#014: Why Your IoT Project Still Hasn’t Taken Off — And How to Fix It

Coredump Sessions · 5 Aug 2025 · 57m · Episode 15

What this episode covers

Chris Coleman and Tyler from Memfault host Afzal Saleem, an IoT entrepreneur and former T-Mobile Netherlands startup lead, to discuss why IoT projects stall despite technical viability. They analyze organizational resistance, such as the Dutch railway case where internal job security fears blocked adoption, and the '500K SIM card' phenomenon where pilots fail to scale due to slow enterprise processes. The conversation highlights how giants like Google, Ericsson, and Cisco waste millions by skipping niche validation, contrasting this with successful niche strategies from companies like Golioth and Nordic Semiconductor. They argue that IoT must learn from AI's community-driven, fast-iteration go-to-market playbook to overcome fragmentation and e-waste risks from deprecated cloud services.

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • IoT For All Podcast · 33m

    Roadblocks of IoT Adoption | INLIGN's Rachel Richter & Russ Shumaker

    Rachel Richter and Russ Shumaker, co-founders of INLIGN, discuss why digital transformation and IoT initiatives often fail despite technological advancements. They argue that the primary roadblock is a lack of organizational alignment between strategy, people, and technology, rather than technical execution. The guests highlight 'silent killers' such as insufficient touchpoints between leadership and ground staff, and the failure to address user adoption through empathy and trust. They emphasize that successful IoT requires meeting specific business needs and ensuring that the 'informed' and 'empowered' are connected through actionable feedback loops.

  • IoT For All Podcast · 43m

    Scaling IoT for Enterprises | Ken Corless and Robert Schmid of Deloitte | E052 #IoTMakers

    Ken Corless, CTO of Deloitte's cloud practice, and Robert Schmid, Chief Futurist and IoT practice leader at Deloitte, discuss strategies for scaling IoT solutions in enterprise environments. They address the challenge of 'pilot purgatory,' emphasizing the need to prove business value and integrate with legacy ERP systems rather than just proving technology. The guests advocate for a hybrid cloud and edge computing architecture to handle latency, bandwidth, and resilience, particularly for mission-critical applications like surgical robots and autonomous vehicles. They conclude by highlighting the importance of starting small with a portfolio of ideas and leveraging partnerships to navigate the complexity of IoT deployment.

  • IoT For All Podcast · 29m

    Losant’s Brian Cerchio | Developing and Scaling IoT for Enterprise

    Brian Cerchio, Solutions Manager at Losant, discusses the complexities of developing and scaling IoT solutions for enterprise clients. He highlights common pitfalls such as underestimating hardware and connectivity constraints during the proof-of-concept phase and emphasizes the importance of treating IoT projects as evolving products rather than one-off deployments. Cerchio shares specific use cases, including asset tracking and environmental monitoring at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport, to illustrate how data visualization drives operational efficiency and ROI.

  • IoT For All Podcast · 18m

    Solving the Challenges of IoT | Kallipr's Gerhard Loots | Internet of Things Podcast

    Gerhard Loots, CEO of Caliper (formerly MIOT), discusses the strategic challenges of deploying IoT solutions at scale. He emphasizes the importance of owning the customer's business case over a 5-10 year horizon and conducting early 'proof of value' pilots to build trust. Loots highlights specific technical hurdles, such as designing hardware for harsh environments like the Australian outback and managing the logistics of massive device fleets (e.g., 1.5 million devices). He argues that successful IoT adoption requires aligning technology choices with the customer's personal KPIs and organizational transformation goals.

  • IoT For All Podcast · 41m

    Bringing IoT Products to Market | Soracom's Ryan Carlson & Kenta Yasukawa | Internet of Things Podcast

    Ryan Carlson and Kenta Yasukawa of Soracom discuss the hidden challenges of bringing IoT products to market, breaking down the process into exploration, validation, acceleration, and commercialization. They highlight specific pitfalls such as 'shiny syndrome,' environmental interference in RF testing, and the high cost of overnight shipping for devices lacking remote management capabilities. The conversation emphasizes the necessity of early legal and security involvement, stakeholder alignment through visual business cases, and the role of AI in accelerating prototyping.

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