Picterra’s AI Tool Helps Users Analyse Satellite Images with Peer Support

Innovator of the Month Interview by Adele Fanelli and Caterina Bigoni

The Swiss start-up Picterra, based in Lausanne recently released the beta version of their software for Earth observation. This AI based tool not only makes it easier to analyse drone or satellite images, it is also a platform for peer cooperation, moving the technology forward.

Picterra was born in 2016 from the minds of Frank de Morsier, Chief Technology Officer, with an electrical engineering background, and Pierrick Poulenas, Chief Executive Officer. Today the company is situated at the EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne. Recently, the company released the beta version of their tool for Earth Observation.

This tool is a customizable system that allows users to analyse drone or satellite images. At the same time, it puts them in touch with a global community that collaborates to develop such technology further. Thanks to the pre-trained machine-learning algorithms, users can personalise their aerial data analysis to perfectly match their own applications.

This August, Innovation Forum had the pleasure of meeting the Picterra team and discovering what’s behind their success and what’s next for this fast-growing start-up.

Hi guys! Can you briefly describe how Picterra got to where it is today?

Frank (de Morsier): Picterra started 2 years ago, when Pierrick and I realized that we wanted to do our own thing instead of working as consultants, as we were doing in our previous roles. Then, for about a year, we worked on different projects and services, warming up our ideas with the aim of creating a unique tool directly usable by our customers. To do this, we needed financing and last Autumn, when we found an investor, the team started to grow: Julien, Roger and Leo joined shortly after. Throughout, this journey I’ve learnt how important it is to find the right partner who can bridge your gaps, for example the commercial experience provided by Pierrick, as a Business Developer.

Can you give us examples of applications for which Picterra can be used?

Frank: Picterra can help anyone who wants to analyse earth observation data, either privately acquired with drones or from available satellite data. For instance, we have worked on a project to automatically detect vegetation growing dangerously close to electric powerlines. Other customers were interested in analysing a time series of images to track down illegal deforestation in national parks in South America and Asia. Thanks to satellite images, which are acquired nearly every day, our tool has accelerated research, which otherwise would have taken months in such wide and wild regions. In general, our goal is to provide a semi-automatic tool for a wide spectrum of clients.

How important was it for you to be integrated in the EPFL and Lausanne start-up ecosystem in the initial stages?

Frank: The beginning of Picterra started out in our flats, but we soon realized that moving to an actual start-up environment could be beneficial. We took a base at the Innovation Park in 2016, where we encountered many useful opportunities. We attended the CTI courses at the Innovation Park, which were valuable, and we also benefited from the mentoring offered, especially for the financing stage.

We saw that your beta version has just been released. How does it feel and how did the community react?

Frank: We released Picterra Beta in April and, considering that most of the team joined at the beginning of the year, it was a super-fast achievement! It was really gratifying to read enthusiastic users saying they had been waiting a long time for something like this. Rapidly, we saw more people joining the platform and we are basing our further developments on their feedback. We are aware that this tool is far from being our final product, but with the beta version we were also looking for validation from the community: we wanted to be sure that they would appreciate

a tool which allows them to “learn” about their data, but one that also provides fully customisable software by enabling a “hands-on” state available.

Are these users your previous clients? Or did you have to work a lot on promotion?

Frank: We already had a base, some companies with drones for example, but we have done quite a lot of advertising too, especially via social media and the media. The recent article on the EPFL website also helped people to find out about our platform and in the end we were contacted directly by many new users. Although we tried to push the local network first, both small and larger companies from Europe, and some from the US and middle Asia showed interests in our product. This is probably not so surprising because our tool is really for those who are anticipating the evolution of AI in this field.

We get the impression that many recent start-ups are involved with imaging and drones: how does Picterra distinguish itself from other local competitors?

Frank: On our side, we basically provide an earth observation and remote sensing tool: once the user loads the image on the AI platform, a library of possible elements that our tool is able to recognise becomes available and the users can ultimately extract the information they are looking for. This library then enriches in time and thanks to the users themselves, because if some elements are not already available in the library, they can be created manually by them. In this way, we offer a tool that is customisable and reusable thanks to our pre-trained algorithms.

Drones and image processing are indeed a very popular topic right now and other start-ups on the EPFL Campus are also working in this field. Gamaya, for example, helps farming businesses by providing hyperspectral analysis of terrains for clients with specific types of crops, while we try to equip our users with an interactive tool instead of simply delivering a result. Another close reality is Pix4D, whose 3D images of reconstructions and orthomosaics can then be used for element recognition in our platform, showing a nice way of complementing one another.

Roger: An important aspect on our side is that

our platform is not just a tool but also a community

gathering a lot of users, who create machine learning models and share them with each other. We wish to start a snowball effect: as there are more users, there will be more models, more data and eventually a gigantic library of connected models and data, so that everyone can get what they want very fast.

Have you heard of MapSwipe? It is a mobile app developed for the Missing Maps Project to enable fast satellite image classification on mobile devices. Users can detect small villages or roads directly on their phones by tapping and swiping on satellite images. Through MapSwipe, they can also join emergency response efforts led by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) when an active crisis arises.

Frank: We have often seen this crowdsourcing approach, and, in a certain way, it is similar to what people do on our platform by outlining specific elements. Picterra could certainly help this humanitarian project and deliver results very quickly. We are actually discussing with several NGOs in this field to equip them with this.

Julien: We could imagine introducing the “swiping” option to make the validation stage faster: once the model is trained, users could swipe to check whether the learning algorithm is correct or if some elements need to be re-added. However, to crowdsource, we must have the right to show the images and this might be challenging for most of our clients, whose images are confidential.

And finally: what are your next steps?

Frank: At the moment, we have a lot of subscribed users using our beta version for free and our goal is to provide a paying-mode option. Regarding the tool itself we are working towards a full customization of the algorithms. Last, but not least, we are already looking ahead to the next financing round, planning to enlarge the group next year.

[Cover photo taken here.]

Pryv Offers an Easier Way to Safely Manage Personal Data

Innovator of the Month Interview by Veronica Bianchi and Beatrice Volpe

GDPR put the spot light on data protection, which has become an increasingly important issue for both individuals and corporations. The Swiss company Pryv SA offers a data management solution designed to help companies comply with regulatory requirements.

