The Next Wave of IoT: LoRaWAN, Edge AI & Building a Global IoT Ecosystem

What does it take to build and grow an IoT company as the industry moves from early experimentation to large-scale adoption? In this episode of The IoT Podcast, host Tom White sits down with Wienke Giezeman, CEO & Co-Founder at The Things Industries, to explore the journey behind the company - from building around developers and integrators to growing into a business supporting increasingly large-scale IoT deployments. Wienke shares the story of how The Things Industries developed alongside the wider IoT ecosystem, the importance of building a strong community around its technology, and how the company has evolved as IoT itself has matured. The conversation also looks at the lessons learned along the way, from navigating the industry's early hype to identifying where real commercial value is now being created. Tom and Wienke also discuss: How The Things Industries grew from a developer-focused approach into larger enterprise deployments Why community and ecosystem-building have been central to the company’s journey How the IoT industry has evolved beyond the early hype around becoming the “de facto standard” Why different wireless technologies should be chosen based on the problem they are solving The role of edge AI in making constrained devices smarter and extracting more value from IoT data How IoT is moving towards larger-scale deployments and greater business value Why the next phase of IoT could be about repeating successful use cases and scaling them further The episode also looks ahead at the next stage of both The Things Industries and the wider IoT ecosystem, exploring how increasing maturity, larger deployments and technologies such as edge AI could shape where IoT goes next. Chapters… 00:00 Introduction to The Things Industries and LoRaWAN 02:54 Building a developer-first IoT company 05:12 Growing the IoT community 06:05 Why The Things Conference was created 08:28 Building an open IoT ecosystem 10:26 Moving beyond the IoT hype 13:34 The role of edge AI in IoT 16:44 From data collection to intelligence 19:26 Why the IoT ecosystem matters 22:37 The value of human connection in an AI-driven world 25:28 The scale and investment behind IoT deployments 27:14 The Things Industries’ growth and the next four million devices 29:10 The next phase of IoT 31:51 Scaling IoT for greater business value 33:25 The growing maturity of the IoT ecosystem 34:44 The Things Conference and the wider ecosystem 37:42 Wienke’s podcast nomination 38:37 Final thoughts The episode is live on all major listening platforms now! Listen here: https://linktr.ee/theiotpodcast Connect with Wienke...   / wienke   About The Things Industries The Things Industries is a leading provider of enterprise LoRaWAN® network solutions, enabling companies to build, operate, and scale secure IoT networks. Founded in 2015 and based in Amsterdam, its core product, The Things Stack, is a carrier-grade LoRaWAN Network Server trusted by enterprises worldwide. Its technology powers use cases from cold chain logistics to smart parking, with customers including Bosch, Panasonic, and Deutsche Bahn. Find out more: www.thethingsindustries.com SUBSCRIBE TO THE IOT PODCAST ON YOUR FAVOURITE LISTENING PLATFORM: https://linktr.ee/theiotpodcast Contact us to become a guest/partner: https://theiotpodcast.com/contact/