A new kid on the entrepreneurship block
Technically spoken, New Lab is more “massive accelerator / coworking space” than “kid”. For the sake of a solid 80s reference, let this one live. To throw out some hard numbers, this new age experiment of software meets hardware has come to a beautiful fruition in New Lab: 50+ companies, 350+ employees, 10+ 3D printers, 1 welding/laser cutting shop, and 100+ espressos from the on-site café (duh!) call this place their daily home.
That’s all well and good, many of you might be saying, but why exactly is Evonik – a multinational B2B specialty chemical supplier - paying this place a visit?
That’s all well and good, many of you might be saying, but why exactly is Evonik – a multinational B2B specialty chemical supplier - paying this place a visit?
Software may be eating the world, but the world still runs on hardware.
For one, this place embodies the future of digitally enabled manufacturing. There’s a lot that all manufacturing firms, Evonik included, can learn from their iterative, quick-to-market approach. Furthermore, close integration of hardware and software is something that essentially lives in the DNA of companies like New Lab and HAX, the China-based firm with a similar model. Where these two were formerly treated separately and unequal, like kids from the gifted class and those destined for blue collar trade jobs, today the two dance more in concert than ever before. Evonik Digital was founded on the belief that this intermingling of world class materials with top-line software is indeed the dance of the digital future.
In a time where software has been receiving the lion’s share of investment dollars domestically and abroad, firms like New Lab are helping ensure that companies seeking to bring physical manifestations of the software revolution have a home. And since hardware companies, unlike software startups, often take both serious amounts of space (hello, NYC real estate prices) and physical materials to operate, these so-called “maker spaces”, brand friendly name included, provide the ideal low capital investment locale for such enterprises to get their start. Additionally, New Lab takes neither equity stake nor profit sharing from tenants, making the recipe for scalable solutions all the more feasible.
In a time where software has been receiving the lion’s share of investment dollars domestically and abroad, firms like New Lab are helping ensure that companies seeking to bring physical manifestations of the software revolution have a home. And since hardware companies, unlike software startups, often take both serious amounts of space (hello, NYC real estate prices) and physical materials to operate, these so-called “maker spaces”, brand friendly name included, provide the ideal low capital investment locale for such enterprises to get their start. Additionally, New Lab takes neither equity stake nor profit sharing from tenants, making the recipe for scalable solutions all the more feasible.
As for the companies that call New Lab home, a number of these could be potentially interesting for Evonik’s business. Here’s a list of a select few, a brief explanation of what they do, and where I see potential for development and/or use with each:
Waverly Labs – A translator for the future. Two users that don’t speak the same language each place the earpiece. Then, with no hindrances, as each user speaks his preferred native language the device translates the output into the preferred language of the listener. Evonik is a multinational organization with offices in more than 100 countries. Imagine the scenario: the German or Brazilian or American leader of an organization can speak directly with an important supplier, who previously was unreachable because of language barriers, in order to negotiate a big deal or simply commit to future common goals.
3DP Partners – Firms like MakerBot, Ultimaker and BigRep all partner with the space, providing at no additional costs to tenants access to their printers for creating the next big thing. As many of you may know already, Evonik is one of the world’s largest suppliers of high performance polymers, or in other words, the “ink” that powers these revolutionary manufacturing devices. There’s a lot we could both teach to and learn from these real time R&D operations.
StrongArm Technologies – Blue collars are out, industrial athletes, at least according to StrongArm, are in. Their flagship product, the V22 ErgoSkeleton places a focus on safety, strength and endurance through injury prevention for the industrial workforce – think the lifters, pullers, diggers, and climbers. There are direct safety implications for such a product with a firm like Evonik who employs 20,000+ manufacturing workers globally.
Fero Labs – With the advent of modern machine learning techniques, most statistical models used in Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing practices are outdated. Fero applies Bayesian methodologies – traditionally used in statistical fields – in the manufacturing environment. Add to it their proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms and they’ve (supposedly) created the recipe for predicting better product quality, less equipment downtime and more efficient energy utilization. Evonik sold north of 14 bUSD in manufactured chemicals last year. In simple mathematical terms, increasing efficiency alone by 1%, assuming energy to be 1/10th of overall cost, Evonik could save 14 mUSD annually by leveraging such technologies.
Waverly Labs – A translator for the future. Two users that don’t speak the same language each place the earpiece. Then, with no hindrances, as each user speaks his preferred native language the device translates the output into the preferred language of the listener. Evonik is a multinational organization with offices in more than 100 countries. Imagine the scenario: the German or Brazilian or American leader of an organization can speak directly with an important supplier, who previously was unreachable because of language barriers, in order to negotiate a big deal or simply commit to future common goals.
3DP Partners – Firms like MakerBot, Ultimaker and BigRep all partner with the space, providing at no additional costs to tenants access to their printers for creating the next big thing. As many of you may know already, Evonik is one of the world’s largest suppliers of high performance polymers, or in other words, the “ink” that powers these revolutionary manufacturing devices. There’s a lot we could both teach to and learn from these real time R&D operations.
StrongArm Technologies – Blue collars are out, industrial athletes, at least according to StrongArm, are in. Their flagship product, the V22 ErgoSkeleton places a focus on safety, strength and endurance through injury prevention for the industrial workforce – think the lifters, pullers, diggers, and climbers. There are direct safety implications for such a product with a firm like Evonik who employs 20,000+ manufacturing workers globally.
Fero Labs – With the advent of modern machine learning techniques, most statistical models used in Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing practices are outdated. Fero applies Bayesian methodologies – traditionally used in statistical fields – in the manufacturing environment. Add to it their proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms and they’ve (supposedly) created the recipe for predicting better product quality, less equipment downtime and more efficient energy utilization. Evonik sold north of 14 bUSD in manufactured chemicals last year. In simple mathematical terms, increasing efficiency alone by 1%, assuming energy to be 1/10th of overall cost, Evonik could save 14 mUSD annually by leveraging such technologies.
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