When you think of infrastructure, you probably think of roads and bridges. Maybe if you’re familiar with Harbor, you think of connectivity or even the supply chain. What might not be top of mind is the cold chain – a critical delivery and storage infrastructure for refrigerated goods and pharmaceuticals (including the Covid-19 vaccine). Cold storage and transportation are critical to human health, ensuring food, medications and vaccines are delivered safely. But there is a lot of room for improvement in the cold chain – our analysis over the last several years indicates that between 15-20% of global fresh food production is lost annually due to ineffective cold chain technologies and systems. Truly efficient cold chains require an integrated ecosystem of open data, data sharing and data management across a number of disparate systems.

We recently sat down with Manik Suri, CEO and founder of Therma, a company dedicated to energy efficient food refrigeration solutions, to discuss the future of cold storage, a smarter, more energy efficient cold chain and more.

Many governments, companies and industries have made pledges to reach net zero, of carbon neutrality, in the coming years. A seismic shift must occur for industries to actually reach these net zero goals – it will take technological innovation, ecosystem development and government assistance. With a combined $1.9 trillion recently signed into law to support infrastructure, clean energy and healthcare reform, are we about to see net zero become a reality?

We sat down with Nick Heier, a Business Development and Innovation Management Consultant specializing in technology adoption, innovation and biomimicry, to discuss the tangible steps companies can take to set themselves up for net zero success.

Here is a modern-day take on the classic fable, "The Tortoise and the Hare." An R&D company challenged an early-stage company to a race: who could get acquired for more than a billion dollars first? The R&D company went through a long, iterative process. Minimum-viable products were created, tested with users, and then sent back for revision. Meanwhile, the early-stage company decided they could circumvent the entire development cycle. Instead of building a product, they built an idea and used social media to create hype around it. Whether the product existed or not, they could show a large number of people wanted it.

So, who wins this race?

Harbor sat down with Matthew Smith, CEO and founder of Fathym, a micro frontends platform for delivering future-proof web projects and applications, to talk about the lessons large companies can learn from startups on innovation, how to avoid overly hyped meme technologies, and the technology trends he’s most excited about.

Download the transcript here.

What can OEMs, telcos and large enterprises learn from the world of startups?

We sit down with Jennifer Vancini, general partner at Mighty Capital, to discuss the importance of a product-first strategy, the challenges of digital transformation, ecosystems, the evolution of key roles and the emerging technologies that she is most excited about.

Mighty Capital stands out as a female-led venture capital fund with a diverse portfolio of technology companies in segments like AI healthcare, streaming services and blockchain. Jennifer Vancini is a General Partner of Mighty Capital. Jennifer has been investing for >10 years, and prior to Mighty Capital® built a family investment office where she achieved a 15x cash-on-cash return. Jennifer has held executive roles in corporate and strategic business development, especially in the high-growth security and mobile sectors with companies such as Telefonica, Symbian/Nokia, and Certicom, which she helped take public in Canada. Jennifer is currently the Vice-Chair of a Dean’s Advisory Council at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where she completed her MBA.

Access the full transcript here.

How do you predict the next big thing, the next unicorn, the next transformational technology?

We sit down with Lee Feldman to discuss the importance of true digital transformation and how that applies to Microsoft, the economies and business models being built around data, and the transformational technologies that are coming together in Web3 including blockchain, NFTs, augmented and virtual reality, digital twins, crypto, AI and more.

Lee Feldman is a senior strategist for M12 based out of the greater Seattle area. He is responsible for technology trend analysis, thesis development, and opportunity analysis influencing investment activities. He also conducts market and technical diligence for deals in areas of focus, including National Security technology, brain-computer interface (BCI), cybersecurity, data and AI, IoT, and enterprise IT.

He joined M12 from Microsoft’s corporate strategy team, where he advised Microsoft senior leadership on topics related to the business health and growth of the company. He also led strategic projects and customer engagement programs for Microsoft’s executive vice president of corporate strategy and core services engineering and operations.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Lee was a management consultant where he helped traditional software companies transform their business models towards XaaS models. He has a Bachelor of Arts in economics and a certification in entrepreneurship from the University of Michigan. Lee also sits on the board of directors for the Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP).

Access the full transcript here.

Resources Lee shared during our conversation:

Matthew Ball's website on Web3 - https://www.matthewball.vc/all/themetaverse

Andreessen Horowitz's a16z, specifically, Chris Dixon's blog - https://a16z.com

"Business as usual" is no longer enough to successfully grow and innovate. OEMs now need to approach venture growth with a creative combination of "build, buy and partner," while making efforts to not stifle innovation by holding acquisitions, incubators, and the like too close. We're diving into growth venture strategy in the latest episode of Future Perfect Tech with the founder and managing director of Spinnaker Venture Partners, Mark Roth, and president and founder of Harbor Research, Glen Allmendinger.

Mark Roth is founder and Managing Director of Spinnaker Venture Partners. Spinnaker, as a Venture Development firm, has been involved in the identification, funding, launch, and development of innovative early stage entrepreneurial ventures for the past 15 years. Mark has over 20 years experience as leading and developing venture based start-ups and as a management consultant providing leadership on new product development, innovation management, and business origination.

Mark has held leadership R&D positions in Rockwell International, Honeywell, and Engelhard Minerals and Chemicals and has provided management consulting on corporate and business development issues to emerging technology businesses. Internationally, he has led the origination of energy related businesses in the EU, Eastern Europe and Russia. Mark has served as a board member and director of numerous manufacturing industry and technology consortia including the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, the Microelectronics Computer Consortium, the Software Engineering Institute and the Software Productivity Consortium. He has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology and has affiliations with the Tuck School of Business and the Czech Technical University.

