It was fantastic to see a new generation of entrepreneurs in Gdansk with an energy and quality of work in world class. Two companies where particularly interesting:1. Optiguard, as they focus on what might be the most important issue today, how to make buildings smart.
2. SiGarden as they provide smart ICT equipment that can be used to deliver important low carbon solutions, including those provided by Optiguard. They target almost all sectors that are important, such as transport and buildings and also target the health care sector where a lot needs to happen.
What I lacked when they (and everyone else) presented their solutions where three things. There three things would have demonstrated the strength of the two companies):
1. How many tonnes of CO2 could be reduced by the solutions in 1, 5 and 10 years under different scenarios (or other quantified positive impacts) in the markets they target?
2. How big is the market and what share could be the company’s in 1, 3 and 10 years?
3. What other positive impact could happen if the solution was implanted, and what potential negative impacts. (e.g. smart IT solutions from SiGarden will help reduce the emissions from IT itself, but that is most certainly the smaller part of the contribution as the smarter houses and transport systems will result in significant reductions. In the same way solutions for waste might lock society in a dependence on waste that is encourage a general wasteful society. Especially in a situation where companies must move beyond a situation where waste is created and move towards closed loop system with a cradle to cradle perspective).
It would be really interesting to use these entrepreneurs as indicators for how Europe is dealing with the kind of solutions that are needed and that has been identified as important.
Picture of the team from SiGarden and their stand in Gdansk.
