Case study 06 · sap startup ecosystem
Turning editorial programming into live GTM momentum
Event-led GTM · Editorial programming · Partnerships · Founder ecosystem
Role
Ecosystem, programme, and narrative lead
Focus
Event-led GTM, partnerships, founder outreach, programming, storytelling
Industry
Enterprise technology, venture, startup ecosystems
The challenge
The challenge
For a global enterprise brand, access to the right founders, partners, and emerging technology conversations cannot be bought with visibility alone. It has to be earned through relevance.
SAP’s startup and innovation work needed to connect its point of view with founders, operators, partners, and new technology communities. That meant creating experiences that were useful to the people in the room and strategically valuable to the business behind them.
My role
My role
I contributed to founder and ecosystem programmes around SAP I/O and international startup activity, including work connected to TechCrunch and Tokyo. I brought together editorial judgment, programme design, outreach, storytelling, and partner coordination.
The job was not simply to organise an event. It was to turn a market thesis into a live moment that could create relationships, surface insight, and extend beyond the room.
What I did
What I did
Built programming around a real point of view
I helped shape founder and partner conversations around the technology, market shifts, and business questions that mattered to the audience. The aim was useful programming, not corporate theatre.
Treated the audience as an ecosystem
The work connected founders, operators, investors, partners, and internal stakeholders. Outreach and programming were designed to build the right mix of perspectives and create conversations worth continuing after the event.
Used editorial discipline to sharpen the story
My journalism training informed how I approached programming and communications: find the signal, ask better questions, understand the audience, and build a narrative that earns attention rather than demanding it.
Designed for continuation
The event was a starting point for founder relationships, partnership conversations, follow-up content, and further programme activity. The objective was ongoing ecosystem value, not a one-day spike in attention.
Outcome
Outcome
The work helped position SAP’s startup activity as an active participant in the conversations shaping enterprise technology and emerging innovation. It created a platform for founder engagement, partnerships, market learning, and continued ecosystem development.
What I learned
The best events are not campaigns with a stage. They are market research, relationship infrastructure, and a distribution channel in one.