Kange Kaneene is the Vice President at SAP.iO. She is both a computer scientist and has an MBA, and she knows a lot about enterprise software. Right now, her main goal is to make SAP’s ecosystem grow by helping new and creative startups. She really cares about making sure everyone has the same chances in life, and she works hard for it through education, supporting new businesses, and helping people who have been in trouble before get back on their feet.
Below are highlights of the interview conducted between World’s Leaders and Kange Kaneene:
Describe who you are as a person, inside and outside of the workplace.
My friends and family call me a connector because it gives me great joy to bring people together. For example, I have planned large scale events in Portugal, Morocco, Martha’s Vineyard, and many dinner parties at my apartment.
I have a passion for diversity and creating equally distributed access to opportunity. I am so proud of what we are doing at SAP.iO to support representation in SAP.iO’s portfolio. In addition, I am an angel investor with Pipeline Angels, a group of female investors who invest in female founders. I am a mentor for entrepreneurs as a volunteer for Defy Ventures, a non-profit organization that invests in founders who are currently or formerly incarcerated. Finally, I am chair of the public charter school board for KIPP NYC, a network of public charter schools that focuses on education parity.
I also have an entrepreneurial spirit. At SAP, I founded the Black Employee Network (BEN), which has since scaled to 3 continents and 15 chapters with 6K+ members, including allies. Finally, at the University of Michigan, I co-founded Girls in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (gEECS) in response to the decreasing number of women in technical disciplines. The organization has since spread to other universities and is funded by iconic organizations such as Microsoft and Goldman Sachs.
As an adult, I have lived in Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Singapore, and I currently live in Brooklyn, New York.
Describe your background and what did you do before you started/joined the company?
During high school, I spent a lot of time with my friends on AOL Messenger. My father mistook my obsession for an actual interest in computers and suggested that I study computer science. I followed his advice and majored in it at the University of Michigan. It was a grueling curriculum, but I still found time to have fun and I made great lifelong friends while I was there.
Instead of joining a tech company, I accepted a job with Manhattan Associates, a tech consulting company. I was based in Atlanta and worked with clients such as Vera Bradley. After two years, I decided that consulting was not my lifelong career, and I began to explore what I needed to do to get accepted to the business school of my choice. I reviewed applications, found my gaps, and made sure to correct them over the next year. After three years at Manhattan Associates, I left to pursue my MBA at NYU Stern School of Business.
I picked NYU because of its collaborative, team-oriented culture. While there, I decided I wanted to join a tech company that had a rotational program as well as an international footprint. SAP reached out to me, and they matched my criteria. After the rotational program, I wanted to work in their corporate strategy department, and I basically wore the Chief Strategy Officer down until he hired me. When my program was over, he offered me a full-time job. After 18 months, the Chief Revenue Officer was looking for an apprentice, and the Chief Strategy Officer recommended me. That was a life changing job that included global travel and a front-row seat to how decisions are made. After two and a half years, I did some assignments in Asia (Singapore and Tokyo) and then moved to New York to work in business development roles.
While working in business development, my boss wanted to do an acquisition and asked me to do a market scan. I loved getting to speak to the heads of different companies and set the goal of working with startups and scaleups full time. I started going to demo days and pitch competitions and asking a lot of questions. In short, I got the venture bug. I started angel investing and VC scouting with a specific focus on underrepresented founders. In parallel, my former boss, SAP’s Chief Strategy Officer, started SAP.iO (SAP’s global startup ecosystem) and asked me to mentor some of the startups in the portfolio. I quickly gained a rapport with the entire SAP.iO team and was later recruited to lead SAP.iO North America, which later launched in Latin America and the Caribbean as well. I am extremely grateful for the career I have had so far. From my parents’ blueprint of following curiosity, I’ve fashioned a career and life out of my passions, which include solving big problems, building strong relationships, and traveling the world. I never thought AOL Messenger could have led to such wonderful adventures. I look forward to continuing to identify winning start-ups and helping them grow and succeed.
Tell us about the inception of the company. How did it all start?
SAP is the largest enterprise software company in the world, and SAP.iO is SAP’s external startup accelerator. SAP.iO started in 2017 and was designed to be SAP’s inclusive startup ecosystem. The team has been through several stages of evolution and has transitioned away from an umbrella including a corporate venture fund, venture studio, and intrapreneurship program and is exclusively focused on an external startup accelerator. However, today we are proud to say there is no other corporate startup accelerator in the world like SAP.iO.
As a startup in the enterprise software space with a direct sales model, acquiring large brands as customers is uniquely challenging. Understanding the buying organization for startups to sell into and then getting in contact with the specific decision-maker within the organization is a significant barrier. Furthermore, if startups are lucky enough to secure meetings with the correct decision-maker, the sales cycles are painfully long—sometimes 6–18 months.
On the other hand, SAP has massive scale and is trusted by 450K+ customers globally, including 92% of the Forbes Global 2,000 companies. Still, SAP has opportunities to innovate further beyond its portfolio to add the most value for its customers. Therefore, at SAP.iO, we believe SAP technology paired with the power of startup innovation amplifies the value we can bring to the world. Here is how it works: First, the SAP.iO team goes out into the market and curates the most innovative and relevant startups that complement SAP’s solution portfolio and meet the needs of its customers. Then SAP and the startups go to market together with a revenue share. This process generates a triple win. 1) Startups can leverage SAP’s existing relationships with some of the largest enterprises in the world and secure revenue contracts. Again, this is extremely difficult for startups to do on their own. Furthermore, SAP.iO is non-dilutive, so it does not take equity in startups, invest, or charge a fee. 2) Customers are introduced to cutting edge technology that is easily consumable and integrated into the SAP solution(s) they are already implementing. 3) SAP delivers optimal value to its customers as a true innovation partner.
Since its inception in 2017, SAP.iO has already realized fantastic success. SAP.iO is spread across 11 innovation hubs around the world with 525+ portfolio companies. To date, 7K+ interactions have been made between SAP.iO portfolio companies and SAP customers. 44% of the portfolio is managed or led by underrepresented individuals (defined as individuals whose share of venture capital in the technology sector is disproportionate to the region where they live). That 44% surpasses or ties the rest of the portfolio on key metrics: number of exits and unicorns, amount of venture capital raised, and likelihood to progress a partnership with SAP.
What has made you successful? What do you value?
The only unit of measure for my success is my ability to create and maintain meaningful relationships. People have opened doors for me when they feel confident about my professional capabilities and ability to lead with empathy, do the right thing, and be a collaborative team member.
Which are the major services of the company and how do they the company to get ahead in the competition? What value-added services does the company provide?
SAP.iO is differentiated because it is non-dilutive and focused on revenue generating business development.
What are the most important aspects of a company’s culture? What principles do you believe in and how do you build this culture?
People are the most important contribution to a company’s culture. Establishing an environment where people feel valued and have opportunities to grow yields the most success.
What is the significance of innovative ideas in the company?
We know when we have found the most innovative startups when SAP’s large customers are dying to work with them.
Give us your opinion on; do organizations rely heavily on individual heroics or team processes?
I think it depends on the group.
What are your responsibilities as the VP of the company? What is the happiest part of your daily routine?
As the VP of SAP.iO North and Latin America, I am responsible for three foundries: New York, San Francisco, and Latin America and the Caribbean. I have seven people on my team that run the day-to-day operations of each. I spend most of my time managing the team, generating partnerships with venture capital firms, attending entrepreneur ecosystem events, public speaking, and uplifting startups.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
Be transparent about activities happening within the team and be vulnerable (when appropriate) about things happening in your personal life. This helps to build trust and also inspires your team to be open with you.