Recent events over privacy and consent management have highlighted the need for stricter regulations regarding how data is accessed, collected and transmitted. This is the focus of Pryv SA from Lausanne, founded in 2012. The company has developed a flexible data management solution compliant with regulatory requirements for companies operating in highly regulated markets.

In 2017, Pryv was ranked among the 100 Best Swiss Start-ups by startup.ch and, in the same year, took part in Microsoft’s BizSpark Plus Program winning $120’000 USD of Microsoft Azure credit.

We met with Pierre-Mikael Legris, CEO and Co-Founder of Pryv, to hear the story of his innovative start-up.

Hi Pierre-Mikael! Where did the idea of Pryv come from?

The idea originated from three people: me, Simon Goumaz and Frederic Mauch. We had different interests that combined to form the project Pryv.

Initially I was interested in finding a way to collect all my data and store it in a safe place. After being diagnosed with leukemia, I spent several years in various hospitals, visiting different specialists and sharing both medical and non-medical information with them. As a computer engineer, at the time I was looking for a data model that could meet all these requests and that would be able to upload new data and share this with doctors.

Meanwhile I met Simon and Frederic. Simon was driven by software quality assessment and ethics. Whereas, Frederic wanted to replace Facebook with a new solution where people could share their personal data online but with easy and clear consent management for data sharing. Around these three concepts, we founded Pryv… and tried to compete with Facebook, but it didn’t work!

So, in the beginning you developed a product that individuals could use to collect, manage and share their medical/personal data. How did you transition from B2C to B2B?

During the development of our first version of pryv.io we put in place the entire data model for medical applications, as well as the infrastructure that we are still using today.

Then, when Evelina Georgevia joined the company in 2014, she pushed us to obtain Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) certification for the platform. This was the turning point for us, because several companies in Switzerland then wanted to integrate our core technology of data management in their products. By that time, we understood that the market traction was in the B2B direction. Therefore, we totally transformed our business model from B2C to B2B.

Today Pryv is a company that distributes its core technology to third-party companies operating in very different fields. We could say that our technology is like the cement of a building. Not necessarily noticeable upon entering, though it forms 80% of the building itself. What we provide is really the foundation element which supports medical information and/or personal data.

What are the main difficulties you experienced at the beginning of this adventure? Do you have any suggestions for the entrepreneurs of tomorrow?

Don’t worry guys, there are never problems in the beginning! Joking apart, I think it is all about persevering! Everything goes at such a fast pace when you start out. Each step seems so significant.

Then, things slow down and become more manageable, but you still end up going back and forth improving technical features and dealing with deliveries.

Then, one day someone buys your product and uses it. And it’s at that moment you are rewarded for all your efforts and you know it was worth it.

Afterwards, the challenge is to industrialize your product and that means overcoming slightly different challenges to the ones you were initially faced with.

Do you think Switzerland is a strategic location for a start-up?

It depends on your area of business. If you are targeting B2C markets, if you work in the field of AI, or even blockchain, perhaps Switzerland wouldn’t be your first choice.

However, if you want to develop a B2B business, Switzerland is actually a very good location. Here, in general, companies appreciate good-quality technical work. In addition, from an administrative and financial point of view, the support from the Canton is tangible.

Nowadays privacy is a hot topic (e.g. Cambridge Analytica). Do you think these recent events will affect the business of your start-up?

We started to work in this field 5 years ago because we realized that there was a gap in the market.

Nowadays though, thanks to Cambridge Analytica, people are more aware of the value of their data.

At the same time, companies are forced to take care of their data privacy and ensure compliance with regulations. However, it doesn’t mean that companies were never aware of privacy issues before, or that regulations like GDPR were never adopted.

Now, as to your question, yes, Pryv has already seen an increase in sales of licenses over the last three months due to GDPR.

To conclude, what are your plans for the future?

The next step is to increase the volume of installed Pryv licenses. At present we are more focused on the IOMT (Internet of Medical Things) sector. This is a fast-growing area with a huge demand and it is easy for companies operating in this field to innovate.

However, we are not confining ourselves to this sector. At some point it would be great to be copied. That would certainly be one measure of success!

QGel, a Tiny Extracellular Matrix Gel with a Big Ambition: Making Cancer a Manageable Disease

Innovator of the Month Interview by Alessia Baldo and Martina Genta

QGel is a Swiss start-up based at Lausanne’s Innovation Park, which develops synthetic extracellular matrices (ECM) for the growth of cells outside the body. The ECM is an important material that surrounds cells of the human body, which helps regulate tissue development and maintain homeostasis. Depending on the tissue – eye, bone, brain, muscle, etc., the ECM provides specific biological, biochemical and mechanical cues that affects cell proliferation and tissue health. QGel specializes in creating cell-specific synthetic ECMs that can sustain growth of different cell-types, including freshly isolated patient cells as well as established organoids, offering novel applications for more accurate in vitro disease models. These models can be used as a tool to influence clinical decision-making and save lives. QGel has raised CHF 20M of funding so far and is part of the Scale Up Vaud Community. We interviewed Dr. Colin Sanctuary, CEO & founder of QGel.

IF Lausanne [IFL]: Can you briefly describe how QGel was born?

Colin: We thought about the possibility of creating a start-up for the first time 9 years ago. My background is in soft tissue biomechanics and tissue regeneration and after my PhD I worked in two multinational medtech companies. This gave me the possibility to learn how to operate within large corporate structures and discover new aspects related to marketing, sales and business development. Then, in 2005, I had the opportunity to come back to this region, where I reconnected with a former classmate, and by combining our knowledge and experiences we decided to start QGel.

The initial spark that ignited the founding of our company can be attributed to a mix of luck and circumstance, which is common to most new breakthrough events.

IFL: How does your company differentiate from competitors and existing alternative technologies?

