John Warner is CEO of InnoVenture, whose global Web platform helps people with big ideas attract needed customers, capital, talent and technology. InnoVenture.com partners include major corporations, universities and entrepreneurial companies regionally and around the world.
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InnoMobility applies the Concepts to Companies process to startups focused on transportation, energy and technology
My last UBJ column described the Concepts to Companies process. Typically what happens now is a startup entrepreneur creates a multiyear business plan to raise capital only to find many of her assumptions are off. Predictably, the entrepreneur’s credibility with investors becomes toast over several cycles of raising new capital only to find she is still discovering the market.
Rather than seeing the entrepreneur’s journey as a series of failures, Concepts to Companies reframes it as a learning process that builds momentum. Initially the entrepreneur doesn’t have a business plan, but a business hypothesis. The entrepreneur tests her assumptions by talking to customers, vendors and others, iteratively refining her business. Once the entrepreneur discovers what the market is, she is ready to attract an experienced team and raise a large round of capital to grow rapidly.
Presenters on the first morning of InnoMobility 2013 on Nov. 6 and 7 at the Peace Center will apply the Concepts to Companies concept to startups focused on the global transformation of mobility.
Several startups are focused on a new form of personal rapid transit. Corey Clothier will return to InnoMobility for the second year, describing his progress developing a system of on-demand, autonomous vehicles at the Fort Bragg wounded warrior campus. Michael Fleming will present his company, TORC Robotics, which is providing the autonomous vehicle control software Corey uses. Corey met Greenville County Councilman Fred Payne last year, and Payne has held several meetings since then to explore developing in Greenville the first community-wide on-demand autonomous vehicle system using Corey and Michael’s technologies.
Nigel Clarke will represent Ultra Global PRT, which has one of the most significant personal rapid systems already operating at Heathrow Airport in London. Netanel Goldberg from Israel will discuss Auto-Mate, a multimodal private transportation system. Andrey Derevianko from Austin, Texas, will explain how his MaglevTrans system can achieve 180 miles per hour in electric vehicles energized by solar power.
Several other transformation of mobility concepts will also be featured. Aniela Kuzon is from the NextEnergy Center in Detroit, a catalyst for advanced energy technology demonstration and commercialization that has helped to attract more than $1 billion of new investment. Steve Corona from Charleston will discuss how Life 360 uses location-based technology to help families to stay connected throughout the day. Share Savannah, founded by Kevin Klinkenberg, is a leading car-sharing marketplace. Clemson professor Juan Gilbert will review innovations from the Human-Centered Computing Lab. Dave McNamara from Columbia will discuss Big Rig Innovations’ elegant solution to save fuel in long-haul trucking.
Over lunch, Tony Nausieda of GM Ventures, Matt Dunbar from the Upstate Carolina Angel Network, crowdfunding expert Mark Knight from Nexsen Pruet, and Peter Adriaens, professor of engineering and entrepreneurship strategy at the University of Michigan, will explore investing in the future of mobility.
The afternoon of the first day, major organizations with resources will discuss how to the use Concepts to Companies to discover and develop new high-growth mobility markets. Assaf Biderman will show how the MIT SENSEable City Lab is helping to create connected communities around the world. David Muyres from Johnson Controls and Gari Singh from IBM WebSphere will discuss their technologies that connect communities together.
Patrick Kirby will announce a global Michelin initiative to incubate high-growth mobility businesses. Joe Ballif from Itron will review how electric vehicles and the supporting infrastructure are growing markets for Itron products. Sidney Locke with Sage Automotive Interiors will discuss applying their world-leading design expertise to develop what’s next in mobility. Bethany Acampora will review how Clemson’s broad portfolio of technologies positions the university to participate in mobility’s transformation.
On the morning of Nov. 8, three rounds of discussions will drill into how corporations, universities, entrepreneurs, investors and others use Concept to Companies to collaborate in fostering high-impact startups creating high growth and wealth.
Round 1 will explore how entrepreneurial catalysts are discovering and developing high-growth businesses in networks within and outside of corporations and universities.
Round 2 will explore how entrepreneurs can systematically document, test and validate their business assumptions so that the market leads them to highly successful companies.
Round 3 will explore how entrepreneurial catalysts and others can shift from seeing the entrepreneurial journey as a series of failures to seeing it as progress towards high growth and wealth creation.
The afternoon of the second day will wrap the first day and a half together. The Personal Rapid Transit Seminar will feature several companies considering Greenville as a corporate location and looking to identify pilot sites for their operational system. A key goal is to understand how Greenville can be home to PRT system demonstration projects that can then be sold around the world.
InnoMobility 2013 will be an exciting two days of converting Concepts to Companies. I hope to see you there.
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Join us for InnoMobility 2013 on Nov. 6 and for the Concepts to Companies workshop on Nov. 7 to discuss working together to create high-growth and wealth. Learn more.
