Anne Gherini, vice-president of marketing and partnerships at network data analytics platform Affinity.co, a silver sponsor for this year’s GCVI Summit program, interviewed Dennis Liu, associate director of global strategy and business development at carmaker Ford.
Gherini asked Liu, who had been with Ford for four years, how he had leveraged relationships and how relationships in his network had helped with dealflow.
Liu said: “We need to move fast in venture. In the beginning, we did not, and part of it is because of our lack of connections in the network.
“People were pretty sympathetic, though – I think a lot of folks understand that capital is cheap and money is easy, so it is advantageous for you to contribute from a technical perspective.”
Gherini asked Liu if capital was indeed cheap and enquired what his “secret sauce” was to convince Ford’s business units to back entrepreneurs, and what else Ford could offer startups to help tactically.
Liu responded: “We have a tough time – folks [at Ford have] dedicated their entire careers to driving, building and bending sheet metals, and we still have a lot of institutional knowledge on building things.
“But we are now in a world in which software has a huge impact. As automobiles become smarter, software can help the traditional manufacturing industry.
“Silicon Valley bridges that gap and really helps bring a lot of value for mobility and helps us understand what the world will look like.”
