WHY? Does Collision Matter?
- Details
- Written by Julie Hansen
Recently I went for my annual physical where my routine blood work gave me some interesting news.
I have stage 1 cancer. Cancer!
Although a tiny bit concerned, I followed my tele-doc's orders, filled the suggested prescription for the nano-treatment, took it with my daily vitamins, and went on with my day. No chemo. No sickness. No weakness. Nada.
Why?
This treatment is a bot technology as in robots. Once swallowed, it will seek out and destroy all of the cancer cells within my body based on the DNA data map. It's non-intrusive in terms of upsetting my system and I can be rest assured that within three months the cancer cells will be destroyed by the nano bot while my life continues as normal.
What the Heck?!
The above is a fictitious futuristic story... but not that futuristic.
The blood work can be done today thanks to a company called Copoly.ai. Their flagship product OncoSage, showcased at Collision 2024, uses blood, AI and biomarkers that can identify at the platelet level if the blood has touched a cancer tumour in your body and specifically which of seven types of cancer it is. This part of my story is true.
It’s incredible when you think about it. Thanks to innovation, one day we will all have better clarity around what is happening in our bodies at a cellular level where our medical teams can then deploy advancements like personal medical nano-bots, incidentally a real thing in start-up labs at MIT.
Innovations aren't often big bangs. The above fictitious/real scenario will require many intersections between companies, people and ideas for us as a population to benefit from early stage cancer destruction. Essentially innovation takes collisions.
And that's precisely what I witnessed at Collision 2024, Toronto. I had the opportunity to attend this in-person conference for the first time and in a nutshell, what I observed was all of the necessary elements required for growing innovative businesses.
Colpoly.ai is one of many companies I spoke with to understand what innovations are coming our way. The conference is a sensory overload of excitement and amazement to see impressive startups at different phases eager to talk about their innovations and to ideally collide with people who can help them advance.
Investors made up a good portion of attendees at Collision 2024. From independents to venture to banks all cruising the conference to connect with founders and assess opportunities for value, risk and reward. The VCs were visible and even had their own stage where they discussed their varied perspectives on current technologies, innovations and the changing investment landscape.
Here are a few nuggets I gleaned from the investor community, other speakers and my own 'collisions' at Collision 2024:
VC Investing Focus
- Series A and B rounds are still very competitive areas for investment. C and D have slowed as investors are looking for profit-growth certainty.
- Technology-leapfrogging may occur in India and Africa due to the population density and demands for advancements in services like fintech and healthcare. These areas have a huge growing middle-classes and a median age of 18 who are tech thirsty.
- Evaluations will look at climate and bio sustainability strategies to help ensure longer term investment success.
A.I. - important but…
- All companies are expected to have an AI strategy, but the key is to be solving business use cases as the priority. The WHY is important to introducing AI and the associated risks. If you are a software company this strategy is mandatory.
- Companies in general should be thoughtful around every dollar they spend.
- SaaS will be rewritten with AI dev technology making the development faster but more importantly generating new app functionality that is advanced and different. E.g. Say goodbye to the 'input form' and watch apps like CRM get totally revamped.
- Most companies don't know how to get full value out of AI, so overall technology investments are slowing as they seek to determine the true business value of using tech like AI and then designing a strategy.
- Empower vs Disrupt - the tools don't fully exist yet, so invest in the fundamentals – education and skill development of people.
Sustainability for Longevity
- Sustainable businesses (a.k.a companies that will survive long-term) will require green AI.
- How things are made and transported are of keen interest to investors and the rankings that get assigned to a company for investment potential.
- Water, infrastructure, cooling, storage and cabling for latency issues are all AI usage challenges not yet addressed that collide with global sustainability goals and requirements. The energy consumption is currently opposing AI benefits triggering governance challenges at global and local levels. E.g. AI drives 48% increase in emissions at Google. Google’s long standing target of net-zero emissions by 2030 is in jeopardy.
- 'Governance isn't sexy but it's necessary' It's currently lagging due to the pace of change, but it is essential for AI adoption beyond the hype-cycle.
- You will need to show your AI energy footprint as part of your ESG impact reporting.
Know your WHY
- Every company, no matter what size, experiences growing pains. From my work with the Fortune 500s, it doesn't go away. It just changes.
- Knowing your WHY is essential at all levels and it leads to the best value creation evidence across companies.
- This might seem obvious, but many folks get caught up in the weeds and lose sight of the Why. I saw this at Collision with some of the startups I spoke with who couldn't articulate the business value of what they were showing me beyond the technical detail.
- A pitch, be it for funding as a startup or for a new idea in any company must articulate the Why.
- Fortunately at Collision, one of the top attended masterclasses was 'Crafting the Perfect Pitch' by none other than The IT Media Group's Founding Partner, Nasheen Liu. She covered the key elements of a pitch and broke down the Why into the sub elements that go together to create a concise story of value that can lead an investor to take action. She also ended up with over 30 meetings after her class to further mentor founders on their approaches to attracting investment
- Pitching your Why is a skill that everyone can benefit from regardless of role and company size. Knowing the business value and what it takes to get there is how ideas move along the innovation-collision journey!
In conclusion, I walked away from Collision 2024 pretty pleased.
Why?
Because I observed the diversity of thought that is essential to move ideas forward into viable business solutions at all stages. Conferences like Collision 2024 is where progress happens; progress that may ultimately make our lives better.
I'll admit, I am squeamish about swallowing a nano-bot as a medical procedure. But I know it's coming and if these companies can articulate their Why to get them colliding with the right minds, leaders and investors...one day I won't be worried about a robot fighting cancer in my body.
Because I will know and be comfortable with the WHY!
Julie Hansen is an award-winning technology and innovation executive. Julie is a judge and advisor to global innovation competitions and coaches women leaders in over 25 countries. She holds the Competent Boards GCB.D board-level accreditation and sits on The IT Media Group CIO Advisory Board.
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