Skip to content
Technology & Innovation —

Start Ups Show Big Business the Way

In addition to in-house R&D, big businesses like Best Buy and Blue Cross Blue Shield are funding start ups to create new product lines and innovate the direction of the company. 
Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

What’s the Latest Development?

The tech start up is coming to play a key role in the success of large non-technology companies. Best Buy, for instance, invests in a small company called Control4, which makes universal-remote apps that control TV, thermostats, and more. The big box retailer also invests in an augmented reality company working with face-recognition technology. Automaker BMW, has spend $100 million on apps that connect the company to a younger generation. One app tells you when taking the subway would be faster than driving, depending on lights and traffic.

What’s the Big Idea?

By funding start ups that have fresh ideas, larger companies give themselves the first dibs on any new technology that might result from their investment, giving them an edge over competitors. A subsidiary of De Beers Jewellery spends millions of dollars funding tech start ups that use synthetic diamonds, which have a high thermal conductivity and resist radiation. The health-insurance giant BlueCross BlueShield is helping to fund the digital health care revolution, investing in companies that streamline electronic record keeping and make mobile medical devices. 

Photo credit: shutterstock.com

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people
Related
Surprising Science
Business Model innovation for the Health Insurance Provider
Our idea offers a solution for how the for-profit health insurance provider business model can be innovated on to not only allow for active participation and collaboration by policyholders in the creation of value, generate additional revenue and help finance the cost of health plans, but also provide for the realization of an improved, and invariably more productive alignment of interests and strategies across the entire healthcare value network.
Surprising Science
Business Model innovation for the Health Insurance Provider
Our idea offers a solution for how the for-profit health insurance provider business model can be innovated on to not only allow for active participation and collaboration by policyholders in the creation of value, generate additional revenue and help finance the cost of health plans, but also provide for the realization of an improved, and invariably more productive alignment of interests and strategies across the entire healthcare value network.
Up Next
In Defense of Sex
The birth-control battle that’s dominated headlines for the past few weeks seems to be winding down, as religious conservatives belatedly realize it’s not a winning issue for them. But given […]