienna during Pioneers’18 week. The Barcelona-based startup offers a secure keyboard, functional in multiple languages, which it licences to national governments to protect their internal mobile communications.
**2018 Health.Pioneers
ThinkSono**
As we brought our health industry event ‘home’ to Vienna, staging it at the renowned Vienna BioCenter, former Pioneers Ventures portfolio startup ThinkSono came out on top of the pile. The London-based innovators have developed a hand-held ultrasound device that brings a massive efficiency gain to Deep Vein Thrombosis detection. This alternative to the traditional large, expensive, complex ultrasounds is viable for family doctors to use – which means saving time, costs and most importantly lives.
**2019 Mobility.Pioneers
MOTIONTAG**
Berlin startup MOTIONTAG defeated NAVENTIK in our all-new ‘Startup Battle’ final-round format to claim glory at Muffatwerk. The company offers mobility intelligence technology that integrates into cellphone applications and helps providers offer cheap, seamless and user-centred services. Their goal is to enable stress-free, multimodal travel for passengers and more precise data for transport companies to provide it.
**2019 GovTech.Pioneers
LogSentinel**
GovTech.Pioneers ramped things up in 2019, with a switch of venue to the world-famous and perfectly fitting Vienna City Hall. There, cybersecurity startup LogSentinel defeated three strong competitors in the final-round Startup Battle. The winner’s prize was also next-level, as it included a trip to New York to meet with the URBAN-X accelerator. The Bulgarian-Dutch startup offer a solution for governments to secure sensitive information in a private blockchain.
*And the next addition to our Hall of Fame? They’ll be crowned at Pioneers ’19 on May 9th-10th. Click [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/) to be there!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Mobility News: Take-Off Time for Boeing’s Autonomous Passenger Air Vehicle](https://pioneers.io/mobility-news-take-time-boeings-autonomous-passenger-air-vehicle/)
**Published:** January 24, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Following our recent interview with Program Manager at Airbus Urban Mobility and Mobility.Pioneers speaker Andreas Thellmann, we were interested to hear that Boeing, another aerospace giant, completed the first test flight of its prototype autonomous passenger air vehicle this week. This electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) vehicle is the flagship for the company’s on-demand autonomous air transportation portfolio, Boeing NeXt.
**Content:**
Aerospace giant Boeing has completed the first test flight of its prototype autonomous passenger air vehicle. This electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) vehicle is the flagship for the company’s on-demand autonomous air transportation portfolio, Boeing NeXt.
The test took place earlier this week in Manassas, Virginia, where Boeing subsidiary and NeXt developer Aurora Flight Sciences is based.
It was a gentle foray into autonomous flight, with the successful test consisting of only a controlled takeoff, hover and landing. But Boeing has gotten to this point quickly, says its Chief Technology Officer Greg Hyslop.
“In one year, we have progressed from a conceptual design to a flying prototype," he said. "Aviation is the world’s safest and most efficient form of transportation, and we will continue to lead with a safe, innovative and responsible approach to new mobility solutions.”
The prototype tested this week is designed for fully autonomous flight from takeoff to landing, with a range of up to 80.47 kilometers. Measuring 9.14 meters in length and with a width of 8.53 meters, its advanced airframe integrates the propulsion and wing systems to achieve efficient hover and forward flight.
Forward flight and the challenging transition between vertical and forward flight modes are next on the test agenda for the prototype. Nobody can say just when such autonomous passenger flight technology will make it into full-scale operation, but Aurora’s CEO John Langford is sure of it’s potential.
"This is what revolution looks like, and it’s because of autonomy," he said. "Certifiable autonomy is going to make quiet, clean and safe urban air mobility possible."
Boeing is of course not the only aerospace company working hard on urban air mobility. Airbus is doing the same thing, and Mobility.Pioneers attendees will hear from its Urban Mobility Program Manager Andreas Thellmann on February 7th. Click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/mobility-interview-can-airbus-be-uber-skies) to read our exclusive interview with him.
*The latest urban air mobility concepts will be high on the agenda at Mobility.Pioneers in Munich on February 7th. Tickets can be bought [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility2019#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Uncategorized
---
### [Pioneers ’19: A Technological Walk Through Human Life](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-19-technological-walk-through-human-life/)
**Published:** January 28, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Having recently announced ‘Walk The Talks’ as our theme for Pioneers ’19 in Vienna on May 9th-10th, here's more on the stage content our guests will enjoy over the two days at the Hofburg Imperial Palace. Our flagship event will take the form of an inspirational journey from the start of life to maturity and beyond. We’ll tackle questions starting with ‘Where do we come from?’ all the way through to ‘Can we achieve immortality?’ - and everything in between...
**Content:**
Our annual flagship event is known for exploding into life in spectacular fashion. Just like the universe did, actually – at least if you’re into the theory of the Big Bang.
**Where do we come from? Where are we heading?**
This year our content will start just there: at the very beginning of life itself. To dive further into those questions, we’ll take a look at the most impactful deep tech at our current disposal, including covering genomics in our *Pre-Birth* segment, EduTech in our *Childhood* segment, and new technology around healthy longevity in our closing *New Life* segment.
**How does deep tech help us understand and enhance the ‘human journey’?**
Right after the opening show on the morning of May 9th, Pioneers ’19 will kick off the serious business with an *Origins of Life* segment, setting the theme of the event by asking the question of how deep tech will help us understand and shape the ‘human journey’. By focusing on technologies like **Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Virtual/Augmented Reality and Quantum Computing**, we will answer the most challenging and fundamental technology questions facing us in our lifetime.
**How do we pave the way for future generations?**
The reason we’re doing this lies in our deeply-rooted and longstanding commitment to keep humans at the centre of our thinking about technology, which must positively impact life as we know it. The thread we’ve chosen this year helps keep this fact present throughout the two days, and ideally even after Pioneers ‘19 has come to an end.
Our other major push originates in our overall theme, *Walk the Talks*, which is all about going beyond the hype. It’s about speakers with pioneering and realistic ideas, tech that can truly come to fruition and collaborations between people who are fully committed to bringing entrepreneurial visions to life.
Stay tuned to all our channels over the coming weeks to meet some of the remarkable speakers we’ve lined up to dive deep into these topics!
*Tickets for Pioneers ’19, taking place in Vienna on 9th-10th May, are available [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers19#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [BiigVault Makes European Debut At Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/biigvault-makes-european-debut-mobilitypioneers/)
**Published:** February 4, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Visitors to Mobility.Pioneers in Munich this Thursday (February 7th) will be the first European audience to get to know the mobility innovation that is the BiigVault smart lockbox. Charlene Consolacion, the serial entrepreneur behind this creative last-mile delivery solution announced in Silicon Valley last month, has chosen the third edition of this industry-focused event for BiigVault to make its European debut. She’ll explain how the smart lockbox works and also the bigger vision behind it.
**Content:**
Visitors to **Mobility.Pioneers in Munich this Thursday (February 7th)** will be the first European audience to get to know the mobility innovation that is the **BiigVault** smart lockbox. **Charlene Consolacion**, the serial entrepreneur behind this creative last-mile delivery solution announced in Silicon Valley last month, has chosen our event for its European debut. She’ll explain how the smart lockbox works and also the bigger vision behind it.
Also featuring on stage at the third edition of this industry-focused event will be **Clare Jones**, the Chief Commercial Officer of **what3words**, which is the world’s first addressing system designed for voice. Another speaker not to be missed is **Tim Houter**, the CEO of **Hardt Hyperloop**.
Having already presided over two mobility software exits for SHINE and Pro Unlimited, the energetic Consolacion is enjoying the challenge of launching a piece of hardware. The basic idea around BiigVault is that it enables remote access to a vehicle to allow deliveries to be received without the owner being present. It makes the risk of deliveries being left on your doorstep (or having to be home) disappear for car owners. And, unlike the hassle of setting up a similar lockbox to allow access to your actual home, it could one day come as standard with your car.
While there are other remote-access systems and lockboxes on the market, Charlene’s talk will go into detail about how the fully-connected BiigVault is both **‘smarter’** and **more discreet** than the competition. The discretion part is due to the fact that the lockbox is integrated in the registration plate.
“It’s about both security and convenience, but I never thought about the security at first,” she told us from an Arctic Michigan last week. “It started with convenience – I want to get packages delivered to my car’s trunk, instead of waiting at home. But would I want to do that if it’s not secure? Of course not! So the secure system developed organically from there.”
Delivery people can access the BiigVault by dialling in a remotely-generated unique code. The ability to set a single-use access code via the app also gives swimmers and hikers a great way to securely store their car keys (and the phone itself) whilst they go into the water or the mountains.
If you’re thinking there’s a bigger idea behind what is essentially quite a straightforward piece of tech, though, you’d be quite right.
“Some experts at OEMs think our technology will still relevant in 20 years,” says Charlene. “But I give myself time for ten. So our bigger vision is to provide a platform – the hardware is just the entry to our market.
“We’ve already integrated with at least 20 companies, where all you need to do is tap in ‘oil change’ or ‘carwash’. We’re continuing to get the mobility ecosystem to participate in this platform. And once they have gathered on this platform – with or without the lockbox – it can be used by any OEMs.”
So while Biig is gaining its initial traction by solving the “existing pain point” that is porch piracy (packages being stolen from outside homes), it’s a play that’s reminiscent of the world’s biggest tech companies. Give them the hardware, and they will stick around for much more!
Related to this strategy is the fact that for a company looking to make their cars ‘smart’, BiigVault can offer a way to connect that’s useful in and of itself.
“Manufacturers are turning from just producing vehicles to providing mobility services. And there are still many that aren’t connected…even 2018 cars. We have the solution for that – by adding a lockbox you can participate in mobility as a service.”
Not that developing a robust yet connected piece of hardware was without its challenges, reveals Charlene.
“Hardware is challenging – you can’t see the unexpected things! For example, as a licence plate with all the components of a smartphone, we didn’t think about the constant vibration when we installed it in a vehicle. If one component gets disconnected, everything is ruined. We wanted to go fast and launch as soon as possible, but we had to go back to the lab on that!”
With that done, the company is now fully into its launch phase, with Mobility.Pioneers the stage for the European revelation of the product. And that’ll just be the beginning for Consolacion and her team, who will soon announce the partnerships that will allow everyday consumers to use this product.
She’ll also be working hard to develop potential partnerships with European OEMs and other companies when she’s at Mobility.Pioneers.
“Though we launched first in the USA, Europe is much more pressing to me,” she concludes. “It’s a very big market and that’s where we’ve had the most business requests.”
*There’s still time to get to Munich to meet Consolacion, Houter, Jones and a range of other industry innovators on February 7th…get your Mobility.Pioneers tickets [here](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility2019#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Government Deals And GovTech.Pioneers Glory: Fleksy Shares Its Recipe](https://pioneers.io/government-deals-and-govtechpioneers-glory-fleksy-shares-its-recipe/)
**Published:** February 5, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re now less than a week away from the deadline for startups to apply to take part in the third edition of GovTech.Pioneers, which takes place inside the famed Vienna City Hall on April 2nd. For those needing a little motivation, we caught up with last year’s winning startup, Fleksy. In this exclusive interview their Co-Founder shares his experience of pitching at the event and on selling innovative technology to governments. We also hear about the startup’s first success in the latter department...
**Content:**
“Get a pitch coach!” declares Fleksy Co-Founder Olivier Plante in no uncertain terms. “Get help with telling your story in the right way. I’ve had a coach for three years now. On top of that, I prepare around 60 times before pitching.”
Plante’s meticulous approach to pitch preparation might go beyond what some founders are willing to invest, but he should know what he’s talking about. After all, the Canadian was the man to pitch Fleksy’s secure keyboard to glory at GovTech.Pioneers at Palais Wertheim last May. So those applying to join us at the Vienna City Hall on April 2nd (or Pioneers ’19 on May 9th-10th, for that matter) might want to listen to the advice he shared with us in this exclusive interview.
Another thing Plante and the team at Fleksy have learned over the last nine months or so since victory? The reality that while impressing a high-profile jury certainly gives a validation boost for your business model and plenty of investor exposure – the Fleksy team secured $800K in equity crowdfunding late last year – the road forward will probably still be a long one if you’re selling to governments.
“Brace yourself for a very long sales cycle,” he advises, having spent so much time selling the concept of a secure mobile keyboard that can integrate with existing public sector messenger systems. “Be patient and focus on what the government tells you. If they say ‘This isn’t for us,’ then try to understand why. If it’s not the right moment, why? What is their process? Reduce your sales cycle as much as possible, because not focusing on that will inevitably kill you.”
Thanks to that attitude, Fleksy is set to finally go live with a government project next month. This March they expect around a quarter of a million state employees in South Africa to start using the secure keyboard in their internal mobile messenger systems. Africa, it turned out, was the right place to get a (relatively) quick first customer in the bag.
“In Africa it’s fast because they don’t usually have procurement threshold,” says Plante. “Thresholds present a big challenge. Finding that information from the government isn’t easy either. Nor is it easy to find the decision-makers.”
Now that Fleksy is really in the game with a first big deal, Plante hopes things will get easier as the copycat effect kicks in. Different client profiles are already coming onto the radar, including those requiring a full package of messenger service and keyboard.
“We’ve seen demands from military divisions. That’s a big chunk of tech capability – we’d be moving to 512 encryption level with a custom messaging app, which is very hard to achieve.
“We’d be creating a new type of product, where we would find a partner with encrypted messaging capability and present that with the keyboard. That would be a completely new project that doesn’t exist anywhere.
“If something happens in that field, it’s a lot of money and recognition. We will go with the most innovative governments first. The ones in the northern European countries are faster than those in the Latin countries. And in Africa it’s faster than anywhere else! We’re de-prioritizing the ones that take a long time.”
While they do just that on the public sector sales side of things, Fleksy appear to have made a smart move in simultaneously applying their product to a totally different market. They’ve developed a keyboard that allows consumers to access other apps and services in the same screen. Their answer to Microsoft SwiftKey and Google Keyboard has already had a quick win of its own – it comes as standard on Verizon’s Palm phone.
*Could your startup be the next big thing in Govtech? You have until Sunday February 10th to apply for this year’s GovTech.Pioneers on April 2nd. Click [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers19#/) if you want to follow in Fleksy’s footsteps!*
**GovTech.Pioneers is supported by STARTeurope, the Austrian PPPI Service Center (IÖB), Federal Ministry of Finance, City of Vienna, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs, the Austrian Federal Computing Center (BRZ) and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT).**
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [MOTIONTAG Wins New-Look Pitch Contest At Mobility.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/motiontag-wins-new-look-pitch-contest-mobilitypioneers/)
**Published:** February 8, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** MOTIONTAG defeated NAVENTIK in our all-new ‘Startup Battle’ format to claim glory at the third edition of Mobility.Pioneers in Munich on February 7th. The Berlin-based company offers mobility intelligence technology that integrates into cellphone applications and helps providers offer cheap, seamless and user-centred services. Their victory in our latest industry-focused event assures them an automatic pitching place at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna in May.
**Content:**
**MOTIONTAG** defeated NAVENTIK in our all-new ‘Startup Battle’ format to claim glory at the third edition of **Mobility.Pioneers** in Munich on February 7th. The Berlin-based company offers mobility intelligence technology that integrates into cellphone applications and helps providers offer cheap, seamless and user-centred services. Their victory in our latest industry-focused event assures them an automatic pitching place at Pioneers ’19 in Vienna in May.
MOTIONTAG’s technology enables stress-free, multimodal travel for passengers and more precise data for transport companies to provide it.
It allows for more efficient multimodal traffic management and offers mobility providers a sales channel, up- and cross-selling possibilities as well as data optimisation possibilities.
“I’m pretty excited to have won,” said **Chief Operating Officer Fabien Sauthier**. “It’s always nice to get recognition like this – word of mouth is super important in our business. Some of our customers are here, and they do talk!”
The annual event at Muffatwerk saw Pioneers take a **new approach to the pitching competition** format. In the first round, the ten hand-selected selected startups could only continue past the first 99 seconds of their three-minute pitch if a **jury** member hit a buzzer. The final round took the form of a Startup Battle, in which each of the three jury members threw a question at the two finalist founders.
“I really enjoyed the Q&A format,” added Sauthier. “It makes it much more natural than just pitching. It was really cool because what comes out when you answer a question is exactly what you feel in the moment. I found it really interesting.
“I met a lot of people today, including investors, potential clients and existing clients as well. It was a bit stressful pitching in both rounds with so much business to do in the middle of it all, but using the **Pioneers Match & Meet** networking service really helped organise the day in that respect!”
The juries used **Pioneers Rate**, our new digital solution for pitching sessions and competitions, to score the startup competition. This ensured a consistent and transparent rating process. Thus we can report that MOTIONTAG made the final with a particularly strong score for its product and its ‘Pioneering’ factor, whilst also beating its rivals on traction and team strength. Things were closer in the other pitching group, but NAVENTIK was at least joint-best in all of the five categories.
With all the startup pitching taking place on the main Arena Stage for the first time at Mobility.Pioneers, there was less time for content such as talks and panel discussions. Which resulted in exactly what we’d planned: quality, not quantity!
**Clare Jones**, CCO of what3words, earned her company a flood of downloads and a barrage of audience questions after introducing their revolutionary method of mapping the world. What3words has divided the entire planet into 57 trillion 3×3 metre squares, assigning each with a three-word name that could be anything from ‘pizza.elephant.trick’ to ‘soap.kitten.desert’.
“It’s time for a new, universal addressing system that’s built for both voice and autonomy,” said Jones in her talk. “If you want to meet somebody for a date on a park bench in Berlin, you can now give them a three-word address in French, Swahili, Chinese or 24 other languages.
“Yes, it’s a psychological shift and yes, it’s weird when you use it the first time. But you know what? I’ll take three words of data over five lines. Even my grandparents are using it.”
Unsurprisingly for a natural-language step in user experience that’s gaining swift adoption everywhere from bus stops in Ulan Bator to Deutsche Bank offices, what3words really captivated interest from both investors and potential partners. Speaking of which, the system is already integrated in some Mercedes vehicles – and the Head of Innovation & Partnerships at Daimler’s CASE IT division **Michael Vormittag** spoke about the collaboration in the New Business Models for OEMs panel discussion later in the morning.
“The work Mercedes have done with what3words is a great example of how you can achieve good outcomes if you put your mind to it,” said Vormittag’s fellow panellist, **Sebastian Peck** of InMotion Ventures. “You have to give them kudos for what they have achieved there.”
Other stage features in the morning included an *Urban Mobility: How Can Cities Adapt* panel discussion, and **Tommaso Gecchelin** introducing the audience to the Next Future Transportation modular mobility concept.
Later in the day, panel discussions covered the latest trends in electrification and the potential impact drones could have in humanitarian efforts. Another tackled the *When Are We Boarding The Hyperloop* question, in which panellists **Dr Kasia Foljanty** (Hyper Poland) and **Tim Houter** (Hardt Hyperloop) agreed that commercial routes could be running by late in the next decade.
“Considering all the challenges to solve, including regulation, funding and standardising the system, the end of the 2020s is doable,” said Dr Foljanty. “That’s when we could be boarding hyperloops as passengers.”
The *Future of (Urban) Air Mobility* panel discussion welcomed some old Pioneers friends to the stage, including our 2015 flagship event winner **Svilen Rangelov** (still cultivating a lengthy beard, in keeping with his vow not to shave until a full-scale prototype of his DRONAMICS Black Swan unmanned cargo plane takes to the skies) and **Stefan Vadocz** of AeroMobil, whose 3.0 prototype flying car made its world premiere at our flagship in 2014. Also on the panel was **Andreas Thellmann**, Program Manager at Airbus Urban Mobility.
“My objective is that all of you in this room will be able to use an air taxi in the next decade,” said Thellmann. “And at Airbus we don’t just want to develop the vehicle, but move to Mobility As A Service.”
“The current means of transport have reached their limit,” added final panellist, **Andreas Perotti** of FACC AG. “We need to think 3D, and with current technology it’s now possible to have that at a reasonable and affordable price.”
Mobility.Pioneers attendees also got an update and the chance to network with the people behind the new global mobility innovation hub being planned in Rotterdam.
“We want to have a physical space that actually makes innovation visible,” said **Julia Oomens-Meer** of Rotterdam Partners, who presented the project with **Kayvan Nikjou** of Magnetica International. “Somewhere that everybody from children to older people can see, feel and experience things before they get onto the market. This is something we haven’t done well in Europe up until now.”
*The next Pioneers event will be GovTech.Pioneers, which takes place at the Vienna City Hall on April 2nd. Click [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers19#/) to buy tickets or apply for free startup selection (deadline Sunday April 10th!).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [GovTech Interview: Scottish Youth Seek (And Find!) New Tech For Mental Health](https://pioneers.io/govtech-interview-scottish-youth-seek-and-find-new-tech-mental-health/)
**Published:** February 13, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As we start counting the days to GovTech.Pioneers on April 2nd, the recent CivTech 3.0 demo day in Edinburgh underlined the potential for ordinary citizens to help governments innovate on service delivery. One of the program’s challenges, around empowering mental health conversations, was issued by a group of young people from the City of Stirling. In this article we find out more from CivTech’s Katy McNeil, who’ll be sharing more at GovTech.Pioneers. We also talk with Rocio Fonseca, Chief Innovation Officer at the Chilean Economic Development Agency, who will also travel to Vienna to speak at our event.
**Content:**
As we start counting the days to **GovTech.Pioneers** on April 2nd, a recent demo day in Edinburgh underlined the power of citizens (as well as startups) to help governments innovate on service delivery.
Artificial Intelligence was one of the major themes among the solutions pitched at the CivTech Demo Day on February 6th. It powered ideas including **conversation services for mental health patients** and technology that could help the National Health Service in Scotland transition reduce waste by adopting circular economy principles.
The CivTech Demo Day was the third for the program, in which public sector entities could issue challenges for innovators to solve. Our guest speaker from the **Scottish Government**, **Katy McNeil**, will be sharing more on some of these solutions at GovTech.Pioneers.
---
***Click [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers19#/) to join us at GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna on April 2nd.***
---
But the most interesting thing is that the challenge topics didn’t all emerge directly from bureaucrats in government departments or local councils. The one in which the **City of Stirling** and the **National Health Service** looked for ways to **‘empower conversations about mental health’** showed how ordinary people could contribute to finding a solution, which in this case was pitched by [Voxsio](https://www.voxsio.com/).
“We’re really excited that one of our challenges was completely defined by a group of young people,” McNeil told us in an exclusive interview. “They chose the subject area they wanted to work on and acted as a challenge sponsor. Then they got involved in the selection of the companies and the scoring of applications. It’s the first time we’ve been able to have something directly sourced from the citizens.
“The group was brought together by the Stirling City Council, and got involved because they were interested in having that conversation about how we make the city better for young people. They wanted to know how to get support for their own and their friends’ wellbeing. They didn’t know if they could trust the information they were finding or not. So this was about finding a route through to good information, in a way that started from where the young people were at rather than where the services are at.
“The tech solution is also very cool, but the way it has come through from those young people is also very exciting for the future here in Scotland.”
It’s nice to see Scotland showing that citizen collaboration isn’t just a buzzword or a long-term use case for some founder’s technology. Rather, it can be part of the innovation process itself.
And if that helps channel limited resources more effectively, then it can only be a good thing.
“What we know about the future is that citizen expectations will increase, while the resources available for public services probably won’t increase at the same rate,” McNeil points out. “So we have to find different ways of doing things.”
Another country really prioritizing a smooth route for innovators to help improve public services is Chile, which is why we’ve invited **Rocio Fonseca**, the **Chief Innovation Officer** at the **Chilean Economic Development Agency**, to speak at GovTech.Pioneers.
She’ll talk about both the challenges and successes in her country, which has been one of the economic and entrepreneurial growth stories of the past decade. One of the successes on the citizen services front, she explained to us in an interview, has been as simple as centralizing efforts in going paperless.
“There’s an office in the government whose main goal is to go paperless and simplify processes and bureaucracy,” explains Fonseca. “They connect all ministries and everyone has to follow them. So it’s not an initiative between different ministers, it’s one main department connecting all of them.
“You have a team that isn’t about politicians doing the work. It’s people who know how to get the best user experience, how to create the platform. So it’s a very technical team and it’s quite nice not having politicians doing the job. That’s the reason things are moving super fast.”
The benefits in terms of efficiency and avoiding duplication in government are evident enough. That goes just as well for startups with good ‘paperless’ tech to share. They know where to go to speak to technically-minded decision-makers, and have an easier route to seeing their technology spread throughout the public sector.
But there’s still work to do in other areas where it’s not so easy to centralize efforts, says Fonseca.
“We work with all ministries, trying to match their needs with our startups’ solutions. It’s quite challenging but very interesting, because at the end of the day the Chilean government is the main buyer for almost everything.
“For startups to be able to sell to government is super important,” she added. “You will find this situation in most developing countries. But most startups and companies are afraid of how they can work with government, the paperwork and the structures. They see it as so formal and traditional, and very out of reach. So one challenge we have here is how to get that match faster and more efficient.”
*Interested in how the world’s most innovative governments are finding ways to work with startups? Come and meet top public sector innovators, as well as hand-selected startups, at GovTech.Pioneers in Vienna on April 2nd. Tickets are available [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers19#/).*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Mobility.Pioneers Finalists Praise New Pitch Format](https://pioneers.io/mobilitypioneers-finalists-praise-new-pitch-format/)
**Published:** February 20, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** As the dust settles on the third edition of Mobility.Pioneers, which took place in Munich on February 7th, we sit down with the finalists to get their thoughts on the new pitching format. Not only did the last round consist of a head-to-head spot quiz from the jury, but the startups even had the novel task of pitching the other’s idea! In this article we also explain the tech that got MOTIONTAG the win and earned NAVENTIK the other finalist spot.
**Content:**
The world of startup events is strewn with so many pitching contests that you wouldn’t blame founders for getting bored by the doing the same thing over and over. Well, the last thing we want to see at Pioneers is bored founders! It’s one reason we decided to offer pitching startups a different challenge at **Mobility.Pioneers**, which took place in Munich on February 7th.
The major innovation came in the final round, contested by German startups **MOTIONTAG** and **NAVENTIK**. Instead of delivering yet another three-minute pitch, they were asked (figuratively speaking) to tear up their scripts. The ultimate winner would be decided by their response to questions and challenges from the jury.
It wasn’t easy for **Fabien Sauthier** (MOTIONTAG) and **Peter Kalinowski** (NAVENTIK). They were asked to sum up their (rather complex) offerings in a single sentence. They had to reflect on what went wrong in a hypothetical future bankruptcy scenario. And, in the biggest surprise of all for the men on stage, the jury even asked them to sum up why the other startup should win.
But even though one of them had to lose, both said they enjoyed the new challenge.
“What I really liked about the final was that you had to know what your company is good in or not good in,” said Sauthier. “You can’t prepare that much, so it was more spontaneous, genuine and real.
“It put less emphasis on coming up with something you just learn by heart. I don’t like by-heart stuff, even when studying! So for me it was nicer to have someone ask me questions and I answer them the best I can. It’s a challenge but it’s a nice one.”
Kalinowski was equally positive, despite getting edged in the finalist battle.
“I did a lot of startup events but I’ve never had something like that. It’s absolutely heads-up so everyone has the same chance. You can’t practice for it or go through it 100 times. But it was a very good final format – it was clever.”
With such a positive reaction from the startups, it’s safe to hint that we’ll see a variation of this at our events going forward.
The same goes for the more subtle tweak we made to the first-round pitching. Here the startups still got the traditional three minutes to speak – but only if one of the jury members **hit a buzzer during the first 99 seconds**. If they didn’t grab the jury in that time, then they were done.
Needless to say, the finalists didn’t get cut short in their first-round pitches. The jury of industry specialists saw the potential for their tech, even though the B2B software solutions they provide are notoriously difficult to explain succinctly on stage.
It’s not a lot easier to convey in an article, either. But since (thankfully) we don’t have to do it in one sentence like the two finalists did, we’ll have a stab at it before rounding off this piece.
Winning startup MOTIONTAG offers software that generates **the most accurate mobility data out there**. This ‘mobility intelligence’ comes from a mix of the built-in sensors found in mobile devices and timetable/route information.
While plenty of software can build a picture of where you’ve been, MOTIONTAG can also figure out which subway train you took. This competitive edge even works in real time. When you’re on bus 33B, basic systems see you as no more than a passive blue blob. MOTIONTAG knows where you’re likely to end up, and when.
So who wants this next-level travel data, and why would we travellers let them grab it from our phones? MOTIONTAG sees its primary customers as public transport providers. For them, it could be the basis for next-level, customer-centered services. Without such accurate real-time (and historical) data, they can forget about offering demand-driven public transport. Also, think seamless, multimodal travel. Think ticketless travel.
The startup is keeping an open mind, and may doubtless encounter use cases it hasn’t thought of yet. But working with the ‘good guys’ such as public service organizations and cities will remain central to their philosophy – stalkers and spies need not apply!
NAVENTIK also brings next-level accuracy to the mobility space, but instead of focusing on public transport usage, it makes **satellite positioning** (GNSS systems, if you’re in that line of work) accurate enough help enable autonomous driving.
Think about all those times you’ve used a navigation system and it’s been a few metres out. Is it this left turn or the next one? You wait for it to catch up, and bang, you’ve missed your turn! Small inaccuracies like that are hardly a disaster with a human driver (unless you’re in Milan, in which case you’re trapped forever in a vortex of one-way roads), but clearly unworkable for autonomous systems. The overall interpretation of a vehicle’s position will need accuracy to the centimetre, otherwise everything will be crashing into everything else.
That position interpretation is a complex puzzle known to specialists as sensor data fusion.
Kalinowski explains that current GNSS receiver chips aren’t providing accurate enough information to that puzzle – they get thrown too easily by error sources like buildings. NAVENTIK replaces these sensors with PATHFINDER, a software solution that would be integrated into the car’s GPU (graphics processing unit). This software figures out the impact of errors in real time, which means information from the GNSS should no longer throw the sensor data fusion out of whack.
All of which means, we hope, that autonomous driving can happen just that little bit sooner!
*Our next champion startups will be crowned at GovTech.Pioneers (April 2nd) and Pioneers ’19 (May 9th-10th), both taking place in Vienna. Tickets and startup applications via our [events page](https://pioneers.io/events)!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Kapsch Announces Factory1 Global Accelerator Finalists](https://pioneers.io/kapsch-announces-factory1-global-accelerator-finalists/)
**Published:** February 21, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover is pleased to share the names of the 15 finalists chosen by Kapsch for its Factory1 global accelerator program. Our consultancy arm scouted all of the 193 startups who completed applications for the mobility-focused program, in which the four winners stand to win €160,000 in equity-free funding, acceleration days, Proof of Concept opportunities and four months of business development. This lucky quartet will be decided after the final pitching day, which takes place in Vienna on February 27th.
**Content:**
Pioneers Discover is pleased to share the names of the 15 finalists chosen by **Kapsch** for its **Factory1** global accelerator program. Our consultancy arm scouted all of the 193 startups who completed applications for the mobility-focused program, in which the four winners stand to **win €160,000 in equity-free funding**, acceleration days, Proof of Concept opportunities and four months of business development.
This lucky quartet will be decided after the final pitching day, which takes place in Vienna on February 27th. The group of 15 finalists is the result of a careful selection process from the long list of startups who applied following our worldwide outreach, and then a round of remote video pitches. Following these presentations to the jury and Kapsch board members, the global technology company has selected the following to travel to Vienna (at Kapsch expense) and present their mobility solutions in person.
**Aerostate** (USA)
**Autofleet** (Israel)
**Bestmile** (Switzerland)
**Bleenco** (Germany)
**Brisk Synergies** (Canada)
**Crypta Labs** (United Kingdom)
**DERQ** (United Arab Emirates)
**Exeon Analytics** (Switzerland)
**Flx** (South Africa)
**GoodVision** (Czech Republic)
**Imburse** (Switzerland)
**ObjectBox** (Germany)
**Ondewo** (Austria)
**HD Vision Systems** (Germany)
**Waycar** (USA)
Kapsch is a **globally-operating technology company** that focuses on upcoming needs in the fields of communication and mobility. With innovative technology, products and solutions, Kapsch makes a significant contribution to a sustainable future in public and private transportation. The Factory1 global accelerator program was created to fill the gap between new solutions in the **intelligent mobility space** and the strengths of the international corporation.
In addition to the €160,000 in equity-free funding, Kapsch will also provide the winning startups with four months of business development and invite the startups to acceleration days in Austria or the United States. They will also provide mentoring and the opportunity to work on joint Proof of Concepts.
*Need a specialist to help you scout startups for your next corporate innovation program? Pioneers Discover can take care of anything from scouting to planning and executing a full program. Contact our consultancy arm on **discover@pioneers.io***
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [From Genome Sequencing To Longevity Biotech: Pioneers ’19 Speakers Tackle Every Phase of Life!](https://pioneers.io/genome-sequencing-longevity-biotech-pioneers-19-speakers-tackle-every-phase-life/)
**Published:** February 26, 2019
**Author:** Richard Asher
**Excerpt:** We’re pleased to announce a raft of new speakers for Pioneers ’19, which takes place in Vienna on May 9th-10th. With the agenda for our flagship event tying new technology trends with the different phases of human life, we’ve invited Oxford Nanopore Co-Founder & CEO Dr Gordon Sanghera to talk genome sequencing, plus Apollo Ventures Founder James Peyer and Dr Alex Zhavoronkov to discuss longevity. Another exciting name to join us at the Hofburg Imperial Palace will be Geoffrey Prentice, who co-founded Skype and now leads innovative Fintech company Oriente.
**Content:**
With the event agenda at Pioneers ’19 taking the form of a [technological walk through human life](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/pioneers-19-technological-walk-through-human-life), we’re covering every phase of our existence, from our earliest origins to old age. Which is exactly why we’ve signed up Oxford Nanopore Co-Founder & CEO **Dr Gordon Sanghera** for a panel discussion on genome sequencing. Then, moving through the decades to later life, we’ve lined up longevity experts **James Peyer** and **Dr Alex Zhavoronkov** for a panel on how technology could redefine that topic.
Oxford Nanopore is developing a new generation of cDNA sequencing. There’s no denying this a hard subject to teach yourself – but that’s exactly why we’ve invited Dr Sanghera to outline its significance in person! And that’s worth doing because this technology could have a big impact in human genetics and basic genome sequencing. Not only that, but also in areas such as oncology (cancer treatment), reproductive medicine and water testing.
Staying with technology critical to the fundamentals of human life, James Peyer is just the man to give us an overview on breakthrough therapeutics from biological studies around aging. The Founder of Apollo Ventures leads a company focused exclusively on just this area. In an Arena Stage panel discussion on longevity, he will share insights on how our knowledge of what makes us age will enable the greatest medical breakthroughs of the 21st century.
Joining the same panel will be Dr Alex Zhavoronkov, whom Pioneers ’18 guests will remember for his forthright talk on why aging doesn’t have to be considered inevitable. He is the Co-Founder & CEO of Insilico Medicine, a leader in next-generation artificial intelligence technologies for drug discovery, biomarker development and aging research.
We’re also pleased to be welcoming Oriente Co-Founder **Geoffrey Prentice**, who also co-founded Skype in 2002. Geoffrey will take to the Arena Stage to share his experience from 20 years of founding, scaling and investing in technology companies across international markets. A founding Partner at leading global VC firm Atomico, he now leads global business strategy, strategic partnerships, brand and investments.
At Skype, he worked with a small team to build a leading global telecommunications platform company and oversaw its expansion into Asia and Latin America in addition to driving its initial business plan development and fundraising activities. He also played an instrumental role in the $3.1 billion exit to eBay Inc in 2005.
And, [as previously announced](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/going-beyond-hype-pioneers-set-walk-talks-our-flagship-event), Vicarious Co-Founder **Dileep George** will talk next-level artificial intelligence on the Arena Stage.
Meanwhile, on the Academy Stage, we’ve already confirmed a number of speakers who’ll be sharing practical lessons anybody working in innovation can apply to their daily business. They include Talent Garden Co-Founder & CEO **Davide Dattoli**, who will share his experience of building an ever-growing network of campuses that empower digital tech communities across Europe.
The program for our the attending startups – that is to say our Pioneers500 and Series A selection – is also taking shape. Sessions will be led by the likes of Draper Esprit Investment Director **Nicola McClafferty**, returning friend and 500 Startups Partner **Marvin Liao** and, as we also [announced before](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/going-beyond-hype-pioneers-set-walk-talks-our-flagship-event), **Sakshi Chhabra Mittal** of the SoftBank Vision Fund.
*Stay tuned to our channels for more weekly announcements regarding Pioneers ’19 speakers. And while you wait, get your tickets [here](https://pioneers.io/pioneers19#/)!*
Richard Asher
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/richard-asher/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Intrapreneurship? It’s a trap! — 8 tips on how to make corporate innovation work](https://pioneers.io/how-to-make-intrapreneurship-work/)
**Published:** May 20, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Intrapreneurship: many try it, but almost no one seems to make it work. There are a few simple reasons why intrapreneurship is really not cutting it in most cases. After running several intrapreneurship programs at various corporates, we've put together a list of 8 tips on how to make them actually work.
**Content:**
#### Intrapreneurship. It feels like every corporate tries hard to make it work, but almost no one seems to manage it that well. There are a few simple reasons why intrapreneurship is really not cutting it in most cases.
After being involved in several intrapreneurship programs at various corporates, our Senior Innovation Consultant and Digital Product Designer [Alex Schuh](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexschuh/) has put together an insightful list of 8 tips how to make them actually work. Sit back and enjoy!
---
Ever since learning about intrapreneurs at university – those pristine creatures that magically overcome all corporate hurdles and pull the company out of the mud – I was fascinated by the topic. If one believes the tales about intrapreneurship, being an intrapreneur would actually be a viable career decision, but with hundreds of intrapreneurship programs popping out of nowhere you have to ask yourself the question:
#### What is the difference between being an intrapreneur and taking part in an intrapreneurship program and why is nearly every intrapreneurship program struggling to produce outcomes?
In this article, I want to tackle exactly this question, name the most common eight pitfalls, and explain how to overcome those.
#### 1. Corporate environments as the starting ground
Corporate environments are not the ideal nest for an idea to hatch and grow, even if you might think so. While having certain advantages like a corporate’s reputation, the existing user base, and access to cash, the downsides for intrapreneurs easily outweigh the upsides in many cases. Intrapreneurship programs often referred to as “speed boats”, in comparison to the whole corporate organization being the big tanker, most of the time act more like paddle boats. You face a lot of resistance and have a hard time moving forward at all.
**Solution:** Try to keep operations of the initiative as separated as possible from the daily business, but keep close connections to the main stakeholders and enablers. Also, involve them by letting them give input regarding the progress regularly.
#### 2. Intrapreneurs have no upside, hence no motivation
Working your ass off for an idea, or a greater belief involves a lot of (intrinsic) motivation, passion, and maybe, just maybe the possibility to make good money after some tough years. Without at least one of those potential upsides covered, no one in the right mind would put in countless hours and nerves over a longer period of time. On the one hand, entrepreneurs ideally have all this covered, on the other hand, however, intrapreneurs rarely have any huge upside when participating in an intrapreneurship program. In the best case they can break out of their corporate daily business for a while and get to know some fun methods. That’s all! If anything, it just means extra work.
**Solution:**Implement certain benefits for intrapreneurs. This can be shares on a future potential spin-off, more freedom during and after executing the project, or certain new tasks that can be upcoming. Find the right incentive for every individual.
#### 3. Employees get forced into being intrapreneurs
The myth of an intrapreneur being this outstanding employee mastering all tasks and countering all resilience, networking like a pro to make the impossible happen within an organization is just rarely / not existent. This is mostly a theoretical phenomenon. In reality, a lot of times, people get forced or talked into certain intrapreneurship activities which does not exactly support a successful outcome.
**Solution:** Create a pool of interested employees by continuously offering educational formats and building relationships within your company through events and meetups. Create a shortlist of high potentials with outstanding motivation and get back to them as soon as you’ve got the right program or topic.
#### 4. They don’t get the time they need
Starting with the implementation of a new product/service into the corporate is in many ways like starting your own startup. A big mistake that corporates are doing is to treat those initiatives like a side project on top of the employees’ regular tasks. Let me ask you: Do you think someone could be successful with their business when working on it for one day every second week, or with 20% of the overall working time? Not really, right?
**Solution:**Make one project a priority instead of having 20 initiatives running at the same time. By communicating the innovation efforts early on and making sure to create benefits for the departments themselves, you can get more resources and the best minds on board.
#### 5. Not everyone has the potential
While intrapreneurs, like entrepreneurs, arguably have certain traits, combined with a special mindset, it has to be said, that not everyone is made to be an intrapreneur and that is totally fine.
**Solution:**It is important to exclusively look for people with the right mindset and skillset. What you want to look for, are self-driven, curious, and well-connected individuals who have the right knowledge in the specific area that you are trying to innovate. If you start with the “wrong” people, you might as well just not start at all.
#### 6. Cash is not that easy to get
Did you ever try to build a digital product or even a first MVP with no one in the team being able to code and a very limited budget? Seems impossible right? Well, it is! Very often, the budget to execute certain projects is just not a realistic one.
**Solution:** Make sure to communicate an approximate budget upfront. This should include not only the first step but the whole journey from start to implementation, displayed in steps. Also, by involving managers who can free up budget and trying to create benefit for them, you will have an easier time getting money.
#### 7. No one to hand over to
At one point, an idea will evolve into a product and a product needs to be integrated into the whole corporate structure or result in a spin-off. If the people who are executing the journey are just blocked for a limited amount of time and have to go back to their daily business afterwards, like in most cases, you need to find someone to take over at some point. If this is not happening, the project is doomed to get left behind in the process.
**Solution:** Make sure to always have an Idea Owner on the project. In the best case, this person brings in the idea and integrates it later on.
#### 8. No main leader
Every startup needs a visionary to drive, steer, and motivate the team. So does every intrapreneurship team. If the team is lacking direction and especially drive, they can easily go nowhere or just don’t move at all. Especially in a corporate environment, the teams often tend to go back to bureaucratic and conceptional approaches instead of putting the focus on doing stuff.
**Solution:**Make sure to have a strong Innovation Manager on board that is leading the initiatives. This person has to infect the team with enthusiasm, drive all efforts, and work even harder than anyone else on the team to make it work.
### Conclusion
A lot of it boils down to the problem that innovation departments don’t have enough power to get the resources they need. Furthermore, top-management’s expectations towards innovation activities are that those programs and the participants should be able to solve problems that the organization did not manage to solve previously, but cheaper and faster.
Furthermore, not everyone is born to be an intrapreneur and those people are really hard to find. As mentioned, distinguishing factors are the unique mindset, drive, and willingness to change the status quo, just to name a few.
Now you are probably wondering if it still makes sense to have an intrapreneurship program in your company. Especially, because knowing all the mentioned eight points and being aware of them does not mean that it will be easier to pull off. My take on that would still be a clear yes. Not necessarily to build awesome new products in the short term, but more to slowly change people’s and therefore the companies’ overall mindset towards a more open and innovative culture. Knowing this, the take on and the notion of intrapreneurship programs should change within corporates. It should be seen as what it really is: A tool to shift mindsets towards a more future-oriented approach and the only way to do that within a corporate environment is through the hard way.
---
If you are interested to run your own intrapreneurship program that works, contact us at
[Check out Alex’ previous blogposts on intrapreneurship and product development on Medium](https://medium.com/@alex_schuh)
[Read Alex’ guest article on TrendingTopics (German only)](https://www.trendingtopics.at/intrapreneurship-falle-gastkommentar/)
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Intrapreneurship
---
### [From CSR to Corporate Social Innovation - 6 Tips for Starting your Social Innovation Journey](https://pioneers.io/corporate-social-innovation/)
**Published:** July 25, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** In this blog, we share our thoughts on transitioning from traditional CSR to corporate social innovation, providing you with 6 tips on how to start your social innovation journey.
**Content:**
### **Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is no longer enough. It is time for businesses to take CSR one step further into Corporate Social Innovation.**
Contemplate an example. Think about supermarkets and the negative impact they create through food waste every day. A CSR approach to this problem might be to donate leftover food to local charities. However, by implementing a social innovation approach, a business can do even better and solve the root of the problem. They can completely eliminate food waste and scale their impact into new opportunities and revenue streams.
This example is relatable to all industries. Now, more than ever, businesses need to step up and engage in social innovation. Imagine where this kind of innovation could take us as a society? After all, businesses have the resources, power and scale needed to address the world’s biggest problems.
### Why does Social Innovation Matter for Businesses?
Before we dig deeper, let’s firstly look at why corporates should care about social innovation. The answer can be broken down into 3 categories:
- **Profit** – addressing sustainability topics is not just good for society, it is good for business. It enables you to stay competitive, create new products and services, explore new revenue streams, enhance supply chains and create innovative business models.
- **People** – becoming a more socially innovative and impactful business helps you to attract and retain talent. The research for this one speaks for itself: employees are motivated when their work creates positive impact. And when you have happy employees, you attract (and keep) the best talent.
- **Perception** – when you show the outside world you are truly, and transparently, a responsible business you build your brand reputation and your customer base.
### How do you start your social innovation journey as a business?
The immense value to be captured from social innovation builds a business case for itself. However, it is often challenging for businesses to know where to start. It takes time and has to align with your values and objectives. However, there are some immediate steps you can take to start challenging ‘business as usual’ within your company. Here are some suggestions:
### A Starting Point
### 1. Get people internally talking.
Bring your CSR department and your Innovation team together. This can be the ‘sweet spot’ for social innovation. Ask both teams to start communicating and explore areas for collaboration.
**Tip:** provide employees with educational formats/events centered on the topic of social innovation. This will help you create a pool of interested and motivated employees to engage in future programs/topics.
### 2. Look at your supply chain.
How can you implement more sustainability and be more innovative in your approach to supply chain partners? For example, you could partner with social businesses or buy from them.
**Tip:** social enterprises (check out [Social Enterprise UK](https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/) for some inspiration) and [B-Corporations](https://bcorporation.net/) are great supply chain partners since they meet the highest standards in terms of social and environmental impact. This also creates a launchpad for you to collaborate and create social innovation ideas together.
### 3. Engage with your social business community.
Learn more about the problems being faced in your local and global communities. Where could you leverage your resources as a business to help?
**Tip:** partner with local social entrepreneurs and offer mentorship and support. Social businesses struggle with funding and finding mentors so this is a great way to start giving back immediately whilst growing your network and knowledge.
### Longer Term Suggestions
### 4. Create a Social Innovation strategy and get key stakeholders on board.
After years of proven corporate innovation formats being implemented, why not take these and add a social lens to them? For example, you could create:
- Intrapreneurship programs where employees put forward social business ideas and work together to turn these into reality.
- Build new ventures that evolve from socially innovative ideas.
- Startup collaboration programs with social impact startups.
**Tip:** evaluating previous innovation formats you implemented is a good start here. What worked and achieved the expected outcomes? And what did not, and why? Then, think about how you could take your learnings and adjust these formats to create new approaches with social innovation outcomes.
### 5. Look at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Where are you already making an impact against the SDGs? And where can you make the biggest impact as a business?
**Tip:** when it comes to the SDGs, keep your focus on what you are good at and where you can make the most impact (no-one expects you to tackle all 17 goals). Then think, how could we shift our business model to create more social impact and unlock value against our chosen SDG/s?
### 6. Learn by example.
Who in your industry is shaking things up when it comes to social innovation? And how can you do better?
**Tip:** some of my favourite corporate examples of social innovation come from [Patagonia](https://eu.patagonia.com/at/en/contentsearch/?fdid=activism) and [Lego](https://www.legofoundation.com/en/). Check them out and see why.
### What Next?
These suggestions are by no means a ‘one size fits all’ solution or a ‘quick fix.’ However, they provide a starting point, open the floor for discussion and provide differentiation between traditional CSR activities and social innovation.
My ask of you is to imagine your businesses role in society 10 years from now. Will you be a business that steps up to be more socially impactful and innovative, or will you be left behind?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments and feel free to challenge or add in your own suggestions based on your experience.
---
If you are interested in implementing proven social innovation formats, contact us at
*After working for a world-leading B2B social enterprise for 5+ years, [Michaela Stephen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelastephen) is leading the Social Entrepreneurship activities within Pioneers, helping corporates to implement social impact and align this with the SDGs. In this blog, she has compiled her thoughts on transitioning from CSR to corporate social innovation, providing you with 6 tips on how to start your social innovation journey.*
---
Feature photo credit: Akil Mazumder
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights
---
### [Taken for a ride in Bratislava: A curious tale of startup-employee synergy](https://pioneers.io/taken-ride-bratislava-curious-tale-startup-employee-synergy/)
**Published:** January 26, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Michal is one of those high-energy guys who works three jobs. But he doesn’t always wear a smile, he admits in perfect English as he drives me through the slushy streets of Bratislava earlier this week. I must say I find that hard to believe. His cheer is quite infectious.
There’s a little time to chat, because the journey from the local Startup Grind to the city’s memorable (for all the wrong reasons, I’m afraid) main train station will take a few minutes. Having had this Liftago ride (anonymously) ordered for me by the startup’s co-founder Ondrej Krátký, I’m keen to find out what life is like for one of its drivers.
Michal’s three careers are an interesting mix. Apart from driving for Liftago, he also uses his car to deliver salads in the daytime. A recent startup just like Liftago, Fresh Garden Salads is ‘a unique fast food concept, unprecedented in Slovakia.’
For some reason the idea of salad delivery amuses me. I can’t wait to hear about his third job.
“I also work for my father’s paper recycling business, meeting with potential new business clients,” enthuses Michal, waving towards a skip across the road. “Look, there’s one of his containers!
I’m starting to think it must have been a long day for him.
Clearly Michal isn’t one to give his time to large corporates. In all three of his jobs — be in the family business or the startups he works for — there’s an entrepreneurial story. Given his apparent willingness to graft with a smile — just like the stereotypical startup founder — that seems like a perfect fit.
“I like Liftago better than Uber,” enthuses Michal as we plough through the snowy darkness. “I get to set my own prices, decide where I want to go and choose my jobs. I’ve bought a nice car and set my rates quite high, and it’s really good to have that choice.”
It’s true that the car is pretty comfortable. But what’s really uncanny is the way my driver is echoing the words Krátký delivered at the Startup Grind less than an hour earlier.
“Our drivers are the best PR and marketing we have,” I recall him saying. “Our concept is to make the driver proposition and experience a good one. If the driver is happy then it translates to customers who are also happy. We’ve got a lot of loyalty on both sides.
“Giving drivers freedom to make their earnings viable is the only sustainable way for us. A small company can’t afford to have the huge driver turnover that some of our competitors deal with as a result of putting the customer value above driver earnings.”
Michal seems to be the living, breathing proof of what Krátký said. When we pull up before the grimness of the main station, Michal does his paperwork diligently, filling out a receipt for each of us.
“I’ll just close the ride so your friend doesn’t have to pay any more,” he says, playing with his mobile screen.
I smile, then speak up. I have a surprise for him. “Did you know that ‘my friend’ is the owner of Liftago?”
He looks up from his paperwork. He’s lost for words for just a moment. “Really?”
“Yep…your boss! He’s from Prague, but he was here to speak at an event for startups.”
Another pause. “Well, it’s lucky I’m in a good mood tonight!”
“Well, he said you were very pleasant on the phone when you arrived to pick me up. No worries…you said all the right things in the car!”
We both enjoy a chuckle, and then Michal heads off to pick up his next customer.
*[Liftago](https://www.liftago.com/) began operating in Prague in 2014 before expanding to Bratislava in 2015.*
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Six Tech Wheels Startups Absolutely Need to Re-Invent](https://pioneers.io/six-tech-wheels-startups-absolutely-need-re-invent/)
**Published:** January 30, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Google Drive doesn’t work.\*
I’ve heard people don’t scroll down much on the internet, so I’m going to put the asterisked part right below this paragraph.
\*Statement applies only to my current personal experience. I’m on PC. Reference to complete failure of desktop folder to sync with web drive. No, I haven’t read all the troubleshooting FAQs yet. And I haven’t finished tweeting Google Drive yet. That’s because I have work to do. I want the stuff I pay for to just work. Right away.
I won’t bore you with the details, but Google Drive is just one example of a bit of technology that sounds great in theory, but doesn’t actually work. Not for me, anyway. Not right now.
And this is technology that belongs to a megalith of the tech industry.
I’m not having much luck lately. I have a smartphone that won’t read a SIM, because it’s been locked. It’s a weird thing that none of the local phone shops want to touch. Neither SIM provider nor phone maker are claiming responsibility. Again: two rather large enterprises. Again: I’m the one whose time is wasted.
Next. My other mobile phone picked up 3G when l left Austria for my December holiday. When I got back, it didn’t. Whose fault? The big-name manufacturer? My market-dominating network provider? I don’t know, but I do know this: I have better things to do than chase this stuff.
I bought two FM radios the other day in the hopes of learning to speak German better. Now, you may call me an old goat for buying a radio, but if you’re going to sell radios, they should work, no? Well, I’m finding that I can’t get static-free reception unless I stand stock-still next to the receiver. I can’t even take one step away to peel the potatoes. Again: things that look good on paper, but don’t work.
More? My camera (reputable brand) has taken to switching itself on and off for no reason. My first attempt to broadcast live audio online via my phone didn’t work because the WiFi in South Africa cut out at the crucial moment. And yesterday, I got stuck in one of those password-creation loops (does anyone else get those?) with a web service, and can only conclude that I’ll never be able to log in. Even the world’s best-known dating app took a couple of months to sulk after I switched from the UK to Austria.
I could go on for a long time, but I’ll slow down and stop — kind of like my laptop does at critical moments on an average weekday. Here’s my point: there’s potential for startups to improve almost every existing technology. You don’t necessarily have to invent something new.
We love narratives about new launches and creations. But how often do you read a follow-up story about whether the thing actually works? Unless it’s Apple getting its maps wrong, user troubles don’t make for very exciting news. So we get lulled into a perception that everything works. I can assure you it doesn’t.
There’s so much space for startups to improve on what we’ve got, even if the tech belongs to the big guns. Just because they dominate markets and column inches, doesn’t mean they’re anywhere even close to optimising their products.
Opportunities abound for startups working to improve the customer experience through making things work. A few ideas spring to my mind.
**No more crash scenes**
We spend a great deal of money on phones, tablets and computers that boot up slowly, hang, crash and sometimes even burn. Wouldn’t a crash-proof device be quite the USP? Over to you, startups.
**Methinks I’ll think for myself**
Most of my devices have an obsession with ‘correcting’ my spelling to a specified default language. Well, I write messages and posts in multiple languages. Sometimes I write deliberate nonsense. So sell me something that lets me write any words I want in peace. Please.
**The stuff of memories**
Even supposedly state-of-the-art devices have major limitations in terms of storage of apps and files. Some fairly popular devices don’t even let you add memory! It’s not good enough in 2017. Can some innovator out there make deleting my WhatsApp photos something I never have to do again?
**End the tyranny of passwords**
I’m buzzing for the day that something like iris recognition goes mainstream. The arrival of password-free authentication can’t come soon enough, because I’m bored to death of resetting passwords I’ve forgotten. Which usually happens because I’m bored of adding new passwords to my five-page list. Get to it, tech geeks!
**Make connections that connect**
No matter where I’ve been in the world, I’ve never entirely escaped that thing where your connection (even at home) drops out inexplicably, then comes back. Then drops out again. Then…well, you get the picture. We can and should be doing better than this. Innovators, can you help?
**Build me something that lasts**
We all know the sickening modus operandi the tech giants subscribe to: re-invent things just often enough that we have to upgrade every 2–3 years. And critically, we don’t get any say in the value proposition. It just is. As a consumer, I find that disgusting. Laptops are great when they’re new, but can someone build me one guaranteed to last 25 years? With an on-call service thrown in to handle all the soft system changes that will come along? And the promise that if all else fails, you’ll give me a new one that works exactly like that one I’m used to? I’d spend a lot of money on that.
I could come up with another dozen ways startups could improve on the flaws of existing technology, and I’m excited to see it happen. In my day-to-day work, these ‘dull’ but fundamental issues are constant blockers on the path to doing anything really constructive and creative. I believe they deserve far more attention than they get.
Remember, you don’t necessarily need the capacity to go into full-scale production. Sometimes an idea and some know-how is enough to go into collaboration with a corporate that may offer you the resources you need.
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [These things keep brokers and bankers awake at night](https://pioneers.io/these-things-keep-brokers-and-bankers-awake-night/)
**Published:** January 26, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
You might be forgiven for thinking change is just about unheard of in the Financial Services industry. And sure, it’s fair to say brokers, wealth managers and big banks have enjoyed a certain status quo for many a year now.
But despite some of the barriers to entry, the long arm of technological innovation is grabbing hold of Financial Services and shaking it by the throat. As a sneak preview to our Fintech.Pioneers event in Berlin this February, we’ve picked out a few ways in which that disruption is happening.
All but the most stubborn ‘incumbents’ know about these developments all too well already. And for some of them, the following trends are the stuff of nightmares…
**Your new-look wealth manager**
Bad news for those Wolves of Wall Street: robo-advisors have arrived on the scene. Their mission is to make investing cheaper, simpler and more transparent. Typically dealing in Exchange Traded Funds and using algorithms such as Modern Portfolio Theory, robo-advisor startups such as Scalable Capital automate processes like customer onboarding, investment strategy creation and portfolio optimization. The savings are passed on to consumers.
Are robo-advisors better than the human variety? The jury’s out, but there’s enough potential in them that big players such as Deutsche Bank are developing their own versions. Meanwhile, some research suggests a better average yield per annum of 5–8%, so watch this space. And at least you can be sure your robo-advisor isn’t building a drug habit with your money.
“No bank will go out of business overnight because of the innovators, but those that don’t adapt will face existential threats in the medium to long term.” Scalable Capital Co-Founder Patrick Pöschl.
**Peer-to-Peer Potential**
Crowdfunding isn’t just about fundraising. Peer-to-peer models have growing application in the insurance industry, for example when policy owners form small groups in which a part of their premium goes into a cashback pool. Friendsurance is a great example of how this kind of sharing economy concept can apply in insurance. Trading, too has opened up to peer-to-peer thinking, with the likes of Wikifolio connecting investors with traders under a ‘social trading’ or ‘mirror trading’ concept. Expensive middlemen could be on the endangered species list, and with little hope of a panda-style comeback such as that recently pulled off by our furry friends in China.
“I’m strongly convinced that P2P models are just at the beginning of revolutionizing the wealth management sector” Wikifolio CEO Andreas Kern.
**So long, trading fees**
Democratizing stock market access is a big talking point right now. Startups such as Robinhood, whose ‘free stock trading’ tagline says it all, really, are shaking up an industry that hasn’t experienced major disruption in over a decade. Robinhood still earns money in the same way as ‘traditional’ online brokerages – by collecting interest from customers upgrading to a margin account and through interest on uninvested cash balances. But the elimination of trading fees mean even small amounts can now viably be invested. If your bank account looks like mine, then that’s good news for you and me.
**Information for All**
Fancy yourself as a trader? It’s more realistic than ever, thanks to the growing power of big data analytics to bring critical information to anybody, rather than an exclusive club of market insiders. Take for example the Dutch startup Owlin, which has shown itself capable of passing on ‘actionable insights’ to subscribers ahead of big financial data providers like Bloomberg.
Its best-known success story was that of the Tesla Model S fire in October 2013. The rise of predictions markets such as Hypermind and Augur (whose Perry Despeignes is among the speakers at Fintech.Pioneers) which theoretically pool information in a highly effective way, mean another increasingly useful tool for empowering laypeople to trade.
**Building on Blockchain**
After a few years of low-level disruption following the emergence of Bitcoin, startups are now targeting more fundamental pillars of the financial services sector through Blockchain. The open-source, decentralized technology is no longer just about fast, cheap payments. It also underpins the idea of ‘smart contracts’, which are self-executing, self-maintaining (and, of course, cheap) agreements. And Blockchain’s potential applications in trading are widespread, currently gobbling up most of the funding in the space.
This selection of startups was drawn from the mobility chapter of the latest Pioneers Discover Future Report. You can download this chapter as an ebook free of charge [here](https://pioneers.io/ebook-fintech-01/?utm_campaign=futurereport&utm_source=medium.com&utm_medium=blog&utm_term=fintech%232).
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Five Mobility Startups to Watch](https://pioneers.io/five-mobility-startups-watch/)
**Published:** January 19, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Nobody can say for sure how we’re going to get ourselves around town in years to come. One thing is certain, though: change will happen. Individual ownership of internal-combustion cars is being challenged. Completely new forms of transport are being explored. And the sky is no longer the limit — space is!
With our Mobility.Pioneers event just around the corner, we’ve picked out five of the most noteworthy mobility startups to keep an eye on.
**The Flying Car**
Slovak startup AeroMobil makes use of technology previously limited to the defense industry, such as carbon fibre, advanced avionics, high-detail map digitization and control systems automation. It’s already completed tests and could hand over vehicles to its first customers as soon as next year.
AeroMobil’s founder Juraj Vaculik asks, “What could be more exciting than a flying car?” And if you’re not clear on the answer to that, check out the video that accompanied the AeroMobil launch at Pioneers Festival in 2014!
www.aeromobil.com
**The Artificial Intelligence**
With a single chip, the technology from AdasWorks can process a car’s camera and sensor data in real time. The AI system developed by Budapest-based entrepreneurs Arjen de Jong and Aaron D’Souza can reliably detect, understand and predict the environment around a vehicle. Startups like these are critical to the success of self-driving technology.
www.adasworks.com
**The open-source electric car**
No less a claim than ‘Uniti is coming to save the world’ adorns this ambitious Swedish company’s website. Their vehicle project is largely a hardware integration one, as they move towards a sustainable, efficient, electric city car that is far better-suited to its purpose than today’s options. The team is documenting its technical journey in colourful fashion on its website.
www.teamuniti.com
**The car-bike hybrid**
The brainchild of entrepreneur Danny Kim, the C-1 from Lit Motors takes the best bits of car and motorcycle technology, blending them into a slim, two-wheeled hybrid that is perfect for city use. The fully-electric C-1 can balance itself, even at a standstill. A couple of years out from going to market and ahead of plans to make the C-1 self-driving, Kim says: “The C1 would work perfectly with the concept of ride-sharing, and if you pair this with autonomous driving, you have the perfect city transportation system.”
www.litmotors.com
**The rocket recycler**
Maybe not your typical startup, in the sense that Elon Musk is behind it, SpaceX deserves a mention for its work with bringing rockets safely back to earth — as opposed to letting them drop into the sea. When its Falcon 9 rocket landed safely on a drone ship last year, it may have heralded a game-change for space travel. “This is another step towards the stars,” said Musk afterwards, referring to the enormous cost drop that could result from re-using rockets.
www.spacex.com
*This selection of startups was drawn from the mobility chapter of the latest Pioneers Discover Future Report. You can download this chapter as an ebook free of charge [here](https://pioneers.io/ebook-mobility-01/?utm_campaign=mobility&utm_source=medium.com&utm_medium=blog&utm_term=startups).*
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [This city has Google Maps stumped. Can its own citizens do better?](https://pioneers.io/city-has-google-maps-stumped-can-its-own-citizens-do-better/)
**Published:** December 15, 2016
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
I’d like to invite you to head over to Varanasi with me today. I don’t mean actually going to the most hectic place in India (nobody should go without several days of meditation to prepare) but rather a virtual visit. We’ll travel to the Ganges on Google Maps. Let’s head to [this precise set of co-ordinates](https://www.google.at/maps/place/Monu+Family+Paying+Guest+House+Varanasi/@25.3101032,83.0097858,19z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x7553d74dd7c6cbf0!8m2!3d25.3105009!4d83.0105221) and pop into Monu’s Family Paying Guest House.
Google has an address for the place: D 8/4 Kalika Gali, Near Kashi Vishwanath Temple (Golden Temple), Dashashwamedh, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh 221001.
The address is as good as useless. In fact, Monu’s own website doesn’t even bother with the address. Here’s an extract from their location page:
Yes, we are difficult to find on your own. Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in the world, 4000 years since Vedic times, so it is full of twisty alleyways. Cars, autorickshaws, taxis cannot reach us directly. They drop you far up over there on the road and then you will have to walk 10 minutes from the road in twisty alleyways which is not easy for first comer.
Fantastically old-school directions then follow for the intrepid explorer. It tells you to walk east from the taxi drop-off point, and then start looking for landmarks. You’ll find the guest house (theoretically) via a bakery, a temple, another temple and, finally, a posse of policemen.
Having taken on this adventure myself, I can offer another piece of important advice: don’t wear open shoes. There are plenty of cows stalking around these alleyways. I’ll leave you to make the connection.
Suffice to say that this part of Varanasi is a labyrinth. Not a place to start a career as a postman, that’s for sure.
What I’m getting at is that things on the ground are nowhere near as simple as Google Maps suggests. We had to hand-draw our own maps to help us find our way back to Monu’s every day. At the time — just three years ago, to be precise — it was the most sensible way to navigate.
Whether that’s a bad thing, or a fun travel thing, is an interesting topic. All I’m saying here is that there are places on earth that the big map-makers haven’t quite got to yet. Although HERE WeGo makes a better attempt at the alleyways on my PC, but it’s still patchy. I’m not sure about Apple or TomTom without owning the relevant device, but I have my doubts.
While Varanasi’s alleyways might not technically be classified as streets, there are any number of reasons why it might be useful to map them. Not just for clueless travellers, but for emergency services and deliveries too. And mapping the vehicle-friendly parts of the city will be essential for the arrival of autonomous driving in India: a traffic-choked country whose dangerous roads could benefit more than most from self-driving technology.
But while opportunity awaits for autonomous vehicles in places like India, the critical question of high-detail maps is still unanswered, says Jan Erik Solem, founder of crowd-mapping startup Mapillary.
“If you look at what mapping providers like HERE, TomTom, Google or Apple, and where they have coverage, they all have the same,” Solem told me from his home in Malmo. “Pieces of Europe, the US, mainly East and West Coasts. They might have Brazil and they might have Russia, but somewhere around there it ends.
“There’s a top-down problem for them,” adds the 40-year-old Swede. “They have a fleet of vehicles as their main collection tool for getting map data. And it just doesn’t scale. At some point you have to de-prioritize countries, regions, cities or neighbourhoods, because you can’t cover them all with these vehicles.”
It’s hard to blame the map-makers for this. Anyone who has been to Varanasi would be pretty keen on a spot of de-prioritizing when it comes to maps. A vehicle couldn’t fit inside those alleyways, for one thing. Nor can any such model cope with rapidly-changing neighbourhoods such as those in South Africa’s townships, where dwellings and entirely new streets might spring up on a daily basis.
Naturally enough, the priority instead goes to richer and more developed countries, where detailed navigation functionality is more profitable in the short term. But developing countries need maps as much as America does. And after all, won’t the day come that a lucrative autonomous vehicle market opens up in them? That can’t happen without maps. Could the answer be getting communities involved in their own mapping? Solem certainly thinks so.
“We’re mapping the world with the help of photos, to automatically extract map data. Data that you can use for better navigation, for addressing, for updating roads and their properties. Right now it’s being done through expensive vehicles driving around with expensive equipment, capturing this data, and then it’s being manually edited by humans.
We’re trying to let anyone contribute with whatever image solution they have, then automating the extraction. For most people it’s just download the app, and then take pictures with your phone as you’re walking or biking or driving. Then the rest is automatic.
If you live in an area where roads and infrastructure are poor or non-existent, as in many parts of Africa for example, where you don’t even have roads or you don’t have an addressing system, then this is a way to fix it yourself.”
Mapillary’s concept has been used to map parts of Dar-es-Salaam, Santa Catalina Island in California and also the entire Faroe Islands. Greenland, another place where complete mapping has thus far been ignored by the large map-makers, is now also interested in the crowdmapping tool.
For now, though, visitors to Monu’s will probably need to keep going with the hand-drawn maps. But if the people of that ancient city are willing to jump on the crowdmapping train, then it might not be long before your phone can take you there.
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Trump and Brexit: Lessons from the prediction markets](https://pioneers.io/trump-and-brexit-lessons-prediction-markets/)
**Published:** December 15, 2016
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
It’s that reflective time of year again. And as we get into that retrospective pondering, two 2016 events stand out like blazing beacons: the Brexit referendum and the US election.
In the space of a few weeks the world gasped as a pair of entirely unexpected results — the proverbial ‘black swan’ nobody saw coming — vaulted onto our front pages.
When you chat with Peronet Despeignes, a former Financial Times economics journalist now working with the decentralized, blockchain-based prediction markets startup Augur, you can’t help these two events bounding into your thoughts. Especially when he uses that very piece of avian terminology favoured by philosophers.
While Augur’s novel decentralized model is still in beta, we can only look at what other prediction markets, for example France-based Hypermind, managed on the Trump/Brexit front earlier this year. While they did not deliver Donald or ‘Leave’ as anywhere near favourites, they did do better than traditional polling methods. Despeignes is right behind Hypermind’s two blog posts on that subject, one each for Trump and Brexit.
The exciting question now is whether, with a global and decentralized model such as Augur, the prediction markets will be a lot further ahead of the other forecasts next time we’re on the eve of something so big. With some of the geographical restrictions of current markets eliminated by Augur’s concept, Despeignes believes they can.
“If you think about it, people who are too emotionally close to an event like Brexit or the US election might not be able to look at the details as objectively as a foreigner can. Our hope with Augur is that people in, say, China, can weigh in on these predictions. It’s a level global playing field that allows a wider variety of more people to participate on an equal basis, and that’s likely to make the markets more accurate.
“The wider the pool of people involved and the more variety there is in the type of people participating, the more accurate prediction-market results tend to be.”
Fast-forward to a time when prediction market odds — fueled by a much larger and diversified trading population — are accepted as exactly the kind of outlier you want ahead of a big day like an election. Imagine that on a hypothetical future Brexit vote, these market have ‘Leave’ at a 60% probability, and this gets more widely circulated in the media than it might have been in 2016.
Might the ‘clear and present’ nature of the prediction (by people who have put their money where their mouths are) make voters (who don’t have the same financial incentives to research the matter) sit up and reconsider? If financial markets were already reflecting sharp responses to a strongly anticipated outcome, then a tanking Sterling might well give those voters a last-minute nudge.
“That scenario could create some strange feedback loops,” chuckles Despeignes. “In democratic action people are simply voting, but there’s no immediate financial incentive like there is with prediction markets.”
His message is that the wisdom of a financially incentivized crowd is the best forecasting tool we have. And with blockchain technology making that tool ever more powerful through greater security, transparency, accessibility and user numbers, its power is set to grow.
“The basic rationale is that none of us has a monopoly on the truth, insight, awareness or access to facts about everything,” says Peronet. “We all have bits and pieces and fragments. Markets like this are one of the most effective ways of pooling those fragments of knowledge together.
“If you search Google Scholar for prediction markets, you find one of the closest thing to a consensus in economics. Which is that they’re pretty darn good on average.”
Consensus in economics? If nothing else, that rare phenomenon tells us it must be worth keeping an ever closer eye on prediction markets. And April’s Presidential elections in France might be a very good place to start…
**Peronet Despeignes spoke at Fintech.Pioneers in Berlin on 16–17 in February 2017.**
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Transcending Boundaries](https://pioneers.io/transcending-boundaries/)
**Published:** March 30, 2016
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Satoshi Sugie, CEO of the hardware startup Whill had just won the prestigious Pioneers Challenge award at Pioneers Asia, the first big festival overseas in Asia.
**Content:**
Satoshi Sugie is dripping. Literally. He has just been bathed in Champagne – judging by his face, a reaction he had not anticipated. But Pioneers founders Andreas Tschas and Jürgen Furian were not going to break tradition, just because they were on the other side of the planet. Satoshi Sugie, CEO of the hardware startup Whill had just won the prestigious Pioneers Challenge award at Pioneers Asia, the first big festival overseas in Asia. After Sugie had recovered from his first Champagne shock, he grabbed a bottle of his own and started the rematch, cheered on by an audience of over 1,200 – both live and via livestream.
**Sexy Wheelchairs**
Whill’s win certainly came as a surprise to some. The startup successfully challenged its four opponents in the finals by proving that wheelchairs can be cool and revolutionary: the pharmaceutical research company Molecure, Fintech startup Moneytree, Maintool, dedicated to developing smart straps for watches, and Naio Technologies with their agricultural robot.
According to the Pioneers Asia jury, Whill is “bringing innovation to an unsexy industry." The Japanese startup has developed a modern electric wheelchair with advanced technology built for better usability while being visually more appealing with a lean and smart design. The“personal mobility device” aims to revolutionize a market that has been lagging somewhat behind. While other products from the service industry have long exceeded the level of functionality, the wheelchair has remained basically the same. Whill’s technology is proving that a wheelchair can be a synonym for an active all-terrain lifestyle and will push out of the box that has kept this technology the same.
For Whill the award came at the perfect moment as Sugie plans to expand to Europe after a successful start in Asia and America: “Since this event has a strong connection to Europe, we want to expand the business network in Europe, where we are planning to expand in the future.”
**Disrupting the 90 Seconds Pitch**
As the name suggests the 90 Seconds Pitch allows early stage startups from the Pioneers Asia 250 to present their business ideas to a high-profile jury of investors and industry experts.
Austrian startup and Pioneers Ventures investment Parkbob emerged as one of the winners of the 90 Seconds Pitch because of their recipe for smart parking. Philipp Stangl, Investment Manager of Pioneers Ventures, praises his investment: “We are amazed that one of our portfolio companies was able to convince the high-ranking jury to win at Pioneers Asia and receive a lot of visibility in the region as a result – creating Synergies like this is exactly what Pioneers Ventures is about.”
For the first time in Pioneers history two startups came in first and quasi disrupted the Pioneers contest itself. Parkbob was accompanied by the Swiss startup Swie.
Parkbob’s technology is a combination of real-time parking availability from crowd-sensing applications, comprehensive standardized parking knowledge and geo-information. The solution automatically knows where parking is allowed, at what time and at what cost. Starting from April it will also show free parking spots in real-time.
Swie is an open source collection of PCBs (printed circuit boards) – a component so important that it is part of every single electronic device ever made. The startup’s aim is to support collaboration of hardware designers to inspire and help each other.
Additionally, Whill also grabbed two awards one from the city of Vienna and one from Japanese securities company Nomura. Another Japanese finalist, Molcure, which offers an antibody discovery service, received an award from Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
**Epilogue: Pioneers Asia as We Experienced It**
Unfortunately not everybody from the entire Pioneers team could venture on the 5,668 mile journey to Tokyo. So on Wednesday morning we gathered to watch the grande finale at Pioneers HQ– complete with cheering and applause– and came to a viable conclusion. Fadi Haddad, Head of Partnerships at Pioneers sums up our feelings about the event (something that transcends Vienna and Tokyo):
“Even watching the event on screen in our Vienna office, I felt like we were there with the rest of our team. I expected a slightly more conservative vibe in Tokyo, considering the cultural differences but it just felt like the Pioneers Festival as I know it, even from the distance. This is fantastic news, because it means that wherever we come from, wherever we are – the enthusiasm for the startup and tech scene transcends the boundaries of culture.”
The official part of the event ended at 8pm in Tokyo. For our colleagues it was off to partying; sadly this was where the mutual experience ended. We couldn’t quite justify drinking Champagne at 12 noon. Still, pumped up from cheering and loaded with inspiration, work flowed much easier – even without golden bubbles.
Check out the review from Nikkei, Pioneers Asia’s main partner, about the Whill winning the challenge: [Japan’s ‘Modern Wheelchair’ Wins Pioneers Asia Competition](http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Japan-s-modern-wheelchair-wins-Pioneers-Asia-competition)
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Transcending Boundaries](https://pioneers.io/transcending-boundaries/)
**Published:** March 30, 2016
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Satoshi Sugie, CEO of the hardware startup Whill had just won the prestigious Pioneers Challenge award at Pioneers Asia, the first big festival overseas in Asia.
**Content:**
Satoshi Sugie is dripping. Literally. He has just been bathed in Champagne – judging by his face, a reaction he had not anticipated. But Pioneers founders Andreas Tschas and Jürgen Furian were not going to break tradition, just because they were on the other side of the planet. Satoshi Sugie, CEO of the hardware startup Whill had just won the prestigious Pioneers Challenge award at Pioneers Asia, the first big festival overseas in Asia. After Sugie had recovered from his first Champagne shock, he grabbed a bottle of his own and started the rematch, cheered on by an audience of over 1,200 – both live and via livestream.
**Sexy Wheelchairs**
Whill’s win certainly came as a surprise to some. The startup successfully challenged its four opponents in the finals by proving that wheelchairs can be cool and revolutionary: the pharmaceutical research company Molecure, Fintech startup Moneytree, Maintool, dedicated to developing smart straps for watches, and Naio Technologies with their agricultural robot.
According to the Pioneers Asia jury, Whill is “bringing innovation to an unsexy industry." The Japanese startup has developed a modern electric wheelchair with advanced technology built for better usability while being visually more appealing with a lean and smart design. The“personal mobility device” aims to revolutionize a market that has been lagging somewhat behind. While other products from the service industry have long exceeded the level of functionality, the wheelchair has remained basically the same. Whill’s technology is proving that a wheelchair can be a synonym for an active all-terrain lifestyle and will push out of the box that has kept this technology the same.
For Whill the award came at the perfect moment as Sugie plans to expand to Europe after a successful start in Asia and America: “Since this event has a strong connection to Europe, we want to expand the business network in Europe, where we are planning to expand in the future.”
**Disrupting the 90 Seconds Pitch**
As the name suggests the 90 Seconds Pitch allows early stage startups from the Pioneers Asia 250 to present their business ideas to a high-profile jury of investors and industry experts.
Austrian startup and Pioneers Ventures investment Parkbob emerged as one of the winners of the 90 Seconds Pitch because of their recipe for smart parking. Philipp Stangl, Investment Manager of Pioneers Ventures, praises his investment: “We are amazed that one of our portfolio companies was able to convince the high-ranking jury to win at Pioneers Asia and receive a lot of visibility in the region as a result – creating Synergies like this is exactly what Pioneers Ventures is about.”
For the first time in Pioneers history two startups came in first and quasi disrupted the Pioneers contest itself. Parkbob was accompanied by the Swiss startup Swie.
Parkbob’s technology is a combination of real-time parking availability from crowd-sensing applications, comprehensive standardized parking knowledge and geo-information. The solution automatically knows where parking is allowed, at what time and at what cost. Starting from April it will also show free parking spots in real-time.
Swie is an open source collection of PCBs (printed circuit boards) – a component so important that it is part of every single electronic device ever made. The startup’s aim is to support collaboration of hardware designers to inspire and help each other.
Additionally, Whill also grabbed two awards one from the city of Vienna and one from Japanese securities company Nomura. Another Japanese finalist, Molcure, which offers an antibody discovery service, received an award from Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
**Epilogue: Pioneers Asia as We Experienced It**
Unfortunately not everybody from the entire Pioneers team could venture on the 5,668 mile journey to Tokyo. So on Wednesday morning we gathered to watch the grande finale at Pioneers HQ– complete with cheering and applause– and came to a viable conclusion. Fadi Haddad, Head of Partnerships at Pioneers sums up our feelings about the event (something that transcends Vienna and Tokyo):
“Even watching the event on screen in our Vienna office, I felt like we were there with the rest of our team. I expected a slightly more conservative vibe in Tokyo, considering the cultural differences but it just felt like the Pioneers Festival as I know it, even from the distance. This is fantastic news, because it means that wherever we come from, wherever we are – the enthusiasm for the startup and tech scene transcends the boundaries of culture.”
The official part of the event ended at 8pm in Tokyo. For our colleagues it was off to partying; sadly this was where the mutual experience ended. We couldn’t quite justify drinking Champagne at 12 noon. Still, pumped up from cheering and loaded with inspiration, work flowed much easier – even without golden bubbles.
Check out the review from Nikkei, Pioneers Asia’s main partner, about the Whill winning the challenge: [Japan’s ‘Modern Wheelchair’ Wins Pioneers Asia Competition](http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Japan-s-modern-wheelchair-wins-Pioneers-Asia-competition)
Pioneers
Corporate Innovation Builder [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/pioneers/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Top 10 Workshop Games and Ice-Breakers 2021 – Edition #2](https://pioneers.io/top-10-workshop-games-and-ice-breakers-2021-edition-2/)
**Published:** April 14, 2022
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
Short workshop games, ice-breakers, and energizers are a great way to engage participants and keep up the energy throughout several hours of intense working sessions. Additionally, they bring in fun and laughter which is needed to foster creativity and an open flow of ideas.
As Pioneers we are always on the hunt for short and sweet activities. As many moderators use the same games such as the [Marshmallow Challenge,](https://www.marshmallowchallenge.com/) we have gathered top 10 less known workshop games for you. After part #1 about Energizers [HERE](https://pioneers.io/top-10-workshop-games-edition-1/), we follow up with part 2 – Warm-Up exercises. We hope they also bring engagement and laughter to your workshops.
***Download Top Workshop Games** – Edition #1 and #2 with a detailed description of our favorite 5 energizers and war-up games **[HERE](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/).***
## \#1 The Elephant
**What’s the activity
People need to build an elephant out of a piece of A4 paper in 60 seconds.
**How to do it:** 1. Each workshop participant gets a piece of A4 paper.
2. You explain the activity and put a timer to 1-minute.
3. And goo.
4. After the activity make a debrief where everybody shows their elephant
**Why we love it:**
Building a nice elephant in 60 seconds is impossible. And that’s the purpose of the game. It helps people let go of their perfectionism and critical attitude and build whatever they can with the given time. In innovation development and especially early-stage prototyping and testing, a similar approach should be used. Nice but not perfect products and services act as a perfect way to get fast customer feedback. Use the debrief to explain this and take the attitude into your working session.
**Time:** 10 minutes
## \#2 Lego Fun
**What’s the activity
People build stuff from Lego and talk about their creations.
You can use Lego in multiple activities to engage people in a workshop. For each activity first split people into groups of max 5 (on a table or through a breakout room), then give people 5 minutes to build something in Lego and then present it to the group (1-2 min per person). Here is a list of things to be built depending on the workshop, goal setting and teams:
1. **Get-to-know each other**: Create your favorite hobby; Create what you are proud of in your job / company; Create your secret skill
2. **Inspire team spirit**/ Connect people: Create what is most important for you in team work;
3. **Do a team check-in or retro:** Build something that represents how you feel at the moment; Build your highlight, low-light of the day / month / year regarding this project / team / company
4. Many other things like solving conflicts, building strategy…
**Why we love it:**
Stupid question… Everybody loves lego! And building something physically opens up people for great conversations.
**Time:** 15-20 minutes
## \#3 Creative Assembly Line
**What’s the activity
Make a nice drawing together and get creative as a group.
**How to do it:** Tell people that Assembly Lines are the best example of strong team work. Every person plays a key role and only together the product can be finished perfectly. Today we want to challenge if we can also use the assembly line model for creativity and jointly with the help of each team member create a final creative product.
Separate people into groups of 5 and let them sit around a table each with white A4 paper in front of them. Tell them to follow 5 simple instructions of you to jointly get creative.
1. Draw a form shape, pass it on to the right
2. Make something out of the form (person, object, animal, – be creative), pass it on to the right
3. Add environment to the form (forrest, universe – where could the object be in?), pass it on to the right
4. Add action or drama to the paper, don’t use text, but drawing, pass it on to the right
5. Add text (speech bubble, description)
**Why we love it:**
It provides a great mix of sparking and fostering creativity as well as team spirit. The outcomes will be quite unique and something to talk about for a long time. Additionally, it’s a great starter for a team-intensive workshop.
**Time:** 15 minutes
For warm-up games 4 and 5 download our free pdf Workshop Games Toolkit – Edition #2 **[HERE.](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)**
## Do you like the workshop games and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with our workshop master @Michael Wlaschitz who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
Just send a quick mail to michael.wlaschitz@pioneers.io
**Michael Wlaschitz**
*Senior Venture Designer*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Methods & Tools
---
### [Top 10 Workshop Games and Ice-Breakers 2022](https://pioneers.io/top-10-workshop-games-and-ice-breakers-2022/)
**Published:** September 19, 2022
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
# Top 10 Workshop Games of 2022 – Part #1
Mindsetters, Energizers, and Ice-Breakers are great workshop games to engage your participants. They keep up the energy, make people laugh, and create the right environment to be productive.
First, what’s the difference between the three terms?
## **Mindsetters**
“Mindsetters” are short activities to get people in the zone for a longer working session. Usually, these workshop games come with a purpose and learning to be shared with participants. This learning or insight relates to the next working block and should prime people to act or think in certain, beneficial ways.
## **Ice Breakers**
Compared to workshop games or mind setters, Ice Breakers are usually just short and fun games to break the ice between participants. They help people get to know each other and don’t serve a higher or productivity purpose. We normally use ice breakers in workshops where people don’t know each other well.
## **Energizers**
Energizers are there to reenergize people after long working blocks or after having food. Those activities are there to rise blood circulation, wake people up, or lift their mood. They mostly don’t serve a higher educational purpose or get people to know each other, but are just about moving, jumping, singing, or whatever wakes people up.
Being clear about the terms, let’s go into our Top 10 Workshop Games of 2022 – Part #1. In this part, we look at great Energizers to wake up and reenergize workshop participants.
***Download Top Workshop Games 2022** – Edition #1 with a detailed description of our favorite 6 energizers **[HERE](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/).***
## \#1 Grandma, Tiger, Samurai
**What’s the activity
People play scissor, paper, stone in a new and fun way against each other and support their team mates in the fights.
**How to do it:** 1. Gather all present participants.
2. Explain that we will play a special version of stone, scissor, paper which is called Grandma, Tiger, Samurai. Tiger eats Grandma, Samurai kills Tiger, Grandma scares Samurai because she is his mother.
3. To play the game, people walk around the room and need to find an opponent. They play the game until 2 winning points by saying ‘1,2,3’ and then making the move of either grandma (with a stick), tiger (put hands like claws and roar) or samurai (put hand up with the imaginary sword).
4. The loser goes along with the winner and has to cheer for the winner in the next fight. Then the two losers go with the winner, (so now he has 3 people to cheer him up) and so on until one overall winner is left.
**Why we love it:**
This workshop game creates lots of fun, noise, and cheering. At the end, we will see cool and funny moves and have laughing and energized people ready for the day ahead.
**Time:** 10-15 minutes
## \#2 Helium Stick
**What’s the activity
Teams of participants need to jointly lay down a long stick on the ground while all touching it with their fingers.
1. Gather all present participants and divide them into groups of 5-6 people.
2. Give each team a stick (e.g. bambus, PV pipe, broom, anything straight around 2-3m long and light).
3. Explain the game: All team members need to put their hands and index finger under the stick (see picture) and the team needs to lower the stick to the ground while everybody has to always touch the stick with both fingers all the time.
**Why we love it:**
This game makes people move but also work as a team. The challenge sounds super simple but is surprisingly hard as the bar will always move to the top rather then to the bottom. So laughing is guaranteed. In the download, you will find the solution on how to do it best.
**Time:** 10-15 minutes
## \#3 Diamond Dance
**What’s the activity
People need to copy each others’ dance moves and the best moves go to the finals.
**How to do it:** 1. Divide all participants into groups of around 7-10 people. Let those 7-10 stand in a circle.
2. Turn on the music. One person starts to make a dance move (literally anything) and all others need to copy it.
3. Do this until everybody in the circle has done 1 dance move.
4. Have the group select the coolest, most fun dance move and go to a battle with the other circle(s).
5. All participants then form a huge circle. Turn on the music and have the representatives do their circles’ best moves. Again everybody needs to do the move as well.
6. After all “best moves” have been performed, have a NOISE voting for the best dance move and circle going one by one. The move and circle with the loudest NOISE (voting) wins.
**Why we love it:**
Amazing game to energize people and have fun together. For sure, it brings many people not used to dancing out of their comfort zone, but the goal is not to be the best dancer but to make any move. Many times, the “uncoolest” moves become the best!
**Time:** 10-15 minutes, plan at least 5 songs in advance.
For warm-up games 4 and 5 download our free pdf Workshop Games Toolkit – Edition #2 **[HERE.](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)**
## Do you like the workshop games and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with our workshop master @Michael Wlaschitz who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
Just send a quick mail to michael.wlaschitz@pioneers.io
**Michael Wlaschitz**
*Senior Venture Designer*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Methods & Tools
---
### [Top 10 Workshop Games and Ice-Breakers 2022](https://pioneers.io/top-10-workshop-games-and-ice-breakers-2022/)
**Published:** September 19, 2022
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
# Top 10 Workshop Games of 2022 – Part #1
Mindsetters, Energizers, and Ice-Breakers are great workshop games to engage your participants. They keep up the energy, make people laugh, and create the right environment to be productive.
First, what’s the difference between the three terms?
## **Mindsetters**
“Mindsetters” are short activities to get people in the zone for a longer working session. Usually, these workshop games come with a purpose and learning to be shared with participants. This learning or insight relates to the next working block and should prime people to act or think in certain, beneficial ways.
## **Ice Breakers**
Compared to workshop games or mind setters, Ice Breakers are usually just short and fun games to break the ice between participants. They help people get to know each other and don’t serve a higher or productivity purpose. We normally use ice breakers in workshops where people don’t know each other well.
## **Energizers**
Energizers are there to reenergize people after long working blocks or after having food. Those activities are there to rise blood circulation, wake people up, or lift their mood. They mostly don’t serve a higher educational purpose or get people to know each other, but are just about moving, jumping, singing, or whatever wakes people up.
Being clear about the terms, let’s go into our Top 10 Workshop Games of 2022 – Part #1. In this part, we look at great Energizers to wake up and reenergize workshop participants.
***Download Top Workshop Games 2022** – Edition #1 with a detailed description of our favorite 6 energizers **[HERE](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/).***
## \#1 Grandma, Tiger, Samurai
**What’s the activity
People play scissor, paper, stone in a new and fun way against each other and support their team mates in the fights.
**How to do it:** 1. Gather all present participants.
2. Explain that we will play a special version of stone, scissor, paper which is called Grandma, Tiger, Samurai. Tiger eats Grandma, Samurai kills Tiger, Grandma scares Samurai because she is his mother.
3. To play the game, people walk around the room and need to find an opponent. They play the game until 2 winning points by saying ‘1,2,3’ and then making the move of either grandma (with a stick), tiger (put hands like claws and roar) or samurai (put hand up with the imaginary sword).
4. The loser goes along with the winner and has to cheer for the winner in the next fight. Then the two losers go with the winner, (so now he has 3 people to cheer him up) and so on until one overall winner is left.
**Why we love it:**
This workshop game creates lots of fun, noise, and cheering. At the end, we will see cool and funny moves and have laughing and energized people ready for the day ahead.
**Time:** 10-15 minutes
## \#2 Helium Stick
**What’s the activity
Teams of participants need to jointly lay down a long stick on the ground while all touching it with their fingers.
1. Gather all present participants and divide them into groups of 5-6 people.
2. Give each team a stick (e.g. bambus, PV pipe, broom, anything straight around 2-3m long and light).
3. Explain the game: All team members need to put their hands and index finger under the stick (see picture) and the team needs to lower the stick to the ground while everybody has to always touch the stick with both fingers all the time.
**Why we love it:**
This game makes people move but also work as a team. The challenge sounds super simple but is surprisingly hard as the bar will always move to the top rather then to the bottom. So laughing is guaranteed. In the download, you will find the solution on how to do it best.
**Time:** 10-15 minutes
## \#3 Diamond Dance
**What’s the activity
People need to copy each others’ dance moves and the best moves go to the finals.
**How to do it:** 1. Divide all participants into groups of around 7-10 people. Let those 7-10 stand in a circle.
2. Turn on the music. One person starts to make a dance move (literally anything) and all others need to copy it.
3. Do this until everybody in the circle has done 1 dance move.
4. Have the group select the coolest, most fun dance move and go to a battle with the other circle(s).
5. All participants then form a huge circle. Turn on the music and have the representatives do their circles’ best moves. Again everybody needs to do the move as well.
6. After all “best moves” have been performed, have a NOISE voting for the best dance move and circle going one by one. The move and circle with the loudest NOISE (voting) wins.
**Why we love it:**
Amazing game to energize people and have fun together. For sure, it brings many people not used to dancing out of their comfort zone, but the goal is not to be the best dancer but to make any move. Many times, the “uncoolest” moves become the best!
**Time:** 10-15 minutes, plan at least 5 songs in advance.
For warm-up games 4 and 5 download our free pdf Workshop Games Toolkit – Edition #2 **[HERE.](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)**
## Do you like the workshop games and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with our workshop master @Michael Wlaschitz who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
Just send a quick mail to michael.wlaschitz@pioneers.io
**Michael Wlaschitz**
*Senior Venture Designer*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Methods & Tools
---
### [Top 10 Workshop Games and Ice-Breakers 2022](https://pioneers.io/top-10-workshop-games-and-ice-breakers-2022/)
**Published:** September 19, 2022
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
# Top 10 Workshop Games of 2022 – Part #1
Mindsetters, Energizers, and Ice-Breakers are great workshop games to engage your participants. They keep up the energy, make people laugh, and create the right environment to be productive.
First, what’s the difference between the three terms?
## **Mindsetters**
“Mindsetters” are short activities to get people in the zone for a longer working session. Usually, these workshop games come with a purpose and learning to be shared with participants. This learning or insight relates to the next working block and should prime people to act or think in certain, beneficial ways.
## **Ice Breakers**
Compared to workshop games or mind setters, Ice Breakers are usually just short and fun games to break the ice between participants. They help people get to know each other and don’t serve a higher or productivity purpose. We normally use ice breakers in workshops where people don’t know each other well.
## **Energizers**
Energizers are there to reenergize people after long working blocks or after having food. Those activities are there to rise blood circulation, wake people up, or lift their mood. They mostly don’t serve a higher educational purpose or get people to know each other, but are just about moving, jumping, singing, or whatever wakes people up.
Being clear about the terms, let’s go into our Top 10 Workshop Games of 2022 – Part #1. In this part, we look at great Energizers to wake up and reenergize workshop participants.
***Download Top Workshop Games 2022** – Edition #1 with a detailed description of our favorite 6 energizers **[HERE](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/).***
## \#1 Grandma, Tiger, Samurai
**What’s the activity
People play scissor, paper, stone in a new and fun way against each other and support their team mates in the fights.
**How to do it:** 1. Gather all present participants.
2. Explain that we will play a special version of stone, scissor, paper which is called Grandma, Tiger, Samurai. Tiger eats Grandma, Samurai kills Tiger, Grandma scares Samurai because she is his mother.
3. To play the game, people walk around the room and need to find an opponent. They play the game until 2 winning points by saying ‘1,2,3’ and then making the move of either grandma (with a stick), tiger (put hands like claws and roar) or samurai (put hand up with the imaginary sword).
4. The loser goes along with the winner and has to cheer for the winner in the next fight. Then the two losers go with the winner, (so now he has 3 people to cheer him up) and so on until one overall winner is left.
