Gorillas can Dance : Lessons from Microsoft and other Corporations on Partnering with Startups by Shameen Prashantham
Mingke Luo is a young Shanghai-based entrepreneur who is founder and CEO of MrS.ai, a startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to develop “virtual agents” that converse with customers. MrS.ai has been “dancing with gorillas” – that is, engaging with large multinationals, notably BMW. “The journey was not easy”, he says, but after pitching to a BMW team tasked with finding innovative startup partners in China, his startup was given the opportunity to work with BMW to develop a proof-of-concept (PoC) over a three-month period. Luo describes this experience as “pirates working with the navy”. The PoC was reviewed with acclaim and a further seven months later, BMW became a full-fledged client of this startup. According to Luo, his startup’s “AI agents are now serving
