Where the Rubber Meets the Road

When Siemens brought me in to run next47 late last year, one of my mandates was to create a program to identify and incubate entrepreneurial ventures within the company. The point was not to create a corporate “feel good” program for employees; this was part of a bigger strategic initiative within Siemens to build the next-generation businesses for the company. In light of that, and based on my experience, it was clear that whatever we did needed to closely mirror the real experience of building a start-up. That’s why our partnership with Techstars was such a critical component to this initiative and why it’s so unique. As Susana wrote previously, the Siemens teams who are being chronicled in the Forever Transformed series were picked to participate in the IoT and Mobility programs based on the power of their ideas and their commitment to building a business.

This most recent episode of our documentary series, aptly titled The Rubber Meets the Road, shows the real work involved in starting a business. Almost two months into the program, EcoG and RealSynth are working with their mentors to move beyond “technology for technology’s sake.” In this episode we see the hard work that goes into developing a pitch that puts their vision into a broader industry context and a business plan that will lead to revenue generation. I am really proud of how seriously these teams have taken this challenge and look forward to seeing how they progress through the rest of the program and beyond.