**Why we love it:**
This workshop game creates lots of fun, noise, and cheering. At the end, we will see cool and funny moves and have laughing and energized people ready for the day ahead.
**Time:** 10-15 minutes
## \#2 Helium Stick
**What’s the activity
Teams of participants need to jointly lay down a long stick on the ground while all touching it with their fingers.
1. Gather all present participants and divide them into groups of 5-6 people.
2. Give each team a stick (e.g. bambus, PV pipe, broom, anything straight around 2-3m long and light).
3. Explain the game: All team members need to put their hands and index finger under the stick (see picture) and the team needs to lower the stick to the ground while everybody has to always touch the stick with both fingers all the time.
**Why we love it:**
This game makes people move but also work as a team. The challenge sounds super simple but is surprisingly hard as the bar will always move to the top rather then to the bottom. So laughing is guaranteed. In the download, you will find the solution on how to do it best.
**Time:** 10-15 minutes
## \#3 Diamond Dance
**What’s the activity
People need to copy each others’ dance moves and the best moves go to the finals.
**How to do it:** 1. Divide all participants into groups of around 7-10 people. Let those 7-10 stand in a circle.
2. Turn on the music. One person starts to make a dance move (literally anything) and all others need to copy it.
3. Do this until everybody in the circle has done 1 dance move.
4. Have the group select the coolest, most fun dance move and go to a battle with the other circle(s).
5. All participants then form a huge circle. Turn on the music and have the representatives do their circles’ best moves. Again everybody needs to do the move as well.
6. After all “best moves” have been performed, have a NOISE voting for the best dance move and circle going one by one. The move and circle with the loudest NOISE (voting) wins.
**Why we love it:**
Amazing game to energize people and have fun together. For sure, it brings many people not used to dancing out of their comfort zone, but the goal is not to be the best dancer but to make any move. Many times, the “uncoolest” moves become the best!
**Time:** 10-15 minutes, plan at least 5 songs in advance.
For warm-up games 4 and 5 download our free pdf Workshop Games Toolkit – Edition #2 **[HERE.](https://pioneers.io/resources/downloads/)**
## Do you like the workshop games and want to know more about the Pioneers corporate innovation services?
Book a short intro call with our workshop master @Michael Wlaschitz who will introduce you to the Pioneers offerings.
Just send a quick mail to michael.wlaschitz@pioneers.io
**Michael Wlaschitz**
*Senior Venture Designer*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Methods & Tools
---
### [A design sprint can't be run remotely: 10 tips to make the impossible work](https://pioneers.io/remote-design-sprint/)
**Published:** September 3, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** A design sprint is nurtured by direct interaction of people - now full-day on-site sessions with teams of 6+ people seem to be impossible which makes design sprints an ideation and product validation method we could only dream of, right?
Not even close!
**Content:**
Design sprints have gained a lot of traction and refinement as a design process during the last few years. It is possible to do a one-day design sprint or an equally daunting 5-day sprint that cycles through ideation, prototyping, and testing. No matter the length, all design sprints require a lot of preparation and strict deadlines for execution. Design sprints were formulated at Google Ventures and led to product improvements and many innovations. However, design sprints were never envisioned to occur remotely as they are a time-constrained framework that can be difficult to manage even with the right ingredients. This difficulty is compounded even more when doing a remote design sprint, especially during the current Covid-19 global pandemic.
No worries, we at Pioneers, with our experience offer 10 tips in running successful remote design sprints:
#### 1. Be proficient with collaboration tools
Whether you are using Miro or Mural – the top two collaboration tools – become proficient in using them. This means more than just knowing the basic functionality of such tools. Learn them inside out by doing internal projects and the proficiency that will be gained will be very useful in guiding participants and solving any problems that may arise during the design sprint.
#### 2. Templates are kings
Learn to use templates already found in collaboration tools like Miro and adapt them accordingly for your sprint. This saves you time and helps give a clear order for workshop materials to be prepared for the design sprint.
#### 3. Preparation becomes even more important with remote design sprints
With participants joining sometimes from different time zones and different levels of English, it is crucial to have the design sprint materials and exercises prepared fully for each day in advance. Here, there is simply no room for last-minute big adjustments. Nevertheless, a quick check-in with the organizing team after every day of the sprint will give the required flexibility to overcome any challenge that may present itself during the sprint.
#### 4. Pre-kickoff meeting to onboard participants
It is hard to stress how vital it is to onboard participants with all remote tools – for example, Miro and Microsoft Teams – a few days in advance. There should be no exceptions to this and all participants must attend this onboardings session to ensure a smooth kickoff of the actual remote design sprint.
#### 5. No devices. Seriously
We all love our gadgets and nothing more than our phones. This might be counterintuitive but participants need to disconnect from other pending tasks for the duration of the remote design sprint, including checking their devices and the consequent state of distractions that comes with it.
#### 6. Names matter
As all participants might not know each other well and with the current crises, joining from different time zones, it is very important to put names of each participant on the online collaboration canvas. This helps speed up group activities and makes a daily review of the sprint easy for the facilitators. Additionally, it creates a more personal atmosphere which increases the participants’ level of engagement and sparks creativity.
#### 7. Discuss and go through the sprint plan in advance with key stakeholders
This includes going through the daily agenda for each day, canvases and expected outcomes for each activity with key stakeholders who are not necessarily participants.
#### 8. Involve all participants
The best design sprints are those where all participants (we recommend 6-8 participants) not only contribute during group activities but actively participate in all discussions no matter what level or department they come from. It is easy in remote design sprints for senior executives to take over the discussion and influence the voting, especially during the sketching phase. Involving everyone is a sure bet to unleash as much creativity as possible and the results sometimes even astonish the participants themselves. Another example is that some participants are not very verbal but are most visual communicators – thus, during sketching these participants should be encouraged to express their ideas as much as possible.
#### 9. Validate ideas with remote users with a set of fixed questions
As the participants are remote, so are the usersneeded to validatef the remote design sprint prototype. Arrange all interviews already while preparing for the sprint week and put them in a clear schedule. Divide the team into two groups – one asks questions and the other participants record into predefined categories. A useful tip is to have a set of fixed questions to make these interviews as smooth as possible.
#### 10. Always have a backup
It is hard enough to stress that all activities should be backed up daily during the remote design sprint. It is best to have a local backup along with one on the cloud.
#### What are you waiting for?
As the current global pandemic may have changed in many ways the way we will work going forward, it has also made it possible for new forms of collaboration such as remote design sprints to take off. Nothing is impossible!
---
If you are interested in running an effective remote design sprint, contact us at
[Read more about how to master an open innovation program remotely](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/running-remote-open-innovation-program)
Feature photo credit: Floris Heuer
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Methods & Tools
---
### [How Vattenfall worked together with 3 startups to create an AI-based heating solution](https://pioneers.io/how-vattenfall-worked-together-3-startups-create-ai-based-heating-solution/)
**Published:** November 18, 2020
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Excerpt:** Vattenfall, one of the largest Energy providers in Europe, is driving innovation with startups through several vehicles. Learn how they support internal units to collaborate with external startups and got to a successful PoC together with a conglomerate of three startups from Sweden and Turkey to create an AI steered district heating system.
**Content:**
Vattenfall, one of the largest Energy providers in Europe, is driving innovation with startups through several vehicles. green:field, a team of startup enthusiasts, is one of these vehicles and it supports internal units to drive innovation through collaboration with external startups. Last year we worked with the team to support the Heat Area in the search for smart, digital solutions for its B2B and B2C energy customers. Here is how we got to the result of a successful PoC with a conglomerate of three startups from Sweden and Turkey as well as the creation of an AI steered district heating system.
### 1. Define the problem and screen the market for solutions
As a first step, in an internal expert workshop, the use case and problem were defined, namely customers lacking knowledge about how to reduce their energy costs while at the same time reaching their temperature goals. Based on that, Pioneers used its database and network to screen for the most innovative startup solutions in whole Europe and after a feedback round with the Vattenfall team compiled the short list of potential target partners.
### 2. Remote calls & on-site meetings
The best companies were invited first for quick discovery calls and consequently for on-site meetings to discuss their solutions with a larger circle of Vattenfall experts analyzing how the solution could fit with Vattenfall customers and internal capabilities.
### 3. Putting together the puzzle
Already during the remote calls, there is not yet any complete solution to the problem but that several puzzle pieces – hardware for energy consumption measurement, software for energy customer interaction and ML/AI technology for providing customers with individual consumption recommendations – need to be combined to provide a valuable solution. Therefore, the three startups QuantCo (Data/AI expert), Eliq (customer engagement software for energy suppliers) and Nuvia Smart Energy Technologies (Intelligent sensors for home) were invited to jointly define the right product for Vattenfall customers.
### 4. 2-days Product and PoC Definition Workshop
Following the selection, we had a two-days intense workshop with participants from different departments of Vattenfall and representatives of the 3 startups to jointly define a first MVP, pilot roadmap as well as to be tested hypotheses. Gustavsberg in Stockholm was chosen as a test site and on-site staff chosen to support in the technical setup.
### 5. PoC / Pilot
In a 6 months pilot, the three startups implemented a solution that allowed tenants in several buildings in Gustavsberg to control individual temperatures using a smartphone app and AI based recommendations. While Eliq provided the app, Nuvia installed sensors in different places in the building to provide QuantCo data to be analyzed and then used for suggesting user actions to achieve heating goals while reducing consumption. What a match of competences here!
### 6. Results and next steps
Vattenfall’s digitisation project in Gustavsberg shows lower costs, reduced carbon footprint and more satisfied customers. The pilot project in Gustavsberg is now entering its next phase, in which the broader market interest is to be tested and evaluated.
#### We are super happy for the team to have achieved such great results in just under a year from use case definition to a successful PoC and already eager to find out how this story of one corporate working with 3 startups continues in the future.
---
If you are interested to learn more about the case study, in working with startups on your own or need support in the setup, scouting, PoC or roll-out of long-term collaboration, hit us up at or
[Read more about the PoC results from Vattenfall news](https://group.vattenfall.com/press-and-media/newsroom/2020/ai-steered-district-heating---a-success-in-gustavsberg)
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Corporate Innovation Insights, Pioneers Case Study
---
### [Pioneers Challenge Winner 2011 closes $4.8M Funding Round!](https://pioneers.io/mysugr-pioneers-challenge-winner-2011-raising-4-8m-funding/)
**Published:** March 16, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
400 million people are suffering from diabetes worldwide and it is estimated that this number is going to increase rapidly within the next years. We spoke to its founder Fredrik Debong…
**What problem is mySugr solving?**
Our mission is to change the philosophy of our therapy, to make it suck less. We make life with the disease less of a negative burden, making the right choice, and sticking with therapy easier.
There are more people being diagnosed with diabetes all the time, which to be honest sucks. We hope that this changes, but I do not see that happening.
Many of us can do nothing about our diagnosis, so we simply have to get on with life, with our new chronic companion. It’s all about keeping at it, and this is our focus.
**You guys just closed a 4.8 million (USD) funding round, amazing! What’s going to happen next?**
Thank you so much! Simple: scale.
We have made diabetes suck less for 230,000 people.
We currently have made diabetes suck less for 230,000 people. Which is nice. We intend to add a zero to that in the next few years. And considering that there are almost 400 million people suffering from diabetes… we still have a long ride ahead of us.
**Besides going international you are also broadening your product range. What can we expect?**
Smartness, style and adaptability. Help with more complex parts of the therapy, as well as with the education!
The future of health tech, is integrated, to some extent open and smart. We believe that software needs to melt into the background but keep the data useful in day to day life with a chronic disease. Let us see if we can take this game into that field.
**About 4 years ago you were the first winners of the Startup Challenge at Pioneers Festival. How did that help you in the early days?**
Oh that was a magical experience, and brought us all over the world! It helped us get the message out and landed us in so many interesting discussions with potential investors, partners, and friends! A boost like winning at Pioneers is like TNT in your startup – and without it things would most likely have moved slower than they did.
**From what you’ve learned along the way, what would be the single most important advice you’d give early stage startups?**
To startups, or to founders?
Founders – life is amazing, and business to an entrepreneur is more than just a job. See to it that you invest yourself in something amazing, worthwhile and not just do it for the money. Stay humble, focused on the problem and open for change – you’ll need it.
Startups – customers first, team second, supporters third, money fourth. Simple, right? Your life as a company is only as valuable as the people who drive it – money and profit is that which is left over when creating value for your people.
Team – do not look at CV’s. They suck. Hire people who believe in the vision and have the right personality fit. Hopefully they have the basics of what you need, the rest can be learnt.
Leadership – you can lead on several levels. Personality, vision, money, structure. Vision breeds culture, money breeds poison, personality breeds hubris and structure stifles innovation.
**I guess we’ll see you guys at Pioneers Festival 2015 in May? Why is it a must go for you?**
Imagine a place on earth, where the smartest and most engaged people come together – the people who wish to change things, and not just the normal startup junkies.
Imagine a place where the smartest and most engaged people come together. Pioneers goes beyond the startup event concept of bringing in just anyone, it is not focused on the next social app with cute cuddly toys, but on those that focus on higher stakes – in making those famous dents.
Every startup has a story. The participants in each chapter are those that create the personality of the story – their interactions and relationships create the magic. Years down the line, what will yours contain? Which emotions will it bring to life? At Pioneers your story enters one of those epic chapters, one of those where suddenly the Cheshire Cat, Peter Pan and Gandalf enter the story – you are surrounded by epic beings and ideas, all the time. That is why we go.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Building Our Tomorrow Land](https://pioneers.io/building-our-tomorrow-land/)
**Published:** November 11, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** There are so many problems out there that we are concerned about every day. But what if you had the power to change the world for the better?
**Content:**
Today, on Tuesday, November 10, 2015, I shared this with our Pioneers community. I decided to publish it as it also discusses the meaningfulness of ever-growing startup events, gives insights on how we run Pioneers and last but not least could be helpful to startups that share our vision and want to change the world for the better.
There are so many problems out there that we are concerned about every day. But what if you had the power to change the world for the better?
This is what we asked ourselves when we tried to establish Pioneers six years ago. Back in 2009 we had started Pioneers with a budget of 200 bucks and a 40-participant event. It has been a long and windy road to become an international relationship builder in the startup world. We learned a lot. Most importantly we never forgot where we came from and why we started this. Our mission to support startups to pioneer and enable them to change the world was always deep in our hearts in all we did.
Juergen and I – along with our team at Pioneers – share a vision that technology and entrepreneurship could not only shape our own future but that of the world around us. A lot of innovation was – and obviously still is – driven by exciting startups like Ekso Bionics, Aeromobil, Rimac Automobili, Unlimited Tomorrow, Bellabeat, and Viv.
We had made it our mission to find the most outstanding, innovative entrepreneurs at a very early stage and then support the heck out of them until they succeeded! We are creating ecosystems between investors, corporates, and startups in Materials & Manufacturing, Financial Services, Mobility & Transportation, Business & Productivity, Life Sciences & Agriculture, Energy & Utilities as well as Lifestyle & Entertainment.
By far the most important value that we have delivered to date is to connect the right people and enable relationships that matter. Now we want to build what worked.
Today, we want to take this whole thing one step further. The goal is to provide an infrastructure, tools, and services so that you guys can build business relationships that matter and we can increase the success rate of the startups we support.
### In fact we can only achieve that goal if we grow in the overall quality of relationships that we help to establish and when everyone contributes to the community.
As our first step towards that goal, we will run an “**invite-application policy**” for our community that will ensure not only a diverse mix of professions, backgrounds, and creativity, but also a high level of overall quality.
This is why we are introducing the “[Pioneers500](https://pioneers.io/festival2016/pioneers500/)” program, what will be a juried selection of the 500 most promising early-stage companies of the year. However, we are not going to identify these startups on our own – the selection of the Pioneers500 will be done in collaboration with pioneers that we met along our journey:
The likes of Techstars, 500 Startups, Seedcamp, and Accel Partners, Index Ventures, IndieBio, together with media partners from Wired and Forbes, as well as industry experts like Adam Cheyer (Co-founder Siri and Viv), Chris Barton (Co-founder Shazam) or Daniel Kraft (Singularity University) will help us identify the best 500 startups each year.
We provide two team members of each of the 500 startups access to the Pioneers Festival, and the chance to earn additional mentoring, and training, as well as to connect with investors, tech corporates, and media and ultimately become ‘Pioneer of the Year’.
We made it our mission to support outstanding, innovative early-stage entrepreneurs on their road to success. With the Pioneers500 we are going to take responsibility and help change the world for the better.
Andreas
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [From a face in the crowd to leader of the pack](https://pioneers.io/face-crowd-leader-pack/)
**Published:** April 4, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** How Europe’s most disruptive bank seized its moment
**Content:**
When Valentin went to his first **Pioneers Festival** with his co-founder in 2013, he was just a kid with a good idea — an app for teenagers to manage their allowance money. Like other early-stage startup founders in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace that day, the 27-year-old was excited to be among an elite selection of tech startups planning to shape — or already shaping — the future.
He mingled with the excited crowd about to witness some of the most life-changing, forward-looking ideas being presented by some of the most renowned names in technology. Between the presentations, he was meeting with corporate executives, investors and international media — all looking for inspiration and to be a part of The Next. Big. Thing.
Did Valentin know at that moment, he would soon be shaking hands with an angel investor who would offer his early-stage startup crucial funding? Could he have known then that his app idea would soon evolve into a successful FinTech company that’s now poised to shake up Europe’s mainstream banking sector?
Maybe not. But the odds are good that since growing into a business with more than 300,000 users in 17 European countries, $57 million in investment, and 140 employees processing over 1,900 transactions per hour, N26’s co-founders Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal have thought of what might have happened if they hadn’t attended the festival that year — an experience that helped determine the future of their company.
“As a young founder this was the perfect place to meet truly everyone you need to know in the startup scene,” says Stalf. “We connected with other founders, exchanged experiences, met business angels and key influencers. This network is still in place today and has remained important over the years. We have strived to go to the Festival every year since.”
A few minutes of your time is all you need to access to the same chances N26 had back in 2013. Will you match their level of success? You might, but you’re guaranteed to be enriched, energized and enthused at Pioneers Festival 2017! Can you afford not to spend 15 minutes [applying for Pioneers500](https://pioneers.io/festival2017/pioneers500/)? Make sure your company joins that select group of startups invited to attend Pioneers Festival, for free!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Universal Basic Income — Is It Time?](https://pioneers.io/universal-basic-income-it-time/)
**Published:** March 8, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
50% unemployment. Millions jobless. These are the kinds of alarming numbers we keep hearing. And given the ongoing rise of work-stealing robots, that’s no real surprise.
Some say the world of work will undergo a major transformation over the coming decades, but in reality this has already begun: many in academia find themselves earning a lower salary than that of a blue collar worker. Automation of work doesn’t just affect manual workers, as often claimed, but also the highly educated. This growing fear of underemployment — or even unemployment — has brought the idea of a Universal Basic Income back into fashion.
A UBI is a sum of money handed out to everyone, irrespective of income, age, profession or employment status. A revised welfare system conceived to save us from the AI’s robotic whip, it’s meant to be sufficient to cover basic necessities and prevent material poverty.
**The momentum is building**
A recent study conducted by the firm McKinsey & Company found that current technologies could already lead to the automation of 45% of our jobs, and that a dramatic 60% of those occupations could see more than 30% of their complementary activities automated. Shocking enough as this is, we must come to realise that as our level of our technology increases, so will these numbers.
One of the first trials of a UBI-style program (dubbed ‘mincome’) took place in 1974 in Dauphin, Canada. Against the backdrop of the 1970s recession, 1,300 Dauphin residents began receiving monthly payments with no strings attached.
Unfortunately the program’s C$17m budget ran flat and the project ended in 1977. Nevertheless, it managed to prove that fears of UBI acting as a disincentive to work were unfounded. It also showed people would wait longer for a better job instead of taking the first one they were offered. Similarly, teenagers would remain in school rather than having to drop out to work, allowing them to complete their education and pursue a better long-term career.
Fast forward to 2017, and Canada will be conducting a C$25m pilot project in Ontario this year. Hopes are high that round two will produce more conclusive results.
Following Canada’s lead, several Dutch provinces have kicked off trials this year, as has the Finnish government. In Finland, 2000 randomly selected citizens will receive €560 of tax-free money each month for the next two years. There’s also been speculation that India may try a similar project, following the country’s 2016–17 Economic Survey, in which the UBI was described as a ‘powerful idea’.
Last but not least, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar are the latest tech gurus to get behind UBI. Omidyar has put $493,000 into funding a UBI program in Kenya. So there’s no doubt that UBI is gaining traction all around the world.
**Too good to be true?**
One of the biggest concerns regarding UBI is always around who will pay for it, and who should be eligible. Besides, will there be any jobs at all? But there are solutions being offered to these potential issues.
The co-founder of Novara Media, Aaron Bastani, believes that most jobs will be automated, although there will still be some left, such as quality control and optimising agricultural robots and 3D-Printers. He believes that this will be done in an open, decentralised fashion, just like Wikipedia.
The chief economist of the Bank of England, Andy Haldane, has predicted AI could cause 15m UK job losses over the next 20 years. Who will pump money into the system if the robots are doing all the work? Well, just because they’re robots doesn’t mean that they won’t have to pay taxes, says French radical socialist party candidate Benoit Hamon.
Another question is who exactly will be eligible. Does ‘everyone’ really mean everyone? Countries with strong social welfare systems create huge pull factors for migrants. In Austria for example, a total of 37,500 refugees were granted asylum last year. Should they all be eligible, and should convicts serving prison sentences all receive payments too?
By dishing out a UBI to every citizen, the government would make huge savings in terms of administration. These savings help finance the UBI itself. Clearly imposing restrictions would increase red tape, add to administrative costs and stir up social resentment. And besides, it wouldn’t exactly be ‘universal’ then, would it?!
**Broader Implementation**
In the long run, the UBI should be for an entire nation. However, the most realistic way to introduce it would be a step by step, region by region approach, even if that could cause social and political tensions.
Let’s take Spain as an example. If the region of Catalonia was to implement a UBI, a lot of that money would come from the central government. This could create resentment in other regions because parts of their tax money would be used towards Catalonia’s UBI. To overcome this problem, regional governments would have to muster most of their UBI expenses from their own treasury.
**Social Issues**
A frequent challenge to UBI is that it removes the sense of purpose that comes from a job. Arthur C. Brooks, an expert in the fields of social science and happiness, says that work is a fundamental factor in creating happiness, stating that this is the reason why the majority of unemployed people lack a sense of purpose.
Moreover, a UBI is likely to increase existing resentments. The decline of work is asymmetric, and a costly policy designed to accommodate the decline of work is likely to generate more resentment from those who work toward those who don’t, especially from the upper classes. UBI could lead to a society built upon jealousy and resentment.
**Conclusion**
Some people perceive UBI as a kind of ‘luxury communism’. In other words, the economic stability provided by the system could end up acting as a disincentive to work and education. They feel these people may find themselves caught up in a vicious cycle of economic inactivity and illiteracy.
Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen, with whose government we’re always working closely on UBI and other issues, doesn’t subscribe to that idea. “Family, music, literature and community work would no longer be costly hobbies or side jobs, but instead be at the centre of some people’s occupation,” he says.
While there’s no easy answer to this complex question, I agree with van der Bellen. I believe that a UBI would smooth out the transition to the so-called ‘4th industrial revolution’. It would act as a compliment to work — not a substitute. People would be able to enjoy a sense of political and economic security whilst being able to make better choices for themselves and, most importantly, have the time to do what their hearts desire.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Plenty Ventured and Plenty Gained in 2016!](https://pioneers.io/plenty-ventured-and-plenty-gained-2016/)
**Published:** December 23, 2016
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
As the Pioneers business unit dedicated to identifying and investing in the most promising tech startups out there, we’re always happy when we see one of the companies we’ve picked out early in their lifecycle raise follow-on funding rounds from corporate and financial investors, or when they pick up awards. And our startups have had plenty to celebrate in this regard over the past 12 months.
As for awards, Parkbob was honoured at Pioneers Asia in Tokyo, Timeular was named Austrian Startup of the Year and both Byrd and ThingThing were successful at the Pioneers Festival, being finalists in the Post Startup Challenge and the Pioneers 500 Challenge respectively. ThingThing even launched a new feature on the big stage at Pioneers Festival
**Activities**
At our own Pioneers Festival in Vienna in May, our portfolio of startups had the chance to network in our novel ‘dealmaker bar’ booth. There they met with a steady stream of investors, corporates and media — not to mention the Prime Minister of Austria! They also enjoyed a networking breakfast and a reception with our partners at Speedinvest.
Then there was the Pioneers Ventures Portfolio Retreat, which we hosted the day before Pioneers Festival. Pioneers co-founder Andreas Tschas was on hand to welcome the young companies to the family, after which they listened to some terrific speakers. Packpin.com co-founder Vytis Radvila gave a ‘How to Manage Developers’ talk, while our own Fadi Haddad delivered insights on ‘How to Build a Scalable Sales Machine’. The startups also enjoyed a fireside chat with Buffer founder Leo Widrich, followed by a wine or three in the magnificent surroundings of the vineyards just outside Vienna.
**Silicon Valley trip**
We do a lot of hands-on work with the startups in which we believe, for example when we took seven of our portfolio firms to Silicon Valley for an immersive two-week trip to the U.S. innovation hotbed. The tour in September included ‘friendly pitching’ and feedback sessions with top-tier VC’s like NEA and Binary Capital, as well as with accelerators of similar status, such as YCombinator and 500startups.
Other highlights of the American trip included, besides others, an amazing private dinner with Andrew Chen, Head of Growth at Uber, two productive days at TechCrunch Disrupt, a meeting with Fitbit designer Gadi Amit and an insightful session with Eric Migicovski, who founded Pebble on the back of one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns ever seen. This last encounter was especially valuable to our portfolio company Timeular, as their CEO Manuel Bruschi recalls:
“Both Eric and Gadi spent time with us and gave us valuable feedback on our product and helpful inputs for our crowdfunding campaign”.
They went on to raise more than 300.000 EUR on Kickstarter a couple of weeks later.
We do a lot of hands-on work with the startups in which we believe, for example when we took seven of our portfolio firms to Silicon Valley for an immersive two-week trip to the U.S. innovation hotbed. The tour in September included ‘friendly pitching’ and feedback sessions with top-tier VC’s like NEA and Binary Capital, as well as with accelerators of similar status, such as YCombinator and 500startups.
Other highlights of the American trip included, besides others, an amazing private dinner with Andrew Chen, Head of Growth at Uber, two productive days at TechCrunch Disrupt, a meeting with Fitbit designer Gadi Amit and an insightful session with Eric Migicovski, who founded Pebble on the back of one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns ever seen. This last encounter was especially valuable to our portfolio company Timeular, as their CEO Manuel Bruschi recalls:
“Both Eric and Gadi spent time with us and gave us valuable feedback on our product and helpful inputs for our crowdfunding campaign”.
They went on to raise more than 300.000 EUR on Kickstarter a couple of weeks later.
The last words go to Parkbob CEO Christian Adelsberger, who we asked to review his year with us:
“Parkbob has made tremendous progress this year. On the international front, this was radically fired by Pioneers Asia in Tokyo as well as the joint Silicon Valley visit. It’s priceless for a start-up in our stage to get high-quality introductions to decision makers of the big international players. We build on these meetings to convert them to customers next year.”
**Outlook**
It goes without saying that we intend to build on all of this in 2017, helping the most promising startups take their first steps on the pathway to success through investment and hands-on support.
Wish to be part of Pioneers Ventures portfolio too? Check out all the details here.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Championing Gender Diversity in Tech](https://pioneers.io/gender-diversity-tech/)
**Published:** May 16, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Gender diversity is one area in which the innovation world has plenty of room for improvement, and that’s why we’re giving 100 Pioneers Festival tickets to female entrepreneurs for free.
**Content:**
At Pioneers we want to see more women in tech. Gender diversity is one area this sector has plenty of room for improvement, and that’s why we’re giving 100 Pioneers Festival tickets to female entrepreneurs for free.
Are you a female founder? Then we’d love to hear about your experiences as a woman in tech.
[Apply by 21 May](https://pioneersio.typeform.com/to/IljfBu) for a free ticket to the Festival!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Startup-Corporate Collaboration: A Startup’s Perspective](https://pioneers.io/startup-corporate-collaboration-startups-perspective/)
**Published:** May 24, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** David Pichsenmeister, from Vienna-based chatbot startup Oratio, speaks to Pioneers Discover about the advantages and challenges of partnering with corporates - and shares thoughts on where the future of communication is headed.
**Content:**
**What has your experience taught you about startup-corporate collaboration?**
Startup-corporate collaboration is very hard, especially for early-stage startups. That’s because corporates need a long time to make decisions and have a lot of internal processes they have to follow. Simple decisions can often take up to two or three months or even longer. If you are in an early stage, that’s a really long time. In the beginning, we focused on smaller companies, because for them it’s easier to convert. They don’t have so many processes and hierarchies, especially when it comes to payment. For corporates there’s a huge process involved for choosing a paid solution, but in small companies of five to ten people it’s very likely that everyone has the responsibility to make such a decision.
**You described the challenges of working with corporations, but what benefits can startup-corporate collaboration bring?**
One of the benefits is that corporates are quite loyal. So if they actually choose your solution, the decision sticks for a long time. Because it took a long time to make the decision and probably one product manager was responsible for selling your solution internally, it’s very likely that their decision will succeed.
**We’ve found the same thing at Pioneers Discover. Do you have already some experience of working with big corporations? Or do you still focus mostly on small businesses?**
Most of our customers are small businesses and medium-size businesses. But we also have a few larger partners, for example Danone from UK and Azerfon, the biggest telecom provider in Azerbaijan. And another of our major clients is Uber in the Latin America region.
**What was the success factor for you when you worked with such corporations?**
It depends. For example Uber was interesting, in the beginning just one small internal team joined our platform, and then we saw more teams joining. The teams were from different cities and different countries in Latin America. With Danone it was a lot of work upfront. They got to know our solution and the product manager we were talking to started to sell it internally. Then they had to do some modifications on their side to make our platform accessible for the user onboarding flow they had in mind, and this process took almost a year. It really depends on the company, the use case and how well your solution fits into their current processes.
**What do you look for when you work with larger and smaller companies? What’s the main factor for you in deciding to work with them?**
Right now it’s super helpful to work with medium-sized businesses because we can easily get involved and provide a lot of insight. For small businesses, the use cases vary. However, for bigger companies, they often already have clearly-defined use cases. We can learn a lot from them on how we can make our platform better, as well as how we can work better. In this sense, it’s better to work with larger companies because they have fixed processes, while small companies have many different use cases. I think it’s easier to make a decision based on one use case which will offer us a broad usage for the future.
**Now looking at it from the other side, why do you think corporates should work with startups?**
Since their processes are very complicated and really slow, it’s hard to get innovation to a big company. When you take a look at larger European companies, they have a big problem with innovation. That’s why some of them have innovation departments. But even then it’s hard to sell ideas internally, because as mentioned they have too many fixed processes.
**How do you think we will communicate in 20 years?**
I think we won’t be using smartphones anymore, because smartphones actually limit the functionality of our bodies a lot. We have two hands and 10 fingers, but we only use two fingers for the interaction with the smartphone. So it’s a pretty limited user interface and I think that user interfaces will adapt to the human, which means either natural language or even some kind of brain interface, something that will adapt better to our movement and bodies.
*To learn more about oratio, visit their website [here](https://orat.io/). To work with oratio and other startups that fit your company’s exact needs, drop us a line at discover@pioneers.io!*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Video: Pioneers Challenge: The Winning Moment](https://pioneers.io/first-reactions-after-award-ceremony-stromkind/)
**Published:** June 7, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Check out what the Pioneers Challenge winner had to say just moments after he was crowned at Pioneers'17.
**Content:**
Given that the prize for winning Pioneers Challenge powered by PwC includes mentorship with Silicon Valley’s top minds, including Tim Draper, and the opportunity to be featured on CNBC.com, it’s no wonder Stromkind’s Andreas Desch was bowled over when he won it! Check out his first reaction in the video below.
CNBC will feature the winner as part of its new digital franchise entitled *The Brave Ones*, a series that charts the rise of some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events
---
### [Video: Pioneers'17 Highlights](https://pioneers.io/pioneers17-highlights/)
**Published:** June 8, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers’17 once again brought together a full house of 2,500 tech innovators from over 100 nations, including 500 selected startups and over 80 speakers, in the annual celebration of technology in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace.
**Content:**
While the automated Pioneers Match & Meet service sparked connections and dialogues by helping to arrange 2,800 meetings over the two days, Stromkind walked away with the Pioneers Challenge powered by PwC. The maker of the KAT 300 aquatic drone also took the Best Austrian Startup award.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Events|Discover
---
### [When’s the Uber of Hong Kong coming?](https://pioneers.io/whens-uber-hong-kong-coming/)
**Published:** June 29, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** There are still a few strides that need to be made, but we think the bustling Chinese city’s first startup mega-success cannot be far away.
**Content:**
If you stop and think about it, isn’t it strange that Hong Kong hasn’t yet produced a startup that’s become a global household name? Considering what a vibrant commercial hub the territory is, it might come as a surprise that it hasn’t produced an Airbnb, a Facebook or, indeed, an Uber. But, following our return from Pioneers Hong Kong 2017 earlier this year, we’re quite sure such a thing isn’t far off.
Companies like WeLab and 9Gag are already quite well-known internationally, but there’s definitely room for more. Hong Kong is a unique business environment, with its own one-of-a-kind set of circumstances. Among the advantages it has for startups is its privileged position as a gateway between east and west, in the sense that is has quite a ‘westernized’ business culture whilst also having deep cultural and business contact with the mainland China market.
Compared to almost anywhere else in Asia, the barriers to entry for businesses are very low in Hong Kong too. The fact that a lot of foreign entrepreneurs got going elsewhere and then moved to Hong Kong to establish themselves bears this out.
“I came to Hong Kong just over a year ago, and it’s been quite a journey,” [FinFabrik](http://www.finfabrik.com/en/index.html) Co-Founder Florian Spiegl told us. “It’s a fantastic place to live and a great base for my Fintech business. The grit and entrepreneurial spirit of the people here create just the right environment.
“Beyond that, we’ve found that Hong Kong allows us to effectively access both Southeast Asia and mainland China as markets.”
If startups want access to that lucrative Chinese marketplace, it’s worth remembering that Hong Kong is also the only sensible base from a legal perspective. The law system there is much more internationally aligned compared to the People’s Republic, which can be a very capricious place legally speaking, and where property is not always secure.
Another critical advantage, of course, is that in Hong Kong you can count on an open internet. When we went over the border into Shenzhen, the systems we use every day, like our bank accounts, Twitter and Gmail, all stopped working. That’s absolutely crazy if you want to run an international business.
Add to this the fact that there are plenty of co-working spaces, a simple and reasonable tax system, and that half the world’s population is within a five-hour flight, and you have a host of good reasons why Hong Kong should be startup heaven.
But in other areas, Hong Kong is having to work to make itself more attractive. While there’s a lot of private money around, the investment culture hasn’t traditionally matched it as in other places. Hong Kong was built on the wealth of a few far-sighted entrepreneurs who started companies that then became successful and established. So the original generation of business leaders weren’t big on startup investment. But now that the second and even third generation is taking over, that’s changing.
From a startup perspective, money is now starting to fall into the right hands. But while there’s a growing amount of investment for early-stage companies, it gets more tricky for companies when they reach the more serious funding stages. Some of those more advanced companies end up going to the USA, or stick to Hong Kong but with a mix of international investors.
Considering the fact that a shortage of technically-skilled graduates means most of the tech startup scene in Hong Kong has been driven by foreigners, and the fact that the startup community is actually still relatively small, the potential for growth is huge. The government is getting behind that growth, and there’s an energy in the air that really excited us when we visited.
“Hong Kong may be relatively new as a startup hub, but we’re an established business hub that consistently ranks top for ease of doing business. That’s as relevant for startups as for traditional businesses, and when you tie that in with proximity to China, access to market (to the mainland and other parts of Asia), increasing levels of funding and being a great place to work and live, I think it’s a serious proposition for startups to consider setting up here,” says Jayne Chan of [InvestHK](http://www.investhk.gov.hk/), who is responsible for the annual StartmeupHK-Festival.
Arthur Law, General Partner at [Vectr Ventures](http://vectr.co/), has a more cautious take: “Even if Hong Kong produces its first real unicorn in the near future, that won’t magically change the city into a hub for innovation or technology. Homegrown talent won’t suddenly become better and corporates won’t suddenly become more innovative. Instead, to create and sustain a true culture of entrepreneurship and innovation, a fundamental mindset shift has to occur.
“Overall, Hong Kong’s current mindset is still relatively averse to risk and failure. I hope Hong Kong investors and corporates will become more open to new processes, strategies and technologies in order to encourage the city’s entrepreneurial spirit and startup culture.”
“Somebody has to take a risk. Somebody has to start investing,” said Pioneers Hong Kong speaker Taavi Kotka, whom you can watch in our event video [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp6fFolr76w&feature=youtu.be). We couldn’t put it any better ourselves…so watch this space!
**Photo credit:** Mark Tsang
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Discover announces two new opportunities for startups](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-announces-two-new-opportunities-startups/)
**Published:** June 19, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover, together with two of Austria’s most established corporations, is looking for quality startups to take part in two new programs recently launched by Raiffeisen Bank International and Energie Steiermark.
**Content:**
Pioneers Discover, together with two of Austria’s most established corporations, is looking for quality startups to take part in two recently launched international programs. The programs cover Fintech, mobility, work-life balance, nutrition and fitness, with application deadlines of July 31.
Pioneers Discover, the driving force of corporate innovations at Pioneers, has teamed up with two well-established Austrian corporations, Raiffeisen Bank International and Energie Steiermark, and is now looking for startups to join the programs. Depending on their areas of business interest, startups can take advantage of one of these financial investment and business development opportunities.
**Next-Incubator: Mobility, work-life balance, nutrition and fitness**
The Next-Incubator is the open innovation lab of Energie Steiermark, one of the largest service companies in Austria. Together with Energie Steiermark, Pioneers Discover is looking for startups and innovators to jointly develop products and services for new digital businesses. The four main focus areas are: Work-life balance, Nutrition, Fitness and Mobility. As part of the program startups can expect financial support, lead-user and market access as well as administrative support. The main objective is to develop innovative and scalable products, services and business models. Prerequisites for the program are a working prototype and an innovative, scalable solution. The call is open until July 31 with the program starting in November 2017.
**Apply:**
**RBI Elevator Lab**
The other opportunity is the Elevator Lab program, the new Fintech accelerator for Raiffeisen Bank International AG. The goal of the accelerator is to jointly develop scalable business cases and enable international growth for startups by becoming the partner of choice for innovative Fintech services in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The main focus areas are Big Data Analytics, Branch of the Future, Investing and Trading Tech, Payment and Transactions, RegTech and SME Banking. Applications are open until 31 July and the program starts in September. For more details please read our interview with Raiffeisen Plenipotentiary Michael Höllerer [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/raiffeisen-international-announces-elevator-lab).
**Apply:**
**For more details on Pioneers Discover startup opportunities, please visit: \#/**
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers|Discover
---
### [Video: Future of European Deep Tech](https://pioneers.io/future-european-deep-tech/)
**Published:** June 22, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** In the opening session at Pioneers'17, Atomico’s Siraj Khaliq shared his thoughts on Europe’s deep tech potential in a stage interview with Pioneers co-founder Jürgen Furian. Relive the key moments of the discussion on stage.
**Content:**
Pioneers’17 (previously Pioneers Festival) sought to address issues around human augmentation this year. Namely the future-facing tech that will enhance human capacity to address world challenges. Atomico also launched its Europe Meets China Games Report to co-incide with the same day of his stage performance in Hofburg. He shared his insights about the future of European deep tech in a 30-minute stage interview with Pioneers co-founder Jürgen Furian. Amongst others, he pointed out the importance of talent when it comes to investment potential. “Money follows talent, and that talent is spread across Europe.” Relive the key moments of the discussion on stage in the video below.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Discover Gives Fintech Startups €80K Opportunity With BBVA](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-gives-fintech-startups-80k-opportunity-bbva/)
**Published:** June 26, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover is inviting Fintech startups to enter the BBVA Open Talent 2017 contest, in which they can win up to €80 000 as well as an immersion week at BBVA headquarters.
**Content:**
There’s every chance they could emulate our 2016 Pioneers500 alumnus Musoni, which went on to win BBVA Open Talent last year.
Startups can enter in two categories, namely Fintech For Companies and Global Trends, with registration on the Pioneers Piobay platform closing on 3 July. Ten finalists in each category will subsequently be announced in August, with the September finals taking place at Innovate Finance London and Next Money Chicago respectively.
Each category winner will receive an unconditional €30 000 award. In addition to the immersion week in Madrid they will also receive an invite to the BBVA Open Summit, where they will compete for a further €50 000.
Female entrepreneurs BBVA Open Talent could additionally be selected for the Women in Fintech and Financial Inclusion Special Award. This would mean invitations to an immersion week and the BBVA Open Summit, as well as a trip to Pioneers’18 in Vienna next May.
This opportunity with BBVA is one of no less than six open calls for startups that Pioneers Discover is currently running. Another one for which application time is running out is the Vienna Start-Up Package 2017, for which the deadline is June 28.
Startups from all industries are invited to apply for six places on the programme, which runs in October and November this year. The Vienna Start-Up Package offers them the chance to immerse themselves in the Vienna innovation scene, enjoying coaching, introductions and co-working space. Accommodation, as well as travel from within Europe, will be covered.
View all Pioneers Discover Open Calls at: .
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Improving ANDRITZ’s Machinery Challenges](https://pioneers.io/improving-andritzs-machinery-challenges/)
**Published:** May 1, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover selected the best European software startups and invited them to work on real use cases in the field of Big Data Analytics in a 48-hour hackathon format.
**Content:**
#### THE CLIENT
International technology group, [ANDRITZ](http://www.andritz.com), is a leading manufacturer of plants, equipment and services with a focus on IIoT solutions. With its headquarters in Graz, Austria, ANDRITZ operates over 250 sites worldwide and has a staff of roughly 25,000 employees.
#### CHALLENGE
Leverage Big Data Analytics to improve processes and solve real use cases related to ANDRITZ’s core machinery.
#### PROCESS
Pioneers Discover assessed ANDRITZ’s innovation needs and determined a hackathon to be the best format for quickly addressing ANDRITZ’s challenges. Pioneers Discover proceeded to evaluate startups through a four-stage selection process and support ANDRITZ through all stages of the hackathon preparation, organization and implementation.
- Analyzed the needs and objectives of ANDRITZ
- Defined innovation strategy and roadmap
- Provided Industry & Technology report
- Selected innovation areas and screening criteria
- Screened and providing startup reports on monthly basis
- Selected top 8 startups
- Organized and realized hackathon
- Facilitated relationship-building between startups and ANDRITZ
#### OUTCOMES
Needs assessment and tailored innovation strategy
4 startup reports with 50 startups fitting to the needs of ANDRITZ
8 leading software startups with 40 top developers at the hackathon
8 prototypes developed within 48 hours
ANDRITZ is currently in discussions with winning startups for a collaboration project
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Instilling an entrepreneurial culture into Österreichische Post](https://pioneers.io/instilling-entrepreneurial-culture-osterreichische-post/)
**Published:** May 1, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover introduced relevant startups and innovative thinking into the Österreichische Post (Austrian Post) via an Innovation Day for senior management.
**Content:**
[Austrian Post](http://www.post.at) is Austria’s leading logistics and postal services provider.
#### CHALLENGE
Prepare the Austrian Post for the future by anticipating and realizing market and innovation opportunities.
#### PROCESS
Pioneers Discover screened and invited startups to participate in the Innovation Day, as well as organized all aspects of the day itself, which included startup pitches, keynote speeches, interactive workshops and technology testing sessions.
- Defined Innovation Day goals and scouting fields
- Screened the most promising startups from the fields
- Provided monthly progress reports
- Provided guidance for startup selection
- Invited top startups to Innovation Day
- Handled logistics and prepared content for Innovation Day
- Provided on-site organization and moderation
- Evaluated the outcomes and suggested next steps towards implementation
#### OUTCOMES
- 80 participants in total
- 5 top startups pitching their products
- Exhibition area with technology showcases
- Co-creation workshops
- Keynote by a top innovation expert
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Giving REHAU an innovation culture boost](https://pioneers.io/giving-rehau-innovation-culture-boost/)
**Published:** May 1, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover built an innovation program, consisting of an Innovation Day and Pitching Sessions, to co-create with the best startups and boost innovation across all departments of REHAU.
**Content:**
[REHAU](http://www.rehau.com) is a leading systems and service provider for polymer-based solutions in the construction, automotive and industry. Producing more than 40,000 different products, innovation is the crucial element of REHAU´s corporate philosophy.
#### CHALLENGE
Inspire employees for innovative thinking and co-create with the best startups in order to make advancements in the fields of Smart Retail, Smart Industrial Solutions and Smart Furniture Applications.
#### PROCESS
Pioneers Discover developed and executed a customized two-stage Innovation Program, which started with an Innovation Day to inspire employees and connect them with the startup world. Through the second stage, Pioneers Discover determined the innovation needs of the different departments of REHAU, screened for the best startups and organized co-creation workshops to further develop use cases and the roadmap for collaboration.
**Stage 1: Innovation Day**
- Defined goals and innovation areas
- Screened and determined the best startups
- Organized and realized Innovation Day
- Analyzed the key results and learnings
**Stage 2: Co-creation Workshops**
- Defined innovation areas of two departments
- Conducted the second round of startup screening
- Organized and moderated co-creation workshops
- Documented results and developed collaboration roadmap
#### OUTCOMES
- Assessment of innovation needs
- Identification of top 50 startups fitting the program goals
- Innovation Day with 5 startups in Smart Retail field
- 2 co-creation workshops with 8 startups
- REHAU is now actively collaborating with startups from the Innovation Day and co-creation workshops
> “Pioneers Discover connected us to first class international startups and introduced us to the vibrant and intriguing startup world. The co-creation workshops with the startups inspired us to think in completely new ways and business models. We can definitely recommend Pioneers Discover to facilitate the venture into the startup world as a corporate and to introduce fruitful collaborations with top-notch startups.”
**REHAU, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT**
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Bringing startups into RLB ÖÖ](https://pioneers.io/bringing-startups-rlb-oo/)
**Published:** May 1, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover developed a startup strategy that culminated in an Innovation Day, where select startups and top management came together to develop the future of RLB ÖÖ and build a basis for collaboration.
**Content:**
[RLB OÖ](http://www.rlbooe.at/) is Austria’s leading regional bank, with over 18 branches supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and more than 80,000 private customers.
#### CHALLENGE
Learn about the fundamentals of the startup world and meet FinTech startups that could develop innovative solutions for RLB OÖ.
#### PROCESS
Pioneers Discover’s innovation strategy revolved around the organization and execution of an Innovation Day to identify potential touchpoints for future collaboration with the top startups.
- Defined goals and innovation needs
- Screened and evaluated the best partners fitting to RLB OÖ
- Identified and invited the top-fit startups
- Organized and moderated Innovation Day
- Analyzed the key results and learnings
#### OUTCOMES
- Assessment of RLB OÖ’s innovation needs
- Defined collaboration strategy with startups
- Co-creation with pre-selected 6 startups
- Implementation of mobile payment solution developed by Innovation Day startup, Blue Code
- Branding as innovative company
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Alpine Tourism Hackathon](https://pioneers.io/alpine-tourism-hackathon/)
**Published:** May 1, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover initiated a first step toward building a data-driven ski resort and startup ecosystem in the Swiss region of Sudbünden by bringing in top startups to participate in a hackathon.
**Content:**
Sudbünden is one of the oldest and most renowned winter tourism areas located in the mountains of Switzerland, and includes top ski resorts such as St. Moritz.
#### CHALLENGE
Position Südbünden as one of the most innovative tourism areas in Europe.
#### PROCESS
Pioneers Discover built a full strategy around creating a startup ecosystem, of which the first step was the execution of a hackathon. Pioneers Discover managed all stages of the hackathon from preparation and organization, all the way through implementation.
- Assessed region’s innovation needs and goals
- Built ecosystem strategy with defined steps, starting with hackathon
- Determined hackathon goals and scouting criteria
- Built and promoted customized website to accept applications
- Identified, evaluated and invited 10 top startups
- Onboarded startups and coordinated event logistics
- Realized and moderated hackathon on site
#### OUTCOMES
- 10 startups with 35 top developers
- 10 prototypes developed within 48 hours
- ~30,000 new lines of code
- Ongoing collaboration with startups
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Improving remote maintenance services with startup technologies](https://pioneers.io/improving-remote-maintenance-services-startup-technologies/)
**Published:** May 1, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover developed a startup-collaboration strategy that allowed Plasser & Theurer to create a more effective and efficient remote maintenance service by partnering with startups.
**Content:**
[Plasser & Theurer](http://www.plassertheurer.com) is the world’s leading rail track maintenance and track laying machines producer. It has more than 3,000 employees in more than 100 countries worldwide.
#### CHALLENGE
Develop new solutions for the remote maintenance service with startup technologies that streamline processes and improve existing products.
#### PROCESS
As part of the project, Pioneers Discover developed a startup innovation strategy and identified potential technologies for Plasser & Theurer. Top startups in the field of VR/AR applications joined Plasser & Theurer in a collaboration workshop where first prototypes were developed, some of which will soon be integrated into its business.
Process:
- Performed innovation assessment
- Organized startup strategy workshop define innovation topcis
- Giving a future tech & industry outlook
- Executed startup scouting
- Developed startup reports to present top-fits
- Organized and facilitated collaboration workshop (pitching & co-creation)
#### OUTCOMES
- Development of startup-collaboration strategy
- Future technology outlook of the industry
- Startup report with 25 top startups covering 3 technological areas
- Collaboration workshop with top 3 startups
- Current collaboration negotiations with 2 of the 3 startups
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Video: Automation & The Future of Work](https://pioneers.io/video-automation-future-work/)
**Published:** July 5, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** One of the key sessions at Pioneers'17 last month was Automation & The Future of Work that covered the potential risk of robots replacing workers.
**Content:**
Moderated by CNBC’s Technology Reporter Arjun Kharpal, the panel of experts featured Dr Markus Braun of Wirecard AG, Andrus Ansip of the European Commission, Kathryn Myronuk of Singularity University and former Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev. Watch the video below, in which we sum up the key take-aways and what the experts opinions were on how technology will shape the future and our lives.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Become an Astronaut with Pioneers and Space for Humanity](https://pioneers.io/become-astronaut-pioneers-and-space-humanity/)
**Published:** July 6, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers is inviting all pioneering spirits over the age of 18 to apply for the chance to travel to the edge of space next year. We’re partnering up with Space For Humanity’s project to send multiple ordinary people on the ride of their lives in 2018 - and one person from our community could be among them!
**Content:**
Pioneers is inviting all pioneering spirits over the age of 18 to apply for the chance to travel to the edge of space next year. We’re partnering up with Space For Humanity’s project to send multiple ordinary people on the ride of their lives in 2018 – and one person from our community could be among them!
Pioneers has always kept a close eye on developments in accessible space travel, and this partnership with a non-profit that’s looking to use space travel in a positive, problem-solving way, is both a perfect and exciting fit. Space for Humanity aims to increase diversity amongst space travellers and use their voices to help tackle earth’s issues through the unique ‘point of view’ that they’ll bring back from taking a big-picture look at our planet.
The big prize would mean joining the first group of ‘citizen astronauts’ to travel on the incredible Worldview balloon (made famous in 2014 by Alan Eustace’s record-breaking jump) or Blue Origin (the spacecraft brought to life by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos) with Space for Humanity. Either of these machines, of course, scream the kind of innovation we at Pioneers hold so dear.
To have a chance to reach those lofty heights, applicants will need to get a friend to tag them on our [Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/Pioneersfestival/posts/1618743714816794:0) with a one-liner on why they’re the best pioneer to undertake such a historic journey. After that, it’s down to our online community to show their love for the best one-liners.
Pioneers will then ask the three nominees whose words earned the most likes by noon (GMT+2) on July 13 to send us a simple video (maximum three minutes) answering the question ‘I’m a Pioneer because…’ We’ll choose the most convincing to advance to the final selection process by Space for Humanity.
By applying through the Pioneers process, the applicant will have earned a simplified path to the Space for Humanity final selection. They will still need to submit an application and video on [spaceforhumanity.org](http://spaceforhumanity.org/), but it will only need to state ‘I was nominated through the Pioneers competitive process.’
Regardless of whether they’re selected as one of the final few who will actually be a part of the big take-off in the USA next October, the one chosen by Pioneers will be invited to the accompanying launch event.
This is not a hunt for a celebrity headline-maker. It’s about finding ordinary, positive people with a relentless thirst to push humanity’s boundaries – and who know how to tell the story of their experiences of course! Apart from that, hopeful astronauts need only to be 18 years of age and fluent in English.
Executive Director of Space for Humanity Matt Kuta (below) said, “We’re expecting over 10,000 submissions for the chance to be one of the eight people on the first mission, and we know that a lot of great candidates will come from the Pioneers community. What we’re looking for is diverse candidates representing groups that haven’t traditionally experienced space. They must have the skills to be able to articulate their experience – and why it was profound – when they come back to earth.”
The founder of Space for Humanity is Dylan Taylor, a thought leader and futurist who believes that space travel has the power to unify humanity, by highlighting the arbitrary nature of the boundaries we create. In 2017 he became the first private citizen to manufacture an item in space, when he 3D printed the gravity meter he co-designed, on the International Space Station.
Space for Humanity ultimately plans to send people to space, free of charge, on a regular basis. “Our focus is to get citizen astronauts to experience the ‘overview effect’, return to earth and then impact their communities,” concludes Taylor.
Are YOU a space pioneer? Then here’s that link to the [Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/Pioneersfestival/posts/1618743714816794:0) that might change your world view forever!
**Terms & Conditions**
- The nominee must-be healthy enough to fly and 18yrs+
- The trip is for 1 person, incl. flights and accommodation
- Date of Launch Party might be subject to change, in line with the first mission final date and it is the right of the organizers to reschedule
- The trip cannot be traded for money, bartered or exchanged
*For more details on Terms & Conditions of the travel to the edge of space, pls visit spaceforhumanity.org.*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Video & Audio: Getting Intimate with Tech](https://pioneers.io/video-getting-intimate-tech/)
**Published:** July 18, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Our panel discussion at Pioneers'17 tackled virtual sex, remarkable new toys and other exciting possibilities in the 'sextech' industry. In this video highlights reel, you can see our panel of experts share intimacy ideas you probably didn't know existed...
**Content:**
The three forward-thinking and open-minded women who shared their industry knowledge on the Academy Stage at the Hofburg were Kate Devlin of Goldsmiths University London; author, broadcaster and former Men’s Health sex columnist Nichi Hodgson; and pleasure toy entrepreneur Stephanie Alys – aka Chief Pleasure Officer at MysteryVibe!
Below you can listen to our one-on-one interview with Stephanie, and following that you can watch the video of the panel discussion.
[Click here to listen to the Interview with Stephanie Alys](/storage/app/media/MysteryVibe_Stephanie_Alys_Interview.mp3)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Diversity in Tech Initiative To Kick Off at Pioneers’18 and GovTech.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/diversity-tech-initiative-kick-pioneers18-and-govtechpioneers/)
**Published:** May 2, 2018
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Today we introduce our Diversity in Tech initiative, which will be a key focus area for our events coming up in Vienna this month. Read on for the details of what we’ve set up with key partners, including a workshop on bias with a non-profit based at Harvard University and a program to invite selected individuals who have overcome diversity challenges to Pioneers’18, where we’ll also run a robot-building workshop for kids. Plus Zara Nanu, co-founder of Gapsquare, a company that brings together technology, diversity and inclusion expertise to close the gender pay gap, will join a panel at GovTech.Pioneers on May 23rd.
**Content:**
At Pioneers we’re conscious of some of the ongoing imbalances inherent in the world of tech innovation. This is the inspiration behind the Diversity in Tech initiative, which will aim to inspire the broader tech innovation community across three key verticals: Access, Community and Education.
The first pillar of the initiative, Education, aims to inform a wider audience about the challenges increasing diversity. As part of this drive we’re pleased that Jordan Axt of Project Implicit, a non-profit based at Harvard University, will be running a workshop that draws on Project Implicit’s particular specialities, entitled *What to do about your unconscious bias and addressing diversity in your workplace*.
Access is essentially about removing barriers for those with diverse backgrounds. That’s why we’ll be giving free tickets to Pioneers’18 (May 24th-25th) to selected individuals who have overcome diversity to get to where they are today.
It could be those with the right skills to become founders and who could get just the necessary push from exposure to the inspiration, networking and opportunities on offer at our flagship event. The passes might also go to those who narrowly missed out on this year’s Pioneers500 program, but deserve the chance to be inspired because they have the potential to make it in years to come.
The Access opportunities will be distributed through the communities around our Diversity Networking Partners. These include Techfugees, The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network (TERN) and Refugees{code}, all of whom focus on bringing refugees into tech innovation. We’ll also be working with PwC’s Scale | Female Founders, StartHer and Female Founders, which specialize in bringing more women into the tech space. Finally, there’s WisR, which helps retired or elderly people gain inclusion in the tech ecosystem.
Our Community focus entails building a network and facilitating connections around the topic of diversity. We’ll host a Diversity in Tech breakfast, co-hosted by Female Founders, at the Hofburg on the first morning of the Pioneers’18. The 50 recipients of the Diversity in Tech tickets are invited to come together and share stories about overcoming diversity to achieve success in tech, participate in an educational workshop and make valuable contacts.
Returning to education, we’re not forgetting the next generation of tech pioneers at Pioneers’18 either. So we’re excited to welcome Robo Wunderkind’s workshops to the Hofburg for the first time. Running on both afternoons, these 60-minute sessions are specifically designed for kids between five and 12 to create real, functioning robots out of building blocks whilst learning to code.
“We’re boosting the kids’ imaginations and providing them with exciting and immersive tech experiences,” says Robo Wunderkind CEO Anna Iarotska. “Forget flimsy constructions and long, boring manuals – our modular robots can easily be snapped together in a few minutes.This leaves the kids more time and space to embark on the exciting adventure of coding and robotics!”
Are you the parent of a budding pioneer? If you already have your Pioneers’18 ticket you can sign up your kids for the workshops via our Side Events page [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/agenda/101#sideEvents).
Meanwhile at GovTech.Pioneers, which goes ahead one day before Pioneers’18, Gapsquare co-founder Zara Nanu will bring her profound diversity insights to the main stage.
Nanu has 10 years worth of experience in driving positive change for women, having established Gapsquare to increase women’s engagement in the economy and tech. Her company aims to close the gender pay gap by bringing together technology, diversity and inclusion experience.
She will take part in the Lessons Learnt From Dealing With Governments panel discussion after lunch at GovTech.Pioneers. Joining her in the chat will be Nitika Agarwal from Apolitical, Chris Jagers from Learning Machine and Fotis Talantzis of novoville.
Read more about Pioneers’18 and GovTech.Pioneers [here](https://pioneers.io/events).
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Ventures Celebrates €20m in Follow-On Investment at Third Portfolio Summit](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-ventures-celebrates-20m-follow-investment-third-portfolio-summit/)
**Published:** June 6, 2018
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** With our investment arm’s portfolio now having grown to an all-time high of 31 companies, Pioneers Ventures had an exciting week around Pioneers’18 at the end of May. First the companies came together in Vienna to learn best practice as well as get to know the rest of the family better. Then Fleksy then won startup honours at GovTech.Pioneers. Finally came our flagship event at the Hofburg, where the portfolio companies focused on making connections that could take their startups to the next level following the early faith shown by our pre-seed investment specialists. And so far so good: our portfolio has raised over €20m in follow-on funding!
**Content:**
As always, the week around our flagship event in Vienna was an annual highlight for the Pioneers Ventures team and saw a mix of learning, connections and even success on stage for the portfolio companies, whose number has now soared to 31 following the recent investment in Prewave. Apart from celebrations around the fact that the portfolio companies have raised over €20m in follow-on funding since we invested in them, it was also a good week for Fleksy, which won startup honours at GovTech.Pioneers in the middle of the week, and Gustav, which reached the Pioneers Challenge Award Top 8 at Pioneers’18.
The week began with our investment arm’s annual retreat, which took place on Tuesday May 22nd in Vienna. The programme featured talks, networking and group sessions for the portfolio companies. Sessions included sales trainer Fadi Haddad speaking on Business Development for Startups, Speedinvest Pirates CEO Dieter Rappold’s Growth: Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast talk and a fireside chat on fundraising with Travis Pittman, the CEO of TourRadar, which last year raised $10m in a Series B round.
The big news on Wednesday was Fleksy’s success at GovTech.Pioneers, as we staged Europe’s first full-day Govtech event at Palais Wertheim in Vienna. The portfolio company, previously known as thingthing, won after pitching their secure, private and multi-language mobile keyboard to an expert panel of jurors. The Barcelona-based startup achieved huge publicity as a result of the win, and are already following up on several promising new leads. Victory also saw them fast-tracked into the Pioneers Challenge Top 50 at Pioneers’18 the next day.
There, it was human resources innovators Gustav who cracked the Top 8 and made it onto the biggest stage of them all, gaining huge visibility for their casual labour management platform as hundreds filled the room to watch the final pitches on the Arena Stage. Over the two days, though, all the companies got themselves in front of influential attendees, taking full advantage of a dedicated meeting area at the Pioneers Ventures booth and exclusive networking opportunities at the Pioneers Ventures Investors Breakfast.
"There’s always a great spirit in the air during Pioneers events, and this year that was even more noticeable,” said Philipp Stangl, Managing Director. “At the retreat it was amazing to see how the founders immediately started to connect with each other and share best practices – it definitely pays off to invest in open-minded, smart and curious founders who are always eager to learn!
“Then during Pioneers’18, it was good to see that the ongoing relationships we nurture with top global investors (with a focus on Europe), led to a genuine interest in many of our portfolio companies who are currently fundraising. Of course the atmosphere of the event and the fact that everyone was in the same 500-year-old palace also helped a lot!"
"We had a great time and met a lot of interesting people including other startups, advisors, investors and media," said Jernej Fužir, CEO of Slovenian speech therapy startup Blub Blub. "They all shared a lot of knowledge and experience with us. We also had the opportunity to pitch our to investors at the Pioneers Investors Breakfast.
"Then we were lucky enough to be chosen for a chance to pitch to the media. Following that, TechCrunch and TechTrends will both be writing stories about us to help us reach more users (parents). Thanks very much to Pioneers for giving us all this opportunity!"
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, the major highlight for Pioneers Ventures will once again be the annual networking trip to Silicon Valley in September. As always, several portfolio companies will come along and enjoy introductions to key members of our network in California. Joining them will be SzeleSTIM, which ultimately prevailed in the startup competition at Pioneers’18 and will take part in the trip as part of the prize. Among others major figures, they’ll meet legendary investor Tim Draper, just as Stromkind did last year. (For the story of that trip, click [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/interview-stromkind-makes-waves-usa).)
Visit the Pioneers Ventures page [here](https://pioneers.io/ventures).
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Download: Pioneers500 Report](https://pioneers.io/download-pioneers500-report/)
**Published:** June 12, 2018
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** If you weren’t able to grab one of the 500 printed copies of our Pioneers500 Report during Pioneers’18 on May 24th-25th, the digital version is now available for free download after email registration. The report provides insights on the Pioneers500 startups at the Hofburg and detailed profiles of the Top 50+1 selected for the Pioneers Challenge Award - Fleksy gained the extra wildcard spot after winning GovTech.Pioneers the day before Pioneers’18. The report also focuses on startup-corporate collaboration and digital transformation, with advice on best practice from both our Pioneers Discover consultancy arm and our partner PwC.
**Content:**
If you weren’t able to grab one of the 500 printed copies of our Pioneers500 Report during Pioneers’18 on May 24th-25th, the digital version is now available for free download after email registration. The report provides insights on the Pioneers500 startups at the Hofburg and detailed profiles of the Top 50+1 selected for the Pioneers Challenge Award – Fleksy gained the extra wildcard spot after winning GovTech.Pioneers the day before Pioneers’18. The report also focuses on startup-corporate collaboration and digital transformation, with advice on best practice from both our Pioneers Discover consultancy arm and our partner PwC.
To download the full PDF of the Pioneers500 report from Pioneers’18, click [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/resourcess) and scroll to the bottom.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers’18 Closes With First Official Tech Conference Theme Tune Composed by AI](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-18-wrap/)
**Published:** May 25, 2018
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** SzeleSTIM beat off 50 startup challengers to emerge as the winner of the coveted Pioneers Challenge Award at Pioneers’18 today. Having developed a wearable earpiece designed to deliver customizable chronic pain treatment, they’ve won a networking trip to Silicon Valley, plus a trip to South East Asia to pitch at the Techsauce Global Summit. Our flagship event, which ran over the last two days in Vienna’s Hofburg Imperial Palace, saw over 2,500 tech innovators, 550 startups and a host of top speakers come together to tackle key global issues and showcase high-impact innovation under the ‘Blurred Frontiers’ theme. Pioneers’18 also showcased the pioneering work of Pierre Barreau in its official theme tune.
**Content:**
SzeleSTIM beat off 50 startup challengers to emerge as the winner of the coveted Pioneers Challenge Award at Pioneers’18 today. Having developed a wearable earpiece designed to deliver customizable chronic pain treatment, they’ve won a networking trip to Silicon Valley, plus a trip to South East Asia to pitch at the Techsauce Global Summit.
Our flagship event, which ran over the last two days in Vienna’s Hofburg Imperial Palace, saw over 2,500 tech innovators, 550 startups and a host of top speakers come together to tackle key global issues and showcase high-impact innovation under the ‘Blurred Frontiers’ theme. Pioneers’18 also showcased the pioneering work of Pierre Barreau in its official theme tune.
The event featured top international speakers such as **Amazon** CTO Werner Vögels, **Google Arts & Culture** Program Manager Suhair Kahn, **Electronic Arts** Co-Founder Jeff Burton,former President of Sony Pictures Entertainment and MGM Entertainment **David Bishop**, the co-creator of the **Lilium Jet** Vertical Take Off and Landing craft Patrick Nathen, and video game entrepreneurs and investors **Emmett Shear** (Twitch) and **Alexis Bonte** (Atomico).
Pioneers’18 began with a bang as **Aaron VanDevender** kicked off proceedings on the new-look Arena Stage with his opening keynote about the intersection of humanity and technology. He’s **Chief Scientist and a Principal at Founders Fund**, which believes in investing in entrepreneurs pursuing the most ambitious technical challenges.
**Amazon’s Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels**, the man responsible for driving the company’s customer-centric technology vision, outlined the growing power of voice systems such as Alexa to reach the greatest numbers of people, irrespective of literacy or language. And he urged those founders in attendance to consider this in their strategies.
“I believe that the first steps we’re taking now with voice interfaces will be the next major disruption in computing,” he said. “We need to leave behind our addiction to machine based interfaces – variations on the keyboard, screen and mouse. Rather we need to communicate the way humans actually want to, which is by talking.
“If you’re a startup, don’t feed the old addiction to screens and keyboards. Whatever you’re building, think about using voice first.”
“Ever given an iPad to your grandmother? All she’s ever going to do is hit the Skype button – talking is what she grew up with. And if you want her to use all the functionality, you have to make it so that she can talk to the device.”
We also welcomed **Google Arts & Culture Program Manager** Suhair Khan, who on Friday walked the audience through some of the technologies she and her team are bringing to cultural institutions as they help make art accessible to a wider audience. Examples included the 3D digital preservation of temples just before they were recently destroyed by war, exploring the Palace of Versailles’ interior using Google Street View and the high-resolution capture of the intricate and inaccessible ceiling of Vienna’s nearby Burgtheater.
Further speakers who embodied the Blurred Frontiers theme in real style were futurist **Jonathan Knowles, social entrepreneur and explorer Guillermo Söhnlein** and **marine scientist Gaelin Rosenwaks**, who joined an **‘Exploration of New Spaces’** panel discussion drawing on their expertise in deep-sea and space exploration.
“Coming from the startup world to the exploration world, it’s amazing how many skill sets carried over,” said serial entrepreneur Söhnlein. “Every expedition has felt like a startup. You make decisions based on limited data – and those decisions can be make or break. So there are a lot of parallels.”
“When we look around the world, it’s almost all plastic,” added Knowles in response to an audience question on pollution. “The good news is a lot more people are thinking about it, and that’s another big opportunities for all entrepreneurs – how do we deal with all the plastic?”
Environmental challenges were also on the agenda in the Friday morning panel on Impact Through Technology, which featured social impact investors **Timo Schmitt-Lord** and **Marc Buckley**, of **Bayer Foundations** and **ANJA-ALOHAS ECO-Center** respectively.
“Agriculture is broken,” said Buckley. “It’s 12,000 years old but it does more damage than the coal, oil and gas industries. I would like to see more innovation around food production.”
More than a few startups at the Hofburg, of course, seek to rise to exactly those sorts of challenges. **ThinAir**, for example, is already providing an agricultural solution for Red Dane Farming, Zimbabwe’s biggest dairy farming company, which like all farm operations has to improve its water efficiency. ThinAir’s concept is to **draw water out of the atmosphere** at a viable level of efficiency, and its co-founder **Jonathan Risley** introduced the technology on the Arena Stage today.
Just as air can be turned to water, so water can be transformed into light. This was demonstrated on the Arena Stage by Filipino startup SALt, whose lantern powered by salt water is already starting to have an impact for off-grid rural communities in Asia.
Mobility also has the potential for great impact, and with this in mind we also welcomed **Patrick Nathen**, Co-Founder and Head of Calculation & Design at **Lilium**, the German startup behind the world’s first electric vertical take-off and landing **(VTOL)** jet.
“VTOL will make us rethink where we live and work, which we hope will lead to a rebalance of rental and property prices,” said Nathen, who brought the Lilium Jet to life with three big-thinking flatmates. “Right now ten kilometres seems painful in any big city. We want people to think 150 kilometres is nothing. There will be a new transport ecosystem and people will profit from that. It sounds crazy and unrealistic now, but I promise it will come.”
While at first glance technologies like virtual reality don’t have obvious social impact, speakers such as **Electronic Arts** co-founder **Jeff Burton** (who also co-founded HolodeckVR, which gave more than 1000 Pioneers’18 attendees a taste of multi-player VR gaming on each day of the event) challenged any such assumptions.
“Virtual reality allows for a whole new version of emotional engagement beyond gaming. Gaming and education have taken decades to come together – far longer than they should have – but now they’re finally starting to do so. The best way to learn is through experience, and when you can have a virtual experience that teaches you something, it will stay with you for life.”
**Olivier Oullier**, President at **Emotiv**, also showed by technology such as Augmented Reality can be combined with the power of Brain Computer Interfaces to allow surgeons to ‘move’ projected AR elements by thought alone, thus freeing up their hands to operate. In a live stage demonstration he also showcased ‘A Wearable For Your Brain’, which measures key parameters such as engagement, stress and focus in real time.
Staying with new technologies that increase the potential of human biology, biotechnologist **Josef Penninger** was among the keynote speakers. The internationally renowned geneticist sent attendees home with the very latest from the genetic technology arena, including new possibilities in ‘speed-reading’, editing and stem-cell recreation. **Insilico Medicine CEO Dr Alex Zhavoronkov**, meanwhile, looked at how deep learning could take down the ‘elephant in the room’ that is ageing – and how the latter doesn’t need to be considered inevitable.
With gaming a bigger industry on the innovation radar than ever before, the Arena Stage audience also heard from **e-sports streaming king Emmett Shear**, who sold **Twitch.tv** to Amazon for almost a billion dollars in 2014. He was joined on stage by **Alexis Bonte** of Atomico, which recently invested in Worlds Adrift creator Bossa Studios.
“Video games are bigger than both movies and books,” said Shear. “They’re the single largest area people spend money on for entertainment. For Amazon, if you want to sell everything, everywhere, then you definitely want to be part of that.”
“When we sold, we got access to the capital we needed to grow and invest in the business. We could not have built Twitch Prime without Amazon.”
Another hot topic was Blockchain, with **Lighting Labs** Co-Founder and CEO **Elizabeth Stark**, whose company aims to scale Blockchain by making cryptocurrency transfers faster and easier, an Arena Stage highlight. So too was Glosfer CEO Taewon Kim, whose talk was live-translated from Korean for an audienced intrigued eager to learn more about Nowon Cash,the world’s first local cryptocurrency, which is currently in use in Nowon-gu, South Korea.
Artificial intelligence, of course, was a recurring theme. Attendees learned more about the increasing role it’s playing in automated translation technology, in a panel discussion featuring Unbabel co-founder Vasco Pedro and Waverly Labs CEO Andrew Ochoa.
“Humans and AI will work much more closely together in the future,” said Pedro. “And the interplay between humans and AI is at the core of what we’re doing. But I don’t see a time in the near future when you can take the human out of the equation, however the human’s role is going to change.”
Hermann Hauser, a Partner at Amadeus Capital Partners and serial entrepreneur, provided an apt summary of the bigger picture around artificial intelligence in his *Intelligent Machines* talk.
“A new species is about to be born, and it’s called artificial intelligence,” he said. “And the biggest challenge for mankind over the next few decades is to agree on the right goals for it.”
The final afternoon peaked with the Pioneers Challenge Top 8 pitches, during which SzeleSTIM convinced the jury to crown them Pioneers of the Year. The top eight were the cream of the crop from the Pioneers Challenge Top 50, the startups which pitched in seven tracks yesterday – one, Pago, advanced to the Top 8 as ‘Community Choice’ voted for by attendees. The Top 50 competing on Thursday were in turn the best of the 500 attending startups selected under our Pioneers500.
SzeleSTIM’s prototype earpiece, which the company is preparing for CEE regulation towards the end of the year, delivers treatment via a steady rhythm of electrical pulses via the ear, designed to stimulate the pain-critical vagus nerve.
“I think we’re addressing a real problem here,” said Stefan Kampusch, co-founder of SzeleSTIM as he reflected on the reasons they struck a chord with the jury. “Everybody has had pain; everybody knows somebody who has had pain or even chronic pain. Everybody has a relation to this topic and knows it is very severe.”
The final evening also saw the audience introduced to the theme tune, which was composed by Aiva Technologies – whose co-founder Barreau was the last speaker on stage before the awards ceremony began.
Our **Match & Meet** service again provided personalized recommendations that automated the process of getting like-minded startups, corporate executives and investors talking. It worked hand-in-hand with our **Piobot** chatbot for a smooth schedule and meeting management experience.
Other novelties for Pioneers’18 included a dedicated program aimed at Series A startups, a broadcasting partnership with **Red Bull TV Live**, an increased presence from our partner **PwC**, which showcased its Experience Center and eValuation tool, which provides startups with an estimate of their market value. We also teamed up with PwC to publish our Pioneers500 Report, while **Raiffeisen Bank International** chose Pioneers’18 as the stage to announce the establishment of its Fintech venture capital company, Elevator Ventures.
Another successful edition of our flagship event was the perfect kick-off to a new era for Pioneers, following a change in ownership announced earlier this week. The company has been acquired by Linz-based startup300, a business angel group consisting of 142 angels and investors, although, Pioneers will continue with its brand name and daily operations unchanged.
Browse our gallery of the best photos from the two days at the Hofburg below!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Video: How Secure Is Your Identity?](https://pioneers.io/ralph-video/)
**Published:** July 26, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** The world-renowned cyber security expert internationally known as the 'Ethical Hacker', Ralph Echemendia, is here to help protect and secure our digital identities.
**Content:**
Ralph Echemendia shattered a misconception or two about online security in his talk at Pioneers’17. For over 20 years, Ralph has delivered training on hacking and other security information to corporations including the US Marine Corps, NASA, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, AMEX, Intel, Boeing, Symantec, and IBM. He has conducted security audits and penetration tests, while consulting for various organizations including the United Nations, as well as for hospitals and financial institutions.
Following his work as an Information Security Executive for Terremark Worldwide (acquired by Verizon in 2011) in Miami, Ralph took his talents to Hollywood, California. He actively works with award-winning Director Oliver Stone as a technical supervisor on films such as “Savages” and “Snowden.” Additionally, he acts as Mr. Stone’s digital security advisor.
In addition to his work with Oliver Stone, Ralph has joined forces with some of Hollywood’s most influential names to address various forms of operational security and piracy issues by working on cutting edge technology for a consumer cyber security protection program.
For practical advice on keeping your data safe, check out these highlights!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [ALPS Programs hits its target with Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/alps-programs-hits-its-target-pioneers/)
**Published:** August 7, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Young decision-makers from the global entrepreneurship community have given a firm thumbs-up to their experiences at the recent Austrian Leadership Programs (ALPS), organised by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration & Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Austrian Economic Chamber, the Federation of Austrian Industries and, for the first time, with Pioneers.
**Content:**
The goal of connecting delegates with Austria’s business community and representatives from public administration and politics, while opening their eyes to the country’s role as a major business gateway to Central & Eastern Europe, was well and truly met, according to the attendees.
For a full week from May 28 to June 2, the participants enjoyed three packed days visiting the Austrian startup scene in Upper Austria and Vienna, and then two days at Pioneers’17, which was included in the ALPS Programs for the first time.
Highlights of the varied schedule included visits to the new head office of Austria’s number one startup success story (and Pioneers alumnus) Runtastic in Linz, the KAPSCH TraficCom Accelerator Program, the Vienna University Entrepreneurship Center and the A1 Startup Campus. There was also time, of course, to experience some of the cultural and culinary factors that make Vienna one of the world’s most attractive cities in which to live – or start a business.
Delegates came from a diverse array of 11 countries, and as far afield as Kazakhstan, South Africa, Kenya, India and of course Silicon Valley!
One of the visitors from the American tech hub was Mark Coopersmith, Faculty Director and Senior Fellow, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, UC Berkeley.
“I was invited by Austria’s Silicon Valley Consul Martin Rauchbauer and really enjoyed the entire program,” said Coopersmith, who also works as an entrepreneur, Fortune 500 executive and author. “I got an appreciation for what Austria and its government is trying to do to try and accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship.
“Vienna in particular is a dynamic city, a lovely city, a great place to live. And these are all positives when it comes to evaluating if a city is a good place to launch a business. We spent some time at a couple of the universities and saw that Austria has an educated, multilingual workforce. It might not have the engineering talent of Silicon Valley, but overall the talent is there.
“It’s good to see that Austria is an East-West platform as well as a North-South platform. In the two days at Pioneers’17, we saw a lot of next-generation technologies and it was interesting to see some things from a little bit further east, which often don’t make it to Western Europe and certainly the US.”
Shradha Sharma, Founder & CEO of Indian entrepreneurial media platform and twice included in the ‘40 Under 40’ list of most powerful Indians by Forbes magazine, found her week in Austria was full of surprises.
“ALPS was an amazing and interesting program,” she said. “I learned a lot. I didn’t know Austria had a startup culture like this. But meeting Michael Linhart \[Secretary-General of the Austrian Foreign Ministry\] and many others gave me a great perspective.
“The ministry is very progressive, they are doing brilliant and forward thinking work. Before, my impression had been that Austria was just a tourist destination! So it was a real eye-opener for me.
“We heard the stories of a lot of startups and I found Runtastic’s really inspiring, especially the fact that they have stayed in their home town to grow their business further. And the challenges they had to face in their early days are very similar to those faced by entrepreneurs across the world, so we were able to connect over that.
“Pioneers’17 was also very exciting. It was a melting pot for people from all over Europe, and it was great to meet a lot of people I knew who had travelled for the event.”
“ALPS was very good in terms of the structure,” added Pavel Koktyshev, Co-Founder & CEO of the Most Business Incubator in Kazakhstan. “It was very condensed in terms of experiencing different aspects of ecosystem, as well as some cultural attractions and experiences.
“We have ambitions to build a tech ecosystem in the Central Asian region. The Austrian example is much more applicable to that than what I have seen in Silicon Valley or somewhere else, and in this program we got very hands-on information we can apply in Kazakhstan. For example we got a lot of information about government support schemes for startups and VCs. So we got good inspiration from that.”
2017 was the sixth edition of the ALPS Programs, which for the first time since its launch last year put a specific focus on innovation and the startup scene. The seventh edition, another ‘classic’ round with participants from all fields ranging from business and industry to politics and public administration, is currently in planning and will take place from August 27 to September 2. Pioneers looks forward to making further contributions in the future!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Discover Brings In 336 Applications for RBI’s Fintech Accelerator Program](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-brings-336-applications-rbis-fintech-accelerator-program/)
**Published:** August 3, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover is thrilled to have gathered no less than 336 applications from around the world for Raiffeisen Bank International’s Elevator Lab fintech accelerator program, for which our open call closed on Monday.
**Content:**
Pioneers Discover drove and managed the applications phase for the program, which saw entries pour in from 56 countries. Accelerator Lab was officially launched on June 1 at Pioneers’17 by Johann Strobl, CEO of RBI.
The hopeful start-ups were applying for the opportunity for a potential long-term cooperation with RBI Group and RBI’s 16.6 million customers in Austria and the CEE region. 13.4 per cent of all applications were submitted by Austrian fintechs and 27.1 per cent by fintechs from the CEE region, with a comparatively high number of applications from Hungary, Romania and Slovakia reflecting the well-developed fintech communities in these countries.
The remaining applications were mainly submitted by Western European, Asian and North American fintechs, which in turn shows that Elevator Lab attracts great international interest. Most submissions were related to Payment & Transaction services, followed by the fields of Investing & Trading, SME Banking, Big Data Analytics, RegTech and Branch of the Future.
“We are excited that we were able to close the application phase for Elevator Lab that successfully and that we have applications from all our 14 CEE markets. The high number and overall quality of applications exceeded our expectations. Until the end of August, we will be intensively reviewing the documents in order to identify those 30 start-ups, which will have the chance to convince our high-ranking jury of their concepts during the pitching sessions,”
explains Michael Hoellerer, plenipotentiary of RBI, who is, amongst other things, in charge of RBI Group’s digitalization strategy.
The five start-ups that will eventually participate in the accelerator program will be selected in mid-September in Vienna.
For further open call opportunities with Pioneers Discover please visit [](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/)\#/
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Discover gives Next-Incubator program a flying start](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-discover-gives-next-incubator-program-flying-start/)
**Published:** August 14, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Our consultancy service helped Energie Steiermark get its Next-Incubator program off to a flying start after the open call period ended last week.
**Content:**
The two-month application period, which ended on 31 July, resulted in 150 quality applications from 26 countries for the incubator, giving the Austrian regional energy provider numbers that surpassed its expectations.
The focus was on finding startups with new ideas for digital, scalable business models in Mobility, Fitness, Nutrition and Work-Life Balance.
As these topics reveal, Energie Steiermark is looking to expand into new markets. In recent years the company has founded an innovation department and embarked on a series of initiatives to develop new business models. These include founding an innovation department and running collaboration schemes like Next-Incubator.
“The number and quality of startup applications really went beyond what we expected,” said Christian Purrer, Board Member at Energie Steiermark. “Much of that is thanks to the great work Pioneers Discover did as they drove and managed the application phase. We’re exciting about continuing our partnership as we work towards building lasting partnerships with the best of these startups.”
“The need for us to look at future-facing business models and innovative approaches means we need to work towards new partnerships, and also be open to working with partners in other industries,” added Purrer, underlining the critical importance of corporations keeping close watch on all the opportunities the innovation scene has to offer.
The team has already completed a careful evaluation of the startups in conjunction with Energie Steiermark. From our shortlist of 30 startups, 10 will soon be selected for a final bootcamp in September, which Pioneers Discover is also helping to organise and moderate.
For further open call opportunities with Pioneers Discover please visit [](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/).
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Video: Pioneers Challenge Finalist Pitches At Pioneers'17](https://pioneers.io/video-pioneers-challenge-finalist-pitches-pioneers17/)
**Published:** August 16, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Eight finalists. Eight terrific ideas. Three minutes to impress the judges. And only one winner...watch the video of the high-stakes last round of pitching at Pioneers'17!
**Content:**
If there’s one thing that always packs out the Arena Stage as our flagship event reaches its zenith on the second day, it’s seeing those eight founders pitching their hearts out as they try to win Pioneers Challenge – and the trip to San Francisco that goes with it!
You’ve met the finalists on this blog over the last few weeks – now relive how they went about selling their ideas in the most high-pressure environment imaginable. And if you’ve been hiding under a rock and don’t know who walked off with victory, then see if you can spot the magic that earned Stromkind the prize!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Calling Health Startups: See You In Amsterdam?](https://pioneers.io/health-pioneers-open-call/)
**Published:** August 17, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Is your startup working in the broader healthcare field? Then we’re inviting you to apply for the chance to be one of the 100 who’ll get selected to join us at Health.Pioneers in Amsterdam this October. And be quick - we’ve already named the first handful of them and applications close on September 18!
**Content:**
Ahead of this dedicated health industry event on October 25, we’re looking for medical startups in the widest sense of the word. That means not only companies working on Personalized Medicine, Pharmacogenomics, Life Sciences, Biotech, Gene Therapy, Life Extension and Disease Prevention, but also in the emerging tech around Telehealth, eHealth, Smart Diagnostics, Quantified Self and Medical Data.
Startups developing AI & Machine Learning technologies related to health are also strongly encouraged to apply. And with health insurance set to undergo massive changes in the near future, so are those working on InsurTech.
As with all of our events, we’ll be hand-picking the best and most positive innovations out there. We don’t charge startups a penny, because we’re interested in nothing but the quality. So don’t hold back: if you’ve got a startup the world should know about, head over to our [application page](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/healthpioneers)!
More questions? Here are a few of the frequently-asked ones…
**Why should I participate in Health.Pioneers?**
This is one of the most founder-friendly events going. You’ll meet the best partners, investors, media and world-class, inspirational speakers. And as one of our selected startups, it’s free!
**How do I apply?**
Through the following link: [](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/healthpioneers). Fill in your application carefully, including your pitch deck and pictures. The more precise information you give, the better your chances. And the earlier you apply, the better. Remember the deadline is **September 18**.
**How are startups selected?**
This is based on pre-defined criteria including the product, traction, market potential and team evaluation, as well as the fit for the event. We’re continuously screening applications and evaluate them in collaboration with our key partners in the corporate, investment and startup communities.
**When will I know if I’m selected?**
We’ll get in touch with you by the end of September at the latest.
**What happens if I’m selected?**
You get one free ticket for all-inclusive access to the event.
**Can I get more than one free ticket?**
In order to keep the quality at this small-scale event, we’re only giving one free ticket per startup. Only pitching or exhibiting startups will be able to purchase extra tickets, at a reduced price of €190.
**How can I pitch or exhibit?**
We’ll select 15 pitching startups and 10 exhibiting startups around three weeks before the event. You don’t need to apply separately.
**What’s the prize for winning the pitching contest?**
The winning startup will be fast-tracked directly to the Pioneers Challenge Top 50 at Pioneers’18, which means pitching on stage at the Hofburg in Vienna. They will also earn significant exposure to media, investors and potential partners.
**How much does it cost?**
For selected startups, only travel and accommodation. Your event ticket is completely free of charge.
**What if I redeem my ticket but cannot attend after all?**
Please inform us by October 15, if this is the case, so we can allocate your ticket to another deserving startup. If you don’t let us know by this date, we reserve the right to charge a cancellation fee of €200 excluding VAT.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [GovTech: Why Europe Needs to Catch Up](https://pioneers.io/govtech-blog/)
**Published:** August 21, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** GovTech is currently a hot topic and a big opportunity. But it's hotter and bigger in other parts of the world than it is in Europe. Here's why we think that needs to change.
**Content:**
GovTech. The word’s been popping up more and more in the media of late. Like other relatively novel buzz phrases such as E-Government, autonomous driving, drones, robotic farming and more, it’s easy to use but sometimes little understood. So what exactly is GovTech?
GovTech has grown out of what were previously known as Government IT and CivicTech, which encompassed sales to governments and solutions with social impact respectively. But with Government IT having become more focused on convenience for users and CivicTech starting to tackle problems that fall under the responsibility of governments, we’ve witnessed the rise of a new innovative sector, [GovTech](https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/678661_7d9be48110df4611bf19d6e7441279b8.pdf).
**Market**
GovTech includes many different markets, including Administration & Finance, Health & Human Services, Public Safety & Justice, Transportation, Public Works, Education and Environment & Natural Resources. This means the GovTech space offers a multitude of opportunities for startups to be founded. GovTech companies are [defined](http://www.dustinhaisler.com/govtech-market/) as having a state, local or federal government as their primary market focus and as generating most of their revenue from the public sector.
Estimations vary, but it’s believed that governments around the world spend [more than $400 billion](http://govtechfund.com/2016/01/govtech-the-400-billion-market-hiding-in-plain-sight/) on GovTech, for solutions ranging from Planning & Code Enforcement and GIS mapping to fraud detection, tax collection and budgeting tools. The scope and cost of such services in this new market make it something of a treasure chest of opportunity for startups.
Another crucial (and often overlooked) fact is that governments themselves are the biggest enterprises of all. In the U.S., for example, 22 million people are employed by government – approximately 15% of the entire U.S. labor force in 2016. In a smaller country like Austria, [roughly 350,000 people](https://www.oeffentlicherdienst.gv.at/fakten/oesterreich/basiskenndaten/basiskenndaten.html) were employed at the state, local or federal government in 2015.
These factors considered, the digitalisation and innovation of governmental work will have a huge impact: the GovTech market is bigger than people think!
**Trends: Open Data**
Such a big market will always be affected by certain trends and initiatives within it – and vice versa.
Tableau published a [report](https://www.tableau.com/de-de/about/blog/2017/5/top-7-business-intelligence-trends-government-2017-69050) on upcoming government business intelligence trends for 2017, listing seven predictions for the current year. My team and I see one of these as the driving force behind stronger links between governments and their citizens: Open Data.
With free data released for public use having emerged in recent years, the promotion of transparency and collaboration between government and all its partners means there’s a growing need for technology that’s more citizen-centric and result-oriented.
**Wider Trends**
The participation of every single citizen – beyond just regular democratic elections – is a dream that could become reality, or even the status quo, in the near future. Citizen collaboration via interactive dashboards or so-called chatbots will lead to more transparency, accountability and efficiency from government, through extended involvement from the public.
This is just one example of the many services that are being touched by GovTech. And these could easily be extended by the implementation of autonomous vehicles, as seen in Singapore or Pittsburgh, or the use of machines, as already put into practice in agriculture in Japan, where robots run whole farms.
Why would these lie within the field of GovTech? When you think about it, all of these emerging technologies can/will/should (or however you want to put it) be fostered and legislated by relevant authorities. And, you may have read in my previous blog post about implementing UBI, the automation of jobs will have a huge impact on citizens’ daily lives.
**GovTech in Europe: Room for Improvement**
The above examples hint that the promotion of GovTech is more advanced in other parts of the world than in Europe. This is particularly true in the U.S., especially in leading cities such as San Francisco or Pittsburgh. Whereas Europe is not keeping pace with the ongoing technological progress in the U.S., many Asian countries do. Thailand set aside [$425 million](https://govinsider.asia/smart-gov/governments-startups-public-private-partnerships/?ct=t(GI_WSub381.1)&mc_cid=bedfc6d010&mc_eid=3fef0384ba) to boost its startup ecosystem, setting the focus on food, agriculture, high-tech, healthcare, lifestyle and culture. Dubai wants to become the [smartest city in the world](http://www.smartdubai.ae/story_one.php), implementing technologies as Blockchain and Big Data – and a ‘Happiness Meter’ as a digital initiative for quantifying happiness. Singapore is already considered the ‘[top Digital Nation in the Asia-Pacific](http://www.sgsme.sg/news/singapore-top-digital-nation-asia-pacific)’ due to its success attracting and retaining digital talent, enabling access to financial capital and building a strong digital community.
And Europe? While some regions have realised that governments need active support in their ever-accelerating digitalisation, Europe’s decision-makers are struggling to keep pace. To use the [words](http://digital.canada.ca/2017/07/18/launch-of-the-canadian-digital-service/) of Scott Brison (President of the Canadian Treasury Board), ‘you’re either digital or you’re dead. You can’t be a Blockbuster government serving a Netflix citizenry.’
This on-going digitalisation and innovation has influenced the work of governments and their citizens worldwide but not Europe. This continent is widely untouched by GovTech, and my intention is to foster the development of GovTech in European countries. Good reasons include:
- GovTech digitizes key functions of governance and public life. It will make new technologies accessible and easy to use, which means more citizens will have the chance to participate, as is being observed in [Singapore](https://www.techinasia.com/govtech-launch-singapore).
- GovTech simplifies the sharing of data and analytics between different government departments. This allows health, transportation, mobility, urban planning, energy, social, and education services to work together smoothly and efficiently.
- GovTech will lead to more transparency, addressing concerns about security and privacy while making processes as administrative acts, transactions and interactions of governments more visible for their citizens.
Despite perennial criticism and doubts about certain issues around the digitalisation of government, which may not be completely unreasonable and must be taken into account, we agree with Bill Peduto, the mayor of Pittsburgh, who [said to the New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/technology/no-driver-bring-it-on-how-pittsburgh-became-ubers-testing-ground.html), ‘either you put up red tape or roll out the red carpet. But if you want to be a 21st-century laboratory for technology, you put out the carpet.’
So, let’s roll out the carpet for GovTech in Europe. The services and infrastructure surrounding GovTech are open for innovation and new technology. Furthermore the possibility to protect jobs and generate new ones by founding companies in the space is a bright prospect. And so is building a strong network between governments and their citizens by using technology to facilitate co-operation. For us, these are the key reasons we need to foster GovTech on a broad scale in Europe.
**For more information and inquiries for Pioneers Public Sector, please drop us a line under public@pioneers.io**
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Video: Unspoken Snapchat Marketing Secrets](https://pioneers.io/video-unspoken-snapchat-marketing-secrets/)
**Published:** August 28, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Does Snapchat trump Instagram? Why is a Snapchat follower the most expensive and valuable of them all? And what use does the platform have for business marketing? Subject specialist Virginia Kastilio reveals the answers in this video of her talk from Pioneers'17.
**Content:**
Virginia is CEO of Ginicanbreathe, which proclaims itself the only specialist Snapchat consultancy and agency in the world. No wonder she taught the audience a few things they didn’t know in this talk!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [GovTech at Pioneers’17: Shaping the Future of Governments](https://pioneers.io/how-govtech-pioneers17-came-together/)
**Published:** September 4, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Bringing together tomorrow's decision-makers to tackle the daily challenges European governments face by finding innovative technological solutions – all in a two-hour session within one of Europe’s biggest innovation and tech events – is certainly no easy task. But, at Pioneers’17, that’s exactly what we did!
**Content:**
And it proved to be quite the success. GovTech Pioneers’17, a gathering of decision makers, city representatives, politicians and carefully selected startups, kicked off our initiative to foster the implementation of governmental technologies in European countries. With luminaries including European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip and former Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev in attendance, the vote of confidence was clear.
But how and why did we come to see this as an important addition to the already-huge event at the Hofburg? Let’s take a step back and look at the broader picture.
