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29 tech startup founders and CEOs share their fears and strategies for navigating the coronavirus crash: ‘We are now wartime CEOs’

Min Chen, CEO of Silicon Valley data analytics startup Wisy, was born in China but grew up in Panama, where she lived through the turmoil of the 1989 US invasion. She and her co-founders are “wartime survivors” who endured the violence and the disruption of that period.

“That experience, somehow, has prepared us for this crisis,” she told Business Insider. “We come from places where there was nothing, even in times of prosperity.”

Like other startups, Wisy’s biggest challenge right now is cash flow, but Chen and her cofounders hope keep their team together. While other startups have begun shedding jobs, they’re taking a different approach. “Instead of laying people off, we decided to all take pay cuts,” she said.

That adaptation feels critical: “Companies that die are those that couldn’t adapt,” she said. 

In Wisy’s case, new opportunities have come up because of the crisis. An international organization that wants to use Wisy’s technology for tracing infections and anticipating outbreaks has invited it to apply for grants.

“Even if we don’t have the grant, we would help,” she said.

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How SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv Startups Are Helping Customers & Communities Thrive in the New Reality

As individuals and organizations are learning to navigate today’s “new normal,” companies are shifting their strategy or altering their services in order to bring the most value to customers and give back to the community. 

Check out how some of the alumni from SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv’s previous cohort are altering their offerings and sharing insightful resources. 

Outgage

Outgage is a direct mail SaaS platform that combines the advantages of digital marketing campaigns with the effectiveness of personal direct mail experiences, closing the loop between offline and online campaigns. As several companies are reconsidering their current marketing efforts and strategy, Outgage is beginning to aim their offering of personal direct mail experiences toward HR leaders, who can utilize Outgage’s services in order to send care packages and engage with their employees who are working from home.

EasySend

EasySend’s no-code application builder empowers global insurance companies and financial institutions to turn paperwork into a digital experience. In light of the current situation, EasySend is churning out helpful content to assist insurers in fast-tracking their digital transformations, as well as providing information on how going digital will help enterprises succeed in this new reality.

GrowthSpace

GrowthSpace’s online one-on-one coaching platform offers high-quality training and personalized coaching for tech companies, at the cost of an average workshop. In the past couple of weeks, GrowthSpace has organized various webinars to provide expertise to organizational leaders during this time. From a “COVID-19 Readiness for HR Leaders” discussion to a “Teams Working Remotely” expert panel led by six senior executives of remote teams, GrowthSpace is utilizing the prowess of their certified coaches to provide key insights and best practices to the community, free of charge.

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Building Employee Resilience During A Pandemic

Scientific data is proving to be the bedrock of workforce resiliency in a world reeling from COVID-19. Commonly misperceived as an inborn trait, resilience is actually a tangible skill that Massachusetts-based meQuilibrium is building in employees at Fortune 1000 companies worldwide.

“Every leader is talking about adaptive capacity, resilience, and agility,” said Jan Bruce, co-founder and CEO of meQuilibrium. “We are democratizing executive coaching, helping people manage the stress and burnout associated with constant transformation and rapid change.”

Managing stress with resilience

As the pandemic spreads with head-spinning speed, meQuilibrium’s interactive cloud-based platform appears ideally matched to what’s become a rightfully panicked workforce. Tracking steadily rising stress levels of employees on the meQuilibrium platform, the company sped up product updates to deliver refreshed daily tips and tool kits for managing anxiety, uncertainty, and isolation.

The startup’s worldwide customers cut across industries like pharmaceuticals, finance, telecommunications, packaged goods, and automotive. Many organizations have reported measurable benefits to date. One company reduced high anxiety by 36 percent, high stress by 27 percent, and depression by 24 percent in its large employee population.

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Why Cartier Is Excited About These 3 Brilliant Female Startups

Taking an idea and turning it into a full-fledged company is no easy feat, to say the least. Nobody can do it on their own, so access to support (or lack thereof) can make or break a business. That’s why Cartier has set out to assist female entrepreneurs in their quest to make positive impacts on the world via the Cartier Women’s Initiative, which will be awarding over $1 million in funding this year. Cartier just announced the 21 finalists for 2020, and they all have brilliant ideas to share.

