Aug. 26, 2020

Piers Corfield, co-founder and CEO of Dashboard on: How to raise money in Industrial Tech; How to Successfully Partner with Large Organisations and Still Keep Your IP.

Piers Corfield, co-founder and CEO of Dashboard on: How to raise money in Industrial Tech; How to Successfully Partner with Large Organisations and Still Keep Your IP.

Industrial IoT is a trillion-dollar market. And yet, there is very little VC investment going into it in the UK. I sat down with Piers Corfield to learn more about his journey building Dashboard; the struggles he had raising money and what he learned, a

Show Notes:

  • [0:43] - Why did you start Dashboard and what problem is it trying to solve?
  • [5:06] - How did you refine your initial value proposition and find your focus?
  • [6:54] - There are big companies with deep pockets in the energy space - why can’t they solve this problem on their own?
  • [10:05] - Is there a VC arm inside most of these large energy companies and who are the right people to build relationships with?
  • [13:02] - What does the funding look like for industrial tech and how was that process for you?
  • [19:50] - How do you raise money in industrial tech? What advice would you give to other industrial tech entrepreneurs?
  • [23:36] - How did you partner with big companies and still maintain non-exclusivity?
  • [27:49] - What stage of TRL are you and how did the big companies react to your technology?
  • [30:56] - What’s the next step after this?
  • [33:38] - How did you find the right people for the team in the initial stages?
  • [36:35] - How did you build the culture at Dashboard?
  • [38:33] - What were some of the biggest mistakes you made in your entrepreneurial journey and what did you learn from that?


Links:

Dashboard.net


Book recommendations:  

American Dirt

Make, Think, Imagine: The Future of Civilizations by Lord Brown