In recent years, the European startup scene has become increasingly active, catching up with the likes of the United States and Israel. While initial growth centred around the private sector, politicians slowly realized that innovation might be more than just a winning topic for their next election: it could also be something with real impact on modernizing the public sector. That’s when Pioneers began working with governmental agencies and ministries around the world, helping startup ecosystems encourage innovation in this area. But this work remained predominantly behind-the-scenes, insofar as it wasn’t really seen at our events.
In the summer of 2016, though, we decided to change that by planning our dedicated GovTech session at Pioneers’17. As part of such a colourful, fun and big event, this was a tremendous opportunity to bring a new and vibrant touch to normally bone-dry government gatherings. Here, uniquely, top political decision makers could discuss practical implementations and their future visions with young and energetic startup founders, as well as leading experts in their respective fields. We wanted to take people out of their comfort zone, open their eyes and facilitate new ways of thinking.
We planned a workshop that wouldn’t just bring 30 people together, but also offer a balance between keynotes and interactive work. And an outcome that would help build the next phase of our GovTech work.
**Rosen Plevneliev, former President of Bulgaria**
Short speaking slots got proceedings underway at the Hofburg. In State of GovTech, a presentation given by Maximilian Schnödl, COO of Accela, the group gained an insight into what the term ‘GovTech’ actually means, and which services have already been transformed by digitalisation. Would governments be next in a long line of industries to be disrupted by these technologies?
Daniel Korski, former special advisor to David Cameron and founder and CEO of Public.io, then highlighted the staggering $400bn size of the market. Following an overview on GovTech, his keynote demonstrated the rise in sector investments, highly evident in the US, where the money invested into GovTech more than quadrupled from 2012 to 2016.
Stefan Ebner, CEO of Braintribe, had some jaw-dropping use cases prepared for his keynote. What if you had a whole pool of data, but also the key tools to unify people and information, along with the technology to build a smart city data pool that allows us visualize all our own data? It would mean greater transparency and efficiency for governments, who could as a consequence win back the trust of their citizens.
**European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip**
After the keynote speakers finished their presentations, the participants were split up into five groups of six to discuss pre-selected issues: Transnational Governance & Security, Energy Efficiency, Citizen Collaboration, Implementing Blockchain Technology Citywide and E-Identity Solutions.
We were curious to find out what the political decision-makers would make of the ‘out of the box’ solutions startups came up with, thinking that we might have to help the dialogue along. In reality, the session almost ran itself. You could almost hear the synergies in the room, filled as it was with the sound of notes being made and challenges being solved.
After the 45-minute discussions, we genuinely ended up with what everyone wanted: outcomes. Whether it was the implementation of Blockchain to guarantee a “Smart City” future, new citizen collaboration platforms that would foster political participation for all, or examples of how to best use E-Identity in a digital administration, the group leaders gave us more than an inkling of where the GovTech action will be in the future.
It’s clear that ongoing digitalization will have a huge influence on the public sector, also offering a variety of opportunities to improve governments and make them more efficient and transparent.
Pioneers’ goal isn’t just to ‘let GovTech happen’ but to be one of its initiators and main drivers. But here’s the big question: are all decision makers and initiators on board when it comes to GovTech and its potential?
We don’t believe all of them are – yet. So we see it as our job to raise awareness of the importance of GovTech for everyone in the ecosystem, from governments themselves to the companies offering products and solutions in this field. Setting up a community and working on concrete solutions for our governments is the ultimate vision, and with the execution of GovTech Pioneers’17 we overturned the first domino. Now the play begins…
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Co-Create The Future at Wienerberger Innovation Day!](https://pioneers.io/co-create-future-wienerberger-innovation-day/)
**Published:** September 6, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Discover and Wienerberger, the global supplier of sustainable, outstanding building and infrastructure solutions, are inviting startups to apply for the Wienerberger Innovation Day in January.
**Content:**
Wienerberger’s Clay Building Materials Europe Division is looking for startups who can work with them as they strive to improve quality of life by developing the next generation of building materials, tools and services. Hence the Innovation Day they’re planning in conjunction with Pioneers Discover, which takes place in Vienna on January 25 next year.
The Division’s brief is to develop solutions that can help decrease the costs of end-to-end processes, costs of construction and ultimate cost of living. They’re keen to meet the innovators who can collaborate with them to achieve this goal.
This open call is aimed at startups working in the following four main areas:
- **Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality** improving efficiency along the entire value chain
- **Robotics** enhancing the production & construction process
- **Data Analytics & Sensors** automating predictive maintenance & services
- **Materials, 3D Printing & Prefab** improving product range & manufacturing
View further details and apply to be a part of the Wienerberger Innovation Day via . Applications are open until October 31.
Visit the same link to apply for our other open calls, including for the **‘What the Data!?’** Hackathon and the **Pioneers Discover Hackathon Series.**
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Model Collaborations: Growing the Government Community](https://pioneers.io/model-collaborations-growing-government-community/)
**Published:** October 17, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Collaboration is a hot theme in GovTech at the moment - not just between governments and citizens but between different authorities too. We spoke with three of the startups who attended our two-hour GovTech Pioneers session at Pioneers’17, to learn how they’re helping make co-operation a reality.
**Content:**
Once upon a time, the only time governments got feedback from their citizens would come at the moment they got booted out (or otherwise) at the polling station. But thanks to innovative technological tools from GovTech startups, that’s all beginning to change – and change for the better.
These new developments in the burgeoning GovTech field have ushered in a new era in which ongoing dialogue between governments and their people is gradually becoming a given. Likewise, it’s now easier than ever for different cities, states or countries to share what’s working – and what’s not – with each other. For startups, facilitating these collaborations continues to represent a huge opportunity.
Enter three young companies who’ve stepped up to provide solutions around collaboration in governance.
Two-year-old Belgian startup [CitizenLab](https://www.citizenlab.co/) has created a civic engagement platform that allows for clearly-defined dialogue and decision-making around issues or projects relevant to city residents. Their solution is a slick, youth-oriented replacement for traditional town hall meetings that tend to attract the same old faces time after time.
[Bulbshare](https://bulbshare.com/en/) is also bridging the gap between governments and citizens in a slightly different way, thanks to co-creation software that allows governments to get feedback from highly targeted audiences. The British startup’s offering allows its clients to create relevant content, policy and innovation. It was recently nominated for a Tech4Good Award.
[Apolitical](https://apolitical.co/) is improving collaboration from a different angle, providing a much-needed global platform for civil servants to talk to each other, sharing learnings and ideas. Working hand-in-hand with the platform is a content strategy – executed by writers with great credentials – that focuses on good-news stories around innovation in the public sector. And they’ll be attending [GovTech Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers/#/) again in 2018, when it will be expanded to a full-day event.
And the early signs for all the startups are very promising, insofar as they’ve all achieved a level of government adoption in very little time. That’s something that’s a lot less tricky than it used to be, with the startups are encountering an increasingly open-minded generation of civil servants.
“In Belgium, the attitude to innovation is pretty positive,” says CitizenLab co-founder Wietse van Ransbeek. “Every city and municipality has discovered the concept of the smart city and they are meeting vendors in this area. They’re looking at citizen-facing communications and the cloud in order to serve citizens better.
“Our first pilot was in the city of Hasselt, where citizens got to have a say in the features of a new park. We’re now working with around 50 cities in Europe, including Den Haag and Brussels.”
Among the early wins for Bulbshare, meanwhile, was working with Public Health England to build its Rise Above youth campaign through dialogue with a community of young people well-versed in the topic.
“In our experience, governments are increasingly looking for new ideas, fresh perspectives and creative solutions to their daily challenges,” says Bulbshare’s Marketing Director Michael Wylie-Harris. “I think we’ll see more and more partnering between governments and new startups in the future, as they look to pioneer innovation and connect to younger audiences.”
Apolitical, founded by highly-connected entrepreneurs and storytellers Robyn Scott and Lisa Witter, is also finding a lot of early interest in its platform, from both governments and individual public service users. Having only been launched at the end of June, it already has users from 99 countries. They’re actively learning about each other’s policies and practices, not just by reading documents but by engaging in useful dialogue with their counterparts.
“The British, Australian, Canadian and UAE governments have all been very engaged and supportive so far,” says Scott. “And while it’s too early for policy implementation success stories, the first signs are positive. We know, for example, that public servants have used the platform to learn from other countries about issues ranging from helping indigenous populations reduce youth suicide to regulating autonomous vehicles.“
“The GovTech market is estimated to be worth around $400bn, but historically it’s been dominated by large corporates. This is changing with a tide of great new startups serving the public sector and building incredible services which governments are increasingly keen use.“
“The scale and pace change that government needs to address – whether through better policies or more innovative partners – is an enormous opportunity. This was made starkly clear to me before we started the company when I mentioned the idea to a friend at Singularity University who I expected to be very sceptical of the idea. ‘You must do this,“ he told me, “We have politicians and senior government officials rocking up here every week and asking us to help them deal with the future.’”
But critical to the best new innovations actually improving future government, of course, is that the innovators behind them actually get a foot in the door.
Part of Bulbshare’s success is in facilitating exactly that. One case study is its work with the British Council to develop education tech products in six different cities, through connecting the body with forward-thinking and innovative graduates representative of the audience.
Apolitical is also planning to help startups get in the room with governments. In future it wants to have a listing of innovative small providers included on its platform, allowing civil servants and startups easier access to each other than ever before.
“Helping small companies with very few connections get to the right people in government is very close to our hearts as entrepreneurs,” says Scott. “And a lot of governments have ambitious commitments to work more with small companies.”
And when these GovTech startups *do* get that big meeting in the diary, they’ll find some of the regulatory challenges less onerous, adds Van Ransbeek.
“Until June this year, the threshold for tendering in Belgium was just €8,500,” he observes. “That made it very hard for startups to do business with government, because for work above that level you had to do a long procurement or tender process that could take many months. Now it’s €30,000 across Europe and that’s a big change for the industry. A barrier to entry is being torn down.”
While the two founders echo the industry wisdom that innovative collaboration models are going to become widespread in cities sooner than at state or national level, it’s equally worth noting that opportunities aren’t limited to the usual suspects in Northern Europe and the rich world.
“India is a place of huge dynamism in government, running experiments at a scale that they’re often super interesting for many other countries,” says Scott. “In Bhubaneswar they have been involving kids in the city design process, and it’s been so successful that they’ve set up children’s audit committees to review new developments. Another example is Medellin in Colombia, which is one of the most innovative cities in the world.
“There is in fact a ton of stuff wealthier countries can learn from poor countries that never had certain infrastructures and are now ‘leapfrogging’ directly to something better.”
Wherever you look in the world, though, the end goal of improving collaboration models through GovTech is much the same for all three of the startups we spoke to: more accountable, streamlined and informed governments that ultimately provide a better service for their citizens.
“Technology will not only help governments become more effective and efficient,” concludes Wylie-Harris. “It can also improve the way they communicate with voters, facilitating more transparent processes and more democratic relationships. The sky’s the limit!”
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Pioneers Ventures invests in hiMoment](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-ventures-invests-himoment/)
**Published:** October 30, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Our investment arm is pleased to announce that it has joined in the pre-seed round raised by Health.Pioneers category winner hiMoment. The funding will help the young Austrian company in its aim to make 100,000 people happier through its novel and creative ‘digital happiness gym.’
**Content:**
In April this year we introduced the intriguing [hiMoment](https://himoment.com/) concept to our readers, in a blog post, which you can read [here](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/how-become-irritatingly-happy-guy).
That was just a couple of months after they’d launched the version of their app for public use. Since then the user base has kept on growing, and now sits around 1,500 regulars. Enough of a rise to get investors seriously interested in its potential.
The €250,000 total investment means hiMoment, which has thus far been grown just by its co-founders Christoph Schnedlitz and Jan Hruby, can now begin to add to its team.
“We’ll primarily be investing the money in people,” says Schnedlitz, who came out on top of the Preventive Medicine & Digital Health Pathways during the pitching contest at [Health.Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/health-pioneers-summary) last week. “Our goal is to make 100,000 people happier over the next year, by delivering happiness algorithmically. For this we need scientists, artificial intelligence specialists and people who can help grow its user base.
“We’re looking to start working with a team of five and take it from there. Once we’ve established this core group of employees, we have some more ideas about where we can take things.”
Schnedlitz pitched during the Roasted! session at Pioneers’17 at the start of June, which kicked off a busy summer during which hiMoment sealed this first round of funding.
“Pitching at Roasted! was actually great fun – we got a lot of very good feedback on that. The judges couldn’t really find an angle they could use to make fun of me!
“It was very tough to close an investment round over the summer, when deals generally don’t happen. But by the end of August we got there! I’m pleased that Pioneers Ventures and the other investors have bought into our vision.”
The three investors joining Pioneers Ventures in the pre-seed round are Markus Ertler, Hermann Futter and KaPa Ventures. Besides the cash, the investors committed to supporting the startup, especially in the fields of growth, corporate development and future fundraising.
“The story of each of these investors and how I met them is very unique. Some of these encounters kind of happened by chance, but we’ve learned that first you work really hard then you’ll be in a good position to take advantage of those moments.”
“The mental health market is already big and will be growing for sure, with the rise of individualism and social pressure in our society. We’ve seen a lot of startups in that field, but hiMoment really impressed us with their scientific methodology and algorithmic approach”, says Philipp Stangl, MD at Pioneers Ventures.
“KaPa Ventures saw the huge potential of the AI-based coaching, while our brand agency Foon is convinced that hiMoment’s story and vision hits a nerve in today’s society.” says Gerhard Pail from KaPa Ventures
“Every investor is searching for a hiMoment – and the chance to find it has never been better” says Hermann Futter, business angel and director of the Compass Verlag.
“Before there is a product, an MVP, even an idea, there’s an entrepreneur with a spark in his eyes. I saw the team on their first pitch when they had little more to show than a couple of powerpoint slides. And I knew this would be good.” says Markus Ertler, business angel and former founder himself.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Why Your Company Needs A Hackathon](https://pioneers.io/does-your-company-need-hackathon/)
**Published:** November 9, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** With Pioneers Discover having rounded off yet another successful hackathon as the Industry 4.0 Hackathon wrapped up in Linz yesterday, it’s a good time for a reminder of what larger firms can get out of one of these rapid prototyping events run by our consultancy arm. To this end, we asked a few corporates just where the real value lies for them.
**Content:**
A hackathon is an intense and competitive session, most typically lasting 48 hours, in which carefully-selected startups (and sometimes single developers or students) work on solutions to real-world challenges issued by the event’s corporate partners. While this week’s three-day hackathon in Linz focused on industrial solutions, we’ve run hackathons on everything from [Data](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/apply-what-data-hackathon-and-win-pioneers18-tickets) to [Arts & Culture](https://pioneers.io/blog/post/qiues-hot-idea-wins-vc-culttech-hackathon) this year alone.
Hackathons, which effectively give partners hundreds of hours of R&D time from hand-picked innovators spurred on by an element of competition, are gaining momentum across a range of industries. First, we asked the three partners we worked with in Linz – all of whom were getting involved in a hackathon for the very first time – for their first impressions.
“It went far beyond our expectations,” said Gerald Aigner, R&D Innovation Manager at Fronius, a global industry leader in the fields of welding technology, photovoltaics and battery charging tech. “Not only were the outcomes great for us, but also the way the outcomes were reached.
“Hackathons are very time efficient. If we did this by ourselves, by contacting the startups and inviting them to make presentations, it would take half a year. Here we have everything done in two and a half days! Not just that, but we can compare the solutions directly instead of seeing one in the first month and the last one six months later.”
“We really learned a lot and we are excited to have found out what was possible in 48 hours,” added Thomas Linde, Executive Vice President of Industrial Automation at international automation solutions company KEBA, whose challenge winner Craftworks also shared overall startup honours at the hackathon. “Normally we would spend as much time as that just talking about how to set up a project!”
“To work in this strict timeline with a real challenge, towards a prototype in the end, is something we could do ourselves. But to have five teams at the same time working on it, and giving you five interesting and different solutions? That would be impossible within the company. And if you can take the best of them and put them into one solution, it’s a big win.”
“I was really surprised with the good results we saw within just a few hours here,” said Marion Heinzelmann, Head of Innovation at Wienerberger, the global supplier of sustainable, outstanding building and infrastructure solutions, which has also asked Pioneers Discover to help run its Wienerberger Innovation Day in January. “It was really close between the top three in our category, and choosing the winner was difficult.
“It was amazing how little input was needed in order for the startups and developers to understand the challenge. It’s not like you have to write an 80-page document of what the outcome should be. You give a simple couple of sentences about the problem, and they come up with a solution that fits perfectly.
“There’s so much to learn, it’s really good to look outside the usual places to find it. A hackathon gives a really good overview of what possibilities are on the market. There is so much potential, and in order to create the future we need to access all of it. That’s the reason why every company should join a hackathon.”
In the end, Wienerberger actually went for one of the single developers we had invited when they chose their favourite solution in Linz, with hackathon regular Sarah Steininger then also sharing the overall prize with Craftworks. The winner of the challenge for Fronius was digitilisation startup iTiZZiMo.
The benefits of a hackathon are clear, if not even more so, in an arena such as culture, where exposure to technology was limited until our VC CultTech Hackathon in Vienna in September. Dmitry Aksenov, the Russian businessman who is also Chairman of the Board of viennacontemporary, points to such events as an important way for cultural institutions to safeguard their future.
“In practical terms there hasn’t been much interaction between culture and technology,” he says. “Cultural institutions are all experiencing diminishing funding and disruption of existing models. They have to think about how they can fit into this.
“We had knowledge of both technology and culture, so we decided to take on this specific sector. We wanted to create challenges and test the water. So we set up the hackathon with Pioneers Discover. And the answers to the hackathon challenges not only helped promote the institutions’ products but also to gain revenue.”
Aksenov’s words are another clear endorsement of the often immediate business benefits of actively seeking startup collaborations. It’s a broadly recurring theme across all industries right now, and one that naturally cropped up at our Health.Pioneers event in Amsterdam last month.
“Events like this are an excellent platform for startups to meet ‘slow’ corporates like us,” grinned Min-Sung Sean Kim of Allianz Ventures, in a light moment during the Health Startups & Corporations – Models of Collaboration panel discussion. But he wasn’t exactly kidding.
“Big companies like us need smaller ones who can take big risks,” added fellow panellist Rocco van den Berg of Philips HealthWorks. “Startups who have no legacy and can often move faster than we can. No single company in our industry can face its challenges on their own today…we need to face them through collaborations with startups.”
Time-limited hackathons are of course the perfect stage for innovators to prove they’ve got the speed van den Berg says is attractive to large companies. Hackathons give them the chance for their creative solutions to take center stage in front of decision-makers in their specific industry, as well as great networking and one-on-one mentoring with the same. For a startup, a hackathon is also an excellent opportunity to see how their ideas or technologies work with respect to real-world use cases.
Finally, bear in mind that hackathons are just one possible form a startup-corporate collaboration event can take. Another of our partners, Booking.com, for example, has asked us to run a series of weekend mentorship programs with sustainable tourism startups we’ve scouted. While these aren’t classic ‘solve-a-problem-fast’ hackathons, they are another great way for collaborations and even investments to develop. Stay tuned for an update on our project with Booking.com next week!
**Interested in Pioneers Discover running a hackathon on your behalf? Email discover@pioneers.io**
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Mobility.Pioneers Interview: How Startup-Driven Innovation Fuels Automation](https://pioneers.io/mobilitypioneers-interview-how-startup-driven-innovation-fuels-automation/)
**Published:** November 22, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** With automation a recurring theme in the world of innovation bubbling around the automotive sector at the moment, this topic was an automatic choice as one of the primary themes for our Mobility.Pioneers event in Munich on February 8. With international parts manufacturer Magna recently having launched its MAX4 platform, we talk automation and innovation with its VP Business Development, R&D, Ian Simmons, and explore what to expect from them on-site as our partner returns to get behind the automation pitching sessions.
**Content:**
Our program in Germany will cover five main tracks, namely Automation, Connectivity, Shared Use, Electrification and Open Innovation. And while a diverse and tech-hungry business like Magna is interested in every one of these aspects, Automation is one with a particular focus following the recent launch of [MAX4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpak88ElN4Y).
A fully integrated, customizable and scalable autonomous driving sensing and compute platform that can enable up to Level 4 autonomous driving capabilities, MAX4 is an example of Magna’s ambition in this area. Making platforms that can work with all the big brands shows that the company is not content to stay in the shadows of auto manufacturers that might happen to be household names.
“We continue to try and push the boundaries of innovation for products,” says Simmons, who will act as one of the jury for the Automation pitching sessions. “For anyone in the automotive world right now, there is a huge amount going on in innovation and technology. And for us autonomous vehicles are a big push towards coming up with IP and technologies that will enable autonomous capability in the future. We’re leading a lot of that work today.
“We had a very good experience with Pioneers in 2017 and we wanted to repeat that next year, perhaps with a higher profile. And since we continue to look for new innovations and technologies that we can add to our product portfolio, it’s a natural fit.”
“Last year people came along that were a fit for Magna, both on the automotive product side and on the manufacturing side. We had interaction with people who recognize the value of Tier ones. They were all proactive and interested in sharing information with us, so it was just overall a very good experience.
“As part of the prizegiving process we also managed to highlight who Magna is and why we were there. I think a lot of people don’t specifically know those things, even if they’re familiar with the name. They don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
And that outline is important when it comes to Magna forming partnerships with startups, says Simmons. Because sometimes innovators don’t actually know that they might be sitting on an application that might be useful to big companies.
“In many cases when we talk to startups or companies in other vertical spaces, they will have a technology or an innovation that they don’t understand has a direct implication into automotive or manufacturing. So not only is it important for us to talk to people who understand what mobility and automotive is, but also to other industries that have new technologies but might not understand their relevance to automotive and manufacturing.”
Thanks to the careful startup selection process, Magna will once again be able to count on meeting startups that might not have ‘mobility’ or ‘automation’ on their labels but nonetheless have synergies. Startups are growing in awareness, thanks to the increased buzz and awareness around automation in particular.
“Our message is that we’re open for business and looking for companies to bring their technologies. And if we think it’s applicable then we think we’re a good partner to work with!
“Two or three years ago we had to go out and explain who we are and why we had an interest in these technologies. Now I think the message is finally resonating. Now they at least come and talk to us. People are now saying ‘hey, I’ve got this new widget, we think it fits automotive.’ And we obviously engage accordingly.
“Companies that are curious about what automation and mobility is going forward are attracted to attend the event because it’s a learning process for them. And for us to have a voice expressing our needs is obviously important.”
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Applications Open for May 2018 goAustria Program](https://pioneers.io/applications-open-may-2018-goaustria-program/)
**Published:** December 12, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Our latest Open Call, for the May 2018 goAustria program, is now live until February 25th. Pioneers Discover will manage scouting the best startups from the Middle East, Asia and Japan, as well as partner with the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) in organizing the two-week incubator, which runs from May 22nd to June 6th next year and includes attendance at Pioneers’18 for the selected startups.
**Content:**
In line with the other programs of the Global Incubator Network (GIN), which oversees goAustria, our consultancy arm is looking for startups from South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Israel. Later-stage startups will have preference for the May program, while female founders are particularly encouraged to apply.
Startups will ideally be working in ICT, with the primary focus on IoT, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security and Blockchain, along with their application fields.
And what’s in it for the 10 startups selected to join the program? Apart from the high point of gaining access to Pioneers’18 in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace, the chosen founders will take part in exclusive, tailored workshops, learning about developing business models for the Austrian and European single market. They’ll each be assigned a personal mentor with deep knowledge of the local scene and the connections to develop internationalization plans.
Another highlight will be the second GIN Corporate Day, the perfect chance for the startups to meet as many corporate partners as possible through a business speed-dating session. Altogether the founders will get an introduction to a network of 300 investors and business angels during the May 2018 goAustria program, with opportunities to pitch to a selection of them.
Participation is limited to one person per startup, with flights, accommodation and co-working space in Vienna also included.
Apply now [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/open-calls#/). The Open Call ends on February 25th.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Happy New Year: Pioneers Gets Set for a Bumper 2018](https://pioneers.io/happy-new-year-pioneers-gets-set-bumper-2018/)
**Published:** January 10, 2018
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Now that the new year is fully up and running, here’s the lowdown on the latest exciting confirmed key speakers and partnerships
we’ve got in store for our three major events in the first half of 2018. With two industry-focussed events and our annual flagship event, it’s safe to say we’ve got
something pioneering in the pipeline for startups, corporates and investors from every industry!
**Content:**
The Pioneers highlights over the next six months will be [breaking frontiers in the automotive sector](https://pioneers.io/events/mobility-pioneers#/) in Munich in February, introducing a [new era in the European GovTech field](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers#/) and exploring the ever-fuzzier boundaries between deep tech and humanity across various industries at our [flagship event](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/) in Vienna end of May.
With less than a month to go until the second edition of **Mobility.Pioneers** in Munich on February 8th, it’s our pleasure to confirm that amongst other key players in the industry like Mate Rimac, Founder & CEO of Rimac Automobili and Assaf Harel, Co-founder & CTO at Karamba Security, Facebook’s Head of Automotive Strategy Christoph Stadeler will also appear on stage to present a talk entitled Digitalisation.Acceleration. He’ll share insights from his many years of industry experience as well as his current role.
As we continue to drive startup-corporate collaboration in our events, Mobility.Pioneers will, besides the usual pitching competition, also be the setting for a [hackathon](https://pioneers.io/discover/mobility-hackathon) run by our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover. The rapid prototyping session will address innovation challenges from partners such as OEBB (the Austrian Federal Railways) and DB (the German Railways). The session will last two and a half days and address key topics such as blockchain identity management. The winning team will be announced at the main event during the overall award ceremony.
Moving onto the second of our full-day industry-focussed events, we are proud to introduce a new era of bringing startup-driven innovation into the public sector as we host the very first GovTech event in Europe. After showcasing our special interest in this topic with a two-hour session during Pioneers’17, **GovTech.Pioneers** will take place in Vienna’s Palais Wertheim on May 23rd – a day before our flagship event, Pioneers’18, kicks off in the Hofburg Imperial Palace. The first three high-quality speakers who’ll be joining and helping us look into how tech enablers foster the digital transformation of governments include Carrie Bishop, the first Chief Digital Services Officer of San Francisco, former Estonian Chief Information Officer & Plumbr VP of Sales Taavi Kotka and Jonathan Reichental, CIO of Palo Alto in California.
The event will bring together 400 decision-makers, including leading politicians and public CIO’s, together with corporations and VC’s, along with 100 selected Seed and Series A startups and key international media.
“GovTech will save the future,” says Reichental, who is leading the public sector change in the birthplace of Silicon Valley. “Our cities are at a critical point. Without change, the trajectory must concern us all. Whether it’s climate change, clean water, clean air, clean energy, waste management, transportation, and so much more; we have important choices ahead.
“If we want a quality future, we’ll need to reinvent how much of our cities operate. Without a doubt, new technologies and new providers will emerge to try to solve our challenges. As computer scientist, but also a person passionate about the future of our cities, I want to inspire and be inspired by new solutions in this space. GovTech.Pioneers provides both opportunities. I can’t wait,” concludes Jonathan, neatly reflecting the sentiments we at Pioneers have for the event.
Turning attention to our annual flagship event on May 24-25th at the Imperial Hofburg Palace, **Pioneers’18** will again host 2500 leading tech innovators from over 100 nations. The 2017 edition of the event recently won the beaworld ‘Best Conference 2017’ Award.
Already on our list of the first 3 confirmed speakers is Ryan Holmes, CEO of SpaceVR, a company creating ‘virtual space tourism’ through a combination of virtual reality and satellite technology. He’ll speak around the topic of Exploration of New Spaces. Then there’s Jeff Burton, a co-founder at Electronic Arts, who is now at the helm of Holodeck VR, a startup which seeks to deliver truly emotional virtual reality experiences unlike anything that’s been done before. We’ll also welcome David Bishop to speak at Pioneers’18, former President of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment.
We’re also pleased to announce that besides once again working with key media partner CNBC, we’re also extending our partnership with PwC into a fourth year with an even greater scope that focuses on connecting startups and corporations. Besides remaining the key partner to the early-stage startups focussed program, Pioneers500, PwC will this year, together with some of their key clients, join us in selecting the Top 50 who’ll get to pitch at the Hofburg. Furthermore, together with our consultancy services arm Pioneers Discover, they will release a report on the selected and attending 500 seed and Series A startups.
“I’m very happy to be extending our partnership! It’s now the fourth time we’re bringing together established companies, startups and founders at the Pioneers flagship event in the Hofburg, as we’re now more convinced than ever that both sides can benefit from each other. The creative exchange between the Old and New Economy provides valuable impetus, promotes innovation and creates new and intelligent solutions. This not only strengthens international companies in the long term, but also Austria as a business environment,” said Rudolf Krickl, Partner and Head of Middle Market at PwC Austria.
As usual, the winners of the startup pitching contests at both industry-focussed events will be fast-tracked into the Top 50 at Pioneers’18, which means the opportunity to pitch once more at our flagship event as part of the P500 program’s Pioneers Challenge Award.
For more details on all three events, as well as the upcoming series of “Office Hours in CEE” with our investment arm Pioneers Ventures and all other Pioneers Discover projects, please visit [](https://pioneers.io). To get tickets or to apply as a startup, please visit our [events page](https://pioneers.io/events).
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [From Smarter Programs to Engaging Competition: New Best Practices in Corporate Innovation](https://pioneers.io/smarter-programs-engaging-competition-new-best-practices-corporate-innovation/)
**Published:** February 27, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** In the space of a few short years, most corporates have moved from having very limited collaboration programs to a strong culture of working with startups. Now innovation managers are starting to drive a third-wave shift, in which collaboration programs have more focused structures and target clear outcomes. And, as the boundaries between industries and markets blur, companies are also recognizing the value of working with their peers.
**Content:**
**By Natalia Gricovkanics and Ruby Wallen, Pioneers Discover**
In the space of a few short years, most corporates have moved from having very limited collaboration programs to a strong culture of working with startups. Now innovation managers are starting to drive a third-wave shift, in which collaboration programs have more focused structures and target clear outcomes. And, as the boundaries between industries and markets blur, companies are also recognizing the value of working with their peers.
Here we examine three of these emerging trends in how corporates are achieving the fastest, best innovation results they can.
**Focused, Customized Startup Programs**
With the development and maturing of the startup ecosystem, entrepreneurs are selecting partnership opportunities and formats corporate collaboration formats with more care and awareness than ever before. At the same time, collaboration with startups has become a strategic imperative for the companies with the goal to deeply integrate startups solutions into current or future company products and services.
Looking at the examples of innovation activities of some of the big players, we’re seeing signs of a move from pre-defined innovation programs (sometimes these were actually focused more on branding or hiring than solutions!) to an ongoing collaboration approach with the emphasis on qualitative co-creation and co-development. *Creators Expedition*, a startup initiative of **AVL List**, the world’s leading independent engineering company for powertrain systems, is running a program tailor-made for each startup. The idea is to find the best approach to running a successful PoC with individual startups and scale the solution in the fastest time possible.
**Airbus BizLab**, the global aerospace accelerator for startups and **Airbus** intrapreneurs, is another example of a successful program focusing on the close collaboration with startups that integrates many of them into the Airbus business within six months. These examples show how collaboration to moved towards a focus on achieving tangible results, which not only serve the companies’ core competencies but also speed up transformational changes.
**Choosing with Care: More Resources for Startup Selection**
With the market becoming more and more saturated with Corporate-Startup Collaboration opportunities in varied formats – and also with good startups – there’s a trend towards more time, effort and resources being invested by both sides in verifying whether there is a match. It invariably makes sense to do so before entering into a more extensive partnership or program.
A best practice of this activity can be seen by **Merck**. Startups identified as strong candidates for its accelerator program are flown in (at Merck’s expense) from around the world for **Selection Days**. The two-day program is aimed at validating the startups as a fit for Merck, and vice versa. The selection days include an ‘office hours’ approach in which internal experts are invited to meet the startups to determine the technical feasibility of a partnership.
**Vattenfall** is another example of best practice in the field – within the framework of their open innovation platform **Green:field**. After a rigorous internal process to find the top innovation fields to pursue, the top startups working on the selected topics are identified and invited to meet Vattenfall innovation team and topic experts at a **Co-Creation Day**. During the day, startups and internal experts meet for in-depth discussion about what a PoC could look like, what resource would be involved and what the outcome could be.
This rising trend is another way in which corporate-startup collaboration is moving from high-level, general programs towards a more hands-on approach and tangible results.
**From Competition To Collaboration: Corporates Working Together**
With emerging disruptive technologies affecting existing business models, even the most stable and advanced companies are struggling to follow trends and keep their business at the forefront of the market. Even the traditional definition of a company’s ‘market’ is getting reshaped. At the same time, startups are also moving their focus from the use cases for a single industry to providing solutions which serve a diversity of industries and cross-sector markets.
These developments, along with the changes in global macrotrends, bring us to the point where industry boundaries are blurring and certain technologies are becoming omnipresent among all industries. Cross-industry collaboration is thus an increasingly important part of the innovation process, and for the development of new products and services.
By working together on certain topics (e.g. Smart City, Industry 4.0, Retail) large corporates have a great opportunity to capture the growth and unlock innovation on the faster pace and bigger scope. Therefore, a growing number of companies are engaging in the collaboration programs focused around a specific technology or topic with the goal to enhance innovation potential and work with startups in a more efficient manner.
Our increasingly popular **Industry 4.0 Hackathon** in Linz is one example of this approach. At the third edition late in 2018, corporates **KEBA**, **TGW Logistics Group**, **Voestalpine** and **Miba** came together not only to issue startup challenges, but also to openly engage each other as well as all the participating startups and their technology.
**Conclusion**
After some wild early days in which everyone was learning as they went along, the Corporate-Startup Collaboration landscape is maturing nicely, with new best practices emerging. The industry has understood what is important for success and large companies are taking innovation more seriously. Consequently we’re seeing them take a more practical, result-oriented approach to building their programs. In addition, the benefits of open innovation and cross-industry corporate collaboration are beginning to be understood, and adoption of this approach is spreading.
*Need a hand developing your corporate innovation program? Want help finding the very best startups for your needs? Then contact Pioneers Discover on discover@pioneers.io*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Going beyond the hype: Pioneers set to ‘Walk the Talks’ At Our Flagship Event](https://pioneers.io/going-beyond-hype-pioneers-set-walk-talks-our-flagship-event/)
**Published:** January 16, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** We’re pleased to announce ‘Walk the Talks’ as the theme for Pioneers ’19, the ninth edition of our flagship event, which takes place on May 9th-10th at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna. In this article there’s also news of our first speaker: Dileep George, Co-Founder and CSO at Vicarious, a company developing artificial general intelligence for robots.
**Content:**
Every year our flagship event has a unique theme, and this time around we’re pleased to announce ‘Walk the Talks’ as the tagline for Pioneers ’19 on May 9th-10th.
As usual, our guests will gather in the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna. Over the course of two days, visitors will experience an inspirational journey from the start of life to maturity and beyond. International thought leaders will offer insights into the technological developments impacting each stage of our lives, as well as how they’ll change our daily existence in the future.
One thing that doesn’t change from year to year, however, is the emphasis on networking.
“We quickly came to realize that networking is the be-all and end-all when it comes to events,” says Pioneers CEO Oliver Csendes. “A party is impressive, of course, but you only get real added value at events where you can make contacts – and moreover the *right* contacts. That’s exactly what we make possible, bringing the most important players together with the help of our automated ‘Match & Meet’ tool.”
We’re also pleased to announce our first main speaker, Dileep George, Co-Founder and CSO at Vicarious, which has received investments from Khosla Ventures and Samsung as well as Elon Musk. The company is developing artificial general intelligence for robots – by combining insights from generative probabilistic models and systems neuroscience, their architecture trains faster, adapts more readily, and generalizes more broadly than AI approaches commonly used today.
Dileep has authored 22 patents and several influential papers on the mathematics of brain circuits. His research on hierarchical models of the brain earned him a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Furthermore, Sakshi Chhabra Mittal, the Vice President of the SoftBank Investment Advisor team, will be joining us from London. Sakshi brings a specific interest in healthcare and life sciences, particularly on the opportunities that arise from merging computation and biology. She has been a main driver in pushing the Fund to invest in a selection of transformative companies worldwide.
Stay tuned to our channels over the coming weeks for further speaker announcements and news of the program for Pioneers ’19!
To join us at Pioneers ’19, grab your tickets or apply for free startup admission [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers19#/)!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [How Habegger Blurs Frontiers With Stage, Sound And Lighting](https://pioneers.io/how-habegger-blurs-frontiers-stage-sound-and-lighting/)
**Published:** September 13, 2018
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** As the hype for Pioneers’19 starts its slow build with the opening of our pre-sale next week, our audio-visual partners Habegger share a few tips on what it takes to put on a show with a truly memorable wow factor. Making our flagship event a stand-out experience is essential for an event of this scale, where networking and making connections are key features. So then, how do you come up with new stage, lighting and AV concepts every year? And with the unique challenges of a 500-year-old imperial palace thrown in? As you’ll read, it all comes down to thinking outside the box...
**Content:**
Regular visitors to our flagship event might well wonder how we come up with new stage, lighting and AV concepts every year. And with the unique challenges of our 500-year-old imperial palace venue thrown in? The truth is, it’s not entirely down to us. A lot of the flashy stuff is thanks to our long-term audio-visual partners Habegger. But the same philosophy lies behind their success: always thinking outside of the box! And they’ve been good enough to share a few of those concepts below…
**No More Cheap Seats!**
It’s generally considered normal for the stage to be set up on the ‘short side’ of venue. This means those at the very front of the audience to get up close and personal with what’s happening on stage…but those at the back start looking for something else to do! But it’s worth reconsidering the stage position.
“Bring the stage closer to your guests,” recommends Michael Artner, Habegger’s Project Leader for Pioneers’18. “Many event designers believe that the classic stage position at the ‘head’ of the room is an immutable law. But you can do it differently!”
Pioneers’18 was a good example, since we wanted to recreate the Arena Stage experience. And together with Habegger, we came up with a completely new concept.
“We built the Arena Stage along the longest wall in the Hofburg’s ballroom,” continues Artner. “That means most of the audience was effectively sitting in the front row – at the centre of the action.”
“The Arena Stage was the first time in the history of the Hofburg as an event venue that the long side of the ballroom was used in this way,” adds Andreas Göltl, CEO of Media Apparat, another of our key partners, who also designed the stage shows.
The previous stage location was quickly repurposed into an additional seating area. Meanwhile the three-dimensional projection screens on the main stage ensured that the audience on all sides was really drawn into the Pioneers’18 opening show.
**Beyond The Classic Rectangle**
When you think of a stage, you’ve probably got a rectangle in mind. But this is another area where you can explore new ways of steering the emotion. “The shape of the stage can be adapted to the theme,” says Artner. Pioneers’18 was a perfect example: a zig-zag stage with no readily identifiable geometric shape fitted the Blurred Frontiers theme like a glove.
Playing with height is another opportunity to innovate, he adds. “If there’s a jury, for example, you can set the stage up with different levels, so the experts are watching the participants from above. That creates tension for the audience.”
The Pioneers’18 variation on these concepts was to take the jury off the stage completely. They sat in the middle of the audience, to the side of the stage both left and right of the crowd – but at a suitably elevated height.
**The Perfect Entrance!**
In order to ensure that speakers make a memorable arrival on stage, you always have to think about the placement of any steps. “You have to consider which side of the stage speakers are going to enter from. Someone walking on from behind the stage makes a very different kind of statement to someone walking through the audience and appearing from the front,” says Artner.
One way to make an entrance really grand is by using mobile LED walls. At Pioneers’18, the audience watched an intro video when suddenly that screen would open in the middle and the speakers (or MC) would walk onstage through the gap between the walls.
**The Background Counts**
The classic black curtain or simple wall behind the stage is a thing of the past. What’s happening ON the stage should always be the primary focus, but with a few clever tricks you can still bring the background into the scene, in order to engage the audience better or handle visual information more attractively.
One simple option is to have a projection area across the stage, on which video, graphics or information can be displayed. “There’s no limit to the shapes these surfaces can take,” says Artner. “It doesn’t have to be your classic 16:9 format. We’ve used round, curved, triangular and annular surfaces before. A lot of our clients also really like using their company logo as a projection area.
At Pioneers’18, the LED walls divided into four giant screens, all synchronised with each other to play specially produced videos. For the closing show, Media Apparat also worked with emotion-tracking suits that could transmit body movement to the screens – a unique way of using technology to bring and stage content and background together!
**Bring Colour Into Play!**
Different colours can send different messages. And colourful effect lighting can also enhance what’s happening on the stage. “With washlights and spotlights you can direct the mood,” says Artner. “Light and shadow creates contrast, and colourful spotlights allow you to put the emphasis where you want it.”
The lights achieved all this and more for the Arena Stage at Pioneers’18, always working in tune with the primary event colours.
*The Pioneers’19 pre-sale starts this Monday, on September 17th, so be sure to keep an eye our website [here](https://pioneers.io/#/)!*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Startup Bootcamps: Your Gateway To A High-Value Open Innovation Program](https://pioneers.io/startup-bootcamps-your-gateway-high-value-open-innovation-program/)
**Published:** September 6, 2018
**Author:** Harald Federspiel
**Excerpt:** With our Startup Bootcamps running everywhere from Hamburg to Vienna to Bangalore during this second half of 2018, for clients ranging from Airbus to Wien Energie and Merck, we take a look at how a Startup Bootcamp allows our partners to define best-fit startups and use cases for highly successful Open Innovation programs. This article delves into how these simple, hands-on Pioneers Discover programs work and a few tips on the essentials of planning a similar one!
**Content:**
With our **Startup Bootcamps** running everywhere from Hamburg to Vienna to Bangalore during this second half of 2018, for clients ranging from **Airbus** to **Wien Energie** and **Merck**, it’s a good time to take a look at what exactly a Startup Bootcamp does for our partners. To put it succinctly, the goal of a Startup Bootcamp is to **define collaboration best-fit startups and use-cases** ahead of a fully-fledged Open Innovation program.
Even if your company already has its own startup initiatives, such as a corporate incubator or accelerator, you still need to establish **which startups to invite and why**. Because success of such a program always depends on selecting the right startups and defining the right innovation use-cases.
It makes sense for corporate industry experts and startups to learn at the very outset whether collaborating as equals will work out or not. If there’s no fit, there’s no point wasting months on a project. That’s why a Startup Bootcamp, with its streamlined structure, is the best way to kick off any program.
The Pioneers Discover Startup Bootcamp format has developed organically from our many projects, answering an evident customer need. Here are the **steps we recommend** following if you want to set up a similar program.
**Planning A Startup Bootcamp:**
**Step 1:** Define innovation areas and topics relevant for your business. One method is to collect ideas with a tool like be-novative, which we use for our projects. More importantly, you need decision-makers who will be idea owners. They can drive the topic in-house and work together with potential startups in an ensuing innovation program.
**Step 2:** Scout for startups that fit your program. Let them apply for your challenge via an online application tool like Piobay, our online dealflow management service. Keep the application form short, asking only the essential questions.
**Step 3:** Let corporate industry experts and internal innovation champions evaluate applications – Piobay is also ideally suited for managing this. We also suggest running a remote pitching/interview session with a shortlist of around 30 startups.
**Step 4:** Invite the top ten startups from the shortlist to the Startup Bootcamp. You also need to invite internal and external corporate experts and mentors to help them with expertise and feedback. You need a jury of internal and external industry experts to judge pitching too.
**The Bootcamp Itself:**
Here’s the essential structure of one of our Startup Bootcamps.
**Day 1:** Easing in with a half-day start, the startups get an overview of the company and the goals of its startup program. A keynote from a leading executive about the importance of open innovation and collaboration shows that the company takes this initiative seriously. The startups might invest months of their time, so they need to feel that the decision-makers behind the initiative really walk the talk.
Then it’s on to some ice-breaker programs, startup introductions and connecting everyone to a dedicated communications channel, such as slack, for sharing information and documents throughout the Bootcamp.
After that comes the first workshop: use-case ideation. Using our dedicated canvas, the corporate experts and startups gather first collaboration ideas and define team roles.
**Day 2:** After sleeping on those early concepts, the second day starts with use case development. Following our canvas for this topic, teams answer the most relevant questions regarding problem, solution, potential customer segments and channels to reach them, value proposition and unfair advantage. There’s also a first calculation of costs and potential revenue streams. In the afternoon the teams develop their use-case roadmaps, using our canvas to define milestones and responsibilities going forward.
With three filled-out canvases defining how the collaboration use case could look, team roles and a first roadmap, there’s now a feedback session from different mentors, coaches and experts. One format we often run is a ‘speed-date your mentor’ session.
Following the lean startup methodology, we run a couple of feedback loops to find out the right problem-solution fit. Day two often ends with completely new ideas!
**Day 3:** It’s time for the pitching day! The first session is about validation, implementing the previous day’s feedback before planning those afternoon presentations. Then comes the growth roadmap workshop, which helps teams come up with a structured project plan, including calculating financial requirements to run a pilot in the innovation program. This information is very important for the pitch – every proper pitch ends with a call to action.
The third session prepares the teams for pitching, with training led by an external pitch trainer or Pioneers Discover consultant. After giving the teams a couple of hours to finalize their presentations, the high point arrives. Many corporates invite board members and leading executives to this final session.
But it’s the jury that evaluates the pitches and selects the teams to make it into the innovation program. We recommend our clients don’t promise a final number to be selected, so they don’t have to commit too early. When the jury deliberates, Pioneers Discover usually moderates the session, and the closing ceremony where the winners are announced!
*Interested in a Pioneers Discover Startup Bootcamp? Get our contact details [here](https://pioneers.io/discover/about). Or you can ask our Product Manager for a [free Piobay trial](mailto:digital@pioneers.io).*
Photograph: [helenfischer.com](http://www.helenfischer.com)
Harald Federspiel
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/harald-federspiel/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/harald-federspiel/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Insights: Six Steps To Open Innovation With Startups](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-six-steps-open-innovation-startups/)
**Published:** August 6, 2018
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Excerpt:** Incumbent companies are facing ultra-fast and unstoppable technological trends such as AI, big data and digitalization. These trends are transforming whole industries. At the same time, thanks to strong capital markets and globalization, competition from new entrants (especially fast-growing startups) is rapidly increasing. We recommend considering the following six-step guide to tackling these challenges through open innovation…
**Content:**
Incumbent companies are facing ultra-fast and unstoppable technological trends such as AI, big data and digitalization. These trends are transforming whole industries. At the same time, due to strong capital markets and globalization, competition from new entrants (especially fast-growing startups) is rapidly increasing.
To stay ahead of that competition and at the forefront of innovation, incumbent companies need to constantly rethink their business. Open innovation and co-creation with startups – if done right – can be critical in the development of new products and markets for any company.
So what *is* the right way to do it? For corporates wanting to set up successful startup collaboration programs, Pioneers Discover suggests the following six-step process of co-creation and innovation.
**Step 1 – Define the WHY**
At Pioneers we often meet companies expressing the wish to work together with startups. In many cases, however, they don’t really know why they want to do it. They might simply have heard it’s a good thing to do, or seen competitors doing it. But for co-innovation to provide strong value to the company’s business, developing a clear view on the long-term goals is vital and should always come before starting any projects. In the broadest terms, why and where to they want to achieve innovation?
**Step 2 – Define clear problems and use cases**
Having defined broad areas and topics for innovation, companies need to go deeper into each to define clear problems or use cases to tackle with startups. Problems should be topical and their solutions have a strong positive effect on the company’s productivity or efficiency, or provide strong financial returns. On the other hand, the definition of clear use cases (instead of problems) allows for more creativity in integrating new solutions that may not directly solve a clear problem. In both cases, high urgency and impact of the potential solutions and implemented technologies also guarantees employees’ long-term commitment to work with startups.
**Step 3 – Scout for best-fit startups**
Startups with potential solutions to the defined problem or use case need to be identified. Here the startup’s growth stage, prior funding (in the case of a potential investment) and the details of its technology play a major role in the selection process. These should be defined up-front to make sure the most fitting collaboration partners are identified.
**Step 4 – Prepare for startup interaction**
As many are aware, startups and incumbent companies (or well-established corporations) do business very differently. Their working style, speed, culture and business language often differ significantly and may result in regular misunderstandings and frustration from both sides. To avoid these, preparation for meeting with startups is key. Company employees need to understand that startups’ working styles, the business terms they use and their culture can be very different to their own. They can be trained to be open to new perspectives.
**Step 5 – Piloting**
Once internally prepared to work with startups, the next step is to actually meet with those identified as best-fit. Using different collaboration tools and frameworks, set the first goals for collaboration. Typically startups present their solutions and approaches, while corporates explain in detail the problems and use cases they want to work on. As soon as a mutual ground for collaboration is found, a first pilot test is key to building mutual trust and testing the long-term collaboration potential.
**Step 6 – POC and Implementation**
After a successful pilot that results in a first Proof of Concept (POC) – a match of the startup’s solution to the defined problem/use case – representatives of both sides need to work out a roadmap for a long-term collaboration that clearly states the timeline and responsibilities of both parties, as well as the legal and financial framework. As in every other step, we highly recommend bringing in a third party to help set up first successful long-term collaborations and provide know-how on structures, methods and tools that can facilitate all processes mentioned.
*We’re looking forward to hearing about your collaboration experiences and stories! Or, if your company is looking for guidance on open innovation programs, email Pioneers Discover [here](discover@pioneers.io).*
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Insights: A guide for corporate-startup collaboration](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-insights-guide-corporate-startup-collaboration/)
**Published:** June 25, 2018
**Author:** Harald Federspiel
**Excerpt:** While many corporations see innovation as an important part of their long-term strategies, often they still struggle to make their innovation goals a reality. Collaboration between companies and startups is one way of doing it - but it’s important to follow key principles to the project is positive for both sides. Here we summarize the latest report released by our Pioneers Discover consultancy arm, which contains a practical, step-by-step outline of how startups and corporates can work together. You can also download the full version via this article.
**Content:**
Innovation is the key to long-term business success. Innovative companies grow faster than the rest: the likes of Kodak and Blackberry have shown that even clear market leaders can quickly be overtaken by competitors if they don’t develop new products and solutions.
While many companies see innovation as an important part of their long-term strategies, often they still struggle to make their innovation goals a reality. They focus on optimizing existing processes and increasing sales of existing solutions rather than developing radically new products. Why? Because there’s often a huge psychological barrier when it comes to developing new solutions. And that in turn is because they threaten to make existing ones obsolete, and may require new strategies or organizational structures.
Startups, on the other hand – technological and growth-oriented organizations whose raison d’être is building innovative, scalable business models – focus all their resources on developing new products and solutions that address current customer problems or even open up completely new markets. They’re work fast, with short iterative feedback and product development cycles as well as agile structures that enable them to adapt rapidly and test various prototypes and solutions.
The startup world and the corporate world are very different, but each has clear strengths to offer the other. Here’s an overview of how they can do that.
**Why Startups And Corporates Work Together**
*Benefits for corporates*
Companies can leverage the power of innovation and the agility of startups to tap into new markets, develop new technologies and create an innovative brand presence.
*Benefits for startups*
Startups, for their part, need a strong partner who supports them in their growth with know-how, customer base, and financial and technological resources.
**Choosing the right collaboration model**
There are several ways for companies of all sizes to work with startups. These vary by resource and timeframe requirements, as well as by the participation of employees in startup activities. This graphic show the most common collaboration models and startup activities according to level of resource involvement and employee engagement.
**Barriers and success factors**
The closer the cooperation between the partners, the more important it is to watch out for the pitfalls described below and to foster certain essential success factors.
Conversely, companies can stay on top of their cooperation activities and ensure a successful long-term cooperation by keeping the following success factors in mind.
**How it works**
For a corporate to establish a successful cooperation with startups, here’s a step-by-step recipe:
*1. Define the vision*
Companies must have clear ideas as to where startup collaborations should lead. They should also define potential cooperative values. These can be determined by analyzing the status quo as well as developing a long-term vision (“Where do we want our business to be in 10 years?”). They also form the foundation and guidelines for future activities.
*2. Define strategies and goals*
The second step is to work out a clear strategy and set the scope of activities based on your vision. These include determining concrete objectives for possible collaborations (developing new products, understanding technological trends, etc.), determining the parameters by which collaborations are assessed, determining the budget and the criteria for the choice of partner. Responsibilities for all further processes should also be clarified at this stage.
*3. Define Collaboration Incentives for Startups*
Due to the ongoing race for the best startups and fierce competitors in the startup scene, it is important to make startups an attractive offer to enter into a collaboration. At this stage companies should therefore consider what kind of cooperation can lead them closer to their defined goals and what resources they can offer that can create added value for startups. Ideally, look at the deal from the perspective of startups with which companies want to enter into a partnership.
*4. Scouting and selection*
Scouting for the right startup partner can be done through various channels, such as the company’s own corporate website, social or other media. When searching for particularly hard-to-reach or even international startups, companies from the startup scene (such as Pioneers) can be hired to use their network to find suitable cooperation partners. The relevant startups are then selected from all submitted applications or inquiries on the basis of the previously defined criteria and invited into a partnership or a startup program.
*5. Test startups and start the cooperation*
First, startups go through a deeper compatibility test with the company. One practice is to invite startups to initial talks or events to better understand their work culture, goals and intentions with respect to the partnership. Having successfully passed the test, the future partners should define their long-term plans, milestones, framework conditions and responsibilities. This way they set a clear strategy path for the future partnership.
*The process from the startup perspective*
Since startups usually have no resources to run collaborations in a structured way and opportunities to work with companies naturally arise in their day-to-day operations, we won’t cover a structured process here. But we do have three pieces of general collaboration advice.
- Startups should, like any company, have a clear vision and strategy when entering into partnerships. Ignore opportunistic collaborations that do not provide any long-term value.
- Collaborations with startups are often not the highest priority for established companies, so it is important for startups to receive performance guarantees from the partner companies and, above all, to lay down a clear time horizon for the services.
- In order to protect their intellectual property rights, startups should be accompanied by their legal adviser when conducting cooperation negotiation
**A glimpse into the future**
Cooperation with startups is developing further and will play an increasingly central role in long-term corporate competitiveness. Here are three trends that are now emerging:
*Cooperation with startups will be a strategic imperative*
In the future, cooperation with startups will no longer be seen as optional, but as a necessary measure for each company to maintain their economic competitiveness and reputation as innovators. In Austria, where Pioneers is based, joint activities of companies and startups have been on the rise for years now. And the majority of active companies expect even closer cooperation in the future.
*Structured programs will replace short-term activities*
After an initial surge in “tech tourism”, i.e. short-term activities ranging from trips to startup offices and less formal partnerships, longer-term models of cooperation such as incubators, accelerators and co-innovation will assert themselves in the future. Companies are already recognizing that long-term cooperation with startups has greater impact on their reputation for innovation than public relations and branding activities.
*Startups and companies will work side by side*
Going hand-in-hand with the pace of change, the need for quick exchange and co-development with startups is increasing. It is expected that common “physical” work spaces will be commonplace by 2025, to facilitate growth and reduce barriers to collaboration.
*You can download the extended version of this paper via the [Pioneers Discover resources page](https://pioneers.io/discover/resources), where you can also browse and download all our consultancy arm’s previous reports and guides.*
Harald Federspiel
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/harald-federspiel/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/harald-federspiel/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Pioneers Insights: How Predictive Analytics Will Change The Health Care Industry](https://pioneers.io/how-predictive-analytics-will-change-health-care-industry/)
**Published:** May 8, 2018
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Excerpt:** In today’s blog post from our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover, we explore one of the most important trends in the healthcare industry. We look at how the increased power of predictive analytics is impacting the sector. This is a trend every startup, corporate and investor with an interest in the healthcare needs to know about!
**Content:**
Predictive analytics has been around as long as data has been available on this planet. It’s been widely applied in several industries already, but the Health Care sector has long been characterized by a lack of data due to paper-based processes and verbal interaction between physicians and patients. But with new trends such as the increased use of EHR (Electronic Health Records), IoT and wearable devices, data gathered in this industry is growing rapidly, providing a suitable basis for analysis and great opportunities for improvements of health care in the future.
**What is predictive analytics?**
Predictive analytics is the practice of using historical data to make predictions about the future or future unknown events. Drawing on many different techniques such as data mining, statistics, time series modeling, regression analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence, predictive analytics can draw patterns and recognize trends from existing data sets. In this way it can be used to forecast likely behavior of individuals or machinery and assess future probabilities, risks and outcomes with an acceptable level of reliability.
**Spreading predictive analytics with growing data**
Although deeply rooted in several industries (e.g. in banking to determine creditworthiness of clients), the practice of predictive analytics is spreading to each and every industry alongside the rise of big data systems and growth of data points and data sizes. With the progress in IoT, connected devices and sensor technologies, every moving individual and machine is constantly producing data that more and more companies can use to gain predictive insights.
The latest industries to jump on the predictive analytics train are the automotive industry and the health care sector. While OEMs are starting to us data to predict maintenance of car parts and tires as well as accidents, predictive analytics in the health care sector is just about to take off.
**Predictive analytics in Health Care**
The health care sector has not historically been an innovative and data driven industry. Through new players and technological developments that is, however, changing dramatically. There are two big trends driving the rise in big data creation in this sector:
- Growing use of electronic health records. According to SK&A, a leading US reference information platform, around 67% of all health care providers in the US used at least basic electronic health records in 2017. Although this number is far from 100% it represents a rise of over 25% in five years, up from 40% in 2012. Together with the increasing number of electronic records, the amount of data collected in hospitals is also growing strongly.
- IoT and smart devices. With the rise of IoT and developments in sensor technologies, new devices and wearables are entering the market, allowing patients to track their health and record a broad variety of physical data such as blood pressure and heart rate. In many cases also available to supervising doctors, these data sets can be used for broader analysis.
Due to these trends patients, companies and other organizations in the health care space are looking towards a future of data abundance in the Health Care sector that provides the perfect basis for predictive analytics.
**How things are going to improve**
Large amounts of raw data do not provide value in themselves. The methods and focus of predictive analytics determine how the data can serve different players in the space. Here’s how predictive analytics is going to improve things for each of those stakeholders:
*For patients:*
Patients will benefit strongly from predictive analytics. Individuals will receive treatments and medications that exactly fit their individual characteristics, symptoms and clinical picture. This trend, strongly connected to the term precision medicine, is based on dividing patients into subpopulations that differ in the development and treatment of their conditions.
Being more informed about their health status, patients will also work hand in hand with physicians to achieve the best outcomes possible. Patients will also become aware of health risks earlier due to notifications from predictive models used by doctors or monitoring through apps, medical devices and wearables.
*For health care providers:*
Being provided with enough patient data including doctor’s visits, diagnoses and services provided to clients over a long period of time, health care providers start drawing conclusions about future disease development and occurrence as well as probabilities of recovery with regards to different treatments.
Thereby, they can save costs, speed up treatment and prevent future diseases from happening. With a data set large enough, predictive analytics will allow health care providers to be able to forecast heart attacks, strokes and relapses and prescribe preventive action such as special diets or physical activities. Besides that, comparing present clinical pictures with past data also improves accuracy of diagnoses.
*For pharmaceuticals:*
Predictive analytics will be especially valuable for pharmaceutical companies, as the industry is moving towards producing and selling specialist products used by few customers rather than blockbuster drugs sold to the masses. By taking advantage of the growing available molecular and clinical data and identifying potential advantageous molecules, predictive analytics could help develop new and effective drugs tailored to certain target groups.
*For researchers:*
Researchers can also take advantage of the growing data sets to analyze developments or spread of diseases and forecast how new medicine or technological developments might help cure or prevent illness. Predictive analytics is already used heavily in the analysis of cancer and tumor mutations to identify which mutations are the most dangerous and develop ways to stop exactly those first. While application of data analytics in this area just started, there is great potential to solve major human health challenges in the future.
*For public health:*
Preventive health care and early measures against potential future diseases will not only help patients but may also dramatically lower expenditure of the public sector on health care. Through joint collaborations with health care providers and investments in monitoring and discovering high risk patients, costs for cure and treatments can be proactively managed.
*For health care insurers and employers:*
Last but not least, insurers or employers providing healthcare benefits for employees can take advantage of predictive analytic algorithms to gain forecasts of future medical costs. At the same time, by synchronizing data among each other, health care providers, employers and insurers can subsequently also develop health plans that prevent employees from risky behavior.
Summing up, predictive analytics can serve any of the stakeholders in the health care industry. If barriers to information transparency and synchronization of data points within and between the all parties can be overcome, the health care industry can look forward to a bright future of individualized high-quality services for patients at low costs.
See the infographic below for a visual sum-up!
Michael Lunzer
Head of Venture Design @Pioneers [See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [Showcasing Innovation at Pioneers'18: Introducing PwC’s BXT Approach and the Experience Center](https://pioneers.io/showcasing-corporate-innovation-pioneers18-introducing-pwc-mini-experience-center/)
**Published:** March 12, 2018
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** With digitization a key challenge facing startups and corporates alike, our partner PwC will offer a glimpse into its BXT approach by bringing together Business, eXperience and Technology. PwC will also present its Experience Center to the attendees at Pioneers’18, the ultimate meeting point for 2,500 selected startups, executives and investors on May 24th-25th in Vienna. Visitors to our flagship event at the Hofburg can stop by at the PwC Lounge to get a taste of how PwC helps companies keep pace with the times in the digital age.
**Content:**
With digitization a key challenge facing startups and corporates alike, our partner PwC will offer a glimpse into its BXT approach by bringing together Business, eXperience and Technology. PwC will also present its Experience Center to the attendees at Pioneers’18, the ultimate meeting point for 2,500 selected startups, executives and investors on May 24th-25th in Vienna. Visitors to our flagship event at the Hofburg can stop by at the PwC Lounge to get a taste of how PwC helps companies keep pace with the times in the digital age.
With sites in more than 20 locations worldwide, PwC’s Experience Center is a community of makers from around the world who – in interdisciplinary teams with its business staff – help clients break down silos, unearth new value, and pioneer tomorrow. Together, they solve complex problems and closely work together with clients to develop innovative and digital solutions through user centricity and a focus on experiences. And with innovation central to our events as ever, it’s fitting that Pioneers’18 guests will be able to get a taste at the PwC lounge of how PwC enables and brings innovation to life.
“Thanks to artificial intelligence, robotics and other technologies, a startup or a company that is still on the drawing board today could be the market leader in ten years,” explains Gerald Dipplinger, Digital Leader at PwC Austria.
“We support companies as they develop new business models and a new strategy for the digital age. To do this we work at the intersection of Business, eXperience and Technology (BXT). At Pioneers’18, visitors can check out these three dimensions in the PwC Lounge and discover how to approach business challenges using the BXT model.”
One feature likely to attract a crowd in the PwC Lounge will be the eValuation tool, which provides startups with an assessment of their market value. With so many data-hungry investors at Pioneers’18, plenty of the more established startups from among our Pioneers500 selection will be lining up for the company valuation estimates the tool can provide at the end of a process that takes just 20 minutes.
Now into its fourth year, the partnership between Pioneers and PwC has a greater scope than ever before. We’re pushing forward with a heavy focus on connecting startups and corporations. As the key partner to Pioneers500, the program focussed on early-stage startups, PwC – together with some of their key clients – will join us in selecting the Top 50 who’ll get to pitch on our main stage at the Hofburg. Furthermore, together with our consultancy arm Pioneers Discover, they will release a report on the 500 early-stage startups that will attend.
Finally, for startups interested in attending our two big events in Vienna this May, GovTech.Pioneers and Pioneers’18, the open call closes in just a couple of weeks. Deadline is March 31st, so make sure you click [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers/startups) for GovTech.Pioneers applications and [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18/startups) for Pioneers’18 applications.
For investors and corporates, Pioners’18 tickets are available [here](http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pioneers18-tickets-34934836035) and GovTech.Pioneers tickets [here](http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/govtechpioneers-tickets-38143008766).
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Peter Jackson Talks Digital Transformation As Latest Key GovTech.Pioneers Speaker](https://pioneers.io/peter-jackson-talks-digital-transformation-latest-key-govtechpioneers-speaker/)
**Published:** February 22, 2018
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** We’re looking forward to welcoming IDEO Portfolio Director Peter Jackson as one of our key stage speakers at GovTech.Pioneers, our industry-focused event in Vienna on May 23rd. At Europe’s first dedicated GovTech event, which aims to foster startup-driven innovation in the public sector across Europe and beyond, Jackson will draw on his extensive experience in the public sector to explore how design can help improve the citizen experience through digital transformation at all levels of government.
**Content:**
At IDEO, a global design and innovation company, Jackson’s work has included crafting and implementing new strategies for delivering public services in job training and community development, economic development, and public benefits across state, local and federal government. Prior to joining IDEO, Peter served as senior counselor to now U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and as the first Assistant Director for Consumer Engagement at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he led brand management, digital strategy, and consumer experience.
Jackson’s talk at GovTech.Pioneers, entitled *Digital Transformation by Design*, will share stories from some of IDEO’s work with government agencies at municipal, regional, and national levels. He’ll share learnings gained both as a consultant to governments and as one of the founders of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau around how human-centered design can transform both the citizen experience and the government agencies that deliver it.
**Photo courtesy of IDEO**
In particular, he’ll share case studies of how eGovernment initiatives and other efforts to digitize government services have been used implicitly or explicitly to build digital services teams and drive organizational transformation.
Featured among his stories of design and digital transformation will be a look at his work at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a project to build digital services teams and reorient a bureaucracy to think consumer- and digital-first.
None of these transformations can be achieved without quality startups who can help government agencies make it happen, however. And that’s why we want the very best GovTech startups to join us on May 23rd. If you’d like to apply to be one of those selected to join us in Vienna, make sure you do so [here](https://pioneers.io/events/govtech-pioneers/startups) before March 31st.
With regard to the innovation topics for startups at GovTech.Pioneers, we’re particularly looking for those working in the fields of Citizen Collaboration, Blockchain and Public Safety & Security.
The deadline’s even closer, if you want to pick up a GovTech.Pioneers attendee ticket at the best possible price. Our early-bird offer ends a week today, on March 1st, at which point the price will jump by €200. Until then, tickets are [on sale here](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/govtechpioneers-tickets-38143008766) for just €490 excluding VAT.
And in a final reminder for the founders out there, startups hoping to earn invitations to join us at [Pioneers’18](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18#/) on May 24th-25th also face a March 31st deadline. So make sure you get your name into the selection process in time [here](https://pioneers.io/events/pioneers18/startups)!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Video: Highlights from Mobility Hackathon](https://pioneers.io/video-highlights-mobility-hackathon/)
**Published:** February 19, 2018
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Check out the video from our recent Mobility Hackathon, which ran alongside Mobility.Pioneers in Munich earlier this month. Organized by our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover, the hackathon saw startups develop Blockchain concepts for our partner the ÖBB (the Austrian Federal Railways). Slovakian developer group FinID were named winners after three days of rapid prototyping in which the contestants worked on ideas to make transport more intelligent, sustainable and cost-effective.
**Content:**
Below you can enjoy the video from our recent Mobility Hackathon, which ran alongside Mobility.Pioneers in Munich earlier this month. Organized by our consultancy arm, Pioneers Discover, the hackathon saw startups develop Blockchain concepts for our partner the ÖBB (the Austrian Federal Railways). Slovak developer group FinID were named winners after three days of rapid prototyping in which the contestants worked on ideas to make transport more intelligent, sustainable and cost-effective.
If you’d also like to view the highlights video for Mobility.Pioneers, click [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnwyNgYABpU).
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Discover
---
### [The State of GovTech in the States: Our Key Findings](https://pioneers.io/us-govtech-learnings/)
**Published:** October 4, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Rainhard Fuchs from Pioneers Public Sector has just returned from a fact-finding mission to the United States, visiting top stakeholders in the key GovTech hubs of New York and San Francisco. As we continue to prepare for GovTech Pioneers in Vienna on May 23 next year, here are the five key things he learned in his two weeks Stateside.
**Content:**
For a European travelling to the United States, it can be hard to believe that the country is a leader when it comes to GovTech innovation. After all, experiencing its infrastructure can be like going back in time! But this masks the fact that there’s a lot of forward thinking going on at every level of government.
While Rainhard was in America, what’s considered by far the biggest takeover in GovTech’s short history was completed when Berkshire Partners acquired government permitting and licensing vendor Accela. The huge deal was another reminder of just how fast GovTech is growing there and why we at Pioneers Public Sector were right to be spending time in the USA!
Here are Rainhard’s overriding impressions from the trip:
**They think bigger in America**
This applies to the GovTech field as much as anything else. In Palo Alto, the bold CIO of the area encompassing Silicon Valley Jonathan Reichenthal even calls himself ‘Chief Inspiration Officer’! Other public sector leaders at his level are also pushing ambitious initiatives forward. There’s pressure on public services to be more innovative, which has already led to positive new phenomena such as government performance management platform OpenGov.
**The public sector will get more private**
This is just a matter of time. Accela’s success is a prime example of the trend towards outsourcing. “Believing in smaller teams and testing new solutions is key,” says Reichenthal, “but we have to admit that it is still tricky to find the right business models for most of the civic tech-startups. Nonetheless, many private sector players will subsequently take over the role of the public sector.”
**The biggest impact is at local level**
Targeting federal government in the US is rarely the best strategy for aspiring GovTech startups, for a variety of reasons. But cities provide plenty of opportunities. Some of these are in citizen collaboration and engagement, implementing blockchain technology, security (online and offline) and the effective use of big data. Challenges in cities as far apart as San Francisco and New York tend to be similar, such as providing broadband internet for all citizens, data management and finding urban mobility solutions.
**Citizen engagement is a key theme**
Civic engagement for the 21st century cannot be tackled using 20th-century tools. Innovative solutions and large-scale public-private partnerships are the way to take it to the next level. It’s a case of complete reinvention, and we were pleased to see a lot of this going on already in both New York (where many prefer to use the term UrbanTech) and San Francisco. Because Andrew Rasiej from Civic Hall says, “We need a new operating system for the planet.”
**It’s getting easier for US GovTech startups**
Access to seed capital is still lacking for GovTech startups in most parts of the US. But considering that five years ago GovTech wasn’t on anybody’s radar in the startup world, things have come a long way. It’s definitely trending now. Regulatory challenges such as those around procurement are beginning to fade: public tenders have adapted to be more startup-friendly. For example the Startup in Residence (STIR) program has already seen a high conversion rate for startups winning government contracts in San Francisco.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Meet SBT Aqua's Next-Generation Bacteria Testing](https://pioneers.io/meet-sbt-aquas-next-generation-bacteria-testing/)
**Published:** July 17, 2017
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Pioneers Challenge Top 8 finalist SBT Aqua are revolutionizing the traditionally tedious business of checking bacteria levels in factories that call for a sterile environment. Introducing technology that can give a bacteria testing novice a clear answer in just five minutes...
**Content:**
Ever wondered exactly which microscopic bugs and beasts might have set up camp on your kitchen surfaces? Well, now you can find out! And that’s all thanks to Pioneers Challenge finalists SBT Aqua, a Copenhagen-based startup that’s revolutionising the world of bacterial testing with its instant-results technology.
While you could use it in your kitchen (do you really want to know, though?), the real target for SBT Aqua is industry. If you’re running a food production facility, the last thing you want is to have to recall a product. That can cost millions – not to mention being a scandalous waste. How do you avoid recalls? Squeaky-clean surfaces throughout the production facility are a good place to start.
Companies know this, of course, but the current state of affairs presents a time-lag problem. You can test your surfaces for bacteria every second if you like, but you’ll have to send your samples to a lab for testing each time. It can be a matter of days before you get those results. And by that time, enough food has gone out the door to feed an entire summer camp. Under this traditional process, it’s usually too late by the time you discover a problem.
CEO Gustav Erik Sands outlined these industry problems concisely when he pitched at Pioneers’17. He then went on to offer the SBT Aqua solution: a system that gives results in a matter of minutes. That’s all thanks to SBT’s impedance flow cytometry (IFC) technology, which can electrically detect and differentiate bacteria.
Want to test a surface? All you need is SBT’s BactoProbe Surface swab, and the SBT BactoBox. The BactoBox is a clever little all-in-one laboratory (at 18cm x 18cm x 18cm, it’s small) that will handle the sample and give the results. The box also works with BactoProbe Liquid, which – as the name suggests – takes samples of liquids to subsequently be tested.
The latter is important for the other part of SBT Aqua’s offering, namely the validation of Clean-In-Place effectiveness. That basically refers to the cleaning processes for hard-to-reach places like pipes and filters, which are typically rinsed out with a cleaning agent. However, you can’t reach these places for a surface test to swab whether it’s actually clean afterwards. Hence testing the rinse water, which Skands says tells the story of how things are doing inside the pipe. The ability to test water quickly also opens up new possibilities for companies to recycle water safely. And that has both clear cost and environmental benefits.
The SBT Aqua gang of three is a young one – their idea first came to life as a university project in 2013. For Skands, running this startup is actually his first job. Could it turn out to be his dream job too? The signs so far are good, if the reaction of the judges at Pioneers’17 is anything to go by.
SBT Aqua has chosen a smart area to work in, because it’s not subject to heavy regulation like the products actually being produced. And while the food industry is the sales focus for now, the potential for growth in the health and pharmaceutical industries is clear for all to see…without a microscope!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Ventures Invests in Smart-Parking Service](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-ventures-invests-in-smart-parking-service/)
**Published:** February 22, 2016
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** From parking geo-information, rules and restrictions to real-time availability, Parkbob covers the last mile of the navigation process in the car.
**Content:**
Let us introduce you to [Parkbob](http://http://www.parkbob.com/ "Parkbob"), a Vienna-based smart-parking service and Pioneers Ventures’ most recent investment. The EUR 250K deal gives Parkbob the chance to keep on working on their technology and launch the groundbreaking “Parkfinder” functionality. It will also allow Parkbob to cover 25 major European cities in the near future. The Parkbob “Vienna Edition” is already available for iPhone and Android.
From parking geo-information, rules and restrictions to real-time availability, Parkbob covers the last mile of the navigation process in the car. The solution automatically knows where parking is allowed, at what time and at what cost. Starting from April it will show free parking spots in real-time.
“We have talked to hundreds of drivers on how to improve their daily parking experience. We are convinced that we will be able to solve the hassles of on-street parking once and for all," explains CEO Christian Adelsberger.
Known as a pre-seed investment firm, Pioneers Ventures will not only provide Parkbob with funding, but will also support them with access to potential partners, global visibility and access to the extensive network of their parent company Pioneers.io. The Investment Managers Philipp Stangl and Markus Lang make sure Pioneers’ venture fund is administered well. This year Ventures has really taken off, “so we have some money to spend”, laughs Markus Lang. Then in a more serious tone, Markus Lang explains Pioneers’ mission behind the investments:
“We want to involve ourselves with outstanding digital tech startups from Europe. We’re looking for amazing and well-functioning teams, growing markets and, of course, great ideas."
And great ideas they find. Philipp Stangl is convinced of their choice in Parkbob by stating that “Parkbob has a unique combination of a sensing software development kit (SDK), big data, and geographic information, which paired with an excellent team is a strong combination. We believe in the team and think our network will be of great help to them.”
So together with Viennese Business Angels Nikolaus Futter, Martin Egger and Markus Ertler Pioneers Ventures is off to a great start this year. Parkbob is their second investment after Cloudo and will certainly not be their last.
A1 has already congratulated Parkbob and Pioneers Ventures for the successful deal: [](http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20160218_OTS0108/a1-start-up-campus-gratuliert-pioneers-ventures-investiert-250000-euro-in-parkbob)[http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS\_20160218\_OTS0108/a1-start-up-campus-gratuliert-pioneers-ventures-investiert-250000-euro-in-parkbob](http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20160218_OTS0108/a1-start-up-campus-gratuliert-pioneers-ventures-investiert-250000-euro-in-parkbob)
Also check out the official press release here: [](http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20160218_OTS0025/pioneers-ventures-investiert-in-smart-parking-startup-parkbob)[http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS\_20160218\_OTS0025/pioneers-ventures-investiert-in-smart-parking-startup-parkbob](http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20160218_OTS0025/pioneers-ventures-investiert-in-smart-parking-startup-parkbob)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Cloudo Gets Pioneers Ventures' First Investment](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-ventures-cloudo-becomes-first-investment/)
**Published:** October 19, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** We are excited to announce the signing of our first investment, the Bratislava-based startup Cloudo.
**Content:**
Pioneers Ventures is our investment vehicle at Pioneers. The fund was officially launched at Pioneers Festival 2015. Today, we are excited to announce the signing of our first investment.
[Cloudo](https://www.cloudo.co/), the Bratislava based startup enables you to increase your productivity when searching and organizing your stuff online. We are more than proud that Cloudo becomes the first member of the Pioneers Ventures family.
From top left: Jakub Kolar (Developer), Tomas Trungel (Developer), Pavel Koci (Developer). From bottom left: Klaus Matzka (Partner PV), Ondrej Prostrednik (Co-founder & CEO Cloudo), Juraj Pelikan (Co-founder & CTO Cloudo), Philipp Stangl (Investment Manager PV), Markus Lang (Investment Manager PV)
“New funding is crucial in such an early stage of the company. However, at the end of the day, the decisive factor was that Pioneers Ventures provides far more than money. The decisive factor was that Pioneers Ventures provides far more than money. Access to a large network of experts along with a strong US-connection and support in future fundraising rounds will enable us to build the best possible product,” says Ondrej Prostrednik, founder and CEO at Cloudo.
Ondrej had previously built Cloud Fender – also a product in the space of "Cloud productivity". They took part in an MIT accelerator program after only a month of existence and participated in the Pioneers Challenge. Nonetheless, Cloud Fender was shut down towards the end of last year. Sure, startups fail. But it’s impressive for founders to again embark on the same long and winding road. Ondrej and his team are now applying the lessons they learned building Cloud Fender. We are optimistic this will increase the odds of making their new baby successful.
“In Cloudo we found the perfect first partner for our fund. Three things convinced us: first, the ambitious team and their experience in the given field. Secondly, the fact that the market for productivity tools shows a lot of growth potential and thirdly the product itself. We are convinced that we can contribute our share to accelerating Cloudo’s success,” Philipp comments the signing of our first deal.
"As for the strategy of the fund," Markus says, “founder-friendly terms, quick execution, and a clear focus on the best founding teams will continue to be our approach. Overall, we are planning ten to twelve investments per year with an average ticket size of EUR 100,000. We focus on European early stage tech companies with digital business models."
If you are interested and think that Pioneers Ventures will be a valuable partner – whether you are investor, tech-corporate who wants to co-invest or startup in the process of fund raising – get in touch:
## Markus Lang | Investment Manager
[markus@pioneers.io](mailto:markus@pioneers.io?Subject=Hello%20Pioneers%20Ventures) | +43 (0) 664 115 13 22
[Cloudo](https://www.cloudo.co/) is a Slovak startup operating in the field of productivity services. Cloudo enables flexible and fast integration of multiple cloud services in an easy to use interface. It simply works with the apps that you use every day: Dropbox, Google Drive, Asana, Gmail, Trello, Slack, Evernote, GitHub, and many more. Download, test it, use it, and send us feedback!
[Pioneers Ventures](https://pioneers.io/ventures/) is Pioneers’ pre-seed investment vehicle empowering startups with our global network of corporates, industry experts, and entrepreneurs. Besides the financial component PV provides startups with an extensive support program.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Is this the Future of Food? Q&A with Heaven Labs CEO Jakub Krejcik](https://pioneers.io/is-this-the-future-of-food/)
**Published:** July 13, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
At Pioneers we are always on the lookout for the next big thing – the next big thing that will change the world. Food tech and health are among the categories, where we see a lot of room for improvement (read, "room for innovation": health issues like malnutrition, diabetes, obesity; availability and affordability of nutritious, healthy food, just to name a few). Back when Rob Rhinehart first started it was merely a self-experiment in nutrition, meanwhile Rhinehart has built a company (and a community) around [Soylent](https://www.soylent.com/).
We have to admit, it wasn’t until [Soylent was accepted into YC (S2012)](http://blog.ycombinator.com/soylent-yc-s12-raises-1-dollars-dot-5m-from-andreessen-horowitz-and-lerer-ventures-to-be-the-future-of-food) and later raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz and consortes that we took a closer look (Note: [Soylent is now venture backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Lerer Ventures and Index Ventures](https://angel.co/soylent)).
There are numerous alternatives in the powdered food space today. One of the most promising competitors is Heaven Labs, who showcased their product last May at Pioneers Festival 2015. "[Soylent is a community of people who are enthusiastic about using science to improve food and nutrition,](http://cdixon.org/2015/01/14/soylent/)" says Chris Dixon of A16Z. We are eager to see if Heaven Labs can replicate and improve upon this for the European market, so we visited their production facilities to see what they are up to:
**Vienna, July 2015** – A few months ago Heaven Labs was just a startup operating out of a garage. Now it is expanding its business with their own production line, already serving thousands of customers all around Europe. Czech Republic is known for its beer production, not so much for its cuisine, let alone for the ultimate nutritional solutions. We talked to Jakub Krejčík (CEO of Heaven Labs, producer of MANA):
## What do you eat these days? Do you live on powdered food?
Yes, our whole team is eating MANA since August 2014, when the initial product was developed. Don’t worry, we do regular blood checks and everything is great! MANA is designed to be the only food you need, however if you want to treat yourself to a gourmet experience at a nice restaurant with your friends you can still do that, your stomach will have no issues with that. Fun fact: our fans already sent us pictures with MANA recipes, so you can even have a birthday party with MANA cake.
MANA is prepared for adults (children need a different nutritional mix). My son was born two months ago. Okay, why am I telling you this? Well, he is fed by MANA… to be precise, his mother eats MANA, which is then "transferred" to him. She ate a meal of specially improved MANA during pregnancy and currently she eats two MANA meals a day, all accompanied by regular blood tests, to make sure that everything is in order!
Seriously, it’s safe. It’s science!
## What is it made of? And why the funny name?
MANA is the ultimate food that God gave to the Israelites during their travels crossing the desert for 40 years. Analogically we created an all-you-need food, nothing less and especially nothing more!
Imagine that you take all those non-wanted substances out and leave the pure nutrition, which your body needs. It is a complete alternative to quality groceries. It contains balanced amounts of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, fibre, and valuable fat. MANA contains fat in the form of nutritionally high-quality oils with proper ratio of polyunsaturated, saturated and unsaturated fats. Carbohydrates are represented by maltodextrin, which has high content of polysaccharides and provides influx of energy into the body, in contrast to sugar, which provides only a momentary surge of energy. Vitamins are represented by A to K with mineral microelements calcium, phosphorus, sulphur, magnesium, potassium, sodium, together with the necessary amount of microelements iodine, manganese, selenium, zinc, chromium, iron and copper plus fibre, phytochemicals and antioxidants. We constantly strife for perfection and we are improving MANA with every version. /Nerd mode off.
## Who is your typical customer?
Generally speaking, MANA is for anyone who wants to have control over what he/she eats, what it consists of and how it will affect his/her body.
Among our "useres" we find those, who completely replace their diet by MANA, but also "recreational users" replacing a meal or two, which in most cases they would otherwise have no time to eat or they would choose some unhealthy fast food experience. We have many supporters among active people – athletes, climbers, hikers or people focused on productivity and business – programmers, designers, startups, etc.
## You showcased your product at Pioneers Festival – why?
So it was my first time at Pioneers Festival. Two ridiculously intensive days – in a good way! Our booth at the Pioneers Showroom was constantly packed with people wanting to try MANA – starting from the Czech ambassador up to Asian media. We had very positive feedback and it was just great to see that even the most sceptical people were surprised by the taste of “powder food”.
## Can we go see your production facility?
Sure thing, let’s go!
Heaven Labs, Prague – Czech Republic
Sure, this is somewhat of a controversial topic, but there are numerous players out there already – so there seems to be a market. Is Soylent with its open approach and super active community going for the home run? Perhaps. Is there room for more players? We definitely think so – especially if each player finds their own raison d’être – be it geographical or simply for "taste" reasons. After all it still is food and – and assuming perfect nutrition values are covered by each product – "great taste" certainly remains a deciding factor of what our society will eat. For now at least. And we heard that MANA tastes pretty great.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [The Rangelov Brothers win Pioneers Challenge 2015](https://pioneers.io/the-rangelov-brothers-dronamics-win-pioneers-challenge-2015/)
**Published:** June 4, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Meet the Rangelov brothers, the founders of Dronamics. Svilen’s background is in economics, his brother Konstantin is an aerospace engineer. Their mission? Nothing less than to disrupt aviation.
Eleven, the Bulgarian accelerator/venture fund who were Dronamics’ first investors, dubbed the Rangelov brothers “[the next Wright Brothers.](http://11.me/are-the-rangelov-brothers-the-next-wright-brothers/)”
You may not yet have heard of [Dronamics](http://www.dronamics.com/), but that’s because the Bulgarian startup has set its priorities straight, "Because what we do is cutting edge (it actually *is* rocket science!), things like updating a website come second to our mission to disrupt aviation."
## The big problem the Rangelov brothers are solving
So what is the pain point that Dronamics have identified and are trying to solve? Manned air cargo has extremely low efficiency, the problem in air cargo being that the average cargo flight is half empty. The Black Swan will have the best fuel efficiency of any cargo aircraft. Svilen tells us, companies generally have a hard time predicting demand and supply and even if they manage to predict it correctly, they are still stuck with the same aircraft. For \[very\] small loads it makes no sense to have a human on board. Dronamics has created a prototype “The Black Swan”, which will be able to carry 350 kg of payload over a distance of 2,500 km and will thus have the best fuel efficiency of any cargo aircraft.
Dronamics’ Black Swan will open the door for same-day international delivery and bring them one step closer to fulfilling the dream to having your order delivered before the payment is processed. Their ultimate goal is for Dronamics to serve the billions of people living outside the main trade centers. Dronamics will open the door for same-day international delivery Dronamics will target developing countries first, at least until regulations in the U.S. and Europe catch up with the technology. “While ‘Black Swan’ remains the project/model name, we’ve decided to name the first commercial/serial unit ‘Pioneer One,’ Svilen tells us.
The Wright brothers built the world’s first successful airplane. We are more than confident that the Rangelov brothers – together with their small yet extremely passionate and skilled team – show the potential to follow in the Wright brothers’ footsteps to pioneer the next step in aviation.
## Top 8 Finalists
We were incredibly happy to have received more than 1,600 applications for the Pioneers Challenge 2015 and it was an incredibly hard decision to select – what our jury considered – [ the Top 50 startups](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/top-50/), let alone the final 8. We’d like to congratulate the entire batch of 2015 – what an incredible group of startups!The Pioneers Challenge [Top 8 Finalists](https://pioneers.iofestival2015/top-8/) of 2015:
- Prometheon Pharma (Patch technology to replace needle injections)
- ascribe.io (Ownership layer of the internet)
- Cuckuu (It’s Time)
- Dronamics (Cargo drones for same-day international delivery)
- OpenDataSoft (Platform for smart transformation of data)
- Skedool.it (Smart personal assistant service powered by AIGH)
- Watly (Life.Energy.Future)
- Yott.io (You, live on TV from your phone)
*Photo: © Jan Nechvile/pioneers.io; LR Photography*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [10 Reasons Why Corporates Should Attend Pioneers Festival 2015](https://pioneers.io/10-reasons-why-corporates-should-attend-pioneers-festival-2015/)
**Published:** May 19, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## 1. See the Future
Whether you are part of a big global player or just joined a small and sweet company – it’s crucial to keep an eye on upcoming trends and developments. Pioneers Festival will serve you a glimpse into the future on a silver plate.
## 2. Startups – new partners, customers or even competitors?
Meet hundreds of them, including the top 8 from the annual [Pioneers Challenge](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/top-50/), more than 20 in 90-seconds pitches live on our Academy stage and nearly 100 showcasing their products at the [Pioneers Showroom](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/showroom/) in the Tech Salon and Tech Forum.
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/tickets/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=10reasons-corporate)
## 3. Meet other industry leaders
Network with thought-leaders across different industries – from fintec, robotics and transportation to medtech and IoT. Meet the tech corporations who are at the forefront of innovation at Pioneers Festival. Take a look at whom of your colleagues are attending [here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/festival/attendees) \[seletected attendees\].
## 4. Learn marketing insights for beginners & advanced
A session tailored to startups by a company that also does marketing for the big players. Neil’s insights will definitely also include some precious low-cost marketing advice for your venture.
[Neil Capel of Sailthru will talk about “Marketing at its best!“](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/agenda-academy/#day2)Thursday, 14:00, Academy Stage
## 5. Learn how to sell
Hardcore sales session with the living legend [Steli Efti](https://pioneers.io/blog/people/steli-efti/) from close.io who will wow you with his [Academy session “Sell it, baby!“](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/agenda-academy/#day2).
Thursday, 16:30, Academy Stage
## 6. True Economy Forum
The startup world fascinates you but you have no idea yet how to collaborate? You want to try a more entrepreneurial approach in terms of idea generation, product development, and processes within your organization? Then the [“True Economy Forum”](http://trueeconomy.io/), a Pioneers Festival 2015 side event is your place to be.
## 7. Expert Tables
Demand for our expert tables was huge, but we still have a few spots left on some tables and you can apply for the waiting lists.
["Finding Product Market Fit“](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/networking-day-2/) with Carina Namih
["Cross-Channel Personalization Primer"](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/networking-day-2/) with Neil Capel, one of the marketing gurus from Sailthru
["Strategy & business model innovation for companies“](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/networking-day-2/) with Hayk Hakobyan
and more
## 8. Position your company in an innovative landscape
Treat yourself or esteemed colleagues with a trip to one of Europe’s leading future tech and startup events and not only benefit from the insights you get at Pioneers Festival but also show the world that you are thinking ahead. Like A true pioneer.
## 9. Party, Party, Party
Sure enough, we’ll have two parties at the end of each day. No matter if you just want to listen to good music, grab your Feierabend-Bier or meet some more people… Put down your phone and enjoy the show! [HODOR](https://pioneers.io/blog/2015/05/06/kristian-nairn-hodor-from-game-of-thrones-to-dj-at-afterparty/)
## 10. Last but not least
Pioneers Festival is packed with lots and lots of inspiring keynotes, the newest technology to experience, amazing people to meet, and things to try. Europe’s innovation wonderland and an adventure you won’t forget.
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/tickets/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=10reasons-corporate)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Kristian Nairn (Hodor from Game of Thrones) to DJ at afterparty](https://pioneers.io/kristian-nairn-hodor-from-game-of-thrones-to-dj-at-afterparty/)
**Published:** May 6, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
At Pioneers Festival we will again have two after parties in 2015. One on each day, with a very special final party on May 29 including a DJ set by Kristian Nairn.
The after party featuring Kristian Nairn’s "Game of Drones" DJ set is exclusively reserved for Pioneers Festival attendees.
## Pioneers Festival
Pioneers Festival is Europe’s major conference for tomorrow’s ideas, bringing together the smartest startups with corporates, media and investors eager to support the next big thing. Check out the following video to get an impression of what you can expect this year:
More than 1,600 startups from 90+ countries applied to meet over 400 investors in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, Vienna. The Festival is limited to 2,500 participants who will learn from the best and get inspired by keynotes that will show what to expect in the years ahead. Just to show a few:
A very special Thank You to our flight partner [Austrian Airlines](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/tickets/#flights) for flying Kristian "Hodor" Nairn out to Vienna for Pioneers Festival 2015
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [100 more Investors joining Pioneers Festival 2015](https://pioneers.io/100-more-investors-joining/)
**Published:** April 28, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Investors? Yes…lots of them! 100 more investors have just joined Pioneers Festival. How about you? Startups, prepare your perfect pitch – Investors, bring your business cards!
## MEET THE 100 INVESTORS
Fred Destin, Accel Partners
Tim Chang, Mayfield Fund
Marvin Liao, 500 Startups
Lior Susan, Formation 8
Jon Bradford, Techstars
Erik Bovee, SpeedInvest
Simon Levene, Mosaic Ventures
Oliver Holle, SpeedInvest
Scott Sage, DFJ Esprit
Benjamin Joffe, HAX
Max Niederhofer, Sunstone Capital
Arek Wylegalski, Index Ventures
Min-Sung Kim, XLHEALTH
Marvin D. Andrä, High-Tech Gruenderfonds
Aerin Lim, 500 Startups
Christian Baha, Superfund
Cyril Vancura, Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH
Timo Tirkkonen, Inventure
Stephan Von Perger, Wellington Partners
Andrei Brasoveanu, Accel Partners
Andrej Kiska, Credo Ventures
Stefan Peters, Holtzbrinck Digital GmbH
Juergen Mayrbaeurl, Microsoft
Nicolas Debock, Balderton Capital
Thomas Werner, Cisco DABG-EIR
Christian Hernandez, White Star Capital
Jens Lapinski, Techstars
Hansi Hansmann, Hansmen Group
Naz Ozertugrul, Atomico
Timm Schipporeit, Index Ventures
Ethan Imboden, frog design
Rob Leclerc, Agfunder
Adam Anders, Anterra Capital
Cathal Garvey, SOSVentures
Jong Lee, Hanson Robotics
Carsten Rudolph, BayStartUp
Guus Frericks, Startup Bootcamp
David Chen, Angelvest
Lyuben Belov, Launchub
Bakhrom Ibragimov, EBRD
Tatjana Zabasu, RSG Capital
Jure Mikuz, RSG Capital
Bettine Schmitz, Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator GmbH
Marja Verbon, Piton Capital LLP
Jean-Baptiste Dumont, Serena Capital
Mladen Dakic, COINVEST
Hermina Ogric, COBIK
Kyle Komenda, Patent Capital Group
Joshua von Gabain, AC & Friends
Dr. Christopher Grabher, AC & Friends
Chaney Ojinnaka, ChalkRow Ventures Limited
Claire Godron, Aster Capital
Dominik Alvermann, Acton Capital Partners GmbH
Iskender Dirik, Bauer Venture Partners GmbH
Patrick Prokesch, i5invest GmbH
Herwig Springer, i5invest GmbH
Oliver Thum, mantro.net GmbH
Markus Ortmann, mantro.net GmbH
Philipp Thurn und Taxis, Constantia New Business
Sabine Fleischmann, Constantia New Business
Csaba Kakosy, Day One Capital
Luca Keresztesi, Day One Capital
Markus Ertler, ErtlerMedia e.U.
Michael Lehner, Mercurius Ventures Ltd
Elizabeth Fullerton, Fullerton Ventures
Bernhard Weber, Science Park Graz
René Seifert, Venturate AG
Angela Exner, Venturate AG
Paul Scheuschner, Web International Services Ltd.
Tom Peruzzi, P-Hold GmbH
Oliver Diener, Gigaset elements GmbH
Nikolaus Alm, NEOS
Tomas Cupr, Bizthusiasm a.s.
Martin Gaiger, Telekurier Online Medien GmbH & Co KG
Wojtek Rudko, Gigaset Communications
Jaap Van der Zwan, Zwaja BV
Sascha Hausmann, HOWZAT AGAIN LLP
David Soskin, HOWZAT AGAIN LLP
Evan Luthra, EL Group International
Dr. Marc Gumpinger, Target Partners GmbH
Michael Eisler, CODE. SLEEP. REPEAT.
Martin Egger, Trend Consulting GmbH
Andreas Kammerer, AnD-Institut
Anton Zajac, Bridgestart
Karoline Simonitsch, Dr., Erfolgsfabrik GmbH
Riku Asikainen, RIQ Yhtiöt Oy
Maximilian Nimmervoll, Tailored Media Group
Karin Brauneis-Ryan, Club Deal AG
Peter Koch, Martin Global
Felix Snow, Snow Ventures GmbH
Rainer Reich, Reich Development GesmbH
Lukas Püspök, PÜSPÖK Group
Fritz Schweiger, Q-Advisers
Fritz Schweiger, Q-Advisers
Nesim Yildiz, ANDUS ELECTRONIC GmbH LEITERPLATTENTECHNIK
Gabriel Grabner, DvH Ventures
Juergen Eckstein, Gebhardt Productions
Alexander Kleinszig, Vulgo
Marlies Braun, MB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [100 more Investors joining Pioneers Festival 2015](https://pioneers.io/100-more-investors-joining/)
**Published:** April 28, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Investors? Yes…lots of them! 100 more investors have just joined Pioneers Festival. How about you? Startups, prepare your perfect pitch – Investors, bring your business cards!
## MEET THE 100 INVESTORS
Fred Destin, Accel Partners
Tim Chang, Mayfield Fund
Marvin Liao, 500 Startups
Lior Susan, Formation 8
Jon Bradford, Techstars
Erik Bovee, SpeedInvest
Simon Levene, Mosaic Ventures
Oliver Holle, SpeedInvest
Scott Sage, DFJ Esprit
Benjamin Joffe, HAX
Max Niederhofer, Sunstone Capital
Arek Wylegalski, Index Ventures
Min-Sung Kim, XLHEALTH
Marvin D. Andrä, High-Tech Gruenderfonds
Aerin Lim, 500 Startups
Christian Baha, Superfund
Cyril Vancura, Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH
Timo Tirkkonen, Inventure
Stephan Von Perger, Wellington Partners
Andrei Brasoveanu, Accel Partners
Andrej Kiska, Credo Ventures
Stefan Peters, Holtzbrinck Digital GmbH
Juergen Mayrbaeurl, Microsoft
Nicolas Debock, Balderton Capital
Thomas Werner, Cisco DABG-EIR
Christian Hernandez, White Star Capital
Jens Lapinski, Techstars
Hansi Hansmann, Hansmen Group
Naz Ozertugrul, Atomico
Timm Schipporeit, Index Ventures
Ethan Imboden, frog design
Rob Leclerc, Agfunder
Adam Anders, Anterra Capital
Cathal Garvey, SOSVentures
Jong Lee, Hanson Robotics
Carsten Rudolph, BayStartUp
Guus Frericks, Startup Bootcamp
David Chen, Angelvest
Lyuben Belov, Launchub
Bakhrom Ibragimov, EBRD
Tatjana Zabasu, RSG Capital
Jure Mikuz, RSG Capital
Bettine Schmitz, Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator GmbH
Marja Verbon, Piton Capital LLP
Jean-Baptiste Dumont, Serena Capital
Mladen Dakic, COINVEST
Hermina Ogric, COBIK
Kyle Komenda, Patent Capital Group
Joshua von Gabain, AC & Friends
Dr. Christopher Grabher, AC & Friends
Chaney Ojinnaka, ChalkRow Ventures Limited
Claire Godron, Aster Capital
Dominik Alvermann, Acton Capital Partners GmbH
Iskender Dirik, Bauer Venture Partners GmbH
Patrick Prokesch, i5invest GmbH
Herwig Springer, i5invest GmbH
Oliver Thum, mantro.net GmbH
Markus Ortmann, mantro.net GmbH
Philipp Thurn und Taxis, Constantia New Business
Sabine Fleischmann, Constantia New Business
Csaba Kakosy, Day One Capital
Luca Keresztesi, Day One Capital
Markus Ertler, ErtlerMedia e.U.
Michael Lehner, Mercurius Ventures Ltd
Elizabeth Fullerton, Fullerton Ventures
Bernhard Weber, Science Park Graz
René Seifert, Venturate AG
Angela Exner, Venturate AG
Paul Scheuschner, Web International Services Ltd.
Tom Peruzzi, P-Hold GmbH
Oliver Diener, Gigaset elements GmbH
Nikolaus Alm, NEOS
Tomas Cupr, Bizthusiasm a.s.
Martin Gaiger, Telekurier Online Medien GmbH & Co KG
Wojtek Rudko, Gigaset Communications
Jaap Van der Zwan, Zwaja BV
Sascha Hausmann, HOWZAT AGAIN LLP
David Soskin, HOWZAT AGAIN LLP
Evan Luthra, EL Group International
Dr. Marc Gumpinger, Target Partners GmbH
Michael Eisler, CODE. SLEEP. REPEAT.
Martin Egger, Trend Consulting GmbH
Andreas Kammerer, AnD-Institut
Anton Zajac, Bridgestart
Karoline Simonitsch, Dr., Erfolgsfabrik GmbH
Riku Asikainen, RIQ Yhtiöt Oy
Maximilian Nimmervoll, Tailored Media Group
Karin Brauneis-Ryan, Club Deal AG
Peter Koch, Martin Global
Felix Snow, Snow Ventures GmbH
Rainer Reich, Reich Development GesmbH
Lukas Püspök, PÜSPÖK Group
Fritz Schweiger, Q-Advisers
Fritz Schweiger, Q-Advisers
Nesim Yildiz, ANDUS ELECTRONIC GmbH LEITERPLATTENTECHNIK
Gabriel Grabner, DvH Ventures
Juergen Eckstein, Gebhardt Productions
Alexander Kleinszig, Vulgo
Marlies Braun, MB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [10 Reasons Why Investors Should Attend Pioneers Festival 2015](https://pioneers.io/10-reasons-why-investors-should-attend-pioneers-festival-2015/)
**Published:** April 10, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## 1. Ok, maybe this GIF is slightly exaggerating
### It won’t get any easier for you to pimp your dealflow. Seriously with more than 1,500 teams that applied for Pioneers Festival 2015 we will present you the best and finest selection of startups on Wednesday, May 27. Find your unicorn!
You want to meet the founders, have an informal personal chat, check out their products? Right, you got us! You’ll have all of that at our annual Investors Day. Quality time with the founding team in dedicated meeting areas with 50 hand-selected startups out of 1,500 applicants!
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/tickets/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=10reasons-invest)
## 2. You are not alone!
Connect or re-connect with investor peers, hear and see what they are doing, chat and start new cooperations, or just get inspired. You don’t have to get married or anything, but we offer a great environment for your vivid discussions.
The investors-exclusive drinks in the evening of our Investors Day on May 27 is a great place to do just that – mingle and exchange with fellow VCs, BAs, and well other partners (sorry I’m out of abbreviations).
## 3. Entrance to exit
You know how it works and we don’t have to tell you that you probably won’t find any other place where you can be so sure that corporate visitors are not only interested in the startup world, but even big fans of it.
We hear that many of these corporates are on the lookout for the next Siri, Skype, Youtube,… or even MySpace.
## 4. Spend money to make money. Or the other way round?
More than 100 limited partners will be invited at Pioneers Festival 2015. Set up a meeting? Just use our app to arrange those in the most comfortable way.
## 5. Stay up-to-date in this fast-paced tech world
Want to know what is happening in the next 5-10 years? Bold question, we know. But, we have an entire stage dedicated to giving you an overview about the most important topics the near and distant future has to offer.
Hands-on insights and stories from pioneers who have successfully explored and developed new areas of technology from aerospace and clean tech to robotics.
Get a glimpse behind the curtain on the Arena Stage.
## 6. eBay? PayPal? LinkedIn?
Ever heard of those? Sure. Meet the business angel who invested in all of them when they were startups – we are very proud to have [Gil Penchina](https://pioneers.io/blog/people/gil-penchina/ "Gil Penchina") be part of Pioneers Festival 2015.
**HOW TO ROCK ON ANGELLIST**
*Thursday, 11:35, Academy Stage*
**PIONEERS CHALLENGE TOP8 PITCHES**
*Thursday, 15:30, Academy Stage*
## 7. Tinder for Investors x Startups
And you don’t even have to swipe to get your matches. Get a personalized list of startups recommended for you, based on the interests you enter when registering.
## 8. Already got enough Startups?
An additional 100 startups will present their products in our two showrooms (Tech Forum and Tech Salon) and 24 more startups will give you a 90 seconds elevator pitch on stage while you can listen from your comfy seat.
Worried you won’t remember all the names? Worry no more, like the Pokédex for all the 721 (yes, they got more these days) Pokémon we will provide you with a nice overview.
## 9. 90s, House, and Techno Networking or as others put it: Party!
Sure enough, we’ll have two parties at the end of each day. No matter if you just want to listen to good music, grab your Feierabend-Bier or meet some more people… Put down your phone and enjoy the show!
## 10. We already said it several times, but just to be 100% sure:
### Pioneers Festival is packed with lots and lots of inspiring keynotes, the newest technology to experience, amazing people to meet, and things to try. Europe’s innovation wonderland and an adventure you won’t forget.
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/tickets/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=10reasons-invest)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [10 reasons why your startup should attend Pioneers Festival 2015](https://pioneers.io/10-reasons-why-startups-should-attend-pioneers-festival-2015/)
**Published:** March 31, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## 1. Your ultimate chance to meet investors & accelerators
### More than 400 investors & accelerators from all around the world are expected at Pioneers Festival 2015.
This is your chance to meet them face to face at the bar, the party or during the session breaks. Too shy to just start talking to one of them? Don’t worry, sign up for the speed-networking session (think of it as speeddating for startups and accelerators/corporates) or just use the app to ask for 1-on-1 appointments. Ever heard of [Gil Penchina](https://pioneers.io/blog/people/gil-penchina/)? THE world’s leading Business Angel, largest syndicate investor on AngelList and part of the Pioneers Festival.
## 2. Learn how to get the most out of meeting an investor
The guys from Techstars, one of the global leading accelerators that (among other things) provide intensive mentorship for startups will prepare a session dedicated to exactly this topic. They will also be available afterwards for your questions.
**MEETING WITH A VC – TIPs & TRICKS**
[Nicole Glaros](https://pioneers.io/blog/people/nicole-glaros/), Techstars
[Jon Bradford](https://pioneers.io/blog/people/jon-bradford/), Techstars
*Thursday, 12:10, Academy Stage*
Looking for a plan B? Join our Masterclass on **“GO FUND YOURSELF – INVESTMENT WORKSHOP FOR TECH STARTUPS”**
## 3. Learn how to build your company
Several sessions will help you build your company from the ground up. For example [Ethan Imboden](https://pioneers.io/blog/people/ethan-imboden/ "Ethan Imboden") from frog design will talk about **"VENTURE DESIGN FOR STARTUPS“**.
*Thursday, 11:35, Academy Stage*
## 4. Marketing – not everyone is a natural
Having a great idea for a startup is only the beginning. But now you have to get the word out! We will help you reach your audience, [Neil Capel](https://pioneers.io/blog/people/neil-capel/) from Sailthru will teach you how to do **"MARKETING AT ITS BEST!“**.
*Thursday, 14:00, Academy Stage*
Attract your audience – a video says more than a thousand words. Having said that (oh, the irony!), we also have a workshop on how to create the perfect pitch video in our Masterclass.
## 5. Learn how to sell
Hardcore sales session with the living legend [Steli Efti](https://pioneers.io/blog/people/steli-efti/) from close.io who will woosh you with his talk and make a sales god out of you – **"SELL IT, BABY!“**.
*Thursday, 16:30, Academy Stage*
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/tickets/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=10reasonsSU)
## 6. How about your first Business2Business taste?
Not only investors & accelerators are interested in your ideas, also corporates are looking for new cooperations and partners. Grab a beer with them, "speed-date" with them in our speed-networking session or arrange meetings in the app. Easy as that.
Just look at some of the fancy companies that have already joined us over the last years:
## 7. In need of some (hardware & software) product development knowhow? We’ve got what you need!
Hardware? Software? Not sure?
**BUILDING GOBAL HARDWARE STARTUPS**
[Benjamin Joffe](https://pioneers.io/blog/people/benjamin-joffe/), HAX
*Thursday, 11:00, Academy Stage*
**BUILDING HW STARTUPS vs SW STARTUPS**
[Dávid Lakatos](https://pioneers.io/blog/people/david-lakatos/), Formlabs
*Friday, 12:25, Academy Stage*
And don’t forget to join the hardware masterclass with hardware.co (no, we didn’t forget the "m")
## 8. Do you need some media exposure for your already cool product?
We also got you covered there with the who-is-who from the international future tech press, thursting for the next yet undiscovered sensation which might be you. Who, you ask? Well, The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Wired, VentureBeat, Forbes, CNBC, The Washington Post, TC, the Kronen Zeitung and many more. Things they said:
## 9. Fun fun fun
Have we mentioned the party yet? Or the Roasted Session? We probably don’t have to explain to you why the party is fun, but if you are unfamiliar with Roasts, here is a link to a roast of Charlie Sheen.
Oh, i meant the last startup roast we had.
## 10. Last but not least:
### Lots and lots of inspiring keynotes, the newest technology to experience and touch, talks, people to meet and things to try. Europe’s innovation wonderland and an adventure you won’t forget.
Do we have a nice video of what our Festival looked like last year, you ask? Do birds fly?
What are you waiting for? Last time we checked, the festival tickets didn’t get any cheaper and the previous Pioneers Festival was sold out way in advance.
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/tickets)
Post something funny (hint: a gif) to our [Facebook event page](https://www.facebook.com/events/372092286307482/) and if it makes us laugh, you’ll probably get a 10% discount!
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Challenge Winner Will Get €100,000](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-startup-challenge-winner-gets-eur100k-investment/)
**Published:** March 27, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
We are super excited at Pioneers to announce – in cooperation with our partner [Speedinvest](http://speedinvest.com/) – a €100,000 seed investment for the Pioneers Challenge winner at Pioneers Festival 2015.
In case you missed it and/or want further details on our Startup Programs at Pioneers Festival 2015, [read all about them here](https://pioneers.io/blog/2015/01/23/pioneers-startup-programs/)!
**Note**: Application deadline for all startup programs is **Friday, 3 April 2015**.
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/startups/applications)
Let us now look at the nitty-gritty details of the deal:
Firstly, the seed investment is a total of up to EUR 100,000 and will be paid out in the form of a convertible loan. In the context of a seed financing, a loan will convert into shares of preferred stock upon the closing of a next equity financing – say, a Series A round of financing – at market terms for such an instrument.
Secondly, This seed investment will be released in tranches. At first, a tranche of EUR 25k is paid upon winning the Pioneers Challenge. Pioneers and Speedinvest will support the winner in a U.S. and E.U. road show to jointly build business traction. Upon successful completion of said tour, additional money will be released based on milestones.
Last, and hopefully certainly least, the investment offer is non-obligatory for the startup winner of the Pioneers Challenge 2015 and subject to standard due diligence processes on behalf of the investor, i.e. Speedinvest and Pioneers.
As a side-note, Speedinvest has invested in startups like [Indoo.rs](http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/31/5956265/san-francisco-airport-testing-beacon-system-for-blind-travelers), [Crate](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/crate-technology) (last year’s Top 8), [wikidocs](http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/11/atlassian-buys-wikidocs-and-the-tech-to-make-websites-or-apps-collaborative/), and [Holvi](http://speedinvest.com/blog/portfolio/holvi/).
Startups, you have until **Friday, 3 April 2015** to apply!
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/startups/applications)
To be a bit more precise about the investment sectors – this is certainly not an exhaustive list – let’s look at the following areas in a bit more detail:
FINTECH:
Cryptocurrency
Insurance 4.0
Security, Fraud, Identity
Banking from the cloud
Lending marketplaces
DEEP TECH
Analytics / Big Data
Enterprise
Next Gen Telecoms
IoT
M2M
EMERGING TECH:
Industry 4.0
Robotics
E-health
Hardware
Wearables
E COMMERCE:
Ad-tech
Niche e-commerce
Realtime video
Marketplaces
Want to learn more about the Pioneers Challenge – watch the Pioneers Challenge 2014 finalists below! If you have any questions simply write on our [Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/Pioneersfestival) or tweet us [@Pioneers](https://twitter.com/Pioneers).
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/startups/applications)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [The 1st Closing: €58 Million of Venture Capital](https://pioneers.io/first-closing-eur58-million-of-venture-capital-cee-startups/)
**Published:** March 3, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## New Venture Capital for Startups
Together with Speedinvest, Pioneers is pushing Austria’s venture capital (VC) industry to the next level. After only five months of fundraising, we are more than happy to announce the first closing of the Speedinvest 2 fund, in which Pioneers is a major stakeholder and partner. **EUR58 million** have already been committed in investments. Needless to say, the original goal of €25 million in a first round was slightly exceeded. The second and final closing of the fund will take place in September 2015 – at that point the fund is expected to have a total volume of around €70 million, although an even higher number is not unrealistic. Startups will receive funding as of today – the first four investments will be made public in the upcoming weeks!
## The Leading Seed Fund in CEE
Speedinvest 2 will focus on seed and early stage investments with an average ticket size of €500k. The size of the fund allows for follow-on investments of up to €3 million – a significant and certainly necessary next step for Europe’s startup scene, which will fuel growth in the region of Central Eastern Europe and especially Austria. More than 50 percent of the fund’s investments are planned to take place outside of Austria. Pioneers will specifically be in charge of the fund’s micro-investment arm: investments of €20k to €100k. Deal flow will certainly be fostered through Pioneers’ international network and events. The entire fund will have a very strong focus on Fintech and Deep Tech. There will be a hardware focus in particular – but certainly not exclusively – the fields of robotics, IoT, and wearables.
## The Faces Behind the Fund
Since we love numbers, we want to share another impressive statistic: €51 million – that is 87% of the current volume of the fund – were committed by private individuals. More than 90 private investors, entrepreneurs and business angels have committed funds to Speedinvest 2, including Johann “Hansi” Hansmann – Austria’s most prominent Business Angel (and also Pioneers’ lead investor) as well as established startups out of the Austrian ecosystem like Paysafecard, Gentics, Wikidocs, Blue Tomato, Dynatrace and Runtastic.
How did Speedinvest and Pioneers manage to raised the largest fund in Austria’s VC history in less than 5 months? All these nitty-gritty details will be revealed at PioneersVienna, on 3 March 2015.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Here Are the Next 5 Investors (Part II)](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-investors-day-judges-part2/)
**Published:** March 3, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
350 venture capitalists, angel investors, and accelerators are attending the Investors Day on May 27, 2015. A day prior to Pioneers Festival, the Investors Day is an entire day dedicated to the Top 50 startups of the Pioneers Challenge – to pitch, showcase, and connect with investors!
The Top 50 startups will pitch and showcase their products to a panel of expert judges. Find out all about the [Pioneers Startup Challenge here](https://pioneers.io/blog/pioneers-startup-programs).
After having presented [the first 5 VCs](https://pioneers.io/blog/pioneers-investors-day-judges-part1-indexventures-balderton-accel) who will be judging the startups at Investors Day, let us now introduce the second group of judges that you should get to know:
## Scott Sage – DFJ Esprit
Location: London, UK
Twitter: [@scott\_sage](https://twitter.com/scott_sage)
Linkedin: [scottsage](https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottsage)
Scott is a Partner based in London at DFJ Esprit, a multi-stage VC firm with *over $1 billion* in capital committed. He spent the past 7 years working in the startup industry. Before joining DFJ Esprit in 2010 he worked in research, marketing, business development and finance roles at Dashboard Ventures, UBS Investment Bank, BVCA and Smarkets. He invests into consumer and enterprise software companies and currently works with Lyst, SportPursuit, Campanja, TrustPilot, Conversocial and Datahug. Scott also co-founded CityMeetsTech in London and is a graduate of Texas Tech University.
**What he’s looking for**:
Consumer Internet, Enterprise Software, Mobile, SaaS, E-Commerce, Big Data, Marketplaces, Digital Health
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/startups/applications)
## Lyuben Belov – Launchub
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
Twitter: [@lyuben](https://twitter.com/lyuben)
Linkedin: [lyuben-belov](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/lyuben-belov/0/218/357)
Lyuben co-founded Net Info in late 1998 and lead it as CEO until 2007 to reach the #1 position on the Bulgarian internet media market with brands Gyuvetch and ABV.bg.
Currently he is running LAUNCHub – a EUR 9.1 million accelerator and seed fund focused on investing in startups from SEE region in the "digital domain": consumer internet, e-commerce, digital media, mobile. They love cloud, SAAS, social and are aiming to help young and upcoming entrepreneurs disrupt industries! The ones that Lyuben specifically wants to see revolutionised are: banking, entertainment, education among others.
**What he’s looking for**:
Consumer Internet, Enterprise Software, Cloud Computing, Storage, Virtualization, Image Recognition, Digital Media, Developer Tools, Entertainment, Health, and Wellness, Personal Health.
## Andrej Kiska – Credo Ventures
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Twitter: [@credoventures](https://twitter.com/credoventures)
Linkedin: [Andrej Kiska](https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=52291735)
Andrej is a startup investor at Credo Ventures. Credo Ventures is a venture capital company focused on early stage investments in Central Europe (Geography: Austria, Central Europe, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia) with a strong industry focus on IT, Internet & Health.
He is responsible for sourcing and evaluation of potential investments and is actively involved in supporting existing portfolio companies on fundraising, growth and exit activities.
**What he’s looking for**:
Clean Technology Consumer Internet Enterprise Software Mobile Health Care
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/startups/applications)
## Min-Sung Sean Kim – XL Health
Location: Berlin, Germany
Twitter: [@minsungseankim](https://twitter.com/minsungseankim)
Linkedin: [min-sung-sean-kim](http://de.linkedin.com/pub/min-sung-sean-kim/20/117/ba0)
Min-Sung is a Partner at XLHEALTH, a Berlin-based Venture Capital fund specialized on Digital Health investments. XLHEALTH current portfolio includes mySugr, Neuronation and Harimata. Before joining the XLHEALTH team, he founded and sold his first business and conducted seed investments with Lakeside-Ventures. Min-Sung studied in Seoul, St. Gallen, and Cambridge (MA).
**What he’s looking for**:
Digital health, medtech, healthcare
## Timo Tirkkonen – Inventure
Location: Finland
Twitter: [@zige30](https://twitter.com/zige30)
Linkedin: [Timo Tirkkonen](https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=9362336)
Timo is Partner at Inventure – a leading early-stage venture capital company in the Nordics. Timo focuses on the investment strategy and portfolio value creation and is actively involved in crafting the product and partnership strategies of Inventure’s portfolio companies.
He is managing the investments in Beneq, WOT, Rightware, Merus Power, and Valon. Before, Timo acted as a private investor with Innocap Oy. He started his career in the telecom sector with Nokia and Sonera.
**What he’s looking for**:
Technology, software, next generation digital services
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/startups/applications)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [The First 5 Judges: Index, Balderton, Accel (Part I)](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-investors-day-judges-part1-indexventures-balderton-accel/)
**Published:** February 23, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
350 venture capitalists, angel investors, and seed accelerators are attending this year’s Investors Day on May 27, 2015. One day prior to Pioneers Festival 2015, an entire day dedicated to the Top 50 startups of the Pioneers startup challenge.
As a Top 50 startup you will have the unique chance to pitch and showcase your products to a panel of expert judges. Find out all about the [Pioneers Startup Programs 2015 here](https://pioneers.io/blog/pioneers-startup-programs).
So without further ado, let us present the first batch of judges:
## Andrei Brasoveanu – Accel Partners
Location: London, UK
Twitter: [@algovc](https://twitter.com/algovc)
Linkedin: [andreibrasoveanu](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreibrasoveanu)
Medium: [@algovc](https://medium.com/@algovc)
Andrei of Accel Partners will join the Pioneers Investors Day as one of the first judges for 2015. Andrei joined Accel’s London Investment Team in 2014 after a decade in the US. Before becoming a VC, Andrei worked as a quantitative trader on Wall Street, first at a 3-person startup hedge fund and later at KCG, the largest high-frequency trading firm in the world.
Andrei holds an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School, and an AB in Mathematics summa cum laude from Princeton University.
**What he’s looking for**:
Fintech, Enterprise SaaS, Security, Consumer Hardware and Mobile Health.
[](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/startups/applications)
## Ophelia Brown – Index Ventures
Location: London, UK
Twitter: [@ophelia\_brown](https://twitter.com/ophelia_brown)
Linkedin: [Ophelia Brown](https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=81056653)
Technology investor at Index Ventures. Ophelia works closely with several portfolio companies, including Big Health, BitPay, Credit Benchmark, Osper and Robinhood.
Ophelia has also supported investments in Blaze, Futurelytics, Metapack, Navabi, onefinestay, Socialbakers, Supercell and Transferwise.
**What she’s looking for**:
Digital health, financial services, and eCommerce
## Get the Pioneers Festival Startup Report 2014
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [18 Pioneering Areas We Love!](https://pioneers.io/18-pioneering-areas-love/)
**Published:** January 23, 2015
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Introduction
We constantly get asked which areas and industries will be represented at Pioneers Festival and what kind of startups we are looking for with regard to our [Pioneers Startup Programs](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/startups/applications). Here, we have tried to break it down into the 18 areas we are particularly interested in – innovation and break-through technologies being key. These areas certainly do not cover the full spectrum of tech innovation and entrepreneurship. So, if you are active in a different field, show us what you are working on!
## Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is one of the fields with the potential to change life as we know it. Not only Hollywood has picked up this topic numerous times to show also show the controversy surrounding it, but we also see an increasing number of entrepreneurs working in this field. Example: Adam Cheyer (Co-Founder Siri) just launched [Viv Labs](http://viv.ai/). We are super excited to see what’s next – it seems like it has barely begun.
[SEE MORE: Adam Cheyer and Vishal Sharma at Pioneers Festival](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY4xPLfuCWM)
## Energy, Clean Tech & Climate
The field of Energy and Clean Tech is huge and has the potential of having enormous impact. From nuclear to renewable energy sources, storage and transmission – not only Tesla uses battery power to get hundreds of horse powers onto the street. Cheap energy is king as falling costs can dramatically improve the quality of life.
[SEE MORE: Danielle Fong – The Greentech Goddess](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zDyRmRdj3U&index=19&list=PLZgZvqvEZjE8Deer4GImPZmC5VQwUQd4P)
## Healthcare
We are interested in seeing how to make healthcare more sustainable, better for less money: Innovative preventative methods, the implementation of new technologies, sensors and medical devices as well as pharmaceuticals and digital health. Show us what you have got!
[SEE MORE: Analyze yourself with Scanadu – Walter DeBrouwer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGWiFlLDRKI)
## IoT, Sensors & Wearables
Make it smart! Leading tech companies like Cisco, Intel and Qualcomm are totally into this field. It is about making everything connected and smarter than it is these days – from internet-connected locks to the smart coffee machine in your kitchen. Wearables like Jawbone, fitbit, Withings and others are hot. Big VCs like A16Z, Khosla Ventures, Mayfield Fund, First Round Capital, KPCB, and True Ventures put their money on IoT. There is definitely more to mention, but let us drop a few key words: smart cities, home automation, connected cars, location based & navigation and wireless communications.
[SEE MORE: Hilton Romanski on IoT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaGIybL3P28&index=1&list=PLZgZvqvEZjE8Deer4GImPZmC5VQwUQd4P)
## Robotics
Robots can simply do things we cannot, and are most probably way more efficient. Self driving cars, mars rovers, industrial robots or even toys are already and will play even more of a part in our daily lives.
[SEE MORE: Robotics Panel with Rodney Brooks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQBIqoHK25w)
## Life Sciences & Biotech
Hacking biology comes to life! [Calico](http://www.calicolabs.com/) wants to slow aging, others read and manipulate DNA, invent genetic programming, fight diseases or merge humans and machines. Definitely a controversial field, but one that is on the rise and yes, we will be covering it at Pioneers Festival.
[SEE MORE: Biotech 2.0 with Ryan Bethencourt and Bill Liao](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqYopVuPkEI)
## Food, Water & Agriculture Tech
Somehow we will have to feed 9 billion people soon, right? Knowing that, we should start facing this upcoming challenge, otherwise we will end up with big problems. A solution we believe in is technology and bold entrepreneurs.
[SEE MORE: Food for 9 billion people – Agriculture 3.0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln2no6J-Cp8&index=4&list=PLZgZvqvEZjE8Deer4GImPZmC5VQwUQd4P)
## Fin Tech
Financial Services have grown immensely, from payments processing to remittances to wealth management, crypto currencies, investment strategies, information distribution, lending services to more efficient tools. It is safe to say, the fields of saving and investing are ready for disruption.
[SEE MORE: The Future of Payments with Patrick Collison (Stripe)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJvyhWde9f4)
## Enterprise, (Big) Data & Productivity Services
This field includes many sub-categories like cloud & analytics, enterprise software & SMB productivity, SaaS, supply chain & logistics, HR & workforce management – it is mainly about reducing costs, using new technologies like mobile phones and tablets, and the modernization of industries, their practices and processes.
[SEE MORE: Predicting the Future – Christopher Ahlberg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu680fB2mRY&list=PLZgZvqvEZjE_ZCBT93wV1TS5-tuCQU0Lh&index=4)
## Automotive & Transportation
Flying and driverless cars are finally here! So what is up next to improve transportation, make it more efficient, sustainable and cheaper? We are happy to find out together with you!
[SEE MORE: World Premiere – launch of Aeromobil, the Flying Car](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gsf3XASJ4zU)
## Aerospace
Yes, we want to see the spaceship of the future and launch it at Pioneers Festival! But there is even more to explore and achieve like nano-satellites, asteroid mining, space logistics & transportation… Star Trek has been inventing the future since the 60s, now it is on us to make the next step.
[SEE MORE: Mike Safyan on Disrupting Space](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtDPx_xibq0&index=3&list=PLZgZvqvEZjE8Deer4GImPZmC5VQwUQd4P)
## Education & Training
Education is key as it can disrupt all the other areas on this list, when done in the right way. Using the mass scale of technology in education might be the way to go, but also small improvements can add up to the big move. This includes fields like mobile language learning, teacher-student collaboration, education data and analytics, coding and programming education, online classrooms… you name it!
## NanoTech, Materials & Digital Fabrication
Let’s do this! Modern and innovative materials with special properties at atomic scale and the potential for science, technology and medical applications like nano materials or bio materials (e.g. in cell culture, surgery and dental implants or drug delivery). This area not only implements the research and usage of smart and advanced materials, but also the way we use them for production, e.g. 3D-printing and digital fabrication.
## Download the Pioneers Festival Startup Report 2014
\[signupform id="9718802"\]\[/signupform\] ## Infrastructure & Data Management
Basically everything we do is getting more and more related and connected to the internet and data – thus, we have to make sure it works the way we want. To drop some more key words: security, server, storage & big data infrastructure, networking, programming tools, monitoring, open source and APIs.
[SEE MORE: Brad Templeton on Big Data](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKpnUljGT4Q&index=6&list=PLZgZvqvEZjE9ke3H4Mmu5fw1t6-RAtPgs)
## Science Infrastructure
We defined Science Infrastructure as new and disruptive business models for basic research which should be directly connected to the commercialization of science, as well as tools and software to improve research and communication.
[SEE MORE: Sciencepreneur Extraordinaire – Austen Heinz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYE3ancjrjk&list=PLZgZvqvEZjE8Deer4GImPZmC5VQwUQd4P&index=15)
## AR/VR & Games
The field of Augmented Reality and personal displays is growing constantly – the gaming market alone is huge! We have tried to put these categories into one area which stretches the field from Google Glass and Oculus Rift to MMOGs and mobile gaming.
[SEE MORE: Showcasing Avegant with Yobie Benjamin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbySE9Tqom0&index=9&list=PLZgZvqvEZjE8Deer4GImPZmC5VQwUQd4P)
## Entertainment, Music, Video & Creativity
Do you (still) watch (online) TV? Use CDs, mp3 or online streaming? Think about it – entertainment industries are changing, content is getting distributed in new ways and celebrities communicate with their fans on different channels than only a few years ago. New businesses will be born in this area and we want to be at the spearhead of this evolution.
[SEE MORE: Andrew Sorensen coding Music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DuVuoe-_UQ)
## Communications & Telecommunications
We hope Skype, SMS, PMs, e-mails or even the basic phone call is not the final evolutionary result we see in the field of communications. As there is progress in all the other named fields happening, also the communication tools and methods will have to improve. Simpler, more elegant and definitely more effective.
---
You are working on the next big thing? [Apply now for the Pioneers Startup Programs and showcase at Pioneers Festival](https://pioneers.io/festival2015/startups/applications)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Growth Hacking: Q&A with Neil Patel](https://pioneers.io/growth-hacking-neil-patel-kissmetrics-qa-pioneers-festival-2014/)
**Published:** December 11, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
As the co-founder of two SaaS analytics companies, CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics, Neil has vast knowledge and experience in Marketing 2.0.
Here Neil Patel answers the **community’s questions**: in other words all the questions that Neil didn’t get to answer during his session at Pioneers Festival. In case you missed Neil speaking on Growth Hacking at Pioneers Festival watch his Academy talk [here](http://youtu.be/PWshoKN952k).
## Which are the most important KPIs regarding growth?
I typically look at revenue and profit. To me that is the most important KPI.
## How did you get initial traction for Kissmetrics?
We created infographics related to marketing. This created traffic from our target audience and then we funneled the traffic into our product.
## How to use free stuff and referral methods in B2B users?
With free stuff you can either create a software like [Grader by Hubspot](https://marketing.grader.com/) to generate leads and then have your sales people call and close them. You can also give away free ebooks for an email address and then drip those users and try to get them to convert.
As for referral methods, look at Wealthfront. Their referral system would work great for B2B.
## Can you suggest some growth hacks for a Yelp-like service?
I would use badges. Hit up businesses and get them to put a badge on how they are featured on your site. This will drive traffic to you and also encourage more reviews for them, which should drive them business.
## Growth hack tools for B2B – with a LONG sales cycle, say 9 months?
I would just focus on lead generation. Use tools like [BounceExchange](http://www.bounceexchange.com/) to collect more leads.
## Growth hacking for offline businesses?
This is tough. I haven’t seen too many campaigns other than viral videos or people showing how they creatively use a product.
## Release a service platform incrementally or go full (feature) force?
I do incrementally. And over time improve upon it.
## Growth hacking vs. product improvement?
They are both similar. In which a better product should also lead to more users.
## Would you recommend an invite-only system like Pinterest did?
If it is a good fit for your product, yes. But it may not always be. You have to do what is best for your product and users.
## “Growth Hacking” – Neil Patel, Pioneers Festival
Watch Neil’s session from Pioneers Festival 2014 here:
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Surviving the Startup Life: Q&A with Jerry Colonna](https://pioneers.io/surviving-startup-life-rebootio-jerry-colonna-qa-pioneers-festival-2014/)
**Published:** December 2, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
At Pioneers Festival 2014, Jerry Colonna had an incredible session on the Academy Stage, where he talked about being a startup CEO: how the frenzied and frenetic life of startups can destroy you, your family and your company. How can you lead yourself and your startup to success without a meltdown? Drawing on his work as a venture capitalist and executive coach, Jerry says the magic happens in the crucible that forms a leader.
## Everybody knows we want to care about our families. But that ego who flies from east to the west is somehow stronger – how to beat it?
*Jerry*: Well I love that you’re referring to my story of flying back and forth to the West Coast from NY in a single day to "prove" how successful I was.
And I think the answer to your question lies in the question itself: The reason I had to do that was that I felt inadequate in my soul. I was trying to close a hole in heart, the source of a sense of worthlessness, by proving how successful I could be. The answer of course is to find another way to address the sense of worthlessness. The answer is to disconnect from external sources of affirmation (such as believing that presenting in a ballroom at the Imperial Palace in Vienna – as I did for the Pioneers Festival – means I’m a good and worthy person. I’m good and worthy because of my humanity.)
The irony of course is that the best parenting I could do would be to model for my children what it’s like to find motivation from intrinsic sources. The best I can do for my children is to teach them to love themselves for themselves and not because of what they’ve done who whether or not they can fly in First Class.
## What is a book you advise anyone here to read to be able to resist the fire better?
*Jerry*: There are a few: David Whyte’s [Crossing the Unknown Sea](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/151717.Crossing_the_Unknown_Sea) and [The Heart Aroused](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/871728.The_Heart_Aroused) are two beautiful books that explore the existential relationship between the Self and Work. But I also highly, highly recommend [Let Your Life Speak](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67862.Let_Your_Life_Speak), by Parker Palmer.
Parker, who’s become a dear friend, is incredible and looks well at these questions of meaning and work and vocation. Indeed, so profoundly impactful is that book that we use it as a core text in [Reboot.io’s bootcamps](http://www.reboot.io/service/bootcamps/).
Parker and I are also completing a book a together… one on depression and entrepreneurship. That should be available in a few months.
## How can I reduce the time it takes me to take decisions. (Stressful!)
*Jerry*: This is one of those questions I love. On the surface, it seems to be about productivity and efficiency. But, really, it’s not–and the way I know this is so is because of the addendum: "Stressful!"
So, based on that, I’m going to respond with some assumptions. I assume, for example, that when you’re in the throes of indecision, you feel agony. What is the source of the pain? I imagine it to be fear… fear of making the wrong decision.
Which really is a mask for fear of failure. And this is the root problem.
So if you spend all of your time trying to improve your decision-making process, you’ll not release yourself from the stress. The real problem is that you see each decision as life-threatening. What if, instead, each decision were merely a step in the experiment called "Your company."
What if the process of making a decision and discovering you were wrong were just as valuable as making the right decision?
And, if the entire exercise is merely an experiment, isn’t that the case?
## I hate my cofounder for not doing enough. How do I not burst out?
*Jerry*: Ah, as I often say, hate is really, really interesting. There’s an old Buddhist teaching that goes like this:
Be grateful to everyone, including the people who press your buttons, because they show you where YOU are stuck.
The way to manage your anger, as I’ve often taught, is to become friendly with the fear that drives your anger. The anger is out of control (or barely contained) because you’re not speaking about the ways in which your co-founder’s actions–or non-actions–are scaring you. (For example, you’ve also have a case of Fear of Failure.)
Making matters worse, you and your co-founder have not defined your relationship (with clear, unambiguous language that I would label as Being Fierce–see my videos and blog post on the subject). You’d both do well to come to [Reboot’s first Co-Founder bootcamp next Spring](http://www.reboot.io/bootcamp/spring-ceo-co-founders-bootcamp/).
Lastly, as I often explore in work with clients, and as Parker Palmer analyzes in Let Your Life Speak, the hate that you feel is–in all likelihood–rooted in your own aggression towards yourself. Carl Jung’s concept of the Shadow comes to mind whenever I hear someone speaking of hate. We often hate the things others do because they remind of things about ourselves which we’d rather disown, keep in the Shadow.
To release yourself, consider reading Owning Your Own Shadow by Robert Johnson.
## How do you find your stand still activity?
*Jerry*: Great question. Here’s where my concept of Radical Self-inquiry can be helpful. Really being honest with yourself as you inquire into what makes you happy.
For me, journaling has been my salvation. By journaling I came to know myself quite well, to cut through my own bullshit, and finally to recognize the things that I did that made me feel badly and the things that I did that made me feel good.
So I try to do the things that make me feel good and which don’t hurt others (like sitting in meditation and going to the gym) and do those more often.
## When did you most regret not taking a breath before making a decision?
*Jerry*: Oh my. There are so, so many things I regret. Usually though they have one thing in common: when I act because I can’t stand inaction or uncertainty. Learning to recognize that sometimes I have to wait before deciding is incredibly painful.
My biggest regrets in this area though tend to be around the things I’ve done or said that hurt people. And in looking back, they were always rooted in my poor handling of my own fears.
## You refer a lot to religion and spirituality. Isn’t business a means to an end? So not spiritual process?
*Jerry*: Ah, but I disagree. Let me explain: I think LIFE is a spiritual process.
That is, I define a spiritual process as things that take us closer and closer to our truest, most authentic and most fully-actualized self (in the Maslow sense of self-actualization). Those things that take us there are divine. I know this to be true because it produces a sense of equanimity and well-being (even if there’s sadness) for myself and those closest to me.
My friend Parker Palmer likes to say that his depression is caused by actions that are "cross-wise" with his authentic self. For me, my depression is almost always prompted by what I sense is my own tendency to disassociate from my Self, to leave my Self, and act in a way that is contrary to my Truth.
Therefore those things, which take me back to my Truth, my Self, are divine, spiritual
I firmly believe that work can be a place in which we get to live out our truest Self. Even if your work isn’t "creative" it can be a creative expression of your soul. Even if your work doesn’t appear to be saving the world, it can create a means for your own transformation and emergence as a dear and authentic self.
One of the most full-actualized and beautiful men I ever met was my boss in a job I held as a teenager. Jack Martinez was a Basque. He left school in the sixth grade and traveled the world as a merchant marine. He believed in me even though I was a scrawny clumsy teenager. And when I spent the summers of my youth traveling around the suburbs of NY, fixing school lockers, I learned to use tools, I learned to believe in my capacity to learn to fix anything.
That gift was spiritual. He gave me a chance to grow.
## What do your kids think about your philosophies?
*Jerry*: Ha! I THINK they, for the most part, appreciate them. But they do get sick and tired of me sounding like a coach all the time. Fortunately they have the guts to tell me shut up and to not take myself so seriously.
## “Disappearing into the Fire: Surviving the Startup Life” – Jerry Colonna
Watch Jerry Colonna’s session from Pioneers Festival 2014 here:
[Download the slide deck of Jerry’s talk here](https://pioneers.io/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Standing-Still-Vienna-Latest-Jerry_Colonna_slidedeck.pdf): "Standing Still while Your Hair’s on Fire". You can also check out THE REBOOT PODCAST [here](http://www.reboot.io/podcast/).
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Oradian wins Pioneers Challenge 2014](https://pioneers.io/oradian-pioneers-challenge-winner-2014-interview-julian-oehrlein/)
**Published:** November 18, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Croatian based startup [Oradian](http://oradian.com/) is the winner of the [Pioneers Challenge 2014](https://pioneers.io/festival2014/startups/challenge-top-50) – decided by this year’s final judges who came from Accel Partners, Haxlr8r, Y Combinator, Speedinvest and Index Ventures!
Out of 1,000+ applications this year by startups from 64 countries, the top 8 finalists too came from eight different countries, all attempting to solve a unique problem.
We talked to Julian Oehrlein, co-founder and COO of Oradian, who pitched at Pioneers Festival and took home the Grand Prize:
## Where are you guys based?
We are based in Zagreb, Croatia. However, our markets are frontier economies, such as Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
## How big is your team?
We are three founders, Antonio Separovic – Managing Director. Antonio is Croatian, but grew up in South Africa. Julian Oehrlein – COO. Julian is German. Andrew Mainhart – CTO. Andrew is American, but lives in Mozambique.
We have 20 employees, spread across 2 continents, 9 different nationalities.
## Explain your business model.
Using Cloud technology, we deliver core banking technology, Instafin, to financial intermediaries in frontier markets, using a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. We charge these organizations based on the number of clients they service on an annual or monthly basis.
Our Video, is a simple explanation of what Instafin does:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12quCryVwFI&spfreload=10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12quCryVwFI&spfreload=10)
## What makes Oradian game changing?
Instafin is game changing on several levels. First, our pricing and pricing model. We offer our service at a radically reduced price on a subscription basis that aligns our business goals with theirs. That aligns our business goals with theirs. They grow, we grow. They grow, we grow. Second, by delivering Instafin via the cloud through web and mobile apps we can address a lot of the infrastructural and operational complexities these intermediaries grapple with on a daily basis.
## What is the big problem you guys solve? Why is it important that Oradian exists?
Delivering financial services – whether that be credit or savings or insurance – to the underserved or unbanked is an expensive and operationally intensive activity. Oradian exists to remove as much of the friction as we can so that as many people as possible can take part in vitally important financial services.
## Why is no one else solving this problem so far?
While there are a few competitors out there, the market is high on demand and low on supply – especially quality supply. We believe the largest reasons others haven’t moved into this space so far are related to the macro-level impression many have of frontier markets and the micro-level issues related to selling and delivery technology to these intermediaries.
Unfortunately, despite a lot of lip service, most European and US investors and entrepreneurs spend most of their Euros, Dollars, and time solving “first-world” problems. Our target markets are nice vacation spots – who doesn’t love a safari or trip down the Mekong – but not investment locations, especially Africa. Our target markets are nice vacation spots but not investment locations. When the few who do attempt to address the needs of these markets – realizing the enormous untapped Blue Ocean opportunities – they often run amok trying to impose their previous business lessons on to a different market with different norms and procedures.
Oradian, on the other hand, is a team of very seasoned entrepreneurs who have direct experience working and living in these markets – some of us for decades. We have the relationships; we have the cultural know-how; we have the willingness to go into these communities and work with our partner intermediaries to improve our service and their business.
## What’s next?
After having poured significant amounts of Friends, Family, Fools, & Angel money into our project, we are now raising a larger round of investment to scale our operations and expand our marketing and sales efforts. We are now raising a larger round of investment to scale our operations. Over time, we will become the platform of choice for all African financial intermediaries then move into southeast Asia and Latin America. We see massive growth potential as these markets are growing much faster and are powered by much more innovation than Europe and the USA. Onward and upward.
[Pioneers Challenge 2014: Top 8 Finalists](https://pioneers.io/festival2014/startups/challenge-top-50)
Mimi Hearing Technologies: Germany – Health & MedTech
Robo: United States – Robotics/Education
Crate Technology: Austria – Big Data/IoT & Sensors
BRCK: Kenya – IoT & Sensors, Telco
Oradian: Croatia – Cloud, Fintech
Tag & Find: Israel, Devices, IoT & Sensors
OptoForce: Hungary – AI & Robotics, IoT & Sensors
Owlin: Netherlands – Communications, FinTech
*Image: nechvile.cz*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Emily Brooke: I spent my first year absolutely paranoid](https://pioneers.io/blaze-laserlight-smart-bike-startup-backed-by-branson/)
**Published:** June 25, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## What do you tell people when you are asked what you do?
*Emily Brooke*: I say I have a crazy little startup called Blaze and we make innovative products for urban cyclists. I usually get a raised eyebrow and a confused look. \[laughs\]
## Can you give us an example of your work?
*Emily Brooke*: Our flagship product is called the Laserlight. It tackles the biggest cause in cyclist fatality, which is being caught in the blind spot. It’s a front facing light that you have to have by law, but it also has our laser – it projects the symbol of a bike just in front of you onto the road.
## You have a physics and math background. What got you into entrepreneurship?
*Emily Brooke*: I was a girl at school that could do Science and Math. That led me to Oxford to read Physics. But I left after my first year to do Product Design in Brighton, which I absolutely loved. Wanting to identify and tackle the biggest challenge facing city cyclists. For my final year project I had to design a product from start to finish. I gave myself the theme ‘urban cycling’ with a very clear objective of wanting to identify and tackle the biggest challenge facing city cyclists.
## How did you go about identifying the “biggest problem”?
*Emily Brooke*: I spent 6 months working with traffic psychologists, statisticians, cyclists, and the bus company. Straight away personal safety was flagged as the biggest problem. Looking at statistics, we quickly found out that it’s the side-sweeping blind-spot incident, which is the killer. That is what I wanted to tackle.
## What were the next steps?
*Emily Brooke*: I would cycle around town and try to figure out what is needed to solve this problem. One day I was thinking, "that truck ahead of me can’t see me, but if I was just 5 yards ahead he could see me!" I know what I am going to do: I’ll project myself there.
## At that point did you already think this idea could become a company?
*Emily Brooke*: I had patented the product while I was studying in order to license it to an existing manufacturer. I always knew that it was a really good idea and that somebody needed to make it a reality, I didn’t at that point think it was going to be me.
## What happened that changed your mind into building a company out of Blaze?
*Emily Brooke*: At the end of the summer two things happened on one night. I was leaving coding late at night and my bike had been stolen, which completely broke my heart. After I got home from the police station pretty late, I saw a guy had just been killed by an Olympic bus turning across him during the Olympics. That was the exact problem that my product tackles.That was the exact problem that my product tackles and I realized, it is ridiculous how much I care about this. Why aren’t I doing this? So by September 2012 I dedicated myself full time to make this a reality.
## Tell us about your investors. You got a rather famous investor on board…
*Emily Brooke*: We got two main investors on board: Index Ventures and Branson family, which is pretty cool.
## How does a young founder convince Sir Richard Branson to invest in their startup?
*Emily Brooke*: You tell them that you don’t want money. \[laughs\] I was in the right place at the right time. Our product caught their eyes and they thought it was cool. I think the Branson’s realized this isn’t just another small startup, but this is a small startup that is actually trying to make a difference and solve a problem. I think the Branson’s realized this is a startup that is actually trying to make a difference. Also the fact that it’s tangible; it’s not an online business with intangible users and a platform that is hard to get your head around… that helped a lot.
## What is the biggest challenge that you have faced so far with your startup?
*Emily Brooke*: Manufacturing in China, for sure. Nobody in China wants to work with a small company, ultimately we are a high complexity and small volume products company. Manufacturers in China want low complexity and large volume, so we are an absolute nightmare.
## Are Chinese manufacturers not ready to work with small startups?
*Emily Brooke*: Manufacturers in China are used to very heavy process. They work with companies like Apple, where they have an entire quality assessment team of a 100 responsible for the screws on the inside of a component. Whereas with us, we are very flexible as a small team. We just get shit done quickly. The large companies out there are resistant to that. It’s a big learning curve, for both sides.
## Where do you see Blaze in 5-10 years?
*Emily Brooke*: Being the global urban cycling brand.
## There are quite a few “smart-bike” startups out there: Helios, Lock8, etc. How will Blaze be different?
*Emily Brooke*: Our first priority is making really good products. All these guys are facing problems, which I’m sure they will ultimately solve. For example the GPS tracking device of the security device can be wrapped in tin-foil, making it untraceable. The tech scares me a little bit – it changes really quickly. Yet the “smart tech” we can definitely add to our products in the future and we are looking to do that already, but first we want to start with really good hardware.
## Is there anything in particular that you would like to pass on to other female founders?
*Emily Brooke*: Just get on with it! The biggest thing I learnt: there is many ways to skin a cat. I spent my first year being absolutely paranoid, am I doing things right? There is many ways to skin a cat. I spent my first year being absolutely paranoid. Is there a better way to do it? But actually there is many ways to do many things – just choose one and get on with it. No one actually knows what they are doing the first time they are starting a company. Find people who do. Go and find as many people as you can, ask as many questions as you can. It’s all paid forward – everybody got help at the beginning and most are willing to give help back later. I try to learn as much as I can, because I have no bloody clue what I am doing.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Beef jerky potato chips: $10M to Grow Meat in Labs](https://pioneers.io/modern-meadow-raises-10m-with-horizons-ventures-to-grow-meat-in-labs/)
**Published:** June 19, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Modern Meadow’s Round A was led by Horizons Ventures, the Hong Kong-based firm Li Ka-shing. Horizons Ventures is a leading investor in some of the world’s most innovative companies including Facebook, Waze, Skype, Spotify, Siri and Hampton Creek. With Modern Meadow, Horizons invests in another disruptive technology startup that specializes in a tissue engineering technique called "biofabrication" to grow leather and meat from skin and muscle cells in the lab.
## What was the killer argument to go with Horizons Ventures for your Series A?
*Andras Forgacs*: We were very impressed with the Horizons team. As the venture fund or Mr. Li Ka-shing, they are more understated than most venture investors but also much more capable of adding value. They have tremendous global reach, relationships at the highest levels and a commitment to funding fundamental innovation. Days after they gave us a term sheet, they even made introductions to top scientists who could be helpful in accelerating our research.\[aside\]They have tremendous global reach and a commitment to funding fundamental innovation.\[/aside\]
During the investment process, they freely let us speak with their portfolio company CEOs, an impressive group, who universally stated that Horizons were their favorite investors. The opinions of other entrepreneurs were highly instructive and made us realize just how lucky we were to find Horizons as a partner.
## How do you get these guys on board?
*Andras Forgacs*: The best resource for entrepreneurs are fellow entrepreneurs. In this case, we were introduced to Horizons through the CEO of Hampton Creek Foods, Josh Tetrick, who is a friend and fellow innovator in food technology. Horizons recently led their $23M series B round and asked Josh for suggestions on other companies. Needless to say, we’re fans of Hampton Creek.
## What phase is your research currently in and what are the next steps for Modern Meadow – this year and in the next 5 years?
*Andras Forgacs*: We are still a development stage biotech company. Although we have already shown samples of our biofabricated leather (at TEDGlobal 2013 and since) and have hosted tastings of our cultured steak chips, we are not rushing to market these products just yet.\[aside\]We have hosted tastings of our cultured steak chips\[/aside\] We anticipate another couple years of R&D before we launch leather in a pilot capacity in partnership with some leading brands.
## What’s the time horizon until we will see Modern Meadow leather handbags in the street?
*Andras Forgacs*: As mentioned, we are still developing and refining our materials. We anticipate launching limited edition pilot applications with some high-end brands in the next few years.
## And as for meat in the shelves? And how will it taste?
*Andras Forgacs*: Cultured meat will take longer to hit supermarket shelves since it will need regulatory approval. We have already organized some private tastings but are not ready to advertise or mass market this product. For the time being steak chips are our "home brew" which we can enjoy with our friends. The feedback so far has been very positive. Some have described it as "beef jerky meets the crunchiness of a potato chip." In collaboration with a terrific chef, we have made poblano barbecue and teriyaki flavors with more to follow…
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Ventures
---
### [Technology is supposed to make us better and faster](https://pioneers.io/michael-buckwald-ceo-leap-motion-interview-barriers-of-tech/)
**Published:** June 3, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Give us the quick pitch of Leap Motion.
*Michael Buckwald*: As you may know Leap Motion is a device that connects to your computer and turns the area around the computer into a 3-D interaction space. So you can use your hands and fingers to interact with the computer as if you were interacting with the physical world.
## Where did the vision behind Leap Motion originate?
*Michael Buckwald*: It all goes back to frustration with the problems of creating something 3-D on your computer. Consider this: even though a small child can create something out of actual clay in minutes that resembles a coffee cup, a professional 3-D modeler might need an hour to do the same thing. We want to bring that ability to computers – let people reach into the digital world. That seems wrong – technology is supposed to make us better and faster. But there is a barrier between computers and us!
## And Leap Motion helps to overcome this barrier?
*Michael Buckwald*: It is things like the mouse and keyboard where we only communicate through binary signals: I am pushing the X button or I am not pushing the X button. That is such an incredibly simplistic way to communicate with incredibly powerful processors. It’s very insignificant compared to how we use our physical hands to interact with the world around us every day.
If you think of an action like picking up a can in real life, it’s such a complicated move. But we do things like that thousands of times a day. We have this magical ability to use our hands and fingers to interact with the physical world. We want to bring that into computers. We want to let people reach into the digital world.
## That sounds incredibly difficult…
*Michael Buckwald*: … the most difficult thing is of course the raw technological problem. Certainly 7 years ago when David \[Holz, CTO & Co-founder\] started his research while he was getting his Math PhD, and even today, no one in the world is able to track fingers as accurately as us. It’s a very difficult technical problem. We spent a lot of time educating people that the Leap is not a mouse or keyboard replacement. But there is also all of the complexity and cost associated with building physical things. And scaling the company quickly – going from the first 10 employees to 20 to 50 to 100. That is the biggest challenge of all I think.
## Speaking of challenges: What did you do to make the transition between early adopters to a more mainstream market?
*Michael Buckwald*: By definition Leap can be a product for anyone, because the product is really the apps that are developed on top of the platform. For instance if developers develop a great educational game then at least in the context of that app the product is for children.
## There is a big hype around your product. How did you manage people’s expectations?
*Michael Buckwald*: We tried to separate the company’s vision from the product vision. The product vision is obviously a much shorter term, there is what the peripheral can do today and what it will be able to do with our version-two software that is in beta testing now. We spent a lot of time and energy educating people that Leap Motion is a secondary input device – that it is not a mouse or keyboard replacement, but rather focused on changing the types of things people do with their computers. And that is part of the company vision, which is truly about transforming how everybody interacts with their computers in this very fundamental way.
## How do you deal with disappointed users who perhaps “misunderstand” the product?
*Michael Buckwald*: The point is that it’s extremely early – we are at the beginning of something that is truly a five and in reality at 10+ year vision. If you asked me what the time span was a year ago I would’ve said exactly the same thing. Much of Leap’s value is going to come from transforming other form factors besides the PC. At the core it’s about making users aware, but also ourselves aware, that the long term mission is not about the PC. Much of Leap’s value is going to come from transforming other form factors besides the PC. Transforming how people interact with their cars, with their TVs, how they interact with form factors that don’t even exist today – form factors that are made possible because of our new input device.
## What technologies that are being developed are you particularly excited about and how do you see them interact with Leap Motion?
*Michael Buckwald*: One of the most exciting things for us is VR. We are already seeing thousands of developers take their [ Oculus and put Leap Motions in front of them](https://www.leapmotion.com/blog/mounting-the-leap-motion-controller-on-the-oculus-rift/). That’s just one of many examples of new form factors that require new types of interaction to be successful – you want to be immersed and connected. It is a very exciting time in technology – whether it’s automotive or TV or something more futuristic like virtual reality. There is a lot of incredible innovation on the hardware level and that innovation requires complementary innovation at input level.
## If you had to pin it down to the toughest decision that you have had to make as a CEO, what was that and what did you learn from it?
*Michael Buckwald*: Probably, the decision to make our own product. Two years ago we were trying to figure out if we should pursue a pure licensing model or whether we should build our own hardware. On one side we got control of our own destiny and got to make sure that we’ve built the product the way we would’ve wanted. It’s exciting to be a part of bringing this magic into the world. On the other side we wouldn’t have had to build out all the internal components necessary to build a hardware supply chain, customer support, nor accumulate inventory. That was a very difficult decision. We chose to build the product, which I think was by far the best decision that we have made as a company.
## And what would you consider your greatest achievement?
*Michael Buckwald*: I think it’s about the opportunities that we have given developers to build amazing things. There are truly magical things that people have built on top of the platform – apps that have had a significant impact on how surgeons go about in the operating room, how musicians play music or kindergarten teachers teach their students. Obviously we know that it still very early days but even in such an early time we are already seeing this transformation and we are seeing developers build really amazing things. It’s exciting to be a part of bringing this magic into the world.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Conversations with Bellabeat's Urska Srsen](https://pioneers.io/urska-srsen-founder-bellabeat-shares-insights-into-yc-and-4-5m-funding/)
**Published:** May 26, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Congratulations on your successful seed round! Give us a quick recap: What happened in the last 6 months of Bellabeat?
*Urska Srsen*: At Pioneers Festival we made the amazing connection to Y Combinator. The Bellabeat team joined the YC Winter ’14 batch and we re-launched our product for the US market. We managed to prove the need for our product and built relationships with some of the biggest retailers in Europe and the States. In March we graduated from Y Combinator and received a lot of attention from the press and investors. Since then we have managed to successfully raise a seed round from some of the most notable angel investors in Silicon Valley.
## What was the biggest challenge you faced going to the US?
*Urska Srsen*: The obvious key challenge for us as a European startup was to prove ourselves in a foreign market and environment. Build a brand people can trust and want to work with. We worked hard to gain the trust of our new customers and business partners in the US. We learned that the most important thing is to build a brand people can trust and want to work with.
## What did you specifically do to build your brand?
*Urska Srsen*: Our core focus was on community engagement! Design and visuals were also a crucial part – we put a lot of focus on designing our branding and building that visual context for our products.
## What did you learn from your community?
*Urska Srsen*: The most helpful thing about that was to really get to know our customers – to figure out their needs and wishes. We adopted them and are integrating the solutions into our product.
## Do you have a community manager for that role?
*Urska Srsen*: While in the States we were working alone on that – keeping it lean \[smiles\]. But we just hired 2 community managers who will continue our work. Communication with our customers is essential for our brand that is why we invested immediately in growing that part of our company.
## So it’s about gaining brand awareness and also feedback in terms of customer needs.
*Urska Srsen*: Yes that’s right, awareness is important – we managed to gain a lot of it. Many care providers have already contacted us because their patients were asking about Bellabeat. Things like that show us what are the really important things to focus on. That is why we decided to open up our API to them and started working with them. We enable these care providers to have better communication with their patients and give them a more detailed insight into their health.
Raising awareness also makes more people talk to us about their problems or needs that need to be fixed or taken care of in the contemporary prenatal care. Things like that show us what are the really important things to focus on immediately and how to solve them.
## How is the US market different to the European one – is one more suitable for your brand than the other?
*Urska Srsen*: The quantified-self movement is still a lot stronger in the US market and people are more prone to using digital solutions that help them stay fit and teach them about preventive care.
The US health care system is already adopting technology as the "helping hand". Also the health care system in the US is already adopting technology as the "helping hand" in offering better and cheaper care. Bellabeat fits somewhere in between the quantified-self market and the prenatal care market. It is a system that offers moms an emotional connection with their unborn baby, but it also teaches them about and encourages them to lead a healthier pregnancy.
## What are the next steps? What is the $4.5 million in funding dedicated to?
*Urska Srsen*: The investment we raised will enable us to further build our company and brand. We are building a new generation of the Bellabeat product and starting to monetize our services for prenatal care providers. Our team has grown substantially in the last 2 months and we plan to hire more people who can help us with building great products for prenatal care.
## What can other founders learn from your experience?
*Urska Srsen*: As Garry Tan once said “stay humble and stay focused”.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [I hired my own boss to run Shazam: A talk with Chris Barton](https://pioneers.io/chris-barton-shazam-founder-shares-startup-experience-lessons/)
**Published:** May 23, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## You began your career in consulting but soon went on to start your own company. What was your motivation to become an entrepreneur?
*Chris Barton*: I fundamentally love creating stuff. But there are two main reasons. One, my dad was a big inspiration – he was running his own company when I was growing up in San Diego. The second were fellow students in business school who were starting their own businesses. These two factors really triggered the process for me to want to start my own company. So I decided one day to focus on coming up with an idea that I could develop. That’s when Shazam started.
## Tell us a bit more about this: How did the process look like?
*Chris Barton*: I spent a summer brainstorming ideas. I would literally brainstorm ideas whenever I had free time – I went for long runs and sometimes I would have sessions at a café with my friends and we’d bounce ideas off of each other. It was a very thoughtful process. I think that anyone can come up with ideas in their daily life, but the best way is to really carve out time and to think through different potential business cases.
## So you didn’t come up with Shazam out of the blue. Did you have multiple ideas at first?
*Chris Barton*: I had a variety of different ideas that I was considering. The Shazam idea, was one that I was tinkering around with for a long time, but it was originally based on a much simpler technology approach.
## What happened then? Why did you pick Shazam?
*Chris Barton*: I was essentially creating something that solved my own problem. But the real aha moment with Shazam was when I came up with the idea of implementing a technology that had never been done before – the sound recognition that could work in a “noisy environment” and over a mobile phone. That was the birth of Shazam. It seemed like an incredibly difficult concept to build, which made it really exciting.
## So being the visionary founder meant you needed a technical co-founder with a very specific set of skills…
*Chris Barton*: … yes, my other co-founder Philip Inghelbrecht and I were looking for an audio signal processing specialist who could execute our technology vision for Shazam.
## And that was Avery Wang. How did you convince him to join?
*Chris Barton*: Philip and I had put a lot of thought into the opportunity of this business. It wasn’t just a simple "Hey wouldn’t it be great to do this” – it was essentially a thoughtful business plan. One of the things that won him over was that we got his professor to join the company’s advisory board. We had walked Avery through what our vision was for Shazam. One of the things that won him over was just how diligent we had been about thinking through building a business around this, combined with clear persistence and passion. We had put a lot of research into the area of his technical expertise in audio signal processing, so we had actually gotten his professor – who supervised his PhD thesis at Stanford – to join our advisory board for the company. That sold him.
## What is the key trait for a founder?
*Chris Barton*: A strong level of persistence has been the core driver for me in my career. And it’s the most useful thing for starting a company. Because when you’re starting a company essentially you’re facing such an endless barrage of challenges that making it succeed is nearly impossible. It’s almost an irrational persistence that is the only thing that really allows you to keep going.
## Did you ever reach a point where you wanted to give up?
*Chris Barton*: Not at all, but it will often be the biggest question that you face as an entrepreneur, “isn’t that just a feature or a product?” But ultimately almost every company starts off as a feature or product. And eventually you build around that success to become a real company. Almost every company starts off as a feature or product. So being able to see where your idea is going to take you is critical, because people want to be part of of building towards a grand vision. No matter whether investors or employees. That’s what creates the big opportunity and that’s what is the most exciting challenge.
## What was the next big challenge you faced?
*Chris Barton*: We had a very simple piece of software that ran on a computer initially where we could show that we were able to recognize a piece of sound collected over mobile phone, and then demonstrate how it would be recognized in a database. That was the very earliest prototype that we showed to angel investors. But at the time we were out raising venture capital, we had built a phone-based system. Again it was not the world’s most comprehensive database of songs, at that time, and was definitely a bit shaky, but it did work.
## What was the biggest challenge around monetization after prototyping?
*Chris Barton*: Shazam initially was a simple pay-per-call service. Finding a way to monetize without having to charge users really opens up the gates. With the introduction of the App Store however there was concern, “if the user pays once is that going to mean there is not an ongoing revenue stream?” Ultimately we went for a freemium model – so for the majority of users Shazam was completely free. There is a premium version of Shazam today, but it’s really not as core to the company as it was in the early days.
## Why freemium?
*Chris Barton*: Finding a way to monetize without having to charge users really opens up the gates to becoming much bigger. The raw volume of new users that was coming in was perfectly sufficient to create a viable and growing revenue stream that was better than that prior model \[before the introduction of apps and smart phones\]. So Shazam really only reached its potential when the massive distribution available in app stores became an opportunity to reach the masses.
## You had already stepped down as CEO in 2004 – way before the App Store and iPhone were introduced. What had happened?
*Chris Barton*: I actually hired my own boss to run the company. So that created the opportunity for us co-founders to go off and do new things. We had fully vested our equity and had been plowing away at Shazam for a few years. It just seemed like a good time to remain active as a board member but let the hired-in management to run the company. I joined Google at the time and it was prior to being public company, so it was a pretty exciting startup to join.
## Any regrets for leaving Shazam as operating CEO this early?
*Chris Barton*: No, actually not. Shazam was about creating something that could have a life of its own. Shazam was about creating something that could have a life of its own. It wasn’t about fulfilling a vision for what I wanted to be doing day-to-day so it was far more important to me for Shazam to become this successful company and far less important that I was leading it.
## What are the chances that we’ll see another start up from Chris Barton?
*Chris Barton*: I always have the ongoing urge. I’m sure at some point I will do something of my own again in the start up space.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [An interview with Haxlr8r's Cyril Ebersweiler](https://pioneers.io/cyril-ebersweiler-haxlr8r-shenzhen-china-best-place-to-prototype-hardware/)
**Published:** May 18, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## You set up a hardware accelerator program in China, called Haxlr8r, for ‘people who hack hardware and make things.’
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: I had never really made a difference between hardware and software, which was just pretty naive in fact. But because of that – I had joined a venture fund about 5 years ago – almost half of the batch in the first program ended up being hardware related startups. I thought it would be a walk in the park. That wasn’t the case – it was all over the place. Hardware was hard. So I figured early on: we need to build a framework around this, because there are more and more people who build hardware.
## What were some of the initial challenges that you faced?
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: We are still facing challenges today. But a key point was to understand the landscape for building a physical product. There was no real source of data available to understand this. There had to be a first wave of hardware startups that had to demystify things. You can refer to manufacturing books and what not, but there was no real explanation about how things are made from A to Z or why they are built the way they are. So there had to be a first wave of hardware startups that went through our program which had to demystify things.
## Do you think it is essential for a hardware startup to go through an accelerator program? What will the founders take away?
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: This might sound weird, but we are not an accelerator per se. The longer we’ve been running the program, the more we realize that we do a lot more things than a traditional accelerator would. Most people think we are here for manufacturing. Actually that’s not the case. For us it’s always about the company – it’s not about the products. The first thing that happens here in the program is that we position the products to make sure the startups are addressing the right market. And the main reason we are here is because of the prototyping and the supply chain. You can pull that off much faster here in China.
So do startups need to go through an accelerator? It depends on their experience. It depends on whether they are trying to create a product or a company. For us it’s always about the company – it’s not about the products.
## …so your distinction is: you work with early stage startups that are still in the prototyping phase?
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: Yes, we are pre-Kickstarter – if that makes sense. We work at the vision level first. Once we have made sure that their product correlates with their vision, we iterate on the prototype.
## Why Shenzen?
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: If there is one reason we are here in Shenzhen, it’s that it really is the best place for rapid prototyping. But I cannot even claim I realized this before building the program. After the first batch of startups, I was talking to my partner Zach \[Hoeken Smith; Co-founder of MakerBot\] and told him that I think Shenzen is the only place for us to be. I remember Zach responded, “I’m so glad you get it. I can’t discuss this with anybody, because people think it’s crazy.”
## Is there a big cultural barrier for European or U.S. startups that come to China?
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: It used to be terrible for startups to turn up in Shenzhen. There is no other word for it. It’s getting a whole lot better though. I first came to Shenzhen around 18 years ago and it was just one of the worst places on the planet. Today it is very high tech and all the factories have actually been put outside the city. And most of the factories now have English speakers. It’s still far from being perfect and it’s not easy at all, but it’s much better than what it used to be.
## And you help the founders not only to make the right connections but also adapt on a personal level…
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: … We have crash courses in the first months including a cultural crash course to make sure people don’t feel like a fish out of water. There is a big round of adaption needed, where staff help out with day-to-day things, but also with things like taking the teams to factories and teaching them the rules. We have cultural crash courses to make sure people don’t feel like a fish out of water. Rule number 1 for our startups is to know the factory owner. If you don’t have a good relationship with and have direct access to the factory owner, you better forget it – you can stop right there.The goal of the program is for people to create their own supply chain and own their relationships. We are not here to be a layer between them and the factories. It’s really to about giving all the knowledge and all the power to the startups.
## Is there a typical day for startups at Haxlr8r?
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: There is at least one part of the day where people are out of the office – visiting factories or going to \[electronics\] markets to buy new parts for their prototypes. At least every other day the founders will have a mentor 1-on-1. Generally the biz dev guys will build a database to make sure the features are right for the product. On the engineering side, they will keep building prototypes and visit factories until they have a manufacturable prototype.
## Marc Andreessen famously said, “It’s is called hardware for a reason – it’s hard.” Do you think hardware is still as hard as a lot of people in the industry say it is?
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: It is. The longer we are at it, the more we realize how hard it actually is. I think the hardship actually comes from the sheer amount of work that a small team has to do. It goes way beyond what we thought was the end game – the manufacturing. Initially we thought now that you have a product that some people want, all we have to help you do is scale up, take it to stores and everything will be awesome. Actually just to get to that point takes a lot of time and resources. You are really not out of the woods for quite a while and at the same time you have to juggle hundreds of different topics that you generally have no clue about.
## So this is why you are building this platform.
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: Exactly – to demystify some of the processes. We have realized that a lot of the struggles are simply caused by lack of anticipation. People get crushed because they don’t do what should be next on their agenda. People get crushed because they don’t do what should be next on their agenda. If we can help figuring out what’s next – standardizing the process – well, the survival rate would drastically increase.
## For a startup going into hardware, what key lesson would you like to pass on.
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: I talked about 5 lessons we learned during my [‘Lean Hardware’ keynote at Pioneers Festival](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pQrt1LM_1w), so let me choose a different one: Branding is really important.
There is a famous saying from a great TED talk, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” So the story you sell is essential. And until your product is inside of the store you are still selling a story. You could be selling a story for a long time \[laughs\] – it could be a year, it could be two years. So being masterful at marketing and branding is essential for survival.
## There have been a lot of inventors, tinkerers and makers in the history of mankind. Which pioneer would you like to bring back to life and why?
*Cyril Ebersweiler*: That’s an easy one: Da Vinci. Why? Come on, it’s Da Vinci. \[laughs\]
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [A talk with Adam Cheyer: Startups are the greatest change agent in the world](https://pioneers.io/adam-cheyer-founder-of-siri-on-power-of-startups/)
**Published:** May 14, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
*We’ve spoken to Adam Cheyer about the power of startups and entrepreneurs. Adam tells us why he got into computing, how he built his first prototype of Siri and what he learnt from Steve Jobs during his time at Apple. Adam was keynote speaker at Pioneers Festival 2013 – [watch his fireside chat here](http://youtu.be/NY4xPLfuCWM).*
## Let’s talk about computers and programming: Was it love at first sight for you?
*Adam Cheyer*: In many ways I feel computers were invented just for me. Computers were just emerging in schools when I was ready to learn about them. When I realized I could get grades for programming and then later on get money for this, it was incredible.
## How did you get into it.
*Adam Cheyer*: I first heard about computers when they made an announcement there would be a computer club after school. I thought ‘that sounds like fun, I’d like to learn about it’. So I went after school and I was told, “Sorry this is not a computer club, it’s a computer team! You don’t know computers, you can’t join.” I stole printouts from the waste paper baskets to figure out what this was all about. Every week the computer team would receive six questions. Each team member had half an hour to write a program to solve them. The total school score would be submitted for ranking at national level. It was really a competition. So I started stealing printouts from the waste paper baskets and tried to figure out what this was all about. By the end of the year I was the fourth best in the school and we won the state championship.
## Tell us about your very first entrepreneurial experience.
*Adam Cheyer*: When I was a kid I always had jobs during summer. I was a lifeguard, I was a paper boy, I was a juggling clown and a magician. My best paying job was actually solving Rubik’s cube. I got paid $25 an hour in 1981; it took me 20 more years to earn more than that – well past my Masters degree. My first entrepreneurial experience was actually in my 40s. Now I consider myself an entrepreneur, but I really feel like I added that and invented that for myself pretty late in life when I started Siri. So if people haven’t become an entrepreneur yet, but are thinking about it, there is probably still time.
## Did you experience a particular moment where you thought now is the right time to start a company?
*Adam Cheyer*: In 2006 I was feeling creatively stifled, I felt that what I was working on was not getting out and changing the world – it was not impacting the world. In 2007 I made a verbally stated goal to do ‘5 projects that will have an impact on users in 2007’. The idea was to take my 5 best ideas build them into prototypes, show them to people and get feedback.
My 2008 goal was ‘One major and one minor’, which meant take the best two ideas out of the five that I had built and actually make them companies. Out of the five prototypes, Siri became my day job. I started Siri with Dag Kittlaus (CEO) and Tom Gruber (VP Design).
## Which was the second one?
*Adam Cheyer*: Genetic Finance, which is still doing very well today. We have more than 1.5 million computers – that is more than Apple or Amazon or Microsoft – so it’s one of the largest compute clusters in the world. We have a machine learning platform which solves problems using this cluster that you can’t solve otherwise – with finance, genomics and healthcare applications. A third company actually started around one of the prototypes, which became Change.org. Today Change has 50 million monthly users and is growing fast, 200 hundred employees and we will do about $30 million in revenue in 2014. It is a company that is focused on really making the world a better place.
## At the same time you think the years before you became an entrepreneur were needed?
*Adam Cheyer*: I feel everything I learned along the way was needed and certainly helped me in being successful. But many of the ideas that I made into companies – they were not instant ideas – I had been thinking about or working on for a long time. Most people do not know this, but my first prototype of Siri was in 1993. Most people do not know this, but my first prototype of Siri was in 1993. I had a mobile tablet, a lot like an iPad and it had almost all the capabilities that came out by Apple almost 20 years later. You could use speech recognition, there were contacts, calendars, email, and maps. Many of the things you’d say – “schedule a meeting tomorrow at 6pm” – all worked in 1993, which was before I ever saw a web browser. However, I do say I wish I had discovered the magic of startups 20 years earlier, because it has really been the most exciting, the most thrilling aspect of my career.
## What is the most important thing you learned while building your first startups.
*Adam Cheyer*: I’ve always had ideas of how the world could be different. But before becoming an entrepreneur and having some success I never knew that it was possible. The fact that I can actually make my ideas reality and impact the global world, that’s not something I ever knew I could do. Now that I have that under my belt, it’s very empowering. I hope that entrepreneurs out there know that it really is possible.
## On a general level – how important is the concept “startup”?
*Adam Cheyer*: I believe startups are the greatest change agent in the world. So if you really want to move the world to a new place – to change it – it’s the startups that are going to do it. Not research labs and not big companies. I’ve been in all of them and I didn’t realize the power of a startup before seeing it for myself. You have to see the “white space" that no one else sees. When you do a startup, you HAVE to be ambitious, you HAVE to see something – the “white space” – that no one else sees and then go after it. If it’s just an incremental change, a big company will be able to do it better and faster because they already have users, they have resources, they have marketing, they have so many things you don’t have. You have to pick something, no one else sees. That’s incredibly hard to do.
## You have started three companies and each one has been a huge success. Which lessons do you take away into your new ventures?
*Adam Cheyer*: You have to be passionate and understand what is important to you. Siri was an idea I had been working on for almost 20 years and thought would be a good idea. However, I didn’t know if the world would enjoy it. I called this project my “technology passion” that I wanted to get out there.
Figure out what’s important to you, what you need at that point in life, and pursue it courageously Change.org was for me inspired by Doug Engelbart, who was one of my mentors. We tried everything that we could think of to harness the collective intelligence of the world to solve the world’s complex, urgent problems, like poverty, education and environment. There was a big vision that resonated with me to make the world a better place. Genetic Finance, I thought was a good technology idea, but also it had a good business idea. So my advice is: Figure out what’s important to you, what you need at that point in life, and pursue it courageously – I needed these 3 things so I ended up starting 3 companies.
## Last question: Which pioneer would you like to bring back to life and why?
*Adam Cheyer*: I would have to pick two and the first is Doug Engelbart, who I consider the greatest pioneer I have ever known, met or dreamed of. I feel if Steve were still alive I would still be at Apple. Doug not only invented the mouse, but he was a pioneer – he created personal computing. The first multi-windows system, the first hyperlink text-editing system, the first word processors – pretty much everything we use today in terms of interacting with a computer. The Internet was a piece of his vision. He not only did it for technology’s sake, he did it to make the world a better place. He created tools to make humans think better, act better and survive as a species.
The second is Steve Jobs. Also a great pioneer, who changed the world. He had a vision that others didn’t see and he went about pursuing it aggressively and making it a reality. With Siri we started something and I feel if Steve were still alive I would still be at Apple.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Only the paranoid survive: An interview with Roman Stanek](https://pioneers.io/roman-stanek-only-the-paranoid-survive/)
**Published:** May 5, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Can you tell us what a typical day in the life of Roman Stanek looks like?
I’m in the office around 7 am in San Francisco. Many people I work with are in time zones ahead of me so I spend the first couple of phone calls with Europe and the East Coast. Usually I have a bunch of internal meetings, I have visitors and because I spend about half my time on the road and on airplanes, there isn’t anything such as a typical day. I spent a lot of time with clients in New York and Boston, but nowadays also in Brazil – and later this year we will start operations in Europe.
## You are one of Europe’s most successful tech entrepreneurs. Growing up in the Czech Republic, did you ever think you would become an entrepreneur?
When I grew up the word ‘Entrepreneur’ was not even in my vocabulary. The society I grew up in, that option didn’t actually exist. It was definitely not anything I would even dream of. I’ve been an entrepreneur for the past twenty years now and I love it. I love the excitement, the challenges and the fact that it keeps changing: the whole space has now become global, what used to be just Silicon Valley.
## What do you consider the greatest challenge in your job?
My biggest challenge – and that is the biggest challenge of every entrepreneur – is that you have a vision and that vision doesn’t necessarily need to be shared by anybody in the world: not by your customers, not by your employees, not by your investors. Your vision doesn’t need to be shared by anybody… You need to go out there and make it happen! You need to go out there and make it happen! Step-by-step you convince more and more people and at some point that vision becomes reality and that’s when you win. It’s not given and I think that’s what makes entrepreneurs special, because you have to have that conviction and confidence to make it happen.
## In your fireside chat at Pioneers Festival you said “I studied computer science, but it was more of a science and had less to do with computers.”
The focus of science rather than purely on computers simply taught me that a deeper understanding of the principles of computers may be more important than knowing the latest version of Java – or back then it was Pascal.
## What do you consider your greatest skill compared to other CEOs?
I have a very balanced set of skills around technology, finance, business and sales, which definitely gives me a unique advantage. I can deep dive into our code, despite not being a coder, but I understand why things work the way they do. The next minute I can discuss all the nuances of our balance sheet and cash flow with my CFO. And the next minute I can write an article about the future of enterprise computing and what matters and what doesn’t matter from the business perspective. I can see and manage the company in an entirety.
## When you hire, what do you look for in an individual? Is there a particular culture you try to develop within the team?
On an individual level there are multiple traits that a good employee at a startup has to have: openness, commitment, being dedicated and curious are essential ones. We focus on our company values. A lot of it is about a notion of excellence, innovation and transparency as a data company. So being able to talk about values and being able to define them is a big part of the company culture we try to create. At this stage of the company I’m spending probably 25% of my time working on company culture and people development.
## You started your second company, Systinet, right after 9/11 and started raising capital for GoodData on 15 September 2008, the same day Lehman Brothers crashed.
This is a complete coincidence and I feel it’s not completely bad: ‘Tough times breed tough companies’. I would hate to start a company in the middle of the bubble when it is so difficult to get ahead of everybody else.\[aside\]As an entrepreneur there is no time to complain or pity yourself. You have to deal with reality.\[/aside\] As an entrepreneur, you need to take it as it comes – there is no time to complain or pity yourself. If you are an entrepreneur you have to deal with reality.
## Every startup is an emotional rollercoaster. With the three companies you founded, you went through some particularly tough periods.
At the end of the day it all goes back to your vision. The stronger the vision is, the clearer the picture where you want to go. In my case I know where I want to go and in tough times it’s all about figuring out how to sell that vision back to the employees, back to the investors, back to the customers. That’s why successful companies are all about having a big vision. It’s absolutely critical for everyone to have that shared vision because in tough times it’s this that holds the company together.
## This ‘shared vision’, is that the most important piece on the road to success in your opinion?
Absolutely, I believe so. It also has to be achievable and that’s what makes a good entrepreneur. You have to have that ability to understand what it is that you can pull off and what is actually beyond your abilities.The rate of craziness is different for everybody. I would consider Tesla to be crazy. The rate of craziness of vision is different for everybody. I don’t think I would ever be able to pull off Tesla – I would consider that to be crazy. But somebody else can. And so it’s all about understanding as an entrepreneur what you are good at, what you can actually pull off. That’s what it takes: If it were easy, everybody would do it.
## What is success for you? How do you define it?
Success is turned vision into reality. I have succeeded at that a couple of times. The biggest success is – and that’s not monetary – coming up with a vision and when you look at it a couple of years later it’s turned into reality even though nobody initially considered it possible.
## What piece of advice can you offer first-time entrepreneurs?
The basic assumption for every entrepreneur should be ‘Your are not alone’! \[aside\]If you are not on top of the game somebody will eat your lunch.\[/aside\] Every time I meet an entrepreneur who tells me “My idea is completely unique and nobody else is working on it and I’m ahead of everybody else,” I get suspicious. Always assume that the idea you have is not unique.
There are a number of teams working on your idea, they are working harder, they may have more financing and more customers. You have to always assume that somebody is going after you and after your company. Only the paranoid survive. This is a global market and if you are not on top of the game, somebody will come and eat your lunch.
## If you weren’t running your own company right now, what would you be doing?
Oh I know exactly what I’d be doing. I would be publishing my photography books! That’s my biggest hobby and it’s something that keeps me sane – the fact that I have a hobby I love and create stuff that people enjoy.
## Our final question: Which pioneer would you like to bring back to life and why?
Christopher Columbus. I know he is a controversial person, but I really liked his bold vision that nobody believed in. He was the first VC-funded guy – he convinced the Spanish Queen to finance his voyage and just went for it.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Hustling as my superhuman power: A chat with Close.io founder Steli Efti](https://pioneers.io/steli-efti-hustling-as-my-superhuman-power/)
**Published:** May 5, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Why did you become an entrepreneur?
It was a mix of personality and talents and mostly lack of options. Growing up I didn’t know what entrepreneurship meant, I didn’t know how business worked. For the longest time I didn’t know it was an option to pursue. I hated school and I couldn’t see myself having an academic career. For the longest time I didn’t like any of the options presented to me.
## Early on when you came to the Valley, there was one particular deal: You worked nine months on closing Oracle and just before the signing the senior VP left the company…
… and he took everybody with him.
## Was that the most painful experience you’ve had in sales?
Definitely the most painful one selling to an enterprise.
## What did you learn from this experience – selling to a large company, trying to close a big deal.
Realizing what it takes to successfully sell to large organizations – realizing that it will take a long time and it will take a lot of deals in the pipeline and most of them will not pan out. \[aside\]It might be a million-dollar deal but it will cost you half a million in time and resources to get there.\[/aside\]Realizing that you have to have the ability to finance them.
The first couple of meetings were all positive so we thought we were going to win. We didn’t know that it would take that long; we didn’t know how many deals we’d have to have in the pipeline. It might be a million-dollar deal but it will cost you half a million in time and resources to get there.
## With so many big deals falling through, how did you learn to deal with the pain of rejection?
Using sales and hustling as my superhuman power to make shit happen I realized fairly early that I have to find a way to deal with rejection. Embrace rejection as a school board for you to go outside of your comfort zone. If you want to do sales there is no way to be successful and try to avoid rejection at the same time. Even if you are successful you’re going to hear more No’s than Yes’ – just like Michael Jordan missed more times than he actually scored. Find a way to find peace with rejection. Or even embrace rejection as a school board for you to go outside of your comfort zone.
## What is your approach?
There’re a lot of hacks that I did. For instance when I call 100 potential customers to pitch them, on average I get about 10 of them to agree to want to hear more and out of those maybe five actually buy my product. Instead of every day focusing on the success metric and saying ‘Oh I want to sell five people today’, what I would do is focus on the failure metric: I need to hear 90 No’s today. Because if I hear 90 people telling me ‘No’, I will get to my five deals. So I started every day off with 90 little checkboxes and every time someone said No I thanked them and I checked off one box.
## What is your greatest sales war story?
One of the greatest stories was when we launched [Close.io](http://close.io/). We knew from the get-go that we weren’t ready to sell this to the enterprise – we were not interested in that kind of deal in the beginning – but a fairly large company reached out to us and wanted to buy the product. I didn’t want to stop the deal right away, but I was skeptical. After the second call they started making all these requests: “Since we are giving you so much revenue, we need these two features that are absolutely must-have. This is a joke-product if you don’t have these two things.” The normal tendency would be something like, “Holy shit they are this huge company and they are right: our product sucks without this.” But we just told them, “Well, we get that, but if you are not ready to buy without these features then you are not ready for the product and the product isn’t ready for you. Let’s revisit in the future. Thanks, Bye.”
## But that wasn’t the end.
They continued trialing the product, they continued emailing us questions. Eventually they let us know that they found a workaround and that they are going to buy, but that they’d need a massive discount. Sometimes you just can’t stop somebody from buying your product. We told them, “We can give you a small discount that we give to everybody and that’s it.” They ended up buying nonetheless. Sometimes you just can’t stop somebody from buying your product. And seriously, knowing what you’re worth, being able to say “no” to all these things and then still win the deal was a pretty cool experience.
## So would you tell startups, especially if they sell to larger corporations, to make a game plan and stick to it?
As with everything in entrepreneurship, you have to set clear rules, but you have to reevaluate those rules. If you want to deviate from your plan, you need to step back and ask yourself, “Why are we thinking about doing this? It was not part of our original plan.” If the answer is because of a customer, ask yourself, “Would we ever do this if there wasn’t a company asking us for this?” If the answer is “No”, you really want to take time and think whether it is worth to bet your whole company on this one customer’s request? It’s different if every customer you talk to tells you the same thing. Then you have a trend.
## What’s your greatest sales hack? Has there been a really unorthodox thing that you have done to approach a new client for example.
We were just starting Elastic Sales. We were selling to startups and trying to get our first customer to see if there is a market for our product. We had started cold calling and used fake names. There was no website for our service, nothing that pointed to any level of credibility. \[aside\]You have to understand what is the elephant in the room – what’s the real issue\[/aside\] One of the companies we pitched was interested, but after three calls there was still no progress. When that happens, it’s clear that there is an elephant in the room: there is a problem that you’re not really addressing. In sales in many cases it will be an issue of trust. If there’s not fundamental trust, your customer will be fearful to making a buying decision.
## So what did you do?
I told them, “If you believe that we can deliver, then you would buy right this second. The problem is you don’t fully trust that we can.” The CEO said that I was right.
There was nothing that I could verbally have said to now all of a sudden make them trust us so I told him, “Give us three days. We will study your product. In three days at 9 AM, we will call you and sell you on your product. Be the most difficult potential customer you could ever be. If we can sell you then we can sell your customers. If we don’t convince you, we can stop wasting each other’s time.”
## Why did you do that?
If trust is the issue, words cannot conquer that. You need to find a way to demonstrate how you do things versus talk about how you do things. You have to understand what is the elephant in the room – what’s the real issue.
## Last question: Imagine you had the power to bring a pioneer back to life. Who would you bring back?
It would probably be Ghandi, just to have him and his ideas exposed to the world for a few more years. Either that or Jesus. Jesus I have more curiosities with. Not even like “alright, here is water turn it into wine.” But more like, “Dude, speak, say something and let me see how I feel about you.”
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Playing the Hardware Game: The Ground Rules](https://pioneers.io/2014-will-be-the-year-of-hardware-how-to-profit-from-that/)
**Published:** February 4, 2014
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
If you thought hardware was big in 2013, The Economist urges you to think again. 2014 will be off the charts. It’s not a big surprise that China’s ecosystem offers perfect conditions for the awaited explosion – and entrepreneurs from all over the world can profit from that.
The Economist recently devoted an entire [14-page special report to Tech Startups](http://www.economist.com/printedition/2014-02-01) arguing that “an entrepreneurial explosion” is imminent. Digital startups are now fuelling this "global movement" due to the rise of “platforms” that allow startups to cheaply set up and scale. Ranging from services that let startups host (cloud web services) their “offerings”, distribute (app stores) them and market (social media) them. Well, no big news so far. But one section was actually striking – The Economist points out the development that is most imminent: The rise of hardware startups. Especially Shenzhen in southern China is “the best place in the world for a hardware innovator to be”.
### “It is called Hardware for a reason – it is hard”
Marc Andreessen summarized the problems in this field of the industry in an interview not so long ago: [Hardware is called hardware for a reason – it is hard](http://pando.com/2013/10/03/hardware-is-the-new-software-nope-says-marc-andreessen-its-called-hardware-for-a-reason-it-is-hard/). Sure, The Economist tells you that you have to get your foot on the ground in China to be part and profit from the recent developments, but in terms of learning and how-to’s the magazine’s feature leaves many blind spots. But perhaps we can help.
Cyril Ebersweiler, founder of HAXLR8R and deeply involved in the current development in the digital hardware industry in Shenzhen, already stated in his keynote at Pioneers Festival 2013: "[2014 is going to be the year of hardware!](https://pioneers.io/blog/hardware-startups-to-succeed-you-have-to-sleep-in-a-factory-in-china)"
Aaron Levie backed this claim recently by tweeting:
> If you’re not starting a software-enabled hardware company right now, you’ve lost your mind.
>
> — Aaron Levie (@levie) [January 14, 2014](https://twitter.com/levie/statuses/423198861360779264)
If we take a look at Cyril’s keynote and our [most recent interview with him](https://pioneers.io/blog/hardware-startups-to-succeed-you-have-to-sleep-in-a-factory-in-china) here’s what can be learned from Cyril’s years of experience to really be involved in the hardware startup explosion:
### Lean Hardware: from prototyping to manufacturing
First, Cyril explains why Shenzhen is so exciting.
In 2000, China was known for:
1. Low labour cost
2. Low/dubious quality
3. Pirated electronic goods
But things changed – for the good! In 2013 Shenzhen has become really high-tech and produces:
1. Fast
2. At scale
3. Flexibly
4. Cheaper
The point being that hardware can be produced anywhere in the world, but startups for the most part
a) lack time and money
b) need to scale quickly, and
c) need to operate quickly and be agile,
All of the points above clearly speak for having a team sitting in Shenzhen. One of the secrets Shenzhen bears is that you can get any part within minutes compared to days or weeks that it would take to get delivered in the west.
And what is most important in producing hardware? Cyril breaks it down to 5 learnings:
### Rule #1: Design with the right components
When you want to start production at scale in China, you may realize they are actually not using the same components as you. A) this may lead to a painful redesign of everything and/or B) you could bring the cost of goods down dramatically.
### Rule #2: Design with your factory
Visit your factory early, because ideally you want to be designing with your factory – a prototype is only ready when it can be manufactured.
### Rule #3: Your factory is your most important partner
Your factory is the one who will push your product to market so select it carefully, “not every single product can be made by Foxconn.” Do not have a middle man between you and your key suppliers (i.e. your factory). The reason: When you face a problem you better have direct access to the head of the factory so you can solve it quickly.
### Rule #4: Branding: Be memorable
Brand is everything you represent, so don’t let yourself get “outbranded”. People trust brand – it’s important to be memorable.
### Rule #5: Pick the right business model
Don’t sell standalone hardware. If you for instance build a sex toy \[real use case\], don’t just let your smartphone control it, build an experience around it – say, something like a market place where you sell stories.
To get the big picture check out the full keynote:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pQrt1LM\_1w](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pQrt1LM_1w)
*Cover Image: Susan Stockwell, [World](http://www.susanstockwell.co.uk/medium.php?category=map;ecology&image_id=2011-01-22-1)*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [From Pioneers Festival to Y Combinator – Babywatch Leads the Way](https://pioneers.io/from-pioneers-festival-to-y-combinator-babywatch/)
**Published:** December 17, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Croatian startup and [Pioneers Challenge winner](https://pioneers.io/blog/pioneers-startup-challenge-winner) Babywatch will join Airbnb and Dropbox in Paul Graham’s [Y Combinator](http://ycombinator.com/) alumni network – all thanks to a Pioneers Festival connection.
Y Combinator has funded over 500 startups including the likes of Reddit, Dropbox, Heroku, Airbnb, Stripe, Codecademy, Thalmic Labs and Airware just to name just a few.
Babywatch will now move to Silicon Valley, receive funding, but most importantly be part of the accelerator’s vast network of some of the most successful tech entrepreneurs out there (billion dollar startups, founders and investors) who will mentor, connect and when ready, fund the young European startup.
### Why YC wanted Babywatch
YC loves demos and prototypes (“a Version 1” as they call it) and that is precisely what Babywatch has: a system of hardware device and a mobile app that works and sells. Also there is a clear trend towards hardware and quantified-self devices.
