Scouting for Start-up Innovations with the Autotech Council

April 1, 2018

Lindsay Brooke

How do start-up companies and entrepreneurs get their new technology ideas in front of the mobility industry? Conversely, how can OEMs and suppliers who are searching for technology solutions ensure that they’re investigating all the best options?

They can all contact Liz Kerton. She’s spent nearly 20 years helping to discover viable new technologies and get them into industry use, first in the telecom sector and, since 2012, in automotive/mobility. A Master’s degree in Diplomacy and extensive knowledge of the Silicon Valley ecosystem inspired Kerton to found the Autotech Council (autotechcouncil.com), whose nearly 100 member companies are a Who’s Who of mobility OEMs, suppliers and venture capital firms. Meeting monthly at rotating corporate locations in Silicon Valley, the Council evaluates thousands of start-ups each year, while introducing them to company “tech scouts,” executives and investors who are on the hunt for innovation.

Kerton spoke recently with Editor Lindsay Brooke.

Would it be fair to call what you do ‘technology matchmaking?’

Yes. It’s ‘group matchmaking.’ Building an Innovation Program for an organization requires a varied ‘toolbox’ and an Autotech Council membership is one of the tools. You also need people dedicated to technology scouting; relationships with top universities; people at your head office who can direct all the inputs into a due-diligence process or a product pipeline; and, of course, venture capital.

How does Autotech Council differ from VC firms, in the role they play in finding, filtering, and bringing promising tech into industry’s view?

We as a council have no vested interests. We don’t invest in companies so we aren’t going to show just those in a portfolio. To do tech scouting through VCs you’d need relationships with hundreds of VCs.

We do, however, have relationships with VCs and they send us companies that are ready to get in front of the automakers and Tier 1s. The highest, most qualified recommendations come in from our members. We also have an in-house technology analyst and a speaker application on our website which serves as a broad ‘net.’

How does the review process work?

If our members want to see recommendations on a cyberse-curity platform, for example, the Council will put together a meeting agenda. Our due-diligence process will have reduced the list of start-ups making presentations from 40 to 50, down to 10 to 15. And we are non-geographic. If an Israeli company has a good idea and our meeting is focused on, say, sensors, we’ll get that company on Skype and they’ll present to the group through a web conference.

The companies attending our meetings aren’t all interested in the same thing. We might introduce a battery company, or a carpooling app, that only a few members are interested in. On average we present 10-to-12 companies in a monthly meeting, with perhaps only three or four being of interest to any given member in the room.

What is the Council’s business model?

Members pay an annual fee to be part of the community. With that they can come to as many meetings as they want. If they miss a meeting they can log in to our library and download presentations. If they’re doing due-diligence on a Lidar company, they can access our library and pull down the last 25 Lidar start-ups who have presented. We use group networking so that if you miss a meeting you still have direct access.

It’s basically a community of ‘tech scouts.’ As I tell our members, ‘I have the easy job—finding innovators and putting them in front of you. You have the hard job—figuring out if there’s a fit and then getting the new technologies into your products.’