Corporate vice – startup virtue: The importance of technological innovation

10/23/2013 | Entrepreneurship, Startups

Mitch Kranner – Head of Pioneers Blog

Entrepreneurship is the driver of any economy. The reality is that established corporations shed jobs and lack new ideas. Entrepreneurs drive job growth and innovation. On average, they create over two-thirds of net jobs – stimulating wealth by driving innovation and bringing it to market.

Technological progress is a primary driver of human progress. Nonetheless, most cutting-edge technology will not solve any of our major challenges (global health, clean energy, inequality, education…) unless an entrepreneur pursues the idea and transforms it into a reality.

The entrepreneurs and risk-takers, the rebels and thinkers, the explorers and doers are tomorrow’s leaders – the ones who will solve the problems of tomorrow.

Paving the road for an age of pioneering

We are living in what is perhaps the most exciting age of possibilities. There are virtually no barriers to information and communication. Today, anyone with a smartphone has access to Google – has better access to information than the U.S. president had 25 years ago.

Still, the majority of the world is not connected to the Internet. Connecting the remaining five billion people will be a challenge, but it ishappening. According to Gartner in 2009 “there were 2.5 billion connected devices” and by “2020 there will be up to 30 billion devices connected” to the Internet. This is what Peter Diamandis calls the “the biggest economic injection ever.”

Imagine the possibilities.

Innovation ecosystem

Pioneers Festival will gather the visionaries, innovators and founders of the tech and startup scene in Vienna

We have reached the moment in which the most powerful technology fits into your pocket – it is cheap, accessible and easy to use. What has happened in the past few years, former Editor-in-Chief of WIRED, Chris Anderson, tells us, is that “software got easy, electronics got easy… manufacturing operations and tools all got easy – suddenly this stuff became doable.”

This is precisely what we are starting to see: small teams with silly budgets are making a big impact.

Startups are providing access to space in order to revolutionize the way we teach science. A team of a small number of scientists crowdfunded a project to engineer glowing plants with the vision of reduced CO2 emissions from street lamps to ultimately stop global warming. What else?

Exoskeletons that allow people to walk again; a small wearable wristband that allows you to control pretty much anything from your Powerpoint slides to a drone – all with simple gestures.

These are tomorrow’s pioneers and we are providing them a stage at Pioneers Festival.

Challenge the status quo!

From 30 to 31 October, Pioneers Festival will gather the visionaries, innovators, rebels, inventors, founders, tinkerers and explorers of the tech and startup scene in Vienna! In fact, we welcome all the troublemakers.

Pioneers Festival – We Are More Than A Summit

Pioneers Trailer