Venture Clienting means using a startup technology in a product or process. The term is new—I introduced it in 2014—but the activity existed long before. What was truly new was designing the first distinct Venture Client model and implementing it at BMW to make the process structured and scalable.

A “Venture Client” is any individual or organisational unit—say an engineer in R&D—that adopts a startup solution to solve a real business problem.

The "Venture Client Unit" is the organisational function that makes this adoption effective and repeatable across the company.

If set up correctly, real impact shows up fast. Within 90 days, a strong Venture Client model delivers:

In short: the organisation moves from theory to real startup adoption, real money, and real business value.

Three things matter most: a truly painful problem, a high-quality startup solution, and low validation cost. If the problem is critical and the startup has a uniquely strong solution, risk aversion vanishes—“not invented here” only appears when the value isn’t obvious. And if you keep validation cheap and real—via a small, practical use case instead of a million-euro equity bet—business units naturally become active Venture Clients.

Two experiences shaped my philosophy.

First, my years in Silicon Valley—especially at IDEO—where I learned how essential it is to uncover real needs and create unique solutions.

Second, founding, funding, and selling my own biotech software venture. As a founder, you learn quickly: the only thing that matters is the client.

When I later arrived at BMW, I viewed the company’s adoption challenges through the lens of a founder and a VC. That’s why accelerators and strategic CVC made no sense to me.

Products, services and practices thrive (suffer) when an ecosystem succeeds (fails) to share standards, best practices, and a common understanding—just as the car became transformative once roads, rules, and conventions existed.

The mission of VentureClient.org is to advance Venture Clienting worldwide through the creation of standards, knowledge, and a Venture Clienting ecosystem. Such an ecosystem aims to facilitate cooperation and collaboration among key stakeholders – companies, investors, and startups – so that Venture Clienting delivers stronger competitive impact for all.

➔ Keep an eye on Gregor Gimmy for news about what’s next at VentureClient.org.

➔ They call their product the “MalocherBot” (“malochen”: German slang for working real hard)

➔ Their AI-3D vision system already powered over 20 million robot cycles in the first half of 2025.

➔ Their technology achieves more than 98% pick-accuracy on any robot from “day one”

At last week’s First Summit on European Digital Sovereignty in Berlin, European leaders — including France’s President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — gathered alongside AI ministers, founders and industry representatives to discuss: How can Europe gain more technological independence and reduce reliance on non-European Big-Tech?

Across a full day of talks, five themes surfaced consistently:

1. Time is critical.
Political leaders emphasised the urgency of action. As Germany’s Federal Minister for Digital Affairs Karsten Wildberger put it: “Speed and scale will determine who will lead and who will follow.”

2. Europe must start building, not just buying.
Europe has spent too long as an observer and consumer rather than a creator. Speakers stressed the need for Europe to develop its own software, digital infrastructure, and technological solutions.

3. Stronger European integration is essential.
To unlock the continent’s full potential — a market of 450 million people and a public procurement volume of €200–250 billion — decisions and investments must be made at the European level.

4. Buy European.
Several speakers, especially from France, called for prioritising European digital solutions over those from outside the continent to strengthen the internal market.

5. Smart regulation over overregulation.
While regulation remains important, leaders warned against stifling innovation. Emmanuel Macron: “If Europe continues regulating at the current intensity, it risks ending up with no tech companies left to regulate.”

At the Digital Sovereignty Summit in Berlin, EU leaders announced 18 new partnerships totaling over €1 billion in planned investments. The aim: accelerate Europe’s AI capabilities and reduce reliance on non-European tech. Here are five particularly exciting ones: 

Technology: AI-powered customer interaction platform.
Goal: Deliver hyper-personalized, scalable customer experiences across Allianz’s insurance lines.

Technology: Tech–consulting partnership operating in the Nordics and UK.
Goal: Drive industry transformation through European innovation.

Technology: AI-guided interceptor drones with integrated Thales radar.
Goal: Strengthen Europe’s defence capabilities; deployment planned for 2026.

Technology: Joint space-tech alliance combining spacecraft, payload, and in-orbit fluidics.
Goal: Build Europe’s first in-space manufacturing layer; seven missions from 2026–2028.

Technology: Franco-German joint search infrastructure.
Goal: Create the first sovereign European web index for independent search and trustworthy AI.

In an ecosystem fixated on raising capital, Gregor Gimmy underscores a simple truth: meaningful innovation stems not from pitching investors, but from solving real problems for customers.

In his book Buy, don’t invest: The Venture Client Model, he challenges a long-held corporate belief: that taking an equity stake is the optimal way to harness startup innovation.

Gregor argues that true strategic value derives from being a user, not a minority shareholder, of startup tech.

Enter the Venture Client Model. This book is for you if you want to:

→ We’re giving away three copies of the book. Just reply to this email with ‘VENTURE CLIENT’; first come, first served – good luck!

Last Week’s Winner: Congratulations to Sophia Belser, Ling Ling, and Hannes Awe-Ortmeier! We’ll be in touch soon to send you your copies of the book The Builder’s Guide to the Tech Galaxy.