The six steps to a successful start‐up: an interview with Kai Simons

Abstract

If you are a creative and adventurous Molecular Biologist, and are playing with the idea of launching a start-up some time soon, we strongly recommend reading the following interview with Dr. Kai Simons, CEO of Lipotype, a company specialized in lipid analysis, for some precious advice on entrepreneurship.Kai Simons was involved in the early beginnings of EMBL. He joined the labs in 1975, and soon became Head of the Cell Biology Program, where he studied membrane cell biology and introduced the concept of lipid rafts. In December 2000, Simons moved to Dresden to be the Director of the brand new Max Planck Institute in Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. The creation of this center in Dresden was per se a gamble, as the city lacked an academic research environment in molecular biology. However, this changed with the buildup of the Max Planck Institute, which fostered high-level research in the molecular life sciences also at the neighboring Technical University, transforming Dresden into a renowned center of excellence in this area. In 2012, Simons launched Lipotype in the Bioinnovation Center close to the Max Planck Institute grounds. In this company, shotgun high-throughput mass spectrometry is used to analyze both qualitatively and quantitatively the array of lipids (i.e., the lipotype) contained in a biological sample. Today Simons dedicates his time to managing the company.

Why scientists, academic institutions, and investors fail in bringing more products to the bedside: the Active Compass model for overcoming the innovation paradox

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