Three-and-a-half years ago, an informal brainstorming session among a few us started a broader discussion on how we should co-innovate with the startup ecosystem, which eventually led to the creation of a new corporate venturing program for startups and scaleups - Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence (Cisco EIR) - built on Cisco’s foundation of innovation and market opportunity.

Cisco’s leadership in the emerging market for the Internet of Everything (IoE), Smart Cities and Big Data/analytics rests on our ability to harness the

I introduced Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence (Cisco EIR) earlier this year as a cornerstone in our strategy of embracing open innovation at Cisco. I also