Maximilian Werner: The real reason groundbreaking innovations never get seen

Now more than ever, innovative ideas to tackle global challenges are needed, but all too often they are disappearing before they ever reach the people positioned to support them. It’s a phenomenon that Maximilian Werner, Founder and CEO of INSPIRED, has witnessed repeatedly.

The seed for INSPIRED was planted when Werner realized how often groundbreaking innovations were lost long before they had any real chance of survival.

"Every day, we are losing great ideas with the potential to solve those challenges," he says on CEO: Behind the Scenes. "They just don’t find the right supporters at the right time."

He came to understand that even the most compelling solutions needed someone to propel them forward. Traditional channels – emails, pitch decks and cold outreach – were not only inefficient but also often inaccessible for founders already stretched thin.

"A lot of founders have to spend too much time to actually even get the chance to speak to the right people," he points out.

This lack of access slows down development, delays refinement and leaves essential progress stuck at the starting line.

Such insights led Werner to shift away from his initial plan to democratize private equity investment and toward building a digital space designed to solve the visibility problem at its core.

INSPIRED now functions as a global, always-on innovation arena where founders can showcase their solutions in a visual and compelling way.

"We build a stage that anyone can access and where you can pitch and showcase your solutions in the form of a video and image," Werner explains.

He notes that visual storytelling is a necessity, creating immediacy, clarity and emotional connection in an era saturated with AI-generated text and standardized pitch decks. For decision-makers evaluating early-stage ideas, this kind of storytelling is crucial. It also requires overcoming a common fear among founders: the belief that sharing too much will invite imitation.

Werner disagrees. "At some point, you need to give people a piece of it to try," he explains.

The goal, he adds, is not to reveal everything but to offer enough for others to understand the value and become eager to support it.

As the innovation landscape accelerates, Werner believes progress hinges not just on regulation or policy, but on bold, disruptive solutions rising to the surface. And for that to happen, they must first be seen.

"Innovation is the only real way to solve problems and challenges," he insists.

Listen to the latest episode of our CEO: Behind the Scenes podcast with Maximilian Werner on Amazon, Apple or Spotify.