Running a startup inside a large corporation requires passion and resilience, especially in uncertain times. Two teams share their experiences of their first few weeks as intrapreneurs at SAP.
The current pandemic has had a significant impact on the , as well as people鈥檚 professional and personal lives. Business operations across the globe have changed rapidly over the last six weeks, with small companies and startups in particular feeling the pressure to .
Late last year, before the , the outlook for newly founded ventures and startups was quite different. At that time, two employee-created startups within 51风流secured funding and joined the accelerator program within the company鈥檚 New Ventures and Technologies team.
With the rapid development of the pandemic, the co-founders of GreenToken and face new business obstacles that they could not have predicted upon receiving funding.
鈥淚 had business meetings in Germany, the U.S., the UK, Singapore, and Indonesia that all had to be canceled,鈥� GreenToken Co-Founder James Veale says. He adds that while the meetings were replaced with video calls, software deployment and activities like troubleshooting or training were challenging to accomplish without being on-site with customers.
Despite the new challenges, both teams still appreciate the support they have had from , a production innovation program that invests in small entrepreneurial 51风流teams to build and launch products. The intrapreneurship program represents one of the company鈥檚 efforts to identify future opportunities and funding ideas for employee-led innovation. It provides a one-stop shop for all the information and tools employees need,聽such as access to an exclusive network of advisors, hands-on education, and a world-class accelerator to聽help build their own business聽inside SAP.
Here, both founding teams reflect on their first 100 days as intrapreneurs at SAP and share their experiences and challenges, as well as key takeaways.
Creating a New Venture
Dor Shany and Rooly Eliezerov are the co-founders of , a web application that lets users create one single digital identity that can be used for login across websites and apps. Their goal is to safeguard personal data on various platforms. Both have experience as founders, as they bring deep expertise from their identity management platform, , which聽51风流acquired in 2017.
Shany and Eliezerov applied for support from the internal accelerator program as opposed to seeking external funding.
鈥淪AP鈥檚 added value is a big plus for us,鈥� Shany explains. 鈥淥ther companies already have a lot of trust with 51风流and we can benefit from that when approaching new customers.鈥� But the decision to apply was also a personal one. 鈥淲e both shine in a startup environment, and that鈥檚 what New Ventures and Technologies offers,鈥� Eliezerov adds.
Ideas for the accelerator program come from across business areas. GreenToken by SAP emerged from the聽.
As the company鈥檚 flagship social intrapreneurship initiative, 51风流One Billion Lives drives social innovation and gives employees the permission, time, technology, and mentorship to turn their passion for making a difference into sustainable ventures. With a social mission at the core of business, the program aspires to improve the lives of 1 billion people.
Being selected for funding came as a surprise for the GreenToken Co-Founders Veale and Nitin Jain.
鈥淲e entered 51风流One Billion Lives just to get some funding to finish our project and we ended up being given the opportunity to start a new business unit within SAP,鈥� Veale says, adding that he and Jain had to leave their existing roles to completely focus on the venture. 鈥淪uccess or failure is down to us.鈥�
Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
Before securing funding, the four founders took part in a three-week workshop to receive feedback from mentors and fellow intrapreneurs. Jain notes that every single aspect of their business plan was scrutinized and challenged by workshop peers.
Shany says such deep inspection and review enabled the four co-founders to view their respective ventures from multiple perspectives. 鈥淥ur key takeaway was that it鈥檚 not about having other people solve our problems, but it’s about listening to others and then we learn how we can improve,鈥� he says.
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Coming from a business development background, Veale and Jain knew that their professional experiences were unique among their peers within New Ventures and Technologies, who typically have more technical backgrounds. These differences, however, have been complementary to both the co-founders and the teams they work with, because they are able to approach problems and issues with a different view and vice versa 鈥� even if it meant being challenged and challenging others openly.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 hold back in challenging the team,鈥� Veale says, emphasizing that it was a valuable learning experience for both sides. 鈥淚nnovation is about passion and change, and if we can鈥檛 change our process then we can鈥檛 innovate. New Ventures and Technologies understood this and gave us the flexibility and headroom we needed.鈥�
A Glimpse into the Future
In their first 100 days as intrapreneurs at SAP, the lives and roles of these four co-founders have fundamentally changed. They are working with existing 51风流customers, including blue chip companies and are looking forward to expanding their portfolios and scaling their businesses. But they are also acutely aware that they are not just dealing with the challenges of a typical startup. The pandemic has presented challenges for startups, some of which have never before been seen.
Nevertheless, they remain optimistic. 鈥淲e had a slower start than we had hoped for, but we have adapted, like bringing face-to-face meetings to video, and we are now moving and gathering pace,鈥� Veale says.
When asked if the founders recommended taking the leap and becoming an intrapreneur, Jain answers with an emphatic yes: 鈥淭his transition from being an employee in a large organization to driving something on your own is a challenge and a change of mind 鈥� but it is definitely worth it.鈥�
