I have built a start-up inside an existing company before.
I worked at Microsoft for many years, where I learned that I had a special gift – or at least a special interest in innovation.
So I created a global innovation team at Microsoft, where we came up with some amazing ideas.
One of them was establishing the first IoT-initiative at Microsoft worldwide – which lead to a so-called “Formal Business Review” with Bill Gates.
That was a wild experience!
All-in-all, I started five new initiatives – a couple of which received funding directly from Steve Ballmer.
In his last investment, Steve Ballmer said to me: “Bjarne, you have to promise me, that if you get this money, you will build “a company in the company” – because we are really not very good at handling start-ups. We end up killing them”.
That’s the usual story – but it turned out that it actually went pretty well.
That’s why I was contacted by Nilfisk, who said they wanted exactly the same solution – where you build something completely new – but still as part of the existing business.
I worked at Microsoft for many years, where I learned that I had a special gift – or at least a special interest in innovation.
So I created a global innovation team at Microsoft, where we came up with some amazing ideas.
One of them was establishing the first IoT-initiative at Microsoft worldwide – which lead to a so-called “Formal Business Review” with Bill Gates.
That was a wild experience!
All-in-all, I started five new initiatives – a couple of which received funding directly from Steve Ballmer.
In his last investment, Steve Ballmer said to me: “Bjarne, you have to promise me, that if you get this money, you will build “a company in the company” – because we are really not very good at handling start-ups. We end up killing them”.
That’s the usual story – but it turned out that it actually went pretty well.
That’s why I was contacted by Nilfisk, who said they wanted exactly the same solution – where you build something completely new – but still as part of the existing business.