Babywatch will sit "at the dead center of Silicon Valley, on a street called [Pioneer Way](http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/05/ff_ycombinator/all/). Outside, the traffic hums along CA-z85 headed either south to Cupertino or north toward Google headquarters." But how did Babywatch get there?
### Pioneers Festival: Giving a stage to startups that matter
Babywatch is a young digital health startup from Croatia founded in 2012 that offers a system connecting a home ultrasound device with a smartphone that enables pregnant women to hear, visualize and share their unborn baby’s heartbeat. Babywatch makes tracking pregnancy easier, more relaxing and more interactive. In January they will launch their new product, on CBS in L.A., a smart-monitoring device for newborn babies.
"We are really happy we got into the Pioneers Challenge in the first place. We applied last minute – we were in Berlin at the time and were really busy building our product, but we lacked exposure and publicity. At the very last minute I knew that we had to apply, we had to try. So we did and when we got into the Top 50 we were already really ecstatic – that was a big success for us,” Urska said today.
Sandro added, “We knew that this year TC Disrupt and Dublin Web Summit took place at the same time, but **we believed Pioneers is the perfect \[startup\] challenge because of the community behind it**. We also had a call with TC Disrupt, but we picked Pioneers.”
### Pioneers Connects – building bridges from Europe out into the world
During the final pitch in Vienna Michael Seibel, one of the judges and YC part-time partner couldn’t hide his “admiration” for Babywatch.
“Michael showed us huge support and urged us to apply \[to YC\],” Urska says. “He really helped us, applications were actually already closed at that time.”
What started on stage in Vienna went on with first rumours at the #Pioneers13 after-party and ended with two plane tickets to Silicon Valley to meet Paul Graham and his YC team.
> The new YC batch is from 23 countries: au, bg, ca, hr, dk, eg, fi, fr, in, il, kr, nz, om, pt, ro, sg, si, sa, ss, ch, tr, uk, us.
>
> — Paul Graham (@paulg) [December 14, 2013](https://twitter.com/paulg/statuses/411897120572989440)
"It’s a big deal joining YC, especially coming from Europe. **Sandro is the first Croatian and I’m the first Slovenian woman entering Y Combinator** – it’s super exciting," Urska tells us. “We met most of them already at the first YC-breakfast during our trip to the Valley. And the biggest feeling you get is that everyone wants to help – everyone is so supportive.”
At the end of our conversation, I asked Urska and Sandro to give one word of advice to European startups. They both immediately agreed: The biggest problem with European startups she says is “they are too modest.” “Try, apply and don’t hold back. Take every chance you get!”
Babywatch continues to gain momentum and the journey has just begun.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Metalab Vienna: Birthplace of the MakerBot](https://pioneers.io/makerbot-prototyped-vienna-hacker-space/)
**Published:** November 29, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
We visited the Viennese hackerspace [Metalab](http://www.metalab.at) and spotted a prototype of the MakerBot, one of the most easy-to-obtain 3D printers in 2013. Metalab’s Daniel and Pepi told us about its story – they also told us about PSPDFKit and the Austrian food delivery directory Mjam. We went to see Vienna’s first 3D printing store and spoke with the 18 and 22-year-old owners Marton and Gabor about the first week’s demand and the reactions of passers-by.
When MakerBot co-founder [Bre Pettis](http://www.brepettis.com/) sketched the first MakerBots, he was living in Vienna. He was an artist in residence at [monochrom](http://monochrom.at/) and also regularly visited the hackerspace *Metalab*. While MakerBot is set to launch their next big thing, a 3D scanner for USD 1,400 the first shop for 3D printers and 3D printing jobs opened in Vienna last month.
### College kids open first 3D printing store
“When we opened 3DEE last week, one person instantly came in and bought a 3D printer.” says Marton, the 18-year-old co-founder of the new printing store in Vienna-Landstraße. He and his 22-year-old co-founding brother Gabor are originally from Székesfehérvár (between Budapest and Lake Balaton). Gabor studies at [BOKU](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Natural_Resources_and_Life_Sciences,_Vienna) Vienna and Marton plans to enroll at Vienna University of Economics and Business.
When we asked where the money for the business came from. The brothers say they took out a loan to pay the rent and buy a few printers. "Our parents did contribute, but only about 2% to 3%", they say.
### 3DEE can’t reach FabLabs standards
Their shop makes 3D printers more accessible to anyone in or around Vienna. There were 3D printers in Vienna before 3DEE, though – even more advanced ones. “Happylab \[FabLab\] can do colours. They have a bigger, more expensive printer than ours.” Marton says.
He shows us one of the most complex items they can print: a cube-shaped mount for six GoPro cameras for 360º filming. It takes 20 hours to print, Marton says, “whereas this miniature traffic cone here is done in five.”. The cone standing on the shop counter he points at is actually two different colours: Some of the printers at 3DEE can be fed with two different plastic reels for a single print.
### Bring your blueprint or have item drawn
Customers can bring their .stl-files to the store or have the staff do the drawing. Ergo: A lot of work for the Klausers. “We would like to print more stuff for ourselves, but operating the store takes enough time.” On the other hand, the brothers don’t see a lot of use in spending time on public relations or advertisement: “It’ll just take two to three years until 3D printing is significantly more popular.”
### MakerBot prototype sitting at Metalab, not a big deal
The Metalab is a 220 m² [hackerspace](http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_ALL_Hacker_Spaces) in the center of Vienna – it is literally opposite the city hall, situated in a souterrain. Daniel Domberger is one of the frequent visitors, and one of three members of the board of the Verein (which is only there to feed Austrian bureaucracy, as we later learned).
While our visit to the 3DEE carried us three years into the future, our visit at Metalab brought us a few years back in time: We found an actual prototype of the [MakerBot](http://www.makerbot.com/). Daniel gives us a tour of six rooms. Between the *heavy machinery* room and a giant Nyan Cat artwork, there stands a cubic metal construction that resembles the MakerBot. “That’s one of the prototypes,” Daniel says, "and this one even has the Metalab logo engraved". Bre Pettis’ used to frequent this place during his Vienna years.
### PSPDFKit, Mjam and loads of Netzpolitik
Daniel joined Metalab in 2009. We don’t have a hard time figuring out why he still goes there: In the main work room is a giant wall of red LEDs. “This was a scoreboard in an ice hockey arena in Vienna. They didn’t need it any more and we dismounted it.” Aside from all the funky stuff, there is also a lot of useful technology, including a photo lab.
Once in a while, technologies that were crafted at Metalab spread all over the world. [Peter Steinberger](https://twitter.com/steipete)’s PDFKit is part of other software like the Dropbox iOS App or the Evernote App. Steinberger and Metalab belong together, just like Mjam, a food delivery directory for Austria.
“Whatever you want to do, do it. Mostly that’s Netzpolitik \[a new German word for political activity related to the Internet\], software and hardware. At Metalab, the morning shift begins at about 10 a.m., the late shifters go home at 7 a.m.,” Pepi tells us. Pepi is another core user of Metalab. The popularity of the space is great, he says, “so we have been thinking about expanding back there into the bike park.”
Pepi has been coming to Metalab since 2007. He is part of the [CocoaHeads](http://cocoaheads.at/) group (developing for OS X and iOS) and once made an app “that sold maybe 30 times. Or a bit more often, but I really didn’t care – I built it for myself, because I wanted it.” A few days ago he co-organized CryptoParty(.at) and is current organizer of Metalab’s infamous karaoke parties.
### No democracy. Dictatorship!
Some (but by far not all) Metalabians are students – most at TU Wien. As for Vienna’s Technology University, Pepi says it’s “enterprisy." Metalab, in contrast, emerged on the EasterHack 2006, which is associated with [Chaos Computer Club](http://www.ccc.de). There is no anti-enterprise attitude, though; Google once offered pizza and speakers for a metalab event.
Metalab hosts more than 600 events per year, organised by different groups of people. “All this sounds democratic,” we say, but Pepi fires back: “Not at all. There is no democracy at metalab. It’s rather a do-ocracy, a dictatorship of the people who do. Don’t ask or vote to have things done, just come and do it and then you will see it done." With 200 members, this seems to work just fine.
We have the impression that Vienna’s maker scene revolves around metalab – at least the makers know it well. The opening of the 3DEE pushes the movement; we are curious to see whether more shops will follow.
*Image by Pioneers and [Pepi Zawodsky](https://maclemon.at)*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [LEGO innovation with Stiven Kirestegian](https://pioneers.io/open-innovation-lego-group/)
**Published:** November 21, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** LEGO Mindstorms was developed in collaboration with MIT and for seven years some of the world’s most talented engineers worked on this product. When the product was finally launched in 1998, we thought it was perfect, but in just three weeks over one thousand users had hacked the system and had actually made it better.
**Content:**
*Stiven Kirestegian, Senior Manager of Open Innovation and Technology Innovation at the LEGO Group, writes for Pioneers.*
At the LEGO group, our mission is to "**inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow**". Our vision is to "**invent the future of play**". Since its introduction over half a century ago, the iconic LEGO® brick platform has enabled children across the world to play, learn and express their creativity in limitless ways. The diversity of the play experiences enabled by the LEGO brick and the high quality of the materials used has allowed the LEGO System in Play to transcend generations and cultures. Any LEGO brick purchased in a store today is compatible with the LEGO bricks produced more than 50 years ago.
### Seamless innovation for over 50 years
The LEGO System has evolved into a means of creative expression handed down through several generations making it one of the worlds most recognized toys and the LEGO brand one of the most loved. No matter where I travel across the globe, as soon as a fan – of any age – finds out that I work at the LEGO Group, **a smile fills their face and several enthusiastic stories follow**…
Our ability to consistently diversify our product offering within the core LEGO values has allowed us to experience a prolonged period of aggressive growth even through recent difficult economic times. This is in part due to our in-house innovation prowess lead by hundreds of highly creative LEGO designers. Still, the fact is that 99.99 % of the world’s most talented individuals do not work for the LEGO Group **but they probably grew up with and continue to have a relationship with the LEGO brand**. Our open innovation strategy is focused on leveraging this passion from individuals worldwide by enabling participation and co-creation experiences that are both rewarding to users and at the same time open up and elevate our innovation capabilities.
We are really happy to say that there are numerous examples of open innovation at the LEGO Group.
### Being a LEGO Entrepreneur
LEGO Architecture was **an idea from a fan named Adam Reed Tucker** who began buying bulk bricks from us and **using his kitchen for packing and his mom’s garage for storage**. In five years LEGO Architecture has grown into a large business for us that would have never been possible without Adam’s passion and persistence as a LEGO Entrepreneur.
### MIT & LEGO: What seemed the perfect product got hacked and made even better
LEGO Mindstorms was developed in **collaboration with MIT and for seven years** some of the world’s most talented engineers worked on this product. When the product was finally launched in 1998, we thought it was perfect, but **in just three weeks over one thousand users had hacked the system and had actually made it better**. This was a great learning experience for us. Our latest version, LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 was co-designed with over a dozen lead users and tested and refined with hundreds of collaborators before launching earlier this year.
### Crowdsourcing designs: Back to the Future
LEGO Cuusoo is our **beta crowdsourcing platform** where anyone can make his or her LEGO wish come true. Fans worldwide can submit their LEGO product idea, then use social media to channel support to get people to vote for their proposal. All ideas with 10,000 or more supporters are passed on to a design review to be considered for production. If an idea is produced, the LEGO entrepreneur earns 1% of the profits generated by that product. Thus far 6 models have been derived from LEGO Cuusoo including [LEGO Minecraft](http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Minecraft-21102) and the DeLorean car from Back to the Future.
Today we are hard at work expanding our open innovation capability. Our goal is to enable our whole eco-system from employees to fans worldwide to participate in the ideation, co-creation and co-development of many of our products. We want to enable our users and fans to participate in an array of activities in collaboration with our LEGO product groups. These new open experiences will allow users and fans to have a much more immersive and participatory relationship with the LEGO brand and can eventually **become a launching pad for disruptive user driven innovations**.
We are very exited to see what the collective intelligence of our whole eco-system can come up with as we continue to open up and transition from the traditional concept of managing creativity from a few LEGO designers **to a future when we systematically orchestrate creativity from millions of builders of tomorrow and today**.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Let’s Raise $10M Bucks for a Clunky Prototype that Only Works with Blackberry](https://pioneers.io/raising-ten-million-bucks-with-eric-migicovsky-pebble/)
**Published:** November 5, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
One of the most captivating sessions of Pioneers Festival was Eric Migicovsky’s keynote about wearable computers and smart watches. Eric is the founder of Pebble, the well-known Kickstarter success-story. Pebble is a smart watch and **the only open and hackable wearable computing platform**.
\[masonry images="13694:1×1,13721:1×1,13720:2×1" columns="4"\] ### Build a working prototype – even if it’s for a Blackberry
Eric shared with us Pebble’s history. How everything started 5 years ago when he was a transfer student at TU Delft who wanted to bike a lot but didn’t want to risk breaking his phone. So he came up with the idea of a smart watch — a watch that could display important notifications from your phone like calls, texts, and email. The first ‘Pebble’ prototype — which back then was called Impulse — worked only with Blackberries. **It was big and bulky but helped explain the smart watch concept to customers and investors** which demonstrates the importance of a working prototype.
> Eric [@ericmigi](https://twitter.com/ericmigi) [@Pebble](https://twitter.com/Pebble) on industrial design, funding fails, Kickstarter, apps and China. [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash) [pic.twitter.com/HIGRRnlOHN](http://t.co/HIGRRnlOHN)
>
> — Živa (@alivea) [October 31, 2013](https://twitter.com/alivea/statuses/395909957461499904)
### Starting in a dorm room – Joining YC – Thinking broader
Impulse provided basic support for calls, texts, and emails. As every startup close to the startup ethos and mantras **it was developed in a garage with the local high school students helping assemble it**. Eric, back in 2009, sold hundreds of Impulses only through their website. That’s when they got accepted into Y Combinator and moved to Silicon Valley. Paul Graham was one of the few who made the Pebble team think broader in terms of platform, ecosystem, and apps.
> The [\#Pebble](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Pebble&src=hash) experience. With [@ericmigi](https://twitter.com/ericmigi) [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash). Dorm room, garage, The Bay.
>
> — Dan Hagiu (@Danzynger) [October 31, 2013](https://twitter.com/Danzynger/statuses/395899768058028034)
So Eric and his team released an SDK for other developers to write apps for Pebble when in 2011 Apple’s WWDC introduced several new APIs that allowed iPhones to communicate with smart watches. And that’s precisely when the team came up with the Pebble idea and product we know of today.
### VC vs. Crowdfunding
The Pebble team pitched to VCs in early 2012 but after 30 days of pitching the feedback wasn’t positive at all. None was interested in Pebble making it hard for them to continue producing it. Hopefully Kickstarter had launched previously so they decided to run a Kickstarter campaign. It was a mind-blowing experience. Kickstarter allowed the Pebble team to have great financial resources and showed a huge product/market fit with a passionate community of soon-to-be Pebble customers.
> Pebble CEO [@ericmigi](https://twitter.com/ericmigi) on how Valley VCs didn’t fund them. So they raised $10m on Kickstarter [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash) via [@buzztale](https://twitter.com/BuzzTale)
>
> — Jean Mauris (@jeanmauris) [October 31, 2013](https://twitter.com/jeanmauris/statuses/395901237217861633)
**Pebble is a lesson of continuous work, dedication, and grit.** Eric and his team didn’t quit as they encountered the first obstacle, rather they stayed focused towards their vision and the product they really wanted to build.
> Eric from Pebble on Stage at [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash) today – watches will customize according to needs [pic.twitter.com/rq2PAsSiBd](http://t.co/rq2PAsSiBd)
>
> — Voices from inside (@cyLEDGE) [October 31, 2013](https://twitter.com/cyLEDGE/statuses/395941151393738752)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [The End of Search As We Know It](https://pioneers.io/the-end-of-search-as-we-know-it/)
**Published:** November 5, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Search as we know it is over — let's embrace the age of the virtual personal assistant. The first day of Pioneers Festival had a very contextual vibe. Pioneers Festival hosted Adam Cheyer, founder of Siri, Vishal Sharma, VP of Engineering and Product Management for Google Now.
**Content:**
The first day of Pioneers Festival had a very contextual vibe. Pioneers Festival hosted Adam Cheyer, founder of Siri, Vishal Sharma, VP of Engineering and Product Management for Google Now, and WIRED’s editor, Olivia Solon for a fireside chat about Siri, Google Now and the contextual Internet. **Search as we know it is over — let’s embrace the age of the virtual personal assistant.**
Olivia started the discussion by asking Adam and Vishal to share their projects’ biggest challenges so far. Adam highlighted the importance of expectations management. In spite of its humor, Siri still isn’t a human being. **Virtual assistants are at a stage where the web was in 1994.** Promising but early. Audio commands as a feature is both a benefit and a risk: users can get really frustrated towards the product but the only way to improve such assistants is by lots of usage.
### Siri is still very early stage
Vishal more or less agreed with Adam. He expanded Adam’s thoughts by mentioning **Natural Language Processing**, which currently is also a big issue. If a user phrases something in a wrong format to Siri and Google Now both systems won’t be able to help him. And device proliferation might be exciting but this usage paradigm needs a lot of innovation to work flawlessly in such different products, UIs and UXs.
Vishal also indicated that the world is moving away from being satisfied typing a well formulated search query to a direction of ‘grasping \[the user’s\] intent.’ This is a whole new exciting domain and there’s a lot of different interaction and accountability.
On a question about their products’ early days, Adam said that they were a small startup but tried to boldly visualize the future. We felt – and were – so audacious. Their main tasks were proactivity and personalization; and somehow their message got through and right now almost everyone is moving directly or indirectly towards this vision. For example, even Google desktop search tries to build a task context. It’s different to say ‘Book a table’ and ‘Book a table for 3 at 10 at Rudy’s.’ **It feels like a natural conversation.**
\[masonry images="13659:2×2,13641:2×1,13643:2×1" columns="4"\] ### Google Now: A bolder Siri?
After talking about how Google Now tries to be bolder than Siri, Vishal made a really interesting observation: “We took for granted the big screen computers and now everyone has mobile devices with small screens.” Mobile devices are reshaping so much of our culture that they actually make it hard to constantly follow the changes.
Privacy, of course, couldn’t be left out from the chat as Olivia’s question if consumers should be concerned about the amount of data those services collect about them. Both Adam and Vishal agreed on the importance of complete transparency and full disclosure towards the use of this data but they also mentioned that each user should think about how they to want to manage the tradeoff between privacy and, by extend, safety and convenience. That’s where this debate ultimately comes to.
The age of context, personalized mobile assistants, an ever-flowing stream of data and spatial services around us is present. It’s a matter of how will we use and benefit from it. Siri and Google Now help us achieve that.
What people wrote about Adam’s and Vishal’s fireside chat
> Great panel with [\#siri](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23siri&src=hash) and [\#googlenow](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23googlenow&src=hash) founders at [\#Pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Pioneers13&src=hash)
>
> — Pawel Antkowiak (@antpawel) [October 30, 2013](https://twitter.com/antpawel/statuses/395551732023193600)
> [\#Virtual](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Virtual&src=hash) assistance is the next frontier, entrepreneurs should ask how they can jump on it – [\#Siri](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Siri&src=hash) CEO at [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash) [\#digital](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23digital&src=hash) [\#startups](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23startups&src=hash)
>
> — Maria Serra (@onclaude) [October 30, 2013](https://twitter.com/onclaude/statuses/395559329429860352)
> Interesting future with [\#virtual](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23virtual&src=hash) assistants. [\#adam](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23adam&src=hash) cheyer ([\#siri](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23siri&src=hash)) and vishal sharma ([\#googlenow](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23googlenow&src=hash)) share the stage [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash)
>
> — wassx (@wassx) [October 30, 2013](https://twitter.com/wassx/statuses/395557048097972224)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [Pioneers Startup Challenge 2013: And The Winners Are…](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-startup-challenge-winner/)
**Published:** November 1, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Out of 850 startups from all over the globe, BabyWatch, Empatica, Kano Computing, Protonet, Solarbrush, Symptoma, Transmetrics and Vires Aeronautics made the Top 8 of Pioneers Festival 2013 Startup challenge ready to conquer the world!
Multidisciplinary and diverse are terms that don’t do this crowd justice. Nor can anyone still pretend the European startup environment is as dry as a desert. These startups prove that technological innovation will be able to solve mankind’s problems.
Hardware made in **Germany**: Cloud computing and robotics. From **Italy**, a wristband that measures human data in real time – quantified self. Green Logistics from **Bulgaria**: fighting climate change with big data. From the **United Kingdom**: Building a computer for kids and for the kid in all of us. Med-Tech from **Croatia** and **Austria**: Enabling a mother to monitor her own pregnancy and Google for doctors – saving lives with the right diagnosis. And last but not least, saving the environment by making aircraft more efficient – straight out of Berkeley, **United States of America**.
### Pioneers you are ready!
Who will take home this year’s Pioneers Award? Which startup will go on and win the Pioneers World Tour powered by Coca-Cola:
**Atlanta – New York – San Francisco – Shenzhen – Singapore**
Each startup pitched in front of our panel of judges including Andra Keay of Robot Launchpad, Ben Einstein founder of hardware accelerator Bolt.io, Sequoia Capital’s Tal Morgenstern, Luc Julia VP of Samsung and Michael Seibel Partner of YCombinator and CEO of Socialcam.
### Predicting the winner
The leading body language analysts took a shot at attempting to predict the winner by analyzing the judges’ facial expressions.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [[Festival Live Update] This is How Hardware Blows Your Mind](https://pioneers.io/festival-live-update-hardware-blows-minds/)
**Published:** October 31, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
**Hardware in the 2010s is finally what software has been since the 80s: Accessible and dramatically effective. On the Pioneers Festival Arena stage, Ekso Bionics’ Nathan Harding, Raspberry Pi’s Eben Upton and haxlr8r’s Cyril Ebersweiler told the audience why.**
"Both computer science and engineering have always struggled to attract high school students," began Eben Upton, the main developer of the credit card-sized single-board computer Raspberry Pi. It might just as well be a high demand for skilled people that makes the Cambridge University alumnus say so. From 2011 to 2013, the number of hardware backers on the crowdfunding portal Kickstarter has quadrupled. That’s still only 1.57% of all projects on the site, but it has a funding volume of $446M.
> Love it!! RT [@PioneersHQ](https://twitter.com/PioneersHQ): “2014 will be the year of hardware”, [@haxlr8r](https://twitter.com/haxlr8r) at [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash)
>
> — Spark (@sparkdevices) [October 30, 2013](https://twitter.com/sparkdevices/statuses/395666555817959424)
### I scored $1M on Kickstarter, now what?
Haxlr8r’s Cyril Ebersweiler says there is a gap between the "prototyping" and the "profit" stage in a hardware startup. He recommends considering the following:
Supplier selection
Design for manufacture
Materials selection
Quality management
Certifications, Testing
\[masonry images="13366:2×2,13365:2×1,13374:2×1" columns="4"\] ### Ekso Bionics: Military Industry, Consumers
Ekso Bionics is one of the world’s leading innovators in exoskeletons (in this context: body-external dynamic full-body scaffolds). After they reached the prototyping stage, the U.S. military was their early customer. Then, they revamped their product and approached industrial (civil) use.
"Back then our device enabled people to Frankenstein-like walking. No-one would wear it," said Nathan Harding of Ekso Bionics. Now the company sells their walking-apparatuses to private consumers. "We really chose a small market, though: Rehab centers \[instead of in-patients or out-patients at general clinics\]. These are people mostly in their mid-20s, they usually are very technology- positive." [Ekso Bionics](http://eksobionics.com/) works with six of the top 10 rehab centers in the United States, including the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Kessler foundation."
In Europe, the company has signed with rehab centers including the Glostrup Hospital (Hornbæk/DK), the Schön Klinik (Bad Aibling/D), the Sunnaas sykehus (Nesodden/ N) and the Fundacion Del Lesionado Medular (Madrid). "In 2007 we had asked ourselves: Where do we wanna get?" Harding says. Thunderous applause and cheering at #pioneers13 in Vienna’s Imperial Palace shows they have indeed gotten somewhere.
### A good business plan is enough
Ekso Bionics created incredibly innovative and emotionally appealing new hardware. A hardware startup doesn’t have to do so to be successful, though, haxlr8r’s Cyril explains: "There is a sex toy startup with a product that connects to your mobile phone. Nothing really new. They manage to establish a community that shares story-like episodes to download from a marketplace. That’s what pushes it that well."
### Anyway: Your factory is your most important partner
What if you don’t want to sell sex toys? "Be really good friends with your factory", Ebersweiler cites Zach "Hoeken" Smith, co-founder of MakerBot and a tech partner at [haxlr8r](http://www.haxlr8r.com/). Eben from Raspberry Pi agrees. In his panel after Ekso Bionics he says: "Being in the same country as your factory and speaking the same language is crucial. This way you can ask the factory: ‘What do you hate about our product?’ – ‘What can we make better?’ And then you make it better."
### Shenzhen or not?
[Raspberry Pi](http://www.raspberrypi.org/) is manufactured in De Cymru, that’s the Welsh word for South Wales, UK. Shenzhen in China could have been just the place to do it, but the company decided on something else. Not Cyril: He seems to love the area surrounding the Chinese city that has almost as many inhabitants as Austria. "In 2000, Shenzhen made things, but with bad reputation because of low labor costs, a subsidized currency policy by the Government of China and dubious quality. In 2013, it got better: It’s really fast, at scale, flexible, it’s high quality and still cheaper." Cyril says. Then he adds what turns out to be his favourite fact: "Today, things are not only made but also designed in Shenzhen."
### Paraplegic Nikki Emerson stands up and walks
At the end of Ekso Bionics discussion, the cameras closes in on Nikki Emerson. She broke her back five years ago and is now sitting in a wheelchair in front of the Pioneers stage. During the final moments of Nathan Harding’s speech, she put on the Ekso Bionics suit. Two thirds of the audience in the front rows hold up their smartphones with REC ON. She stands up and, with the help of the suit (including two crutches) and someone behind her back (just in case), she crosses the hall. Her knees bend and her feet move left-right-left-right as she shifts her upper body weight.
\[masonry images="13371:2×2,13426:2×1,13364:2×1" columns="4"\]
Nikki Emerson turns to the audience, standing directly in front of Pioneers Festival’s first row seats. "I’m not a person that’s complaining about being in a wheelchair all the time – I’m fine,” she states. “But this is amazing: Finally you don’t have to look up on everyone you talk to anymore. Well in this case, I even look down." The audience cheers.
> Incredible and emotional presentation from Ekso bionics. Helping a paralysed woman walk after 5 years in a wheelchair. [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash)
>
> — Amy E. Robinson (@geneticdrifter) [October 30, 2013](https://twitter.com/geneticdrifter/statuses/395588978029887489)
> Nikki Emerson rockz [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash) 😉
>
> — Patrick Puecher (@Puecher) [October 30, 2013](https://twitter.com/Puecher/statuses/395593983633944576)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Events
---
### [A Fireside Chat With Evernote's Phil Libin](https://pioneers.io/meet-greet-evernotes-phil-libin/)
**Published:** October 31, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Phil says "Evernote's goal is to make everyone a bit more smarter. We want people to make slightly better decisions through using Evernote. This mission is sufficiently epic and all I wanted to ever do. I'd be perfectly happy if that's all there is.”
**Content:**
Day one of Pioneers Festival 2013 proved to be full of entrepreneurship, cutting edge tech, innovation and those all-important connections. One of the highlights was Phil Libin’s fireside chat entitled ‘Technology, growing your startup and changing the world’ with Daniel Gross from Newsweek and two rising young founders, Sylvie Chin of [ClearKarma](http://www.clearkarma.com) and Luca Boschin of [LogoGrab](http://logograb.com). Here’s a little summary.
### The 100-year vision: Building a sufficiently epic product
Daniel kicked off the conversation by asking Phil about the importance of a big and daring vision and if the Silicon Valley approach on revenues — **get the users first, then find out the revenue** — is the way to go when building a startup. Phil focused on the Evernote history; that the team **wanted to build something great for themselves** which they didn’t want to sell or exit to a bigger company. Thus Evernote is ready to give up short-term revenue for a larger one later on.
### Bootstrapping or Venture Capital? Let’s do both
What is interesting about Evernote is that despite bootstrapping with paying customers, they still pursued VC funding. Daniel asked Phil why is that the case with Evernote where he was given once more the opportunity to shine the light on Evernote’s ambitious 100 year plan vision. The bigger portion of the raised money goes to the company — to isolate Evernote from macroeconomic conditions. The rest goes to pay existing shareholders, so people have liquidity throughout their involvement with Evernote and don’t perceive it as a one-time money machine.
### Culture and perks
When asked about Evernote’s corporate culture, Phil couldn’t but insist on the importance of it and that as a CEO it’s his #1 task. Evernote is known for its **flat corporate hierarchy** and **unlimited vacation days**, but Phil said that these ‘free perks’ are not perks indeed, but rather a way to reward and make more productive smart, ambitious people work at Evernote.
### Double-down on your strengths and start building relevant stuff
Phil jokingly replied that “it takes many years of practice to be able to act like a good person”. He continued that it’s always extremely important to experiment. A few years ago nobody knew what the right number of apps to have is, Phil continued, Evernote just experimented with it. What works should be optimized and kept and what doesn’t should be killed.
### A sufficiently epic mission
On a final, ‘world-outlook’ question from Sylvie, Phil mentioned that Evernote’s goal is not disruption, it’s merely a side-effect. “This is not what we’re after,” he said. Business is not a zero-sum game, thus **the key is to want to create new, bigger value out of things instead of tearing everything around you down**. Phil said that his and Evernote’s goal is to “make everyone a bit more smarter. We want people to make slightly better decisions through using Evernote. **This mission is sufficiently epic and all I wanted to ever do. I’d be perfectly happy if that’s all there is.**”
> At the impressive [@PioneersHQ](https://twitter.com/PioneersHQ) venue, listening to inspiring insights from [@plibin](https://twitter.com/plibin). [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash)
>
> — Thomas Joos (@thomasjoos) [October 30, 2013](https://twitter.com/thomasjoos/statuses/395497168326656001)
> “Failure is surrendering yourself live a boring life” Phil Libin [@evernote](https://twitter.com/evernote) [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash)
>
> — Aditya Sakhuja (@TweeAdi) [October 30, 2013](https://twitter.com/TweeAdi/statuses/395498909797462016)
> [@plibin](https://twitter.com/plibin) answering my question on stage of [\#pioneers13](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pioneers13&src=hash) [pic.twitter.com/xxA0jYsZbJ](http://t.co/xxA0jYsZbJ)
>
> — Peter Tuszynski (@dusker) [October 30, 2013](https://twitter.com/dusker/statuses/395499485302112257)
*Watch the entire fireside chat on our [Youtube channel](http://youtu.be/nEgEEDbgIcY) – subscribe and you won’t miss the latest videos!*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [The Ultimate Entrepreneur's Movie Guide](https://pioneers.io/the-ultimate-movie-guide-for-entrepreneurs/)
**Published:** October 3, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Here’s our selection of essential business, startup and entrepreneurship films. Find a comfy sofa and start learning!
### 1. Something Ventured (2011)
*The* documentary about the history of Silicon Valley and the rise of Venture Capital. You will learn as much in these 90 minutes as in 90 days of business school. Want a history lesson about the emergence of tech companies like Apple, Intel, Cisco, Genentech, Atari? This is the movie to watch.
Perhaps the most inspiring movie about entrepreneurship of them all.
### 2. Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
**"Good artists create, great artists steal."**
A movie depicting one of the greatest rivalries of modern-day business: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates during the development of the personal computer.
### 3. TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard (2013)
A fantastic documentary about the copyright infringement case of the world’s largest file sharing site. A dark, well-shot film. Obviously Hollywood and the media industry weren’t happy bunnies.
Europe’s largest "startup" in terms of downloads generated?
By the way, download the movie on The Pirate Bay.
### 4. The Startup Kids (2012)
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApUln7AD0\_Q](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApUln7AD0_Q)
**"It’s like jumping off a cliff and having to build your own parachute"** – Drew Houston, CEO Dropbox.
An upbeat documentary about young web entrepreneurs. With interviews of the founders of Vimeo, Soundcloud, Kiip, InDinero, Dropbox, and many others. Solve a problem and change the world.
### 5. Indie Game: The Movie (2012)
"Indie Game: The Movie" is like "The Startup Kids" for video-game makers, specifically looking at the underdogs of the gaming industry. It’s very niche but therefore also has more depth. A fantastic film capturing the ups-and-downs of individual video game producers. At the end of the day the consumer decides if they suck. No pressure.
### 6. Startup.com (2001)
Co-founder trouble? Everyone has it. A breathtaking behind-the-scenes of a promising startup going through what may have been the roughest phase in startup history to date: the bursting of the Internet bubble.
A tale of friendship, trust and entrepreneurial values.
### 7. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
Titled the corporate crime of the century. Values? I see none. Greed? There probably hasn’t been more since Gordon Gekko. Named "America’s Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years by *Fortune*, despite having produced no value whatsoever.
### 8. The Social Network (2010)
A Facebook movie, you say? Harvard, a billion-dollar idea, friends turned enemies. It’s a great film. Just watch it.
Keep shipping.
### 9. Who Killed The Electric Car (2006)
A documentary about the short life and early death of General Motors’ EV1. In 1996 The [EV1](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1) was one of the most innovate, environmentally-friendly vehicles on the market. You haven’t heard of it? There is a good reason for that. GM developed and killed the electric car. This film goes beyond electric cars and illustrates the power of big businesses.
### 10. Revenge of the Electric Car (2011)
General Motors, Nissan and Tesla Motors as the protagonists in the race to resurrect the electric car. Two of the biggest automobile companies versus a West-coast startup. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, has made up his mind to change the world and make the electric car sexy.
### 11. Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
The story of Preston Tucker, an automotive pioneer who tried to take on the Big Three of the automotive industry. A bio of a great American visionary as told by filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.
### 12. Wall Street (1987)
**"Greed is good!"**
A classic must-see. The name is the game: the bull market of Wall Street in the 80s is what the dot-com bubble was in the 90s. Gordon Gekko is the ultimate, unscrupulous Wall Street antihero on one end and young Bud Fox – desperate for success – at the other. A tale of morality balancing on the tightrope between right and wrong.
### 13. We Live in Public (2009)
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_XSTwfdFwIY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XSTwfdFwIY)
A documentary with a fascinating take on the early days of the Internet, and a biography of pioneer Josh Harris, whom you’ve probably never heard of. As the name already suggests, the film takes a close look at the loss of privacy on the Internet: Big Brother is watching you.
Thought-provoking to say the least.
### 14. e-Dreams (2001)
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shP77\_sptQU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shP77_sptQU)
Ice-cream, porn videos and other small necessities delivered to you within an hour – free of charge. Kozmo.com raised $250 million, filed for IPO and went bankrupt, in the span of three years.
A dot-com bubble documentary portraying the rise and fall of a promising startup lacking a sustainable business model.
### 15. Catch Me if You Can (2002)
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFj3OXVL\_wQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFj3OXVL_wQ)
Hollywood at its finest: Fake it till you make it! The true story of Frank William Abagnale, Jr. who conned his way into millions of dollars. Perhaps you shouldn’t follow in his footsteps, but be a hustler!
### 16. The Singularity (2013)
"Will we survive technology?" We will create machines with greater-than-human intelligence. Not interested in the concept of the singularity? The amazing opportunities technology provides mankind will still blow your mind.
### 17. All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011)
A [BBC documentary series](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011lvb9) about "how humans have been colonised by the machines we have built. Although we don’t realise it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers."
### 18. Ctrl+Alt+Compete (2011)
**"They do so because they love what they are doing. The money and success come later."** But is Silicon Valley just the modern American Dream?
Insights into today’s startup scene: A documentary that takes a revealing look at the startup through the eyes of five founders. A story of passion, fortitude and insanity.
### 19. Jobs (2013)
We are not here to review movies. Watch it and decide for yourself. The story of Steve Jobs is a must for this list, say what you will. As one [movie critic](http://www.killermoviereviews.com/main.php?nextlink=display&dId=1732) puts it: "Not a perfect film, but it is a good and worthwhile one, distilling the essence of its eponymous subject and his times."
### 20. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
A story about hopes and dreams. It truly captures the essential qualities every entrepreneur needs: discipline and perseverance.
["If you don’t love Shawshank, chances are you’re beyond redemption."](http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=3903)
### 21. The Aviator (2004)
The film captures the story of aviation pioneer Howard Hughes. The picture centers around Hughes’ life as he becomes a successful film producer and an aviation magnate.
### 22. Boiler Room (2000)
If selling is a sin – welcome to hell. Your ultimate guide to becoming a salesman. Need to get pumped? This is a must-watch! Hustle, close, survive!
### 23. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_xcZTtlGweQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xcZTtlGweQ)
"Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you can’t do something. You want something – go get it." What more needs to be said about this movie? Although predictable, it’s an inspirational tale.
### 24. The Call of the Entrepreneur (2007)
**"An entrepreneur is the creative force in economics."** A documentary about three entrepreneurs: a NYC banker, a failing dairy farmer, and a refugee from communist China.
### 25. The Corporation (2003)
A documentary that looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history to its present-day dominance. "An impressive array of interviewees, from Michael Moore to Milton Friedman, give their take on modern capitalism."
It will make you think.
### 26. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Fierce, yet funny. A group of real-estate salesmen take part in a sales contest with no room for losers. Pressure to succeed is high. How far will you go?
### 27. Jerry Maguire (1996)
Okay it’s another Hollywood flick and fine it’s Tom Cruise, but it’s a solid depiction of the competitive sports industry. Work hard and stick to your values: "Because it’s not just the money I deserve. It’s not just the ‘coin.’ It’s the… kwan."
### 28. Office Space (1999)
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_IwzZYRejZQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IwzZYRejZQ)
Comedy classic. This movie serves more than just a handful of corporate cliches. Don’t expect some deep and poignant motion picture that will change your life, but it might just give you the necessary nudge to quit your boring day job and move on to do something more meaningful.
### 29. The Wolf of Wall Street
Another Scorsese/DiCaprio collaboration that might teach you a few do’s…and don’t’s!
### 30. The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future
**“The money you have is enough. Chris makes it crystal clear: there are no excuses left. START. Start now, not later. Hurry,”** Seth Godin says.
This is actually a book – sorry to trick you. Perhaps we should also do an ultimate book list…
Did we miss any must-watch movies that you think deserve to make this list?
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Go Big or Go Home: 5 Commands from Mozilla's West Wing](https://pioneers.io/interview-mozilla-startup-lessons-go-big-or-go-home/)
**Published:** September 25, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
### Attention startups! Here’s your game plan
1. Shoot for the moon
2. Cooperate with big brands
3. Phones and tablets now, but Ubiquitous Computing is next
4. If Europe doesn‘t work, go Valley
5. Stand by your national identity
Earlier this year we met up with [Pascal Finette](http://finette.com/) of Mozilla. Pascal is a technology fanatic, founder of a number of Internet startups and happens to be working with Mozilla’s Chairperson Mitchell Baker as Director Office of the Chair.
Our interview with him ended up being a long and insightful talk about technology and entrepreneurship.
Here are Pascal’s big five for technology startups, particularly those based in Europe.
### 1. Go for moonshots
“Startups think short-term – that is one of the biggest problems we face in entrepreneurship today,” Pascal says. Entrepreneurs suffer with a misconception of goals. Instead of thinking both big and long- term, they have agendas that stop with the next financing.
Pascal admits it may be “the systems fault” – he didn‘t act any differently when he worked on his startups a decade ago. “You‘re forced to do that when your financing lasts for 18 months,” he says. Then it’s lights out.
There are people who do think long-term, though. “Elon Musk is an entrepreneurial idol. He searched for the four hardest industries in the world and subsequently disrupted them,” Pascal says. “Tesla, for instance: you can‘t do this for five years. It takes 20. If you want to disrupt, you have to do work long haul."
Pascal ends up praising 16-year-old Jack Andraka, an inventor from Maryland . The youngster didn‘t try to build the next Angry Birds, but instead took on cancer. “I think the risk-payback ratio is really good when you take on an entrepreneurial challenge in a field like this,” Pascal says. He adds, “Fields that are important to society \[such as cancer research\] need more support, too.”
### 2. Cross the Chasm – Cooperate with big brands
Pascal takes a recent event in new technology to clarify himself: the Nike Fuel Band vs. Jawbone Up. “Why does the Nike Fuel Band sell 10 times better than the Up?“ he asks us.
“Because of the Nike brand,” he answers. “When a startup leaves the stage where early adopters have fun with its product, there‘s mass market.” And mass market is nothing to mess with, given the example of Nike’s brand effect.
The brand also helps in retail. “Go into any Apple store and you will find the Nike Fuel Band being \[displayed\] at eye level – right in your face. The Jawbone Up is off somewhere else.” Pascal says.
The big fish possess unbeatable know-how when it comes to mass production. “The Jawbone Up had production flaws. They didn’t get their waterproof-ness right. Given Nike’s long enterprise experience, with the Fuel Band this would never happen.”
"Corporations are glad to team up with startups,” Pascal says. “They can’t otherwise reach the work speed of a tech startup.
### 3. Phones and tablets now, but Ubiquitous Computing is next
For Pascal, Ubiquitous Computing has taken the place of phones and tablets. The latter two are the present customized, everyday technology. Ubiqitous Computing comes next.
“With the Fuel Band or the Up, I have more computing power on my left wrist than the devices had on which I learned to code.”
### 4. If Europe doesn’t work, go valley
"If you can’t find capital in Europe, go to the United States,” despite being German-born Pascal puts it plainly. “What‘s missing in Europe is the capital loop as is happening in Silicon Valley. The money that comes out of an exit runs back into the community.” Founders are becoming funders.
He wants the market to be “global” “If there is no capital in Europe, go to the U.S., who cares? You can still look for talent and know-how in Europe.” Surrounding Berlin, for example, there is a knowledge cluster for solar panels. “There is no law that you can‘t still say ‘I‘m hiring only Germans.’”
As for Mozilla, Europe plays a major role. “Our London office is new, Berlin is getting a new office in the ‘Factory’ \[with Soundcloud, 6Wunderkinder\] and Paris gets a new office, too,” he says. “Paris was in some way the origin of the community – it was a coworking space and the kind of office without a shiny interior."
Pascal, who spoke to us in German, says he still thinks a great deal of Berlin. “It‘s got decent prices, a lot of space, a creative and crazy atmosphere, great talent, good schools and it’s really international. On the hand side there‘s still little capital – although it’s gotten better now."
He thinks startups should also cooperate more with large European companies. “Go, say, to the German pharmaceutical corporation Bayer. What’s €100 million for them? There you may find the capital that, in the U.S., comes from Greylock, a16z, Sequoia.”
### 5. Stand by your national identity
“Everyone wants to be like Silicon Valley.” Himself a Valley expat, he tells us he still can’t understand why. “Why do these guys from Berlin run a conference in broken English?
“Do it in German and don’t try to hide that in Berlin most people speak German.”
As for Vienna, Pascal likes its new role as a startup hub perfectly placed between CEE and Western Europe. “It‘s been a hub for centuries,” he says, “yet the communication between the hubs and startup centers in Europe is not satisfying.” What does this mean? Don’t try to copy everything the Valley does, but do become more connected. And then? Move fast and go large.
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [5 Reasons It was Worth Building the World's Fastest Electric Supercar](https://pioneers.io/rimac-building-fastest-electric-supercar/)
**Published:** September 19, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** It is here that the world’s fastest electric supercar was designed and built. CEO, Mate Rimac, has meanwhile shipped the first car. During a tour, he talked to us about why he is bootstrapping his company, how they built and shipped a one-off electric supercar from scratch within 4 months and why he hates car keys. We test-drive the prototype of an electric superbicycle that was originally ordered by a prince from Abu Dhabi… and we burn some rubber.
**Content:**
It is midday when we arrive at [Rimac Automobili](http://www.rimac-automobili.com/). It’s not the usual setting you’d expect when you visit a car manufacturing plant. We are in Croatia, just outside of Zagreb. If you are into cars, you know that in Croatia you won’t find much of a car industry, nor will you find a 100-man workforce here, but rather a small team of 20+ engineers who are sitting around a table enjoying their lunch together.
It is here that the world’s fastest electric supercar was designed and built. CEO, Mate Rimac, has meanwhile shipped the first car. During a tour, he talked to us about bootstrapping his company, how they built and shipped a one-off electric supercar from scratch within 4 months and why he hates car keys. We test-drive the prototype of an electric superbicycle that was originally ordered by a prince from Abu Dhabi… and we burn some rubber.
Impressive is an understatement when you see what Mate has built here. But you don’t build a 1088 horsepower electric supercar overnight. Especially not if you start from scratch with a blank sheet of paper.
### 1. Building the World’s Fastest Electric Supercar on a Budget
Mate is not running this shop on a major budget, but clearly has enormous passion for what he does. "We designed the Concept One from scratch," he proudly tells us, "but it’s not street-legal. You need to do crash-tests before you can go into production." This is certainly not your ordinary software startup where your prototyping costs are near zero. And that is precisely the point: Investors find upstarts like Rimac too long-term, too risky; they would need to throw in too much capital. In Europe this is an impossible mission. "I had a couple of offers. One from Abu Dhabi, but they wanted to bring all production over there. I’m not in it for the money – I don’t want to live in the desert."
### 2. Prototyping and Getting Street Cred
As we approach the production area, Mate says "Our advantage is: We are flexible and we are fast!" Everything Rimac produces, all the parts needed are made in-house. "Every new car is better than the one before, we try to do something new with every single one." That’s where their modified BMW test mule comes into play. The first car they shipped was a one-off prototype ordered by a company Mate isn’t officially allowed to mention, but "it has Rimac roots and Google will gladly help you out." The fun part: Mate and his team of engineers had to design, produce and ship the car within 4 months."Some of the guys didn’t leave the factory for 4 days. It was suicide, but we made it!"
That’s how you build yourself a brand. (Also, a few world records help too.)
### 3. Making the Technology of a Million Dollar Supercar Available
"We wanted to take the technology of the Concept One supercar and make it available to more people," Mate says. The result: [Greyp-Bikes](http://greyp-bikes.com/). "We took the electronics that are embedded in the Concept One and voila! It ended up being a bit faster than initially planned," Mate jokes. In Europe anything that goes in excess of 25 km/h needs to be officially licensed. Mate and his engineers solved this by creating 3 modes for the bike, depending on which finger you place onto the screen. Afterwards, Mate tells us "I hate keys! I can hardly wait until a chip implanted under your skin takes care of everything."
1. Street Mode: Use your thumb and your bike will be locked at 25 km/h
2. Eco Mode: Need to extend the range? Use your index finger
3. Power Mode: Don’t give a crap? Use your middle finger and you won’t know what hit you
We tested that baby and trust me it’s insane. "Maybe just start by pedaling!" Mate shouted – the rest I didn’t hear.
### 4. You Don’t Do It for the Money, It’s Your Passion
You do it because it’s damn hard work and damn fun! "It’s a roller-coaster," Mate says "Our books are full, we got orders to build 2 new prototypes from scratch and another Concept One by the end of the year. Plus we are doing the bikes. I’m off to Kiel in a minute – they want to see the Concept One." As busy as Mate’s days are, he knows how to switch-off and quickly adds: "Let’s go drive the car."
The modified 3-series is so much fun and has got to be one of the most impressive electric cars out there. "The power is always there, it doesn’t make a difference how fast you are going or which gear you are in," Mate explains before burning through another set of tires. It’s pure torque.
### 5. Magnum Opus
You have a vision for the world and you help shape it. It is perfectly clear that Mate envisions electronic drivetrains to be the future. "There is no doubt," Mate says, "but at the same you yourself will not be driving your car anymore." He is clearly referring to driverless cars. "And it is not just a safety issue, I hate driving long distances. Luckily, I’m in the business and can help influence which direction we go!"
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [5 Reasons It was Worth Building the World's Fastest Electric Supercar](https://pioneers.io/rimac-building-fastest-electric-supercar/)
**Published:** September 19, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** It is here that the world’s fastest electric supercar was designed and built. CEO, Mate Rimac, has meanwhile shipped the first car. During a tour, he talked to us about why he is bootstrapping his company, how they built and shipped a one-off electric supercar from scratch within 4 months and why he hates car keys. We test-drive the prototype of an electric superbicycle that was originally ordered by a prince from Abu Dhabi… and we burn some rubber.
**Content:**
It is midday when we arrive at [Rimac Automobili](http://www.rimac-automobili.com/). It’s not the usual setting you’d expect when you visit a car manufacturing plant. We are in Croatia, just outside of Zagreb. If you are into cars, you know that in Croatia you won’t find much of a car industry, nor will you find a 100-man workforce here, but rather a small team of 20+ engineers who are sitting around a table enjoying their lunch together.
It is here that the world’s fastest electric supercar was designed and built. CEO, Mate Rimac, has meanwhile shipped the first car. During a tour, he talked to us about bootstrapping his company, how they built and shipped a one-off electric supercar from scratch within 4 months and why he hates car keys. We test-drive the prototype of an electric superbicycle that was originally ordered by a prince from Abu Dhabi… and we burn some rubber.
Impressive is an understatement when you see what Mate has built here. But you don’t build a 1088 horsepower electric supercar overnight. Especially not if you start from scratch with a blank sheet of paper.
### 1. Building the World’s Fastest Electric Supercar on a Budget
Mate is not running this shop on a major budget, but clearly has enormous passion for what he does. "We designed the Concept One from scratch," he proudly tells us, "but it’s not street-legal. You need to do crash-tests before you can go into production." This is certainly not your ordinary software startup where your prototyping costs are near zero. And that is precisely the point: Investors find upstarts like Rimac too long-term, too risky; they would need to throw in too much capital. In Europe this is an impossible mission. "I had a couple of offers. One from Abu Dhabi, but they wanted to bring all production over there. I’m not in it for the money – I don’t want to live in the desert."
### 2. Prototyping and Getting Street Cred
As we approach the production area, Mate says "Our advantage is: We are flexible and we are fast!" Everything Rimac produces, all the parts needed are made in-house. "Every new car is better than the one before, we try to do something new with every single one." That’s where their modified BMW test mule comes into play. The first car they shipped was a one-off prototype ordered by a company Mate isn’t officially allowed to mention, but "it has Rimac roots and Google will gladly help you out." The fun part: Mate and his team of engineers had to design, produce and ship the car within 4 months."Some of the guys didn’t leave the factory for 4 days. It was suicide, but we made it!"
That’s how you build yourself a brand. (Also, a few world records help too.)
### 3. Making the Technology of a Million Dollar Supercar Available
"We wanted to take the technology of the Concept One supercar and make it available to more people," Mate says. The result: [Greyp-Bikes](http://greyp-bikes.com/). "We took the electronics that are embedded in the Concept One and voila! It ended up being a bit faster than initially planned," Mate jokes. In Europe anything that goes in excess of 25 km/h needs to be officially licensed. Mate and his engineers solved this by creating 3 modes for the bike, depending on which finger you place onto the screen. Afterwards, Mate tells us "I hate keys! I can hardly wait until a chip implanted under your skin takes care of everything."
1. Street Mode: Use your thumb and your bike will be locked at 25 km/h
2. Eco Mode: Need to extend the range? Use your index finger
3. Power Mode: Don’t give a crap? Use your middle finger and you won’t know what hit you
We tested that baby and trust me it’s insane. "Maybe just start by pedaling!" Mate shouted – the rest I didn’t hear.
### 4. You Don’t Do It for the Money, It’s Your Passion
You do it because it’s damn hard work and damn fun! "It’s a roller-coaster," Mate says "Our books are full, we got orders to build 2 new prototypes from scratch and another Concept One by the end of the year. Plus we are doing the bikes. I’m off to Kiel in a minute – they want to see the Concept One." As busy as Mate’s days are, he knows how to switch-off and quickly adds: "Let’s go drive the car."
The modified 3-series is so much fun and has got to be one of the most impressive electric cars out there. "The power is always there, it doesn’t make a difference how fast you are going or which gear you are in," Mate explains before burning through another set of tires. It’s pure torque.
### 5. Magnum Opus
You have a vision for the world and you help shape it. It is perfectly clear that Mate envisions electronic drivetrains to be the future. "There is no doubt," Mate says, "but at the same you yourself will not be driving your car anymore." He is clearly referring to driverless cars. "And it is not just a safety issue, I hate driving long distances. Luckily, I’m in the business and can help influence which direction we go!"
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Google Glass and Healthcare: An Interview with Kyle Samani](https://pioneers.io/google-glass-and-healthcare-an-interview-with-pristine-io/)
**Published:** August 27, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
By now, the early excitement surrounding Google Glass has begun with the usual suspects. Television reports have been run, newspaper articles have been written, a million blogs have been posted. And now that we all have a solid concept in our heads about what Google Glass is, and what it can and can’t do, it’s time for the pioneers to step into the the gold mines to see what can be extracted.
With a vast landscape ahead of them, some developers are heading in the [navigation](http://mashable.com/2013/08/20/mercedes-google-glass/) direction, others are going after the geolocation approach, while still others are seeking the [gaming](http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/08/google-glass-game-glassbattle/) route. One Texas-based startup is taking their experience in the medical field and looking to bring Glass into the operating room, revolutionizing healthcare in the process.
While [Pristine](http://pristine.io/) is technically still in stealth mode, I recently spoke with Kyle Samani, CEO of Pristine.io, about their ambitious plans to make Glass an indispensable device for tomorrow’s healthcare professional.
In addition to Kyle at the helm, the founding team of pristine includes Patrick Kolencherry, CTO, Mark Troutfetter, VP of Engineering, and Arik Yaacob, Sr. Technology Architect. The team is currently developing two distinct applications to run on Glass, both of which center around the surgical process. Their focus is on pre, intra, and post-op solutions for surgeons, nurses and anesthesiologists.
“We’re adding value across four dimensions: patient safety, efficiency (saving money), teaching and training, and convenience for the medical professionals” Kyle says.
When it comes to patient safety, Kyle says that one (potential) use case for Pristine is retrieving data from the EMR (Electronic Medical Record). As we’ve seen with a number of other uses for Glass, it’s an unobtrusive device that’s perfect for accessing text-based data, and freeing up healthcare workers hands could have huge potential.
“If you’re running around all day, using your hands, and you need to access and share information, Glass is going to change how you do your job,” Kyle says. “Studies have [shown](http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/10/your-smartphone-profoundly-filthy/58229/) that smartphones are some of the dirtiest places on earth. Our users will never touch Glass once they put it on.”
Now you wouldn’t think that washing your hands one more time after you’ve accessed some data on your phone would be a big deal, but when you think about how much information healthcare workers need access to on a daily basis, and how many times they have to maintain germ free hands and fingers, the benefits of healthcare and Glass start to add up very quickly.
“Keep in mind, we’re not just talking about doctors. Nurses, phlebotomists, lab technicians, PA’s, LVN’s, CRNA’s, there are so many different job classes of medical professionals in healthcare. And pretty much all of them have that job description: running around all day accessing and sharing information while using their hands.”
### Overcoming the obstacles
As with any product development, Kyle and his team have had their fair share of obstacles to overcome. When you add in the fact that Glass isn’t even readily available, and that the company is still in (semi-) stealth mode, you’re looking at a compounded problem to solve.
“The biggest obstacle to further development is simply lack of Glass. In an operating room, you’ve got a surgeon, an anesthesiologist, and three or four nurses. That’s 5 or 6 units right there. I want to test three OR’s at a time,” Kyle says.
As Pristine never touches a patient, it’s not classified as a medical device, thus, there’s no need to seek [FDA](http://www.fda.gov/) approval and get mired in red tape. However, the rules and regulations don’t stop at simply being classified as a medical device.
“One of the big ones with FDA certification is around marketing claims. If you’re going to say that your device makes patients five percent safer, you’re opening yourself up to need\[ing\] FDA approval. So we have to be careful \[about\] our marketing claims, but otherwise, we’re good to go.”
On the software development front, Kyle is quick to point out that Glass is buggy and undocumented. Coupled with relatively low powered hardware, the Pristine team find themselves constantly coming up with creative solutions to deliver the user experience they’re seeking.
“We’re not using the mirror API, but rather writing native Android applications,” Kyle says.
### Privacy
But why not go the official Google sanctioned route of using the mirror API? Wouldn’t this make development a whole lot easier? The answer is yes, and no, and one that not only Pristine will have to deal with.
It revolves around privacy. That age-old beast that users of the Internet and those that develop for it must grapple with. In the case of healthcare, Google has already had its [go around](http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/health/about/) with online health records. While Google Health never took off the way the company had hoped for, one is left wondering if this lack of adoption might have had to do with privacy concerns. And the same might be true for Pristine.
“The mirror API is pretty much unusable for anything healthcare related, because everything gets routed through Google’s own servers. Google told us flat out, ‘We do not want you putting healthcare data on our servers.’” Google knows the privacy advocates will be all over them for it, so they’re discouraging it from the start.”
To circumvent the “might be breached” issue, Pristine is taking the old-school approach and keeping all the data behind the hospital’s firewall. In other words, all of a patient’s data already exists in electronic format on a hospital’s server; Pristine is simply saying that they’re facilitating the transfer of this data from the server to the device, Glass, with no data ever leaving the local network.
“It literally becomes 10 times harder to close the deal and make things happen when the ‘This lives inside your firewall’ and ‘This doesn’t live inside your firewall’ conversations begin,” Kyle says. “We made the decision to install our software locally to avoid exactly this debate.”
In order to [comply](http://blog.humanapi.co/post/54110271373/hipaa-for-hackers) with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) standards, Pristine is encrypting all data, both at rest and in transit.
### Healthcare Professional Adoption and the ‘droid effect
We all know that there’s no need to spend countless hours in pursuit of a pipe dream. If there’s no market for your product, you’re dead on arrival. Not so much for Pristine.
“We have a **lot** of demand, far more than we can support at this stage. We’ve had 10 hospitals reach out to us, and nine or 10 individual surgeons and anesthesiologists contact us about piloting the apps. I can’t run 10 pilots. I simply don’t have the manpower,” Kyle says.
Pristine is currently in discussion with three of the top medical centers in the world, although Kyle couldn’t confirm which three *(he did give me license to speculate, but I’ll leave that up to you)*, and two large academic medical centers are slated for pilots by the end of September.
So it would appear that the healthcare professionals are on board, but what about the patients?
Kyle and I spoke at length about various wearable display technology devices, including [meta-view](https://www.spaceglasses.com/) and [Atheer](http://www.atheerlabs.com/), both of which he sees potential in. However, these are augmented reality devices, displays that by definition obstruct the user’s vision.
“What’s nice about Glass is that it allows you to maintain eye-to-eye contact. You have this thing there, but it really isn’t obtrusive.”
Kyle [views](http://kylesamani.com/blog/2013/4/23/the-defining-characteristic-of-eyeware-computers-transparency) the defining characteristic of wearable display technologies as how much of the device blocks the human face.
“I believe that the human eye is what makes the face. If you cover the eye, you go from human to android. There are devices out there like [oculus rift](http://www.oculusvr.com/) that are awesome, but you don’t look like a human when you’re wearing it.”
To this point, Kyle believes that Glass is the best suited to the healthcare industry because it’s a Google product, has already received a massive amount of coverage, and there’s a large swath of the population that has already seen the device, or is at least aware of what it is. Competing wearable display devices are going to have a hard time in this field, as patient awareness is likely to be low and sensitivity high.
### Piloting the next versions
Pristine is on track to start their first pilot programs in two medical centers by the end of September, and will begin to receive their first bit of “real world” feedback from healthcare professionals.
And while they’re bound to begin the tuning and fine-tuning stages, Kyle isn’t ruling out completely new ways of serving the healthcare professional community.
“This is a very new device, and we don’t need to pretend that we know everything. Who knows the kinds of ways and things people are going to use it for. I’m sure our customers are going to have all kinds of ideas about new use cases.”
*Lead image provided under Creative Commons via [JD Lascia](http://www.flickr.com/photos/36521958135@N01/5061266302/in/photolist-8Hfj97-8Hcbtc-9HEaqP-8Hcbv2-8Hcbx6-88fgLj-dDwf5K-dDBCiw-8cjdKE-8KYgjm-caWQ1d-8J5mVB-8J5n4F-8J8tA5-8J8tw1-8J8ts3-8J5mXv-9v5PFb-9JrMMa-9CqcCU-9yMjwC-8LWihH-bmTqse-8LZkRs-8LWiia-dNPcDy-bmTqxc-cbHz5A-8THcHx-7SpWnn-e2txCP-ejPfa1-9HZGmA-9sbgsb-9qUnMG-9GNGdD-fzhURd-7SfoUL-9G1X9U-ejPfx3-ejPfEA-8ZVyoN-ejHv1g-8bnWV4-8ZStte-7RSuyC-8ZSttF-8LWijc-9yJiQZ-8Hccf4-9zTmtH)
Google Glass image provided under Creative Commons via [Giuseppe Costantino](http://www.flickr.com/photos/69730904@N03/8813585832/in/photolist-eqPW1q-ejYAeY-f8K86U-f8uSz4-f8K9f5-f8K7tU-f8uSnD-f8uTjF-f8uTxc-f8uU6k-f8K8hJ-f8K8vf-f8KaYS-f8KanS-f8K7Ew-f8K8T5-f8K8GW-f8K7Rs-f8Kadf-f8K7es-f8uRPD-dYNg3C-f8K9qW-f8uSKV-f8Kba5-fkpkVc-fkpofV-fkDy3u-fkpkgP-fkDwty-fkpnLz-fkppvZ-ff2ZEs-ccxhGo-fb5QkS-fb5x8s-e2Wtim-e2QNuD-f8jNsS-f7Rqoc-f86CG5-f86DWj-f7RnSz-f7RrH6-f86GKm-f86FaL-f2Q5aw-bDRe4h-f2Q5rw-fh4TGt-fhj8wJ)
Oculus Rift image provided under Creative Commons via Sergey Galyonkin
Kyle Samani image provide by Patrick Kolencherry of Pristine.io*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Baumgaertel: Five reasons why 'Made in Germany' still steals the show](https://pioneers.io/hardware-made-in-germany/)
**Published:** August 12, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Guest Post: Last week I read a blog post by the Pioneers.io crew. It discussed startups that find themselves in the manufacturing part of the world and contained some interesting insights from Cyril Ebersweiler, who is running the Shenzhen based HAXLR8R, a sort of exchange and acceleration program for hardware startups.
**Content:**
As a startup, you face customer decisions even before you have a product. On a very basic level, the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder suggests that you should build awareness around the customers you will be serving. Is it a mass market? Is it a niche? Is it something in between? Whatever your answer is, this has a huge impact on what you’re building and how you will assemble your product. China might be a solution for many cases, and there’s a reason why lots of [startups do well with their product in China](http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/05/hands-on-with-pebble-smartwatch-the-most-successful-kickstarter-project-ever/) or elsewhere in Asia. But I’ll give you five arguments in which “Made in Germany” steals the show.
### 1. Iterations are faster
We at [Protonet](http://www.protonet.info/en) are in close contact with our suppliers; the factories are within 30 minutes reach of our headquarters in Hamburg. As we develop our hardware (a private cloud appliance), we have learned that communication and the ability to stay flexible while producing in small batches saves us money and time. This would not be possible if we ordered in foreign countries – it’s simply a pain and increases costs. As you have to have the tools to do so, or at least the access to 3D printers, CNCs etc., colleges are a great starting point. If you’re not in college, there are numerous co-working like spaces that have the tools. The prominent ones might be the [betahaus](http://betahaus.de/) in Berlin or the [MakerHub](http://www.makerhub.de/) in Hamburg. All the tools you’ll be needing are right in your backyard – so no reason to go abroad.
### 2. Quality is unbeaten
Engineering and manufacturing have always been core competencies of the Germans. While universities and scholar programs are state of the art, the influence of the world-leading automotive and machinery industry set the benchmark for skill and knowledge development of potential startup employees – there’s no better place in the world to recruit hardware engineers. This is a reason why Germany is the #1 country in the world to export machinery. Tesla Motors for instance, buys its robots [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KUKA#cite_note-5).
For a startup like [Inreal](http://www.inreal-tech.com/) in Karlsruhe, the German Silicon Valley, capturing this talent is the basis of their success. They deal with augmented reality, producing glasses that allow you to walk through your home while experiencing a variety of virtual interiors. They also produce locally.
### 3. Environmental standards
If you are building a product of very high quality, you will also care about the components you and your suppliers are using. In Germany, you cannot use any raw material; the conditions you must fulfill include aiming for an environmental-friendly product. Good for the environment also means efficient handling of resources, which will save you money in the long run and will also have an impact on your marketing and customer development strategy.
### 4. Development of trust
Many customers buy a product simply because it is “Made in Germany”! The more complex it is on the inside, the more relevant it becomes. If a customer has the feeling that the engineering is solid and built to last, she will be more than willing to pay for it. Everybody who reads this post has most likely had an experience with a low quality product “Made in China”. You simply develop a resistance. But to be fair – the improvement in the recent years has been astonishing. German companies like Airbus are manufacturing in China (or Asia in general) now. With the aviation industry having top level standards for quality, it shows how keen the Asians are on increasing their skills. Nonethless, Germany will always be a leader in creating innovative solutions – especially in manufacturing – and I don’t see how this will change any time soon. Germany is an innovation hub.
### 5. Working conditions
There’s not much to explain here. China Labor Watch presented a study last year that stated up to 100-130 hours of overtime per month – per employee. Next to that you’ll find a higher rate of injuries at work and a higher exposure to toxic materials. But again: this is getting better with companies putting pressure on their suppliers – the question is how long will it take for working conditions to reach western standards?
There are further arguments like talent recruiting and liability. In any case, please beware. All of this depends on who your customer is, what your product is like and how much money and skill you have. Compare: You can buy a 3D printer for under 1000$ today. This is about the cost of a flight from Frankfurt to Shenzen. For us it’s not just a matter of costs, it also concerns your vision and attitude surrounding the quality you want to deliver. That’s why we at Protonet chose to do hardware “Made in Germany”.
*A guest post by Philipp Baumgaertel
Biz Dev & Growth, Protonet, Hamburg-based
[@protonet](https://twitter.com/protonet)*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Ubuntu Edge: Putting the Desktop in Your Pocket](https://pioneers.io/ubuntu-edge-putting-the-desktop-in-your-pocket/)
**Published:** August 2, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
["Convergence is the future of computing."](http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge--39)
With this statement Mark Shuttleworth opens Canonical’s crowdfunding campaign-video. It’s quite a statement, but Canonical seems to have managed "to combine the mobility of a smartphone and the power of desktop on a single device".
Canonical’s campaign to crowdfund its first smartphone – the Ubuntu Edge – has been covered in great detail. It’s the [fastest crowdfunding effort](http://www.fastcompany.com/3014685/fast-feed/ubuntu-is-crowdfunding-32-million-for-dual-boot-smartphone-wait-what) in history and it’s the [largest such campaign with the highest target](http://www.t3.com/news/ubuntu-edge-smartphone-breaks-crowdfunding-record). To put their campaign into perspective, the Pebble Smartwatch raised $10M on Kickstarter and is to date the [most successful crowdfunded project](http://pandodaily.com/2013/07/24/how-canonicals-ubuntu-edge-interrogates-the-nature-of-crowdfunding/) in terms of monetary value. Canonical is aiming for three times this amount – $32M.
So far they have raised roughly a quarter of the amount needed and they have only three weeks to go. Chances are that the Ubuntu Edge may well become the most high-profile crowdfunding “failure” to date.
Gigaom has already reported that Canonical is ["not on track to hit the lofty $32 million crowdfunding target"](http://gigaom.com/2013/07/31/the-ubuntu-edge-campaign-is-in-trouble-and-heres-why/) and pointed out how not "playing to its existing fanbase" and stating that "openness and hackability are not top priorities will not help its cause."
## Ubuntu’s big vision, high risk
But the real exciting stuff is not their crowdfunding campaign… those are just numbers. What excites us is their perspective on revolutionizing desktop computing using "Convergence Devices", they call them… And whether Canonical’s campaign is successful or not, this vision may take a small hit, but it will certainly be carried forward, be it with Ubuntu’s Edge or otherwise.
It is hard to ignore pioneering work that could potentially (and finally) disrupt the desktop computing platform.
The concept is not a new one per se, but this time, Ubuntu might be the first contestant to have nailed it. The concept is a promising one for the mobile world to say the least.
[Technological convergence](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_convergence) is the trend of one device performing the tasks that you previously needed multiple devices for. Take today’s smart phones: Does anyone still use them for voice calling? There are millions of uses for smartphones today, including web browser, camera, music player and newsstand, to name a few.
Canonical wants to take it up a notch and make your desktop computer obsolete by putting a top of the line smartphone – with specs similar to a decent notebook – into your pocket. All you would need in addition is a display and there you have it: a workstation. And as soon as a solution for folding up your screen comes into existence, laptops, too, will be obsolete. [Flexible OLED displays](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexible_display), anyone?
## Tech Specs
The hardware specs won’t be the issue in achieving a mobile-desktop convergence device. It is simply a matter of time until mobile devices reach the technical specifications needed to power 99% of desktop applications (obviously powering an average user’s notebook is more than possible today).
The Edge’s specs are subject to change (and are said "to be finalised as late as possible to ensure the best available components"). But take the current tech specs and compare them to a [MacBook Air](http://www.apple.com/macbook-air/specs.html) and you will soon realize they are not all too different. Both have a multi-core processor, 128 GB and 4 GB RAM (note: the MacBook Air can be configured for higher specs in terms of CPU, memory and storage). The front camera of the Edge at two megapixels is one feature superior to the Air. Its display, covered with Sapphire Crystal, is basically scratch-proof too. So with its dual-boot, you have the world’s most powerful smartphone in your hand, which converts into a fully integrated desktop PC.
## Will the Edge cut it in the real world?
So what specific aspects are needed for the Edge to be successfully adopted by mass market?
### 1. Price
The [price](http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge) is steep, sure, but with the Edge, Canonical is putting a top-of-the-line device into your pocket. And what’s more important, you will only need an additional display before you can get rid of your PC.
### 2. Convenience
["Convergence is the key idea we are exploring, so this phone needs to be a potent little PC when docked."](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eQLe3iIMN7k) And potent it is. The Edge will reduce the number of devices you carry around, and although the future of computing will most certainly be up in the cloud, there’s still something comforting about having everything on a single device.
I know of many executives who use a dock to make a desktop platform out of their laptop, now imagine replacing that larger device with a much smaller one, while all other specs remain the same.
### 3. Technological progress
Ubuntu may be the first to integrate exactly the right amount of technological progess.
On the one hand, the vision of convergence for the phone and the PC will push the limits of mobile computing. The Ubuntu Edge "brings together the most exciting innovations that are real but still on the horizon," Shuttleworth explains.
On the other, if you trust what Shuttleworth says, the Ubuntu smartphone may be the first device that incorporates things that really make a difference to the end-user. Shuttleworth compares the phone industry to the camera industry five years ago… when it was stuck in a race of megapixels.
Note that the Ubuntu Edge will only be available to supporters of their campaign, at least that’s what Shuttleworth claims. Assuming, the Ubuntu phone is successful in proving the viability of convergence devices in desktop-mobile, you don’t have to be a genius to predict they will deep-dive into phone manufacturing.
And it is precisely for these reasons that we want to see the Ubuntu Edge being made reality – not to break the odd crowdfunding record – but rather to push technology forward and, like Mark Shuttleworth says, to be ["the catalyst for awesome innovation and a taste of the future of the phone."](http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge--39)
*Image courtesy of [Ubuntu](http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge).*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [10 Crowdfunding Projects That Take the ‘Fiction’ out of ‘Science-Fiction’](https://pioneers.io/10-crowdfunding-projects-that-take-the-fiction-out-of-science-fiction/)
**Published:** July 26, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Web crowdfunding has shortened launch times for innovative, exciting and helpful products. Recently, a method allowing plants to glow was funded on Kickstarter. And medical device Scanadu outdid its $100,000 funding goal by reaching close to $1.5M.
As you’re reading this, a team is trying to raise money for a pen that reads what it writes and alerts when there is a mistake.
Remember Marty McFly form the movie *Back to the Future*? In fictive 2015, he traveled on a floating deck, the Hoverboard. People want to have this in the not-so-far-away 2015, and they want to do it by raising $1M.
If this sounds as amazing to you as it does to us, read on. These are 10 jaw-dropping crowdfunded projects that seem like futuristic ideas, but are in fact real.
### 10. Network-free mobile phones
There are almost seven billion mobile phones worldwide – even in many poorly developed countries, they are widely owned. Wars, natural disasters or simply things like remote areas can render mobile phones useless.
By programming phones to connect with one another – between independent and supraregional networks – this project by Adelaide aims to help.
The technology, which the Australian team developed with the New Zealand Red Cross, allows one phone to call another.These phones don’t necessarily have software installed; rather, they provide a simple and useful means of communication in war and natural disaster scenarios. When long distances come into play, the [Speak Freely project](http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/speak-freely) has prototyped signal extenders for your pocket. Combined with solar chargers, this technology combines the reliability of radios and the usability of smartphones.
Speak Freely still has more than one month to raise its set goal of $300,000.
### 9. Flying bicycle gets you where you want
Attaching a propeller and a wing, Virginia’s Dexter Industries is building the most flexible vehicle ever. The inventors say they loved both bikes and aircraft, and they wanted to combine the benefits of both.
Imagine pedaling out of your driveway with a four-wheeled (yet looking kind of three-wheeled) bike that takes you where a bike can take you, then unpacking the wing from your backpack and unfolding it, powering the propeller and taking off.
The dream of flight comes true in the [Flying bicycle](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/114063537/paravelo-the-worlds-first-flying-bicycle), allowing you to easily take off on your own, and head for an island, the mountain cabin of your best friend, or the butcher’s.
### 8. Connecting the Raspberry Pi to Lego
Since the launch of the credit card-sized $25 computer Raspberry Pi, geniuses and nerds around the world have created amazing things from it. But, most of this was software-only.
This kit allows to connect not only Lego bricks to the circuit board, but also has several plugs for Lego (Mindstorms®) motors and sensors.
Giving well-known hands and feet to the fully hackable Raspberry Pi, this kit allows the craziest robotics ideas to come true.
The crowdfunding community has contributed a sum 67 times higher than [BrickPi](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/john-cole/brickpi-lego-bricks-with-a-raspberry-pi-brain)’s preset goal.
### 7. Crowd-controlled space telescope
[ARKYD](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1458134548/arkyd-a-space-telescope-for-everyone-0) is a publicly available space telescope. Anyone will be able to take control of it and zoom into wherever their curiosity leads. Teachers might use it to discover things together with their students. Scientists will have a tool to carry their studies to places they wish.
In contrast to conventional telescopes, thanks to crowdfunding, ARKYD’s hardware is compact and the launch time is short.
Some of the ARKYD engineers have been involved in NASA‘s Mars landers. What emphasizes the reality of what ARKYD is doing? The incentive for a $25 funding contribution was having your own photo displayed on a screen in space, which in turn another camera would capture.
The ARKYD outdid its $1M goal by more than 1500% on 1 July.
### 6. 360 degrees of virtual reality
Forget Google Glass. The [Oculus Rift](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-into-the-game) is a virtual reality machine in the size of ski goggles, making the user “step into” artificial worlds.
The gaming community is already jumping for excitement. The Oculus Rift’s maker Palmer Luckey says, the team has worked together with world-class game developers.
Imagine exploring Hawken’s or Doom’s scenery and physically tilting your head to where you want to look. Or how about walking through a replication of actual Martian terrain?
The Oculus Rift’s crowdfunding goal was $250,000. They have reached close to $2.5M.
![The Oculus Rift and some virtual scenery. © Flickr users Sergey Galyonkin, [WW]](https://pioneers.io/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/oculus.png "| Front page")
The Oculus Rift and some virtual scenery. © Flickr users [Sergey Galyonkin](http://www.flickr.com/photos/sergesegal/), [\[WW\]](http://www.flickr.com/photos/wyattwellman/)
### 5. Life sized hologram projector
The company behind this project has brought hologram machines to events and expos. They show objects such as a softdrink bottle or a game controller virtually “above the screen”, no 3D glasses needed.
Most of us have grown up with futuristic hologram visions as suggested by Hollywood. Especially Lucasfilm (Star Wars) were good at making entire persons appear “projected” in the air. Now it’s time to make this happen.
The [life size hologram projector](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lifesizehologram/life-size-hologram) is supposed to make huge objects appear in front of people‘s eyes: Cars, furniture and humans are potential outputs.
There is still a lot to fund before they reach their $950,000 goal.
### 4. Getting access to your own satellite
Sending things into space has always been exorbitantly expensive. A group of space and business experts is developing an Arduino-based, 10x10x10cm satellite, which everyone will be able to access.
Scientists, teachers, you and I will be able to send code to the satellite’s Arduino-brain. [ArduSat](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/575960623/ardusat-your-arduino-experiment-in-space) (from Arduino satellite) can be taught to go places, take pictures, analyze data and make something out of it.
The project team names a few possible tasks: map the emitted spectrum of the sun; generate truly random numbers valuable to the financial, security and science community and; stare down the eye of a hurricane.
ArduSat outdid its set $35,000 goal by almost 300% on 15 July.
### 3. Star Trek’s Tricorder is here
Measuring blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, respiratory rate and other data linked to vital body functions, Scanadu adds the advantages of digitalism to preventative healthcare. While other processes, such as parcel delivery via DHL or the tracking of masses of website visitors, have long been at our fingertips (and smartphone screens), no device is measuring our bodies yet.
Scanadu captures data and keeps track of how it changes. If things are as they should be, Scanadu can reassure parents about their children’s health, for example. If things become abnormal, Scanadu alerts people or simply allows them to approach their physicians with relevant data to cite.
Third, and most of all: An early entrant to the $10M Tricorder X PRIZE competition, Scanadu‘s features and handiness come thrillingly close to what has been known as the Tricorder since Star Trek.
[Scanadu](http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/scanadu-scout-the-first-medical-tricorder) has outdone its $100k funding goal by about 1500%.
### 2. Hoverboards: We want this in 2015
If you think this one sounds unrealistic, hold on: Who would have believed in sending humans to space and to the moon in the 1960s, at a time when the fastest trains on earth hardly reached 230 kilometers per hour?
The [Hoverboard Project](http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/open-source-hoverboard-project--2)‘s initiators stated it clearly: “It‘s only about the money.” Thinking of existing Maglevs in Germany and Japan, or of quadrocopters becoming more lasting and autonomous than ever before, why not join forces for a hoverboard from mass production in 2015?
There is still $998,000 left to reach the Hoverboard‘s $1M goal.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Og8YUrNRw\[/embed](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Og8YUrNRw[/embed)\]
### 1. Making trees glow
A Californian team around including Antony Evans thought: Why put street lamps next to trees and not make it one thing? You do find glowing things in nature, remember?
Taking the glowing genes found in bacteria or fireflies and synthesizing (regenerating) them, this biolab is actually making plants glow under their control.
[Glowing plants](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/antonyevans/glowing-plants-natural-lighting-with-no-electricit) can completely change aesthetics and economics of public space by giving a new feature to something that’s there anyway.
The Glowing Plants project was successfully funded on 7 June.
NOTE: Antony Evans of Glowing Plant; Peter Platzer, CEO of NanoSatisfi, the makers of the ArduSat and Scanadu‘s CEO Walter de Brouwer are speaking at this year‘s Pioneers Festival.
*Image courtesy of Flickr User [Harald Hoyer](http://www.flickr.com/people/hhoyer/)*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Revolutionizing MedTech: 3D Printing Is No Gimmick](https://pioneers.io/revolutionizing-medtech-3d-printing/)
**Published:** July 23, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** “Ultimately the goal would be a new kidney, a new liver,… derived from a patient’s own cells. Tissue on demand is the ultimate long term vision..."
**Content:**
3D printing is fuelling a new industrial revolution. The beginnings of desktop 3D printing were humble, but it’s growing at an exponential rate. Consider where we were six months ago and where we are today. We certainly aren’t limited to single input materials anymore.
For those not convinced about the potential of this technology, consider these use-cases in medical technology:
### 3D printing your cast
Jake Evill, a young design student from New Zealand, has used 3D printing to invent an exoskeleton that "protect\[s\] the internal skeleton". Basically, he is reinventing traditional plaster.
Evill is 3D printing a cast, called the [Cortex](http://jakevilldesign.dunked.com/cortex):
> “The Cortex exoskeletal cast provides a highly technical and trauma zone localized support system that is fully ventilated, super light, shower friendly, hygienic, recyclable and stylish.”
The advantages seem fairly obvious. The disadvantages? Well there is a downside: costs, but that is only an initial factor. As technology develops and becomes ubiquitous, price decreases dramatically.
The point is that nowadays, inventions like these don’t necessarily spawn from huge research labs backed by billion dollar companies. Today, we have the tools and information needed at our fingertips for individuals to do these things.
### Bioprinting human tissue
Still not convinced? Consider [Organovo](http://www.organovo.com/), a company specializing in bioprinting. More precisely, they bioprint human tissue – functional human tissue based on 3D bioprinting technology that Gabor Forgacs discovered at the University of Missouri. You will soon be hearing a lot more about Gabor and his venture.
> “Ultimately the goal would be a new kidney, a new liver,… derived from a patient’s own cells. Tissue on demand is the ultimate long term vision of the company,”explains Eric David, Chief Strategy Officer of Organovo.
The first and last third of the video are truly stunning – in terms of vision but more importantly in terms of what is possible. To say the least, organ donation and drug research will soon be disrupted.
Opportunities like these emerge because technologies like 3D printing are being democratized; as this technology becomes personal and ubiquitous, it is used in entirely new ways. People will, and already are, using 3D printing to solve problems in a way we never imagined possible.
We are empowering people with new tools, a new technology that is easy to use. ["And that’s the change,"](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh-DLWdh0WY) Chris Anderson says. ["If it’s easy to use, \[…\] it becomes a vector for ideas to turn into things, to turn into companies,… to turn into movements.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh-DLWdh0WY)
["And that Macintosh moment is right now."](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh-DLWdh0WY)
*Video and image courtesy of [Organovo](http://www.organovo.com/company/about-organovo) and [Jake Evill](http://jakevilldesign.dunked.com/cortex).*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Robert Scoble on Google Glass: 'The Apple II of Wearable Computers'](https://pioneers.io/robert-scoble-on-google-glass/)
**Published:** July 19, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Ever since the Big G of Mountain View dropped the first hints of producing a wearable computing device, the tech industry has been set ablaze with excitement, rumors, and speculation. This initial hint, which would eventually become known as Project Glass, or more commonly, [Google Glass](http://www.google.com/glass/start/), isn’t the first wearable computing/display technology on the market, but it is the first to be pushed out into the public by a major technology entity.
And once he [received](https://plus.google.com/+Scobleizer/posts/Qq8MLT87BMq) his Explorer Edition of Google Glass on April 17, 2013, Rackspace startup liaison officer, and internet celeb, [Robert Scoble](https://plus.google.com/+Scobleizer/posts) has been inseparable from his Glass, save for the numerous times he’s shared the experience with others at events around the globe. He was the 107th person to receive his pair (of the 8,000 that were sold for the initial run), and since this time, much has been written about Glass – how it looks, what it feels like, and what you can do with it, for starters
But what does Glass mean for the future of us all? Is this the very beginning of the next wave of computing? And if so… as entrepreneurs, what can we be doing now to prepare for it?
## Mass Market
“This is the Apple II of wearable computers,” Scoble says. “When the Apple II came out, all the geeks bought it, but it wasn’t a mass market product.”
Robert touches on a very relevant point with this statement, insomuch as the technology is already a bit ahead of the society. When the iPhone exploded onto the scene, we already had some familiarity with phones that did much more than just make calls. No one, though, could have predicted the appconomy that was about to boom thanks to the runaway success of the iPhone. With Glass, we could be on the edge of the very same precipice, provided that society is primed and ready for it. But are they? Or, is Google the primer?
According to Scoble, one of the key factors that will determine if and when wearable computing, Glass specifically, will reach the socially acceptable tipping point is the price. “I don’t think Google will like this, but this is going to be $200 in two to three years. There’s no technology in here other than the prism and the projector. It’s two-thirds of a cell phone,” Scoble says. “There’s nothing in here that costs any money. This means that they’ll be able to produce these in a mass quantity, pretty quickly.”
Scoble speculates that the initial offering price will be, “around $500. Maybe it will be $700, but when I talk to everyday people, at $500, they get interested; $700…hmm, that’s for rich people. At $500, it stays interesting.”
“But to make this a **really** mass market product, it needs to be $200. I mean the Facebook phone (HTC One) is $100. In two to four years, we’ll see these numbers.”
While this amount of time might seem a while off for us now, it does provide entrepreneurs with time and space to not only start testing what works and what doesn’t, but begin envisioning the much bigger picture of what society will want to do with Glass once the adoption factor reaches mass market levels.
## So many possibilities, so what to build?
**Augmented Reality**
One of the things that Google has done so well with their marketing of Glass is that they’ve been very tight-lipped about what the product will actually do. Or will not do. I think it’s fair to say that we all have visions of a perfect, “terminator”-like augmented reality experience where any- and everything we see through our wearable display technology is digitized. With Google Glass, not so much.
“One of the major drawbacks of Glass is the battery life. This is why Google didn’t do augmented reality. It requires a bigger processor, and therefore a bigger battery. It just isn’t going to be prevalent with this device,” says Scoble.
“In fact, the more I use it, the less I use it.”
So if, AR, the obvious choice, is out and, aside from the obvious Glass Apps (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), what can we be looking for in Glass?
“Well, the first thing that developers need to do is get their hands on Glass. They really need to know the limitations of this device. Before I got my pair, I thought that they would do a lot more. Augmentations, perhaps facial recognition. Nope.”
**Filter the noise**
“There will be more of a demand for noise filtering, particularly because of the battery constraints of Glass,” Scoble says.
“Glass is demonstrating a world where we need much better filtering. There’s a team of six people in Geneva that developed [Smart Labels for Gmail](http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-in-gmail-labs-smart-labels.html). This is the type of filtering that’s needed. The Gmail that comes to my glass is actually really good, but only because I’ve filtered the heck out of it.”
When pressed a bit more about specific filtering, Robert told me that he’s very impressed by the way Foursquare does it, and could imagine a similar system would be highly advantageous for Glass. He’s particularly interested in granular filtering. Specifically, the controls that he can access, “I can see all notifications, only notifications when I’m close, say, in the same city. Or I can turn them completely off. And then of course, if I want to go into stalking mode, I can see all notifications from a specific user.”
And what we’re talking about here is more humanization? “Right. Another great one is [Flipboard magazines](http://inside.flipboard.com/2013/06/11/create-a-magazine%E2%80%94together/). These are human filtered content streams, that now allows Flipboard to study how humans actually filter content, and they can build algorithms to provide automatic filters.”
Scoble also preaches to future Glass entrepreneurs to think about the context of the wearer. “I want you to show me what is important to live my life. And that has to do with context. If I’m in Berlin, I want to see more news from Berlin. When I’m in Amsterdam, turn down Berlin, and turn up Amsterdam. It’s all about context. The things that are closer to you are more important to you.”
**Proximity Warning**
As recently reported, [Google has banned facial recognition apps](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jun/03/google-glass-facial-recognition-ban), but Scoble sees a hack coming. “The API doesn’t give developers direct access to the camera. Access if given only after an image is captured, then sent to the cloud. The process would take around three to 10 seconds I guess. I don’t think Google is going to enable it.”
“What I do see happening is a hack that’s similar to [highlight](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/highlight-people-nearby/id441534409?mt=8) on my phone. If we’re within 100 yards of each other, I think that will be the hack; not necessarily a face detection, but an app that will know when so-and-so is close to me.”
Given my own personal testing of Glass’s GPS and directional system, I believe that Scoble is on to something here. The directions the system provided me were highly accurate, indicating that the device knows exactly where you are. Providing a “Hey my friend that has the same app is within xyz feet/meters of me,” shouldn’t be a problem. This obviously has a downside when attending a conference or large event, where multiple contacts could be in the same location, but … developers, are you listening?
**Take Control**
Another facet of Glass that Scoble wants to see more of is control of the actual device itself.
“The folks at Oakley have said that the next generation of these displays are going to have a beam splitter for the camera, so the camera can watch your eye as well as look forward. [Google API’s for winking](http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/05/google-glass-privacy-fears/65702/) have already been put in place as well as doing things with your eye to control the glass – so this is probably already planned for the next version.”
Thus, in addition to providing information services for the wearer, we now have another opportunity opening up in the area of device control. The keyboard and mouse have been the standby for over 30 years. With Glass, this interface is instantly removed. How will tomorrow’s entrepreneurs meet and exceed the demand to ditch these controllers once and for all?
**The Glassconomy**
While the current version of Google Glass might be the 30-year-junior of the Apple II, it’s clear that the excitement and curiosity surrounding the device and its potential is massive. It’s also important to note that Google isn’t the only player on the block; Apple, Canon, Epson, Microsoft, Epiphany, Laster, Optinvent, Recon Instruments, and Vuzix are all vying for your attention (and dollars). Don’t overlook the power and market potential of these devices. Google is going for the consumers, but with some of the technology that these other manufactures are packing in – there’s plenty of room for growth and exploration.
We all want to be the ones behind that “killer app,” but the harsh reality is that there’s no guaranteed formula for a multi-million dollar runaway hit. Rovio spent [eight years working on other games](http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/04/features/how-rovio-made-angry-birds-a-winner) before releasing the best selling app of all time, Angry Birds. Robert Scoble has been around the block a few times, and has seen his fair share of what works, what sells, and what doesn’t. If you’re ready to have a go at jumping on the glassconomy, Scoble’s advice and insight should not be overlooked.
*Robert Scoble Image courtesy of Flickr User [Heisenberg Media](http://www.flickr.com/photos/heisenbergmedia/8677949387/in/set-72157633562171368); Google Glass Image courtesy of Flickr User [giuseppe.costantino](http://www.flickr.com/photos/69730904@N03/)*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Hardware Startups: To Succeed You Have to Sleep in a Factory in China](https://pioneers.io/hardware-startups-to-succeed-you-have-to-sleep-in-a-factory-in-china/)
**Published:** July 15, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** Silicon Valley is the place to be for young, aspiring entrepreneurs. While all this is true, at least for software startups, it is a completely different story for hardware. Turn to China…
**Content:**
Silicon Valley – the world’s leading hub for innovation and development – is probably *the* place to be for young, aspiring entrepreneurs. The Valley has an incredible ecosystem ranging from the world’s most high-tech companies and startups to the most renowned venture capitalists, universities, colleges and government facilities.
While all this is true, at least for software startups, it is a completely different story for hardware. The first indicator of this may be that Wikipedia’s article on Silicon Valley drops the term “software” a record-breaking nine times, whereas “hardware” gets only one single mention. Recall that the term “Silicon Valley” itself was coined because of the physical production of semiconductors and personal computers, i.e. hardware.
Forty years later, the story is an entirely different one.
### The Case for China
“As a hardware startup, you’d be insane to prototype anywhere apart from in China,” says Cyril Ebersweiler, founder of [HAXLR8R](http://www.haxlr8r.com/), a hardware accelerator program that takes its startups to [Shenzhen](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen), China to hack the hardware they will later mass-produce. It is the first of its kind.
It doesn’t take long for Cyril to make his case for China:
“Zach, my partner, built a DIY CNC machine on his own – well, just because he wanted to build one – at a cost of something ridiculous like 3,000 Yuan.” His partner is none other than Zach Hoeken Smith, co-founder of consumer 3D-printing giant, [Makerbot](http://www.makerbot.com/).
A project of this scale is really only feasible in China nowadays. Cost is certainly one factor, but speed is the other major one. For makers and hardware startups, Shenzhen is a huge TechShop; you have access to tools, you can iterate on your prototype multiple times a day – all at almost no cost compared to western standards.
“So strangely enough, I think yes, the perfect stage to come to China \[for a hardware startup\] is from scratch,” Cyril continues. “That’s very disruptive and I understand that, but here \[in Shenzhen\] if you have a problem at manufacturing level – if you need to replace a part – you literally go down the street; you will find a new piece within 24 hours.”
### Why daily prototyping matters and how to avoid the hardware death trap
Shenzhen headquarters some of China’s most successful high-tech companies. “There is a concentration of electronics and manufacturing that is essential,” Cyril says. “When you build a product, you have to consider the manufacturability of it and its scalability.”
He is convinced that the reason why most startups have failed in the past is the lack of a realistic prototype – one that could not simply be taken to mass-production. “Many startups were just claiming they could do this and that, but once you hit manufacturing level, it just gets so complicated. If you haven’t incorporated every detail into your prototype at first, you can scrap it and rebuild everything from scratch.
“The smartest ones have been sleeping at the factories,” Cyril says. “[Sphero](http://www.gosphero.com/)’s Founder Ian has been there for a year and a half; Idan from [gTar](http://www.incidentgtar.com/) spent a year and a half at the factory – sleeping there. And still it took him a year to get it out of the assembly line,… iterating every single day. We were talking about 1,000 devices out of the first round – it’s that hard to pull off.
“But now it’s possible.”
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player\_embedded&v=s0FYgGgi\_4Q](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=s0FYgGgi_4Q)
*Making of gTar in Shenzhen*
### The environment for prototyping
Shenzhen used to be a huge manufacturing maker; today most factories have been pushed out. But some of the layers of this supply chain – the layer of prototyping – remained: 3D printers, CNC machines and laser cutters. This makes it ideal for hardware-related startups that need to iterate quickly at low cost… it allows them to move at similar speeds to software startups.
“Trying to build everything yourself is stupid: trying to manage a laser-cutter yourself – unless you have to do it – why would you do that?,” Cyril says. “In Shenzhen, you don’t have to \[produce\] yourself, you don’t have to wait for five days – you go downstairs, you take your file, you modify on spot with the computer, the guy \[in the factory\] tells you if it works or not – you have your part. It’s done… and it costs you $3.”
So now imagine prototyping somewhere here, in the western world.
### A few common misconceptions
China as a market is still very complicated, largely due to communication barriers. Without some sort of local investment, you are bound to hit a brick wall. Shenzhen in particular, though, is the place to be if you are serious about hardware production.
#### Communicating with China’s manufacturers
HAXLR8R helps startups find manufacturing partners, but then “you have to sit inside the factory, there is no other way around it,” Cyril explains. But while “startups used to have to explain how things were built, right now factories know exactly what should be done.” As experience increases, many factories are already able to tell their customers how their hardware should be produced. In general, factories are a lot more willing to work with startups than ever before – some of them even consider investing in startups.
#### Chinese innovation
Chinese manufacturing is often reduced to taking a product that works and copying it. But China has startups. Their huge advantage: They have control of the manufacturing. “They will leverage their hardware in a way not even Apple can dream of,” Cyril says. Perhaps even more significant is the fact that Beijing is sending reporters to HAXLR8R’s office on a daily basis. “They are in the phase of looking at what’s next – and are clearly looking at the innovation part,” Cyril explains. “When they realize what position they are in… it will change the whole state of mind.”
