Join Portfolio Day 2022: The Neue Industry, Ambassador Networks and “Techquisition”
The last few years have taught us all some important lessons.
#1: Gathering in person and connecting with each other face-to-face is never something to take for granted.
#2: Planning can only take you so far. When it comes to dealing with unexpected turbulence, agility is far more important.
When we sat down to plan our Portfolio Day and Investor Dinner for 2022, we knew both of these factors would be important in their own ways. We didn’t quite know what resuming our annual meeting would look like — especially with Covid-19 still in play — but we knew that getting together once again was vital.
That’s why we were so thrilled with how insightful and inspiring the two days turned out to be.
Despite intense heat on June 24, the valued members of our network — including LPs, VCs, founders, speakers and industry leaders — came together under one roof to connect over our shared focus at Join Capital: the Neue Industry.
Investor participation increases
As the Neue Industry continues to evolve, there are more opportunities than ever to get involved. From enabling autonomy through networked production, to decarbonization and optimization through AI-driven digitization, the potential for exponential growth across all sectors is clear.
In the process of communicating our USP at Join throughout the day, we were happy to know that curiosity, engagement and involvement from our guests was higher than ever.
We were especially thrilled to reveal for the first time our Ambassador Program, through which we work to establish key tech evangelists within large corporates and throughout the German Mittelstand to better connect our founders to new opportunities. These include pilot programs, customer acquisition and building the foundations for potential “techquisition”.
The power of “techquisition”
Paul Cuatrecasas, Founder and CEO of Aquaa Partners, used the term “techquisition” in his keynote, but it quickly became an important theme throughout the day. It succinctly highlights the important relationship between startups and corporates — one in which startups play a pivotal role in building the technologies that then become valuable to companies with existing global reach and influence.
Decision makers within today’s global giants are concerned more about the next quarter, and not the future of innovation. We can’t blame them — it’s simply the reality. However, that’s where startups come in: they are able to show larger companies that today’s times are not just business as usual, but rather “business as exponential”.
To hear from a founder’s perspective on acquisition, be sure to check out our Q&A with Sean Mitchell, Founder of Movidius and our final keynote speaker of the day.
The Neue Industry: More dynamic and lucrative than ever before
Our Portfolio speakers throughout the day each delivered a unique set of insights not only about their products, but about their approach and vision. While there were far too many highlights to list, here are a few examples:
Jamie Potter, CEO of Flexciton, spoke about how his current progress in optimizing scheduling in the semiconductor production industry is just the first part of a greater vision, which is to go horizontal and expand across verticals.
How.fm spoke about how warehouses around the globe are seeing the greatest increase in workforce ever. Shockingly, How.fm’s vision to train 1 million deskless workers worldwide faces no real competition. The company’s mission is to help warehouse management understand the training necessary to maximize output and efficiency.
Going beyond factories and warehouses, Opteran is pioneering natural intelligence and true autonomy through insect biomimicry. Needless to say, this technology has the power to transform every market. For now, the company is targeting high growth markets for a total of $500 billion by 2030.
Looking ahead
There’s a huge year of opportunity ahead for the Neue Industry, and we’re looking forward to the next moves from founders without our portfolio. On top of this, with a deal flow that is both strong and exciting, we look forward to sharing further news surrounding our Fund II.
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