Among the 21 finalists are three exceptional women from North America. First up is Stephanie Benedetto of New York City, who “buys and sells unused textiles, via the Queen of Raw marketplace, keeping them out of landfills and making the world a less wasteful place,” per a statement. The fashion industry could certainly use more help in becoming more sustainable, and Benedetto could easily become a driving force.

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Innovative Solutions from SAP.iO Startups Help Businesses Succeed Amid COVID-19

The exponential spread of the new novel coronavirus — what some might consider a “black swan” event — has sent tremendous shock waves to every foundational socioeconomic system serving humanity as we know it.

Unlike many other disruptions we have weathered through in the past, this is an existential threat to the way we work, live, and play. Every well-crafted business strategy playbook has been temporarily paused as leaders respond to the urgency of the moment, which is to take care of the health and well-being of their people.

As the world pivots quickly to the new normal, a completely different culture of work is evolving. Social distancing is the new anti-viral, requiring each one of us to do our part in preventing further spread. And with social distancing, remote work is the new norm.

As people come to terms with this new reality in their work and life environments, we are likely to drive an accelerated adoption of entirely new behaviors and technologies, many of which will be here to stay post-crisis.

Not too long ago, in 2018, The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated only 29 percent of American wage and salary workers could work at home, while the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) estimated six out of 10 people in the EU had not worked from home. Enterprises that may have emphasized employee co-location as a driver of success in the past are now left to quickly figure out how to manage business continuity, employee engagement and health, and customer success. Despite basic productivity tools such as Slack and Teams or video collaboration tools such as Zoom, enterprises worldwide are still struggling in how to navigate the “new normal.”

At SAP, our purpose is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. Now more than ever before, we know we need to find solutions together, as part of a global purpose network, an ecosystem of customers, partners, influencers, non-profits, government institutions, and agencies.

The worst of times calls for the best in all of us. In that spirit, we are incredibly privileged to collaborate with an ecosystem of business-to-business (B2B) startup partners through the SAP.iO program. By virtue of being digitally native, managing a distributed workforce has always been their de-facto way of conducting business.

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SAP.iO: Treiber von Veränderung

Miroslav Dimitrov Head der Berliner Foundry von SAP:iO

Herr Dimitrov, mit welcher Intention fördert SAP.iO Startups?
Mit der klaren Mission, die nächste Generation von Ökosystemen aktiv mitzugestalten. Wir wollen Treiber von Veränderung sein, nicht Getriebene. Und dafür suchen wir über Beteiligungen und das Accelarator-Programm jene vielversprechenden Startups, die unsere Geschäftssoftware sinnvoll ergänzen.

Das heißt, Sie konzentrieren sich als Accelerator auf B2B-Lösungen, die bestehende SAP-Systeme ergänzen?
Wir setzen in jeder neuen Runde auf unterschiedliche Themen, immer aber mit Fokus auf B2B und SaaS. Bei den FinTechs sehen wir aktuell in den Bereichen „Customer Experience“, „Big Data and Analytics“, „Peer-to-Peer Finance“ und „Identity“ großes Potenzial.

Was sind das für Startups, die Sie unterstützen?
PXL Vision aus der Schweiz ist ein Beispiel aus dem Bereich „Identity“, die auf Basis von maschinellem Sehen und Deep Learning das Kunden-Onboarding deutlich verschlanken wollen – für Finanzdienstleister und Kunden gleichermaßen. Ein anderes Beispiel ist troy GmbH aus dem nordrhein-westfälischen Lippstadt. Dort hat man es sich zum Ziel gemacht, die Customer Experience beim Inkasso zu verbessern. Denn ein wesentlicher Teil der Kunden zahlt unverschuldet oder versehentlich nicht.

Auf welchen Wegen kommen Sie mit solch spannenden neuen Unternehmern zusammen?
Unser Netzwerk und unsere Kunden spielen hierfür natürlich eine wichtige Rolle. Denn am Ende des Tages, wollen wir für sie der Partner der Wahl sein und passende Lösungen bieten. Ein Großteil des Prozesses findet aber auch intern über die Frage statt, in welchen Bereichen wir nach vielversprechenden Partnern Ausschau halten wollen. Und dann gibt es natürlich auch die Startups, die uns finden. Für diejenigen der Hinweis: Die nächste Runde unseres Accelerator-Programms ist in Planung und wir freuen uns bereits jetzt über einen regen Austausch und Kontakt.