#### Hardware startups need insane amounts of funding
HAXLR8R invest $25k per company and are proving that hardware does not need more money backing it than a software startup. “This is the other reason why it doesn’t make sense to prototype elsewhere… you would never know what the \[real\] price of your product is and that’s going to kill you down the road.”
## "Chinese startups will leverage their hardware in a way not even Apple can dream of"
“There is no better place for makers than China,” Cyril reiterates, “and another part is the Chinese market; which we haven’t even tried to get into, but it’s the number one market in the world for consumer electronics.”
Now imagine the possibilities. If you’re going to do anything with your startup life, some part of it should be dedicated to China.
*Cyril Ebersweiler is a speaker at this year’s Pioneers Festival (30-31 October 2013). His keynote will cover the ups and downs of his experiences with HAXLR8R, what role the U.S. and Europe play in the fight for hardware and much more!*
*Image courtesy of [HAXLR8R](http://haxlr8r.com/) and Flickr user [epSos.de](http://www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/)*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Hardware is the New Software: An Interview with Chris Anderson](https://pioneers.io/hardware-is-the-new-software-chris-anderson/)
**Published:** July 8, 2013
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** An exclusive Pioneers interview with Chris Anderson: We talk drones, robotics and how Lego got him to kick-start the biggest robotics community in the world.
**Content:**
*Pioneers* met up with [Chris Anderson](https://twitter.com/chr1sa), CEO of [3D Robotics](http://store.3drobotics.com/) and Founder of [DIYDrones.com](http://diydrones.com/) at his **Berkley** Office.
“[Atoms are the new bits]()”, says Chris Anderson. Hardware started to take along similar dynamics as software: low barriers to entry, web-based open innovation models, cloud manufacturing which basically democratized the biggest industry in the world – manufacturing.
### Makers: the web generation making real stuff
***Pioneers: The Makers Movement – how big can the whole space get?***
***Anderson***: It depends on how you define it. I define the **maker movement** as being the web generation making real stuff. It’s basically digital, it’s online, it’s community based. It has that web culture but it’s applied to physical stuff: 3D printers, CNC Machines, Laser Cutters, 3D Scanners, Electronics and Arduino, Raspberry Pi and all that stuff. So it’s a set of tools that allowed the web generation to start using the same mechanisms to make real stuff.
***Pioneers: We have seen a lot of software in the last couple of years, but it’s really the hardware stuff that excites people. From what you have seen what are the biggest products in that space?***
***Anderson***: When I got into hardware, I got in through things like Arduino and 3D printers. That’s what excited me and ultimately we ended up going into the direction of electronics and software. We do drones and autopilots. I got started with LEGO and my children. The company got started with my children assembling LEGO pieces on the kitchen table. That was 4 years ago. What happened is that: all the stuff that used to be hard got easy. Software got easy, electronics got easy, platforms got easy, manufacturing operations and tools all got easy – **suddenly this stuff became doable**.
***Pioneers: When was the time you realized Wired is quite cool, but now I have to do 3D Robotics?***
***Anderson***: About a year ago. We \[Anderson and Jordi Muñoz\] had started a company together but I was non-executive chairman – I had a job, I was editor of a magazine \[Wired\] and assumed Jordi would continue hand-assembling things, it would be a small little service we would offer. It was the day I went down \[to Tijuana\] and saw the company owned a forklift, I realized "this is a real company. Real companies have forklifts – wow we must have things to lift".
*Note*: Jordi was at the time a 19-year-old Mexican high-school student waiting for his Green Card. The two of them met through the Internet and Anderson has described Jordi as the “perfect” match whom he would never have met prior to the web generation
### Drones are what personal computers were in the 1970s
***Pioneers: Where do you see 3D Robotics going?***
***Anderson***: We started with hackers, makers, DIY, etc. We are doing this to move from “the bag of parts” to “ready to fly” – finished, easy-to-use products. Think of it as moving from the Apple II to the Macintosh – or maybe from the Apple I to the Macintosh. Making Robotics – in our case Aerial Robotics or drones – easy to use.
Right now we have really sophisticated platforms, but they are too hard. As a result they are attracting techies and geeks. It’s our job to make that kind of technology as easy to use as that kind of toy \[AR Parrot; the Parrot is not actually a UAV in the sense that it is [not autonomous unless you add an autopilot.](http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/turning-the-parrot-ardrone)\]
***Pioneers: When you deal with drones, they certainly still have a negative connotation to many. As a result, a lot of it must be about education.***
***Anderson***: We have decades of history of taking military technology, democratizing them, making them available to consumers and overall changing the stigma – changing the associations.
Think about \[that\] the Internet used to be ARPANET; GPS used to be cruise-missile controls.
It is **our job** to drown out the bad uses of drones with good uses. The way we do it is by putting them in the hands of regular people. When you think of drones as farm equipment or just a way we film children playing sports – "its just a camera that follows you around" – then people forget that they used to be military.
You win with numbers: a thousand stories of drones being used for fun, civilian purposes will eventually drown out the military stories.
### Personal versus Commercial Use
Note that commercial drone usage is technically still illegal in the US, the FAA is setting up regulation to officially allow commercial use starting in 2015. Private use is being tolerated today. But once the FAA admits UAVs into U.S. Airspace by 2015, the market is likely to explode. I, for one, cannot wait for the Tacocopter to go commercial.
In all seriousness, this has huge potential – obviously for fields like transportation and cargo delivery. [FedEx has already expressed stern interest](http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/fred-smith-fedex-wants-uavs). As performance specs are rapidly increasing – doubling every nine months in terms of range and freight – we can not even imagine what the entrepreneurial uses for drones will be.
There certainly will be misuses of this technology, but this must not hinder us in pushing forward, for the potential of these – from today’s perspective still-experimental gadgets – is enormous.
*What are your thoughts on Robotics, especially UAVs? What are your concerns with safety, how large do you consider the potential of drones to be disruptive to be? What creative endeavors would you like to see this technology being put to use for?*
---
Chris Anderson:
Former Editor-in-Chief WIRED (2001-12)
Author of *Makers: The New Industrial Revolution*
CEO of 3D Robotics and Founder of DIY Drones
Companies:
[DYI Drones:](http://diydrones.com/) a non-profit online community (open source software) – the biggest robotics community in the world with around 36,000 members as of March 2013
[3D Robotics:](http://3drobotics.com) a for-profit hardware manufacturer for drones
– “charge for hardware, give away the bits”
*Interview by [Juergen](https://twitter.com/juergenfurian), CEO and Co-Founder, Pioneers Images by [Tim](https://twitter.com/RtimR), Head of Pioneers Festival*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
### [Space Pioneers: The New Innovation Race](https://pioneers.io/contemporary-space-pioneers/)
**Published:** April 30, 2012
**Author:** Pioneers
**Excerpt:** What do Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, Robert Bigelow, Ross Perot Jr, Paul Alan and Peter Thiel have in common? Apart from being billionaires, that is. The answer? They invest in space companies.
**Content:**
What do have Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, Robert Bigelow, Ross Perot Jr, Paul Alan and Peter Thiel in common? Well, first of course, they are billionaires. But secondly, they invest in space companies. When top billionaire entrepreneurs start to invest in something new, we may see the formation of a new trend. But why space, such a hard and long term endeavor, why not just simply betting on the next [billion dollar app](http://www.crunchbase.com/company/instagram)? It’s because of the question these people are asking: what are the biggest challenges humankind is facing? One of those challenges is increasing population vs. scarcity of resources.
When thinking about resources, most people have a very depressing view of the future. We are extracting everything that mother earth has to offer at [exponential increasing speed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth). The 6 billion poor people want to live like the richest billion, and who could blame them for that desire? It just won’t be possible if we divide up all resources that are still available. And we haven’t even started talking about the permanent damage that is done to the ecosphere of our planet by extracting and processing those ever harder to obtain resources.
There are even [other smart](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g) people that beliefe life on earth will end in [high entropy](http://www.amazon.com/Entropy-A-New-World-View/dp/0553202154/) chaos and decay because we are converting all available high quality energy forms into lower forms to power our civilization on the difference. In this view, all we can do to prolong this process of decay and chaos is to reduce the human energy footprint to the lowest possible level.
Of course this is complete nonsense because earth will be bathing in [173 petawatts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_energy_budget#Incoming_energy) (that’s a number with 15 zeros) of fresh solar energy for the next 5 billion years or so. But it demonstrates the depressed mindset that a good part of humankind – faced with ever scarcer resources and dying nature – has adopted. [Robert Zubrin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Zubrin), [author](http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Zubrin/e/B000APC3IC/) and president of the [Mars Society](http://www.marssociety.org/), [describes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKZW61IXvsc "Importance of Space") in one of my [favorite speeches](http://erikunger.com/favorite-speeches/) the fundamental problem and threat to humanity of this of closed future mindset: it effectively means that in the ever fiercer competition for depleting resources every person becomes the enemy of every other person on the planet and every country the enemy of any other country.
So are we doomed? Well yes, if we see earth as the only resource in the universe. Of course that’s not the case, but isn’t it interesting how many people still can’t grasp the simple fact, that earth is not the center of the universe and that there is so indefinitely much more out there? Since the early days of humankind only few pioneers dared to dream what could be on the other side of a great mountain, vast desert or sea. But when the pioneers did the voyage to the other side, to the new land, usually great prosperity followed for those associated with them (*note*: Mars doesn’t have an indigenous population – space is just waiting for the gift of life).
After exploring and conquering all valuable land on earth, our solar system is the next logical step for human expansion and prosperity. But again, only few pioneers are seeing and believing the obvious. Maybe we all have been burned by the Apollo program; the biggest and boldest steps of humankind only to have it all shut down by Nixon when the political goal of beating the Russians was accomplished. No further human exploration of space, no Space Odyssey in [2001](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)) and no Contact in [2010](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_(film)).
So this first wave of space exploration has gone by, only with the [ISS](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/ISS_ULF3_STS-129.jpg) to show for today, when we could have thousands of humans in space with [1980s technology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder) if we just wanted it hard enough (bank bailouts or for the same price the solar system, anybody?). But a new wave is gathering. This time it’s not governments but private entrepreneurs, and that’s the reason why it will work: there are no changing political agendas, just prosperity waiting for everyone who can think and act big enough. Maybe [China’s ambitions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Lunar_Exploration_Program#Manned_lunar_landing) will ignite a government space race again, but at the time that happens, private companies will be in the lead.
**Technology Waves:**
Now where are we in this new wave? It may have started around the year 2000. A couple of smaller companies have come and gone with the winning of the [Ansari X Price](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansari_X_Prize) as the first real breakthrough ([this](http://www.amazon.com/Rocketeers-Visionary-Business-Engineers-Privatizing/dp/B00381B7OG/) is a great read about that first period). But we are still in the rather flat infrastructure phase. Maybe [Planetary Resources](http://www.planetaryresources.com/) will open up the next phase by providing a network of space gas stations, that will enable cheap commercial space exploration.
It won’t happen tomorrow, but I am certain that within our lifetime we will have affordable, private access to outer space. And then the second chapter of human history will begin.
Following is a list of so called [NewSpace](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NewSpace) companies, the pioneers that are making it happen:
## Planetary Resources
-
- Founders: [Peter Diamandis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Diamandis), [Erik Anderson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_C._Anderson)
- Investors: Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, [Charles Simonyi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Simonyi), [Ross Perot Jr.](http://www.technologyreview.com/view/427624/are-ross-perot-jr-and-googles-founders-launching-a-new-asteroid-mining-operation/), [Ram Shriram](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Shriram)
- Advisors: James Cameron, [David Vaskevitch](http://people.forbes.com/profile/david-vaskevitch/154723), [John S. Lewis](http://www.amazon.com/John-S.-Lewis/e/B000APB8I8/)
- Spacecrafts:
## SpaceX
- ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX))
- Founder: [Elon Musk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk)
- [Investments](http://www.quora.com/How-much-money-has-SpaceX-raised-and-who-from): $100M Elon Musk, $20M Founders Fund, $30M Draper Fisher Jurvetson + Founders Fund
- [Development costs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9) for Falcon 9 Rocket: $300 million
- Total development costs until 2011: $800 million
- 40 flights booked for a total of $3 billion in revenues
- Profitable since 2007
- Spacecrafts: Falcon 1 & 9 rockets, Dragon capsule
Space Exploration Technologies – short SpaceX – is building the [Falcon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9) series of rockets and the [Dragon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_(spacecraft)) spacecraft and has been awarded a [contract with NASA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Orbital_Transportation_Services) to supply the International Space Station.
The big vision behind the company is to make humankind a [multi-planetary species](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SECSxUbXTA). The Dragon capsule is already designed for a atmospheric re-entry from moon and mars return trajectories.
SpaceX has already accomplished something that previously only three nations had done before: launched and returned a spacecraft safely from orbit.
## Stratolaunch Systems
-
- Founder: [Paul Allen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen)
- Spacecraft: SpaceX rocket + Dragon capsule
- Cooperation with: [Scaled Composites](http://scaled.com/), SpaceX
Scaled Composites will construct the largest plane in the world to launch a SpaceX rocket and Dragon spacecraft from the stratosphere to low earth orbit.
## Bigelow Aerospace
- ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigelow_Aerospace))
- Founder: Robert Bigelow
- Spacecraft: [Genesis I](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgNOC_gggw)+II (in orbit), BA 330 station
- Investment until 2010: $180 million
- Total investment until 2015: $500 million
Bigelow Aerospace is working on an inflatable space station technology taken over from NASA to build private space stations.
## Virgin Galactic
- ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Galactic))
- Founder: Richard Branson
- Spacecraft: [SpaceShipTwo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqhzlq7UReA)
- Air- & spacecraft developed by [The Spaceship Company](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spaceship_Company) (TSC) – a joint venture between [Scaled Composites](http://www.scaled.com/) and the Virgin Group
## Blue Origin
- ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin))
- Founder: Jeff Bezos
- Spacecraft: New Shepard (suborbital)
This very secretive company from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is working on a suborbital vertical takeoff and landing spacecraft, the New Shepard, and a larger version to reach low earth orbit. SpaceX is working on a similar vertical landing technology for their orbital rockets.
## Xcor Aerospace
-
- Founder: [Jeff Greason](http://www.xcor.com/team/founders.html)
- Spacecraft: [Lynx](http://www.xcor.com/products/vehicles/lynx_suborbital.html)
## Armadillo Aerospace
- [Armadillo Aerospace](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillo_Aerospace)
- Founder: [John Carmack](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack)
Founded by computer game programming legend and genius John Carmack, Armadillo has incrementally developed their rocket technology to a point where they now can aim for suborbital flights, eventually with paying space tourists.
## Masten Space Systems
- [http://masten-space.com/](https://twitter.com/mastenspace) ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masten_Space_Systems))
- Founder: David Masten
- Spacecraft: Reusable suborbital
## Interorbital Systems Corporation (IOS)
- ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interorbital_Systems))
- Founder: Roderick and Randa Milliron
- Spacecraft: Neptune series rockets
This small Californian rocket startup’s first orbital goal is to launch very small and cheap [CubeSat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat)s and TubeSats to a 300km decaying orbit. First TubeSat kits including launch were available for only $8,125.
## MoonEx – Moon Express Inc.
- ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Express))
- Founders: Naveen Jain, Barney Pell, Robert D. Richards
- Spacecraft: CSB Lander
Goals: winning the [Google Lunar X Prize](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lunar_X_Prize), and ultimately mining the Moon.
## Space Energy
-
Developing [space based solar power](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power) technologies.
## Shackleton Energy Company (SEC)
- ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shackleton_Energy_Company))
- Founder: Bill Stone
Developing fuel stations in space for cheaper exploration of space.
## Copenhagen Suborbitals
- ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Suborbitals))
- Founders: Kristian von Bengtson, Peter Madsen
Copenhagen Suborbityals is a non-profit suborbital space endeavor based entirely on sponsors, private donators and part time specialists.
## Hermes – STAR Systems
- Spacecraft: Hermes (not to confuse with [Hermes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_(spacecraft)) from the European Space Agency)
[Kickstarter Project](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hermesspace/hermes-spacecraft)
## Sierra Nevada Corporation Space Systems
- ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Nevada_Corporation))
- Spacecraft: [Dream Chaser](http://www.sncspace.com/ss_space_exploration.php)
- People: [Mark Sirangelo](http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=6981960) (Corporate Vice President of Space Systems)
Not a NewSpace startup, but their privately developed Star Chaser crew transportation spacecraft is really interesting for the private space scene.
Interview with Mark Sirangelo: [Part 1](http://vimeo.com/32229178), [Part 2](http://vimeo.com/32224086), [Part 3](http://vimeo.com/32218738), [Part 4](http://vimeo.com/32214949), [Part 5](http://vimeo.com/32210840)
## Skylon – Reaction Engines Ltd.
- ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_Engines_Limited))
- Spacecraft: [Skylon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft))
REL is working on the holy grail of space launch technologies: “single stage to orbit”. That means that there are no stages that are dropped off and lost, the spaceplane takes off like a normal airplane flies into space and lands again like an airplane. This could dramatically reduce the cost of accessing space if the vehicle can operate like a normal airliner. Key to this capability is the engine technology that REL is working on. It’s an hybrid of a jet engine for atmospheric flight and a rocket engine for space.
## Google Lunar X Prize
- ([Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lunar_X_Prize))
- Founder: [Peter Diamandis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Diamandis "Peter Diamandis")
- Organized by: [X Price Foundation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Prize_Foundation)
- Main sponsor: Google
- Prices: $30 million in total
The GLXP challenge calls for privately-funded spaceflight [teams](http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/teams) to compete in successfully launching, landing, and then traveling across the surface of the Moon with a robot, while also sending back to Earth specified images and other data.
## More NewSpace Information
**Video Podcasts:**
- [Spacevidcast](http://www.youtube.com/user/spacevidcast)
- [Epic Future Space](http://www.youtube.com/user/OTmikhail)
**News:**
- [Space.com](http://www.space.com/)
- [moonandback.com](http://moonandback.com/)
- [reddit space](http://www.reddit.com/r/space/)
**Books:**
- [The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space](http://www.amazon.com/The-High-Frontier-Colonies-Apogee/dp/189652267X/) by [Gerard K. O’Neill](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_K._O'Neill)
- [Mining The Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets](http://www.amazon.com/Mining-The-Sky-Asteroids-Planets/dp/0201328194/) by [John S. Lewis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._Lewis)
- [Rocketeers: How a Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots is Boldly Privatizing Space](http://www.amazon.com/Rocketeers-Visionary-Business-Engineers-Privatizing/dp/0061149039/) by Michael Belfiore
*\[Featured\] Image courtesy of Flickr User [Dallas1200am](http://www.flickr.com/photos/blile59/)*
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
**Categories:** Pioneers
---
## Pages
### [Homepage new (references)](https://pioneers.io/)
**Published:** March 18, 2026
**Author:** Paul Ruprechter
**Content:**
## How to Get Innovation Right
### Define Innovation Focus
We shape future-focused strategies by crafting sharp hypotheses around what’s next – future realities, must-win battles, and business opportunities – powered by our deep understanding for the VC game, funding flows, and emerging tech.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
### Set the Right Framework
We build the foundation for innovation to scale – an innovation setup with clear governance, lean processes, smart KPIs, empowered teams, and a culture that actually moves ideas forward with speed and focus.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-setup/)
### Enable Fast Execution
We use innovative methods and processes from the startup space for quick validation and scaling – taking a hands-on, results-driven approach that turns ideas into measurable impact.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/)
## Success in Numbers
### 10+
### Years of corporate strategy and innovation consulting experience
### 500+
### Corporate innovation projects carried out
### 300+
### Clients successfully consulted
### 20+
### Countries where projects were delivered
## References
### Energy
[](#) [](#)
- 
Enable & Mobilize: ### The Platform Bridging Strategy and Startup Innovation
OMV Sphere helps OMV turn strategic sustainability and business challenges into startup collaborations by tapping into external innovation ecosystems. The platform has delivered five research and scouting projects, including reusable e-commerce packaging, sustainable products from spent coffee grounds, and green fuel certificates for aviation.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Reliable Drone Inspections Beyond GNSS Limits
An automated drone survey solution enables consistent dam inspections through AI-based navigation and tracking, even in GNSS-denied environments. Pilot trials with Skydio and Dronemajor show its potential to replace manual flights with safer, more reliable, and automated inspection workflows.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Online Monitoring for Variable Frequency Drives
ENI assessed non-intrusive technologies for real-time monitoring of Variable Frequency Drives to enable early anomaly detection and predictive insights. The initiative identified Electrical Signature Analysis as the most suitable approach and narrowed a highly specialized market to a focused set of leading providers.
- 
Strategy & Setup: ### Professionalizing Innovation to Power the Green Tech Transition
Burgenland Energie professionalized its innovation system to support its transformation into a Green Tech player. The initiative defined an innovation vision, created transparency across ideas and partnerships, established clear processes and decision criteria, and set up a dedicated sandbox team.
- 
Grow & Build: ### Vehicle-to-Grid: Turning EVs into Grid Assets
A Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) solution enables electric vehicles to feed energy back into the grid through bidirectional charging, trading platform access, and AI-based optimization. Successful pilots show how EVs can serve as flexible grid assets, helping operators like Moon Porsche balance the grid and unlock new revenue streams.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Advancing Structural Integrity Monitoring for Oil & Gas Assets
To address the high cost, risk, and limited visibility of periodic structural integrity inspections for onshore and offshore assets, ENI assessed and implemented advanced structural integrity technologies, thereby reducing scaffolding, downtime, and human exposure in hazardous environments.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Laying the Foundation for Scalable Carbon Capture
OMV sharpened its CCUS strategy by assessing how direct carbon capture can support low-carbon hydrocarbon production. A comprehensive market analysis translated this into strategic options and investment hypotheses, guiding plans to scale CO₂ storage and partnerships across the North Sea, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.
- 
Strategy & Setup: ### Wertstatt 8: Inventing the Future of Energy from Within
Energie AG Oberösterreich built Wertstatt8 as a corporate venture studio to drive venture building and spin-off creation beyond its core utility business. The initiative developed and scaled new energy ventures, including Linus for data-driven energy optimization and E-Fairteiler for community-based solar power sharing.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Reducing Wind Turbine Downtime Through Predictive AI
Resulting from the need to reduce wind turbine downtime and maintenance costs, VERBUND piloted an AI-based predictive maintenance solution to anticipate component failures and improve maintenance planning.
- 
Grow & Build: ### Advancing Energy Ideas Through Venture Building
OMV used the cross-company venture building format Pioneers.Peak to turn exploration beyond its core business into validated new opportunities. In a three-month program, OMV developed and tested concepts in energy storage, biomass utilization, and CO₂ certificate management, leading to C-level backing and the handover of two validated concepts.
- 
Grow & Build: ### From Idea to Market-Ready Energy Venture
TTTech and VERBUND established a clear foundation for a joint corporate venture in high-end, grid-serving energy management by sharpening market focus, customer segments, and competitive positioning. The collaboration resulted in a defined business model, clear USPs, and a concrete go-to-market and launch roadmap.
- 
Enable & Mobilize: ### Venture Clienting as an Engine for Energy Innovation
VERBUND used venture clienting to connect industry leaders with startups and implement innovative technologies across the organization. The program turned business challenges into 29 pilot projects with 22 corporate partners in areas such as energy management, AI-based market intelligence, predictive maintenance, and digital process control.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Energy Management App
Verbund Energy for Customer (VEC) reshaped their digital customer interface based on a thorough market analysis and customer survey by designing a new end-customer app in order to create transparency under existing contracts and act as a channel for direct communication and information.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### AI-Based Market Intelligence for Energy Trading
VERBUND and YUKKA Lab implemented an AI solution to increase transparency in energy price movements by linking intraday, day-ahead, and futures prices with news, market data, and regulatory developments. Following a successful pilot, the tool was permanently integrated, enabling more informed trading and market decisions.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### AI-Based Load Management and Forecasting for Smart Charging
SMATRICS and Ogre.AI optimized charging point utilization and energy costs by implementing an AI-based load management solution enabling real-time monitoring, forecasting, and load shifting, thereby strengthening smart charging capabilities across operations.
### Financial Services & Insurance
[](#) [](#)
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Scaling Fintech Innovation Through Open Collaboration
Visa used the Visa Everywhere Initiative to identify and scale high-potential fintech solutions addressing challenges such as NFC and digital payments, API-based money transfers, supply-chain visibility, and exponential technologies. The program attracted 100+ high-quality startups annually across Europe and APAC.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Goodbye Paper Receipts, Hello Digital Clarity
A major German bank introduced Digital Receipts, allowing customers to receive their receipts directly in the banking app after paying in-store. The solution simplifies expense tracking and returns and gives customers instant, organized access to their purchase history in one central place.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Growing the Next Generation of Bank Customers
Sparkasse developed a junior banking solution for safe online and offline payments by young customers. With features like digital pocket money, spending forecasts, and subscription management, the solution became part of Sparkasse’s strategy and was approved for development as a core product for early customer engagement.
- 
Grow & Build: ### Scaling Digital Innovation in Insurance
Viesure, the internal venture building unit by Wiener Städtische, focuses on developing innovative digital services aligned with the core insurance business. The initiative delivered award-winning solutions such as the Voogle search engine and the losleben app, strengthening customer experience and Wiener Städtische’s digital positioning.
- 
Enable & Mobilize: ### From Design Sprints to Market-Ready Payment Solutions
Two major German banks launched the SPAYCE innovation lab to develop digital payment solutions beyond core banking. Through iterative design sprints, the initiative generated over 500 ideas and advanced three incubation tracks into implementation, including CardControl, Digital Receipts, and a Junior Banking Solution for young users.
### Mobility & Logistics
[](#) [](#)
- 
Enable & Mobilize: ### Powering the future of rail mobility through intrapreneurship at ÖBB
Austria’s leading rail operator used intrapreneurship to enter new mobility markets beyond rail and foster an open innovation culture. The initiative created three new business streams and four customer-facing products, including Postbus Shuttle, Smart Cargo, Integrated Mobility, and a Smart Customer Journey.
- 
Grow & Build: ### Neuland: Simplifying Retirement Planning Through Digital Pension Solutions
Neuland combines a fully digital, ETF-based retirement solution with real-time calculations and transparent pricing to simplify complex pension decisions. Customers benefit from personalized guidance, low costs, and an easy-to-use platform that makes long-term retirement planning accessible and understandable.
- 
Grow & Build: ### 120 Ventures: Building New Societal Impact Businesses Beyond Mobility
ÖAMTC strengthened its long-term relevance by launching 120 Ventures, a corporate venture studio focused on demographic, health, and care-related challenges beyond mobility. The initiative established a fully operational studio, launched multiple ventures, and built dedicated governance and talent to scale new solutions.
- 
Grow & Build: ### Miina: On-Demand Care Made Accessible
Miina is a digital on-demand care platform that connects families with qualified caregivers through simple booking and transparent pricing. Customers benefit from fast, reliable access to trusted care services without the complexity of traditional care systems.
- 
Strategy & Setup: ### Setting the Strategic Path for E-Mobility and Energy Integration
MOON Power, the corporate venture of Porsche Holding Salzburg, defined a Strategy 2030 to drive profitable growth and international scaling across e-mobility. It outlined a path beyond project-based charging toward recurring revenues, including energy-related services, a first energy management system, and pilots integrating EV batteries into energy markets.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Simplifying access to public transport through pay-as-you-go ticketing at ÖBB
SimplyGo, a digital pay-as-you-go system, was created to simplify access to public transport for customers while expanding ÖBB’s reach beyond frequent riders. By replacing upfront ticket selection with automatic fare calculation, the product reduces friction, reaching over 1,000 end customers.
- 
Grow & Build: ### Weitsicht: Enabling Structured Planning for Future Care Needs
Weitsicht is a digital life-planning platform that brings together care-level calculations, legal document templates, secure document storage, and a care-allowance calculator in one place. Customers benefit from simplified, secure, and legally compliant tools that make planning for emergencies and long-term care easier at every stage of life.
### Manufacturing
[](#) [](#)
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Laying the Digital Foundation for Advanced Plastic Recycling
Borealis advanced the digitalization of mechanical plastics recycling by defining a pathway toward a data-driven software platform. Through a global technology analysis and partner evaluation, the initiative identified solutions for material flow transparency, real-time tracking, and integrated composition data within one digital platform.
- 
Strategy & Setup: ### Establishing a group-wide innovation standard
Wietersdorfer established a group-wide minimum standard for innovation management across its building materials and infrastructure businesses, defining a shared innovation strategy, governance model, and organizational setup at holding and business-unit level.
- 
Enable & Mobilize: ### Building Industrial Startups from Within
ANDRITZ uses its Ventures Startup Contest to turn employee ideas into internal startups that drive innovation and growth. With executive sponsorship, dedicated time, and resources, selected teams develop solutions that strengthen ANDRITZ’s core industries and open new growth opportunities.
- 
Enable & Mobilize: ### Enabling Clear and Confident C-Level Communication
Umdasch strengthened management presentation skills through a structured readiness program combining storytelling, slide design, and delivery training. The initiative enabled leaders to communicate strategic messages more clearly and confidently to C-level audiences, improving decision-making effectiveness.
- 
Strategy & Setup: ### Future-Proofing CODICO’s Electronic Components Business
CODICO translated its strategic ambition into a clear Vision and Strategy 2030, aligned across leadership, sales, and support functions. The engagement defined Must-Win Battles, Growth Bets, and Strategic Priorities, and delivered an execution-ready roadmap shaped by technology trends in electronics and semiconductor distribution.
- 
Enable & Mobilize: ### From Technical Ideas to Management-Ready Pitches
RHI Magnesita equipped its R&D teams to present innovation projects more clearly and convincingly to executive management. The program combined pitch training, individual coaching, and a demo day, improving the quality and confidence of project presentations.
- 
Strategy & Setup: ### Creating Clarity and Consistency in International Sales
Hawle structured its international sales along three pillars—sales structure and leadership, sales approach and targets, and regional scaling and execution. The new setup increases clarity and accountability, improves coordination across countries, and enables faster, more consistent execution of sales initiatives in international markets.
- 
Enable & Mobilize: ### Scaling Open Innovation Through Scientific Excellence
Borealis strengthened its open-innovation leadership through the Borealis Scientific Innovation Award, attracting international talent and high-quality ideas. Record submissions from science and startup communities addressed advanced polyolefin catalysts, application-specific recyclates, and novel mechanical recycling technologies.
- 
Grow & Build: ### Scaling Green Hydrogen Solutions for the Energy Transition
ANDRITZ built a dedicated green hydrogen business division, turning its Power-to-X expertise into market impact with more than €100 million in order intake within two years. The division delivers end-to-end green hydrogen solutions positioning ANDRITZ as a key enabler of industrial decarbonization.
### Construction & Infrastructure
[](#) [](#)
- 
Grow & Build: ### Using Space Tech to Solve Mobility Challenges
Pioneers and BMK launched a multi-corporate program to apply space infrastructure to mobility challenges. The initiative defined four use cases, mobilized startups and students, developed early prototypes with corporate partners, and initiated follow-up pilot projects with organizations including ASFINAG, Austro Control, ÖBB Infrastruktur, and viadonau.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Making Energy Use Visible on Construction Sites
STRABAG introduced an energy monitoring solution that uses smart-meter data to make electricity consumption on construction sites transparent. Paired with an app, it helps site managers analyze, control, and optimize energy use to reduce costs and improve efficiency
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Advancing Property Maintenance Through Robotics
Resulting from the need for versatile robotics to support inspections, documentation, surveying, BIM inventory, and maintenance across a large property portfolio, Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (BIG) implemented a snake-like robot for fire protection damper maintenance.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Unlocking Talent Through Job Sharing
STRABAG launched Team-Up, a job-sharing platform that matches part-time employees with qualified roles through complementary job pairs. The initiative improves workforce flexibility and retention while expanding access to skilled talent, strengthening STRABAG’s employer attractiveness.
- Enable & Mobilize: ### Building Investment-Ready Digital Solutions for Construction through Intrapreneurship
A leading European construction group leveraged intrapreneurship to create digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability challenges, leading to investment-ready ventures, follow-up investments, and a spin-off
- 
Strategy & Setup: ### Building a Strong Future in Essential Infrastructure
Hawle developed a shared Vision 2035 to define where to play across and beyond its water infrastructure markets. The strategy sharpened market positioning, prioritized growth and innovation fields, and created a concrete roadmap to strengthen Hawle’s role in the global water and utility sector.
- 
Grow & Build: ### Using Space Data for Smarter Green Area Maintenance
As part of the Space4Mobility program, ASFINAG and Latitudo40 explored how space data can improve green area maintenance. The initiative combined partner scouting, a hackathon, and pilot workshops to develop and validate practical use cases for infrastructure-related vegetation management.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Seeing What Humans Miss: AI for Tunnel Safety
STRABAG introduced an AI-powered tunnel inspection solution that uses image recognition to detect quality issues up to ten times faster than traditional methods. The solution improves inspection accuracy, reduces operational risk, and accelerates maintenance decisions, leading to safer and more efficient tunnel operations.
- 
Reinvent & Transform: ### Giving Surplus Building Materials a Second Life
STRABAG came up with a surplus-materials management approach that systematically redistributes leftover building materials from construction sites into social construction projects, reducing waste and disposal costs while improving resource efficiency and generating positive impact.
## Client Voices
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## **OUR MISSION**
We help organizations **innovate** to **reinvent** and **grow** their business through **innovative venturing methods.**
#### [Get in Touch](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
#### [Case Studies](https://pioneers.io/references/)
## What Makes Us Unique
### Anchor In The Future
With insights into market trends, technology, and VC investment flows, we anchor solutions in the future.
### Proven Venturing Frameworks
Coming from the startup world, we apply hypothesis-driven methods to validate opportunities with speed, agility, and an iterative approach.
### Execution Power
We inspire and empower our clients with an innovative and hands-on approach that delivers high-quality results.
### Customer-centric Industry Expertise
We combine industry experience with a deep understanding of customer needs, ensuring our solutions are both relevant and impactful.
### Corporate Change Know-How
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
![Group picture showing Pionners.Peak participants]()
## Curated Corporate Innovation Insights
### Corporate Innovation Newsletter
Join 17,000+ subscribers and get corporate innovation insights in your inbox.
#### [Subscribe](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/)
### Free Innovation Downloads
Download our free PDF white paper, tools and methods around corporate innovation.
#### [Check the free resources](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
### Pioneers
Blog
Read about insights from our projects and new corporate innovation approaches.
#### [Check our blog](https://pioneers.io/blog/)
---
### [Corporate Venturing Summit](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venturing-summit/)
**Published:** April 2, 2025
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
# **Join us at** **the**
# **Corporate Venturing Summit**
## **REINVENT OR DECLINE**
### How can corporates transform **and** grow
in challenging times?
*Powered by Wiener Stadtwerke, AIT & NDI – part of ViennaUP*
### **This event highlights best practices in**
- #### Turning uncertainty into strategic choices,
- #### Reinventing the way corporates work to stay relevant and competitive,
- #### Creating new business that can win,
- #### Establishing a strong setup to master the process from idea to implementation to scaling.
### **21.05.2026** from **2:00 pm**, in **Vienna**
### **150+ participants:** Corporate Executives; Decision Makers in Strategy, Innovation, Business Development and Digitalization; Corporate Venturing Experts; and many more
[SAVE THE DATE](https://viennaup.flave.world/user/events/corporate-venturing-summit/)
# This year’s agenda
## Afternoon Session
**14:00 **Doors open** – Get ready to kick off the summit!**
**14:30** **Welcome words** by **Pioneers**
**14:45** **Strategy & Setup**
- **Keynote:** *Corinna Erken (signals/SIGNAL IDUNA)*
- **Fishbowl:** *Kai-Uwe Reimers (REWE Digital), Florian Greunz (Mastercard), Fabian Kesicki (Wien Energie)*
**15:40** **Coffee Break**
**16:00** **Reinvent & Transform**
- **Keynote:** *Michael Burian (NDI)*
- **Fishbowl:** *Michaela Oppitz (Wiener Stadtwerke), Nora Alfen (Wayra Germany), Chiara Covone (Mondelez International), Dieter König (viesure)*
**16:50** **Coffee Break**
**17:10** **Build & Grow**
- **Keynote:** *Adnan Seric (UNIDO)*
- **Fishbowl:** *Daniel Buttjes (HHLA Next) Robert Kusche (Best Nights VC), Meike Bruhn (RECARO), Andreas Nemeth (Shape Capital Partners)*
[GET YOUR TICKET NOW](https://viennaup.flave.world/user/events/corporate-venturing-summit/)
## **EVENING SESSION**
**18:00** **Welcome and pre-evening session drinks**
**18:30 Start of the evening session**
**“Reinvention Engine” – A Pioneers Impulse**
**Keynote:** *Thomas Gabriel – Managing Partner, Pioneers*
**C-Level Talk: From idea to implementation to scaling – What’s wrong in our setups?**
- - ***Thomas Gangl*** *– Industrial Leader, Advisor & Investor (former CEO Borealis)*
- ***Monika Unterholzner*** *– Deputy Director General, Wiener Stadtwerke*
- ***Alexander Svejkovsky*** *– Managing Director, Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)*
- ***Andreas Fill – CEO & Owner, Fill Maschinenbau***
**19:45** **Networking** with dinner, drinks and after-party
[SAVE THE DATE](https://viennaup.flave.world/user/events/corporate-venturing-summit/)
## Benefits for Participants
#### The power of innovation: Get insights in how innovation can be leveraged for reinvention and growth of your business
#### Stay on the edge: Gain insight into what leading industry players are doing and bring back proven best practices into your organization
#### Networking opportunities: Connect with corporate executives and leading innovators from across Europe to exchange ideas & foster collaborations
#### Learn about how leading corporate players are turning uncertainty into choices: where to play and how to win.
#### Learn about how leading corporate players are rewiring the core: reinvent they way they work to stay relevant and competitive.
#### Learn about how leading corporate players are creating tomorrow’s winners: new business that can win outside the core.
[GET YOUR TICKET NOW](https://viennaup.flave.world/user/events/corporate-venturing-summit/)
# The Location
## The Social Hub
The Social Hub brings together diverse minds from the fields of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship, making it the perfect venue for dynamic and engaging discussions with its thoughtfully designed event spaces.
📍 **Location:** Nordbahnstraße 47, 1020 Wien
📲 **Website:**
🚇 **Getting there:**
*Public Transport:* Easily accessible via the U1 or U2 metro lines (Praterstern Station) and multiple tram and bus lines.
*By Car:* Convenient parking options are available nearby.
*Cycling:* Bike-friendly with racks available for secure parking.
[GET YOUR TICKET NOW](https://viennaup.flave.world/user/events/corporate-venturing-summit/)
## Why Pioneers?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With background from both strategy consulting and years of experience in the startup scene, we are experts of both the corporate and startup world
#### STRATEGY-CONSULTING COMPETENCE
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies.
#### CORPORATE CHANGE
KNOW-HOW
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
#### EXPERTISE
IN EXECUTION
So far we supported 100+ intrapreneur teams, 20+ corporate ventures, and 100+ startup collaborations in their execution.
#### SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION
We track the most relevant sustainable innovation trends and help companies identify the highest innovation potential to successfully tackle their climate innovation gaps.
#### STARTUP NETWORK
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting.
#### PIONEERS.TALENT
We have extensive expertise in recruiting talents for key positions in corporates, startups, and corporate ventures.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [About us](https://pioneers.io/about-us/)
**Published:** July 2, 2021
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## Innovation-powered transformation and growth
At Pioneers we guide companies through their transformation, empower them to unlock their innovation potential, and help them develop and scale new products, services, and business models.
## Our Vision
We build a future where organizations have the capabilities to create sustainable value for society and the planet.
## Our Mission
We help organizations achieve innovation-powered transformation and growth through proven corporate venturing methods.
## Our DNA
### We know the startup scene.
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting. We know how innovative business models can be developed and implemented through startup tools and methods.
### We understand corporates.
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies. We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
### We deliver results and are execution experts.
During all our projects we never lose sight of the important things: Delivering innovation to solve people’s problems while at the same time returning the investments.
### We create sustainable innovation.
In every project we consider the impact on the planet and CO2 creation and offer additional services for sustainable innovation.
![]()
## Management and Senior Consultants
![]()
### Alex Neumayer
Partner
After 6 successful years at REWE Group, where he served as Head of Innovation & Digitalization at jö Bonus Club, Alex joins Pioneers as a partner and brings his deep expertise in B2C innovation to our team. His extensive knowledge supports corporate innovation clients in retail, banking, and financial services, further strengthening our innovation consulting services across various sectors.[](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexneumayer/)
![Anton Schilling]()
### Anton Schilling
Managing Partner
Anton is Managing Director of Pioneers. A technology enthusiast specializing in helping corporates achieve their innovation goals through working with startups and building new ventures. He has experience organizing and planning hackathons, product design sprints, accelerators, and company building programs.[](https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonschilling/)
![]()
### Christina Senft
Manager
Christina works as a Manager at Pioneers. She gained experience as project lead in the establishment of a tech startup including product development and prototype testing as well as in a corporate setting by leading and implementing company-wide projects (digitalization/IT, restructuring, etc.) and strategy implementation. Her professional background includes experience in several sectors like energy, banking, the commercial office of the Austrian embassy as well as facility management and civil engineering/construction.[](https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-senft-575b17105/)
![Julian König]()
### Julian König
Manager
Julian is a Manager at Pioneers. His focus lies on innovation strategy as well as idea development and business model innovation. He has several years of experience in the management of digitalization and innovation projects. Most recently, he worked in the public sector. Having worked in the Austrian startup ecosystem before, he is an expert in navigating through the startup landscape and facilitating collaborations. Moreover, he has a strong academic background in strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship by having completed the SIMC Master at WU Vienna.[](https://www.linkedin.com/in/julian-k%C3%B6nig-9147751b0/)
![Rene Mähr]()
### René Mähr
Head of Digital Factory
René Mähr is a digital innovator and entrepreneur, serving as Co-Founder of JTM Digital and General Manager of Wise Up, a corporate venture driving digital learning transformation. With a proven track record in venture building, product strategy, and business innovation, René combines strategic vision with hands-on execution to shape the future of digital ecosystems. At Pioneers, he leads the Digital Factory as Head of Digital, creating successful ventures that drive measurable impact for our clients.[](https://www.linkedin.com/in/renemaehr/)
![Foto Rupert von Schmutzer]()
### Rupert Schmutzer
Head of Pioneers.Talent
Rupert is Head of Pioneers.Talent - our tailored offering of talent solutions for startups, scaleups, and corporate ventures. After a career in management consulting, he has developed into a trusted advisor in the headhunting business with a focus on executive roles and key functions in dynamic organizations.[](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupertschmutzer/)
![Team pic]()
### Sophie Sorg
Senior Manager
Sophie is a Senior Manager at Pioneers with a focus on innovation strategy work. She has more than 8 years of experience in developing digital strategies and in planning and managing digital transformation projects, both as a consultant and in the corporate world.[](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-rab/)
![]()
### Thomas Gabriel
Managing Partner
Thomas is Managing Partner at Pioneers. He recently joined the team after a career in strategy consulting at Contrast and EY Parthenon.Thomas has a strong track record in strategically transforming organizations in several industries – strategy, organization, performance management. Innovation from thought to finish is driving his work – digitalization and sustainability are the main levers.He is a strategist, innovator and entrepreneur, making strategy and innovation happen.[](https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-gabriel-4b7090b/)
![]()
## The Pioneers History
### [2024](#)
### Launch of Pioneers.Talent
Innovation needs visionaries to make it fly. That’s why we launched Pioneers.Talent – our tailored offering of talent solutions for startups, scaleups, and corporate ventures.
### [2023](#)
### Venture-Studio-As-A-Service
Based on our clients’ needs for flexible venture-building support and outsourcing of personnel resources management, we enlarged our service offering by the new product “Venture-Studio-As-A-Service”. This new model allows clients to operate and test a venture studio without building up internal resources from the beginning. After a successful test, clients can ramp up their own studio.
### [2022](#)
### Full Management Buyout
In 2022, the remaining startup300 shares were bought back by Pioneers to lay the ground for a further scaling phase of the Corporate Innovation and Venture Building services.
### Launch of Pioneers.Climate
To increase our focus on sustainable innovation and our environmental and social impact, we launched Pioneers.Climate. A Pioneers “special force”, where we focus on helping clients measure their CO2 footprint and develop ESG strategies to get closer to Net Zero.
### [2021](#)
### Roll-Out of Innovation Strategy and Setup Services
At Pioneers we want to contribute to a better future of society solving the big challenges of this planet. In 2021, we thus launched our Pioneers Innovation Framework that connects the larger corporate strategy to innovation execution. With a strong strategic anchor, we increase the chance of innovation success and thus the impact of any of our corporate innovation projects.
### [2020](#)
### Spin-off
Foundation of the Pioneers Innovation GmbH focusing on working hand in hand with corporates to build innovative solutions through venture activities.
### [2018](#)
### Pioneers joins [startup300](https://startup300.at/)
To grow our network and offer a scope of financial support, space and consultancy services, as well as networking and corporate collaboration.
### [2016](#)
### Pioneers Ventures
is created to further support our network of entrepreneurs, offering early-stage startups with funding from EUR 50 -100K.
### [2014](#)
### Innovation Consulting
is introduced in response to partners asking for our startup expertise and support with innovation activities.
### [2011](#)
### Pioneers Festival
is launched to expand our reach and engage a global network, offering unique access to European tech leaders.
### [2009](#)
### StartEurope is Founded
creating a network for startups, entrepreneurs and investors to drive innovation where it’s needed most.
## **Contact us to learn more**
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
---
### [Strategy](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
**Published:** April 8, 2024
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
## Strategy Services
We support companies to understand future scenarios and define a holistic innovation strategy. This involves the definition of innovation goals, and innovation areas as well as clearly defining what innovation means to the company. Additionally, we help existing ventures with strategic decisions and new business development.
### INNOVATION STRATEGY
We **craft the company’s innovation strategy** defining the long-term innovation **goals,** innovation **fields of play** as well as a concrete **roadmap** for execution.
### STRATEGY SERVICES FOR VENTURES
We help **corporate ventures** with **strategic decisions** such as defining the right team and organization structure, market entry strategy, or effective company framework for scaling.
## Our Approach for Your Innovation Strategy
### 1
### Mapping the
status quo
**Analysis** of the current **company environment, market and customer trends** (foresight), and **positioning**
### 2
### Defining the
innovation strategy
Definition of **long-term innovation goals and areas** as well as the **anchoring** them in the corporate strategy
### 3
### Roadmap for
implementation
Development of a high-level **implementation roadmap** outlining major gaps, and potentials as well as short-term **quick wins**
## 3 Key Factors for a Successful Innovation Strategy
#### STRATEGIC LEGITIMATION
Anchoring the vision and ambition to innovate in the corporate strategy and defining innovation areas & innovation targets
#### MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT
Committing management to innovation by aligning clear targets and by creating understanding and attention
#### STRATEGY COMMUNICATION
Even the best strategy is ineffective unless it’s continuously and clearly communicated to all employees
## Client Voices
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
## Overview of latest references
[  ](https://www.crif.com/innovecos/)
### Strategy Scoping
- Defined the **long-term goals** for startup collaborations
- Analyzed the status quo projects and activities
- Jointly defined the **startup collaboration process**
[  ](https://viesure.io/)
### Corporate Venture Scaling Strategy
- Mapped the **e-mobility ecosystem**
- Defined **strategic options** for **scaling**
- Developed **roadmap** for market **expansion**
[  ](https://www.obi.at/)
### Innovation Fields of Play
- Analyzed the **key tech** and startup **funding trends in Retail**
- Identified 6 **high-potential** Tech **use cases** along the value chain
- Selected 8 scale-ups for potential collaboration with OBI
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## Why Pioneers?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With background from both strategy consulting and years of experience in the startup scene, we are experts of both the corporate and startup world
#### STRATEGY-CONSULTING COMPETENCE
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies.
#### CORPORATE CHANGE
KNOW-HOW
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
#### EXPERTISE
IN EXECUTION
So far we supported 100+ intrapreneur teams, 20+ corporate ventures, and 100+ startup collaborations in their execution.
#### PIONEERS.CLIMATE
In the quest for carbon neutrality there is a large “climate gap”. We help develop sustainable offers to reduce companies’ carbon footprint.
#### STARTUP NETWORK
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting.
#### PIONEERS.TALENT
We have extensive expertise in recruiting talents for key positions in corporates, startups, and corporate ventures.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [Strategy](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
**Published:** April 8, 2024
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
## Strategy Services
We support companies to understand future scenarios and define a holistic innovation strategy. This involves the definition of innovation goals, and innovation areas as well as clearly defining what innovation means to the company. Additionally, we help existing ventures with strategic decisions and new business development.
### INNOVATION STRATEGY
We **craft the company’s innovation strategy** defining the long-term innovation **goals,** innovation **fields of play** as well as a concrete **roadmap** for execution.
### STRATEGY SERVICES FOR VENTURES
We help **corporate ventures** with **strategic decisions** such as defining the right team and organization structure, market entry strategy, or effective company framework for scaling.
## Our Approach for Your Innovation Strategy
### 1
### Mapping the
status quo
**Analysis** of the current **company environment, market and customer trends** (foresight), and **positioning**
### 2
### Defining the
innovation strategy
Definition of **long-term innovation goals and areas** as well as the **anchoring** them in the corporate strategy
### 3
### Roadmap for
implementation
Development of a high-level **implementation roadmap** outlining major gaps, and potentials as well as short-term **quick wins**
## 3 Key Factors for a Successful Innovation Strategy
#### STRATEGIC LEGITIMATION
Anchoring the vision and ambition to innovate in the corporate strategy and defining innovation areas & innovation targets
#### MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT
Committing management to innovation by aligning clear targets and by creating understanding and attention
#### STRATEGY COMMUNICATION
Even the best strategy is ineffective unless it’s continuously and clearly communicated to all employees
## Client Voices
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
## Overview of latest references
[  ](https://www.crif.com/innovecos/)
### Strategy Scoping
- Defined the **long-term goals** for startup collaborations
- Analyzed the status quo projects and activities
- Jointly defined the **startup collaboration process**
[  ](https://viesure.io/)
### Corporate Venture Scaling Strategy
- Mapped the **e-mobility ecosystem**
- Defined **strategic options** for **scaling**
- Developed **roadmap** for market **expansion**
[  ](https://www.obi.at/)
### Innovation Fields of Play
- Analyzed the **key tech** and startup **funding trends in Retail**
- Identified 6 **high-potential** Tech **use cases** along the value chain
- Selected 8 scale-ups for potential collaboration with OBI
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## Why Pioneers?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With background from both strategy consulting and years of experience in the startup scene, we are experts of both the corporate and startup world
#### STRATEGY-CONSULTING COMPETENCE
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies.
#### CORPORATE CHANGE
KNOW-HOW
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
#### EXPERTISE
IN EXECUTION
So far we supported 100+ intrapreneur teams, 20+ corporate ventures, and 100+ startup collaborations in their execution.
#### PIONEERS.CLIMATE
In the quest for carbon neutrality there is a large “climate gap”. We help develop sustainable offers to reduce companies’ carbon footprint.
#### STARTUP NETWORK
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting.
#### PIONEERS.TALENT
We have extensive expertise in recruiting talents for key positions in corporates, startups, and corporate ventures.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [Strategy](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
**Published:** April 8, 2024
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
## Strategy Services
We support companies to understand future scenarios and define a holistic innovation strategy. This involves the definition of innovation goals, and innovation areas as well as clearly defining what innovation means to the company. Additionally, we help existing ventures with strategic decisions and new business development.
### INNOVATION STRATEGY
We **craft the company’s innovation strategy** defining the long-term innovation **goals,** innovation **fields of play** as well as a concrete **roadmap** for execution.
### STRATEGY SERVICES FOR VENTURES
We help **corporate ventures** with **strategic decisions** such as defining the right team and organization structure, market entry strategy, or effective company framework for scaling.
## Our Approach for Your Innovation Strategy
### 1
### Mapping the
status quo
**Analysis** of the current **company environment, market and customer trends** (foresight), and **positioning**
### 2
### Defining the
innovation strategy
Definition of **long-term innovation goals and areas** as well as the **anchoring** them in the corporate strategy
### 3
### Roadmap for
implementation
Development of a high-level **implementation roadmap** outlining major gaps, and potentials as well as short-term **quick wins**
## 3 Key Factors for a Successful Innovation Strategy
#### STRATEGIC LEGITIMATION
Anchoring the vision and ambition to innovate in the corporate strategy and defining innovation areas & innovation targets
#### MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT
Committing management to innovation by aligning clear targets and by creating understanding and attention
#### STRATEGY COMMUNICATION
Even the best strategy is ineffective unless it’s continuously and clearly communicated to all employees
## Client Voices
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
## Overview of latest references
[  ](https://www.crif.com/innovecos/)
### Strategy Scoping
- Defined the **long-term goals** for startup collaborations
- Analyzed the status quo projects and activities
- Jointly defined the **startup collaboration process**
[  ](https://viesure.io/)
### Corporate Venture Scaling Strategy
- Mapped the **e-mobility ecosystem**
- Defined **strategic options** for **scaling**
- Developed **roadmap** for market **expansion**
[  ](https://www.obi.at/)
### Innovation Fields of Play
- Analyzed the **key tech** and startup **funding trends in Retail**
- Identified 6 **high-potential** Tech **use cases** along the value chain
- Selected 8 scale-ups for potential collaboration with OBI
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## Why Pioneers?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With background from both strategy consulting and years of experience in the startup scene, we are experts of both the corporate and startup world
#### STRATEGY-CONSULTING COMPETENCE
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies.
#### CORPORATE CHANGE
KNOW-HOW
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
#### EXPERTISE
IN EXECUTION
So far we supported 100+ intrapreneur teams, 20+ corporate ventures, and 100+ startup collaborations in their execution.
#### PIONEERS.CLIMATE
In the quest for carbon neutrality there is a large “climate gap”. We help develop sustainable offers to reduce companies’ carbon footprint.
#### STARTUP NETWORK
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting.
#### PIONEERS.TALENT
We have extensive expertise in recruiting talents for key positions in corporates, startups, and corporate ventures.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [Blog](https://pioneers.io/insights/blog/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
[](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)By [Sophia Kuther](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/) In [Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)
## [ Evailable: How Corporate Innovation and Perfect Timing Transformed E-Mobility Maintenance ](https://pioneers.io/interview-with-evailable/)
[Read Article ](https://pioneers.io/interview-with-evailable/)
[](https://pioneers.io/author/rosalie-kolb/)By [Rosalie Kolb](https://pioneers.io/author/rosalie-kolb/) In [News](https://pioneers.io/category/news/)
## [ Neuer Pioneers Partner Alex Neumayer mit Expertenwissen in B2C Innovation ](https://pioneers.io/neuer-partner-alex-neumayer-mit-expertenwissen-in-b2c-innovation/)
[Read Article ](https://pioneers.io/neuer-partner-alex-neumayer-mit-expertenwissen-in-b2c-innovation/)
[](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)By [Sophia Kuther](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/) In [Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)
## [ Beyond The Prototype And MVP: How To Scale Corporate Ventures ](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/)
[Read Article ](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/)
[](https://pioneers.io/interview-with-evailable/) [](https://pioneers.io/interview-with-evailable/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ Evailable: How Corporate Innovation and Perfect Timing Transformed E-Mobility Maintenance](https://pioneers.io/interview-with-evailable/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #6 - Interview with Evailable We sat down with Stefan Herr, Managing…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)[Sophia Kuther](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)June 16, 2025
[](https://pioneers.io/neuer-partner-alex-neumayer-mit-expertenwissen-in-b2c-innovation/) [](https://pioneers.io/neuer-partner-alex-neumayer-mit-expertenwissen-in-b2c-innovation/)[News](https://pioneers.io/category/news/)[Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/category/pioneers/)### [ Neuer Pioneers Partner Alex Neumayer mit Expertenwissen in B2C Innovation](https://pioneers.io/neuer-partner-alex-neumayer-mit-expertenwissen-in-b2c-innovation/)
Wien, Oktober 2024. Die Innovationsberatung Pioneers bekommt ab sofort Unterstützung im Bereich Innovationsmanagement und…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/rosalie-kolb/)[Rosalie Kolb](https://pioneers.io/author/rosalie-kolb/)October 24, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/) [](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)### [ Beyond The Prototype And MVP: How To Scale Corporate Ventures](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/)
Corporate venture building emerged as a vehicle for innovation In today's ever-changing business world, innovation…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)[Sophia Kuther](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)August 27, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/mavie-corporate-venture-journey-uniqa/) [](https://pioneers.io/mavie-corporate-venture-journey-uniqa/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ Mavie’s inspiring corporate venture journey and how they successfully leverage UNIQA’s assets](https://pioneers.io/mavie-corporate-venture-journey-uniqa/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #5 - Mavie Mavie's venture journey and the relationship with the mother…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)July 31, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-2/) [](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-2/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ myflexbox: revolutionizing last-mile delivery I part 2](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-2/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #4: myflexbox - A corporate venture of Salzburg AG - Part 2…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)[Michael Obrist](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)June 27, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-1/) [](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-1/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ myflexbox: revolutionizing last mile delivery I part 1](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-1/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #4: myflexbox - A corporate venture of Salzburg AG - Part 1…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)[Michael Obrist](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)June 4, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-2/) [](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-2/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ one2zero’s Remarkable Corporate Venture Journey and How to Build Up a Strong Corporate Venture Team | Part 2](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-2/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #3 – one2zero – Part 2 Part 2 - one2zero's venture journey…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)June 4, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-1/) [](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-1/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ one2zero’s Remarkable Corporate Venture Journey and the Success Factors in the Early Development of the Corporate Venture | Part 1](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-1/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #3 - one2zero - Part 1 Part 1 - one2zero's venture journey…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)May 27, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/9-5-guidelines-for-successful-corporate-innovation/) [](https://pioneers.io/9-5-guidelines-for-successful-corporate-innovation/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)### [ 9.5 Guidelines to Successfully Master Corporate Innovation](https://pioneers.io/9-5-guidelines-for-successful-corporate-innovation/)
9.5 guidelines for successful corporate innovation - Transcending from a traditional to a new corporate…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/)[Christina Senft](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/)April 25, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/corporate-entrepreneurship-all-stories/) [](https://pioneers.io/corporate-entrepreneurship-all-stories/)[Uncategorized](https://pioneers.io/category/uncategorized/)### [ Corporate Entrepreneurship: Inspiring Interviews with Successful Corporate Venture Founders | All Stories](https://pioneers.io/corporate-entrepreneurship-all-stories/)
We are excited to announce the launch of Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories! With this series, we…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)April 24, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-2-rready/) [](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-2-rready/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ How to Spin Out a Corporate Venture and Scale It Externally – rready’s Venture Journey | Part 2](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-2-rready/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #2 - rready - Part 2 Part 2 - The process of…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)April 23, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-1-rready/) [](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-1-rready/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ How to Spin Out a Corporate Venture and Scale It Externally – rready’s Venture Journey | Part 1](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-1-rready/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #2 - rready - Part 1 Part 1 - rready’s early phase,…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)April 17, 2024
1[2](https://pioneers.io/wp-cron.php/page/2/?doing_wp_cron=1786192108.3124330043792724609375)[3](https://pioneers.io/wp-cron.php/page/3/?doing_wp_cron=1786192108.3124330043792724609375)…[33](https://pioneers.io/wp-cron.php/page/33/?doing_wp_cron=1786192108.3124330043792724609375)[Next »](https://pioneers.io/wp-cron.php/page/2/?doing_wp_cron=1786192108.3124330043792724609375)
Pioneers
[See Full Bio](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/) [ ](https://pioneers.io/author/digital/)
---
### [Blog](https://pioneers.io/insights/blog/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
[](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)By [Sophia Kuther](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/) In [Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)
## [ Evailable: How Corporate Innovation and Perfect Timing Transformed E-Mobility Maintenance ](https://pioneers.io/interview-with-evailable/)
[Read Article ](https://pioneers.io/interview-with-evailable/)
[](https://pioneers.io/author/rosalie-kolb/)By [Rosalie Kolb](https://pioneers.io/author/rosalie-kolb/) In [News](https://pioneers.io/category/news/)
## [ Neuer Pioneers Partner Alex Neumayer mit Expertenwissen in B2C Innovation ](https://pioneers.io/neuer-partner-alex-neumayer-mit-expertenwissen-in-b2c-innovation/)
[Read Article ](https://pioneers.io/neuer-partner-alex-neumayer-mit-expertenwissen-in-b2c-innovation/)
[](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)By [Sophia Kuther](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/) In [Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)
## [ Beyond The Prototype And MVP: How To Scale Corporate Ventures ](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/)
[Read Article ](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/)
[](https://pioneers.io/interview-with-evailable/) [](https://pioneers.io/interview-with-evailable/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ Evailable: How Corporate Innovation and Perfect Timing Transformed E-Mobility Maintenance](https://pioneers.io/interview-with-evailable/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #6 - Interview with Evailable We sat down with Stefan Herr, Managing…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)[Sophia Kuther](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)June 16, 2025
[](https://pioneers.io/neuer-partner-alex-neumayer-mit-expertenwissen-in-b2c-innovation/) [](https://pioneers.io/neuer-partner-alex-neumayer-mit-expertenwissen-in-b2c-innovation/)[News](https://pioneers.io/category/news/)[Pioneers](https://pioneers.io/category/pioneers/)### [ Neuer Pioneers Partner Alex Neumayer mit Expertenwissen in B2C Innovation](https://pioneers.io/neuer-partner-alex-neumayer-mit-expertenwissen-in-b2c-innovation/)
Wien, Oktober 2024. Die Innovationsberatung Pioneers bekommt ab sofort Unterstützung im Bereich Innovationsmanagement und…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/rosalie-kolb/)[Rosalie Kolb](https://pioneers.io/author/rosalie-kolb/)October 24, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/) [](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)### [ Beyond The Prototype And MVP: How To Scale Corporate Ventures](https://pioneers.io/beyond-the-prototype-and-mvp-how-to-scale-corporate-ventures/)
Corporate venture building emerged as a vehicle for innovation In today's ever-changing business world, innovation…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)[Sophia Kuther](https://pioneers.io/author/sophia-kuther/)August 27, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/mavie-corporate-venture-journey-uniqa/) [](https://pioneers.io/mavie-corporate-venture-journey-uniqa/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ Mavie’s inspiring corporate venture journey and how they successfully leverage UNIQA’s assets](https://pioneers.io/mavie-corporate-venture-journey-uniqa/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #5 - Mavie Mavie's venture journey and the relationship with the mother…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)July 31, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-2/) [](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-2/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ myflexbox: revolutionizing last-mile delivery I part 2](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-2/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #4: myflexbox - A corporate venture of Salzburg AG - Part 2…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)[Michael Obrist](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)June 27, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-1/) [](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-1/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ myflexbox: revolutionizing last mile delivery I part 1](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-myflexbox-part-1/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #4: myflexbox - A corporate venture of Salzburg AG - Part 1…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)[Michael Obrist](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-obrist/)June 4, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-2/) [](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-2/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ one2zero’s Remarkable Corporate Venture Journey and How to Build Up a Strong Corporate Venture Team | Part 2](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-2/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #3 – one2zero – Part 2 Part 2 - one2zero's venture journey…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)June 4, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-1/) [](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-1/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ one2zero’s Remarkable Corporate Venture Journey and the Success Factors in the Early Development of the Corporate Venture | Part 1](https://pioneers.io/corporate-venture-journey-one-2-zero-part-1/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #3 - one2zero - Part 1 Part 1 - one2zero's venture journey…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)May 27, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/9-5-guidelines-for-successful-corporate-innovation/) [](https://pioneers.io/9-5-guidelines-for-successful-corporate-innovation/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)### [ 9.5 Guidelines to Successfully Master Corporate Innovation](https://pioneers.io/9-5-guidelines-for-successful-corporate-innovation/)
9.5 guidelines for successful corporate innovation - Transcending from a traditional to a new corporate…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/)[Christina Senft](https://pioneers.io/author/christina-senft/)April 25, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/corporate-entrepreneurship-all-stories/) [](https://pioneers.io/corporate-entrepreneurship-all-stories/)[Uncategorized](https://pioneers.io/category/uncategorized/)### [ Corporate Entrepreneurship: Inspiring Interviews with Successful Corporate Venture Founders | All Stories](https://pioneers.io/corporate-entrepreneurship-all-stories/)
We are excited to announce the launch of Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories! With this series, we…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)April 24, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-2-rready/) [](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-2-rready/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ How to Spin Out a Corporate Venture and Scale It Externally – rready’s Venture Journey | Part 2](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-2-rready/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #2 - rready - Part 2 Part 2 - The process of…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)April 23, 2024
[](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-1-rready/) [](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-1-rready/)[Corporate Innovation Insights](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-innovation-insights/)[Corporate Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/category/corporate-venture-building/)[Intrapreneurship](https://pioneers.io/category/intrapreneurship/)### [ How to Spin Out a Corporate Venture and Scale It Externally – rready’s Venture Journey | Part 1](https://pioneers.io/how-to-spin-out-a-corporate-venture-part-1-rready/)
Corporate Entrepreneurship Stories #2 - rready - Part 1 Part 1 - rready’s early phase,…
[](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)[Michael Lunzer](https://pioneers.io/author/michael-wlaschitz/)April 17, 2024
1[2](https://pioneers.io/wp-cron.php/page/2/?doing_wp_cron=1786192108.3124330043792724609375)[3](https://pioneers.io/wp-cron.php/page/3/?doing_wp_cron=1786192108.3124330043792724609375)…[33](https://pioneers.io/wp-cron.php/page/33/?doing_wp_cron=1786192108.3124330043792724609375)[Next »](https://pioneers.io/wp-cron.php/page/2/?doing_wp_cron=1786192108.3124330043792724609375)
---
### [Homepage](https://pioneers.io/about/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## **OUR MISSION**
We help organizations **innovate** to **reinvent** and **grow** their business through **innovative venturing methods.**
#### [Get in Touch](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
#### [Case Studies](https://pioneers.io/references/)
## Success in Numbers
### 10+
### Years of corporate strategy and innovation consulting experience
### 500+
### Corporate innovation projects carried out
### 300+
### Clients successfully consulted
### 20+
### Countries where projects were delivered
## How to Get Innovation Right
### Define Innovation Focus
We shape future-focused strategies by crafting sharp hypotheses around what’s next – future realities, must-win battles, and business opportunities – powered by our deep understanding for the VC game, funding flows, and emerging tech.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
### Set the Right Framework
We build the foundation for innovation to scale – an innovation setup with clear governance, lean processes, smart KPIs, empowered teams, and a culture that actually moves ideas forward with speed and focus.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-setup/)
### Enable Fast Execution
We use innovative methods and processes from the startup space for quick validation and scaling – taking a hands-on, results-driven approach that turns ideas into measurable impact.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/)
## Client Voices
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## Latest References
### Scaling Strategy
Pioneers supported the development of the strategic direction for the corporate venture MOON POWER (Porsche Holding Salzburg) by mapping the e-mobility ecosystem and strategic options.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#moon)
### Innovation Lab Setup
Pioneers supported building an innovation lab from scratch with two big German banks and co-developed multiple, new payment solutions.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#spayce)
### Intrapreneurship
Pioneers supported the implementation of three rounds of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest with the goal to develop early-stage internal ideas into new business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#andritz)
### Venture Clienting
Pioneers supports VERBUND in the setup, implementation and moderation of the VERBUND X Accelerator, a multi-corporate startup collaboration program.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#verbund)
### Venture Building
Pioneers supports 120Ventures – the corporate venture studio we jointly set up with ÖAMTC in building corporate ventures outside the core business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#oeamtc)
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## What Makes Us Unique
### Anchor In The Future
With insights into market trends, technology, and VC investment flows, we anchor solutions in the future.
### Proven Venturing Frameworks
Coming from the startup world, we apply hypothesis-driven methods to validate opportunities with speed, agility, and an iterative approach.
### Execution Power
We inspire and empower our clients with an innovative and hands-on approach that delivers high-quality results.
### Customer-centric Industry Expertise
We combine industry experience with a deep understanding of customer needs, ensuring our solutions are both relevant and impactful.
### Corporate Change Know-How
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
![Group picture showing Pionners.Peak participants]()
## Curated Corporate Innovation Insights
### Corporate Innovation Newsletter
Join 17,000+ subscribers and get corporate innovation insights in your inbox.
#### [Subscribe](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/)
### Free Innovation Downloads
Download our free PDF white paper, tools and methods around corporate innovation.
#### [Check the free resources](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
### Pioneers
Blog
Read about insights from our projects and new corporate innovation approaches.
#### [Check our blog](https://pioneers.io/blog/)
---
### [Homepage](https://pioneers.io/about/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## **OUR MISSION**
We help organizations **innovate** to **reinvent** and **grow** their business through **innovative venturing methods.**
#### [Get in Touch](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
#### [Case Studies](https://pioneers.io/references/)
## Success in Numbers
### 10+
### Years of corporate strategy and innovation consulting experience
### 500+
### Corporate innovation projects carried out
### 300+
### Clients successfully consulted
### 20+
### Countries where projects were delivered
## How to Get Innovation Right
### Define Innovation Focus
We shape future-focused strategies by crafting sharp hypotheses around what’s next – future realities, must-win battles, and business opportunities – powered by our deep understanding for the VC game, funding flows, and emerging tech.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
### Set the Right Framework
We build the foundation for innovation to scale – an innovation setup with clear governance, lean processes, smart KPIs, empowered teams, and a culture that actually moves ideas forward with speed and focus.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-setup/)
### Enable Fast Execution
We use innovative methods and processes from the startup space for quick validation and scaling – taking a hands-on, results-driven approach that turns ideas into measurable impact.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/)
## Client Voices
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## Latest References
### Scaling Strategy
Pioneers supported the development of the strategic direction for the corporate venture MOON POWER (Porsche Holding Salzburg) by mapping the e-mobility ecosystem and strategic options.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#moon)
### Innovation Lab Setup
Pioneers supported building an innovation lab from scratch with two big German banks and co-developed multiple, new payment solutions.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#spayce)
### Intrapreneurship
Pioneers supported the implementation of three rounds of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest with the goal to develop early-stage internal ideas into new business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#andritz)
### Venture Clienting
Pioneers supports VERBUND in the setup, implementation and moderation of the VERBUND X Accelerator, a multi-corporate startup collaboration program.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#verbund)
### Venture Building
Pioneers supports 120Ventures – the corporate venture studio we jointly set up with ÖAMTC in building corporate ventures outside the core business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#oeamtc)
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## What Makes Us Unique
### Anchor In The Future
With insights into market trends, technology, and VC investment flows, we anchor solutions in the future.
### Proven Venturing Frameworks
Coming from the startup world, we apply hypothesis-driven methods to validate opportunities with speed, agility, and an iterative approach.
### Execution Power
We inspire and empower our clients with an innovative and hands-on approach that delivers high-quality results.
### Customer-centric Industry Expertise
We combine industry experience with a deep understanding of customer needs, ensuring our solutions are both relevant and impactful.
### Corporate Change Know-How
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
![Group picture showing Pionners.Peak participants]()
## Curated Corporate Innovation Insights
### Corporate Innovation Newsletter
Join 17,000+ subscribers and get corporate innovation insights in your inbox.
#### [Subscribe](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/)
### Free Innovation Downloads
Download our free PDF white paper, tools and methods around corporate innovation.
#### [Check the free resources](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
### Pioneers
Blog
Read about insights from our projects and new corporate innovation approaches.
#### [Check our blog](https://pioneers.io/blog/)
---
### [Homepage](https://pioneers.io/about/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## **OUR MISSION**
We help organizations **innovate** to **reinvent** and **grow** their business through **innovative venturing methods.**
#### [Get in Touch](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
#### [Case Studies](https://pioneers.io/references/)
## Success in Numbers
### 10+
### Years of corporate strategy and innovation consulting experience
### 500+
### Corporate innovation projects carried out
### 300+
### Clients successfully consulted
### 20+
### Countries where projects were delivered
## How to Get Innovation Right
### Define Innovation Focus
We shape future-focused strategies by crafting sharp hypotheses around what’s next – future realities, must-win battles, and business opportunities – powered by our deep understanding for the VC game, funding flows, and emerging tech.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
### Set the Right Framework
We build the foundation for innovation to scale – an innovation setup with clear governance, lean processes, smart KPIs, empowered teams, and a culture that actually moves ideas forward with speed and focus.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-setup/)
### Enable Fast Execution
We use innovative methods and processes from the startup space for quick validation and scaling – taking a hands-on, results-driven approach that turns ideas into measurable impact.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/)
## Client Voices
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## Latest References
### Scaling Strategy
Pioneers supported the development of the strategic direction for the corporate venture MOON POWER (Porsche Holding Salzburg) by mapping the e-mobility ecosystem and strategic options.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#moon)
### Innovation Lab Setup
Pioneers supported building an innovation lab from scratch with two big German banks and co-developed multiple, new payment solutions.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#spayce)
### Intrapreneurship
Pioneers supported the implementation of three rounds of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest with the goal to develop early-stage internal ideas into new business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#andritz)
### Venture Clienting
Pioneers supports VERBUND in the setup, implementation and moderation of the VERBUND X Accelerator, a multi-corporate startup collaboration program.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#verbund)
### Venture Building
Pioneers supports 120Ventures – the corporate venture studio we jointly set up with ÖAMTC in building corporate ventures outside the core business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#oeamtc)
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## What Makes Us Unique
### Anchor In The Future
With insights into market trends, technology, and VC investment flows, we anchor solutions in the future.
### Proven Venturing Frameworks
Coming from the startup world, we apply hypothesis-driven methods to validate opportunities with speed, agility, and an iterative approach.
### Execution Power
We inspire and empower our clients with an innovative and hands-on approach that delivers high-quality results.
### Customer-centric Industry Expertise
We combine industry experience with a deep understanding of customer needs, ensuring our solutions are both relevant and impactful.
### Corporate Change Know-How
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
![Group picture showing Pionners.Peak participants]()
## Curated Corporate Innovation Insights
### Corporate Innovation Newsletter
Join 17,000+ subscribers and get corporate innovation insights in your inbox.
#### [Subscribe](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/)
### Free Innovation Downloads
Download our free PDF white paper, tools and methods around corporate innovation.
#### [Check the free resources](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
### Pioneers
Blog
Read about insights from our projects and new corporate innovation approaches.
#### [Check our blog](https://pioneers.io/blog/)
---
### [Homepage](https://pioneers.io/about/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## **OUR MISSION**
We help organizations **innovate** to **reinvent** and **grow** their business through **innovative venturing methods.**
#### [Get in Touch](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
#### [Case Studies](https://pioneers.io/references/)
## Success in Numbers
### 10+
### Years of corporate strategy and innovation consulting experience
### 500+
### Corporate innovation projects carried out
### 300+
### Clients successfully consulted
### 20+
### Countries where projects were delivered
## How to Get Innovation Right
### Define Innovation Focus
We shape future-focused strategies by crafting sharp hypotheses around what’s next – future realities, must-win battles, and business opportunities – powered by our deep understanding for the VC game, funding flows, and emerging tech.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
### Set the Right Framework
We build the foundation for innovation to scale – an innovation setup with clear governance, lean processes, smart KPIs, empowered teams, and a culture that actually moves ideas forward with speed and focus.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-setup/)
### Enable Fast Execution
We use innovative methods and processes from the startup space for quick validation and scaling – taking a hands-on, results-driven approach that turns ideas into measurable impact.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/)
## Client Voices
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## Latest References
### Scaling Strategy
Pioneers supported the development of the strategic direction for the corporate venture MOON POWER (Porsche Holding Salzburg) by mapping the e-mobility ecosystem and strategic options.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#moon)
### Innovation Lab Setup
Pioneers supported building an innovation lab from scratch with two big German banks and co-developed multiple, new payment solutions.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#spayce)
### Intrapreneurship
Pioneers supported the implementation of three rounds of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest with the goal to develop early-stage internal ideas into new business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#andritz)
### Venture Clienting
Pioneers supports VERBUND in the setup, implementation and moderation of the VERBUND X Accelerator, a multi-corporate startup collaboration program.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#verbund)
### Venture Building
Pioneers supports 120Ventures – the corporate venture studio we jointly set up with ÖAMTC in building corporate ventures outside the core business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#oeamtc)
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## What Makes Us Unique
### Anchor In The Future
With insights into market trends, technology, and VC investment flows, we anchor solutions in the future.
### Proven Venturing Frameworks
Coming from the startup world, we apply hypothesis-driven methods to validate opportunities with speed, agility, and an iterative approach.
### Execution Power
We inspire and empower our clients with an innovative and hands-on approach that delivers high-quality results.
### Customer-centric Industry Expertise
We combine industry experience with a deep understanding of customer needs, ensuring our solutions are both relevant and impactful.
### Corporate Change Know-How
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
![Group picture showing Pionners.Peak participants]()
## Curated Corporate Innovation Insights
### Corporate Innovation Newsletter
Join 17,000+ subscribers and get corporate innovation insights in your inbox.
#### [Subscribe](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/)
### Free Innovation Downloads
Download our free PDF white paper, tools and methods around corporate innovation.
#### [Check the free resources](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
### Pioneers
Blog
Read about insights from our projects and new corporate innovation approaches.
#### [Check our blog](https://pioneers.io/blog/)
---
### [Homepage](https://pioneers.io/about/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## **OUR MISSION**
We help organizations **innovate** to **reinvent** and **grow** their business through **innovative venturing methods.**
#### [Get in Touch](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
#### [Case Studies](https://pioneers.io/references/)
## Success in Numbers
### 10+
### Years of corporate strategy and innovation consulting experience
### 500+
### Corporate innovation projects carried out
### 300+
### Clients successfully consulted
### 20+
### Countries where projects were delivered
## How to Get Innovation Right
### Define Innovation Focus
We shape future-focused strategies by crafting sharp hypotheses around what’s next – future realities, must-win battles, and business opportunities – powered by our deep understanding for the VC game, funding flows, and emerging tech.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
### Set the Right Framework
We build the foundation for innovation to scale – an innovation setup with clear governance, lean processes, smart KPIs, empowered teams, and a culture that actually moves ideas forward with speed and focus.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-setup/)
### Enable Fast Execution
We use innovative methods and processes from the startup space for quick validation and scaling – taking a hands-on, results-driven approach that turns ideas into measurable impact.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/)
## Client Voices
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## Latest References
### Scaling Strategy
Pioneers supported the development of the strategic direction for the corporate venture MOON POWER (Porsche Holding Salzburg) by mapping the e-mobility ecosystem and strategic options.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#moon)
### Innovation Lab Setup
Pioneers supported building an innovation lab from scratch with two big German banks and co-developed multiple, new payment solutions.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#spayce)
### Intrapreneurship
Pioneers supported the implementation of three rounds of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest with the goal to develop early-stage internal ideas into new business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#andritz)
### Venture Clienting
Pioneers supports VERBUND in the setup, implementation and moderation of the VERBUND X Accelerator, a multi-corporate startup collaboration program.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#verbund)
### Venture Building
Pioneers supports 120Ventures – the corporate venture studio we jointly set up with ÖAMTC in building corporate ventures outside the core business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#oeamtc)
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## What Makes Us Unique
### Anchor In The Future
With insights into market trends, technology, and VC investment flows, we anchor solutions in the future.
### Proven Venturing Frameworks
Coming from the startup world, we apply hypothesis-driven methods to validate opportunities with speed, agility, and an iterative approach.
### Execution Power
We inspire and empower our clients with an innovative and hands-on approach that delivers high-quality results.
### Customer-centric Industry Expertise
We combine industry experience with a deep understanding of customer needs, ensuring our solutions are both relevant and impactful.
### Corporate Change Know-How
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
![Group picture showing Pionners.Peak participants]()
## Curated Corporate Innovation Insights
### Corporate Innovation Newsletter
Join 17,000+ subscribers and get corporate innovation insights in your inbox.
#### [Subscribe](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/)
### Free Innovation Downloads
Download our free PDF white paper, tools and methods around corporate innovation.
#### [Check the free resources](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
### Pioneers
Blog
Read about insights from our projects and new corporate innovation approaches.
#### [Check our blog](https://pioneers.io/blog/)
---
### [Homepage](https://pioneers.io/about/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## **OUR MISSION**
We help organizations **innovate** to **reinvent** and **grow** their business through **innovative venturing methods.**
#### [Get in Touch](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
#### [Case Studies](https://pioneers.io/references/)
## Success in Numbers
### 10+
### Years of corporate strategy and innovation consulting experience
### 500+
### Corporate innovation projects carried out
### 300+
### Clients successfully consulted
### 20+
### Countries where projects were delivered
## How to Get Innovation Right
### Define Innovation Focus
We shape future-focused strategies by crafting sharp hypotheses around what’s next – future realities, must-win battles, and business opportunities – powered by our deep understanding for the VC game, funding flows, and emerging tech.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
### Set the Right Framework
We build the foundation for innovation to scale – an innovation setup with clear governance, lean processes, smart KPIs, empowered teams, and a culture that actually moves ideas forward with speed and focus.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-setup/)
### Enable Fast Execution
We use innovative methods and processes from the startup space for quick validation and scaling – taking a hands-on, results-driven approach that turns ideas into measurable impact.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/)
## Client Voices
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## Latest References
### Scaling Strategy
Pioneers supported the development of the strategic direction for the corporate venture MOON POWER (Porsche Holding Salzburg) by mapping the e-mobility ecosystem and strategic options.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#moon)
### Innovation Lab Setup
Pioneers supported building an innovation lab from scratch with two big German banks and co-developed multiple, new payment solutions.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#spayce)
### Intrapreneurship
Pioneers supported the implementation of three rounds of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest with the goal to develop early-stage internal ideas into new business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#andritz)
### Venture Clienting
Pioneers supports VERBUND in the setup, implementation and moderation of the VERBUND X Accelerator, a multi-corporate startup collaboration program.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#verbund)
### Venture Building
Pioneers supports 120Ventures – the corporate venture studio we jointly set up with ÖAMTC in building corporate ventures outside the core business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#oeamtc)
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## What Makes Us Unique
### Anchor In The Future
With insights into market trends, technology, and VC investment flows, we anchor solutions in the future.
### Proven Venturing Frameworks
Coming from the startup world, we apply hypothesis-driven methods to validate opportunities with speed, agility, and an iterative approach.
### Execution Power
We inspire and empower our clients with an innovative and hands-on approach that delivers high-quality results.
### Customer-centric Industry Expertise
We combine industry experience with a deep understanding of customer needs, ensuring our solutions are both relevant and impactful.
### Corporate Change Know-How
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
![Group picture showing Pionners.Peak participants]()
## Curated Corporate Innovation Insights
### Corporate Innovation Newsletter
Join 17,000+ subscribers and get corporate innovation insights in your inbox.
#### [Subscribe](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/)
### Free Innovation Downloads
Download our free PDF white paper, tools and methods around corporate innovation.
#### [Check the free resources](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
### Pioneers
Blog
Read about insights from our projects and new corporate innovation approaches.
#### [Check our blog](https://pioneers.io/blog/)
---
### [Homepage](https://pioneers.io/about/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## **OUR MISSION**
We help organizations **innovate** to **reinvent** and **grow** their business through **innovative venturing methods.**
#### [Get in Touch](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
#### [Case Studies](https://pioneers.io/references/)
## Success in Numbers
### 10+
### Years of corporate strategy and innovation consulting experience
### 500+
### Corporate innovation projects carried out
### 300+
### Clients successfully consulted
### 20+
### Countries where projects were delivered
## How to Get Innovation Right
### Define Innovation Focus
We shape future-focused strategies by crafting sharp hypotheses around what’s next – future realities, must-win battles, and business opportunities – powered by our deep understanding for the VC game, funding flows, and emerging tech.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
### Set the Right Framework
We build the foundation for innovation to scale – an innovation setup with clear governance, lean processes, smart KPIs, empowered teams, and a culture that actually moves ideas forward with speed and focus.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-setup/)
### Enable Fast Execution
We use innovative methods and processes from the startup space for quick validation and scaling – taking a hands-on, results-driven approach that turns ideas into measurable impact.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/)
## Client Voices
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## Latest References
### Scaling Strategy
Pioneers supported the development of the strategic direction for the corporate venture MOON POWER (Porsche Holding Salzburg) by mapping the e-mobility ecosystem and strategic options.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#moon)
### Innovation Lab Setup
Pioneers supported building an innovation lab from scratch with two big German banks and co-developed multiple, new payment solutions.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#spayce)
### Intrapreneurship
Pioneers supported the implementation of three rounds of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest with the goal to develop early-stage internal ideas into new business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#andritz)
### Venture Clienting
Pioneers supports VERBUND in the setup, implementation and moderation of the VERBUND X Accelerator, a multi-corporate startup collaboration program.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#verbund)
### Venture Building
Pioneers supports 120Ventures – the corporate venture studio we jointly set up with ÖAMTC in building corporate ventures outside the core business.
#### [Learn more](https://pioneers.io/references/#oeamtc)
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## What Makes Us Unique
### Anchor In The Future
With insights into market trends, technology, and VC investment flows, we anchor solutions in the future.
### Proven Venturing Frameworks
Coming from the startup world, we apply hypothesis-driven methods to validate opportunities with speed, agility, and an iterative approach.
### Execution Power
We inspire and empower our clients with an innovative and hands-on approach that delivers high-quality results.
### Customer-centric Industry Expertise
We combine industry experience with a deep understanding of customer needs, ensuring our solutions are both relevant and impactful.
### Corporate Change Know-How
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
![Group picture showing Pionners.Peak participants]()
## Curated Corporate Innovation Insights
### Corporate Innovation Newsletter
Join 17,000+ subscribers and get corporate innovation insights in your inbox.
#### [Subscribe](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/)
### Free Innovation Downloads
Download our free PDF white paper, tools and methods around corporate innovation.
#### [Check the free resources](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
### Pioneers
Blog
Read about insights from our projects and new corporate innovation approaches.
#### [Check our blog](https://pioneers.io/blog/)
---
### [Digital Factory](https://pioneers.io/digitalfactory/)
**Published:** June 20, 2025
**Author:** Sophie Sorg
**Content:**
## From Idea to Digital Product
At the Digital Factory, we specialize in quickly turning ambitious ideas into practical, scalable, and AI-driven innovation solutions. Through fast and focused digital execution, we help organizations bring concepts to life – whether in smart product development, the creation of new ventures, or the transformation of existing ones. Our aim is to accelerate your innovation journey from concept to market readiness, providing measurable results and long-term impact sustainable growth.
### Do you have an idea? In just 24 hours, we’ll turn it into a free business concept and clickable prototype – no strings attached.
- Schedule a confidential 30-minute call.
- Receive a first draft of your business model and interactive prototype.
- Benefit from a live review and feedback session.
[Schedule Your Session Now](https://calendar.app.google/qiWdifTdXeBPRF6m6)
**[René Mähr](https://www.linkedin.com/in/renemaehr/)** Head of Digital Factory
## How We’re Unique
#### GENERATIVE AI ACCELERATION
Our innovation processes leverage advanced generative AI, drastically reducing development time while increasing accuracy and effectiveness.
#### FLEXIBLE COLLABORATION
Our unique Make/Buy/Partner strategy ensures the optimal development path for your idea – internal, partnership-based, or acquisition – to achieve your goals effectively.
#### DYNAMIC
EXPERTISE
Tailored teams of interdisciplinary experts are assembled for every project, ensuring precise alignment with your innovation needs.
#### EXCLUSIVE
NETWORK
Access our expansive innovation ecosystem, including top-tier tech partners, industry experts, and strategic networks to amplify your venture’s potential
## Why the Digital Factory?
We established the Digital Factory as a natural extension of Pioneers’ innovation services – adding a dedicated focus on **AI-driven product development, digital execution**, and **venture implementation**. By combining our proven strategic expertise and innovation methodologies with cutting-edge AI-based technologies, we help organizations turn ideas into scalable digital solutions faster, smarter, and with measurable impact. Our mission is to facilitate impactful, sustainable innovation, helping organizations stay ahead in a rapidly evolving market.
## Benefits for Customers
Collaborating with the Digital Factory delivers significant advantages:
#### RAPID
RESULTS
Accelerated time-to-market with early validation and agile execution
#### REDUCED
RISK
Clear, data-driven decisions that avoid costly missteps
#### INNOVATIVE SCALABILITY
Solutions designed for effective and efficient scalability
#### STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE
Gain competitive edge through first-mover positioning and ongoing innovation support
## Our Approach – We Support Along the Whole Process
### We deliver customized digital and AI-powered innovation solutions through a structured, multi-phase approach:
**FUTURE**
**PLANNING**
Strategic foresight through trend analysis and scenario development.
**IDEA**
**DEVELOPMENT**
Generating and structuring market-ready ideas using creative methods and user insights.
**ASSUMPTION**
**VALIDATION**
Testing business concepts with agile methods, minimizing risk through lean processes.
**PILOT**
**IMPLEMENTATION**
Quickly prototyping and refining your solution, planning go-to-market strategies and operational setups.
**MARKET**
**ENTRY**
Full-scale launch support, from MVP development to customer acquisition and operational scaling.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [Downloads](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
**Published:** May 13, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## FREE TOOLS AND WHITE PAPERS
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #5 - Evailable
Insights into Evailable’s innovative journey. Discover how Evailable successfully leveraged corporate resources and perfect timing to revolutionize e-mobility maintenance.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9951)
### Pioneers Innovation Glossary 2024
At Pioneers we are discussing the meaning of innovation terms. To get everybody on the same page, we created the Pioneers Innovation Glossary that covers key innovation terms such as on what as MVP, Accelerator, PoC or Click-Dummy.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9309)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #5 - Mavie (UNIQA)
Insights about the corporate venture journey of Mavie by UNIQA. Learn about their inspiring venture journey and how they successfully leverage UNIQA's assets.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9246)
### Sustainable Innovation Fields & Top Climate Tech Startups 2024
Learn about our Pioneers.Climate focus fields and find detailed information of 50 selected top climate tech startups of 2024 categorized by fields and sub-area.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9226)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #4 - myflexbox (Salzburg AG)
Insights about the corporate venture journey of myflexbox - by Salzburg AG. Learn about their impressive venture journey and how they succeeded at expanding considerably.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9185)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #3 - one2zero (Salzburg AG)
Insights about the corporate venture journey of one2zero - by Salzburg AG. Learn about the relationship of one2zero to its "mothership", the decision processes and importance of the right corporate venture culture.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=8960)
### DACH Corporate Venture Landscape 2024
The report provides a map representing the Top 50 corporate ventures in the DACH area and gives additional information such as key findings and insights of the ventures.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9162)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #2 - rready (Swisscom)
Insights about the spin-out and scaling journey of rready - ex corporate venture of Swisscom. Learn about the spin-off process and the advantages and disadvantages of being a corporate ventures vs. a startup.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=8323)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #1 - ANDRITZ Green Hydrogen
Insights about the corporate venture journey of ANDRITZ Green Hydrogen. Learn about the idea's origin, support of the intrapreneurship program and growth to nearly 100M order intake in just 3 years.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=8070)
### Innovation Formats and Vehicles
Venture Building, Venture Clienting, Corporate Venture Capital... What's the difference and which innovation formats and vehicles are the best fit for my company? Check our overview of the 18 most widely used practices.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=7696)
### Top Workshop Games and Energizers - 2024 Edition
You want to spice up your workshops? Check out our top workshop games and energizers to boost creativity and engagement.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=7029)
### DACH Corporate Venture Builder Map
We set out to understand the current status of corporate venture building. Starting in our core market – the DACH region – we analyzed which corporates already operate larger vehicles to proactively build ventures outside the traditional core business.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6736)
### Top 10 Workshop Games and Energizers 2023 - Edition #1
Once again, we have put together an exciting collection of games and energizers to enhance your workshops. Discover edition #1 with the first part of our top 10 games for this year, which we have already used with our clients.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6571)
### DACH TOP 50 CORPORATE VENTURES
We set out to understand the current status of corporate venture building. Starting in our core market – the DACH region – we analyzed the corporate venture landscape. Find out all about them in our report!
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6288)
### Top 10 Workshop Scenarios You Should be Able to Handle
Get tips for overcoming common workshop challenges: from missing attendees, awkward silence to low motivation or presentations going overtime. Learn strategies for dealing with these challenges and conduct productive & engaging workshops in our tool.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6164)
### Climate Tech Landscape
We looked at the 40 most promising European startups and scaleups in 4 emission intensive verticals in Manufacturing, Buildings & Construction, Smart Regions, Agriculture. Learn more on how you can drive your industry towards a more eco-conscious future.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=7140)
### Top 10 Workshop Games 2022 - Edition #1
Short, fun and engaging energizers and warm-up games will bring your workshop to the next level. We curated again the best games of the year which we have already used with our clients. Check out Edition #1 and enjoy the ride.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=5896)
### Innovation Strategy Tools
Alignment of innovation with the corporate strategy is key to long-term success. In this edition we provide two tools that can help you clarify your innovation goals and areas of focus within your team and management.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=4996)
### Intrapreneurship Boost - Discussion Paper
How can you create substantial value from using the entrepreneurial power of your own employees? Together with serveral corporate partners we provide our perspective on this topic and share practical tips how to make intrapreneurship work for your company.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=5084)
### Top 10 Workshop Games 2021 - Edition #2
You are bored of the Marshmellow Challenge? We have fresh, short and fun games for you to engage and wake-up your workshop audience.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=4025)
### Top 10 Workshop Games 2021 - Edition #1
You are bored of the Marshmellow Challenge? We have fresh, short and fun games for you to engage and wake-up your workshop audience.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3931)
### 5 Customer Exploration Tools
You want to develop customer-centric innovation and need a structured process? We have 5 tools for you that make it easy and fun to validate your the customer problems and needs.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3523)
### The next stage of startup collaboration
Read detailed explanations of each phase of startup collaboration and how you can use KPIs to continously track and improve the performance of your activities
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=2877)
### DACH Innovation Landscape Study
The study with +140 corporates shows how the DACH area drives intrapreneurship, startup collaboration and multi-corporate collaboration.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3417)
---
### [Downloads](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
**Published:** May 13, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## FREE TOOLS AND WHITE PAPERS
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #5 - Evailable
Insights into Evailable’s innovative journey. Discover how Evailable successfully leveraged corporate resources and perfect timing to revolutionize e-mobility maintenance.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9951)
### Pioneers Innovation Glossary 2024
At Pioneers we are discussing the meaning of innovation terms. To get everybody on the same page, we created the Pioneers Innovation Glossary that covers key innovation terms such as on what as MVP, Accelerator, PoC or Click-Dummy.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9309)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #5 - Mavie (UNIQA)
Insights about the corporate venture journey of Mavie by UNIQA. Learn about their inspiring venture journey and how they successfully leverage UNIQA's assets.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9246)
### Sustainable Innovation Fields & Top Climate Tech Startups 2024
Learn about our Pioneers.Climate focus fields and find detailed information of 50 selected top climate tech startups of 2024 categorized by fields and sub-area.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9226)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #4 - myflexbox (Salzburg AG)
Insights about the corporate venture journey of myflexbox - by Salzburg AG. Learn about their impressive venture journey and how they succeeded at expanding considerably.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9185)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #3 - one2zero (Salzburg AG)
Insights about the corporate venture journey of one2zero - by Salzburg AG. Learn about the relationship of one2zero to its "mothership", the decision processes and importance of the right corporate venture culture.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=8960)
### DACH Corporate Venture Landscape 2024
The report provides a map representing the Top 50 corporate ventures in the DACH area and gives additional information such as key findings and insights of the ventures.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9162)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #2 - rready (Swisscom)
Insights about the spin-out and scaling journey of rready - ex corporate venture of Swisscom. Learn about the spin-off process and the advantages and disadvantages of being a corporate ventures vs. a startup.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=8323)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #1 - ANDRITZ Green Hydrogen
Insights about the corporate venture journey of ANDRITZ Green Hydrogen. Learn about the idea's origin, support of the intrapreneurship program and growth to nearly 100M order intake in just 3 years.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=8070)
### Innovation Formats and Vehicles
Venture Building, Venture Clienting, Corporate Venture Capital... What's the difference and which innovation formats and vehicles are the best fit for my company? Check our overview of the 18 most widely used practices.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=7696)
### Top Workshop Games and Energizers - 2024 Edition
You want to spice up your workshops? Check out our top workshop games and energizers to boost creativity and engagement.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=7029)
### DACH Corporate Venture Builder Map
We set out to understand the current status of corporate venture building. Starting in our core market – the DACH region – we analyzed which corporates already operate larger vehicles to proactively build ventures outside the traditional core business.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6736)
### Top 10 Workshop Games and Energizers 2023 - Edition #1
Once again, we have put together an exciting collection of games and energizers to enhance your workshops. Discover edition #1 with the first part of our top 10 games for this year, which we have already used with our clients.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6571)
### DACH TOP 50 CORPORATE VENTURES
We set out to understand the current status of corporate venture building. Starting in our core market – the DACH region – we analyzed the corporate venture landscape. Find out all about them in our report!