Colin: There are mainly two main points that differentiate us from other companies: the first one is scalability, i.e. we can manufacture cost effectively, and the other one is quality, i.e. we are able to maintain consistency, especially as we scale. If you envision making cancer a manageable disease, you not only need a gel where you are able to culture primary cells from patients, but you actually need something that you can manufacture in sufficient quantity and in a standard and reliable manner so that it is used at a scale large enough to make a real impact for patients. This is what it takes to move from the lab to the clinic. And I believe, thanks to its synthetic yet biologically relevant nature, this is how our extracellular matrix gel stands apart from the existing technologies.

Our technology allows taking the organoid technology from the lab and enabling its adoption in the clinical setting to benefit society.

If you want to know more, you can watch the explicative video about QGel ECM Technology here.

IFL: How did the Lausanne environment help you in creating QGel?

Colin: The EPFL environment is extremely helpful at the early stage of a start-up. Being located right next to EPFL is a huge benefit to tap into expertise and to use facilities that no early stage startup could normally afford. However, I think that this already amazing environment can be further improved, if I can give a suggestion: why only open innovation to PhD students with affiliation to the university? We should be able to welcome people from industry too, to help strengthen the ecosystem, increase the networking and create that essential spark I was talking about before.

IFL: What did you learn in the process of creating this startup? And what did you enjoy the most during the process?

Colin: When I finished my undergraduate degree I wanted to escape from the bubble of technical knowledge and I decided to travel. I was hitchhiking all over the place and the most important thing I achieved was learning more about myself. Right now, what I enjoy the most about the start-up life is the feeling that I had while I was travelling: constantly learning, discovering and pursuing a general direction without knowing where I would end up, but at the same time I could feel the direction was generally correct. Similarly, the feeling I get now is the feeling that I am sticking out my thumb in an educated way based on acquired knowledge and we are moving the company forward in the right direction.

We are still venturing into the unknown, creating a path alongside the future end users of our products, while being true to the science and being true to who we are.

Beyond this, one of the most important things I learned in creating this startup is to stay true to your personal values. Ours are: trust, respect, teamwork, courage and commitment.

IFL: If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?

Colin: There isn’t much I would do differently and it is always easier in hindsight. Instead of giving you a precise example, I would say that it is important to have a clear understanding of when, where and how you have failed in order to understand how you need to improve for future decisions.

I like to look at failing in a positive way, I look at failure as the mother of all successes. I continue to learn a lot from talking with other experienced entrepreneurs who have been faced with similar challenges.

Likewise, young and hungry entrepreneurs come to me and I do my best to pass on what I can, to help succeed where I could have done things differently.

IFL: At the end of 2016 you raised 12M of funding and last year you joined the Scale Up Vaud Community. Tell us a bit more about how you managed to take this “big step”.

Colin: The key is to believe in what you are doing. The start-up life is not as easy or as fun as some people might think. You need to convince investors in believing in your idea, which can be difficult if you are creating a new market space. The best way to do this, especially in the life science field, is by providing solid data. Data are absolutely critical, and the entire team must not be afraid of inevitable set-backs, but rather see them as important steps to success. The only way to convince other people is to tell a story in which you and all your team believe and is supported by evidence-based science engrained in a well thought thorough business strategy.

I think that’s how we achieved it: it’s in believing in ourselves and moving beyond failure.

IFL: What are the plans for the future?

Colin: As I said before we want to make cancer a manageable disease. I truly believe that this is possible with the technology that exists today, but it is not going to happen in a finger snap. We still have a long and intense way to go. We have a clear roadmap that we will continue to develop, by partnering with healthcare institutions to accelerate the adoption of our gel, while continuing to make it available for more cancer types. I am convinced we will successfully achieve this and we will play an important role in saving lives. So this is my plan: keep driving this forward and make a difference.

IFL: What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs or to people that would like to become entrepreneurs?

Colin: The first piece of advice I would give is to be self-aware on what you are good at and what you are not good at. This is extremely important for building a new career. You need to fill your gaps with skilled people around you that can constantly challenge you. If you have a great idea, start thinking about the potential market and about what you know about it, then be curious about different fields. Identify what you are capable of doing, and where you need additional expertise. When I was still a student, I was talking with the former CEO of Medtronic, Bill George, a man I admire, and I asked him what I could have done to escape from being trapped in an academic environment and, amazingly, he replied saying: the first step is already done. You are aware that you want to learn about business.

Carlos Ciller, RetinAI: “Machine Learning can Empower the Clinician’s Decision”

Innovator of the Month Interview by Claudia Bigoni and Gian Franco Piredda

In February, Bern-based company RetinAI was selected by Bilan as one of the top 50 Swiss start-ups in which to invest. Here Carlos Ciller, CEO and co-founder, describes his start-up journey from academic research to commersialisation.

Based in Bern, RetinAI Medical sits in the intersection between medical imaging, artificial intelligence (AI) and early screening of diseases. Currently, the focus is AI in ophthalmology, where 1 out of 5 people will suffer from sight loss by 2020. The R&D team is also interested in age-related eye diseases – the leading cause of blindness for patients over 60 years old. One of the goals of RetinAI is to protect patients by developing healthcare solutions which combine computer vision and machine learning to detect early signs of malignant eye conditions.

Carlos Ciller, CEO and co-founder, carried out his PhD in machine learning and biomedical engineering in ophthalmology. This was a part of a collaboration between Swiss institutions UNIL, CHUV, EPFL and the University of Bern. During his PhD, he had the opportunity to visit the Department of Computing at Imperial College London with an SNCF Doc. Mobility grant. In London, he joined the local Innovation Forum (IF) branch as President and continued his Innovation Forum experience in Lausanne once he returned. He co-founded RetinAI together with Sandro De Zanet and Stefanos Apostolopoulos.

IFL: Hi Carlos! How did you develop the idea of using machine learning to study eye diseases? Will you be able to use your software for other organs?

Carlos: Studying eye diseases with machine learning was the topic of my PhD, ‘before it was cool’ and it was also the case for the other co-founders. Today, the application we are looking into is using this knowledge to facilitate early screening and analysis of eye diseases, bringing it to pharmacies, opticians or to general practitioners. A patient would be able to undergo an eye scan with special hardware with RetinAI software, which would immediately tell them if they are okay or not. In the latter case, you are then referred to an ophthalmologist who will suggest the correct treatment. This step is very important because all the sight loss cannot be recovered, so

the sooner you detect and treat the disease, the better it is for the patient and for healthcare systems in general.

