At IoT Tribe, we believe that Europe’s competitive edge lies in practical, hard tech innovation. Janus, delivered in partnership with The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), embodies this conviction. Central to Janus is a cadre of mentors whose experience matches the technical ambition of our cohort companies. Foremost among them is Jane Buglear.
A career woven through the Internet’s history
Jane’s passion in technology was evident from a young age, always making things and discovering how they worked. This curiosity led her to study engineering and secure an early industrial placement at Philips. Embracing new opportunities, Jane moved into large scale networking and building global infrastructure for ExxonMobil and Shell. She was among the first employees at Cisco where she helped build the plumbing of the Internet, deep engineering unseen by the public until they realised it was a service they could no longer live without. When looking back over history, the birth of the Internet was driven by military need first, then translated into something useful for everyone.
It was also during this period that Jane was invited by her long time mentor, Professor Peter Kirstein, to help shape the University College London’s (UCL) innovation agenda. She built out eight cornerstone innovation programmes, including Conception X and the P4 Precision Medicine Accelerator.
Kirstein was a pioneering British Computer Scientist, often dubbed the “Father of the European Internet” for installing the first ARPANET node outside the US and realising the power of Transmission Control Protocol, a core protocol in the Internet Protocol suite (TCP/IP). Later in his career he led UCL’s Computer Science Department, shaping it into a world-class research centre.
Jane describes Peter as fearless in innovation. The way he combined razor sharp intellect with genuine warmth and encouragement, she recalls that even today she still asks herself, “What would Peter do in this situation?”
Jane believes that “different backgrounds spark ideas; innovation rarely survives inside a monoculture.” After UCL, she ventured into investment with Octopus Ventures and moved on to become the Chief Operating Officer at Quantum Motion. Few can claim such breadth across engineering, academia, venture and operations. Fewer still can translate experiences from innovation ecosystems of Silicon Valley and Europe, into specialised one-to-one business mentorship for high-growth startups developing the next wave of frontier technologies.
What Jane brings to Janus
Unfiltered technical depth: Jane moves effortlessly from packet switching, to photonics, to autonomous-systems ethics. This range allows her to spot integration paths and commercial use-cases that single-discipline advisers often miss.
Institutional navigation: Having worked both inside large corporates and alongside government research teams, she helps startups understand whom to approach and why those stakeholders will care, critical when first revenues depend on defence or industrial procurement cycles.
A pragmatic philosophy of value: Her counsel is direct, “understand the value of your invention to your customer. The real monetary value of your company comes through revenue, not investment.” Her insight to startups emphasises paid pilots and long term supply chain relationships over headline valuations.
Europe’s moment - and why Janus matters
“I think we’ve always been very capable of innovation across Europe,” Jane notes, whilst pointing to the liquidity gap that pushes some startups to relocate. Janus exists to shorten that gap, giving deep tech teams a faster route to revenue at home and ensuring critical capabilities remain anchored in the European ecosystem.
The key to successful innovation is a large pool of talent and capability, so when the military needs something in deep tech, they know where to look for it. Unfortunately, the pathway is long and there are many casualties along the way. We must ensure a robust ecosystem that positions the UK as an attractive proposition for companies, so we do not lose their technological advantage. After mentoring dozens of teams, Jane emphasises the importance of venture investment to open the doors to revenue, alongside supporting the complete pathway of innovation.
The aim of Janus, and of IoT Tribe more broadly, is to reduce those casualties by pairing breakthrough engineering with mentors who have already walked the harder parts of the road.
DIANA have selected a quality cohort of startups developing dual-use technologies. Jane, alongside Janus scientific mentor David Plant, supports the startups in discovering military and commercial applications of their technologies.
Shaping Europe’s next wave of frontier technologies
Join Janus as a mentor and lend your cross-sector experience to guide our cohort.
Get in touch to find out how: https://www.iottribe.org/contact-us/
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