Stefanie Kahre, venture manager at BSH Startup Kitchen, is one of our top 50 Rising Stars in corporate venturing for 2025.
For Stefanie Kahre, it is doing the basic things right that bring the best chance for success. “Venture clienting is not rocket science – it is not hard to do. You just need to do it right,” she says. With the right topics, the right structured processes and the right metrics, she says, more corporate-startup collaborations would go the distance.
It is that lightbulb moment, when you find something that really tackles a problem, that she loves most. Despite that, venture clienting is a long-term game, she says.
“The pilot projects can be fast, and that is fun. But the power of the innovation tool lies in the long-term impact.”
After a few years as a consultant, she was happy to take on a more innovative role at BSH Home Appliances Group’s venture clienting team – not just because of the exciting technologies that come along, but also the fact that innovation takes many forms.
“Venture clienting is not rocket science – it is not hard to do. You just need to do it right”
You are never going to be an expert on the tech you come across, but being very curious, she says, will take you a long way to making a real impact on the startups you work with.
“Stefanie is an exceptional contributor to the success of the venture operations of BSH. She is in charge of driving the digital transformation within BSH along the full sales and marketing activities,” says Lars Roessler, founder and venture partner at BSH Startup Kitchen.
“She managed to develop and scale business relations with eight firms in her three years at BSH Startup Kitchen, delivering multi-million business impact. Her success is built on great business acumen, bringing together startup and BSH’s perspectives, as well as the ability to build strong and trustful relationships internally and externally.”
One of the most critical, yet sometimes underappreciated, factors to a successful collaboration between a corporate and a startup is communication between both parties, she says, with both sides making sure they are being realistic about what they can deliver.
See the full list of Rising Stars 2025 here.