SAP.iO Fund Invests in Deepgram for Gleaning New Insights from Speech

SAP.iO Fund, the startup investment arm of SAP SE (NYSE: SAP), has taken a stake in in Deepgram, provider of a high-accuracy automatic speech recognition solution that can be easily trained to understand new language models, accents and speech patterns.

With a new approach to speech recognition, Deepgram’s flexible API architecture enables real-time transcription for customer support, sales engagement and video/phone interviews and makes them searchable. Wing Ventures led the Series A round, which included existing investors Nvidia, Y Combinator and Compound.

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Facing Covid-19: Net practical insights and learnings from select SaaS B2B ceos and executives

Adapt fast, find hidden opportunities and show crisis leadership

Corona virus, or Covid 19, can now almost undeniably be classified as a ‘black swan’. Many supply chains have paused production, stock markets have been crashing, and many companies find or will find themselves in delicate situations.

Nowhere is this situation felt more acutely than in small businesses and in the startup world. Organizations that had based their business plans on the back of an +10-year bull run have seen their outlooks imperiled as their customers lack near-term visibility, and even viability.

The SAP.iO Fund has the privilege of working with leading B2B SaaS startups and a few select leaders, ceos and executives of these organizations were recently asked about how they are coping with the current environment and planning for the future. Here is a net net summary of their insightful recommendations, summarized in five key categories: Sales and customers, Value proposition and business model, Product and processes, People and Finances.

Overall, their recommendations were to:

  • Adapt fast and fix the organizations to align to new market dynamics.
  • Find hidden opportunities in the new market environment.
  • Show crisis leadership at a time of destructive creation.

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SAP.iO Foundry Singapore Launches Industry 4.0 Startup Acceleration Program

  • kicked off a new SAP.iO Foundry Singapore program, with five international startups that will help SAP customers become Industry 4.0 businesses and go beyond digital manufacturing to seamlessly connect all aspects of an entire company.

This cohort will work to develop technologies to enable businesses to extend the value of their investments in SAP S/4HANA and SAP Digital Supply Chain solutions.

“Singapore has developed a vibrant startup ecosystem and is the gateway to the ASEAN region,” said Rachel Barger, SAP South East Asia president and managing director. “SAP continually partners with other solution providers, including startups in Singapore, to help organizations unlock value with the latest Industry 4.0 technologies.”

SAP.iO Foundry Singapore accelerates innovation and drives new business models for SAP. The zero-equity-ask program provides startups with curated support from within and outside of SAP, exposure to SAP technologies, and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers. The program will conclude at an SAP.iO Demo Day in the beginning of June.

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SAP.iO Foundry Singapore Launches Industry 4.0 Startup Acceleration Program

SINGAPORE SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today kicked off a new SAP.iO Foundry Singapore program, with five international startups that will help SAP customers become Industry 4.0 businesses and go beyond digital manufacturing to seamlessly connect all aspects of an entire company.

This cohort will work to develop technologies to enable businesses to extend the value of their investments in SAP S/4HANA and SAP Digital Supply Chain solutions.

“Singapore has developed a vibrant startup ecosystem and is the gateway to the ASEAN region,” said Rachel Barger, SAP South East Asia president and managing director. “SAP continually partners with other solution providers, including startups in Singapore, to help organizations unlock value with the latest Industry 4.0 technologies.”

SAP.iO Foundry Singapore accelerates innovation and drives new business models for SAP. The zero-equity-ask program provides startups with curated support from within and outside of SAP, exposure to SAP technologies, and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers. The program will conclude at an SAP.iO Demo Day in the beginning of June.

“The SAP.iO Foundry Singapore spring acceleration program will see the development of new Industry 4.0 solutions for companies in the region, and contribute to bolstering the ecosystem for startups in Singapore,” said Kiren Kumar, chief digital industry officer of Digital Industry Singapore, a government office that supports the growth of Singapore’s technology sector. “We look forward to strengthening our longstanding partnership with SAP, as we innovate and create new solutions out of Singapore.”

