065: BUILDING IOT TOGETHER: From Hype to Reality

Building the IoT Ecosystem That Actually Works - Wienke Giezeman (The Things Industries)

The Collaborative Approach That Made LoRaWAN a Global Success

Wienke Giezeman didn't just build a company—he built an entire ecosystem. As CEO and co-founder of The Things Industries, Wienke has orchestrated one of the most successful collaborative strategies in IoT, growing from a startup idea to managing 3 million connected devices and $4M in annual recurring revenue.

This isn't another IoT hype conversation. It's the inside story of how open collaboration, shared infrastructure, and ecosystem thinking created real market success where others failed.

What You'll Discover:

The Power of Collaborative Strategy:

• Why "building this thing together" became a $4M ARR business model
• How sharing IP and standards actually strengthened competitive position
• The counterintuitive VC challenge: selling collaboration over market domination

Real IoT Success Fundamentals:

• Why hardware is incredibly hard (and why they stopped doing it)
• How the solution drives the entire business model, not the technology
• The shift from wide area networks to private networks as the real value

Startup Wisdom for IoT Entrepreneurs:

• "Own the domain problem on the business side" - the key insight most miss
• Why you need 15-20 minutes of business discussion before any tech talk
• The window cleaning sensor: a masterclass in understanding customer problems

Ecosystem Building That Actually Works:

• How The Things Network became the go-to platform for developers globally
• Building developer ecosystems when you're not trying to "eat the entire pie"
• Why promoting competing technologies strengthened their market position

Key Insights:

Market Reality vs. Hype: Wienke witnessed IoT at peak hype ("almost where AI is right now") and learned why most crashed into business reality

Technology Evolution: The journey from shared infrastructure dreams to private network success - what actually creates sustainable value

Business Model Truth: Why successful IoT companies focus on solutions, not connectivity features

Partnership Philosophy: How radical openness and collaboration can create competitive advantages instead of vulnerabilities

About Wienke Giezeman:

CEO and co-founder of The Things Industries, creator of The Things Network, and architect of one of the world's largest LoRaWAN ecosystems. From a 2015 startup idea born in Singapore to managing millions of connected devices across thousands of customers worldwide.

Episode Highlights:

• The Singapore IoT event that changed everything (2015)
• Building shared LoRaWAN infrastructure: vision vs. reality
• Hardware lessons learned the hard way (via Kickstarter)
• Creating developer ecosystems through radical collaboration
• Why domain expertise trumps technology expertise
• The future of open networks and collaboration

For: IoT entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, hardware startups, platform strategists, and anyone interested in how collaboration can create competitive advantages.

Episode Length: [Insert actual length]

Key Topics: IoT, LoRaWAN, Ecosystem Strategy, Platform Business Models, Hardware Development, Startup Strategy, Collaborative Business Models

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Pragmatic insights from someone who built the IoT ecosystem that actually works - through collaboration, not competition.

Video podcast available on YouTube