Why StartUps are the R&D Lab of our society
The new generation of entrepreneurs is radically different. How, you ask? According to Sebastian Borek, a cultivator of entrepreneurial talent, startups are the R&D lab for our society, and they are key to achieving climate neutrality.
This piqued our curiosity. At FoundersLane, we are driven to investigate the dynamics of corporate venture building and how entrepreneurs play a starring role. Keep reading below for Sebastian’s insights and sign up for our newsletter to receive more expert articles.
An Entrepreneur Educator
CEO and Co-Founder of the Founders Foundation, Sebastian has made it his mission to address sustainability challenges through developing the next generation of B2B tech entrepreneurs. A non-profit located in Bielefeld, Germany, the Founders Foundation “places a sustainable and successful education of founders at the center of its activities” through instruction, guidance, concept validation and accelerators, as well as the motto: “No equity — people first.”
When we sat down with Sebastian to talk about climate change one question arose: Why invest in the success of startups as a strategy towards protecting the environment?
A New Generation of Startups
There’s a push within startups towards sustainability, not just in the context of business, but within the bigger context of climate neutrality. Sebastian describes this momentum:
“We are observing now in our organisation that there are lots of startups looking at sustainable business models. We have seen companies focusing on circular economy or that want to make sure that energy is more efficient. There are a lot of environmentally conscious startups. Maybe it’s a trend, maybe it’s a mindset and a new generation.”
With over 200 entrepreneurs joining the Founders Foundation academy each year, Sebastian has also witnessed a critical shift, “I feel like capitalism and impact are merging closer together to create these hybrid models. You can save the environment, and at the same time you [can] create a sustainable business model that’s financially stable.”
This new generation of startups suggests a promising direction, and Sebastian considers it the way forward with huge potential in the areas of Health, Mobility and IoT in Germany.
A Unique Opportunity for Change
Then in 2020, COVID-19 stopped the world in its tracks. The pandemic presented an opportunity unlike any other. It put everything on hold and offered a time for reflection, a time to radically shift gears in terms of developing climate neutrality, a time to disrupt the environmental hockey stick. “It’s sometimes hard if you’re in full speed to change the direction, but now everything is on stop, so we can think, analyse and go forward,” Sebastian believes.
“Now is the perfect time to switch things, to change things. There’s lots of pressure in the market for each stakeholder. There is an opportunity for startups to create great ideas, concepts, be flexible and to try them out.”
The pandemic has also made one point abundantly evident — we’re in this together. “There are collaboration efforts among all parties and stakeholders; everyone realised they need each other and, obviously, they have the same environmental challenges and that’s clearer than ever, so there is a higher commitment towards collaboration.”
Despite what he calls a greater “openness for collaboration”, Sebastian admits that challenges still lie ahead: “We have everything, with all the ingredients it needs. However, each ingredient belongs to a different system, and the system itself prohibits cooperation. This is the biggest challenge.”
The Way Forward: Startups as the R&D lab for society
We wanted to circle back, pinpoint exactly why this new generation of entrepreneurs is so critical. According to Sebastian, they are not only adaptive to technologies but incredibly sensitive to market dynamics and requests. He characterizes them, “For the whole society, they are like a research and development department — you see startups taking up things, people observing, [and] venture capitalists financing it.”
Corporate allies also play a role in this new R&D lab. Sebastian expands on this, describing how corporate venture building “needs to have a certain set of rules” to collaborate successfully. He continues, “We still need to find the right structure in terms of who owns the business, how our talents are incentivised, what is the common vision of the entrepreneurs and the corporate.”
As Sebastian asserts in this interview, making corporate venture building happen is no simple task. Check out our book, “Das Entscheidende Jahrzehnt”, to learn how to successfully take the best of corporate and entrepreneurial ecosystems and address real change to protect the planet.
FoundersLane, the leading Corporate Venture Builder for climate and health, was founded in 2016 by Felix Staeritz, Andreas von Oettingen, and Michael Stephanblome. The team develops digital business models in the health and climate sector by combining the agility and the mindset of technology entrepreneurs with the strength of corporations. FoundersLane draws on more than 20 years of experience by the founders in building up new companies.
FoundersLane creates new, fast-growing digital companies in categories that are highly topical and current. FoundersLane counts more than 100 founders, experts and entrepreneurs with great expertise in the fields of medicine, health, climate, disruptive technologies such as IoT connectivity, AI, and machine learning. Clients and partners include SMEs and corporations as well as more than 30 Forbes listed companies, such as Trumpf, Vattenfall, Henkel and Baloise. FoundersLane is active in Europe, MENA and Asia with offices in Berlin, Cologne, Vienna and London.
Felix Staeritz is a serial entrepreneur, investor, founder and CEO of the corporate venture builder FoundersLane, member of the Board of Digital Leaders of the World Economic Forum and book author and is one of the internationally recognised experts on entrepreneurship and digital transformation. Driven by the firm conviction to sustainably improve the world through digital innovations, he has been in close dialogue with the global business and scientific elite in relevant international bodies for around 20 years.
Dr Sven Jungmann is a doctor-turned-entrepreneur. He is a partner at FoundersLane and an advisor to health start-ups and investors. Handelsblatt listed him among Germany’s smartest innovators. Sven has consulted Wellster Healthtech, the D2C health success case in Germany and continues doing so via an advisory board role. Wellster Healthtech has been promoting D2C in health early on.
