Inchron GmbH is providing solutions for the development of real-time critical embedded software and networks, that is it provides software developers with tools that enable them to predict the real-time behavior early in the development process. It thereby helps them to save time and money. Uwe Brodtman, Managing Director Sales & Marketing at Inchron since 2007, explains that embedded systems occur in all aspects of life, i.e. in cars or mobile phones: „With 50-60 control units in a car, it is full of embedded systems. We make sure things happen in time, i.e. if you slam the break of your car.“ Inchron has been founded in 2003 in cooperation with the University of Erlangen, Germany. Two years later, they had their first pilot customers. In 2006, Hasso Plattner Ventures became aware of Inchron’s technology, made its investment and asked the company to move to Potsdam. Uwe points out: „The founders of Inchron had entrepreneurial spirit. They wanted to turn their research results to the market.“ So is it really true that there are lots of brilliant German researchers and developers but little entrepreneurial spirit (remember the history of the fax machine which has been invented in Germany but turned to the market in Japan)? „I think you have to have a certain talent for that“ says Uwe, „but like with sports you can definitely train it and you can get motivated. I think that is something universities should work on: To bring the stories of successful entrepreneurs to their students and motivate them to become entrepreneurs. I’m sure there may be people who can be motivated if they only get in touch with the right people and the right stories.“ He adds: „It is crucial to get people on board with a) the spirit and b) the experience. I would suggest that universities bring together these different people from different faculties to motivate founding of companies.“ Today, Inchron’s core customers are in the automotive sector. Facing the recession, Uwe points out that right now „Inchron is experiencing the effect of growing awareness of the benefits of its solutions.“ He thinks that „that force is stronger than the force of the recession and budget cuts“ So far Inchron has still been growing and Uwe is „pretty optimistic about growing in 2009 as well.“ Still, he wishes for awareness of what Inchron is doing in other industries. His piece of advice for starting a company is: „If you do have a technology, give a lot of thought to the question ‚How does the customer really benefit? How does he solve the problem today?’. That is something you have to crack! People are reluctant of using new technologies because it means risk. Make sure you have a complete working solution.“ In order to learn more about Hasso Plattner Ventures, please watch Viktoria’s interview with Eran Davidson, President and CEO of HPV, which has been shot at the SIME event in Stockholm in November, 2008. More videos related to Hasso Plattner Ventures will be shown in the days to come @ www.tiburon-tv.com