Heavy Hitters: The Digital Industrial Podcast

Ram has deep experience on both sides of the tech startup and incumbent table, and he brings that experience to help drive SAP’s current SAP.iO corporate innovation platform efforts. We discuss why when SAP kicked off SAP.io in 2016 it all started and ended with thinking about how to drive value to their customers, how SAP.iO has become a gold standard in corporate innovation via activating multiple levers internally and externally (internal corporate venture investing through SAP.iO Fund, SAP.iO Foundries accelerators, SAP.iO Venture Studio efforts, and external venture investment partnership with Sapphire Partners), how his team is leveraging a confluence of innovation trends (open source, API, Ai/ML, platformization) to both support customers on their digitization journeys and drive strategic value and interesting insights back to SAP across different industries and lines of business, and why its critical to take an open ecosystem and platform approach where curated partnerships can flourish with integrations connecting customers and startups.

Julian was ahead of the curve in identifying the e-comm wave that is now transforming our industrial supply chain, and he founded Schematic Ventures to go all-in on that shift to better compete in a venture capital asset class that is only getting more and more competitive. We talk about his transition from being a generalist into a very focused specialist investor, how sector specialization compounds learnings and benefits to his network and within the portfolio, why he is adapting his fund construction strategy to adapt to the emerging pre-seed category and ballooning seed-stage round sizes, why VC specialization benefits decrease as you enter later stage growth investing, and how investors in this sector must take both a grounded exit outlook and an optimistic outlook as to where new addressable markets may form over time. Finally, he even throws in some tactical advice on fundraising for founders in these sectors.

Dynamo was one of the very first sector-focused VC funds that lasered in on supply chain. Santosh outlines how they leverage that sector focus to add value in 3 distinct areas at the pre-seed and seed stage when founders truly need a trusted partner (not just capital), how having a focused 'prepared mind' provides him an advantage in helping founders navigate these complex industrial supply chain settings, and why fund size drives fund construction strategy in a VC asset class that is blurring the lines of how a ‘seed’ round is defined today. We wrap the episode outlining why early-stage VC is still all about carefully evaluating the human element behind the team.

There has never been a more critical and more opportune time than right now to revitalize the US manufacturing base, and as the Global Head of Manufacturing for McKinsey, Enno has one the most unique vantage points in the world on this topic. We discuss how the US excels at manuf. tech innovation but has work to do in adopting and scaling those technologies domestically, why it’s critical to both bring new talent into and build a more inclusive manufacturing workforce, why McKinsey and the World Economic Forum created the ‘Global Lighthouse Network’ to highlight the best digital manuf. efforts in the world, and having looked across over 10M factories, which innovation trends are making an impact (spoiler: it's not about a specific technology, it's about systems change). Finally, we both align on the analogy that we’re only in the “1stinning” of Industry4.0 adoption!

As the cloud infrastructure heavyweight within industrials, Microsoft is now throwing its resources behind startups through its Microsoft for Startups platform to accelerate vertical growth for both sides. Having sold his last IoT software company into Microsoft in 2016, and now leading Microsoft for Startups focus on industry verticals, Tom brings us a very unique perspective as to how the times have changed for what startups do and don't need to build themselves. We cover a range of topics including where Microsoft wants to start and stop when partnering with a startup, how their platform can help a startup accelerate the path from ideation to MVP to product/market fit as an enterprise-ready solution, what drives a 'build vs. buy vs. partner' decision, and finally, which trends Tom sees emerging in 2021 (hint, Microsoft Teams now has ~115M daily active users). Summary pro tip for startups, don't recreate the tech platform wheel! 

Industy4.0 will not succeed without a vibrant and diverse community of both private and public support. As P33’s resident Industry4.0 and Ventures expert, Brandi helps lead P33’s mission to turbocharge Chicago’s tech ecosystem stimulating growth and providing inclusive opportunity to all through orchestrating the various voices of the business, startup, non-profit, and government communities. She discusses why building up an inclusive Industry4.0 ecosystem is so important to both P33’s focus on Chicago’s future and the US economy more broadly, how their “Company Connect” effort supports growing tech companies with structured introductions and engagements into industrial incumbents, and finally, how P33 is playing a powerful role to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion are brought to the forefront to further a more inclusive future in tech.

There is more inorganic growth activity within the digital industrial ecosystem than ever before, and given there have been over 120 completed acquisitions for over $4B in consideration during David's 18-year tenure at Autodesk, he has seen this wave since the beginning. We discuss how his team uses inorganic activities to find step-function acceleration for Autodesk's roadmap, why he approaches early-stage venture capital investing in a win/win/win mindset, and why it's critical for the current rush of new capital sources into these sectors to build a healthy, viable ecosystem for the long term.

Thousands of guests have visited Oracle Industries Innovation Labs, physically and virtually, to see how this Big Tech giant is innovating to help shape the future of various industrial industry verticals. Burcin explains why he helped found the Innovation Labs with a mission to create an environment and physical space that offers hands-on experiences to learn in these industries that often can’t afford to ‘fail fast, fail often’ in operational industrial settings. He discusses how their labs act as a means of Innovation-as-a-Service to help their customers and partners effectively cut through the tech buzzwords to find real-world application and value. Finally, we cover the topic of ‘build vs. partner vs. buy’, and why regardless of the tactic chosen, it is key for Oracle to build a robust ecosystem of external partners and startups that can foster a win/win for all sides to learn from one another along this digital transformation journey.

With over 300 partners integrated into the Procore Marketplace, Procore is helping drive collaboration and build a startup ecosystem within a construction industry that is rapidly evolving. Kris is an industry insider who has played numerous roles inside a construction company from project engineer to leading cutting edge construction tech deployments in the field. He shares why, short of Tooey, he thinks he has the best job at Procore, why an open platform & ecosystem approach is critical to the future of construction, what challenges still exist at both the GC & sub-contractor levels, and “What’s hot and what’s hype” in emerging ConTech trends. Finally, Kris gives a refreshingly open answer to why he would never tell his partner ecosystem to only integrate with Procore.

Make no mistake, industrial-grade additive manufacturing is now here to stay. Hugh's background blending both financial market leadership at T. Rowe Price and operating leadership at 3D Systems brings an additive outlook very few have experienced. He discusses why this background led him to co-found the Additive Manuf. Ventures Group investment syndicate, why investor specialization is critical at the earliest stages, how this "2nd wave" of additive investment differs from the 2013 "1st wave" (hint: consumer vs. industrial applications), and the 5 friction points additive is now overcoming at a rapid pace.