Moreover, we are using the same concept to expand to dermatology, audiology and so forth. For all these applications, our goal is to integrate our technology into the next generation of medical devices, democratising access and breaking the technological barriers that separate clinicians and patients.

IFL: Are you already selling your product and if so, to whom?

Carlos: We are currently selling a Minimum Viable Product to different customers while iterating the final version. Instead of having a blind development, customers regularly give us feedback. Right now, our customers are hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, general practitioners and medical device manufacturers. Eventually, in the case of early screening, the customers will be also “you”.

IFL: How helpful is it for a start-up to be linked to a university?

Carlos: Initially, the University of Bern and the ARTORG Center from the University of Bern provided us with support to develop our start-up. However, IP-wise we are not connected to them. For other cases, I believe that in the medtech or biotech field, it is worthwhile being linked to a university to reduce the risk. This does not always hold for a software company, where the more independent you are, the easier it is to operate, raise funds and in general, move forward.

IFL: Did your active experience at the Innovation Forum play a role in your decision to found a start-up, or was it something you have always wanted to do?

Carlos: Actually, it has been a very long journey before reaching the point of funding a start-up. I always worked in part-time jobs while studying at university. During that time, I worked in multiple positions and I learned I had difficulties engaging in projects I did not fully believe in or which I did not consider had an impact in society. I have very strong opinions and I’ve always wanted to create value in my own way – we only have one life! For this reason, I tried to shape all my efforts and my PhD towards the creation of value in the form of start-up.

Nevertheless, being part of the Innovation Forum helped a lot with our intermediate challenges such as finding sponsors, convincing people about our ideas and bringing them on board. The Innovation Forum was the realisation of a dream, a combination of everything I was aiming towards: transforming innovation, re-shaping something that lies on a lab bench into a product and ultimately reducing the gap between pure science and a product or application. In this way, the Innovation Forum was eye opening because I could explore different fields in a canalised manner. Finally, being part of a community of researchers and entrepreneurs and having the opportunity to rely on an exceptional team helped a lot. I was also lucky because I met my future co-founders at the beginning of my PhD! I feel it’s really important to be good friends with your co-founders.

IFL: You have recently won the 3^rd phase of Venture Kick worth 130’000 CHF. What is next for RetinAI?

Carlos: We are closing our next funding round of 1,1 million CHF in 2-3 months. We currently have 8 team members and by the end of the year we will be a team of 12. It is very exciting that so many people will be working on our project!

In terms of research, we are going through all the regulatory procedures to commercialise our product. Also, as mentioned, we will use our software not only for early screening and monitoring in ophthalmology, but also dermatology and audiology: basically, anything that could be tested in a pharmacy or monitored with a smartphone device. We believe digital healthcare is moving towards bringing healthcare to the hands of the patients, and this is also RetinAI’s direction. Finally, we will expand to other markets such as emerging countries to meet practitioners’ needs and different expectations around the world.

IFL: Finally a more philosophical question. Machine learning algorithms are now widely used in various fields including medicine. What are your thoughts about the interaction between computers and doctors in decision making? How do you think it will evolve?

Carlos: Machine learning is not going to substitute clinicians by any means, but it can accelerate and automate some tedious and repetitive tasks. To give a very simple example: imagine you have an eye scan and you are looking for a specific biomarker. To find it, the physician should scroll over all different slices of a 3D volume. If instead we can present this data in a more comprehensive manner, we could then improve the decision-making process. The objective of AI is to add a second, non-human and objective opinion to the doctor’s one to standardise this evaluation and to make it faster, so that physicians can use their precious time differently. I believe that AI and technologies alone are not enough; they will not replace doctors and there is no reason for this. However,

machine learning can empower the clinician’s decision.

We are still very far away from getting AI completely into clinics because many regulations and procedures are required to guarantee that the algorithms work. This is something that cannot be avoided and that shouldn’t be avoided. Nevertheless, I believe that using AI will soon become a real support to contributing to the well-being of a patient.

Swiss Motion Technologies: An Affordable and Customized Mobility Solution for Amputees

Innovator of the Month Interview by Eleonora Borda and Ece Yıldız

Swiss Motion Technologies (formerly Nextep) is a Swiss start-up based in Lausanne, which develops innovative mobility solutions for amputees. Their tailored liners combine revolutionary manufacturing techniques including scanning the residual limb and implementing digital manufacturing methods to reduce cost and enhance comfort. Moreover, in view of today’s manual manufacturing methods to make customized socks, their production methods are automated and take much less time to produce. We interviewed Clément Gabry, a co-founder, as part of the Audience Prize awarded to Swiss Motion Technology at the Local Finals of our IMAGINE IF! Accelerator in Lausanne in October 2017.

IF Lausanne [IFL]: Can you briefly describe to us how Swiss Motion Technologies got here today?

Clément: The project was launched about a year and a half ago by Kevin Mamalis who initially won a 20000 CHF prize that lent credibility to the project. A few months later, Alexandre Grillon and I joined Kevin as the two other co-founders. The first biggest challenge we faced was to find the necessary resources to start a medtech project, which usually requires several hundred thousand francs. Luckily, through the participation in several Swiss competitions and the support of different organizations, we were able to acquire such funds to lay the foundations and start certifying our products. Recently, we hired two additional engineers to speed up the development of our business and put our products on the market as soon as possible.

IFL: You took part in the IMAGINE IF! Competition. How was this experience for you and how do you feel about being chosen as the best start-up by the audience?

Clément: I was positively surprised by the quality of the IMAGINE IF! projects. Overall, it was very good compared to some of the other competitions that we took part in. I believe this also reflects the quality of start-ups in Switzerland.

The Audience Award was proof for us that what we are doing speaks to people, and that we can attract their interest even if they are not directly involved in our field.

IFL: How important is to be part of an accelerator and incubator program during the initial phase of your start-up?