Glen Allmendinger has been responsible for managing all of Harbor Research’s consulting and research activities since its inception. Glen has worked with a very broad range of leading technology innovators, product OEMs, and service providers assisting them with strategy and market development for new smart product, systems, and services opportunities. He has participated in pioneering research and consulting work in the Smart Buildings, Healthcare, Retail, Transportation, Energy and Industrial arenas helping clients to determine the scale and structure of emerging opportunities, competitive positioning, and design of new business models.

In 2005, Glen co-authored the pioneering article “Four Strategies for The Age Of Smart Services,” published in the Harvard Business Review. Glen has also authored thought leading articles for a wide range of publications including, The Economist and The Wall Street Journal, as well as being a frequent speaker in industry forums.

Learn more at https://harborresearch.com/future-perfect-tech/

Nature has been solving problems with functions and mechanics and chemistry for at least 3.8 billion years. That’s a great deal of research and testing and trial and error in the evolutionary process to realize something as elegant as a bird in flight or a lobster that crawls the sea floor in near-total darkness. Most technologists appreciate the intricacies and subtle power of the evolutionary process, and for decades they have been looking to nature for design inspiration.

For this episode of the Future Perfect Tech podcast, we sat down with Shana Longo of Legrand and innovation consultant Nick Heier to talk about the ways nature can inspire better, more sustainable technology products, buildings and organizations.

Shana and Nick walk us through many examples of biomimicry and why it matters—not just to product and tech design, but to innovation and our relationship with the natural world.

Shana Longo has ten years of corporate sustainability and government affairs experience. She’s conducted extensive research on the evolution of the High Performance Building market and the variety of performance mechanisms available to building owners (LEED, WELL, LBC). She’s presented at Congressional briefings, the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, and the International Sustainable Cities Congress in Costa Rica. Currently, Shana is the XaaS Technology Manager for Legrand’s Building Control System Division charged with developing a data-driven services product offering. For the past 3 years, she has led Legrand’s High Performance Building Committee, managing a corporate-wide initiative to understand how the electrical industry plays a role in sustainable and well-being building design. Shana attended American University in Washington, DC, and graduated with a Dual Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Environmental Studies, with a concentration in Policy. She is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Biomimicry at Arizona State University.

Nick Heier works with business leaders across industries to encourage development strategies around innovation. Drawing from twenty years experience building and leading inclusive, high-performance teams in the joint, interagency, and intergovernmental spaces of the US Defense Enterprise, Nick enables organizations to transform ideas to impact against their most complex challenges. Nick’s focus areas include biomimicry and technology adoption rates. Prior to this, Nick spent twenty years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is currently pursuing his Master of Science in Biomimicry at Arizona State University.

If you've watched the news recently you might think the real story is about which billionaire will take the first ride in space, or beat his  competitors to Mars. Sadly, the media's focus on the billionaire space race overshadows the truly important space innovations that will affect us all here on earth.

Until recently, satellites delivered into space by rockets were the epitome of ultra-high-tech tools available only to the most privileged governments and corporations on earth. Today, orbiting satellites are a critical component of global communications not only in emerging markets but everywhere that users need continuous connectivity. 

The networks they help create play a huge role in the value created by Smart Systems and connected equipment. Use cases such as mining, railways, oil and gas involve remote situations that are off the normal cellular grid and yet still require reliable communication. In fact, network services for mission critical markets and applications will probably eclipse $100 billion by 2025.

For this episode of the Future Perfect Tech podcast, we sat down with Joel Schroeder of Intelsat, which operates the largest, most advanced satellite fleet and connectivity infrastructure in the world. Joel is Director of Land Mobile where he's responsible for building and executing the market, product and partner strategies that will enable Intelsat to deliver portable and mobile satellite services across the enterprise and mobility vertical markets.

Prior to joining Intelsat, Joel was vice president of business development for Inmarsat's connected car program, and in his career before that he focused on internet of things and tele-systems technologies. Joel’s experience in emerging markets on several continents led him to understand the impacts of gaps in connectivity as well as the cost and bandwidth constraints that customers from industry to telemedicine feel across the world.

Learn more about the Future Perfect Tech podcast and webinar series at https://harborresearch.com/future-perfect-tech

It sounds like science fiction: Cough into your cell phone to get tested for COVID-19 instead of going in for a nasal-swab PCR test. But artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) researchers have been laying the groundwork for this for some time. Now Denver-based RAIsonance, Inc. is making it a reality. 

On this episode of Future Perfect Tech, we're talking to Kitty Kolding, co-founder and CEO of RAIsonance, Inc., to learn more about her companies and their revolutionary medical and biometric products.

Can AI-diagnostic tools help us get back to "normal"? How do you train these models? How can you tell a COVID cough from asthma or a sore throat? Can asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 really be identified with a cough? How do you avoid AI bias? 

Kitty answers these questions and more.

Raisonance is the parent company of family of AI-powered biometric safety and health screening companies focused on impacting respiratory illnesses.

Kitty has been quoted across major media outlets, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and has been a featured speaker at leading industry conferences.

Learn more about the Future Perfect Tech podcast and webinar series at https://harborresearch.com/future-perfect-tech

Harbor Research has partnered with the Natural Curiosity Project to bring you a special episode of Future Perfect Tech.

Hope you enjoy the questions we answer--and raise.

Like what you hear? Be sure to follow the Natural Curiosity Project. 

Visit Harbor Research for more episodes and Smart Systems technology and market insights.