Founder’s talk about SMEs cooperating with startups

Today we are dealing with an issue that affects SMEs and start-ups alike. How can they best work together? During the founders’ talk, lawyer Carsten Lexa will interview the managing director of Ambivation, Christoph Baier, who will answer all questions regarding cooperating with startups. 

Christoph, what exactly do you do, and what exactly does your company do?

We bring companies and start-ups together. To do this, we talk to the companies about their needs and search strategies, where they want to go and which future trends and new technologies are relevant for them. Then we look at which start-ups fit, that is our core business. In other words, we connect medium-sized companies, corporations and the public sector with relevant start-ups for successful innovation partnerships.

Why is the cooperation between SMEs and start-ups such an important issue and what does Ambivation do to support SMEs on the one hand and start-ups on the other?

The cooperation is important because it can enormously increase the innovation power and offers a win-win situation for both sides. The start-ups develop the innovations, but are still young and often have only a few customers. The established companies in turn have both the fields of application and the number of customers for the innovations, while start-ups have the new technologies and use them to improve things. This is exactly where companies can benefit from cooperation. The advantage for start-ups is to gain customers and partners with whom they can cooperate and further develop their products. To support this cooperation, Ambivation acts as a bridge builder and networks precisely as needed.

What exactly is the PropTech Startup Guide? What added value does it bring to SMEs and start-ups?

In the last few months, we have created a startup guide for the real estate and construction industry, the PropTech Startup Guide. PropTech is the term for startups that are involved in the real estate industry. An example of a successful cooperation with a PropTech is the collaboration of Gewobag with the startup apartment hero, which we discuss in more detail in an interview on our blog. A sub term of PropTech is ConTech (Construction Technology), which refers to startups that focus on the construction process itself. We developed the guide because we see that many clients are not familiar with the start-ups and innovation brands at all. If I as a company do not know what is happening in the start-up market, I might not even start working with startups. However, if I have some initial understanding of PropTech, events and potential partners, I immediately feel more comfortable as an entrepreneur when I am approached by a PropTech later. The guide therefore offers an insight into the ecosystem of startups in the construction and real estate industry, and a special added value with regard to the cooperation examples. However, we also see that certain clients have other challenges for which they are looking for suppliers who can take over. Now that companies know that PropTechs exist, they can take them into account in the tendering and contracting process, instead of just looking at large suppliers.

 

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Cooperation between a start-up and SMEs can be incredibly profitable. How can SMEs benefit from start-ups?

Typically, start-ups provide solutions for internal needs, often in areas that are not part of the core business of SMEs. In addition, just dealing with the startup market alone adds value to the company by helping them understand what trends there are, how they are developing and what the business areas of the future might be. In Germany, for example, the discussion about the automotive industry is very active. There are various trends, from the conversion to electric drive, to autonomous driving, to software solutions. If you look at how many trends there are that could change the market in the future, then you have to assume that the existing value creation will lose importance. Therefore, companies must consider whether and how they want to change and develop with the market. In addition, it makes sense to look into which fields one can grow into and in which opportunities exist to be successful. This is precisely where startups can play a role, because they can deliver quick solutions or hand over partial solutions already turnkey. We then integrate these as a complete solution for the customer. And, of course, the last point, startups develop innovative technologies. The more successful they are, the greater the interest of established companies and corporations. Then it often happens that startups are taken over. If, for example, a start-up that grows by 50% a year and generates one million in sales is taken over or supported by a company, this growth can be accelerated even further. Then you can of course build up a nice new business area and then grow again.

So there is a wide range of issues where both SMEs and start-ups benefit. You have already published the Startup Guide, you are innovative and you are located in Berlin virtually directly at the source of innovation in the German start-up industry. What else can you expect from Ambivation in the future?

The core business for us is to bring companies and start-ups together in a precisely tailored manner and to create cooperations. In addition, we are now also gradually developing software. This means that we are looking to develop software for cooperation with our customers, with which they can better observe the start-up market and better manage their own cooperations. This is important for us because it also enables us to make our work more efficient and better structured. On the other hand, it also helps the customer if we have virtually the same interface and can work together on it. We are still at the beginning, in the early stages, but you asked about the future. This is a topic that will certainly keep us busy in the future.

Where is Ambivation to be found, apart from your website?

In addition to our website, we run our blog, where we regularly publish examples of cooperation. In addition, our newsletter appears once a month, in which we report on four cooperation examples each and which contains information on current events. We are also represented on Youtube, where we recently presented our start-up monitoring and also do interviews more often. If you have any questions, we are always available by phone or e-mail.

Link to Christoph Baier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophbaier
Link to Ambivation: https://ambivation.com/
Link to the PropTech Startup Guide:
https://ambivation.com/proptech-startup-guide/
Link to Gründen@Würzburg:
https://gruenden.wuerzburg.de/
Link to Carsten Lexa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carstenlexa

About Ambivation

Ambivation connects innovative companies and startups for cooperation and innovation partnerships. As an innovation consultancy and matchmaker, Ambivation promotes cooperation between established companies and startups within the framework of concrete customer, supplier and research partnerships. We support companies in the identification of needs, startup identification, startup evaluation and cooperation initiation with startups. Formats such as research on relevant startups, startup monitoring, strategic cooperation consulting or event formats such as startup tours serve this purpose. Our monthly newsletter also provides information on current examples of cooperation and events.