The following startups are part of the SAP.iO Foundry Singapore Spring 2020 program:

  • Botsync provides easily deployable and cost-effective mobile material-handling robotic solutions to enable companies, especially small and midsize enterprises, in Asia Pacific to improve productivity.
  • H3 Dynamics combines machine learning, remote telerobotics and off-grid capabilities for drone services that can deploy and manage commercial condition monitoring, security and safety solutions.
  • Memorence uses artificial intelligence (AI) to develop smart visual learning and recognition systems for enterprise and consumer solutions, which can improve production quality and operational efficiency.
  • VersaFleet automates modern supply chains with route optimization, electronic proof-of-delivery, instant notifications and real-time job-status tracking.
  • HyBird automates visual inspection of industrial facilities through its data-source-agnostic software “Clarity,” which employs computer vision and AI to produce interactive digital twin models for better asset maintenance.

Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @SAPNews and @sap_iO.

ClearMetal Offers CDX Platform Free of Charge to Suppliers of Healthcare Products

Goal is to Get Needed Medical Supplies Where They Need to Be Faster During Coronavirus-Related Supply Chain Challenges

ClearMetal, a leader in Continuous Delivery Experience (CDX) for Supply Chain and Logistics solutions, announced today that it is offering the power of its CDX platform free of charge for the duration of the pandemic crisis to companies tasked with shipping needed healthcare and medical supplies to combat COVID-19. ClearMetal is committed to onboarding companies as quickly as possible so immediate decisions can be made and solutions implemented based on real-time data. To ensure critical healthcare and medical materials are prioritized, companies must qualify for the free offering based on shipment volume.*

“It’s important that all of us, companies and individuals, come together to contribute what we can to help mitigate the challenges this pandemic presents,” said Adam Compain, ClearMetal CEO. “The reason the shipping industry is so affected when ‘black swan’ events such as the coronavirus occurs is that most supply chains are static and not built to dynamically respond nor react quickly to situations like these. Companies tasked with getting critical healthcare materials where they need to go require a better solution and it’s our duty to let them use it for free during this crisis.”

ClearMetal’s data shows that there has been a 20-30 percent increase in delays, 10-15 percent increase in dwell times and 50 to 100 percent increase in rolls since January. The impact of logistics challenges that affect the speed of shipments for essential items in the fight vs COVID-19 brings an enormous financial impact to companies in billions of dollars of lost sales, written-off inventory and more.

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Startup Bravely Brings Personalized Coaching to Every Employee

Professional coaching is no longer an exclusive perk for select employees, courtesy of Bravely, a cloud-based platform that delivers workplace guidance on demand to more workers.

The New York-based startup provides coaching to employees in numerous industries, including professional and financial services, hospitality, retail, and high technology.

“Everyone should have a trusted, skilled coach to help them navigate important make-or-break moments at work,” said Toby Hervey, co-founder and CEO at Bravely. “Supporting an employee at moments that matter fundamentally transforms their long-time success and viability, as well as company culture.”

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À part le coronavirus, il s’est passé quoi aujourd’hui ? 4 infos en bref

Retrouvez dans notre article les informations startup à ne pas manquer. Aujourd’hui : la demande de brevets, la quatrième promotion SAP.iO, la création d’entreprise et l’Anssi.

Demandes de brevets européens : la Chine s’impose dans le numérique et éloigne la France du podium

Les demandes de brevets auprès de l’Office européen des brevets (OEB) ont encore augmenté en 2019, tirées par l’essor du numérique et des technologies pour la 5G, qui permet à la Chine de ravir à la France la 4ème position du classement, a annoncé l’OEB jeudi. Avec 181 000 demandes en 2019, l’Office a enregistré un nouveau record, essentiellement dû au numérique et à l’informatique et dopé par les demandes venues de Chine en augmentation de 29,2%. Le chinois Huawei devient même le plus gros demandeur de brevets en Europe tous secteurs confondus. La Chine a multiplié son activité par six en dix ans. 

Avec 10 163 demandes déposées en 2019, la France se tasse pour la deuxième année consécutive. Ce repli est plus significatif dans le numérique et les transports. Il s’explique par le ralentissement de la demandes de certains grands groupes historiquement bien classés,  comme Valeo, mais également parce que certains pourvoyeurs de brevets ont changé de pavillon. Malgré son ralentissement, le secteur des transports reste toutefois un mastodonte en France, et encore plus dans le reste de l’Europe, dont de nombreux groupes d’importance sont originaires.

