FiberFlow is Part of the Future Female Innovation Leaders Program

In October and November 2024, Lena Strobl, co-founder of FiberFlow, took part in the first cohort of the Future Female Innovation Leaders Program — a week-long programme organised by the AHK USA in San Francisco. It brought together a small group of female founders for an intensive series of company visits, pitches, and conversations with investors and operators across the Bay Area.

What the Week Looked Like

The itinerary covered a range of companies and institutions that rarely sit in the same sentence: SAP, Google, AWS, and Nvidia, alongside Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and the Plug and Play Tech Center Conference.

At SAP, conversations focused on scaling and pitch strategy. The Google campus visit went beyond a tour, Joe Ernst and Maximilian Baum shared concrete observations on company culture and how innovation is structured internally. At AWS, the focus was on how cloud infrastructure can support startups as they grow. At Nvidia, discussions touched on where AI technology is heading and what that might eventually mean for sectors like textile recycling.

Two university visits stood out. At Stanford's Robotics Lab, Jeannette Bohg walked the group through the new facilities and her own path to becoming a professor. At UC Berkeley, Julia Schaletzky spoke about how academic research translates into commercial innovation.

The week closed with a pitch session at German Accelerator and Start2 Group, where the group received direct feedback from industry experts.

What It Was Worth

For FiberFlow, which in late 2024 is still in the early stages of prototype development, the week offered a useful outside perspective: what the path from idea to company can look like, and where the gaps tend to appear. Lena returns to Leipzig with sharper questions about the road ahead