The German Hub is an office community between eight German organizations in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District. In this series, we want to introduce the organizations and their valuable services to our transatlantic community.
Text by Tim Ole Joehnk
From one Bay to the Other: Connecting Germany’s North with Silicon Valley
A warm “Moin” from Silicon Valley from the Northern Germany Innovation Office (NGIO). We represent the German states Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, and Bremen and offer Northern German companies access to Silicon Valley, one of the most innovative regions in the world. We act as trend & technology scouts and support companies through our network – consisting of companies, startups, venture capital firms, and universities – as well as through our knowledge regarding new technologies, application examples, and investments. Many of the companies we represent are working to digitize certain steps and processes in their value chain or to develop entirely new business areas through the use of new technologies. The high density of startups, universities, and tech corporations makes San Francisco and Silicon Valley exactly the right region for this. Furthermore, Kiel and San Francisco have been sister cities since 2017, which means that in addition to economic relations, there is also a lively exchange in the areas of culture, sports, politics, and education.
Combining forces in the German Hub
The German-American Network, and especially the cooperation with our partners in the German Hub, is a wonderful complement and help in our work. Each organization in the German Hub has its own strengths and focus areas, and the joint exchange is always inspiring and helpful. Our focus lies on innovation in medium-sized companies through collaboration with startups. We work very closely with various accelerator programs, universities, and venture capital firms based in Silicon Valley and share our contacts as well as experiences through our (mostly public) events, delegation trips, or individual meetings.
How Silicon Valley insights can help to prepare German companies for the future
Key industries for Northern Germany are food & beverage, health tech, and renewable energies. For example, many VCs in Silicon Valley are “betting” that we will see a 16 percent decline in fishing quotas in the next 10-15 years due to overfishing and changing eating habits. At the same time, there is a growing market of startups offering alternative proteins to replace fish. These proteins are currently derived primarily from the fava or mung bean. The processing by which the basic materials for protein production are extracted is technologically challenging in this context. Thanks to their many years of experience, our mechanical engineering companies are well prepared for the development of such high-precision machines. Through deal review sessions tailored to our partner companies, we connect these companies and are then also available as advisors throughout the pilot project.
Helping startups to succeed
Innovation, and especially working with startups, are always challenging and the multiple variables make each project exciting, but also risky. There are no silver bullets, no guaranteed ROI, and any investment, whether in time or money, is a kind of “bet on the future.”
“However, we believe that by sharing our experiences (successes as well as failures), examples of application, and the constant and sustainable exchange of content, can increase our success rate for everyone involved.”
For this reason, we are happy to hear from any interested company or organization, whether from Northern Germany or the rest of the world, who would like to get in touch and participate in this exchange.
Tim Ole Jöhnk, Director, Northern Germany Innovation Office
Tim Ole Jöhnk is a skilled matchmaker and advisor in corporate innovation. After attaining his MBA at Oregon State University in 2016, he has worked in Silicon Valley’s corporate and startup environments. He has helped over 20 Fortune 500 companies on their innovation journeys by identifying technological needs and matching them with startups from 3 continents. These matches have led to pilots, investments, and acquisitions in the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. As the Director of the Northern Germany Innovation Office in San Francisco, he leads economic development through tech-scouting and corporate innovation. He advises three German States with their respective administrations, universities, corporations, and startups on topics around technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