Grâce à l’Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm) ou le groupe Sanofi, la France se montre particulièrement dynamique dans le domaine des sciences de la vie. Le recul de Valeo est compensé par l’émergence du Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA). Avec 597 demandes, l’institut de recherche publique français devient le meilleur élève du paysage national.

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SAP.iO Foundry Paris dévoile sa promotion de 8 startups ”Spécial RH”

Pour sa nouvelle édition baptisée “Future of Work“, SAP.iO Foundry Paris a sélectionné huit startups oeuvrant dans les Ressources Humaines (HR Tech).
Les solutions des jeunes pousses retenues devaient compléter fonctionnellement SAP SuccessFactors, la solution RH de l’éditeur utilisée par 125 millions d’utilisateurs à travers le monde. Un échange gagnant/gagnant à travers lequel chaque jeune pousse se voit ouvrir les portes d’un marché mondial, et SAP propose à ses clients des extensions à valeur ajoutée s’intégrant simplement à son offre.
«Aujourd’hui, toutes les entreprises sont conscientes de l’importance du capital humain dans la stratégie,» plaide Sébastien Gibier, directeur de SAP.iO Foundry Paris.
Dans cet article, Sébastien précise les avantages réservés à ces jeunes pousses et explique les enjeux de cette sélection pour l’écosystème de SAp et pour les clients de SAP SuccessFactors.


L’article propose de nombreuses illustrations et dresse un tableau des startups en mentionnant leur activité, la date de création, les cofondateurs, les montants déjà levés…

HR Tech : SAP.iO Foundry Paris accompagne 8 startups

SAP va soutenir la phase d’accélération de 8 jeunes pousses actives dans les technologies RH, de 360Learning à Workelo. Want create site? Find Free WordPress Themes and plugins.

Après la chaîne d’approvisionnement, le commerce de détail et les technologies vertes, la gestion de talents… L’accélérateur de startups SAP.iO Foundry Paris a annoncé mardi le lancement de son quatrième programme d’accélération « HR Tech/Future of Work ». Ou les technologies des ressources humaines (RH, HR en anglais) pensées pour le travail du futur.

« Les capacités numériques et les nouvelles façons de travailler bouleversent les entreprises et les services RH », a déclaré Sébastien Gibier, directeur de SAP.iO Foundry Paris. Recrutement, intégration, montée en compétences, départ des employés… « Pour rester attractives », les organisations cherchent à créer une expérience collaborateur « de bout en bout ». Les jeunes pousses sélectionnées par l’accélérateur sont susceptibles de les y aider.

Pour cette quatrième promotion, les 8 startups et projets suivants ont été retenus :

5Feedback : une application qui permet aux salariés d’obtenir en temps réel des retours et évaluations de leurs compétences auprès de leur interlocuteurs professionnels.
360Learning : une plateforme d’apprentissage collaboratif (collaborative learning) pour les entreprises.
eLamp : une solution basée sur l’IA d’identification des compétences des collaborateurs.
FirstBird : un programme de fidélisation des collaborateurs pour recruteurs.
RandomCoffee : un logiciel SaaS de mise en relation entre collaborateurs en fonction de règles prédéfinies par l’entreprise.
Timeular : un logiciel de suivi et gestion du temps de travail.
Workelo : un outil de gestion opérationnelle des mobilités, de l’intégration au départ.
Yogist : une méthode et un chatbot de prévention santé en entreprise.

Accompagnement et mentorat

Ces sociétés bénéficieront pendant 10 semaines, à raison de 3 jours par semaine, de l’accompagnement de mentors issus du comité exécutif de SAP France. Elles auront également accès à des ateliers animés par des coachs de l’éditeur de logiciels ou de son écosystème.

De surcroît, 5 grands clients du groupe allemand vont contribuer à la phase d’accélération de ces jeunes pousses. « C’est la première fois que nous travaillons autant la complémentarité technologique avec nos produits » et « que nous mobilisons autant de clients en amont du programme », a expliqué le responsable du bureau parisien de l’accélérateur.

À l’issue du programme, enfin, les technologies des startups viendront compléter SAP SuccessFactors, la solution HCM* de SAP aux 125 millions d’utilisateurs revendiqués.