Ideas on cruising speed for trains, digital management for track work to save paper, the replacement of cables with wireless networks or a dashboard that provides more information on the use of infrastructures digitally, are some of the projects presented in this edition, whose final will be held virtually on February 25.  

According to Agustín Escobar, CEO of Siemens Mobility Spain and the South-West Europe region: “Entrepreneurial culture is one of the five pillars of our strategy, and at Siemens Mobility Spain we are demonstrating that innovation is in our DNA and that we are entrepreneurs focused on finding digital solutions to meet the needs of our global customers and on moving people sustainably from the first to the last mile.”. 

After an initial screening of ideas, the finalists presented their business proposals to a jury of company executives who, after a period of deliberation, announced the winning teams. These teams then had the opportunity to participate in the second edition of the Startup School. This entrepreneurship training program allowed the contestants to experience the Lean Startup methodology firsthand, guided by Tetuan Valleya.

The Startup School is a two-month program for winning teams, designed to equip them with the necessary tools to clearly define their identified problem, validate their solution idea with potential customers, and transform their ideas into minimum viable products.
Each week, they attend a session with entrepreneurship and innovation experts from the Tetuan Valley community, specializing in various subjects. These sessions begin with concepts like Lean Startup and Product Validation, culminating in a Hackathon where they develop their own prototypes or demos. The program concludes with Demo Day, held virtually on February 18th, where each team will present their solutions and prototypes to peers and customers, showcasing the knowledge gained throughout the program.

But the process doesn't end with Demo Day. The ideas developed during Startup School are presented to Next47, Siemens' intrapreneurship program designed to accelerate internal projects globally. In 2019, two of the ideas that emerged from the local intrapreneurship competition were Next47 finalists, and one of them, AIRO, which aims to optimize train frequency and reduce passenger wait times at stations, was the only mobility sector idea selected worldwide to participate in the Next47 acceleration program. Currently, after securing its first round of internal funding, the project is under development, and the team is realizing its dream of bringing its idea to life within a large company like Siemens Mobility