Clément: It really depends on your project and the phase you are at. If you are by yourself, it is crucial because it helps you to get the necessary support and to make you aware of your blind spots. It is also useful to discuss the ideas of others and get to know start-ups from different fields. Moreover, accelerators and incubators can be useful to find co-founders, gain skills and get ideas. For us it proved very useful at first. However, later, as you validate your idea, you need to get out in the real world and start building your business.

IFL: In which aspect does your solution distinguish Swiss Motion Technologies from what is already on the market?

Clément: We accelerate the manufacturing process by automating several production steps. Today, tailored socks are often handmade.

With our technology we can provide products with a similar, to slightly better quality, but we provide them faster and cheaper.

Prosthetic technicians just need to scan the limb and easily order the product. Thanks to that, they save a lot of time compared to doing it manually! To automate the process we have developed several new technologies, such as a novel 3D printing method. Overall, with all the advantages of replacing today’s manual production method, we hope to increase the number of amputees who can benefit from a tailored liner.

IFL: How difficult is it to go through the regulatory aspects for such medical product?

Clément: As our tailored liner is only in contact with the skin, less regulatory aspects have to be checked than, for example, a vaccine or an implantable device. Still, the certification process requires quite some time, especially when you are new in the field. Certification is therefore one of the most time consuming and expensive activities that we have had to focus on. Sometimes, in a start-up, regulatory requirements can be frustrating, as you wish less barriers would be present in order to go faster. In the end however, we all agree that it’s a necessary process, as it ensures a higher level of safety and guaranteed quality for the end users.

IFL: Where do you see Swiss Motion Technologies in 10 years?

Clément: When you build a start-up, it is hard to know what is going to happen, especially in a highly competitive field. For now, we are very grateful for all the support we have received, and we are enjoying the learning process and exciting growth prospects.

Our main vision is to push the project as far as possible and help many amputees to reduce the pain and discomfort they are used to enduring.

We’ll have a hundred possible directions to take, most probably towardsorthopedic applications, such as custom orthotics. Since the beginning, it has always been part of our vision to bring relief to patients in developing countries, where the conditions for people living with limb loss are very difficult. For that, the financial support of some major non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could allow us to bring our portable and versatile solution to those populations in need in developing countries, the number of amputees is much higher due to not only diabetes and accidents, but also untreated diseases, land mines and war. However, the absence of healthcare reimbursement in those countries may be challenging. Alternatively, we could also wait to have grown big enough to be able to fund this kind of project and dedicate our time and resources to these countries.

IFL: In your personal path, you first worked in a consulting company and then you co-founded Swiss Motion Technologies. Was becoming an entrepreneur just an opportunity or a dream?

Clément: After my studies I wanted to become an entrepreneur, but it seemed out of reach as I had neither a specific idea, nor industry experience or resources. Working in business development for a consulting company I got to know the business world and acquired experiences and skills. One year and a half later, when Kevin proposed that I join the team, I jumped on the opportunity. I realise now that I was actually building barriers in my mind when I graduated. Everything is in place here in Switzerland to support entrepreneurs that want to go for it, no matter if you have the resources or the experience.

IFL: What is THE piece of advice you would give to a wannabe-entrepreneur?

Clément: Tough question!

My advice is to go out there and talk to your customers. It is crucial to share your ideas in order to realize problems and set priorities.

Besides this, have partners with whom you can work. This was really important to get us here today: just two of us couldn’t have made it! Don’t isolate yourself and go find the people who have the skills you need and give you a different perspective!

An interview with BestMile: Cloud intelligence for driverless vehicles

Innovator of the Month Interview by Caterina Bigoni ned Niccolò Dal Santo

— Photo Credit: Francesco Pennacchio, Club Photo EPFL

Autonomous vehicles are becoming a more and more established reality, whose market is constantly and rapidly growing. And it is rather easy to figure out why: reduced costs, increased safety and traffic flow, improved mobility for disabled and elderly people are only a few of the relevant advantages entailed by the use of driverless machines. All these reasons, together with the recent advances in the high performance computing and algorithmic techniques, yielded a considerable improvement to this technology, and a growing interest by both industries and government. In January 2016, the former US administration led by President Barack Obama has announced a massive proposal which expects to allocate $4bn in the following 10 years with a clear goal: bring self-driving cars to the US roads.

However, before seeing our roads populated by driverless cars, some obstacles need to be overcome: firstly, there is a considerable need for common regulations and guidelines for producers, and secondly thousands of vehicles, eventually produced with different hardware and software, need to be managed simultaneously. This latter point is where BestMile enters into play.

Founded in 2014, BestMile is a leading vaudoise company in the field of driverless cars and the world’s first cloud platform for the operation and the optimization of fleets of autonomous vehicles. It is a virtuous entrepreneurial reality in the Lausanne startup ecosystem, and its main office, located at the Innovation Park of EPFL with more than 30 employees, has been rapidly followed by a smaller branch in San Francisco.

Being recognized as one of the most successful Swiss startups, Innovation Forum Lausanne (IFL) has awarded BestMile as the May Innovator of the Month. On May 9 we have been welcomed by the VP of Operations and co-founder Anne Mellano, who has given us some of her time to deepen the subject of autonomous vehicles and to share her experience as young entrepreneur. Here is the outcome of this interesting chat.

IF Lausanne: Autonomous vehicles are a very hot topic and big companies are investing a lot of money on it. How does it feel to be in the same market with giants of the technology as Google, just to mention one? What is your goal and how do you differentiate from them?

Anne: Indeed, we are in the same ecosystem as Google, but there is not direct competition. These big companies are currently focused on developing autonomous cars and embedded automation technologies. BestMile’s goal is to enable the deployment of autonomous mobility services by coordinating and optimizing fleets of driverless vehicles, which may eventually be made by different companies. This is a comparison I always like to do: BestMile is like the control tower of an airport: we are not building the vehicles or the autopilot but we decide what every one of them has to do and coordinate the entire process.

BestMile is like the control tower of an airport: we are not building the vehicles or the autopilot but we decide what every one of them has to do and coordinate the entire process.

IF Lausanne: And how do you practically provide this decision making to the fleet?

