From lab to market: the importance of prototyping in the entrepreneurial journey
“Entrepreneurs all face pressure to deliver a product quickly, within the bounds of time and wherewithal that were allotted to them. Executing a prototyping strategy given these constraints is a daunting task”, explains Laurent Balmelli, engineer, multipreneur and invited professor at Keio University, Tokyo. “Implementing such a strategy mostly equates to identifying and collecting market feedback, which can be technologically and operationally challenging.”
Making mistakes as quickly as possible: an evolutionary necessity for success
“Entrepreneurs should hurry to make the necessary mistakes as soon as possible”, says Dr. Yann Cotte, CEO of Nanolive, an EPFL spinoff incorporated in 2013 that has developed a disruptive proprietary technology, which allows for the very first time to explore a living cell instantly in 3D and without damaging it. Nanolive has raised CHF 13 million so far and the enterprise commercializes its products since 2016.
Dr. Cotte observes a tendency among scientists to procrastinate what he calls the “moment of truth”, which is to face the early prototype with the potential customer. “As long as you just stay with your product it’s very comfortable to delay this moment. Many excuses can be found, such as the technology is not ready yet or, even worst, it is not perfect.”
When finally reaching the market, new challenges appear. Dr. Cotte identifies two main pitfalls with disruptive technologies. The first one he says is to focus only on the potential, assuming that one day the market will be ready for this innovation. However, a balance has to be found. “By being in contact with the customer, another trap is to become a simple service provider. The risk is to neglect the potential of the technology, what makes the value of the company.”
“A product truly exist if it is catering to a market”
One of the main risks is building a prototype that does not meet a market need. Indeed, technologists tend to remain focused on the innovativeness of their technology, when they should think of the problems it will solve and of the need for it. “The goal is not to obsess over making a perfect prototype, but instead to concentrate on showing how a concept works and how it might satisfy the needs of users”, reminds Isabel Casado Harrington, programme manager at enable, a programme of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) aimed at facilitating the commercialization of innovative technologies. A first prototype allows a future startup to get feedback on the product and act upon it in an iterative way.
“Prototyping is key in bringing inventions to life, and validating usability. It is the most tangible way of mitigating risks of early stage startup projects, and raising opportunities for external funding” adds André Catana, head of enable.
Developing a technology while reaching the market early enough: a balance difficult to find
“The new venture should start with identifying and validating an unmet need — the problem. The appropriate technology that has the potential to solve this problem can then be further developped”, says Danuta Cichocka, CEO at Resistell, an EPFL spinoff developing the world’s fastest phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility test, which has recently closed an oversubscribed series A financing round of CHF 3.5 million.
The EPFL and Resistell team of physicists, physicians and microbiologists have been developing the diagnostic tool since 2012. Resistell was incorporated in April 2018 to take the technology to the next level and to transfer the laboratory prototypes into a Minimal Viable Product (MVP). The prototype allowed validating user needs with laboratory technicians in hospital laboratories.
Guillaume Petit-Pierre, Co-founder of the medtech Artiria — incorporated in August 2019 — which provides micro-actuated device allowing treating vascular diseases, shares the same views. “We observe examples where a great application is developed without solving any medical problem. The wise approach is to find a need and then to adapt the technology to meet it”. Artiria, winner of Mass Challenge and Venture Kick, has also been awarded — at the end of 2019 — with the highly selective Phase 1 grant of the H2020 SME Instrument.
Moving from the prototype to the final product is a long journey, in particular in the med tech world.
“While in academia it’s enough to demonstrate a few times that the method is working to publish a paper, in diagnostic lab it’s about demonstrating the robustness and reproducibility. The machine must be robust enough to keep on working constantly, it must be easy to handle, and the method has to be reproducible on multiple machines and by multiple users”, stresses Cichocka. “And it’s not only about technology. The company must also address the following issues: laboratory protocols, standard operating procedures (SOPs), training of personnel. In order to be placed on the market, the technology also has to meet certain quality standards (e.g. meet various ISO standards) and it has to comply with adequate regulations.”
Learning from feedbacks
Artiria, Resistell and Nanolive all agree: in their entrepreneurs’ journeys, prototyping plays a crucial role. “Prototypes are used to confirm the technology’s principle. A product is a very specific application of a technology. You need a basis for making a decision. Each time, prototyping is used to validate important questions”, explains Dr. Yann Cotte, while Laurent Balmelli insists on the role of feed-backs: “My experience as an entrepreneur made me realize that building a successful product goes through honing your skills around learning from user feedback. When starting a new company, your prototyping process will be mostly ad-hoc unless you build from experience. I had to go through multiple iterations in order to find an efficient way to test my ideas.”
Enable: a programme to support creative innovators as they move their ideas from the lab to the market
Enable was created in 2011 as a technology acceleration programme out of the Technology Transfer office at EPFL. Early stage inventions need de-risking and validations, before they can get traction in the market. For many of these, enable is the starting point for the lab to market journey, both through startups and licensing to existing companies. As well as its own funding programme, enable uses its expertise and network to help innovators (more than 20 projects per year) obtain further no dilutive pre-seed funding. To accomplish its mission, enable works with service providers, companies, and partner institutions such as ECAL, HEC, HES and CSEM.
