S10E4 - Why would Xylem grow 10 Wonder Kids from 5 to 50 Clients?

with 🎙️ xStorto - Lead Innovation Analyst at Xylem Innovation Labs  💧 Xylem is one of the largest water and wastewater technology companies globally and follows the simple motto: "Let's solve water" What we covered: 🤝 How the Xylem Innovation Labs explore partnerships with early-stage technology providers to enhance offerings and improve portfolio stacks  🚀 What the main tracks within Xylem Innovation Lab entail, from the commercial accelerator focusing on client growth to the early-stage incubation program and open innovation ecosystem targeting specific water-related issues.  ⚽ How Max likens his role in scouting potential technology providers to a talent scout in sports, seeking the most promising innovations that align with Xylem's capabilities and customer challenges.  🌍 What main challenges Xylem's customers face, such as decarbonizing the water sector, industrial treatment solutions, decentralized treatment, and addressing contaminants of emerging concern like PFAS and microplastics.  🌊 Why Xylem is looking into areas like digital workforce solutions and flooding issues, aiming to find innovative ways to address these significant concerns in the water management industry.  🎙️ How Max Storto's dynamic and multifaceted role at Xylem brings both planned goals and unexpected chaos into his daily life.  🗳️ Why political work with the Iowa Democratic Party led Max to engage in grassroots conversations, touching on critical water issues in both local and federal contexts.  🚰 How the state of water networks in the U.S., including boiling water notices, reflects challenges in infrastructure investment, public awareness, and income inequality.  📊 How Xylem Innovation Labs aggregates customer-facing team information, interprets data, and involves business units to prioritize decisions, fostering a united approach.  🚀 What makes Xylem's accelerator program unique: sourcing from grants, accelerators, internal recommendations, VCs, and conferences and inviting companies to apply, ensuring a focused approach to innovation.  🤝 Why Xylem's relationship-building with startups is key: no equity taken, a mutual NDA, building trust, and aiming for long-term commercial agreements to foster a truly collaborative partnership.  🚀 What distinguishes Xylem's process of carefully select from 3 to 400 invitations, leading to 40-50 applications for a handpicked 10-count accelerator cohort, ensuring alignment with innovation priorities.  🧠 How Max's role as a market analyst at Xylem intertwines with engineering teams, aiding in financial analysis and business case development for revenue projections.  🌍 What the Xylem Innovation Labs' role in global R&D is, including their part of the R&D package, and how they complement the company's existing product development efforts.  🌱 How innovation with impact at Xylem is characterized by a focus on sustainability metrics and diversity and their efforts in alleviating water challenges and reducing carbon footprints.  👔 Oxford Collar, Decentralized Work Environment, fostering long-term growth, mutual trust and partnership, commercialization over investment, selling solutions vs taking equity... and much more!  🔥 ... and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥 🔗 Come say hi to Max on LinkedIn   🔗 Check Xylem Innovation Website's website  ➡️ Check out the entire article on Xylem's weirdest move  ➡️ Reach out to me: [email protected]  Suggested episodes: 🚀 My interview with Sivan Zamir  🔋 My conversation with Austin Alexander  👔 My short catch up with Patrick Decker