Anne: Autonomous vehicles are very clever; they know how to drive and how to overcome obstacles in their direct environment, but they are also very individualistic. They are not aware of what other cars are doing or what is happening in the network at a global scale, and this is a bottleneck for the quality of the service; it leads to the need of an intelligent coordination tool which allows to obtain a coherent service. We optimize and coordinate the dispatch, the route as well as the energy management of the vehicles according to real-time and forecasted traffic conditions, demands (travel requests) and vehicles’ telematics. Once the data is processed, the platform sends the right mission to each autonomous vehicle and makes sure that they are always at the right place at the right time.

IF Lausanne: What are the main difficulties towards this goal?

Anne: First of all, we have to consider that today is probably the most critical time for autonomous vehicles industry as they have to cohabitate with human-driven vehicles. Secondly, one of the hardest challenge is related to real time decisions which must comply with the requested service and the availability of the vehicles in terms of number and battery levels. We must be able to efficiently react to unforeseen events, such as new obstacles or slower traffic. Reaction is our mantra. Finally, security must always be a primary concern: when we send the mission to the vehicles they first have to confirm that those actions are feasible with respect to the actual limitations.

We must be able to efficiently react to unforeseen events, such as new obstacles or slower traffic. Reaction is our mantra.

IF Lausanne: We have seen BestMile technology around EPFL campus in 2015 and now the SmartShuttle project in Sion. Are your vehicles only on pedestrian streets or also on public roads?

Anne: We are currently enabling a service in the city center of Sion, where a fleet of two driverless shuttles evolves on both pedestrian and public (reduced velocity) roads. And it may be a shocking news, but managing vehicles on pedestrian roads is much harder! Pedestrians are unpredictable and tend to “jump” right in front of the vehicles. You also have many more obstacles which could cross the planned trajectory, and the velocity of the surrounding objects is highly variable. Indeed, slow speed does not always mean increased security, and having bodies with different velocities is one of the main challenges for us: on pedestrian streets we need to be slow to secure people’s safety, but on public roads a slow speed may cause an insecure environment.

IF Lausanne: What about your perspectives for the future? After EPFL and Sion, how do you see the future of autonomous vehicles and BestMile in ten years?

Anne: Our dream is a fully autonomous one. This future might be much closer than you think! The years 2020/2021 represents a tipping point for autonomous mobility industry mainly because of two events: the Tokyo Olympics, followed by the Dubai World Exposition. A tremendous attention will be captured by these events, and the organizers are ready to fascinate visitors by showing off all the marvelous novelties, including those in the field of autonomous vehicles. Vehicles manufacturers have a strong incentive to be ready with their autonomous vehicles and it’s not surprising that pretty much every one of them have announced a commercial release for 2021.

Later on, two main steps need to be taken: raise the awareness and reach a full acceptance of autonomous vehicles as well as adapt the legislation.

IF Lausanne: Let’s move the conversation to your background and Raphaël Gindrat’s, BestMile’s CEO. How did it happen that you co-founded BestMile?

Anne: We both studied civil engineering with specialization in transportation planning and management at EPFL, spending three out of five years together, but merely talking to each other! Raphael was the first one involved in the field of autonomous vehicles, since he did an internship at Induct Technology, where he was in charge of testing the prototyping vehicles in collaboration with EPFL. In the meantime, I was working in an urban planning office in Lausanne as project manager coordinator for writing, among the others, CityMobil2, a proposal for autonomous vehicles on behalf of the EPFL laboratory where Raphaël worked. Even though EPFL had been granted six vehicles for eight months, nobody seemed to be willing to manage them (or knew how!). We decided to found a startup, and our first goal was to take care of these six shuttles. Once we finished this first project we realized we couldn’t just stop there.

IF Lausanne: How important is the synergy among the founders?

Anne: It is essential. Initially it was a bit like a game, but we needed to have a common strategy and share the same vision if we wanted to succeed. Today with Raphaël, we work very closely since we have complementary perspectives and dispatch the work according to our expertises. We are two very easy-going persons at the end.

IF Lausanne: How did you assign the roles in the company? Raphaël is the CEO and you the VP of Operations. Being that in Switzerland only 9% of founders of the Top 50 startups are women, do you feel that this choice was somehow biased by your gender?

Anne: Not at all! At the time we founded BestMile I was still working for the urban planning office, while Raphaël was fully devoted to the company, so it seemed a straightforward choice to have him as the CEO. However, I believe the ratio of female CEOs is also a matter of numbers: there are less girls attending civil engineering studies, so it is natural to have fewer female CEOs in this field. Moreover, if we consider that only in the last decades women had access to the same level of education of men, then we need role models to inspire young women to pursue the entrepreneurial career!

IF Lausanne: Have you ever thought of doing a PhD?

Anne: Yes, I have been asked to do one by a professor in civil engineering department at EPFL, but focusing on one topic for 3 to 5 years was not what I wanted to do; here I am happy because everyday there are new challenges to face. Nevertheless, we support and hire people holding a PhD, and it is important to guarantee the investors that our employees are able to accomplish tasks with a high level of precision. It surely increases our credibility, but let’s be honest, it is a big issue to change the PhD mindset from academia to industry: here we have strict deadlines by which we need to deliver a working product, which may eventually not be as elegant as the academic world wishes it to be.

IF Lausanne: You mentioned investors, and another thing they often ask for is IP. Have you patented your algorithms? How did you learn about IP in general?

Anne: Although, in our case patenting the software would mean to publish the code, which we do not really want to, we protect processes and micro servers. Investors like to be reassured with IPs. We learned about IP in general through our day-to-day experience and thanks to the help of this wonderful ecosystem we have around.

IF Lausanne: You anticipated our questions! How do you benefit of the innovative Lausanne ecosystem?

Anne: Especially at the beginning we received a lot of support by this environment, also because we are a software company but none of the co-founders is a software engineer! We were helped in setting up the hardware architecture and in hiring computer scientists: colleagues from another startup were writing our job offers and run the interviews for us.

We love to stay here on the EPFL campus, where we have our roots. We aim at doubling the size of the team by 2018, and we are at the moment negotiating with EPFL about our offices; I think this would be a win-win situation, since we are a company freshly built by two former EPFL students.