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6288)
### Top 10 Workshop Scenarios You Should be Able to Handle
Get tips for overcoming common workshop challenges: from missing attendees, awkward silence to low motivation or presentations going overtime. Learn strategies for dealing with these challenges and conduct productive & engaging workshops in our tool.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6164)
### Climate Tech Landscape
We looked at the 40 most promising European startups and scaleups in 4 emission intensive verticals in Manufacturing, Buildings & Construction, Smart Regions, Agriculture. Learn more on how you can drive your industry towards a more eco-conscious future.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=7140)
### Top 10 Workshop Games 2022 - Edition #1
Short, fun and engaging energizers and warm-up games will bring your workshop to the next level. We curated again the best games of the year which we have already used with our clients. Check out Edition #1 and enjoy the ride.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=5896)
### Innovation Strategy Tools
Alignment of innovation with the corporate strategy is key to long-term success. In this edition we provide two tools that can help you clarify your innovation goals and areas of focus within your team and management.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=4996)
### Intrapreneurship Boost - Discussion Paper
How can you create substantial value from using the entrepreneurial power of your own employees? Together with serveral corporate partners we provide our perspective on this topic and share practical tips how to make intrapreneurship work for your company.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=5084)
### Top 10 Workshop Games 2021 - Edition #2
You are bored of the Marshmellow Challenge? We have fresh, short and fun games for you to engage and wake-up your workshop audience.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=4025)
### Top 10 Workshop Games 2021 - Edition #1
You are bored of the Marshmellow Challenge? We have fresh, short and fun games for you to engage and wake-up your workshop audience.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3931)
### 5 Customer Exploration Tools
You want to develop customer-centric innovation and need a structured process? We have 5 tools for you that make it easy and fun to validate your the customer problems and needs.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3523)
### The next stage of startup collaboration
Read detailed explanations of each phase of startup collaboration and how you can use KPIs to continously track and improve the performance of your activities
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=2877)
### DACH Innovation Landscape Study
The study with +140 corporates shows how the DACH area drives intrapreneurship, startup collaboration and multi-corporate collaboration.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3417)
---
### [Downloads](https://pioneers.io/insights/downloads/)
**Published:** May 13, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## FREE TOOLS AND WHITE PAPERS
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #5 - Evailable
Insights into Evailable’s innovative journey. Discover how Evailable successfully leveraged corporate resources and perfect timing to revolutionize e-mobility maintenance.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9951)
### Pioneers Innovation Glossary 2024
At Pioneers we are discussing the meaning of innovation terms. To get everybody on the same page, we created the Pioneers Innovation Glossary that covers key innovation terms such as on what as MVP, Accelerator, PoC or Click-Dummy.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9309)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #5 - Mavie (UNIQA)
Insights about the corporate venture journey of Mavie by UNIQA. Learn about their inspiring venture journey and how they successfully leverage UNIQA's assets.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9246)
### Sustainable Innovation Fields & Top Climate Tech Startups 2024
Learn about our Pioneers.Climate focus fields and find detailed information of 50 selected top climate tech startups of 2024 categorized by fields and sub-area.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9226)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #4 - myflexbox (Salzburg AG)
Insights about the corporate venture journey of myflexbox - by Salzburg AG. Learn about their impressive venture journey and how they succeeded at expanding considerably.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9185)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #3 - one2zero (Salzburg AG)
Insights about the corporate venture journey of one2zero - by Salzburg AG. Learn about the relationship of one2zero to its "mothership", the decision processes and importance of the right corporate venture culture.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=8960)
### DACH Corporate Venture Landscape 2024
The report provides a map representing the Top 50 corporate ventures in the DACH area and gives additional information such as key findings and insights of the ventures.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=9162)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #2 - rready (Swisscom)
Insights about the spin-out and scaling journey of rready - ex corporate venture of Swisscom. Learn about the spin-off process and the advantages and disadvantages of being a corporate ventures vs. a startup.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=8323)
### Corporate Entrepreneurship Story #1 - ANDRITZ Green Hydrogen
Insights about the corporate venture journey of ANDRITZ Green Hydrogen. Learn about the idea's origin, support of the intrapreneurship program and growth to nearly 100M order intake in just 3 years.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=8070)
### Innovation Formats and Vehicles
Venture Building, Venture Clienting, Corporate Venture Capital... What's the difference and which innovation formats and vehicles are the best fit for my company? Check our overview of the 18 most widely used practices.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=7696)
### Top Workshop Games and Energizers - 2024 Edition
You want to spice up your workshops? Check out our top workshop games and energizers to boost creativity and engagement.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=7029)
### DACH Corporate Venture Builder Map
We set out to understand the current status of corporate venture building. Starting in our core market – the DACH region – we analyzed which corporates already operate larger vehicles to proactively build ventures outside the traditional core business.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6736)
### Top 10 Workshop Games and Energizers 2023 - Edition #1
Once again, we have put together an exciting collection of games and energizers to enhance your workshops. Discover edition #1 with the first part of our top 10 games for this year, which we have already used with our clients.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6571)
### DACH TOP 50 CORPORATE VENTURES
We set out to understand the current status of corporate venture building. Starting in our core market – the DACH region – we analyzed the corporate venture landscape. Find out all about them in our report!
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6288)
### Top 10 Workshop Scenarios You Should be Able to Handle
Get tips for overcoming common workshop challenges: from missing attendees, awkward silence to low motivation or presentations going overtime. Learn strategies for dealing with these challenges and conduct productive & engaging workshops in our tool.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=6164)
### Climate Tech Landscape
We looked at the 40 most promising European startups and scaleups in 4 emission intensive verticals in Manufacturing, Buildings & Construction, Smart Regions, Agriculture. Learn more on how you can drive your industry towards a more eco-conscious future.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=7140)
### Top 10 Workshop Games 2022 - Edition #1
Short, fun and engaging energizers and warm-up games will bring your workshop to the next level. We curated again the best games of the year which we have already used with our clients. Check out Edition #1 and enjoy the ride.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=5896)
### Innovation Strategy Tools
Alignment of innovation with the corporate strategy is key to long-term success. In this edition we provide two tools that can help you clarify your innovation goals and areas of focus within your team and management.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=4996)
### Intrapreneurship Boost - Discussion Paper
How can you create substantial value from using the entrepreneurial power of your own employees? Together with serveral corporate partners we provide our perspective on this topic and share practical tips how to make intrapreneurship work for your company.
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=5084)
### Top 10 Workshop Games 2021 - Edition #2
You are bored of the Marshmellow Challenge? We have fresh, short and fun games for you to engage and wake-up your workshop audience.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=4025)
### Top 10 Workshop Games 2021 - Edition #1
You are bored of the Marshmellow Challenge? We have fresh, short and fun games for you to engage and wake-up your workshop audience.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3931)
### 5 Customer Exploration Tools
You want to develop customer-centric innovation and need a structured process? We have 5 tools for you that make it easy and fun to validate your the customer problems and needs.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3523)
### The next stage of startup collaboration
Read detailed explanations of each phase of startup collaboration and how you can use KPIs to continously track and improve the performance of your activities
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=2877)
### DACH Innovation Landscape Study
The study with +140 corporates shows how the DACH area drives intrapreneurship, startup collaboration and multi-corporate collaboration.
**Download the PDF for free.**
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3417)
---
### [Jobs](https://pioneers.io/jobs/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Open Jobs & Careers
Find jobs in the innovation scene at Pioneers.io or other companies looking for innovation enthusiasts like you.
Any CategoryVolunteers & InternshipsPioneers ConsultingCorporate Innovation Jobs
Currently there are no open positions at Pioneers HQ
---
### [Jobs](https://pioneers.io/jobs/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Open Jobs & Careers
Find jobs in the innovation scene at Pioneers.io or other companies looking for innovation enthusiasts like you.
Any CategoryVolunteers & InternshipsPioneers ConsultingCorporate Innovation Jobs
Currently there are no open positions at Pioneers HQ
---
### [Innovation Setup](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-setup/)
**Published:** March 12, 2024
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
## Innovation Setup Services
We create an appropriate organizational structure encompassing architecture, empowerment, and measurement and help you with the set up of a new innovation unit.
### ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION SETUP
We **design a suitable organizational setup** (architecture, empowerment, and measurement) for your organization and **define key steps** to roll out the new framework
### INNOVATION UNIT SETUP
We support the **setup of innovation units** (e.g. new business, corporate venture studio, innovation team) including **hiring** and **training** **of** **first employees.**
## Three Setup Pillars for Innovation Success
### Architecture
- **Roles**, responsibilities & **structure** for innovation
- **Innovation process,** management involvement, and **decision-making**
- **Formats and sandboxes** for exploring new opportunities
### Empowerment
- **Enabling innovation** **culture** with new **mindset** and skills
- Secured financial and personnel **investments**
- **Access** **to** required **methodology, systems, technologies,** and **partners**
### Measurement
- **Innovation KPIs** measuring input, throughput, and output of the whole innovation setup
- **Measuring** **system** including tools, process, and reporting procedures
- **Responsibilities** for tracking and reporting
## 6 Key Factors for a Successful Innovation Setup
#### ORGANIZATIONAL ANCHOR
Create a coordinated innovation community with clear roles & responsibilities by combining central and decentral approaches
#### SYSTEMATIC APPROACH
Provide clear processes with enough flexibility, fast track options and transparency for every idea from ideation to execution in a portfolio approach
#### INNOVATION SANDBOXES
Provide organizational settings for fast creation and validation of ideas in a fruitful environment with state-of-the-art methods and tools
#### ENTREPRENEURIAL TALENT
Foster a strong innovation culture and entrepreneurial mindset in employees and identify intrapreneurs who can drive innovation success
#### RESSOURCE AVAILABILITY
Secure long-term budgets, employee resources and entrepreneurial talent based on realistic assessments, and support them with technology and partner structures
#### INNOVATION MEASUREMENT
Measure input, throughput, and output of innovation across various dimensions and map against targets – what you can’t measure, you can’t manage
## Client Voices
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Tobias Weber
Head of SPAYCE
" The startup-driven mindset and style of working of Pioneers was a perfect match to support the launch of SPAYCE. Their methodological support and flexibility were essential to set the basis for our innovation lab. "
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
## Overview of latest references
[  ](https://www.oebb.at/)
### Innovation Setup
Analyzed the current innovation setup
Developed a **target innovation setup**
**Aligned** setup with key **stakeholders**
Crafted an **implementation roadmap**
Identified **quick wins**
[  ](https://www.spayce.de/)
### Innovation Lab Setup
**2** projects started within 100 days
**2** training days implemented
**400+** ideas developed
**200+** customers interviews
**1** new product already on the market
[  ](https://viesure.io/)
### Venture Studio Setup
- Defined the **vision and long-term goals** of 120Ventures
- Set up the **operating model** and **stakeholder structures**
- **Hired** and onboarded the studio **CEO** **and first team members**
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## Why Pioneers?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With background from both strategy consulting and years of experience in the startup scene, we are experts of both the corporate and startup world
#### STRATEGY-CONSULTING COMPETENCE
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies.
#### CORPORATE CHANGE
KNOW-HOW
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
#### EXPERTISE
IN EXECUTION
So far we supported 100+ intrapreneur teams, 20+ corporate ventures, and 100+ startup collaborations in their execution.
#### PIONEERS.CLIMATE
In the quest for carbon neutrality there is a large “climate gap”. We help develop sustainable offers to reduce companies’ carbon footprint.
#### STARTUP NETWORK
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting.
#### PIONEERS.TALENT
We have extensive expertise in recruiting talents for key positions in corporates, startups, and corporate ventures.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [References](https://pioneers.io/references/)
**Published:** August 10, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Client Voices
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## MOON – VENTURE SCALING STRATEGY
Pioneers supported the development of the strategic direction for the corporate venture MOON POWER (Porsche Holding Salzburg).
### CHALLENGE
- The corporate venture MOON POWER wanted to find the right strategic direction for 2030 to continue scaling.
- Pioneers was engaged to map the ecosystem, collect hypotheses about future profit pools in e-mobility, define strategic options, and assess their potential.
### OUR APPROACH
Pioneers developed the innovation strategy in a structured process:
- Status quo analysis and mapping the e-mobility ecosystem through desk research and internal and external expert interviews
- Deriving and evaluating fundamental strategic options
- Roadmap for implementation
### OUTCOMES
1. Clear picture of the future e-mobility ecosystem
2. Defined scaling strategy until 2030
3. Strategy and roadmap for implementation approved by PHS and MOON POWER management
## SPAYCE – INNOLAB SETUP AND EXECUTION
Pioneers supported building an innovation lab from scratch with two big German banks and co-developed new payment solutions
### CHALLENGE
- LBBW and S-Payment aimed to create a new innovation lab to foster innovative payment solutions outside the core
- Pioneers was engaged to support the organizational and strategic setup of the SPAYCE lab and guide the organization in developing and validating innovative payment ideas
### OUR APPROACH
Pioneers supported in all project phases (strategy, setup, execution):
- Strategic and organizational setup of the SPAYCE lab
- Setting up the core team and processes
- Executing multiple ideas throughout the last five years
### OUTCOMES
1. Strategic and organizational setup of SPAYCE
2. Three innovation training days hosted for employees from both banks
3. Multiple design sprints executed and more than 500 ideas created
4. Three incubation phases started and several projects already implemented (CardControl, Digital Receipt, etc.)
## ANDRITZ – INTRAPRENEURSHIP
Pioneers supported the implementation of three rounds of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest with the goal to develop early-stage internal ideas into new business.
### CHALLENGE
- Implement a global intrapreneurship program within ANDRITZ
- Empower internal employees to develop their own ideas with the help of external support
- Identify highly promising ideas and teams and support them in the validation and roll-out of their projects
### OUR APPROACH
- Strategic and organizational setup of the program
- Idea sourcing, selection, and team formation
- Supporting individual teams in their idea development journey
### OUTCOMES
1. Activated 1000+ employees and received 300+ applications
2. Identified 50+ highly promising ideas and teams
3. Selected 15 teams for the prototyping phase and presentation in front of the top management board
4. 10+ teams received further funding
5. Multiple success stories with one venture already generating 100M order intake only after three years
## VERBUND X – VENTURE CLIENTING
Pioneers supports VERBUND in the setup, implementation and moderation of the VERBUND X Accelerator, a multi-corporate startup collaboration program.
### CHALLENGE
- Implement a venture clienting program for VERBUND and corporate partners
- Foster co-creation and innovation in the energy sector
- Match innovative startups solutions with corporate challenges with the aim of a long-term collaboration
### OUR APPROACH
- Set up and structure a multi-corporate venture clienting program with 2 batches per year
- Define use cases with corporates and scout and select top-fitting startups
- Support pilot project implementation between startups and corporates
### OUTCOMES
- 10 corporate partners and 12 innovative search fields
- 10 promising projects in the proof-of-concept phase
- 5 potential VC cases identified
## ÖAMTC – VENTURE BUILDING
Pioneers supports 120Ventures – the corporate venture studio we jointly set up with ÖAMTC in building corporate ventures outside the core business.
### CHALLENGE
- Set up a suitable framework for venture building
- Develop new business for ÖAMTC outside their core offering
- Generate ideas and develop ventures that bring ROI and generate a positive impact on society
### OUR APPROACH
- Strategic and organizational setup 120Ventures – a venture studio
- Hiring of the 120Ventures core team (CEO and senior venture builders)
- Introduce processes and methodology for venture building
- Define topics and generate ideas for new ventures
- Validate and implement innovative solutions
### OUTCOMES
1. Hired the CEO + 4 core team members
2. Generated 150+ ideas
3. Tested 30+ ideas through data-driven validation methods
4. Currently 3 ventures beyond problem-solution fit
## Further references
[  ](https://www.oebb.at/)
### Intrapreneurship Program
**3** years venture development
**3** new business streams
**7+** tested pilots
**3** launched new products
**1000+** end customers reached
### Intrapreneurship Program
**6** missions
**100+** intrapreneurs
**6** teams coached and tutored
**450+** participants in webinars
**3** high-potential business concepts
[  ](https://scaleup4.eu/)
### Scaleup4Europe Accelerator Program
**5** European partners
**4** startup labs
**45+** scale-ups and startups coached
**55+** experts and mentors involved
**25+** corporates connected
[  ](https://www.crif.com/innovecos/)
### Strategy Scoping
- Defined the **long-term goals** for startup collaborations
- Analyzed the status quo projects and activities
- Jointly defined the **startup collaboration process**
[  ](https://viesure.io/)
### Inno Governance Setup
- Defined the **vision and long-term goals** of “Viesure”
- Set up the **resource and team structure**
- Developed a **roadmap** for first **activities**
[  ](https://www.obi.at/)
### Innovation Fields of Play
- Analyzed the **key tech** and startup **funding trends in Retail**
- Identified 6 **high-potential** Tech **use cases** along the value chain
- Selected 8 scale-ups for potential collaboration with OBI
### Scouting & Bootcamps
**4** campuses around the world
**150** startups scouted
**61** startups coached in bootcamps
**20** top startups selected for PoCs
0 dropouts of the accelerator
### Startup Pilot Setup
**6** use cases defined
**60** top startups scouted
**20** collaboration workshops
– Strategic decision guidance
– Support in pilot setup
### Blueprint Startup Bootcamps
**3** locations in Europe
**30** top startups scouted
– Design of the selection bootcamp
– Top travel startups selected
– Several ongoing partnerships
---
### [References](https://pioneers.io/references/)
**Published:** August 10, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Client Voices
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## MOON – VENTURE SCALING STRATEGY
Pioneers supported the development of the strategic direction for the corporate venture MOON POWER (Porsche Holding Salzburg).
### CHALLENGE
- The corporate venture MOON POWER wanted to find the right strategic direction for 2030 to continue scaling.
- Pioneers was engaged to map the ecosystem, collect hypotheses about future profit pools in e-mobility, define strategic options, and assess their potential.
### OUR APPROACH
Pioneers developed the innovation strategy in a structured process:
- Status quo analysis and mapping the e-mobility ecosystem through desk research and internal and external expert interviews
- Deriving and evaluating fundamental strategic options
- Roadmap for implementation
### OUTCOMES
1. Clear picture of the future e-mobility ecosystem
2. Defined scaling strategy until 2030
3. Strategy and roadmap for implementation approved by PHS and MOON POWER management
## SPAYCE – INNOLAB SETUP AND EXECUTION
Pioneers supported building an innovation lab from scratch with two big German banks and co-developed new payment solutions
### CHALLENGE
- LBBW and S-Payment aimed to create a new innovation lab to foster innovative payment solutions outside the core
- Pioneers was engaged to support the organizational and strategic setup of the SPAYCE lab and guide the organization in developing and validating innovative payment ideas
### OUR APPROACH
Pioneers supported in all project phases (strategy, setup, execution):
- Strategic and organizational setup of the SPAYCE lab
- Setting up the core team and processes
- Executing multiple ideas throughout the last five years
### OUTCOMES
1. Strategic and organizational setup of SPAYCE
2. Three innovation training days hosted for employees from both banks
3. Multiple design sprints executed and more than 500 ideas created
4. Three incubation phases started and several projects already implemented (CardControl, Digital Receipt, etc.)
## ANDRITZ – INTRAPRENEURSHIP
Pioneers supported the implementation of three rounds of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest with the goal to develop early-stage internal ideas into new business.
### CHALLENGE
- Implement a global intrapreneurship program within ANDRITZ
- Empower internal employees to develop their own ideas with the help of external support
- Identify highly promising ideas and teams and support them in the validation and roll-out of their projects
### OUR APPROACH
- Strategic and organizational setup of the program
- Idea sourcing, selection, and team formation
- Supporting individual teams in their idea development journey
### OUTCOMES
1. Activated 1000+ employees and received 300+ applications
2. Identified 50+ highly promising ideas and teams
3. Selected 15 teams for the prototyping phase and presentation in front of the top management board
4. 10+ teams received further funding
5. Multiple success stories with one venture already generating 100M order intake only after three years
## VERBUND X – VENTURE CLIENTING
Pioneers supports VERBUND in the setup, implementation and moderation of the VERBUND X Accelerator, a multi-corporate startup collaboration program.
### CHALLENGE
- Implement a venture clienting program for VERBUND and corporate partners
- Foster co-creation and innovation in the energy sector
- Match innovative startups solutions with corporate challenges with the aim of a long-term collaboration
### OUR APPROACH
- Set up and structure a multi-corporate venture clienting program with 2 batches per year
- Define use cases with corporates and scout and select top-fitting startups
- Support pilot project implementation between startups and corporates
### OUTCOMES
- 10 corporate partners and 12 innovative search fields
- 10 promising projects in the proof-of-concept phase
- 5 potential VC cases identified
## ÖAMTC – VENTURE BUILDING
Pioneers supports 120Ventures – the corporate venture studio we jointly set up with ÖAMTC in building corporate ventures outside the core business.
### CHALLENGE
- Set up a suitable framework for venture building
- Develop new business for ÖAMTC outside their core offering
- Generate ideas and develop ventures that bring ROI and generate a positive impact on society
### OUR APPROACH
- Strategic and organizational setup 120Ventures – a venture studio
- Hiring of the 120Ventures core team (CEO and senior venture builders)
- Introduce processes and methodology for venture building
- Define topics and generate ideas for new ventures
- Validate and implement innovative solutions
### OUTCOMES
1. Hired the CEO + 4 core team members
2. Generated 150+ ideas
3. Tested 30+ ideas through data-driven validation methods
4. Currently 3 ventures beyond problem-solution fit
## Further references
[  ](https://www.oebb.at/)
### Intrapreneurship Program
**3** years venture development
**3** new business streams
**7+** tested pilots
**3** launched new products
**1000+** end customers reached
### Intrapreneurship Program
**6** missions
**100+** intrapreneurs
**6** teams coached and tutored
**450+** participants in webinars
**3** high-potential business concepts
[  ](https://scaleup4.eu/)
### Scaleup4Europe Accelerator Program
**5** European partners
**4** startup labs
**45+** scale-ups and startups coached
**55+** experts and mentors involved
**25+** corporates connected
[  ](https://www.crif.com/innovecos/)
### Strategy Scoping
- Defined the **long-term goals** for startup collaborations
- Analyzed the status quo projects and activities
- Jointly defined the **startup collaboration process**
[  ](https://viesure.io/)
### Inno Governance Setup
- Defined the **vision and long-term goals** of “Viesure”
- Set up the **resource and team structure**
- Developed a **roadmap** for first **activities**
[  ](https://www.obi.at/)
### Innovation Fields of Play
- Analyzed the **key tech** and startup **funding trends in Retail**
- Identified 6 **high-potential** Tech **use cases** along the value chain
- Selected 8 scale-ups for potential collaboration with OBI
### Scouting & Bootcamps
**4** campuses around the world
**150** startups scouted
**61** startups coached in bootcamps
**20** top startups selected for PoCs
0 dropouts of the accelerator
### Startup Pilot Setup
**6** use cases defined
**60** top startups scouted
**20** collaboration workshops
– Strategic decision guidance
– Support in pilot setup
### Blueprint Startup Bootcamps
**3** locations in Europe
**30** top startups scouted
– Design of the selection bootcamp
– Top travel startups selected
– Several ongoing partnerships
---
### [References](https://pioneers.io/references/)
**Published:** August 10, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Client Voices
Slide
Karin Krumpel
CEO
"Together with the Pioneers team, we developed the CODICO strategy 2030 providing the major guidelines for innovation-powered transformation and growth. Through our great collaboration and by applying the Pioneers strategy framework, we anchored the strategy in the future external and internal realities, derived must-win battles and growth bets and set strategic priorities across customers, products, markets, value chain position, and internal initiatives."
Slide
Florian Steiner
Head of Strategy
" With Pioneers' expertise PHS has successfully established a new innovation community. Their support in strategy development and innovation framework setup has been key to our effective implementation. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Markus Tatzer
Geschäftsführer
" Pioneers helped us develop a clear picture of the e-mobility ecosystem, shaped our scaling strategy, and supported us in creating a comprehensive roadmap for implementation. Their extensive know-how and experience proved invaluable throughout the process. We especially appreciated their hands-on and practical approach, which ensured that we could move from strategy to action seamlessly. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## MOON – VENTURE SCALING STRATEGY
Pioneers supported the development of the strategic direction for the corporate venture MOON POWER (Porsche Holding Salzburg).
### CHALLENGE
- The corporate venture MOON POWER wanted to find the right strategic direction for 2030 to continue scaling.
- Pioneers was engaged to map the ecosystem, collect hypotheses about future profit pools in e-mobility, define strategic options, and assess their potential.
### OUR APPROACH
Pioneers developed the innovation strategy in a structured process:
- Status quo analysis and mapping the e-mobility ecosystem through desk research and internal and external expert interviews
- Deriving and evaluating fundamental strategic options
- Roadmap for implementation
### OUTCOMES
1. Clear picture of the future e-mobility ecosystem
2. Defined scaling strategy until 2030
3. Strategy and roadmap for implementation approved by PHS and MOON POWER management
## SPAYCE – INNOLAB SETUP AND EXECUTION
Pioneers supported building an innovation lab from scratch with two big German banks and co-developed new payment solutions
### CHALLENGE
- LBBW and S-Payment aimed to create a new innovation lab to foster innovative payment solutions outside the core
- Pioneers was engaged to support the organizational and strategic setup of the SPAYCE lab and guide the organization in developing and validating innovative payment ideas
### OUR APPROACH
Pioneers supported in all project phases (strategy, setup, execution):
- Strategic and organizational setup of the SPAYCE lab
- Setting up the core team and processes
- Executing multiple ideas throughout the last five years
### OUTCOMES
1. Strategic and organizational setup of SPAYCE
2. Three innovation training days hosted for employees from both banks
3. Multiple design sprints executed and more than 500 ideas created
4. Three incubation phases started and several projects already implemented (CardControl, Digital Receipt, etc.)
## ANDRITZ – INTRAPRENEURSHIP
Pioneers supported the implementation of three rounds of the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest with the goal to develop early-stage internal ideas into new business.
### CHALLENGE
- Implement a global intrapreneurship program within ANDRITZ
- Empower internal employees to develop their own ideas with the help of external support
- Identify highly promising ideas and teams and support them in the validation and roll-out of their projects
### OUR APPROACH
- Strategic and organizational setup of the program
- Idea sourcing, selection, and team formation
- Supporting individual teams in their idea development journey
### OUTCOMES
1. Activated 1000+ employees and received 300+ applications
2. Identified 50+ highly promising ideas and teams
3. Selected 15 teams for the prototyping phase and presentation in front of the top management board
4. 10+ teams received further funding
5. Multiple success stories with one venture already generating 100M order intake only after three years
## VERBUND X – VENTURE CLIENTING
Pioneers supports VERBUND in the setup, implementation and moderation of the VERBUND X Accelerator, a multi-corporate startup collaboration program.
### CHALLENGE
- Implement a venture clienting program for VERBUND and corporate partners
- Foster co-creation and innovation in the energy sector
- Match innovative startups solutions with corporate challenges with the aim of a long-term collaboration
### OUR APPROACH
- Set up and structure a multi-corporate venture clienting program with 2 batches per year
- Define use cases with corporates and scout and select top-fitting startups
- Support pilot project implementation between startups and corporates
### OUTCOMES
- 10 corporate partners and 12 innovative search fields
- 10 promising projects in the proof-of-concept phase
- 5 potential VC cases identified
## ÖAMTC – VENTURE BUILDING
Pioneers supports 120Ventures – the corporate venture studio we jointly set up with ÖAMTC in building corporate ventures outside the core business.
### CHALLENGE
- Set up a suitable framework for venture building
- Develop new business for ÖAMTC outside their core offering
- Generate ideas and develop ventures that bring ROI and generate a positive impact on society
### OUR APPROACH
- Strategic and organizational setup 120Ventures – a venture studio
- Hiring of the 120Ventures core team (CEO and senior venture builders)
- Introduce processes and methodology for venture building
- Define topics and generate ideas for new ventures
- Validate and implement innovative solutions
### OUTCOMES
1. Hired the CEO + 4 core team members
2. Generated 150+ ideas
3. Tested 30+ ideas through data-driven validation methods
4. Currently 3 ventures beyond problem-solution fit
## Further references
[  ](https://www.oebb.at/)
### Intrapreneurship Program
**3** years venture development
**3** new business streams
**7+** tested pilots
**3** launched new products
**1000+** end customers reached
### Intrapreneurship Program
**6** missions
**100+** intrapreneurs
**6** teams coached and tutored
**450+** participants in webinars
**3** high-potential business concepts
[  ](https://scaleup4.eu/)
### Scaleup4Europe Accelerator Program
**5** European partners
**4** startup labs
**45+** scale-ups and startups coached
**55+** experts and mentors involved
**25+** corporates connected
[  ](https://www.crif.com/innovecos/)
### Strategy Scoping
- Defined the **long-term goals** for startup collaborations
- Analyzed the status quo projects and activities
- Jointly defined the **startup collaboration process**
[  ](https://viesure.io/)
### Inno Governance Setup
- Defined the **vision and long-term goals** of “Viesure”
- Set up the **resource and team structure**
- Developed a **roadmap** for first **activities**
[  ](https://www.obi.at/)
### Innovation Fields of Play
- Analyzed the **key tech** and startup **funding trends in Retail**
- Identified 6 **high-potential** Tech **use cases** along the value chain
- Selected 8 scale-ups for potential collaboration with OBI
### Scouting & Bootcamps
**4** campuses around the world
**150** startups scouted
**61** startups coached in bootcamps
**20** top startups selected for PoCs
0 dropouts of the accelerator
### Startup Pilot Setup
**6** use cases defined
**60** top startups scouted
**20** collaboration workshops
– Strategic decision guidance
– Support in pilot setup
### Blueprint Startup Bootcamps
**3** locations in Europe
**30** top startups scouted
– Design of the selection bootcamp
– Top travel startups selected
– Several ongoing partnerships
---
### [Innovation Execution](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/)
**Published:** April 8, 2024
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
## Innovation Execution
Besides supporting strategic innovation projects, we support companies in implementing a wide range of innovation execution formats and vehicles.
**MOBILIZATION**
**FORMATS**
- Intrapreneurship programs
- Innovation days and Hackathons
- Mindset and innovation trainings
[](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/venture-building/)
**VENTURE BUILDING**
**& INTERNAL INNOVATION**
- Setup of venture building unit/studio
- Ideation and validation of new business ideas
- Prototyping, MVP design and testing
- Business modelling
- Scaling strategies
[](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/venture-clienting/)
**VENTURE**
CLIENTING
- Setup of venture client units
- Use case definition and global startup scouting
- Pilot collaboration roll-out and guidance
- Adoption of innovative solutions
**CORPORATE VENTURE**
**CAPITAL**
- Supporting the strategic setup
- Startup dealflow and due diligence
- Portfolio companies support
**OPEN**
**INNOVATION**
- Partner ecosystems
- Innovation crowd
- Innovation outposts
- Accelerators and incubators
## 3 Key Factors for Successful Innovation Execution
#### INNOVATION MOBILIZATION
Democratize innovation and mobilize employees’ contribution by offering strategic guidance, inspiration, empowerment, and top management support
#### INNOVATION COLLABORATION
Open up to the world by building ecosystems to co-create with other corporates, customers, suppliers, start-ups/scale-ups, and research entities
#### INNOVATION APPROACH
Just do it. Try, fail, learn, repeat. Kill zombie projects to free up resources!
## Client Voices
Slide
Nives Bukovac
Senior Expert
Low Carbon Business Projects
" The Pioneers team helped us to set up a global intrapreneurship program and provided deep methodology know-how to guide our teams in the validation of new business models. "
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## Overview of latest references
[  ](https://www.oebb.at/)
### Intrapreneurship Program
**3** years venture development
**3** new business streams
**7+** tested pilots
**3** launched new products
**1000+** end customers reached
### Intrapreneurship Program
**6** missions
**100+** intrapreneurs
**6** teams coached and tutored
**450+** participants in webinars
**3** high-potential business concepts
[  ](https://www.aegon.com/home/)
### Open Innovation Challenge
**8** innovation topics defined
**8** top startups scouted
**8** design sprints implemented
**2** scale-ups selected
**2+** ongoing partnerships
[  ](https://scaleup4.eu/)
### Scaleup4Europe Accelerator Program
**5** European partners
**4** startup labs
**45+** scale-ups and startups coached
**55+** experts and mentors involved
**25+** corporates connected
### Scouting & Bootcamps
**4** campuses around the world
**150** startups scouted
**61** startups coached in bootcamps
**20** top startups selected for PoCs
0 dropouts of the accelerator
[  ](https://www.obi.at/)
### Scaleup-Partnering
**Monthly scouting** of top fit scale-ups for partnerships
**Company analysis** and **business case presentations** Several long-term collaborations achieved
### Blueprint Startup Bootcamps
**3** locations in Europe
**30** top startups scouted
– Design of the selection bootcamp
– Top travel startups selected
– Several ongoing partnerships
### Startup Pilot Setup
**6** use cases defined
**60** top startups scouted
**20** collaboration workshops
– Strategic decision guidance
– Support in pilot setup
### Internal Startup Contest
**3** ideation sessions
**100+** employees reached in program
**60+** ideas sourced
**10+** teams mentored over 3 months
**5+** ideas selected for the next stage
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## Why Pioneers?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With background from both strategy consulting and years of experience in the startup scene, we are experts of both the corporate and startup world
#### STRATEGY-CONSULTING COMPETENCE
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies.
#### CORPORATE CHANGE
KNOW-HOW
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
#### EXPERTISE
IN EXECUTION
So far we supported 100+ intrapreneur teams, 20+ corporate ventures, and 100+ startup collaborations in their execution.
#### PIONEERS.CLIMATE
In the quest for carbon neutrality there is a large “climate gap”. We help develop sustainable offers to reduce companies’ carbon footprint.
#### STARTUP NETWORK
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting.
#### PIONEERS.TALENT
We have extensive expertise in recruiting talents for key positions in corporates, startups, and corporate ventures.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [Imprint](https://pioneers.io/imprint/)
**Published:** December 18, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## **Imprint**
Pioneers Innovation GmbH Innovation Consulting Lehargasse 7/2/13
1060 Vienna, Austria
FN 542796f ATU76053413 Commercial Court Vienna
#### [hi@pioneers.io](mailto:discover@pioneers.io)
## **Disclaimer**
All the information on this website is provided by Pioneers and published for general information purposes only. While we endeavour to keep the website’s contents up to date and correct at any time, Pioneers.io does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, suitability, availability and accuracy of the information, products, services, or related graphics provided on the website. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk. Pioneers.io will under no circumstances assume liability for any losses or damages in connection with the use of our website.
The contents, works and pictures shown on our website are subject to copyright law. Duplication, processing, distribution, or any form of commercialization of such material beyond the scope of the copyright law requires the prior written consent of its respective author or creator. Downloads and copies of this site are only permitted for private, non-commercial use. All rights reserved. If not specifically stated otherwise, photo and video credits by Pioneers, Unsplash or Pexels. If the content on this site was not created by the operator, the copyrights of third parties are respected. In particular, third-party content is identified as such. Should you nevertheless become aware of a copyright infringement, please inform us accordingly. If we become aware of any infringements, we will remove such content immediately.
From our website, you can visit other websites by following hyperlinks to external sites. While we strive to provide only quality links to useful and ethical websites, we have no control over the content and nature of these sites. Therefore, we cannot assume any liability for these external contents. The respective provider or operator of the sites is always responsible for the content of the linked sites. The linked pages were checked for possible legal violations at the time of linking. Illegal contents were not recognizable at the time of linking. If we become aware of any infringements, we will remove such links immediately.
Visiting our website may result in the storing of access data on our server (i.e. time, date, page accessed). This does not contain any analysis of personal data (i.e. name or e-mail address).
**Consent**
By using our website, you hereby consent to our disclaimer and agree to its terms.
---
### [Imprint](https://pioneers.io/imprint/)
**Published:** December 18, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## **Imprint**
Pioneers Innovation GmbH Innovation Consulting Lehargasse 7/2/13
1060 Vienna, Austria
FN 542796f ATU76053413 Commercial Court Vienna
#### [hi@pioneers.io](mailto:discover@pioneers.io)
## **Disclaimer**
All the information on this website is provided by Pioneers and published for general information purposes only. While we endeavour to keep the website’s contents up to date and correct at any time, Pioneers.io does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, suitability, availability and accuracy of the information, products, services, or related graphics provided on the website. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk. Pioneers.io will under no circumstances assume liability for any losses or damages in connection with the use of our website.
The contents, works and pictures shown on our website are subject to copyright law. Duplication, processing, distribution, or any form of commercialization of such material beyond the scope of the copyright law requires the prior written consent of its respective author or creator. Downloads and copies of this site are only permitted for private, non-commercial use. All rights reserved. If not specifically stated otherwise, photo and video credits by Pioneers, Unsplash or Pexels. If the content on this site was not created by the operator, the copyrights of third parties are respected. In particular, third-party content is identified as such. Should you nevertheless become aware of a copyright infringement, please inform us accordingly. If we become aware of any infringements, we will remove such content immediately.
From our website, you can visit other websites by following hyperlinks to external sites. While we strive to provide only quality links to useful and ethical websites, we have no control over the content and nature of these sites. Therefore, we cannot assume any liability for these external contents. The respective provider or operator of the sites is always responsible for the content of the linked sites. The linked pages were checked for possible legal violations at the time of linking. Illegal contents were not recognizable at the time of linking. If we become aware of any infringements, we will remove such links immediately.
Visiting our website may result in the storing of access data on our server (i.e. time, date, page accessed). This does not contain any analysis of personal data (i.e. name or e-mail address).
**Consent**
By using our website, you hereby consent to our disclaimer and agree to its terms.
---
### [Pioneers.Talent](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-talent/)
**Published:** January 31, 2025
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
You need to drive innovation but lack the right people to do it?
Make use of our proven experience in the innovation space combined with a dedicated focus on talent gaps!
**WAR FOR TALENT**The war for talent is the **limited pipeline** **of candidates** with the unique blend of skills required for innovation roles, intensified by evolving workforce expectations, unappealing traditional hiring practices, and intense competition from agile startups.
**UNIQUE TYPE OF PEOPLE**A barrier to innovation lies in the difficulty of finding **uniquely skilled individuals** who combine entrepreneurial experience, passion for innovation, and nontraditional skills like design thinking and rapid prototyping, leading to a persistent talent mismatch in corporate innovation roles.
**OUR SOLUTION**We understand the struggle of finding the unique type of people within this war of talent. Pioneers.Talent is your solution to get the best people for your innovation team or venture. We support organizations in **hiring demanding profiles and key positions**.
## Our Approach
### PROCESS:
We know how to effectively **identify, attract and select** the right talent for innovation:
**1. IDENTIFICATION**
We understand what corporates need in the innovation space
**2. ATTRACTION**Through our strong brand and broad network we have direct access to innovation talents
**3. SELECTION**Based on our proven expertise in innovation we can find out which candidates best fit the required needs
### **TALENT MATCH**
### **METHODS:**
We achieve matchmaking between companies and talents through a combination of **proven methods** and **innovative recruiting formats:**
#### Innovation Assessment Center
#### AI based Process Automation
#### Data driven Candidate Matching
#### Innovation Crashcourse
#### Talent Pool
## Why Pioneers.Talent?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With backgrounds from the corporate and startup world, we understand the talent side of innovation in both settings.
#### Profound knowledge of the market and requirements
#### **Large network in the startup & innovation scene**
#### **Strong brand positioning and trust in the market**
#### **Flexible on-demand support for individual hirings**
## Our Services
Innovation needs visionaries to make it fly.
### HEADHUNTING
### SERVICES
We find pioneering talents who contribute in key positions to the success of new ventures
### RECRUITING AS
### A SERVICE
We take over recruiting operations of new ventures to build pioneering teams
### PIONEERS IN
### RESIDENCE
We enable the growth journey of new ventures with talents for interim management
## Overview of latest references
[  ](https://new-digital-intelligence.com/de/)
### Talent Sourcing for Growth
Finding, Selection and Onboarding of Key Players:
- Chief Revenue Officer
- Chief Operations Officer
- 10 Country Managing Directors and Local Co-Founders
(Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, United Kingdom, United States, United Arab Emirates)
[  ](https://www.120.ventures/)
### Recruiting as a Service
- Set up recruiting strategy for the corporate venture studio:
- Defined key roles and responsibilities
- Created targeted sourcing strategies
- Developed a structured interview and assessment process
- Finding, selection, onboarding of:
- Chief Executive Officer
- 5 Venture Architects
## Various New Ventures
### Placement of Executive and Management Functions like:
- General Manager
- Co-Founder
- Managing Partner
- Chief Financial Officer
- Chief Sales Officer
- Chief Operations Officer
- Head of Product
- Head of Customer Experience
- HR Manager
## Do you want to learn more about how we source the talent that makes innovation fly?
Schedule a brief introductory call with our Head of Pioneers.Talent [Rupert Schmutzer](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupertschmutzer/). Simply send a quick email to .
**Rupert Schmutzer**
*Head of Pioneers.Talent*
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [Pioneers.Climate - Sustainable Innovation](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-climate-sustainable-innovation/)
**Published:** April 24, 2024
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
In order to remain competitive in the 21st century, companies must be both: innovative and sustainable. We strive to develop **win-win solutions** that benefit **people, planet and profit.**
We help companies to develop sustainable innovation through mapping key climate innovation fields and supporting in re-examining their products and business model to close their “climate innovation gap”.
## THE CLIMATE INNOVATION GAP
Scaling existing technologies and solutions is not enough to reach the climate targets such as reaching -45% of CO2 emissions by 2030. Thus, sustainable innovation is needed to win the SDG race and close the climate gap.
### THE AIM
In order to support a thriving environment and succeed on the market, **companies** **need to achieve** their **climate targets.**
### THE CHALLENGE
Current emissions are expected to increase until 2030. Thus, **incremental improvements** and **scaling of existing** green **solutions** will **not** be **enough** to reach the targets.
### THE SOLUTION
Closing the “climate innovation gap” will require **innovation in all aspects**: within internal processes, the supply chain and core business model as well as in the form of newly developed solutions internally or with partners.
Emissions globally are expected to rise until 2030. At the same time today already companies take different measures to reduce CO2. Current analysis shows that these are by far not enough to reach the targets. Thus, innovation is needed to close the gap and speed up decarbonization.
Copyright by Pioneers.
Visual representation of the climate gap.
Example: CO2 emissions.
## 5 FOCUS FIELDS FOR SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION
To successfully address the climate innovation gap, we delineate these five sustainable innovation fields:
- Resources and Circular Economy
- Green Energy & Electrification
- Green Living & Mobility
- Greenhouse Gas Management
- H2 Ecosystem & Clean Molecules.
The Pioneers team possesses extensive knowledge to uncover and capitalize on sustainable innovation potentials. Through collaboration with our clients, we cultivate promising innovation projects at the forefront of contemporary trends. Leveraging our network, we converge innovative ideas, entrepreneurs, startups, and corporates to collectively position themselves against climate change and toward a sustainable future.
Circular economy of textiles, plastics, construction materials, batteries E- waste, packaging materials and metals / Reduce, reuse, repair – new business models / Alternative materials and products / Sustainable agriculture / Water and waste management / Protection and enrichment of biodiversity / Supply chain transparency
Renewable energy technologies and applications / Energy storage solutions / Energy transportation and distribution / Digital energy management / Electrification use cases to enable decarbonization
Green buildings and infrastructure / Heat transition / E-mobility (incl. charging infrastructure) and new mobility concepts / Sustainable multimodal logistics / Smart city concepts and solutions
Removal, capture, storage, and usage of GHG / Transparency of emissions / Certificates -pricing and -trading
Green H2 production, transport and storage / Green H2 applications and use cases (e.g. steel production) / Other clean molecules ecosystem (syngas, biogas, synthetic fuels, biomethane etc.)
## 5 FOCUS FIELDS FOR SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION
To successfully address the climate innovation gap, we delineate these five sustainable innovation fields:
- Resources and Circular Economy
- Green Energy & Electrification
- Green Living & Mobility
- Greenhouse Gas Management
- H2 Ecosystem & Clean Molecules.
The Pioneers team possesses extensive knowledge to uncover and capitalize on sustainable innovation potentials. Through collaboration with our clients, we cultivate promising innovation projects at the forefront of contemporary trends. Leveraging our network, we converge innovative ideas, entrepreneurs, startups, and corporates to collectively position themselves against climate change and toward a sustainable future.
RESOURCES & CIRCULARITY: Circular economy of textiles, plastics, construction materials, batteries E- waste, packaging materials and metals / Reduce, reuse, repair – new business models / Alternative materials and products / Sustainable agriculture / Water and waste management / Protection and enrichment of biodiversity / Supply chain transparency
CLEAN ENERGY & ELECTRIFICATION: Renewable energy technologies and applications / Energy storage solutions / Energy transportation and distribution / Digital energy management / Electrification use cases to enable decarbonization
GREEN LIVING & MOBILITY: Green buildings and infrastructure / Heat transition / E-mobility (incl. charging infrastructure) and new mobility concepts / Sustainable multimodal logistics / Smart city concepts and solutions
GHG MANAGEMENT: Removal, capture, storage, and usage of GHG / Transparency of emissions / Certificates -pricing and -trading
H2 ECOSYSTEM & CLEAN MOLECULES: Green H2 production, transport and storage / Green H2 applications and use cases (e.g. steel production) / Other clean molecules ecosystem (syngas, biogas, synthetic fuels, biomethane etc.)
## Pioneers.Climate Services
#### SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FORESIGHT
- Understand climate trends and potential future scenarios
- Define the company’s climate vision and ambition
- Identify gaps and innovation potentials
#### **SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION FIELDS MAPPING**
- Mapping relevant sustainable innovation fields
- Identifying must-win battles and strategic action for each area
- Roadmap to close the climate gaps
#### CLIMATE APPLICATION
SPRINT
- Ideation of potential applications of new technologies and concepts
- Use case selection, concretization and validation
- Global Green Tech partner scouting and collaboration
- Go-to-market strategy
## Sustainable Innovation Fields and Top Climate Tech Startups
### Sustainable Innovation Fields
We have compiled our expertise into a comprehensive overview of five sustainable innovation fields, available for download. These fields are applicable across various industries and address many current climate challenges. Additionally, we highlight top startups in each field that have recently received funding and are experiencing significant growth.
[Download here](https://pioneers.io/insights/newsletter/?file=9211)
## Overview of latest references
[  ](https://www.oebb.at/)
### **SDG Workshop**
Pioneers developed a multi-hour, **interactive presentation** that highlighted the **science, risks and opportunities from various trends in the energy and climate space.** Particular focus was placed on making the **topics relevant for the finance sector.
- **Many ideas** were generated by the 40 participants with regard to how RLB could **develop new activities** in the space of **energy and climate change.**
- These will be collated by the **internal innovation hub** and then presented to senior management
[  ](https://www.spayce.de/)
### **DACH Purpose Day’21**.
Interactive 2 hours virtual workshop on the theme “SDG WTF? Understanding the Importance of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in a Business Context”
- **30+ ideas created** on how to act on the SDG 3, 10, 12 and 13 on a company-wide and brand-specific level
- **Insights on social innovation and the SDGs** including concrete examples with corporate context
- **Proactive application of ideation methods and tools** developed by Pioneers to create ideas and define concrete actions
- **Inspiration and an engaging atmosphere** motivating the involved employees to take the initiatives further
[  ](https://viesure.io/)
### Carbon Footprint
The **corporate carbon footprint** was analysed and discussed with the wider organisation.
- **Internal priorities** were set, with **corresponding responsibilities** allocated.
- Pioneers worked in several **strategic workshops** with ÖBV to **understand the key processes and inputs** to their business.
- Together with key individuals in ÖBV, Pioneers conducted a comprehensive **data gathering** exercise. This resulted in an **analysis of the emissions** associated with each activity.
- **Internal capacities** were built, so that ÖBV can repeat the exercise
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## Why Pioneers?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With background from both strategy consulting and years of experience in the startup scene, we are experts of both the corporate and startup world
#### STRATEGY-CONSULTING COMPETENCE
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies.
#### CORPORATE CHANGE
KNOW-HOW
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
#### EXPERTISE
IN EXECUTION
So far we supported 100+ intrapreneur teams, 20+ corporate ventures, and 100+ startup collaborations in their execution.
#### SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION
We track the most relevant sustainable innovation trends and help companies identify the highest innovation potential to successfully tackle their climate innovation gaps.
#### STARTUP NETWORK
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting.
#### PIONEERS.TALENT
We have extensive expertise in recruiting talents for key positions in corporates, startups, and corporate ventures.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [Homepage DRAFT](https://pioneers.io/about-2/)
**Published:** September 5, 2024
**Author:** Sophie Sorg
---
### [Venture Clienting](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/venture-clienting/)
**Published:** May 14, 2024
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
## Venture Clienting
Internal innovation developments are often expensive and time-consuming. **Venture clienting** offers a **fast and low-risk opportunity** to **bring external, innovative solutions** and technologies **into your organization**.
With our services, we support companies in their efforts to **collaborate with startups and tech champions** by **becoming an early customer** and establishing a strong long-term relationship. With 100+ successful corporate-startup collaboration and venture clienting projects, Pioneers provides the necessary **experience and know-how** to be a **strong partner** for your venture clienting journey.
## Benefits of venture clienting
#### Visible and measurable business impact
#### **Fast and cost-effective access to innovation**
#### **Low-risk opportunity to test new solutions**
#### **Insights into market and technology trends**
#### **Fostering of innovation culture & mindset**
## Our Approach
### 1
### VENTURE CLIENTING
STRATEGY
We facilitate the definition of a sound venture clienting strategy building upon the corporate strategy. Moreover, we ensure involvement of all relevant stakeholders within your organization.
### 2
### VENTURE CLIENTING
SETUP
We help maximize the strategic and organizational impact of your venture clienting activities by establishing a new venture client unit. We set up an effective strategy, process, and team for independent operations.
### 3
### VENTURE CLIENTING
EXECUTION
We support the execution of the entire venture clienting process or offer our services for a specific process stage. These include use case definition, global startup and scaleup scouting and guiding the adoption of the startup solution.
## Our Services
#### **STRATEGY**
#### **DEVELOPMENT**
We help companies to conceptualize and anchor their venture clienting strategy and long-term goals.
#### **ORGANIZATIONAL**
#### **SETUP**
We develop the right organizational structure with a strong team and a systematic, end-to-end venture clienting process.
#### **USE CASE**
#### **DEFINITION**
We facilitate the definition of specific challenges and use cases and the development of suitable scouting criteria.
#### **STARTUP**
#### **SCOUTING**
We scout, engage and select the best and most suitable startups, scaleups and tech champions around the globe.
#### **PILOT PROJECT**
#### **SUPPORT**
We accompany business units in their efforts to co-develop and deliver a successful proof-of-concept.
#### **COLLABORATION**
#### **SCALING**
We support the adoption and scaling of the solution and facilitate a long-term collaboration.
## Key Success Factors
#### STRATEGIC PRIORITY
Defining strategic purpose and securing management commitment creates strong legitimation for all your venture clienting activities. In doing so, a long-term vision should be defined and balanced with short-term objectives.
#### FAST LANE
Find the right setup and process that serve as a fast lane for startup collaborations. This includes close cooperation with relevant support units like procurement, legal, or IT.
#### BRIDGE BUILDING
There are fundamental differences in the functioning, speed, and mindset of startups and corporates. Thus, a major challenge is to create a mutual understanding and manage the gap proactively.
#### MOBILIZATION
Create strong links to and mobilize all business units to unveil a high number of relevant problems within your organization that build the starting point for all your venture clienting projects.
#### IMPACT MEASUREMENT
To prove the impact of startup collaborations, it is essential to set up a measurement system and monitor key KPIs for all venture clienting projects.
## Client Voices
Slide
Wendy
van Leeuwen
Program Manager
" Pioneers are an ideal partner to support us in creating condensed, yet impactful programmes that will empower startups with the actionable plans and assistance they need to kickstart their further growth. "
Slide
Franz Zöchbauer
Managing Director
" We are excited about the outcomes from our partnership with Pioneers. The joint project has been instrumental in unlocking future potential through collaboration and innovation with startups. Huge thanks to everyone at Pioneers for making this happen! "
Slide
Rey Buckman
Airbus Bizlab
" The wide variety and quality of Pioneers scale-ups provided an accurate overview of global innovative trends: great value for us. "
## Overview of latest references
[  ](https://www.verbundx.com/en-at/accelerator)
### VERBUND X ACCELERATOR
The aim of the VXA program **is to unite key industry players with innovative startups** to initiate and realize **strategic pilot projects.** We approached the project by defining relevant search fields with Verbund and corporate partners and sourcing use cases from business units. Furthermore, we scouted later-stage startups and engaged with top startups. With the realization of a PoC phase, we developed and tested prototypes. Eventually, various long-term cooperations were established.
### **OUTCOMES**
- Identification of 100+ suitable startups globally in each batch
- **10+ PoCs** that **resulted in long-term collaborations**
- Successful cross-company cooperation
[  ](https://www.bbraun.de/de/ueber-uns/unternehmen/innovation-hub/bbraun_accelerator.html#)
### **B.BRAUN STARTUP COLLABORATION PROGRAM**
B.Braun intends to **collaborate with external startups and scaleups to innovate its core business**. We defined different use cases for scouting with all departments and set up individual calls with all units to detail the use cases. Through iterative scouting activities, we identified the top 20-30 startups per use case and organized exploratory and selection interviews. Finally, we initiated pilot projects with selected startups.
### **OUTCOMES**
- Scouting for 10+ departments simultaneously for 3 years
- Definition of **30+ use cases** and identification of top startups
- Several pilot projects that resulted in long-term collaborations
[  ](https://group.vattenfall.com/)
### **GREEN TECHNOLOGIES SCOUTING**
Vattenfall green:field, Vattenfall’s open innovation vehicle, aims to **support Vattenfall business units in their collaboration with startups.** Therefore, we scouted and pre-evaluated startups and introduced remote calls with the top 10 startups. Next to the on-site moderation of meetings with the top 5 startups we conducted the PoC planning workshop with 3 selected startups and finally initiated and implemented the PoC projects.
### OUTCOMES
- Identification of 25+ suitable startups from all over Europe
- **Successful PoCs with 3 startups**
- Discovery of new business models, products and services
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## Why Pioneers?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With background from both strategy consulting and years of experience in the startup scene, we are experts of both the corporate and startup world
#### STRATEGY-CONSULTING COMPETENCE
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies.
#### CORPORATE CHANGE
KNOW-HOW
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
#### EXPERTISE
IN EXECUTION
So far we supported 100+ intrapreneur teams, 20+ corporate ventures, and 100+ startup collaborations in their execution.
#### PIONEERS.CLIMATE
In the quest for carbon neutrality there is a large “climate gap”. We help develop sustainable offers to reduce companies’ carbon footprint.
#### STARTUP NETWORK
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting.
#### PIONEERS.TALENT
We have extensive expertise in recruiting talents for key positions in corporates, startups, and corporate ventures.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [Corporate Venture Studio](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/corporate-venture-studio/)
**Published:** January 10, 2023
**Author:** Sophie Sorg
**Content:**
### WHY COMPANIES NEED TO BUILD VENTURES
In a rapidly changing business world, corporates are threatened by evolving technologies, aggressive competition, and constantly changing customer needs. To stay ahead of the game, companies need to continuously re-invent themselves – and do it fast.
Here is where **“venture building”** comes into play. It’s the **practice of combining corporate assets with the speed and agility of startups to develop innovative business models outside the core.**
Built outside the core processes and structures, corporate ventures or startups have the chance to **tap into new market opportunities** **with** several **competitive advantages over non-corporate startups.**
## Advantages of corporate ventures
### Leverage agility and speed
Agile operations allow the venture to respond fast and effectively to the market and hence provide advantages over the competition.
### Live an entrepreneurial culture
Learning fast from failure, encouraging braveness and flexibility enable ventures to build cutting-edge solutions.
### Attract talent and funding
The combination of existing corporate assets and startup innovation capabilities makes ventures attractive to talent and investors.
### Established Networks
Corporate ventures accelerate their development through existing supply chains and strong and effective sales networks.
### Strong financial resources
Building on already existing corporate resources and access to a sound financial basis make ventures fly.
### Operational Excellence
Leveraging well-established and efficient processes and corporate capabilities gives ventures a head start.
### THE CORPORATE VENTURE STUDIO
To ensure the right environment for corporate ventures to grow, we help companies build and run their own corporate venture studio based on three major pillars:
Goal to continuously develop new business in **alignment with the corporate strategy**
**A dedicated team** of startup founders and people experienced with building new business
**A long-term commitment** of resources to build **portfolios of new business**
## Two steps for building successful ventures
We believe in a strong co-existence of a clear strategy and organizational
setup with a powerful execution of individual corporate ventures.
### (1) Designing the venture studio
As dedicated experts in corporate innovation and entrepreneurship, we help corporates
with the organizational setup of a venture studio that is aligned with the corporate innovation strategy
in its architecture, processes, roles, team, impact measurement, and more.
### **Setup phase**
In collaboration with the management team, we define a strategic portfolio for positioning and building future ventures.
### Design phase
Based on the companies’ assets, capabilities and structures we design the team, processes, goals, and growth plan for venture rollout.
### Opportunity selection phase
By connecting to existing processes, we ramp up the venture studio and start the ideation, evaluation, and selection of promising opportunities.
### (2) Building corporate ventures
As enthusiastic innovators and product developers, we **help corporates to grow their ventures**.
We do so by adding needed capabilities to the team, getting involved in coaching, and providing network access.
### **Exploration phase**
We explore customer needs with different research methods and build first prototypes to test the developed value propositions.
### MVP testing phase
We develop a minimum viable solution and launch pilot projects in test markets. In parallel, we recruit a powerful venture team.
### Go-to-market phase
After validating the MVP, we set up the necessary contracts, define the target markets, and set up an efficient operating model.
## WHY US
**HYVE and** [**Pioneers** ](https://pioneers.io/)– **two leading innovation consultancies** **– are joining forces to offer 360-degree solutions which can be tailored to corporate needs.** With our proven approach and experienced team of in-house experts, we build and enable successful ventures.
With our diverse team of venture architects and venture consultants combined with an expert network means you have the right professionals on hand to perfect your offering – from research and design to marketing and sales, and more.
## Our Clients
Together, HYVE and Pioneers have more than 28 years of combined experience working with corporations.
The majority of DAX- and ATX-listed companies are among our customers. At the same time, we have successfully
launched start-ups and guided our customers on the way to start-up ventures.
## The Venture Building Core Team
#### Anton Schillig
Pioneers
#### Johann Füller
HYVE
#### Thomas Offner
OFFNER.tech GmbH
#### Florian Then
HYVE
## **Contact us to learn more**
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
---
### [Venture Building](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/venture-building/)
**Published:** May 2, 2024
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
## Venture Building
Creating “new business” is crucial in today’s volatile environment. We help companies discover, incubate, build and scale new products, services and business models with our efficient and structured venture building approach. With our support, we help you turn your ideas into value.
## Our Approach
#### CLEAR VISION AND STRATEGIC PLANNING
Clear goals and strategic actions, risk management, and growth structures for ventures
#### **MANAGEMENT INVOLVEMENT**
Involvement of key stakeholders in decisions throughout the venture development
#### **PORTFOLIO OF VENTURES**
Validating multiple ideas simultaneously to ensure success and spread risk
#### EXPERIENCED,
VENTURE TEAM
Vast experience in developing corporate ventures and innovations for international clients
#### **FOCUS/FACTORY-LIKE ENVIRONMENT**
Focused development in sprint logic, and efficient allocation of people resources
#### **FLEXIBILITY
AND SPEED**
Iterative innovation development based on market feedback; stopping of low-potential ideas
## Long- term positive impact
#### SYSTEMATIC “NEW BUSINESS BUILDING”
Venture building increases an organization’s competitiveness by following a structured framework for innovation that aligns with the core organization’s goals and leverages the assets to create an unfair advantage.
#### INCREASED COMPETITIVENESS
Venture building allows the organization to continuously expand its product portfolio with a broad range of new product and service ideas to ultimately secure additional revenue streams.
#### INNOVATION- DRIVEN CULTURE
Venture building encourages a culture of innovation and entrepreneurial thinking across the organization, enhancing its attractiveness as an employer.
## 4 Key Phases of venture building
### 1
### DISCOVER
We define the strategic goals of venture building and innovation fields to uncover untapped growth potential and find suitable business models that leverage the organisation’s core strengths.
- Comprehensive market analysis
- Problem deep dive
- Interviews with business units and customers
- Overview on latest tech and funding trends
- Sourcing of ideas through various internal and external channels
### 2
### INCUBATE
We support you in testing and validating core hypotheses through market research and customer feedback to assess customer demand, revenue potential, and determine whether the venture idea is a worthwhile investment opportunity.
- Customer journey mapping
- In-depth interviews and focus groups
- Value proposition design
- Prototyping and first product testing
### 3
### BUILD
We develop and test a minimum viable product (MVP) with first paying customers, refine your business model and go-to-market strategy, and quickly iterate based on feedback to prepare for scalable growth.
- Detailed UX/UI design
- MVP conceptualization
- Beta launch
- Customer acquisition
- Go-to-Market strategy
- A/B testing
### 4
### SCALE
We guide you to boost sales, grow your team, and expand into new markets to develop a venture that not only attracts and retains customers but also delivers value at scale, paving the way for lasting success.
- Business model deep dive
- Governance and legal set-up
- Talent recruitment
- Growth and funding strategy
- Scaling roadmap and KPIs
## Client Voices
Slide
Christian Huter
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers to get our corporate venture studio, 120 Ventures, off the ground was a key move. Their practical approach to developing innovation & growth strategies and their supportive role in our venture building process really helped us move forward. It's been a collaborative effort all the way, blending their insights with our goals. "
Slide
Juan Rosenzweig
Innovation Manager
" Partnering with Pioneers for our product development from concept to prototype proved to be a strategic choice. Their deep knowledge in developing physical prototypes was evident every step of the way, paving the way form what has the potential to be a new product offering from RHIM after final client tests. "
Slide
Harald Asböck
Manager
" It was a pleasure to work with the Pioneers team on the ANDRITZ Ventures Startup Contest. They collaborated effectively with our intrapreneurs and provided valuable know-how around corporate venture building which was crucial for the success of our program. "
Slide
Stefan Schlumberger
Business Innovation Manager
" Since the joint setup of our lab, Pioneers has supported the customer-centric development of several innovative ideas. The team's hands-on working style, deep methodology knowledge, and strategic competence bring great value to our projects. "
## Overview of latest references
[  ](https://www.obi.at/)
### **ANDRITZ VENTURES STARTUP CONTEST**
**Pioneers accompanied Andritz Ventures** in the **execution** of multiple **global Startup Contests between 2018 and 2024** with the aim of bringing internal, innovative business ideas to life
- Reached **300+ employees**
- **150+** ideas submitted
- **30+** high potential ideas developed and teams coached
- **15 ideas selected** for the next prototyping phase
- **large investments** from C-level into further development
- Success story: **Green hydrogen division with 40+ FTEs 2023**
[  ](https://viesure.io/)
### **RHI MAGNESITA INNOVATION CHALLENGE**
**Pioneers accompanied** and **methodically led** an **internal RHIM Ventures team** for **one year** in the development of a **new product**
- Achievement of **Problem-Solution Fit**
- **2 patent applications**
- Developed **2 solution concepts** with very high market potential
- Go decision for **serial testing** with the customer
- Currently, tests are being conducted under **real customer conditions.** After successful execution, adaptation to serial production will follow.
[  ](https://www.crif.com/innovecos/)
### **MONEYUP – A JUNIOR BANKING SOLUTION**
**Jointly with our client we crafted** a new banking-app for young people through a **customer- centric** approach:
- **+80h** **research** and **analysis** measures to understand the market environment and competition
- **+150 interviews** with young adults
- **+30 user tests** with click-dummy
- **+20 customer hypotheses** validated
- **+15 stakeholder interviews** for **strategic sales** and marketing concept performed
- **+10 stakeholder interviews** with internal IT-providers
- **+3** pre-defined **implementation partners** for software-development
## Strong Footprint in Many Large Organizations
## Why Pioneers?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With background from both strategy consulting and years of experience in the startup scene, we are experts of both the corporate and startup world
#### STRATEGY-CONSULTING COMPETENCE
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies.
#### CORPORATE CHANGE
KNOW-HOW
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
#### EXPERTISE
IN EXECUTION
So far we supported 100+ intrapreneur teams, 20+ corporate ventures, and 100+ startup collaborations in their execution.
#### PIONEERS.CLIMATE
In the quest for carbon neutrality there is a large “climate gap”. We help develop sustainable offers to reduce companies’ carbon footprint.
#### STARTUP NETWORK
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting.
#### PIONEERS.TALENT
We have extensive expertise in recruiting talents for key positions in corporates, startups, and corporate ventures.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [Ventures](https://pioneers.io/services/startup-services/ventures/)
**Published:** May 13, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Industry & Investment Focus
### Investment Strategy and Added Value
#### Pioneers Ventures is a pre-seed fund that invests in startups still working on their product, as well as a cross-industry fund investing in lower-capital businesses whose solutions are of high societal value.
#### Pioneers Ventures usually issues between €50K and €150K, however often co-invests in rounds of up to €400K.
## Investment Stages
Pioneers Ventures specifically adds **value to B2B** startups thanks to its wide network of **corporate partners** and **venture capital funds**, **often co-investing** with the top VCs in Europe, supporting its portfolio companies and raising **follow-on funding**. Further funding opportunities exist **within the group**.
Startups additionally gain visibility at Pioneers events and through ongoing features on various Pioneers communication channels.
**The startup300 Funding Cycle:**
Together with the other members of the startup300 group – Startup Live, CONDA and capital300 – we support startups from their initial stages all the way to Series B funding.
## 01 Ideation Stage
Startups are invited to join the leading acceleration program in Europe, [Startup Live](https://www.startuplive.org/), that supports founders in the early phases of ideation, team building and concept development. Those who manage to impress the juries at their renowned weekend events receive support, mentoring and up to €10K in funding, as well as a Pioneers Ventures investment.
## 02 Pre-Seed Stage
Early-stage startups are supported with funding ranging from €50K to €100K when joining the Pioneers Ventures portfolio. In addition, Pioneers Ventures allows for co-investment opportunities with partners, as well as access to an extensive business angel network.
## 03 Seed Stage
Having gathered initial financial backing and built a stable network around an idea, seed-stage startups have the opportunity to collect funding amounting to €1M with the help of [CONDA](https://www.conda.at/en/crowdinvesting/homepage-at/)’s new crowdinvesting services, CONDA Black, followed by investments ranging from €150K to €1M made by CONDA. Through CONDA Black, investors will for the first time in Austria be able to invest in startups together with renowned business angels and Pioneers Ventures.
## 04 Series A Stage
[capital300](https://www.capital300.com/), the investment arm of [startup300](https://startup300.at/), takes charge of all growth-stage investments starting at €1,5M. Both Pioneers Ventures as well as capital300 follow a collaborative approach towards investing and offer interesting co-investment opportunities within the VC ecosystem.
### As part of the startup300 group we offer a scope of services that is unique in Austria: financial support, space and consultancy services, as well as networking and corporate collaboration opportunities for our stakeholders and community members. Startups in our portfolio are guaranteed direct financial investment and follow-on funding opportunities, access to an extensive corporate and public sector partner network, business scaling support and publicity.
## Our Portfolio
[### Be-novative
Business & ProductivityVirtual workshop facilitation platform to solve the right problems together involving everyone's diverse viewpoints
[Visit Website](https://www.be-novative.com/)](https://www.be-novative.com/)
[### Blockpit
Financial servicesCryptocurrency compliance provider and tax reporting
[Visit Website](http://www.blockpit.io)](http://www.blockpit.io)
[### Boomerank
Business & ProductivityIntelligent assistant for eCommerce performance
[Visit Website](https://boomerank.io)](https://boomerank.io)
[### Cleen Energy
Energy & UtilitiesEnergy contracting - all-around energy solutions with no investment costs
[Visit Website](https://cleen-energy.com/)](https://cleen-energy.com/)
[### Community
Business & ProductivityPlatform to connect directly with the right audience through text messaging at scale
[Visit Website](https://www.community.com/)](https://www.community.com/)
[### ConceptMA
Materials & ManufacturingInnovative prefabricated houses and their accessories
[Visit Website](http://www.conceptma.com)](http://www.conceptma.com)
[### Domonda
Financial servicesFinancial service platform provider for SMEs
[Visit Website](https://domonda.com/)](https://domonda.com/)
[### Eyeson (VisoCon GmbH)
Business & ProductivityWeb conferencing for social networking based on cloud based meeting rooms and WebRTC end clients
[Visit Website](https://www.eyeson.com)](https://www.eyeson.com)
[### Fretello
Lifestyle & EntertainmentAI-based guitar learning app
[Visit Website](https://fretello.com/)](https://fretello.com/)
[### Funnelfox
Business & ProductivityAn intelligent customer data platform that helps companies to speak with the right people at the right time
[Visit Website](https://www.funnelfox.com/)](https://www.funnelfox.com/)
[### Hawk:AI
Financial ServicesAI-supported, real-time Anti-Money-Laundering transaction monitoring services
[Visit Website](http://www.hawk.ai)](http://www.hawk.ai)
[### Hejfish
MarketplaceOnline platform for purchase fishing permits
[Visit Website](https://www.hejfish.com/)](https://www.hejfish.com/)
[### Investory
Financial ServicesBuild investor relations that matter
[Visit Website](https://investory.io/)](https://investory.io/)
[### journi - partly exit 2019
Lifestyle & EntertainmentCreate photo books like taking pics, using AI
[Visit Website](http://www.journiapp.com)](http://www.journiapp.com)
[### Kontrol.tech
Mobility & TransportationSoftware for formal verification of autonomous systems
[Visit Website](https://www.kontrol.tech/)](https://www.kontrol.tech/)
[### Lecturize
Business & ProductivityOnline educational platform
[Visit Website](https://lecturize.com)](https://lecturize.com)
[### Mangomint
Lifestyle & EntertainmentNext-generation platform for salons and spas
[Visit Website](https://www.mangomint.com/)](https://www.mangomint.com/)
[### Marschpat
Business & Productivity Digital solutions for wind musicians
[Visit Website](http://www.marschpat.at)](http://www.marschpat.at)
[### Mooci
Healthcare-MarketplaceThe first digital network for quality in reconstructive and aesthetic medicine
[Visit Website](https://www.mooci.at/)](https://www.mooci.at/)
[### MyEsel
Lifestyle & EntertainmentWooden personalized e-bike
[Visit Website](http://www.my-esel.com)](http://www.my-esel.com)
[### Nodeventure
Financial servicesOne Software as a Service solution for highly secure storage of crypto currencies and security tokens
[Visit Website](https://tmia.at/)](https://tmia.at/)
[### Offisy
Business & ProductivitySoftware and services for the administration of practices and offices in the health sector
[Visit Website](https://offisy.at/)](https://offisy.at/)
[### Schrott24
MarketplaceThe metal scrap marketplace
[Visit Website](https://www.schrott24.at/)](https://www.schrott24.at/)
[### Scubajet
Hardware ProductThe most versatile water sports engine and smallest dive scooter
[Visit Website](https://www.scubajet.com/)](https://www.scubajet.com/)
[### Techbold
Business & ProductivityIT service provider for small and medium-sized companies in Austria
[Visit Website](https://www.techbold.at/)](https://www.techbold.at/)
[### Triply
Mobility & TransportationSoftware solutions for mobility decision-makers
[Visit Website](https://triply.at/)](https://triply.at/)
[### Twinster
Business & ProductivitySize recommendations for perfect fitting apparel
[Visit Website](https://www.twinster.eu/)](https://www.twinster.eu/)
[### Venuzle
SaaS enabled marketplaceThe marketplace for sports enthusiasts AND providers
[Visit Website](https://venuzle.at/)](https://venuzle.at/)
[### Vresh
Lifestyle & EntertainmentHigh-quality clothes handmade in Europe
[Visit Website](https://vresh-clothing.com/)](https://vresh-clothing.com/)
[### swelly - exit 2021
Lifestyle & Entertainment, Business & ProductivityThe simplest possible solution for decision-making and instant opinions from Generation Z for businesses
[Visit Website](https://www.swelly.ai/)](https://www.swelly.ai/)
[### Refurbed - exit 2020
Marketplaces & exchangesThe marketplace for refurbished electronics
[Visit Website](https://www.refurbed.de/)](https://www.refurbed.de/)
[### Hokify - exit 2019
Business & ProductivityThe independent marketplace for connecting blue-collar jobseekers & employers.
[Visit Website](https://hokify.at/)](https://hokify.at/)
[### CheckYeti - exit 2018
MarketplaceThe online marketplace to find and book winter sports and outdoor activities
[Visit Website](https://www.checkyeti.com/de)](https://www.checkyeti.com/de)
## Team
### **Bernhard Lehner**
Board and co-founder startup300 AG
### **Michael Eisler**
Board and co-founder startup300 AG
[Apply here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/29/pioneers-ventures)
---
### [Services](https://pioneers.io/services/)
**Published:** March 25, 2024
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
## **Innovation strategy**
We offer strategy services for corporates and ventures in the ramp-up and scaling phase
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
## **Innovation setup**
We help build the right organizational structure to unlock your company’s innovation potential
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-setup/)
## **Innovation execution**
We build and scale new products, services, and business models to create value for customers and the planet
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/)
## Execution services
[](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/venture-clienting/)
### Venture Clienting
[](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/venture-building/)
### Venture Building
### Mobilization Formats
[](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/venture-clienting/)
### Open Innovation
### Corporate Venture Capital
### All Execution Formats
## Sustainable Innovation Services
Innovation is a key driver in the SDG race and for closing the climate innovation gap. See how we approach our impact towards an innovative **AND** sustainable future.
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-climate/)
## Why Pioneers?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With background from both strategy consulting and years of experience in the startup scene, we are experts of both the corporate and startup world
#### STRATEGY-CONSULTING COMPETENCE
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies.
#### CORPORATE CHANGE
KNOW-HOW
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
#### EXPERTISE
IN EXECUTION
So far we supported 100+ intrapreneur teams, 20+ corporate ventures, and 100+ startup collaborations in their execution.
#### PIONEERS.CLIMATE
In the quest for carbon neutrality there is a large “climate gap”. We help develop sustainable offers to reduce companies’ carbon footprint.
#### STARTUP NETWORK
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting.
#### PIONEERS.TALENT
We have extensive expertise in recruiting talents for key positions in corporates, startups, and corporate ventures.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [Services](https://pioneers.io/services/)
**Published:** March 25, 2024
**Author:** Rosalie Kolb
**Content:**
## **Innovation strategy**
We offer strategy services for corporates and ventures in the ramp-up and scaling phase
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-strategy/)
## **Innovation setup**
We help build the right organizational structure to unlock your company’s innovation potential
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-setup/)
## **Innovation execution**
We build and scale new products, services, and business models to create value for customers and the planet
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/)
## Execution services
[](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/venture-clienting/)
### Venture Clienting
[](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/venture-building/)
### Venture Building
### Mobilization Formats
[](https://pioneers.io/services/innovation-execution/venture-clienting/)
### Open Innovation
### Corporate Venture Capital
### All Execution Formats
## Sustainable Innovation Services
Innovation is a key driver in the SDG race and for closing the climate innovation gap. See how we approach our impact towards an innovative **AND** sustainable future.
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-climate/)
## Why Pioneers?
We combine a unique set of assets and skills. With background from both strategy consulting and years of experience in the startup scene, we are experts of both the corporate and startup world
#### STRATEGY-CONSULTING COMPETENCE
Our team has 10+ years of experience in developing and managing corporate strategies.
#### CORPORATE CHANGE
KNOW-HOW
We understand the barriers of creating an entrepreneurial company and guide a successful transformation.
#### EXPERTISE
IN EXECUTION
So far we supported 100+ intrapreneur teams, 20+ corporate ventures, and 100+ startup collaborations in their execution.
#### PIONEERS.CLIMATE
In the quest for carbon neutrality there is a large “climate gap”. We help develop sustainable offers to reduce companies’ carbon footprint.
#### STARTUP NETWORK
Since 2014 we work on startup collaborations and have built a large network for international scouting.
#### PIONEERS.TALENT
We have extensive expertise in recruiting talents for key positions in corporates, startups, and corporate ventures.
## Ready to boost
innovation?
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
## Learn more about
our clients
[References](https://pioneers.io/references)
---
### [Insights](https://pioneers.io/insights/)
**Published:** April 8, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
---
### [Open Calls](https://pioneers.io/services/startup-services/open-calls/)
**Published:** August 10, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Open Calls for Startups
#### There are currently no open calls.
## Previous Open Calls
### Visa Everywhere Initiative 2021
Apply now - Asia Pacific deadline is 4th June & Europe deadline is 18th June!Visa's global startup competition is looking for the brightest startups from around the world. One winner per region will be selected to compete in the global finals. If you’re a startup with great products already in market and gaining traction—and are looking for an extra push from a global, trusted brand like Visa to gain scale—this competition is perfect for you.
[Learn more](https://vi.sa/3sIXr7s)
### Vienna Business Agency Startup Package Spring 2021
Apply until 14th March!Powered by Vienna Business Agency Vienna Business Agency Autumn Startup Package is a unique opportunity of joining the city’s community for a 1 month period with extensive support and all costs covered. The Package is awarded to 20 promising startups from outside of Austria.
[Learn more](https://viennabusinessagency.at/startup-city-vienna/vienna-startup-package/)
### Scaleup4Europe HealthLab | Batch #2
Batch #2 of the Scaleup4Europe program is on its way. As a cross-border EU project, we support European scaleups and startups to grow across borders by providing tailored readiness services, connecting you with relevant players and supporting you with gaining access to new markets. In the last batch, the top 20 startups enjoyed a high-class program and made valuable connections in the digital health scene. Don't miss out on being part of the next cohort of the best European digital health startups!
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/scaleup4europe-healthlab-batch-2/)
### IP Österreich Startup Package
Apply The goal of the Startup TV Package Austria is to give high-growth FMCG startups, e-commerce companies and SMEs the chance to discover TV as a new marketing channel in Austria and to promote their product and brand to the Austrian mass market. With the "Media 4 Revenue Share Model" IP Österreich provides an affordable, customized, low-risk opportunity to achieve measurable and full impact on TV.
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/startup-tv-package-austria/)
### Voestalpine & Primetals
Digital Metals AI HackathonVoestalpine and Primetals aim to develop new products and services for its clients and solve internal challenges through the collaboration with startups. The goal of the Digital Metals AI Hackathon is to identify top teams to solve four concrete challenges in the area of big data, predictive analytics, machine vision, AR and VR. Winners will receive 4x €3,000 and the chance to enter into a long-term collaboration with the companies. Interested to bring digital solutions to the metals industry? Apply now and show us what you got.
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/voestalpine-primetals/)
### hub:raum
Innovative Solution for IoTWe are looking for the most visionary IoT startups in Europe and Israel with disruptive solutions. Hub:raum, the incubator of Deutsche Telekom, is willing to empower your idea with connectivity, partnership, technical support and help you deliver your unique value proposition to customers.
[Learn more](https://www.hubraum.com/iot_program_microsoft)
---
### [Open Calls](https://pioneers.io/services/startup-services/open-calls/)
**Published:** August 10, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Open Calls for Startups
#### There are currently no open calls.
## Previous Open Calls
### Visa Everywhere Initiative 2021
Apply now - Asia Pacific deadline is 4th June & Europe deadline is 18th June!Visa's global startup competition is looking for the brightest startups from around the world. One winner per region will be selected to compete in the global finals. If you’re a startup with great products already in market and gaining traction—and are looking for an extra push from a global, trusted brand like Visa to gain scale—this competition is perfect for you.
[Learn more](https://vi.sa/3sIXr7s)
### Vienna Business Agency Startup Package Spring 2021
Apply until 14th March!Powered by Vienna Business Agency Vienna Business Agency Autumn Startup Package is a unique opportunity of joining the city’s community for a 1 month period with extensive support and all costs covered. The Package is awarded to 20 promising startups from outside of Austria.
[Learn more](https://viennabusinessagency.at/startup-city-vienna/vienna-startup-package/)
### Scaleup4Europe HealthLab | Batch #2
Batch #2 of the Scaleup4Europe program is on its way. As a cross-border EU project, we support European scaleups and startups to grow across borders by providing tailored readiness services, connecting you with relevant players and supporting you with gaining access to new markets. In the last batch, the top 20 startups enjoyed a high-class program and made valuable connections in the digital health scene. Don't miss out on being part of the next cohort of the best European digital health startups!
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/scaleup4europe-healthlab-batch-2/)
### IP Österreich Startup Package
Apply The goal of the Startup TV Package Austria is to give high-growth FMCG startups, e-commerce companies and SMEs the chance to discover TV as a new marketing channel in Austria and to promote their product and brand to the Austrian mass market. With the "Media 4 Revenue Share Model" IP Österreich provides an affordable, customized, low-risk opportunity to achieve measurable and full impact on TV.
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/startup-tv-package-austria/)
### Voestalpine & Primetals
Digital Metals AI HackathonVoestalpine and Primetals aim to develop new products and services for its clients and solve internal challenges through the collaboration with startups. The goal of the Digital Metals AI Hackathon is to identify top teams to solve four concrete challenges in the area of big data, predictive analytics, machine vision, AR and VR. Winners will receive 4x €3,000 and the chance to enter into a long-term collaboration with the companies. Interested to bring digital solutions to the metals industry? Apply now and show us what you got.
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/voestalpine-primetals/)
### hub:raum
Innovative Solution for IoTWe are looking for the most visionary IoT startups in Europe and Israel with disruptive solutions. Hub:raum, the incubator of Deutsche Telekom, is willing to empower your idea with connectivity, partnership, technical support and help you deliver your unique value proposition to customers.
[Learn more](https://www.hubraum.com/iot_program_microsoft)
---
### [Open Calls](https://pioneers.io/services/startup-services/open-calls/)
**Published:** August 10, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
## Open Calls for Startups
#### There are currently no open calls.
## Previous Open Calls
### Visa Everywhere Initiative 2021
Apply now - Asia Pacific deadline is 4th June & Europe deadline is 18th June!Visa's global startup competition is looking for the brightest startups from around the world. One winner per region will be selected to compete in the global finals. If you’re a startup with great products already in market and gaining traction—and are looking for an extra push from a global, trusted brand like Visa to gain scale—this competition is perfect for you.
[Learn more](https://vi.sa/3sIXr7s)
### Vienna Business Agency Startup Package Spring 2021
Apply until 14th March!Powered by Vienna Business Agency Vienna Business Agency Autumn Startup Package is a unique opportunity of joining the city’s community for a 1 month period with extensive support and all costs covered. The Package is awarded to 20 promising startups from outside of Austria.
[Learn more](https://viennabusinessagency.at/startup-city-vienna/vienna-startup-package/)
### Scaleup4Europe HealthLab | Batch #2
Batch #2 of the Scaleup4Europe program is on its way. As a cross-border EU project, we support European scaleups and startups to grow across borders by providing tailored readiness services, connecting you with relevant players and supporting you with gaining access to new markets. In the last batch, the top 20 startups enjoyed a high-class program and made valuable connections in the digital health scene. Don't miss out on being part of the next cohort of the best European digital health startups!
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/scaleup4europe-healthlab-batch-2/)
### IP Österreich Startup Package
Apply The goal of the Startup TV Package Austria is to give high-growth FMCG startups, e-commerce companies and SMEs the chance to discover TV as a new marketing channel in Austria and to promote their product and brand to the Austrian mass market. With the "Media 4 Revenue Share Model" IP Österreich provides an affordable, customized, low-risk opportunity to achieve measurable and full impact on TV.
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/startup-tv-package-austria/)
### Voestalpine & Primetals
Digital Metals AI HackathonVoestalpine and Primetals aim to develop new products and services for its clients and solve internal challenges through the collaboration with startups. The goal of the Digital Metals AI Hackathon is to identify top teams to solve four concrete challenges in the area of big data, predictive analytics, machine vision, AR and VR. Winners will receive 4x €3,000 and the chance to enter into a long-term collaboration with the companies. Interested to bring digital solutions to the metals industry? Apply now and show us what you got.
[Learn more](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/voestalpine-primetals/)
### hub:raum
Innovative Solution for IoTWe are looking for the most visionary IoT startups in Europe and Israel with disruptive solutions. Hub:raum, the incubator of Deutsche Telekom, is willing to empower your idea with connectivity, partnership, technical support and help you deliver your unique value proposition to customers.
[Learn more](https://www.hubraum.com/iot_program_microsoft)
---
### [DACH Innovation Study](https://pioneers.io/dach-innovation-studies/)
**Published:** November 3, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
# DACH Innovation Landscape Study
## Insights on corporate innovation from 104 companies headquartered in the DACH-region.
[DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3417)
## The Focus Of The Study
The survey data was collected from senior managers (mainly Innovation or Digitalization managers) across 104 companies averaging over 1,000 employees and over €500m in revenue. Each participant responded to 35 closed and open-ended questions about how their company drives innovation. Questions were focused on the areas of
### Innovation Governance
How do DACH corporates govern their innovation activities?
### Intrapreneurship
How do DACH corporates take advantage of the innovation power of their own employees?
### Open Innovation
How do DACH corporates work with startups and other corporates?
## Innovation Governance
### Top-level management support is crucial for the success of DACH innovation projects.
Top-level management support is seen as a key aspect of success in intrapreneurship as stated by 79% of study participants, with 53% also stressing its importance in open innovation with startups. Therefore, top-level management should be responsible for providing the long-term, strategically aligned direction and the necessary resources to scale up innovation efforts.
![]()
### Governance structures vary strongly between DACH corporates with rise in Innovation Labs.
10% of study respondents operate innovation without a clear strategy and only one dedicated person. On the other hand more than 25% of corporates have a clear strategy with timeline and measurable KPIs. In terms of team we also see a strong variety. Most corporates operate cross-units teams with a trend to build larger entities and teams outside the core business. This gives innovation a place for experimentation while acting within the boundaries of the long-term strategy.
![]()
## Intrapreneurship
### German companies are leading the way in intrapreneurship.
Overall, the majority of DACH companies have at least tried once to innovate with the power of their own employees through intrapreneurship. Companies headquartered in Germany are leading the way with 87% pro- viding employees time, space or resources to act like an entrepreneur within the orga- nization. In contrast, only 84% of corporates in Austria and 56% in Switzerland engage in this practice.
![]()
### Employees need time, resources and flexibility to drive ventures inside the firm.
The majority of companies offer employees budgets (63%), mentorship opportunities (51%) and dedicated time (51%) to work on their own ideas. However, the results show that few companies actually allow their employees to develop their own ventures full time and with a dedicated team with interdisciplinary skills. Together, with top level management support, this is however, seen as critical for success.
![]()
## Collaboration With Startups
### Pitching and Hackathons are used for Scouting, Accelerators for Collaboration.
The study showed that collaboration with startups happens in two stages:
Firstly, get to know the right partners and secondly starting initial PoCs and pilot projects.
Most used formats are Hackathons and startup competitions while Accelerators are widely used to start several PoCs at once. With 40% of corporates using CVC we also see a growing trend in corporate investments.
![]()
### Startup Engagement – Long-term collaborations are accelerating.
While a few years ago, startup collaboration was mainly a Marketing activity, the study results show that today collaboration is the main goal of startup engagement. With a strong focus on developing new products and services, corporates report positive outcomes also in the area of new processes, markets and cultural change within the company.
![]()
![]()
## Multi-Corporate Innovation
### Multi-Corporate face tough times to find the right partners to build innovation ecosystems.
Multi-Corporate Innovation is still a rather new concept for many large firms in the DACH region. Nevertheless, we see that already 48% of DACH corporate engage to build innovation ecosystems with their peers. The study found that while product innovation is the goal number #1, finding the right partner with similar goals and way or working is the biggest blocker to success.
![]()
## More detailed insights
### & best practice cases from corporates as well as tipps from innovation heroes in the final report.
[DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3417)
## Study Participants
### Among others the following companies participated:
## Get The DACH Innovation Landscape Study
### DACH Innovation Landscape Study
Read corporate innovation insights about startup collaboration and intrapreneurship based on a study with 140+ DACH corporates
[Download](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=3417)
---
### [Climate Tech Solution Landscape](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-climate/climate-tech-solution-landscape/)
**Published:** August 4, 2022
**Author:** Philip Reuchlin
**Content:**
# Climate Tech Solution Landscape
#### We launched our first European Climate Tech Solution Landscape Report with the Scaleup4Europe consortium. It takes a look at the **40 most promising European startups and scaleups** in 4 emission-intensive verticals:
### Manufacturing
### Buildings & Construction
### Smart regions
### Agriculture
[Download our report](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/?file=7140)
#### Pioneers is one of Europe’s leading strategic innovation consulting and startup ecosystem players. As part of ScaleUp4Europe, we published a major climate tech solution landscape report (and online database) for the CEE and wider European startup landscape. The report will feature promising start-ups and scale-ups that can provide solutions to some of the biggest climate change challenges in 4 industries: agriculture, manufacturing, construction and health care.
#### **Benefits of applying (3-4 minute survey):**
- #### Supercharge your sales by being found by corporates and other buyers
- #### Have your company in one of the largest databases on sustainability startups in the CEE region
- #### Enter the Pioneers Startup ecosystem – we have been connecting startups with corporates since 2009
- #### Get to know other players or partners in your field
## About Scaleup4Europe
The “Scaleup4Europe” project’s objective is the establishment of four cross-border operating “Scaleup Labs”. The Scaleup Labs are based on the ”living lab” concept and support qualifying scaleups in achieving a “Proof of Scalability”. The “Proof of Scalability” is achieved when the scaleups comply with all requirements of general technological, market, organizational and investor readiness and their innovation is adapted to a specific customer need.
The general goal is to establish sustainable support structures that connect four partnering startup ecosystems and their deep tech member communities in an innovative way that creates a lasting and larger regional scaleup support system.
To increase the efficiency of the scaling support, the project’s Scaleup Labs focus on four specific industry verticals that benefit significantly from deep tech innovations:
[  ](https://scaleup4.eu/)
### **Smart Region**
### **Health Sciences**
### **Agile Manufacturing**
### **AgTech**
## The connecting startup ecosystems:
[](https://en.pks.rs/)
[](https://www.berchtesgadener-land.de/home)
[](https://www.p-tech.si/en/)
[](https://www.unternehmertum.de/en)
## **Contact us to learn more**
[Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
---
### [Contact us](https://pioneers.io/contact-us/)
**Published:** January 7, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
First name
Last name
Company name
Business e-mail
Message
I agree to being contacted by Pioneers and I would also like to receive the newsletter by e-mail with current information about our products and services as well as events. Learn more in our privacy policy.
## About Pioneers
We guide companies through their transformation, empower them to unlock their innovation potential and help them develop and scale new sustainable products, services and business models.
## Contact us.
## Newsletter
Sign up for our bi-monthly newsletter and stay up to date on the latest innovation insights
[Newsletter](https://pioneers.io/newsletter/)
---
### [Privacy](https://pioneers.io/privacy/)
**Published:** March 6, 2023
**Author:** Anton Schilling
**Content:**
### **Privacy Policy**
Thank you for your interest in our website. This Privacy Policy describes how Pioneers collects and uses information that you provide when you visit our website. It also describes the choices you have about how we use this information and how you can access and update it.
**1. Contact persons and responsibilities**
Responsible entity within the meaning of data protection law:
**Anton Schilling**
Neubaugasse 64-66 / 2
1070 Vienna
Austria
discover@pioneers.io
Headquarters: Vienna, registered at the Commercial Court Vienna, Austria with the registration number: FN 542796f
Managing directors: Anton Schilling, Thomas Gabriel
**2. Definition of personal data**
Personal data is any information about the personal and actual circumstances of a particular or identifiable person. This information includes, for example, your name, e-mail address, postal address or telephone number. Information on the basis of which your identity cannot be determined without additional data is not included.
In the opinion of the supervisory authorities, IP addresses are, in particular, data that refer to personal data. The transmission of the IP address when accessing a website is a technical necessity. If necessary, the data is analysed for statistical purposes in anonymous and pseudonymised form. This means that it is not possible to identify you personally through this.
In principle, our data protection declaration should be simple and understandable for everyone. For this reason, our data protection declaration generally uses the official terms of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The official definitions are explained in Art. 4 GDPR.
**3.** **Data processing by visiting our website**
When you visit our website, it is technically necessary that data is transmitted to our web server via your internet browser. The following data is recorded during a running connection for communication between your internet browser and our web server:
- Visited domain
- The date and time of the request
- Page from which the file was requested
- Access status (file transferred, file not found, etc.)
- The web browser, system language, operating system and device type used
- IP address of the requesting computer
- The amount of data transferred
We collect the listed data to ensure a smooth connection to the website and to enable a comfortable use of our website by the users. In addition, the log file serves the purpose of evaluating system security and stability, as well as providing administrative functions. The legal basis for the temporary storage of data or log files is Art. 6 para. 1 a. GDPR.
