Next-Level Venture Clienting @DB Schenker

The pitch was for oat milk on train journeys. Ronja Stoffregen's response was that it might be a fine product for a train bistro, but DB Schenker was not running passenger train services. The example makes her point quickly: before approaching a large company, understand which business you are talking to and what it needs.

In this conversation, recorded in October 2023, Stoffregen discusses her work as Head of Global Startup Management at DB Schenker. She explains how the team moved toward a more deliberate approach to finding business problems and testing startup solutions. The ambition was to take useful technologies into operations, with a route beyond the first pilot. Her account is candid about the patience, preparation and internal relationships required to make that happen.

Becoming a customer changes the conversation

Stoffregen gives venture clienting a straightforward definition: the organization aims to become a client of a venture. The startup is a potential supplier, albeit a young company that may carry different risks from an established provider.

She describes how DB Schenker's startup activities developed over several years, building a clearer process, governance, criteria and measures of success. When she joined in 2021, some solutions were already in standard operations. Her emphasis was on making the contribution more deliberate and repeatable.

Matching an interesting startup with someone inside the company was a beginning. To create lasting value, the team needed to understand the operational problem, identify a suitable solution and consider where else it could be used. A successful pilot in one branch could matter much more if it addressed a need shared across the business.

That changes the questions an innovation team asks. The technology still matters, but so do the people who need it, the process it must fit and the conditions for using it beyond the test.

Keep room for discovery while working from real needs

Stoffregen describes a shift from pushing technologies into the organization toward identifying challenges with business and functional teams, then scouting for solutions. She does not reject the push approach entirely. Early pilots can help colleagues understand what the innovation team can offer, while unfamiliar technologies may reveal possibilities the business has not yet considered.

The balance is practical. A team should be able to respond to a known problem and still investigate a technology whose relevance needs exploration.

Her examples show the range. She discusses a FERNRIDE pilot in the Netherlands that helped the organization learn about remote truck operation, even though the startup's use cases were not all directly relevant to its contract logistics work at that point. She also describes Flip as a communication app for frontline employees, creating a way to exchange information beyond a physical noticeboard.

The messages could concern operational issues or something as ordinary as leftover cake. That small detail matters: adoption happens in the routines of the people expected to use a solution. A technically interesting platform still needs to fit their working day.

Make the value visible without pretending every benefit is simple

Stoffregen connects the team's work to money saved or revenue generated. She also acknowledges how difficult it can be to translate some benefits into a reliable financial figure.

Exoskeletons are her example. Helping warehouse employees handle loads may support health and safety, but estimating the financial benefit requires assumptions about injuries or absence that might otherwise occur. A neat number can hide considerable uncertainty.

Her team therefore also considers operational measures and customer and employee satisfaction. The financial discussion remains important, particularly when innovation activities must explain their contribution during difficult periods. It should not erase the reason a solution matters to the people using it.

For R&D and innovation leaders, the distinction is useful when reviewing pilots. Evidence should help explain the benefit and the limits of the estimate. Different projects may need different combinations of measures before an investment decision is credible.

The internal champion needs your help, too

Stoffregen urges founders to identify the person inside the organization who can support their solution. Venture client teams exist to help startups reach the right colleagues, yet she had recently spoken with a startup that did not know such teams existed.

Knowing the route in is only part of the preparation. Founders need to understand the customer's audience, problem and processes. Her frustration with missing basics is direct:

“You need to understand your audience.”

The corporate side also has work to do. The Startup Terminal brand, which she describes as newly launched at the time of the interview, gave the operational startup collaboration work a clearer identity. It helped distinguish that work from investment and venture building, making the different entry points easier to understand.

Stoffregen is just as frank about what she needed to learn. Moving from a faster entrepreneurial environment into a large company, she initially challenged many established practices. Over time, she saw that some coordination requirements existed for good reasons and that colleagues understood constraints she was still learning.

“Sometimes I don't have to win every battle.”

That patience sits alongside her personal encouragement to be bold. During the pandemic, while working at a company builder, she used those words as a reminder to keep showing up for clients, her team and herself. She even put them above her bed in glitter mermaid tape.

The combination is more useful than either attitude alone. A venture client team needs enough persistence to challenge how things are done, and enough curiosity to understand why they work that way. The aim is to help a promising solution become something colleagues can use long after the excitement of the first demonstration.