We love to stay here on the EPFL campus, where we have our roots.

IF Lausanne: And what about the opening to the US? Why did you choose to expand in San Francisco?

Anne: For a company in our field it is essential to be in Silicon Valley. On one hand, most of the autonomous mobility industries are located there and we need to be there to create partnerships and establish strong customer’s relationships. On the other hand, we are looking for our next round of financing of $15mln right now, and given the amount and the industry we are evolving in, the American investors ecosystem is more interesting and interested .

IF Lausanne: BestMile has won many competitions and prizes, like Prix Strategis in 2016 or the more recent Frost & Sullivan Award. How important is it for young startups to participate to these events?

Anne: I think it is essential in the beginning. Especially if you are looking for the first round of fundraising, when only a beta version of your product is available. It is important to acquire recognition and credibility by winning competitions, since it proves to the investors that you are reliable and your idea works. In addition, during such events, we often met people who were extremely helpful and gave us valuable advices.

IF Lausanne: What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs on their way to build a successful startup?

Anne: I would tell them not to underestimate the potential of their idea and product. We thought the market was not ready for our product yet, but we started this adventure three years ago and we are still here.

While we were having this conversation, Raphaël, the CEO and co-founder of BestMile was in his monthly tour of the world. However we have been able to reach him telematically to ask him a few more questions on his perspective, which may be beneficial for some EPFL students with the right entrepreneurial mindset.

IF Lausanne: How important was the experience as President of Agepoly and in student associations in general for building a successful startup?

Raphaël: During my studies, I was lucky to benefit from EPFL’s very active associative life. I served three years at the direction committee of the EPFL’s general student association (agepoly.ch) and I was its president for two years. It is commonly said that associations are very much like a company and I cannot agree more with that statement. My time in EPFL’s student associations taught me a lot, I learned organizational and managerial skills that I use everyday. Building a startup is a very intense experience and student associations were definitely a valuable training that helped and is still helping me through it.

My time in EPFL’s student associations taught me a lot, I learned organizational and managerial skills that I use everyday.

IF Lausanne: How did the Minor in Management Technology and Entrepreneurship at EPFL helped you in launching your startup? Are you still using some knowledge acquired during those studies now as the CEO of BestMile?

Raphaël: As the CEO of a startup, you have to oversee or do a lot of different activities, including finance, management and HR. The minor in Management Technology and Entrepreneurship allowed me to build a core knowledge in these fundamental subjects on which I could rely when launching BestMile.

A perspective on VR with OZWE Games

Innovator of the Month Interview by Eleni Batzianouli and Caterina Bigoni

— Photo Credit: Alejandra Garzón, Club Photo EPFL

OZWE Games is one of the most renowned companies in VR gaming worldwide. A true pioneer in its field, it is the first Swiss company to be placed at the top of global sales with its game Anshar Wars 2 in the Samsung Gear VR Store. OZWE Games has also been lobbied by two giant VR companies, Oculus (now owned by Facebook) and Samsung.

Having a long record of achievements, Stéphane Intissar, CEO of OZWE Games, was nominated by Innovation Forum Lausanne as the Innovator of the Month for March 2017. On March 16, Stéphane and Charlotte Maréchal, the Head of Press Relations & Communication, welcomed us into the OZWE Games offices. We had the great opportunity to speak with them about entrepreneurship in the VR world, as well as play Anshar Wars 2 on the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR – controlling a spaceship by simply moving our head!

IF Lausanne: Can you tell us something about the history of OZWE?

Stéphane: OZWE has had three different lives of which OZWE Games is the third one. Founded in 2008 by Frederic Kaplan and Martino d’Esposito, OZWE worked on creating robots that can be controlled by hand gestures. At that time, before Kinect existed, this idea was quite innovative. However, once the market seemed to have shifted its course in a different direction, OZWE promptly reacted by moving towards the development of digitized books applications for iPad and iPhone. This initiative, targeted to the cultural industry, was marked by the great success of Bookapp.

IF Lausanne: How did the switch to games development happen?

Stéphane: I have always been passionate about videogames and in 2012, when I was the Director of Production at OZWE, my simultaneous engagement with Leap Motion gave me enough money to buy my first Oculus Rift. Over one weekend, I then developed a game and brought it together with the OZWE team to Oculus… They were crazy about it! All of a sudden, we were working in a “secret group” at Oculus, which 6 months later became the Samsung Gear VR. Since then, our team has collaborated with remarkable individuals, such as Jason Rubin, now VP of content at Oculus, and John Carmack, CTO at Oculus, who is a well known programmer for the video game Doom.

Over one weekend, I then developed a game and brought it together with the OZWE team to Oculus… They were crazy about it! All of a sudden, we were working in a “secret group” at Oculus

IF Lausanne: What is the common thread of these three OZWE facets?

Stéphane: Throughout the years the devotion to high technologies can be considered the common point at OZWE. We have always looked for the latest technology.

IF Lausanne: What are OZWE Games biggest achievements?

Stéphane: As OZWE we are very proud to have been thanked by Oculus for the « Pioneers VR development » in 2015. Anshar Wars 2 won the « Best VR Game » indie prize award in February 2017 and we have also won the « Best European Pitch Night » at GDC San Francisco in 2016 . In addition, we have been nominated « Best VR Game » at Mobile Gaming Awards 2016 and « Best Game Art » at the Casual Connect Berlin 2017.

Anshar Wars 2 won the « Best VR Game » indie prize award in February 2017

IF Lausanne: What is the biggest challenge you have encountered so far as a CEO?

Stéphane: Managing a large number of people has been the most difficult part as well as the most rewarding one when we achieved worldwide recognition as a team. Getting to this point was very hard and there are many steps and ways to fail.

IF Lausanne: How do you manage to keep a prosperous ambiance in your team and at the same time lead a competitive and successful path for the company?

Stéphane: The main challenge is that the VR market is relatively small and quite new, which makes it difficult to predict how consumers will react to new products. Today, the VR industry has reached a good level of recognition and we often hear on the news about how VR technologies are used in many different applications. However, back in the day the public believed that what we were doing was just a gadget. As the CEO, I had to make critical decisions based on my personal opinion, rather than experience or historical data. The team had to trust me and my vision.