**4. Storage of data**
If we receive personal data from you, Pioneers will store it on a server and use it exclusively for the purposes for which you have transmitted it to us. We comply with legal regulations both during transmission and after receipt, taking into account the state of the art and suitable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information and data transmitted to us. However, no transmission method over the internet or electronic storage method is one hundred percent secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee absolute safety.
**5. Data processing in third countries**
If we process data in a third country (i.e. outside the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA)) or the processing takes place in the context of the use of third party services or disclosure or transfer of data to other persons, bodies or companies, this will only take place in accordance with the legal requirements.
Subject to express consent or transfer required by contract or law, we process or have processed the data only in third countries with a recognised level of data protection, on the basis of special guarantees, such as a contractual obligation through so-called standard protection clauses of the EU Commission or if certifications or binding internal data protection regulations justify the processing.
**6. Cookies**
Cookies are small files that allow this website to store specific information related to the user on the visitor’s computer while visiting our website. Cookies help us to determine the frequency of use and the number of users of our website, as well as to make our offers comfortable and efficient for you. On the one hand, we use session cookies, which are temporarily stored exclusively for the duration of your use of our website, and on the other hand, permanent cookies, which are used to record information about visitors who repeatedly access our website. The purpose of the use of these cookies is to be able to offer an optimal user experience as well as to recognize visitors and to present the most attractive website and interesting content possible during repeated use. The content of a permanent cookie is limited to an identification number. Name, IP address, etc. are not stored. An individual profiling of your usage behavior does not take place. It is also possible to use our offers without cookies. You can disable the storage of cookies in your browser, limit it to certain websites or set your web browser (Chrome, IE, Firefox,…) to notify you when a cookie is sent. You can also delete cookies from your PC’s hard drive at any time. Please note, however, that in this case you will have to expect a restricted display of the page and a restricted user experience.
**7. Google Analytics**
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. In the event that IP anonymization is activated on this website, however, your IP address will be truncated beforehand by Google within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website operator. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other data from Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. You can also prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) to Google and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at the following link (http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de).
For more information on terms of use and data protection, please visit http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html or https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de. We would like to point out that on this website Google Analytics has been extended by the code “gat.\_anonymizeIp();” to ensure an anonymized collection of IP addresses (so-called IP masking).
**8. Google Maps**
This website uses Google Maps for the display of map information. When using Google Maps, Google also collects, processes and uses data about the use of the Maps functions when visiting the website. You can find more information about data processing by Google in Google’s privacy policy at https://www.google.at/intl/de/policies/privacy/. There you can also change your settings in the privacy centre so that you can manage and protect your data.
**9. Facebook**
Plugins of the social network Facebook, 1601 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA are integrated on our pages. You can recognize the Facebook plugins by the Facebook logo or the “Like” button on our site. You can find an overview of the Facebook plugins here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.
When you visit our pages, a direct connection is established between your browser and the Facebook server via the plugin. Facebook thereby receives the information that you have visited our site with your IP address. If you click the Facebook “Like” button while logged into your Facebook account, you can link the content of our pages on your Facebook profile. This allows Facebook to associate the visit to our pages with your user account. We would like to point out that we, as the provider of the pages, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by Facebook. For more information, please refer to Facebook’s privacy policy at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php. If you do not want Facebook to associate your visit to our pages with your Facebook user account, please log out of your Facebook user account.
**10. Facebook Remarketing**
Within our online offer, so-called “Facebook pixels” of the social network Facebook, which is operated by Facebook Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA, or if you are a resident of the EU, Facebook Ireland Ltd, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland (“Facebook”), are used. With the help of the Facebook pixel, it is possible for Facebook to determine the visitors to our offer as a target group for the display of advertisements, so-called “Facebook Ads”. Accordingly, we use the Facebook pixel to display the Facebook ads placed by us only to those Facebook users who have also shown an interest in our Internet offer. This means that with the help of the Facebook pixel we want to ensure that our Facebook ads correspond to the potential interest of the users and do not have a harassing effect. With the help of the Facebook pixel, we can also track the effectiveness of the Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes by seeing whether users were redirected to our website after clicking on a Facebook ad.
The Facebook pixel is directly integrated by Facebook when our websites are called up and can save a so-called cookie, i.e. a small file, on your device. If you subsequently log in to Facebook or visit Facebook while logged in, the visit to our offer will be noted in your profile. The data collected about you is anonymous for us, so it does not offer us any conclusions about the identity of the user. However, the data is stored and processed by Facebook, so that a connection to the respective user profile is possible. The processing of the data by Facebook takes place within the framework of Facebook’s data usage policy. Accordingly, you can find more information on how the remarketing pixel works and generally how Facebook ads are displayed, in Facebook’s data usage policy: https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.
You can object to the collection by the Facebook pixel and use of your data for the display of Facebook ads. To do so, you can visit the page set up by Facebook and follow the instructions there regarding the settings for usage-based advertising: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads or declare the objection via the US page http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or the EU page http://www.youronlinechoices.com/. The settings are platform-independent, i.e. they are applied to all devices, such as desktop computers or mobile devices.
**11. YouTube**
Functions of the YouTube service are implemented on our website. These functions are offered by YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. The embedded videos place cookies on the user’s computer when the website is called up. Those who have deactivated the setting of cookies for the Google advertising program will not have to expect any such cookies when calling up YouTube videos. However, YouTube also stores non-personal usage information in other cookies. If you want to prevent this, you must block it in the browser.
**12. LinkedIn**
Our website uses functions of the social media network LinkedIn. The provider is LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Each time you access one of our websites that contains functions of LinkedIn, a connection to LinkedIn servers is established. LinkedIn is informed that you have visited our web pages with your IP address. If you click on the buttons of LinkedIn and are logged into your account at LinkedIn, it is possible for LinkedIn to assign your visit to our website to you and your user account. We would like to point out that we, as the provider of the pages, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by LinkedIn. For more information, please refer to the privacy policy of LinkedIn at:
https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy.
**13. Instagram**
Functions of the Instagram service are integrated on our website. These functions are offered by Instagram Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. If you are logged into your Instagram account, you can link the content of our pages to your Instagram profile by clicking on the Instagram button. This allows Instagram to associate the visit to our pages with your user account. We would like to point out that we, as the provider of the pages, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by Instagram.
For more information, please see Instagram’s privacy policy at https://www.instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/.
**14. Newsletter**
You have the possibility to subscribe to our newsletter via our website. For this we need your e-mail address and your declaration that you agree to receive the newsletter. Once you have registered for the newsletter, we will send you a confirmation e-mail with a link to confirm the registration.
**15. Your rights**
In principle, you have the right to information, correction, deletion, restriction, data transferability, revocation and objection. If you believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or your data protection rights have otherwise been violated in any way, you can complain to the supervisory authority. In Austria, this is the data protection authority.
Austrian Data Protection Authority
Wickenburggasse 8
1080 Vienna
Telephone: +43 1 521 52-25 69
Email: dsb@dsb.gv.at
---
### [Privacy](https://pioneers.io/privacy/)
**Published:** March 6, 2023
**Author:** Anton Schilling
**Content:**
### **Privacy Policy**
Thank you for your interest in our website. This Privacy Policy describes how Pioneers collects and uses information that you provide when you visit our website. It also describes the choices you have about how we use this information and how you can access and update it.
**1. Contact persons and responsibilities**
Responsible entity within the meaning of data protection law:
**Anton Schilling**
Neubaugasse 64-66 / 2
1070 Vienna
Austria
discover@pioneers.io
Headquarters: Vienna, registered at the Commercial Court Vienna, Austria with the registration number: FN 542796f
Managing directors: Anton Schilling, Thomas Gabriel
**2. Definition of personal data**
Personal data is any information about the personal and actual circumstances of a particular or identifiable person. This information includes, for example, your name, e-mail address, postal address or telephone number. Information on the basis of which your identity cannot be determined without additional data is not included.
In the opinion of the supervisory authorities, IP addresses are, in particular, data that refer to personal data. The transmission of the IP address when accessing a website is a technical necessity. If necessary, the data is analysed for statistical purposes in anonymous and pseudonymised form. This means that it is not possible to identify you personally through this.
In principle, our data protection declaration should be simple and understandable for everyone. For this reason, our data protection declaration generally uses the official terms of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The official definitions are explained in Art. 4 GDPR.
**3.** **Data processing by visiting our website**
When you visit our website, it is technically necessary that data is transmitted to our web server via your internet browser. The following data is recorded during a running connection for communication between your internet browser and our web server:
- Visited domain
- The date and time of the request
- Page from which the file was requested
- Access status (file transferred, file not found, etc.)
- The web browser, system language, operating system and device type used
- IP address of the requesting computer
- The amount of data transferred
We collect the listed data to ensure a smooth connection to the website and to enable a comfortable use of our website by the users. In addition, the log file serves the purpose of evaluating system security and stability, as well as providing administrative functions. The legal basis for the temporary storage of data or log files is Art. 6 para. 1 a. GDPR.
**4. Storage of data**
If we receive personal data from you, Pioneers will store it on a server and use it exclusively for the purposes for which you have transmitted it to us. We comply with legal regulations both during transmission and after receipt, taking into account the state of the art and suitable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information and data transmitted to us. However, no transmission method over the internet or electronic storage method is one hundred percent secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee absolute safety.
**5. Data processing in third countries**
If we process data in a third country (i.e. outside the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA)) or the processing takes place in the context of the use of third party services or disclosure or transfer of data to other persons, bodies or companies, this will only take place in accordance with the legal requirements.
Subject to express consent or transfer required by contract or law, we process or have processed the data only in third countries with a recognised level of data protection, on the basis of special guarantees, such as a contractual obligation through so-called standard protection clauses of the EU Commission or if certifications or binding internal data protection regulations justify the processing.
**6. Cookies**
Cookies are small files that allow this website to store specific information related to the user on the visitor’s computer while visiting our website. Cookies help us to determine the frequency of use and the number of users of our website, as well as to make our offers comfortable and efficient for you. On the one hand, we use session cookies, which are temporarily stored exclusively for the duration of your use of our website, and on the other hand, permanent cookies, which are used to record information about visitors who repeatedly access our website. The purpose of the use of these cookies is to be able to offer an optimal user experience as well as to recognize visitors and to present the most attractive website and interesting content possible during repeated use. The content of a permanent cookie is limited to an identification number. Name, IP address, etc. are not stored. An individual profiling of your usage behavior does not take place. It is also possible to use our offers without cookies. You can disable the storage of cookies in your browser, limit it to certain websites or set your web browser (Chrome, IE, Firefox,…) to notify you when a cookie is sent. You can also delete cookies from your PC’s hard drive at any time. Please note, however, that in this case you will have to expect a restricted display of the page and a restricted user experience.
**7. Google Analytics**
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. In the event that IP anonymization is activated on this website, however, your IP address will be truncated beforehand by Google within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website operator. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other data from Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. You can also prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) to Google and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at the following link (http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de).
For more information on terms of use and data protection, please visit http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html or https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de. We would like to point out that on this website Google Analytics has been extended by the code “gat.\_anonymizeIp();” to ensure an anonymized collection of IP addresses (so-called IP masking).
**8. Google Maps**
This website uses Google Maps for the display of map information. When using Google Maps, Google also collects, processes and uses data about the use of the Maps functions when visiting the website. You can find more information about data processing by Google in Google’s privacy policy at https://www.google.at/intl/de/policies/privacy/. There you can also change your settings in the privacy centre so that you can manage and protect your data.
**9. Facebook**
Plugins of the social network Facebook, 1601 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA are integrated on our pages. You can recognize the Facebook plugins by the Facebook logo or the “Like” button on our site. You can find an overview of the Facebook plugins here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.
When you visit our pages, a direct connection is established between your browser and the Facebook server via the plugin. Facebook thereby receives the information that you have visited our site with your IP address. If you click the Facebook “Like” button while logged into your Facebook account, you can link the content of our pages on your Facebook profile. This allows Facebook to associate the visit to our pages with your user account. We would like to point out that we, as the provider of the pages, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by Facebook. For more information, please refer to Facebook’s privacy policy at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php. If you do not want Facebook to associate your visit to our pages with your Facebook user account, please log out of your Facebook user account.
**10. Facebook Remarketing**
Within our online offer, so-called “Facebook pixels” of the social network Facebook, which is operated by Facebook Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA, or if you are a resident of the EU, Facebook Ireland Ltd, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland (“Facebook”), are used. With the help of the Facebook pixel, it is possible for Facebook to determine the visitors to our offer as a target group for the display of advertisements, so-called “Facebook Ads”. Accordingly, we use the Facebook pixel to display the Facebook ads placed by us only to those Facebook users who have also shown an interest in our Internet offer. This means that with the help of the Facebook pixel we want to ensure that our Facebook ads correspond to the potential interest of the users and do not have a harassing effect. With the help of the Facebook pixel, we can also track the effectiveness of the Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes by seeing whether users were redirected to our website after clicking on a Facebook ad.
The Facebook pixel is directly integrated by Facebook when our websites are called up and can save a so-called cookie, i.e. a small file, on your device. If you subsequently log in to Facebook or visit Facebook while logged in, the visit to our offer will be noted in your profile. The data collected about you is anonymous for us, so it does not offer us any conclusions about the identity of the user. However, the data is stored and processed by Facebook, so that a connection to the respective user profile is possible. The processing of the data by Facebook takes place within the framework of Facebook’s data usage policy. Accordingly, you can find more information on how the remarketing pixel works and generally how Facebook ads are displayed, in Facebook’s data usage policy: https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.
You can object to the collection by the Facebook pixel and use of your data for the display of Facebook ads. To do so, you can visit the page set up by Facebook and follow the instructions there regarding the settings for usage-based advertising: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads or declare the objection via the US page http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or the EU page http://www.youronlinechoices.com/. The settings are platform-independent, i.e. they are applied to all devices, such as desktop computers or mobile devices.
**11. YouTube**
Functions of the YouTube service are implemented on our website. These functions are offered by YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. The embedded videos place cookies on the user’s computer when the website is called up. Those who have deactivated the setting of cookies for the Google advertising program will not have to expect any such cookies when calling up YouTube videos. However, YouTube also stores non-personal usage information in other cookies. If you want to prevent this, you must block it in the browser.
**12. LinkedIn**
Our website uses functions of the social media network LinkedIn. The provider is LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Each time you access one of our websites that contains functions of LinkedIn, a connection to LinkedIn servers is established. LinkedIn is informed that you have visited our web pages with your IP address. If you click on the buttons of LinkedIn and are logged into your account at LinkedIn, it is possible for LinkedIn to assign your visit to our website to you and your user account. We would like to point out that we, as the provider of the pages, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by LinkedIn. For more information, please refer to the privacy policy of LinkedIn at:
https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy.
**13. Instagram**
Functions of the Instagram service are integrated on our website. These functions are offered by Instagram Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. If you are logged into your Instagram account, you can link the content of our pages to your Instagram profile by clicking on the Instagram button. This allows Instagram to associate the visit to our pages with your user account. We would like to point out that we, as the provider of the pages, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by Instagram.
For more information, please see Instagram’s privacy policy at https://www.instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/.
**14. Newsletter**
You have the possibility to subscribe to our newsletter via our website. For this we need your e-mail address and your declaration that you agree to receive the newsletter. Once you have registered for the newsletter, we will send you a confirmation e-mail with a link to confirm the registration.
**15. Your rights**
In principle, you have the right to information, correction, deletion, restriction, data transferability, revocation and objection. If you believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or your data protection rights have otherwise been violated in any way, you can complain to the supervisory authority. In Austria, this is the data protection authority.
Austrian Data Protection Authority
Wickenburggasse 8
1080 Vienna
Telephone: +43 1 521 52-25 69
Email: dsb@dsb.gv.at
---
### [Privacy](https://pioneers.io/privacy/)
**Published:** March 6, 2023
**Author:** Anton Schilling
**Content:**
### **Privacy Policy**
Thank you for your interest in our website. This Privacy Policy describes how Pioneers collects and uses information that you provide when you visit our website. It also describes the choices you have about how we use this information and how you can access and update it.
**1. Contact persons and responsibilities**
Responsible entity within the meaning of data protection law:
**Anton Schilling**
Neubaugasse 64-66 / 2
1070 Vienna
Austria
discover@pioneers.io
Headquarters: Vienna, registered at the Commercial Court Vienna, Austria with the registration number: FN 542796f
Managing directors: Anton Schilling, Thomas Gabriel
**2. Definition of personal data**
Personal data is any information about the personal and actual circumstances of a particular or identifiable person. This information includes, for example, your name, e-mail address, postal address or telephone number. Information on the basis of which your identity cannot be determined without additional data is not included.
In the opinion of the supervisory authorities, IP addresses are, in particular, data that refer to personal data. The transmission of the IP address when accessing a website is a technical necessity. If necessary, the data is analysed for statistical purposes in anonymous and pseudonymised form. This means that it is not possible to identify you personally through this.
In principle, our data protection declaration should be simple and understandable for everyone. For this reason, our data protection declaration generally uses the official terms of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The official definitions are explained in Art. 4 GDPR.
**3.** **Data processing by visiting our website**
When you visit our website, it is technically necessary that data is transmitted to our web server via your internet browser. The following data is recorded during a running connection for communication between your internet browser and our web server:
- Visited domain
- The date and time of the request
- Page from which the file was requested
- Access status (file transferred, file not found, etc.)
- The web browser, system language, operating system and device type used
- IP address of the requesting computer
- The amount of data transferred
We collect the listed data to ensure a smooth connection to the website and to enable a comfortable use of our website by the users. In addition, the log file serves the purpose of evaluating system security and stability, as well as providing administrative functions. The legal basis for the temporary storage of data or log files is Art. 6 para. 1 a. GDPR.
**4. Storage of data**
If we receive personal data from you, Pioneers will store it on a server and use it exclusively for the purposes for which you have transmitted it to us. We comply with legal regulations both during transmission and after receipt, taking into account the state of the art and suitable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information and data transmitted to us. However, no transmission method over the internet or electronic storage method is one hundred percent secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee absolute safety.
**5. Data processing in third countries**
If we process data in a third country (i.e. outside the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA)) or the processing takes place in the context of the use of third party services or disclosure or transfer of data to other persons, bodies or companies, this will only take place in accordance with the legal requirements.
Subject to express consent or transfer required by contract or law, we process or have processed the data only in third countries with a recognised level of data protection, on the basis of special guarantees, such as a contractual obligation through so-called standard protection clauses of the EU Commission or if certifications or binding internal data protection regulations justify the processing.
**6. Cookies**
Cookies are small files that allow this website to store specific information related to the user on the visitor’s computer while visiting our website. Cookies help us to determine the frequency of use and the number of users of our website, as well as to make our offers comfortable and efficient for you. On the one hand, we use session cookies, which are temporarily stored exclusively for the duration of your use of our website, and on the other hand, permanent cookies, which are used to record information about visitors who repeatedly access our website. The purpose of the use of these cookies is to be able to offer an optimal user experience as well as to recognize visitors and to present the most attractive website and interesting content possible during repeated use. The content of a permanent cookie is limited to an identification number. Name, IP address, etc. are not stored. An individual profiling of your usage behavior does not take place. It is also possible to use our offers without cookies. You can disable the storage of cookies in your browser, limit it to certain websites or set your web browser (Chrome, IE, Firefox,…) to notify you when a cookie is sent. You can also delete cookies from your PC’s hard drive at any time. Please note, however, that in this case you will have to expect a restricted display of the page and a restricted user experience.
**7. Google Analytics**
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. In the event that IP anonymization is activated on this website, however, your IP address will be truncated beforehand by Google within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website operator. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other data from Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. You can also prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) to Google and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at the following link (http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de).
For more information on terms of use and data protection, please visit http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html or https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de. We would like to point out that on this website Google Analytics has been extended by the code “gat.\_anonymizeIp();” to ensure an anonymized collection of IP addresses (so-called IP masking).
**8. Google Maps**
This website uses Google Maps for the display of map information. When using Google Maps, Google also collects, processes and uses data about the use of the Maps functions when visiting the website. You can find more information about data processing by Google in Google’s privacy policy at https://www.google.at/intl/de/policies/privacy/. There you can also change your settings in the privacy centre so that you can manage and protect your data.
**9. Facebook**
Plugins of the social network Facebook, 1601 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA are integrated on our pages. You can recognize the Facebook plugins by the Facebook logo or the “Like” button on our site. You can find an overview of the Facebook plugins here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.
When you visit our pages, a direct connection is established between your browser and the Facebook server via the plugin. Facebook thereby receives the information that you have visited our site with your IP address. If you click the Facebook “Like” button while logged into your Facebook account, you can link the content of our pages on your Facebook profile. This allows Facebook to associate the visit to our pages with your user account. We would like to point out that we, as the provider of the pages, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by Facebook. For more information, please refer to Facebook’s privacy policy at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php. If you do not want Facebook to associate your visit to our pages with your Facebook user account, please log out of your Facebook user account.
**10. Facebook Remarketing**
Within our online offer, so-called “Facebook pixels” of the social network Facebook, which is operated by Facebook Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA, or if you are a resident of the EU, Facebook Ireland Ltd, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland (“Facebook”), are used. With the help of the Facebook pixel, it is possible for Facebook to determine the visitors to our offer as a target group for the display of advertisements, so-called “Facebook Ads”. Accordingly, we use the Facebook pixel to display the Facebook ads placed by us only to those Facebook users who have also shown an interest in our Internet offer. This means that with the help of the Facebook pixel we want to ensure that our Facebook ads correspond to the potential interest of the users and do not have a harassing effect. With the help of the Facebook pixel, we can also track the effectiveness of the Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes by seeing whether users were redirected to our website after clicking on a Facebook ad.
The Facebook pixel is directly integrated by Facebook when our websites are called up and can save a so-called cookie, i.e. a small file, on your device. If you subsequently log in to Facebook or visit Facebook while logged in, the visit to our offer will be noted in your profile. The data collected about you is anonymous for us, so it does not offer us any conclusions about the identity of the user. However, the data is stored and processed by Facebook, so that a connection to the respective user profile is possible. The processing of the data by Facebook takes place within the framework of Facebook’s data usage policy. Accordingly, you can find more information on how the remarketing pixel works and generally how Facebook ads are displayed, in Facebook’s data usage policy: https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.
You can object to the collection by the Facebook pixel and use of your data for the display of Facebook ads. To do so, you can visit the page set up by Facebook and follow the instructions there regarding the settings for usage-based advertising: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads or declare the objection via the US page http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or the EU page http://www.youronlinechoices.com/. The settings are platform-independent, i.e. they are applied to all devices, such as desktop computers or mobile devices.
**11. YouTube**
Functions of the YouTube service are implemented on our website. These functions are offered by YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. The embedded videos place cookies on the user’s computer when the website is called up. Those who have deactivated the setting of cookies for the Google advertising program will not have to expect any such cookies when calling up YouTube videos. However, YouTube also stores non-personal usage information in other cookies. If you want to prevent this, you must block it in the browser.
**12. LinkedIn**
Our website uses functions of the social media network LinkedIn. The provider is LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Each time you access one of our websites that contains functions of LinkedIn, a connection to LinkedIn servers is established. LinkedIn is informed that you have visited our web pages with your IP address. If you click on the buttons of LinkedIn and are logged into your account at LinkedIn, it is possible for LinkedIn to assign your visit to our website to you and your user account. We would like to point out that we, as the provider of the pages, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by LinkedIn. For more information, please refer to the privacy policy of LinkedIn at:
https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy.
**13. Instagram**
Functions of the Instagram service are integrated on our website. These functions are offered by Instagram Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. If you are logged into your Instagram account, you can link the content of our pages to your Instagram profile by clicking on the Instagram button. This allows Instagram to associate the visit to our pages with your user account. We would like to point out that we, as the provider of the pages, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by Instagram.
For more information, please see Instagram’s privacy policy at https://www.instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/.
**14. Newsletter**
You have the possibility to subscribe to our newsletter via our website. For this we need your e-mail address and your declaration that you agree to receive the newsletter. Once you have registered for the newsletter, we will send you a confirmation e-mail with a link to confirm the registration.
**15. Your rights**
In principle, you have the right to information, correction, deletion, restriction, data transferability, revocation and objection. If you believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or your data protection rights have otherwise been violated in any way, you can complain to the supervisory authority. In Austria, this is the data protection authority.
Austrian Data Protection Authority
Wickenburggasse 8
1080 Vienna
Telephone: +43 1 521 52-25 69
Email: dsb@dsb.gv.at
---
### [Newsletter](https://pioneers.io/insights/newsletter/)
**Published:** February 23, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
### Get insights into corporate innovation
to your inbox.
By clicking the button below, you agree to receive our bi-monthly corporate innovation newsletter.
First Name
Last name
E-Mail
---
### [Newsletter](https://pioneers.io/insights/newsletter/)
**Published:** February 23, 2019
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
### Get insights into corporate innovation
to your inbox.
By clicking the button below, you agree to receive our bi-monthly corporate innovation newsletter.
First Name
Last name
E-Mail
---
### [Terms of Service](https://pioneers.io/terms-of-service/)
**Published:** October 7, 2022
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
Terms of Service – Oct 2022
# Terms of Service
Last modified: 29 Oct 2019
### Welcome to Pioneers!
Thank you for using our products and services (“Services”). The Services are provided by Pioneers Innovation GmbH, a limited liability company, FN 542796f, ATU76053413, located at Neubaugasse 64-66 / 2, 1070 Vienna, Austria.
By using our Services, you are agreeing to these terms. Please read them carefully.
### Definitions
“You” and “your” refer to you, as a user of our Services. A “user” is someone who interacts with, accesses, posts, edits, browses, or in any way uses our Services.
“We,” “us,” and “our” refer to Pioneers.io.
“User Content” means any personal information submitted in creating a Pioneers.io Account, as well as any information submitted or transmitted to, through, or in connection with our Services, including, but not limited to, research, product plans, business plans, products, services, customers, markets, software, documentation, inventions, processes, designs, drawings, hardware configuration information, business methods, marketing or finances information and/or strategies, digital or photographic images, videos, graphics, text, or audio files.
“Pioneers.io Content” means Content that we create and make available in connection with our Services.
“Third Party Content” means Content that originates from parties other than Pioneers.io or its users, which is made available in connection with our Services.
“Site Content” means all of the Content that is made available in connection with our Services, including Your Content, User Content, Third Party Content, and Pioneers.io Content.
### Description of Services
We offer a broad range of services and products to individuals, start-ups, companies of various sizes, organisations, governments and other entities. These are viewed, accessed and consumed both physically and virtually through a range of interfaces and devices such as, but not limited to: conferences, events, meetings, open calls, competitions, hackathons, trainings and seminars, masterclasses, our platform and websites at www.pioneers.io, piobay.com, APIs, email services, applications, features, apps, and other technologies. We call these collectively “Service(s)”.
### Who can use the Services
In order to use the Services:
– you need to be 18 years of age or older;
– use your real name and the real name of your organisation as well as provide accurate, correct and truthful information;
– not allow anyone else to use your account or authentication information, or make it known to any other party;
– be allowed to use the Services under any and all laws that apply to you or our provision of the Services;
– have the authority to bind any organisation, government or legal entity on behalf of who you use the Services. If these circumstances, you represent, warrant and confirm that you are authorised by such organisation, government or legal entity to use our Services. If you are representing and binding an organisation, government or legal entity to these Policies, all references to “you“ and “your“ will also be interpreted as referring to that entity; and
– not have had an account with us that was deleted by us due to your violation of these Policies.
If you use the Services, you agree to comply with the Terms of Service.
### Using our Services
You may register as user of the Pioneers.io platform (Piobay). You guarantee that all of the data supplied during registration is accurate.
You may transmit information and content including, but not limited to, files, images, videos, documents, opinions and other material (“Content”) in relation to your use of the Services.
You represent and warrant that you have the right, title, license or permissions required to submit, provide, upload, make available or interact with a part of your Content through the Services. You also represent and warrant that none of your Content is subject to anyone else’s copyright or other proprietary rights that you do not have a license or permission to use.
You agree, confirm and acknowledge that you may not, at any time, submit, provide, upload or make available any content which, whether in whole or in part:
– is unlawful, harmful, threatening, defamatory, obscene, infringing, harassing or racially or ethnically offensive;
– facilitates illegal activity;
– depicts sexually explicit images;
– promotes unlawful violence;
– is discriminatory based on race, gender, colour, religious belief, sexual orientation, disability;
– is calculated to damage or hinder the operation of the the Services; or
– is otherwise illegal or causes damage or injury to any person or property.
Do not misuse our Services, do not interfere with our Services or try to access them using a method other than the interface and the instructions that we provide. You may use our Services only as permitted by law, including applicable export and control laws and regulations. We may suspend or stop providing our Services to you if you do not comply with our terms or policies or if we are investigating suspected misconduct.
You may not do any of the following while using the Service:
– crawl, scrape or otherwise retrieve any data whatsoever except through the interfaces that we support for direct, non-automated use by users, unless specifically permitted by our robots.txt file or explicitly authorised by us;
– scan or test the Service for vulnerabilities or try to get around authentication unless specifically contracted to do so by us;
– fake any e-mail message and/or e-mail address to make it appear as if it comes from us;
– interfere with the operation of the Service in such a way as to degrade use by other users;
– iframe our website without our prior written permission;
– link to our website without permission; or
– suggest any association, approval or endorsement by us if none exists.
Using our Services does not give you ownership of any intellectual property rights in our Services or the content that you access. You may not use content from our Services unless you obtain permission from its owner or are otherwise permitted by law. You may not reproduce, sell or loan the Services.
These terms do not grant you the right to use any branding or logos used in our Services. Do not remove, obscure or alter any legal notices displayed in or along with our Services.
Our Services display some content that is not Pioneers.io’s. This content is the sole responsibility of the entity that makes it available. We may review content to determine whether it is illegal or violates our policies, and we may remove or refuse to display content that we reasonably believe violates our policies or the law. But that does not necessarily mean that we review content, so please do not assume that we do.
### Modifying and Terminating our Services
We are constantly changing and improving our Services. We may add or remove functionalities or features and we may suspend or stop a Service altogether.
You can stop using our Services at any time, although we would be sorry to see you go.
Pioneers.io may also stop providing Services to you or add or create new limits to our Services at any time, without providing any indication of reason(s).
### Your Content in our Services
You hereby grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license and the right to sublicense during your use of the Services and as required for a reasonable time afterwards as set out in these Terms so that we can reproduce, adapt, publish, transmit, process and distribute your Content in any media and distribution method used by Pioneers.io.
When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Pioneers.io (and those we work with) a worldwide licence to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes that we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights that you grant in this licence are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting and improving our Services, and to develop new ones.
The Services are regularly updated and improved and you agree that the ways in which others interact with your Content will change in accordance with such updates and improvements. You agree that the license you give us to your Content allows us to make your Content available to other organisations and individuals, providing that such use is subject to our Privacy Policies. The license for your Content does not require compensation to you from us.
Our license to use your Content is extinguished when you remove such Content from our Service, although your Content may still be accessible by other users if you have given permission to use your Content in the course of your use of the Service. Your Content will continue to be available for some time in places such as our backups and other users may still have your data when they have created a local copy (for example as a file or hard-copy) that exists outside of the Service or our control, as well as other uses. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information.
You agree that any and all Content that you give, provide, upload or make available to us is not confidential or proprietary in any way whatsoever and you acknowledge and agree that it will not be treated as such by us or any other party that can access it as a result of your use of the Service. For the avoidance of doubt, any and all processing by us of personal data shall be in accordance with the provisions of our Privacy Policy.
### Idea and Feedback Submissions
We welcome all suggestions to improve our Services, ideas, proposals, feedback or other material submitted to us, but we consider them to be helpful advice, freely given. To ensure against any misunderstandings, we want to emphasize that we do not compensate for any ideas, proposals or suggestions provided by you or any users to Pioneers.io.
Pioneers.io shall not be liable for the disclosure, use or exploitation of such information.
### Communications
You can control most of the communications from us to you through the Service. In some cases, we may need to communicate with you about matters, such as support messages, messages sent in the course of helping you manage your account, updates, service announcements and similar types that you may not be able to opt-out from receiving. These will be sent in accordance with the terms of our Privacy Policy.
### Third Party Content
There are links to many third-party sites and resources on the Platform that are provided by third-parties, which are provided for your information. The presence of any link on the Platform does not mean that we have approved or reviewed them in any way and we make no representation, endorsement or recommendation of such links or their providers. We allow links in the Service to other websites that do not belong to us. The Policies apply only to the Service and not to any other websites, apps – really anything outside of the Service. Each third-party website may have policies different from our Policies and you should read and comply with these policies. We are not responsible for the terms, privacy practices or content of any of these third-parties or any harm you may encounter as a result of misuse of your data.
### Events organized by Pioneers.io
Pioneers.io organizez events and meetings for professionals like, but not limited to: Pioneers annual flagship event, industry-focussed chapter events, consultancy offline programs, meetings, competitions, hackathons, trainings and seminars, masterclasses, Pioneers Ventures offline programs, Pioneers Asia, Pioneers Challenge and others.
Registration for Pioneers.io events and ticket sales are carried out through Eventbrite Inc., 651 Brannan Street, Suite 110, San Francisco CA 94107 (www.eventbrite.com, hereinafter “Eventbrite”). The terms and conditions to be applied for the user are the Eventbrite General Business Terms and Conditions, available at https://www.eventbrite.com/tos/.
You should note that that there is no right of withdrawal as defined in §5f Z. 7 of the Austrian Consumer Protection Act since the provision of services within the scope of recreational activities (§5c, para.4 Z 2,Austrian Consumer Protection Act), which also includes events, is excluded from the right of withdrawal.
Registration for an event does not become binding for Pioneers.io until the full purchase price of the ticket(s) has been paid. In the case of default, the participant is obliged to provide compensation for default interest and all other procedural and non-procedural costs of recovering the debt incurred.
In the case of either the event date or location (event venue) being changed, in general tickets remain valid.
In the case of rescheduling an event, the cardholder’s ticket may be returned by a deadline to be determined by Pioneers.io, preferably immediately after the announcement of the new event date. After the deadline has expired, any claims for reimbursement will expire.
A refund without returning the original ticket is not possible. On returning the ticket, the customer should specify his bank account details and will then receive a refund of the price paid. If the ticket is not returned within the time limit, no refund is possible. Additional claims (e.g. postage, travel expenses, etc.) are excluded.
A refund is only possible up to 14 days before the event, after which a cancellation fee of 50% will be retained.
In the event of a no-show (the ticketholder does not show up at the event), there will be no refund of the ticket price.
The purchase of tickets for commercial resale is prohibited.
Discounted tickets are only valid in combination and/or in conjunction with an authorized identification qualifying for discount. This must be presented when purchasing the ticket and shown on request to gain admission to the event venue.
For the events, participants’ data can be stored on smart cards (NFC cards).
Pioneers.io reserves the right to exclude persons from their events. Any payments made by a person who is then excluded will be refunded by Pioneers.io.
Pioneers.io is not responsible for personal items that are lost or damaged during events.
Each participant must make provision for their own insurance. There is no coverage either through the organizer and/or Pioneers.io.
Except for personal injury, Pioneers.io is not liable for minor cases of negligence.
### Moving and Still Images Recordings during Pioneers.io events
Within the framework of Pioneers.io events, audio, picture and video recordings of you, any of the individual participants, and the event will be created free of charge. You agree that these recordings and images / photographs, and the unlimited spatio-temporal use can be used free of charge for media reports, advertising purposes on various channels (online, print, TV, radio, outdoor) and in various formats (eg. posters, print ads, online campaigns, moving images, brochures), calendars, commercial products and manuals (eg. future reports, white paper illustrations), and on Pioneers.io websites and third party channels (e.g. TV, Radio, print, outdoor, online such as websites, social media with eg. rights of use for YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, etc.) and these rights of use may be given to third parties by Pioneers.io, both free of charge and also against payment.
### Data Protection and Privacy Policy
Pioneers.io Privacy Policy explain how we collect, process, store and use your personal data and protect your privacy when you use our Services and interact with us, such as:
– how we collect information about you;
– how we use information we collect;
– how we control your information;
– how we store and secure your information;
– how your information is shared;
– how we transfer your information to other countries; and
– additional information we think might be useful to you.
By using our Services, you agree that Pioneers.io can use such data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
You have choices about the use of personally identifiable information which we hold about you. You can access, update and request the removal of the information we hold about you. If you don’t agree with the Policies, please do not access or use the Services, or interact with us.
**What information do we collect about you?**
*Information you give us.* This includes personally identifiable information that you provide to us when you use the Service by directly inputting it or by other means. including, but not limited to: surname, first name, date of birth, year of company founding, company name, address, email address, websites, country of origin, if applicable: industry, technology, Twitter ID, LinkedIn ID, Facebook ID, profile picture, etc.
Our Services change from time to time so the options for the information you provide (as with other information) may change. Also, the personally identifiable information may vary depending on how you interact with the services. For example, it is possible to create an account using an e-mail or by using a social login, and different types of profiles you use to connect with opportunities may have different items to complete.
**Here are some examples where you may give us personally identifiable information:**
*Account and Profile Information* – This includes the name, email address and password you provided at the time of registering for the Service. Please note that we do not store the password in plain text (they are encrypted – salted hashes). It also includes information you input into your profile (including, but not limited to: surname, first name, profile picture, date of birth, year of company founding, company name, address, email address, websites, country of origin, if applicable: industry, technology, Twitter ID, LinkedIn ID, Facebook ID, etc.). Any messages you send or receive, any information you provide to us by other means such as e-mail or forms, as well as any data you provide while using the Service;
*Information you give us when you receive professional services from us* – We collect information from you regarding you and your business, including personal income and tax information, identification information for the purposes of compliance with anti-money laundering regulations, and other information as required to fulfil our obligations to you and third parties. We access and store information comprised in submissions made with our assistance to government agencies and organisations, and communications with those agencies by you on your behalf.
*Information you give us through the Service* – You can post, send, access and share information through our Services. For example, you can make notes and comments, send a message asking us to provide a professional service, send a message to other user(s), reply to a message you receive in your e-mail, connect with an opportunity, provide us with feedback or upload a file;
*Information about Gender, Racial and Ethnic Origin* – Some members of our community that offer opportunities to other users, such as accelerator programs or start-up initiatives, want to track their progress towards providing opportunities to a range of genders, races or ethnicities. In order to help them do so, we may ask you for information about your gender, racial or ethnic origin. You are not required to provide this information to us – we will always make it optional and we’ll only provide aggregated statistics related to this data. Please be aware that data about racial and ethnic origin is a special category under Article 9 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (commonly called “GDPR”);
*Information you give when you are asking for support or we are providing it.* You may choose to give us information about a problem you are having, or ask us how to use the Service and in doing so you may provide us with information by e-mail, through live chat, by voice, through third-party platforms or by other means;
*Information you give us so we can collect money from you or send money to you* – If you pay us for all or any part of the Service, or if we need to send you money, we may ask you to give us information we require to collect such as bank information, card details, direct debit details, names of people responsible for payment or billing contacts. We do not store payment card details. All payments taken by us are handled by a third party payment processor and whilst our payment pages might look like they are operated by us, they are in fact operated by such payment processor (which we may choose from time to time at our absolute discretion).
*Information we get automatically when you use the Services.* This is personally identifiable information we receive and that is collected by automated systems involved in delivering the Services or when you take specific actions while using the Services.
*Cookies* – We and third parties use cookies and other tracking methods to deliver you the Service.
*Logs and Analysis* – We log data about your use of the Service and your response to any communications from us by email or by means of the Platform in order to provide you with the Services, identify issues and understand usage. We do this by means of technology solutions that we have built ourselves and through technologies provided by third parties;
*Information about how you use the Services* – We track some aspects related to how you use and interact with Services. For example, we may track the areas of the Service you visit, what you search for, how often you visit us, what devices you use to access the Service, your IP address and location, the URL you enter or exit the Service, data around failures or imperfections that may be triggered when you use the Service and other items.
*Information we get about you from others.* This is information we receive that you do not directly provide when you use the Service. We get it from other users of the Service, third-party services we use to provide the Services, from information we collect and from our partners and vendors in the following circumstances:
*Sign-up and Related Services* – If you sign up for the Service, renew your login or request additional services on the Service using your LinkedIn, Facebook, Eventbrite, Twitter, or Google account, you hereby give consent for us to obtain information from those accounts that you approve such as your email address, current employment position, education, profile picture, site traffic and/or location. We also use your IP address to derive an approximate location of where you are using the Service from if none is otherwise provided. The information we get from those services depends on the choices you make in their settings, so please be sure to check those settings before signing up that way. Additionally, some services offer you the choice of what personal data is provided to us and we encourage you to carefully select the information you want to share if that option is available.
*Other third-party services you may choose to connect to your account* – You can choose to authorise us to access information from your calendar, email or other service accounts. For example, you may do this so we can help you find out how you’re connected to other people and try to relate the items to your deal flow tools or other features. If you authorise us to access that information, we receive items such as e-mail sender, receiver information, the content of your and your calendar appointments until you remove our access. If you don’t specifically choose to authorise access, we don’t get this information. The information we get from these services depends on the settings and permissions you choose, as well as this Privacy Policy that is controlled by the third-party service. We recommend you always check these settings and permissions to understand the information that would be shared with us;
*Scouting* – We may collect information directly from you, use public record sources or create editorial content about you or your start-up in order to identify opportunities for you or your start-up. For example, we may engage with you verbally, by e-mail or use other sources to get this information. As further examples, we may provide this information to third-parties to help them scout appropriate startups to accept into a start-up program, identify potential partners or other engage with you;
*Information submitted by other users of the Service* – Other users of the Service may provide information about you when they add information during their use of the Service. As examples, an evaluator for a start-up program you’ve connected with through one of our Services may give you a numeric score and write notes about you, another user may provide your e-mail address to invite you to appear on their start-up profile or another user may connect their e-mail account to the Service and give us information related to your correspondence with them. Some other users may add your startup, information they have about you and other related information to their deal flow tools on the Service and also add their information (such as notes, markets or location) to appear along with the information they or you have given us. The information provided by the other user may result in a communication with you;
*Information we get from other partners* – We get information about you from third-party partners including those carrying out market research, advertising and lead generation services and who provide us with information about your potential to use our Service and your engagement with us. For example, a third-party may provide us with information because they think you may be be interested in one of our professional services that we may use to contact you.
**How we use the personally identifiable information we collect**
Our use of the personally identifiable information we collect depends on how you use the Services, as well as the settings and preferences you’ve provided to us.
*To provide and personalise the Services* – We use information about you to provide you with the Services. This includes logging you in, authenticating you when you login, operating the Services, responding to your use of the Services, maintaining the Services in line with your requests and providing support to you. As examples:
– your name and profile picture is used to identify you when you connect with or contact other users of the Service;
– we use your personally identifiable information to personalise the Services, such as identifying opportunities that match with your skills, location, availability and interests;
– when you connect with other users of the Service, such as a start-up program, and in order for them to evaluate delivering the opportunity you are interested in receiving from them, we provide them with your start-up public information profile, your start-up private information profile, your contact information including e-mail and the profile information for those associated with start-up.
*For online and offline matchmaking* – including, but not limited to – (between participants and attendees, participants and companies, business and enterprise), based on data entered by the you.
*In order to provide an integrated experience,* your information is available across the various aspects of the Service. For example, the skills or interests you enter on your personal profile may be used to help a start-up program you connect with understand what you know how to do as well as identify job opportunities that match you. We believe that this allows us to provide you with an enhanced user experience in respect of the Service;
*To maintain your profiles* – We are a community which is based on real identities and so we use your information so that you and the organisations you are associated with can create and maintain profiles in relation to the Service. A profile will be created for you when you first use the Service and many aspects of the Service require a “Startup” or other entity profile. Each profile has options and tools that allow you to customise it with your personal data such as descriptions, educational history, associations and more. We associate you to organizations with which your profile has links and provide you with an option in each profile interface to immediately hide your profile(s) as well as an option to remove your profile from search indexing;
*Providing other users of the Service with information about you* – We might also use your personally identifiable information to suggest that others connect or interact with you where we think this might be in your best interests. For example, by connecting you with a user of the Service that is conducting an event in your area, or identifying you as a potential candidate to another user of the Service that is operating a Start-up program or fund;
*To help users direct opportunities to other users of the Service* – Some users of the Service provide opportunities to start-ups, founders and developers. These users often use the Service’s deal flow management tools. These tools allow them to access, add, share, manage and analyse information related to the organisations and users that use the Service. Access to personally identifiable information in the deal flow management tools is controlled based on permissions that are set by the organisation and/or users within each organisation using the tools;
*To improve safety and security of the Services* – We use information about you to identify suspicious activity, to investigate potential violations of the Policies and to verify user accounts;
*To market, promote and drive engagement with the Services* – We use information about your use of the Services, your contact information and other personally identifiable information about you to send you communications that may be of specific interest to you. This type of use has the goal of alerting you when there are events in respect of the Services which we think you’d like to know about, or to provide information, products and services we think you may be interested in. You can control what communications we provide to you in the settings section of the Services, which includes the option to unsubscribe from all communications from us other than core service messages and system functions, such as password reset;
*To provide you with support* – We use your personally identifiable information to resolve issues you have using the Services and to reply to your requests;
*In relation to our legal rights and legitimate business interests* – We will use personally identifiable information about you as required by law and when we believe it is necessary to protect our legal rights/interests, the rights/interests of others and in relation to any legal claim, regulatory requirements, audits, disclosures in the event of an acquisition, merger or sale and compliance activities;
*When you give us your consent* – You can give us your consent to use your personally identifiable information in a way that is or is not covered by this Privacy Policy or any of the other Policies;
*To generate research and reports* – We write and publish information, articles and content in relation to start-ups, industries, markets and other areas related to our community. This might include information we hold about you that you have provided that is generally visible in the Services (such as name, tag-line and location), information we generate on our own or aggregated anonymised data derived in part from your own personally identifiable information;
*For marketing purposes* – This means advertising, commercial affiliation, interacting with social media, remarketing and behavioural targeting, interacting with online survey platforms and public relations;
*To improve the Services* – We use feedback, aggregated data and may use your information as well to make the Services work better, faster, more securely and more in line with user needs.
*To communicate with you about the Services* – We use information about your use of the Services, your contact information and other personally identifiable information to send you transactional communication that relate to your use of the Services. As examples, we may send you communication by e-mail or other means when you receive a message from another user of the Services. You can control what communications we send to you in the Settings section of the Services, which includes the option to unsubscribe from all communications other than core service messages and system functions like password reset.
**Right to withdraw your consent**
You have the right to withdraw your consent to use your personally identifiable information for a specific purpose at any time. Removing your consent will not change any processing that has already occurred. If you do withdraw your consent, and if we do not have another legal basis for processing your personally identifiable information, then we will stop processing your personal data. If we do have another legal basis for processing your personally identifiable information, then we may continue to do so subject to your legal rights. If we are processing your personally identifiable information because we or a third-party have a legitimate interest you have the right to remove consent, but this may mean that it is no longer possible for you to use the Services.
**How we share information we collect**
Sharing and Collaborating with other users in the Services’ community
When you connect with other users of the Services – When you connect with another Service user, you give them permission to see, share, edit, copy and download information you add to the Services. Examples of connections include applying to a start-up program, to meet them during an event, getting a ticket to an event, completing a survey, adding information to our deal flow tools, requesting professional services and more. Some community and collaboration features of the Services show all or some of your profile information when you share or interact with content or other users through the Services. You can provide information that is freely visible to other users, such as the information on your personal profile.
You can control the visibility of your freely visible profile information, including hiding your profile from other users, using tools we provide you in the “Edit Profile” section of your personal profile.
Please note that hiding your profile will mean that your profile will no longer be visible, but your personally identifiable information will still be visible to other Service users you have given the ability to see your personally identifiable information.
Survey Registration Pages – You may be asked to complete a registration or survey by another Service user. For example, if you choose to complete the team registration for an event that you are attending you can provide your team members’ information and technology products you use which will result in your information being shared with the Service user that corresponds to the team registration.
**Sharing with third-parties**
*When we need to comply with applicable laws and requests* – When we believe that sharing your personally identifiable information with third-party is required to comply with an applicable law, regulation or request by a government entity, to protect ourselves, our users or others from harm or illegal actions, to respond to an emergency that threatens a person, to fulfil your support requirements and/or to generally protect the security and integrity of the Service.
*Our Partners* – Partners help us deliver some parts of the Services. For example, they create opportunities for startups and entrepreneurs such us innovation programs, incubation or acceleration programs, hackathons or other events.
*Service Providers* – We share information with third-parties in order provide, market, improve and support the Services, and these third-party service providers are essential to us in providing you with the Services. This includes service providers that perform services for us such as IT development, data hosting, e-mail delivery, testing, analytics, support infrastructure and other areas. The use of these services requires the relevant third-party to access or use personally identifiable information about you. We monitor these third-party service providers carefully and have policies and procedures in place to maintain the security of your information.
*With your consent* – We share your information with third-parties when you give us your explicit consent to share it.
With regard to sharing your data with other Service users and third-parties, please note that we will comply with your requests with regard to all future access to your information but your requests will not apply to any existing off-line information held by another Service user. As an example, when you connecting to a start-up program through an application profile or populate your personal profile some other Service users have the ability to access your information through functionality such as a file data download, printing as a paper version, accessing it by API and other means.
**Giving us information about other people**
You confirm that you have the right to authorise us to process information you give us about other people on your behalf in accordance with this Privacy Policy. As an example, you can give us information about employees of your start-up, business or other entity.
**Sensitive Data**
We do not collect any “Special Category Data” about you except where you provide it to us, or where it is necessary to do so to comply with the law.
**Data Retention**
We apply data retention policies in line with the type of personally identifiable information retained. We retain personally identifiable information or no longer than is required for our legitimate processing purposes. After a data retention period has expired, we either delete or anonymise your personally identifiable information.The retention policies we apply to different types of personally identifiable information are:
*Your Account Information* – This personally identifiable information is retained as long as your account is active and you have not requested its deletion, and nor has it been deleted under the Policies. We may keep some of your personally identifiable information to the extent needed to be in compliance with our legal obligations, to resolve disputes and enforce any agreements we have with you;
*Information you have shared on the Services* – We retain personally identifiable information from deleted and deactivated accounts as required to allow other users of the Services to continue to make use of the Services. For example, (i) your name will continue to appear on any messages you have sent to other users of the Services after account deletion and any posts you have made will continue to appear, or (ii) where your name or other personally identifiable information has been added to the Service by you or another user other than in association with your account (such as where your name has been added, with authority, as the founder of a startup and such record is not specifically linked to your account). You acknowledge and confirm that this may result in certain personally identifiable information remaining on the Service in these circumstances.
Apart from what we’ve described above, we’ll archive and stop actively using any personal identifiable information about you within a reasonable length of time (usually one year) of your last use of the Service. We’ll do our best to make it happen more quickly. We’ll also delete your personal data from our archives within one year from your last use of the Services in respect to all use of the Services other than professional services. Due to our compliance obligations, for professional services we’ll delete your personal data from our archives within ten years from your last use of the Services.
**How we store your information**
We collect information globally and store that information in the European Union (Vienna, London and Frankfurt) on our own servers and that of our service providers as part of providing the Services. These service providers are based inside the European Economic Area. We do not store or transfer personally identifiable information outside the EEA.
**Security of your information**
We take security of your data seriously and work hard to avoid loss, misuse, unauthorised access or disclosure. No security system is perfect and despite our efforts and the distributed nature of the Internet, we can’t guarantee that your personal data will be absolutely secure, either while it is being transmitted or while stored on our systems.
**Access and Control of your Information**
You have rights with respect to your personally identifiable information. We have compiled a list of choices below that you may make with additional information on how to make them happen.
You have the right to:
– request access to personally identifiable information we hold about you;
– deactivate your account;
– update your personally identifiable information;
– delete your personally identifiable information;
– ask us to stop using your personally identifiable information;
– ask us not to use your personally identifiable information to profile you or make automated decisions about you;
– stop receiving communications from us; and
– ask us to port your data to another service provider if technically feasible, or to provide you with a copy of personally identifiable information we hold about you in a structured, electronic format.
You can accomplish most of these directly using the tools we provide to you as part of the Service. If you are unable to do so using the tools we provide, please contact our support through the help section of our website, or e-mail us at support@pioneers.io. Depending on the choices you make, it may not be possible for us to continue to provide you with the Services after we implement your choices. This may result is us closing your account or your use of the Services being limited or not possible.
### Warranties and Disclaimers
We are committed to deliver our Services and contents to you with the highest professional standard and constant availability. We cannot guarantee, however, that Services:
– will be always be free from defects, inaccuracies or errors,
– always available,
– will meet your requirements,
– will operate in the configuration or with other hardware or software you use.
In addition, we may stop (permanently or temporarily) providing the Services (or any features within the Services) to you or to users generally and may not be able to provide you with prior notice.
Other than as expressly set out in these terms or additional terms, neither Pioneers.io nor its suppliers or distributors makes any specific promises about the Services. For example, we do not make any commitments about the content within the Services, the specific functions of the Services or their reliability, availability or ability to meet your needs. We provide the Services on an “as is” and “as available” basis.
### Liability for our Services
When permitted by law, Pioneers.io and Pioneers.io’s suppliers and distributors will not be responsible for lost profits, revenues or data, production, anticipated savings, business, contracts, commercial opportunities, goodwill, or indirect, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages.
No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained from the Services provided by us, will create any warranty not expressly made herein. Your use or reliance on any Content or other information, material, views or opinions in, or in relation to, the Services is at your own risk. You should exercise good judgement and caution as many individuals and entities add their information to the Service and we do not represent, warrant or guarantee in any way whatsoever that anything in the Service is reliable, accurate, correct, accurate or truthful. Content on the websites is the sole responsibility of those that submit it and can be harmful, incorrect, inappropriate or offensive.
In all cases, Pioneers.io and its suppliers and distributors will not be liable for any loss or damage that is not reasonably foreseeable.
### Business uses of our Services
Technically, Pioneers.io cannot determine with certainty whether a logged-on user of the Pioneers website de facto represents the person/company that the user/the company purports to be. Pioneers.io therefore shall not assume any liability whatsoever for the actual identity of a user. Each and every user is solely responsible for personally verifying the authenticity of other users.
If you are using our Services on behalf of a business, that business accepts these terms. It will hold harmless and indemnify Pioneers.io and its affiliates, officers, agents and employees from any claim, action or proceedings arising from or related to the use of the Services or violation of these terms, including any liability or expense arising from claims, losses, damages, judgements, litigation costs and legal fees.
### Customer support
Pioneers.io is available by email at support@pioneers.io to address any issues you may have regarding your use of the Services. Most concerns can be quickly resolved in this manner.
### Changes to Terms of Service
We may update these Terms from time to time. You understand and agree that your access to or use of our Services is governed by the Terms effective at the time of your access to or use of our Services. If we make material changes to these Terms, we will notify you by email or by posting a revised version of the Terms on our Site. We will also indicate at the top of this page the date that revisions were last made. You should revisit these Terms on a regular basis as revised versions will be binding on you. You understand and agree that your continued access to or use of our Services after the effective date of modifications to the Terms indicates your acceptance of the modifications.
### Miscellaneous
Court of Jurisdiction is the relevant court in 1010 Vienna. Contractual relationships with Pioneers.io are subject exclusively to Austrian law, excluding the CISG (United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods). Contract language is exclusively German.
---
### [Pioneers.Peak.PHS](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-peak-porsche-holding-salzburg/)
**Published:** June 10, 2022
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## The platform where intrapreneurs
bring innovative ideas to life
[ENTER AND LEARN MORE](https://pioneerspeak.braineet.com/en/g/)
---
### [Pioneers.Peak.OMV](https://pioneers.io/pioneers-peak-omv/)
**Published:** June 8, 2022
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
## The platform where intrapreneurs
bring innovative ideas to life
[ENTER AND LEARN MORE](https://pioneerspeak.braineet.com/en/g/)
---
## Team Members
### [Christina Senft](https://pioneers.io/team/christina-senft/)
**Published:** June 14, 2022
**Author:** Christina Senft
**Content:**
Christina works as a Manager at Pioneers. She gained experience as project lead in the establishment of a tech startup including product development and prototype testing as well as in a corporate setting by leading and implementing company-wide projects (digitalization/IT, restructuring, etc.) and strategy implementation. Her professional background includes experience in several sectors like energy, banking, the commercial office of the Austrian embassy as well as facility management and civil engineering/construction.
**Team Member Categories:** Mananagement & Lead Consultants, Team
---
### [Julian König](https://pioneers.io/team/julian-koenig/)
**Published:** October 12, 2022
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
Julian is a Manager at Pioneers. His focus lies on innovation strategy as well as idea development and business model innovation. He has several years of experience in the management of digitalization and innovation projects. Most recently, he worked in the public sector. Having worked in the Austrian startup ecosystem before, he is an expert in navigating through the startup landscape and facilitating collaborations. Moreover, he has a strong academic background in strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship by having completed the SIMC Master at WU Vienna.
**Team Member Categories:** Mananagement & Lead Consultants, Team
---
### [Sophie Sorg](https://pioneers.io/team/sophie-rab/)
**Published:** February 15, 2022
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
Sophie is a Senior Manager at Pioneers with a focus on innovation strategy work. She has more than 8 years of experience in developing digital strategies and in planning and managing digital transformation projects, both as a consultant and in the corporate world.
**Team Member Categories:** Mananagement & Lead Consultants, Team
---
### [René Mähr](https://pioneers.io/team/rene-maehr/)
**Published:** June 5, 2025
**Author:** Sophie Sorg
**Content:**
René Mähr is a digital innovator and entrepreneur, serving as Co-Founder of JTM Digital and General Manager of Wise Up, a corporate venture driving digital learning transformation. With a proven track record in venture building, product strategy, and business innovation, René combines strategic vision with hands-on execution to shape the future of digital ecosystems. At Pioneers, he leads the Digital Factory as Head of Digital, creating successful ventures that drive measurable impact for our clients.
**Team Member Categories:** Mananagement & Lead Consultants, Team
---
### [Anton Schilling](https://pioneers.io/team/anton-schilling/)
**Published:** June 2, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Anton is Managing Director of Pioneers. A technology enthusiast specializing in helping corporates achieve their innovation goals through working with startups and building new ventures. He has experience organizing and planning hackathons, product design sprints, accelerators, and company building programs.
**Team Member Categories:** Mananagement & Lead Consultants, Team
---
### [Thomas Gabriel](https://pioneers.io/team/thomas-gabriel/)
**Published:** July 2, 2021
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
Thomas is Managing Partner at Pioneers. He recently joined the team after a career in strategy consulting at Contrast and EY Parthenon.
Thomas has a strong track record in strategically transforming organizations in several industries – strategy, organization, performance management. Innovation from thought to finish is driving his work – digitalization and sustainability are the main levers.
He is a strategist, innovator and entrepreneur, making strategy and innovation happen.
**Team Member Categories:** Mananagement & Lead Consultants, Team
---
### [Alex Neumayer](https://pioneers.io/team/alex-neumayer/)
**Published:** October 25, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
After 6 successful years at REWE Group, where he served as Head of Innovation & Digitalization at jö Bonus Club, Alex joins Pioneers as a partner and brings his deep expertise in B2C innovation to our team. His extensive knowledge supports corporate innovation clients in retail, banking, and financial services, further strengthening our innovation consulting services across various sectors.
**Team Member Categories:** Mananagement & Lead Consultants, Team
---
### [Rupert Schmutzer](https://pioneers.io/team/rupert-schmutzer/)
**Published:** April 5, 2024
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
Rupert is Head of Pioneers.Talent – our tailored offering of talent solutions for startups, scaleups, and corporate ventures. After a career in management consulting, he has developed into a trusted advisor in the headhunting business with a focus on executive roles and key functions in dynamic organizations.
**Team Member Categories:** Mananagement & Lead Consultants, Team
---
### [Andrea Mulek](https://pioneers.io/team/andrea-mulek/)
**Published:** August 23, 2021
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
Andrea is senior innovation consultant at Pioneers. Being part of the European startup ecosystem for years, she got in touch with innovative solutions from a variety of industries. She facilitated startup-corporate cooperations, designed and executed acceleration and entrepreneurship education programs. She also supported the public sector providing advisory on designing national policies, strategies and programmes to further develop and fund the Hungarian RDI ecosystem – where she is originally from. She is a true “imagineer” – skilled in implementing creative ideas, translating them into reality.
**Team Member Categories:** Team
---
### [Annabelle Bockwoldt](https://pioneers.io/team/annabelle-bockwoldt/)
**Published:** June 2, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Annabelle is exploring the boundaries of IoT and innovation at the NASDAQ-listed retail solution provider ITAB, where she serves as the Vice President R&D.
Before her time at ITAB, Annabelle was part of the management team at Pioneers, where she led and developed a team of consultants and conducted various innovation projects for both, SMEs as well as blue chip companies.
Besides being experienced in setting up international, multi-corporate accelerator programs from scratch, she has also worked in Venture Capital for a Silicon Valley investor and co-founded a fintech startup and one data ethics think tank in Munich. In her free time, Annabelle loves to pay it forward through mentoring young entrepreneurs and by contributing to the Pioneers Expert Board.
**Team Member Categories:** Alumni
---
### [Harald Federspiel](https://pioneers.io/team/harald-federspiel/)
**Published:** June 2, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Harald is Manager and team lead at Pioneers and has run more than 30 innovation consulting projects for a variety of clients in different industries across the world. His passion is to work with innovative people on new products and services. He has extensive know-how in the field of intrapreneurship, startup-corporate collaboration and venture building where he delivers significant value to his clients by creating successful outcomes. He joined Pioneers Consulting services in the early days and helped building up the business unit.
**Team Member Categories:** Alumni
---
### [Tamara Stix](https://pioneers.io/team/tamara-stix/)
**Published:** November 17, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Team Member Categories:** Alumni
---
### [Markus Lang](https://pioneers.io/team/markus-lang/)
**Published:** November 17, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Former tech entrepreneur now seasoned venture capitalist, Markus is a partner in Speedinvest’s sector-agnostic seed team. He is passionate about B2B software companies (led Impala, Upvest, Shapr3D) and consumer ventures (led SecondNature, Refurbed) that tackle under-digitised markets. Previously in charge of the fund’s pre-seed activities, he built a transverse portfolio of 40+ companies all across Europe.
Earlier in his career, he co-founded an investor-backed logistics tech startup, advised multiple companies on their path to scale and ran his own venture. He has a background in Business Administration and Law.
Globetrotter but Austrian at heart, Markus is a very active contributor to the local ecosystem. He lectures at the Vienna Technical University, runs initiatives to increase diversity in business leadership and holds board or advisory roles in several nonprofits and public institutions. In 2018, he was included in Forbes Magazine’s annual 30 under 30 list.
**Team Member Categories:** Alumni
---
### [Harald Weiss](https://pioneers.io/team/harald-weiss/)
**Published:** November 17, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Team Member Categories:** Team
---
### [Bernhard Lehner](https://pioneers.io/team/bernhard-lehner/)
**Published:** June 2, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
During his studies in Vienna, Bernhard Lehner worked as a journalist for several media, including Die Presse. After founding and successfully establishing his own communication agency, he switched in 2006 as a partner to the first Austrian startup incubator i5invest. Since then he has worked as a co-founder (including 123people, tripwolf, all about apps, Adverity, Agentur Mint and others) and as a business angel (including Runtastic, wikitude, wikifolio and My Esel). Bernhard Lehner has lived with his family near Linz since 2015.
**Team Member Categories:** startup300
---
### [Daniel Horak](https://pioneers.io/team/daniel-horak/)
**Published:** June 2, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
Daniel Horak is co-founder and managing partner of 2013 founded crowdinvesting platform CONDA. Additionally, he is advisory board member of AustrianStartups (since 2014) and Digital Asset Association Austria (since 2018). He gained his first startup experience in 2007 by founding Spoken Language System, a company developing chat bots for customer support and worked for several years as IT- and management consultant.
Daniel holds master’s degrees in business informatics as well as in executive management, currently he is engaged as part time lecturer for business planning and early stage financing at various universities and holds workshops and presentations about startups, financing and Blockchain on a regular basis.
In 2017 he got awarded by Forbes DACH as 30under30 and has been a part of the Fintech Advisory Board by the Austrian ministry of finance in 2018.
Since October 2019 Daniel acts as Chief Sales Officer within the startup300 company group.
**Team Member Categories:** startup300
---
## Open Calls
### [Scaleup4Europe HealthLab | Batch #2](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/scaleup4europe-healthlab-batch-2/)
**Published:** October 20, 2021
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
# Scaleup4Europe HealthLab | Batch #2
## Get support in scaling your startup and gain access to new markets in the digital health space!
The goal of the Scaleup4Europe programme is to support European #scaleups and #startups to grow across borders by providing you with tailored readiness services, connecting you with relevant players and supporting you with gaining access to new markets.
[Apply Now](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/479/scaleup4europe-health-lab-open-call-2022)until Friday, 3rd of December
## **About Scaleup4Europe**
****Scaleup4Europe** is a cross-border project funded by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union, supporting innovative companies to scale and foster their collaboration with corporates and public organisations. We’ve teamed up with with four European startup ecosystems to drive deep tech innovations in #HealthTech and three other industry verticals: #AgTech, #AgileManufacturing and #SmartRegion.**
### **At Pioneers, we’re leading the #HealthLab and are looking for top scaleups with digital health solutions** to join our lab so we can take you on your scaling journey across Europe.
### [Learn more about the Scalup4Europe project](https://scaleup4.eu/)
## **The HealthLab Program**
**The ScaleUp4Europe HealthLab program** will support in total, the top 10 startups and scaleups who apply will receive full access to the readiness services, whilst the top maximum 6 will also receive a place on the corporate collaboration program. Selected scaleups and startups will be supported in the two essential ways described below. The estimated time required is about 1-3 hours per week during the 4-week program.
### Readiness Services
**Readiness services will be provided to the top 10 selected startups and scaleups who apply.** Through these services, we will support you on your scaling journey by providing you with tailored readiness services to equip you with a customized set of know-how, as well as industry and market insights in order to close the identified scaling gaps you are currently facing. Services provided include: a readiness assessment, expert coaching and masterclasses on entering new markets, exclusive membership benefits from our partners at ‘zero21’ and networking opportunities.
### Corporate Collaboration Program
**In addition to the readiness services, the top maximum 6 selected startups and scaleups will also be put forward for the corporate collaboration program** which will focus on co-creation and collaboration alongside corporate partners. The goal of the programme is for you to solve specific challenges through a 4-week remote collaboration program and present your solutions at a final event to a jury of corporate partners and experts. The the top-fit solutions can then be selected for a pilot project phase with the respective corporate partner.
## **What’s in it for you?**
**When applying for the HealthLab, you have the chance to apply to the corporate collaboration program,** however, if your solution is not in the search field of our partners introduced above but still in the digital health space, you can also apply to the program and take part in the readiness services only.
> ”Excellent opportunity for EU-based startups looking to scale!
>
>
>
> Rahul Kalippurayil MoozhipurathForecasty.AI
**Solve the challenges of our corporate partners**including a European pharma company and Paul HARTMANN AG, and be in with the chance of securing a pilot project at the end of the program.
This program that is free of charge for you and we do not take equity.
**Receive tailored scaling support and coaching across topics such as funding, legal and sales**
and get connected to potential customers and investors across Europe
**Gain access to exclusive mentoring opportunities**
with leading experts and corporate partners in the health industry
**Enjoy a fully online program**with all its flexibility and convenience
## **HealthLab Corporate Collaboration Program**
Our corporate partners brought 2 challenges to be solved and the **possibility of cooperation for the best and brightest.**
### **Living smarter with skin-related conditions**
#### How might we empower patients with diagnosed skin conditions to live a better life?
**DESCRIPTION**
Skin diseases are the fourth most common cause of all human disease, affecting almost one-third of the world’s population, yet their burden is often underestimated, despite their visibility. The aim of the challenge is to find patient-centric, B2B2C digital solutions that empower patients to cope better by tracking or treating their skin-related medical conditions. The solution is expected to provide a real added value for the patient and be complementary to medical therapy.
**POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS**
Skin tracking | Medication Extension | Digital Skin Care | Disease Self Management | Digital skin care | Cosmetology | Keratosis | Rosacea AREA THAT ARE EXPLICITLY
**EXCLUDED:** Solutions related to melanoma, psoriasis, eczema
**ABOUT THE CHALLENGE PARTNER**
The challenge partner is not ready to reveal herself just yet, but you can get to know them during the program. What they are ready to tell is that they are a leading generic pharmaceutical company in Europe whose activities incorporate all areas of the pharmaceutical value chain. The challenge partner is a member of an international pharmaceutical company governed by a non-profit foundation with its headquarters in France. While focusing mainly on treating diseases of the cardiovascular and central nervous systems, the challenge partner also provides modern treatment solutions in the fields of oncology and women’s health.
### [Reach out to us to learn more about them!](https://pioneers.io/about/contact-us/)
### **Empowering home-based caregivers using digital solutions**
How might we provide new digital solutions to empower on a day-to-day basis, caring relatives and non-professionals caregivers of elderly patients in a long-term homecare setting?
**DESCRIPTION**
More than half of all dependents in Germany are cared for at home solely by caring relatives. Caring relatives are often overwhelmed by the great responsibility of coordinating, planning and adapting to these new and always changing circumstances and bear the significant emotional burden of caregivers often without professional training. The aim of this challenge is to empower caring relatives to be able to improve the quality of care at home, and provide them with a peace of mind knowing that their family member is being well cared for. To achieve this, we are searching for start-ups/partners that provide innovative digital solutions for people that care for elderly people at home.
**POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS**
Sensors | Health Monitoring | Prediction | Wearables | Habit tracking | Home care management | Senior care | Incontinence | Robotics | Telehealth | Assisted living support | Day to day assistance | Assisted care | Remote care | Remote monitoring
**ABOUT THE CHALLENGE PARTNER**
For 200 years, HARTMANN has proudly channelled its clinical and medical expertise into smart solutions that are accessible to everyone. Since then, they help, care, protect and they are constantly looking for ways to improve treatments, outcomes, and healthcare experiences. The newly established Digital Business department is a key player in moving HARTMANN from a mostly product-centric company to become more of a solutions provider.
### [Learn more about the challenge partner](https://www.hartmann.info/en-corp/)
## **Selection Criteria**
**When applying for the HealthLab, we will be selecting startups based on 3 key criteria**, outlined below.
This ensures selected startups will recieve the maximum benefit from the program.
### **Maturity**
Startups and scaleups who have been operating for at least 1 year and who have achieved a minimum 100.000 EUR in turnover
### **Traction & Product**
Startups and scaleups who have a product/service that is already on the market
### **Location**
Startups and scaleups who are based in Europe and who are looking to scale across Europe
## Timeline
After the application deadline, the selection process will take place in December supported by our challenge partners.
**Applicants will be notified about the results of the selection process from 13th December.**
### **Apply**
via the online form to take part in the HealthLab program until **3rd December 2021**
### **Accelerate & Co-create**
with your challenge partner and supporting partners of the program during the remote 4-week collaboration program held between
**January-February 2022**
### **Showcase**
for prominent players of the health and investment space in **February 2022**
## Our key partners
[](https://www.hartmann.info/en-corp/)
[](https://www.takeda.com/)
[](https://zero21.club/)
[](https://www.healthproceurope.org/)
[](https://www.unternehmertum.de/en)
[](https://www.p-tech.si/en/)
[](https://en.pks.rs/)
[](https://viennabusinessagency.at/)
## Interested? Apply Now!
#### If the HealthLab sounds just like the right program for you, then apply now!
[Apply](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/479/scaleup4europe-health-lab-open-call-2022)
---
### [IP Österreich Startup Package](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/startup-tv-package-austria/)
**Published:** June 22, 2021
**Author:** Michael Lunzer
**Content:**
# Startup TV Package Austria
## Grow your business in Austria through the new Media4Revenue offer by IP Österreich
The goal of the IP Österreich TV Startup Package is to give high-growth FMCG startups, e-commerce companies and SMEs the chance to discover TV as a new marketing channel in Austria and to promote their product and brand to Austrian mass market. With the “Media 4 Revenue Share Model” IP Österreich provides an affordable, customized, low-risk opportunity to achieve measurable and full impact on TV.
[Request Offer](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/468/ip-oesterreich-startup-package)until Sunday, 31st of July
Package powered by
## **About the Startup TV Package Austria**
**Unleash the full potential of your business with TV ads**
The Startup TV Package Austria provides startups, e-commerce companies and SMEs the opportunity to explore TV as a new marketing channel, to build up their brand and to promote their product to a broad audience. Even though many declared TV to be outdated, it is still the communication medium with the widest reach and offers the opportunity to take your business to the next level.
With the unique **“Media 4 Revenue Share Model”** IP Österreich provides an affordable, customized, low-risk opportunity to achieve measurable and full impact on TV. This entry package enables startups and SMEs to reach their target group in a highly efficient way.
No equity taken at any point of the media collaboration
Individually defined revenue share calculated on a staggered basis
Risk-sharing between IP Österreich and the startup
Joint development of the media strategy and planning
Campaign implementation and performance evaluation
## THE PACKAGE BENEFITS
The Startup TV Package Austria is specifically designed to allow an easy and well-guided entering into the world of TV advertisements. With the package get expert support throughout the whole planning, development and performance measurement of TV ads – while the payment of the full price is linked to success.
Promote your product and brand to a broad audience
Boost your growth and revenues in the Austrian market
Test the German-speaking mass market and get ready to scale
Get expert support for media planning and launch
Access TV advertising with shared risk and affordable pricing
## Selection Criteria
In order to be eligible for the IP Österreich Startup Package, your company has to meet the following criteria:
### **\#1 Product & Market**
Scalable B2C products, preferably in the area of FMCG and e-commerce
### **\#2 Traction & Stage**
Later-stage startups and SMEs with a monthly recurring revenue of €30k+
### **\#3 Location**
Europe, intending to enter or grow revenues or presence in the Austrian market
## SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNS
**Jollydays**
Jollydays offers gift vouchers for any adventure and occasion.
Jollydays used several TV Ads in collaboration with IP Österreich to increase market share and awareness for its adventure vouchers.
**Waterdrop**
waterdrop® enriches your water with fruit and plant extracts. Founded in Austria, Waterdrop used IP Österreich TV ads to grow its revenues and presence in the home country.
## **About Unit 3 at IP Österreich**
IP Österreich is a leading cross-media advertising marketer and serves the increasing demand for multichannel marketing offers on the Austrian market with its cross-genre portfolio. IP Österreich markets the advertising time of the media group RTL including the channels RTL, VOX, SUPER RTL, NITRO, n-tv, RTLplus, RTL II as well as the sports channel Sky Sport Austria/HD and regional channels R9, schauTV and Krone.tv. In addition, their portfolio includes a high-quality online portfolio with digital products and influencer marketing.
Unit 3 supports start-ups, SMEs and e-commerce companies in entering the high-reach medium of TV and assists them with their experience in efficiently scaling for the mass market.
### [Learn more](https://www.ip.at/seiten/unit3)
## Interested to launch your campaign?
#### If the TV Package sounds like just the right thing for you, then fill the interest form and we will send you all important info to get started.
[Get all Info](http://bit.ly/startupTVpackage_form)Please see [FAQs](#faq) for more details.
### [How do I know if my startup is TV-ready?](#)
In order to be ready for this “Media for Revenue” opportunity and promoting your product and brand via TV ads, you need to make sure that you fulfill 3 criteria:
1. Your product is available in Austria (online or in stores)
2. Your monthly revenue is over 30.000€
3. You have a spot or plan to create one
No Spot – No Problem: We help you with intros to video production companies, or we offer to directly create a spot with your content (video and images) and a professional narrator (Option to be paid back as additional volume).
Please fill out the [interest form](http://bit.ly/startupTVpackage_form) to receive more details.
### [How can I get more information about this opportunity?](#)
Please use the [interest form on Piobay.](http://bit.ly/startupTVpackage_form) By registering on Piobay you also become part of the Pioneers network and we will keep you informed about upcoming opportunities for you.
### [When is the right time to start with our TV ads as a startup?](#)
According to the stage of the startup, different marketing and communication channels are most suitable.
At the very beginning startups communicate to their family and friends, vias word of mouth, social media and public relations. Then soon online performance marketing follows in order to reach early adopters and niche customers. A lot of testing is done at these stages.
When a startup has reached product-market-fit the focus switches to the roll out on the mass market. Online performance ads are continued but in order to generate demand above the line marketing actions are added.
Regarding extensive studies[\[1\]](#_ftn1) TV advertisement has the highest return on investment (ROI) among marketing channels. TV can transfer a high level of emotions and reach the potential customer in relaxed and receptive state. The high quality touchpoints are delivered in a brand-safe-environment (our colleagues place the ads, so no negative effect can occur).
Besides the mentioned factors, in order to start with TV Ads its critical to
- define a broad target group in terms of age range and sex
- have the products available at the target market and have a functioning supply chain
- have a TV Spot or be willing to produce one
In order to participate in our Media 4 Revenue Model we suggest a revenue level of at least € 30k per month.
—-
[\[1\]](#_ftnref1) „Profit Ability: the business case for advertising“, November 2017 Ebiquity ROI campaign database (Jan’08-May’17). Campaign obs: 6000; 2. ‚Profit Ability: the business case for advertising‘, November 2017 Ebiquity ROI campaign database (Feb’14-May’17). Campaign obs: 1954
### [On which TV Channels will my spots be shown?](#)
IP Österreich exclusively markets the channels of the Mediengruppe RTL (one of the biggest media companies in Europe) as well as local stations.
We plan your campaign regarding to your broad target group. The general key metric that you pay for are the number of touchpoints within your target group. The spots are placed by our research and campaign management team in these leading channels:
- RTL
- VOX
- SuperRTL
- Nitro.
- ntv
- RTLplus
- RTLzwei
- KroneTV
### [Will the TV Ads also be show on your channels in Germany?](#)
The TV Ads for each station are different in Germany and in Austria. Although we are part of the Mediengruppe RTL, we market the advertisement space for Austria. If you want to do a roll out in several markets, we can connect you with the right contacts. Learnings generated in one market can also be applied to other markets. So you can start for example in Austria as a test market and then efficiently do bigger campaigns in other markets, like Germany.
### [Why is Austria a good test market?](#)
Austria is, especially for Germany, a very suitable test market. Austria has 1/10 of the population of Germany with very similar demographics. As the learnings from a campaign in Austria can be applied to other markets it is efficient to first do a smaller campaign here and then scale to other markets.
### [What time slots are chosen? How do you assure quality of my placement?](#)
As mentioned, we only charge you by touchpoints within the defined broad target group. In general spots are placed on different channels and time slots. As you only pay per touchpoint the most relevant factor is to reach your target group.
So a prime time spot in a big channel can reach for example 20x the people in the target group as a late night spot on a niche channel. As you pay per touchpoint for example 1 prime time spot and 20 late night spots could interchangeable by result and price. Our decades long research assures that you get the best mix.
### [How does the roadmap look like? What are the steps in order to do a TV campaign?](#)
1. We give you a general overview of our offer in form of a presentation
2. We set up a call and answer individual questions (if not covered here) & you give us input (starting date, goal, potential budget, spot help required etc.) in order to arrive at a first campaign plan.
3. We agree on the terms and sign our standard contract (at least 4 weeks before the start)
4. We reserve the advertising slots on different TV Channels. The same time your spot should be ready or in final planning.
5. You deliver the spot (2 weeks before start)
### [Can there be changes in my campaign plan?](#)
The TV program is – to a certain degree – dynamic. There can be unforeseen events (eg. death of a celebrity etc.) that result in changes of the program. Even if there are short term changes, we make sure that the number of touchpoints of your target group stay the same.
### [We don’t have a spot. How can we get one easily?](#)
Our main business is to deliver your message/brand to the relevant target group. We are not an advertisement agency, but we can help you with your spot production, in several ways:
1. We offer a simple spot production with your exact input (storyline, pictures, videos, etc.). We don’t engage in the creative part, but we organize a speaker for your text. We charge 1.500€ for this service and return the payment in form of additional advertisement volume.
2. We connect you with spot production companies and you can get individual quotes from them. In general, the production cost is between 5.000-20.000 € depending on your requirements.
The success of a spot is highly related to the attention it can create. This does not have to be directly related to budget, but rather to your (or your agencies) creative input.
### [How does the calculation of the revenue share component work?](#)
In most cases, we agree on a revenue share of 8-15% of the revenue in the month of the campaign + optional aftermath to arrive at the calculated total revenue share (it’s an individual agreement, related to the past performance & forecast). If the forecast is not fully reached, we receive only the agreed percentage.
### [What are the costs of the TV campaign?](#)
The Startup TV Package Austria is available in 3 different discount levels starting at TV Volume of 44.000€ at maximum total cost of 18.000€, of which **only 6k is cash** and 12k is revenue. Fill out the interest form [here](http://bit.ly/startupTVpackage_form) to get more details!
### [How much time do we need to invest?](#)
Filling out the simple form takes only around 10 minutes. We’ll schedule a call in the following 2 weeks to dive deeper into what you’re looking for and how we can make it happen.
The time needed for setting up the campaign is very individual. If a suitable spot already exists, it will take around 4-5 weeks until we’re ready to run your TV campaign.
---
### [Vienna Business Agency Startup Package Spring 2021](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/vienna-business-agency-startup-package-spring-2021/)
**Published:** December 21, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
---
### [Visa Everywhere Initiative 2021](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/visa-everywhere-initiative-2021/)
**Published:** March 3, 2021
**Author:** Pioneers
---
### [Voestalpine & Primetals](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/voestalpine-primetals/)
**Published:** November 3, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
**Content:**
# Digital Metals AI Hackathon
## January 16-17, 2020 @ Talent Garden Vienna
The goal of the Digital Metals AI Hackathon is to generate the best ideas and create new solutions in a rapid prototyping format. To achieve this goal, voestalpine and Primetals will host a Hackathon, where participants (startups, innovators) will develop new and innovative solutions around four use case. During 48 hours, teams will compete to create the best solutions for four use cases.
[Apply here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/digital-metals-ai-hackathon)until Sunday, 15th of December
## High Performance Metals Division of voestalpine
**The High Performance Metals Division of voestalpine** is focused on producing and processing high-performance materials and customer-specific services including heat treatment, high-tech surface treatments, and additive manufacturing processes increasingly using digital technology. The division is the global market leader for tool steel and a leading provider of high-speed steel, valve steel, and other products made of special steels, as well as powder materials, nickel-based alloys, titanium, and components produced using also additive manufacturing technologies.
#### [Learn more](https://www.voestalpine.com/highperformancemetals/de/)
## Primetals Technologies
**Primetals Technologies** is a joint venture of Siemens, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and partners based on over 60 years of innovation in the field of metals production. Primetals Technologies is continually pioneering new solutions to provide metals producers with cutting-edge, custom-tailored plant equipment with a focus on new ecological solutions, the digitalization of all production-related processes, Industry 4.0, future-oriented designs for linked casting and rolling, as well as advanced process analysis and optimization.
#### [Learn more](https://www.primetals.com/)
**Bring together industry leaders**
and the brightest minds from the startup world
**Solve specific challenges**
for voestalpine and Primetals
**Identify potential collaboration opportunities**
between startups and hackathon partners
**Develop prototypes**
for voestalpine and Primetals within 48 hours
**Develop new solutions**
for the future of global leading industrial companies.
## Hackathon Topics
Digital Metals AI Hackathon encompasses changes along the whole value chain leading to the higher efficiency and flexibility. At the Hackathon startups have an opportunity to make a step into the future by solving specific real-life challenges of partner companies.
### **Use Case 1: Automatic Generation of Requisitions**
### [The Goal](#)
The goal of the challenge is to develop a solution that can **predict or identify demand for materials and services**. The solution will create purchasing requisitions from these demands or notify the user to capture a purchase requisition. This could be based on historical data (previous requisitions, orders, forecasted demand based on production orders and sales forecasts) and/or on the current availability (or lack of availability) of materials in the plant.
### [Current Problem](#)
Currently, a large amount of time is invested to identify demand for material and services and to manually enter purchasing requisitions. This is often done too late for timely procurement and is a lot of manual work (up to 70,000 requisitions per year at a large production site).
### [Potential parts of the solution](#)
1. Automatic and timely generation of SAP requisitions for material or services.
2. If full automation is not possible then use available technology to support the user to identify demand to trigger manual entry.
### **Use Case 2: Measuring Steel Pieces with a Mobile App**
### [The Goal](#)
The goal of the challenge is to use to **develop an App** for iOS (or Android) that uses (camera or video) **for dimension-measuring for steel parts**. The App could use one or more photos or live video to measure the 3 dimensions of rectangular voestalpine steel pieces.
### [Current Problem](#)
Currently, measuring 3 dimensions with a tape measure and typing them in via a small keyboard is time-consuming, leads to mistakes and frustration.
### [Potential parts of the solution](#)
1. As an iOS (or Android) App. The solution has to work on the production site.
2. It must be portable and practical, the usage of tripods is not possible.
3. The App could use one or more photos (combined from different angels) or live video to measure.
4. The use of reference materials (e.g. markers, stickers, plastic bars) or other hardware is possible.
### **Use Case 1: Digital Twin Interaction & Visualization**
### [The Goal](#)
The goal of the challenge is to **develop** a “user and customer experience”, this means a **Visualization & Interaction – interface**. The Digital Twin of the Primetals product Endless Strip Production (ESP) is a comprehensive simulation including the plant itself (Digital Twin of the Plant, e.g. CAD Files), the production process (Digital Twin of the Process) and the produced product (steel grade) with its properties (Digital Twin of the Material). The simulations – as well as the automation on the real plant – are based on physical and data-based models provided by Primetals. [ESP promotion video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3fDodIPANo)
### [Current Problem](#)
No known digital visualization solutions (except classical HMIs) exists that can fulfill requirements.
### [Potential parts of the solution](#)
1. Virtual walk through the plant and plant operation training by the Visualization Interface (“ Flight Simulator”) based on the Digital Twin simulation (e.g. 3D visualization, Gaming Industry Concepts, VR, AR, MR applications or similar).
2. Assistance systems (e.g. Data Glass, Tablets, Mobiles) that allow to display information originating from live data or out of the Digital Twin. Information should be displayed according to the real or virtual position in the plant.
CAD Files of the plant as well as Interfaces and Data will be available for Hackathon.
### **Use Case 2: AI-based Information Crawler**
### [The Goal](#)
The goal of the challenge is to **develop an AI-powered tool** or service which **automatically scans**, evaluates and summarizes relevant **sources externally** (www, scientific/technical journals) **and internally** (internal documents on share points, databases etc). The content should be defined by respective users in an easy to manage way by combining keywords, context, specific technologies, company names etc.
### [Current Problem](#)
The portfolio of Primetals is very large, complex and very specialized. Technology, Competitor, IP screening and monitoring is mainly done manually and on-demand.
### [Potential parts of the solution](#)
1. Systematic and periodic search with a software and content/context management tool taking many kinds of information sources as a basis (including pictures, videos). The source includes search engines, databases, documents on SharePoint, outlook/mail data if available, social media, video portals, conference proceedings.
2. Language English (also German if possible).
3. Results that provide a list with a concise summary and link to detailed information, e.g. contact data summary, ratings. Possibility of comments and automatic storage of documents in defined folders.
4. Automatic monthly report delivery.
## Benefits of participation
**Get connected with industry leaders**
You can absorb a lot of knowledge and innovative approaches, take these insights home and replicate in their endeavour.
**Winning Prize**
The winning team for each use case will receive € 3.000,- in prize money. There will be an audience prize as well. The teams with the most promising ideas will receive the opportunity to discuss with voestalpine and Primetals for further cooperation opportunities.
**Co-develop the solution of the future**
It’s a great chance to expand network, ask for advice and to interact one-on-one with expert mentors, who will follow and support.
**Expenses Covered**
Pioneers will provide food and drinks over the whole time of the hackathon – this will make every developer heart jump higher. You will also get an accommodation and travel voucher (please see [FAQs](#faq) for more details).
**Business Development and Collaboration**
Get the experience of challenging your product or solution within a new industry or use case – if you can prove your skills this is the perfect opportunity to interact with new potential partners.
## Want to participate as a Startup?
#### If it sounds like just the right thing for you, then apply now!
Travel costs and Accommodation will be covered for all participants.
2-3 participants per team.
[Apply here](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/digital-metals-ai-hackathon)Please see [FAQs](#faq) for more details.
## Agenda
#### The Hackathon consists of 2 phases. We start with a virtual meeting few days before the Hackathon to enable everyone for the event on-site with the needed information. In the second phase the actual Hackathon in Vienna takes place.
### **Pre-Hackathon: Virtual Meeting**
January
**Tue, 14th**
11:30 – Virtual kickoff
12:00 – voestalpine Use Case 1
12:30 – voestalpine Use Case 2
### **1st Hackathon Day**
January
**Thu, 16th**
08:30 – Registration
09:00 – Opening by Pioneers
09:30 – Morning Energizer Activity
10:00 – Development Session
12:00 – Lunch
18:00 – Dinner
Open End Development Time!
### **2nd Hackathon Day**
January
**Fri, 17th**
08:00 – Development Time
09:30 – Morning Energizer Activity
12:00 – Lunch
15:00 – Final Pitches to Expert Jury
16:30 – Final Pitches to Expert Jury
17:30 – Jury Meeting
17:45 – Winners Announcement
18:00 – Networking & drinks
## FAQs
#### Why should you participate? How do you apply?
Check the answers of these and more questions at our FAQs section.
### [How can I apply?](#)
If you apply as a startup, please use the [application form on Piobay.](https://piobay.pioneers.io/piobay/login/aegon-open-innovation-challenge) With your application on Piobay you also become part of the Pioneers network and we will keep you informed about upcoming opportunities for you.
### [What is in for me?](#)
**Winning Prize and Certificates**
As a selected startup or team, you will join the Digital Metals AI Hackathon. We expect 5 teams per use case and there will be a winner in each use case receiving prize money of 3000 Euros. We will also have an audience winner as well with a prize.
**Business Development and Collaboration**
After the hackathon, each startup and team will be evaluated individually. Based on the outcomes of this evaluation, a suitable collaboration will be discussed by voestalpine and Primetals respectively.
**Learning Experience**
Your startup and team will be supported during the hackathon both by our partners voestalpine and Primetals, as well as our own Pioneers experts.
**What’s required**
For the startups and teams selected, we require that you and your team (up to three people) join us in person in Vienna for the 2-day hackathon with all other participants. You must also attend a remote virtual kickoff that will take place few days before the hackathon and this will take a maximum of 2 hours of your time.
**Network & Mentoring**
Besides connecting with other startups, this hackathon will offer you the opportunity to connect with other teams and network with key employees from voestalpine and Primetals during and at the end of the hackathon.
### [How are the winners selected?](#)
One team will be selected as a winner for each use case after pitching at the end of the hackathon to a jury of senior executives from voestalpine and Primetals. Therefore, we will have 4 winners in total at the end of the hackathon for the 4 use cases.
### [Who can participate?](#)
All relevant startups and teams can participate.
### [Does it make sense to apply if we already have a proven idea and business model?](#)
Yes! Both voestalpine and Primetals are looking for solutions to the use cases. The solutions can come from early-stage or a scale-up.
### [Can I only participate as a startup or also as an individual?](#)
We are only looking for established startups and innovators with a team of two or more people. Nevertheless, get in touch and we will consider on a case by case.
### [How many people should a team be?](#)
2 participants would be ideal. We encourage the teams should be up to 3 participants per-use case if required.
### [Can I also join remotely?](#)
Unfortunately no! The hackathon will be a 2-day event where it is mandatory to join along with a short remote kick off a few days earlier.
### [Can I only participate in one use case?](#)
Yes! If you believe your startup has enough participants to be involved in more than one use case, then get in touch. We will review this on a case by case basis.
### [When do I get the data/information needed?](#)
As teams will have different data (type) needs, voestalpine and Primetals will provide and assist you with the necessary data before and during the hackathon.
### [When do I get more information on the use case?](#)
The use cases will be further explained to those startups and teams selected to join hackathon during a remote virtual launch of the hackathon few day before the actual 2-day hackathon in Vienna, Austria. After signing a basic NDA, voestalpine and Primetals will share a detailed description of the use case during the remote kickoff.
### [Who is keeping the Intellectual Property (IP) of my solution?](#)
You will remain the owner of the IP of any (new) you have come up with during the hackathon. Based on your team’s performance, idea and jury outcome, voestalpine and Primetals will discuss any future partnership with your teams in the coming weeks after the hackathon.
### [What about confidentiality of information?](#)
To protect both your and our Intellectual Property (IP), you will have to sign both an NDA and DPA (Data Privacy Agreement). Any data shared with you by voestalpine and Primetals must not be used outside the hackathon.
### [What is the cancelation policy?](#)
After you are selected, we will ask you to sign a participation contract – from this moment onwards it is a mandatory confirmation of participation.
### [What are the costs of participating?](#)
Participating is free of charge. The selected startups and teams are invited to join the two-day hackathon that will take place in Talent Garden Vienna on January 16th and 17th. A few days before the hackathon, we will have a virtual remote kickoff where the uses cases will be given to you in more detail and any questions answered.
### [How about the accomodation and travel costs?](#)
Selected startups and teams are eligible: For Voestalpine use cases, selected startups and teams are eligible to be covered with up to 200 euros per team from Austria (outside Vienna) and 600 euros per teams from Europe. For Primetals use cases, selected startups and teams are eligible to be covered with up to 300 euros per team from Austria (outside Vienna) and 500 euros per team from Europe. All selected teams must arrange their accommodation and travels independently.
### [Do I have to stay at the venue for the whole time?](#)
The hackathon will be a two-day event at Talent Garden and it is mandatory to be at the event till the winners are announced on the second day of the hackathon. You will have the chance to talk with mentors senior executives from Primetals and voestalpine during the hackathon.
### [Is there food provided?](#)
Food and beverages will be provided during the 2-day hackathon.
### [What should I bring along?](#)
Whatever you need to develop your idea for the use case: your computer, your notebook and most of all your good spirit throughout the hackathon!
### [Can I also join the hackathon if I am not a participant?](#)
Unfortunately, this is a closed event. We do not allow any non-participants to be involved other than the startups and teams selected and Pioneers, voestalpine and Primetals employees involved.
### [How much time do I need to invest?](#)
The selected teams need to be present for 2 days of the hackathon in Vienna, Austria. There will be a remote virtual kickoff a few days before that should take around 2 hours.
## Location
**Vienna – Talent Garden**
Liechtensteinstraße 111-115, 1090 Vienna, Austria, 6th Floor
## Success Story From Previous Hackathons
**The Grand Finale**
6-8 November 2017, Linz
“*I was really surprised with the good results we saw within just a few hours here. There’s so much to learn, it’s really good to look outside the usual places to find it. A hackathon gives a really good overview of what possibilities are on the market.*”
**Head of Innovation, Wienerberger**
## Want to join? Questions?
[Contact us](mailto:discover@pioneers.io)
---
### [hub:raum](https://pioneers.io/open-calls/hubraum-3/)
**Published:** November 3, 2020
**Author:** Pioneers
---