Chris Baier

Chris Baier

Somewhere, an innovator has already solved the problem on your desk. The question is who finds it first.

I help companies find the right innovators or startups – and turn them into cooperations that work.

Managing Director & Co-Founder of Ambivation in Berlin. Open innovation, venture clienting and startup scouting for corporates, SMEs and the public sector.

Get in touch Connect on LinkedIn

What I work on

Business and technology, in equal measure. I trained in business informatics and have spent my career between corporates and startups.

Open innovation and venture clienting

At Ambivation, we find the right startups and innovation partners for a company's concrete challenge, and guide the cooperation from first scouting to pilot and rollout.

Products for innovation teams

I build the tools that innovation managers keep asking for: a scouting workflow, a library of real industrial IoT projects, a place to publish startup challenges, and a weekly brief on what other open innovation teams are doing.

  • Coopsaas
  • Startup-Challenges
  • Open Innovators
  • IoTusecase

Backing founders

As a business angel I support deep-tech and impact startups as a sparring partner, mentor and door-opener. I also mentor founders on a voluntary basis, mostly in cleantech and the circular economy.

Ventures

Teams I support as a business angel, with time and experience as much as capital. Being there in a company's first years is one of the most direct ways to shape what gets built next.

ConBoticsPainting robots for construction sites AdaptX SystemsCoolant-free cooling for CNC machining FixFirstRepair infrastructure for the circular economy FenyxCircular office furniture

How startups learn from the outside

My master's thesis at TU Berlin and the University of Twente asked how B2B startups recognise the value of external knowledge and acquire it. The findings still shape how I set up cooperations today.

Read the summary
Theoretical framework of the thesis: absorptive capacity of B2B startups

On stage

Keynotes, panels and matchmaking tours, from IHK Berlin to Hannover Messe.

Startup matchmaking tour in Berlin Corporates and startups meetup at IHK Berlin Startup matchmaking tour, Berlin

Talks and appearances

Writing

Notes on startup cooperation, open innovation and the startup ecosystem.

All 11 articles