Gründerzeit

SAP currently supports more than 5,000 startups as part of the program. The initiative sees itself as a virtual accelerator for start-ups that want to establish themselves on the global market.

The Hana platform serves as the technological basis. 250 participants are already in the market enablement and go-to-market phase. The focus is on predictive and real-time analytics, big data, artificial intelligence, data security, the Internet of Things, mobile and cloud.

The go-to-market team led by Maria Luisa Silva helps participating companies reach out to customers by connecting them to SAP's global customer and partner network. Startup Focus not only targets industry-specific startups, but also supports founders from 24 different industries.

Approximately 60 percent operate outside the traditional SAP ecosystem. To become part of the program, startups submit their use cases for an acceptance review. They then receive immediate access to resources and SAP technologies (such as Cloud Platform or Hana).

The Startup Focus team collaborates with several ecosystem stakeholders as well as the European Business Innovation Network and organizes events and virtual forums worldwide, fostering exchange across company and industry boundaries.

In doing so, the program offers the start-up companies orientation and support during the first sales cycles in cooperation with SAP.

A showcase company for the initiative's success is process mining specialist Celonis (E-3 cover story March 2017), which joined the program 3.5 years ago.

Today, the Munich-based company is one of the top VCs with more than 100 employees and also operates successfully on the US market from its New York office.

Support
SAP Startup Focus

• Access to the Hana platform  
• Resources: Access to experts and support for marketing and sales activities
• Customers: Ability to access SAP's global customer base (approx. 350,000) to sell marketable solutions
• Money: Opportunity to call on the venture community: no cost, no fee, no equity.
• Community: from entrepreneurs, partners, investors and thought leaders

Maria Luisa Silva

As Global Director for Market Enablement and Go-to-Market of the SAP Startup Focus program, Maria Luisa Silva plays an intermediary role between participating startups and potential customers.

It identifies the potential and market opportunities and supports the young companies in their go-to-market strategy. This includes showing them how best to move within the SAP ecosystem.

Silva and her team support participants on their journey to market. They also facilitate collaboration with multiple market units and also plan and support relevant market exposure for the startups (industry events, media and press exposure, innovation exhibitions).

Last but not least, they also guide the startups through funding opportunities both within SAP stakeholders and through their investor network. This requires a lot of planning and commitment to get the best possible support from multiple areas within SAP (such as product, industry, sales, presales, marketing, communications).

There are so many stakeholders and touchpoints in the go-to-market phase. SAP is a company with 86,000 employees worldwide, so these are not easy tasks.

Another challenging aspect is that young companies often lack important resources in the early start-up phase. Silva has learned to think "like a start-up" and find alternative ways to achieve set goals with limited resources.