‘Healthtech startups: How to become a successful entrepreneur in healthcare?’ was the topic of ahti Connect on April 19. Speakers were Bert-Arjan Millenaar, co-founder and managing partner at NLC, and Ger Baron, Chief Technology Officer at the City of Amsterdam. NLC brings (scientific) innovations further by bringing together entrepreneurs, relevant technology and risk-bearing capital and developing them as a startup. The City cooperates with startups to solve social issues with innovative ideas and acts among other things as launching customer in their program ‘Startup in Residence’.

What do startups need to be a successful entrepreneur?
To be a successful entrepreneur, startups need a product as well as investors. Of course, startups need money but this is not the issue. Money does not make your product; it is the need that is key to your product. The most important thing is that your product it solves an actual problem.

There are three main reasons why startups fail: no market need (42%), running out of cash (29%) and not having the right people in their team (23%). It is important to make the right choices before you start. That is why there are some other issues, besides the need for your product, to keep in mind to make your startup a success:
• Market potential: market size, speed of market uptake and competition
• Implementation: product development, clinical proof, uptake in care chain, customer, channels
• Team: entrepreneurial manager, the right person in the right place (completeness of the team)

Startups need to ask themselves the question: ‘What do I need to bring my product to the customer?’ This determines what kind of investor you need:
• Technical knowledge
• International distributional network
• The amount of money

Stimulating the startup ecosystem
The City of Amsterdam started in December 2017 with their third edition of ‘Startup in Residence’. In this edition, the City once again cooperates with startups to solve social issues with innovative ideas related to four themes: Urban Mobility, Healthy City, Circular Economy and Vibrant City. If solutions prove to be successful, The City will invest in them as an investor or launching customer. In this way, it kick-starts the startup’s career.

The tech sector is here and will continue to grow. However, there is a clear lack of available tech talent. Having the right people in the right place is key to success. To solve social issues with innovative ideas, it is important to focus on tech talent. Reasons why Startup in Residence contributes to this are:
• There is a gap between tech companies and local universities
• Startups and scale ups are struggling to hire talent to keep up with their growth
• Home-grown startups and scale ups created the most jobs and grew employment by 13%

Transforming healthcare together
Ahti Connect brings the worlds of technology and care closer together. We give thought to how things can be done smarter, or better. Every month with a different theme and different speakers from the scientific and social field.

Save the date!
The next ahti Connect is on May 17, 2018 at the AHTC. Theme of this event is: ‘Virtual wards: How to make this a reality soon?’ This event is partly in Dutch and party in English. There is limited space, so register now on Eventbrite.