Alan Proithis of Capstone Partners joins us to discuss private 5G networks and the importance of innovation collaboration.

Allen and I have worked together at different companies since the mid-90s. He is currently focused on private 5G networks. There is an unprecedented amount of investment and interest in the mobile space. People want to apply 5G to some crazy areas. The consumer market around it has created some misconceptions about the technology. Allen believes consumers won't benefit from it in the short term. Enterprises, on the other hand, can potentially benefit significantly from it. Even with the need for public networks, 5G brings in a new dynamic. You can tune virtual slices of a private network to do exactly what you want, where you want, all on-demand. This process can all be done securely, which is appealing to many.

Allen's firm, Capstone Partners, was part of a team that delivered the first private 5G network for the Department of Defense. Cisco, Federated Wireless, JMA Wireless, the Marine Corps customers, and various smaller partners played a vital role in the project. There was a high level of collaboration, and this project wouldn't have worked without it. Collaborating with the right set of partners is key to reaching end goals. Innovation without collaboration is doomed for failure.

Within the practice of collaboration lies the critical task of defining the problem. Understanding the problem is a lot harder than most people think. Allen says understanding the problem requires getting your hands dirty. If you don't take the time to do this, you'll never understand the customer's problem deeply enough. As a result, you will not adequately solve their problem. No matter what the innovation is, it is vital to define the problem you are trying deeply

Allen Proithis is the CEO of Capstone Partners, a strategic advisory firm for clients in the mobile, IoT, software, and technology industries. Before Capstone, Allen was the President of Sigfox, North America. He created a high-performance team that built an Internet of Things business with top enterprise companies and verticals while providing wireless coverage for over 70M people in the US.

Before Sigfox, he created a $155M IoT joint venture (Convida Wireless) with Sony, InterDigital, and Stephens Capital and served as Chairman. In 2014, Allen raised $15M to launch an Internet of Things spinout focused on accelerating value produced by the data generated by IoT. At InterDigital, Allen oversaw all market development activities, including commercializing IoT, Wi-Fi, shared spectrum, and video content management solutions. Allen was on and recognized by: CNBC, Fortune, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Fierce Wireless, MWC, and CES.

To know more about Alan Proithis on Innovation Collaboration, listen to this week's show: Alan Proithis of Capstone Partners on Innovation Collaboration.

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