IF Lausanne: What are you working on right now?

Stéphane: The upcoming project is the most ambitious game we have been working on since Anshar Wars 2. We really hope the public will appreciate it!

IF Lausanne: How do you see VR games in 5 years from now? May OZWE expand to other VR markets in addition to the gaming field?

Stéphane: VR is a very special technical field: any kind of interactive application in VR requires 3D gaming technology. Being a company with a strong background on VR games, gives us easy access to other markets that require VR technologies, such as the medical or the architectural industry. 5 years from now I could envision OZWE using its technology and expertise to access broader fields.

IF Lausanne: Which assets does an entrepreneur need to have? What is your advice for the young generation of researchers and startuppers?

Stéphane: You always have to be optimistic about what you are doing and to not get upset if you encounter difficulties somewhere on the way. It is important to learn from ones’ own mistakes and understand what went wrong or right. What really keeps your motivation high is telling yourself that next time you will be “more right”.

Being an entrepreneur is really similar to running a marathon. The longer you stand, the better it’s going to be, as you get a lot of experience and feedback on the way.

Be “obsessed” about your projects, this is my advice!

Don’t miss the opportunity to meet Stéphane and his team at IFL Annual Conference on Virtual and Augmented Realities.

On April 3^rd at Forum Rolex at EPFL, OZWE Games will bring their demos, giving attendees the opportunity to try out their game and enjoy first-hand the experience of a VR environment!

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Drones to Boost Agricultural Productivity

Innovator of the Month Interview by Sandra Sulser & Maria Broggi

Gamaya is a Swiss AgTech company – spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), created in 2015. Gamaya addresses commodity crops cultivation challenges by providing an integrated solution for large-scale diagnostics of field crops to boost yield productivity. Yosef Akhtman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gamaya and was nominated as the Innovator of the Month May 2016.

IF Lausanne: What were the main factors that made you decide to go for a career as scientist-entrepreneur rather than for an academic career?

Yosef: My scientific career has encompassed a number of seemingly distinctive subjects including information theory, robotics, and remote sensing. I was extremely lucky to see all of those skills come together in my last academic project – Trans-Eurasian Flight Leman-Baikal. The project was so profoundly important to me that I could not possibly imagine just moving on when it was completed. The only way to realise the tremendous potential of our technology was to bite the bullet and turn it into a commercial venture.

IF Lausanne: What are the top three pros and cons of having chosen to become scientist-entrepreneur?
Yosef: Interestingly, exactly the same factors represent both top pros and cons for me:

The science-heavy entrepreneurship is particularly hard because of the enormous gap between the basic scientific insight, the proof of concept, and the eventual viable commercial product. The journey is hugely exciting, but also full of risks and anxieties, whether we would be able to overcome the numerous technological challenges.
The need to learn the entire new domains of management, business development and administration, acquire new skills on the fly that I never thought I would need. It feels great when it works, but also many a times I feel inadequate because my knowledge in some of these domains may not be sufficient.
The crazy pace of places and events, the endless workload and the need to find common language with an extensive array of different people from posh investors to hardboiled farmers. It is intoxicating and satisfactory, but also exhausting and emotionally draining. It can go from top to bottom and back several times a day.

IF Lausanne: What are the most challenging situations that you encounter as young entrepreneur in a field that is dominated by more senior people with years of experience?
Yosef: Unfortunately, I can not count myself among the youngest of the entrepreneurs around. On the positive side, my experience and credentials help me navigate the ecosystem and communicate with some of its senior players. I think I am really lucky to have the best of both worlds, common language with the younger crowd and the understanding of the more mature worldview.

The transition between the academic and the business environment is also quite challenging. These are two different cultures with different values and priorities. Some of the senior business people can be very sceptical about the ability of scientists to execute a business plan, and I guess they have good reasons for that. Of course, we will need the help of business professionals to race forward, but we remain a very technology-centric startup, and I believe that the scientific thinking will remain key to our success.

IF Lausanne: Millennials –the generation who is currently coming onto the professional stage – are known to be highly ambitious, highly connected, somewhat narcissistic, and unbelieving in authority. Do you feel like this description fits you?
Yosef: I can certainly relate to some of these characteristics, but not all. I was fortunate to have experienced life in several countries with dramatically different mentalities and social orders. I have great appreciation of ambition, but even greater respect for humility and resilience to failure that comes with it. I have respect for authority, but never take its opinions as the final word. This is particularly true with some of the prevailing scientific theories, which are often confused with objective truth just because they are accepted by the academic establishment.

My opinion is that the authority is there for a reason, that its existence plays an important stabilising role, which should not be underestimated. On the other hand, its importance is only determined by the extent of its usefulness to the society. The status quo has to be constantly questioned, challenged and ultimately disrupted ones it becomes outdated. Clearly, with the current pace of change the role of establishment and common wisdom becomes ever more fragile, but also important in my mind. It’s a delicate balance.

IF Lausanne: What do you think are the most important factors that could drive more scientists from the Millennial Generation into becoming entrepreneurs?

Yosef: I think we need to better emphasise the role of science and differentiate it from dogma. In my view, science is a pursuit of useful insights and not any kind of eternal truths. Any theory, no matter how abstract and well established has to be considered for being useful for practical applications. And a good theory will always find its purpose. This does not contradict any “blue sky” research, quite the contrary, but we should avoid putting “pure” science over the applied science, as is sometimes still the case in academic environment.
The second point would be to make the entry barrier for aspiring scientist-entrepreneurs as low as possible. There are financial, administrative and cultural barriers and in some ways Switzerland is in the forefront, but certainly not on all fronts. I can testify that I wouldn’t get far without the support of the excellent startup ecosystem that exists around EPFL, so this is something that is certainly happening. There is still a large gap between the situation in Western Europe and the leading hotbeds for innovation like the Silicon Valley and Israel.

IF Lausanne: How do you select your team?

Yosef: I really can’t define myself as a professional headhunter. Until recently it has been a very spontaneous process, where I shared my enthusiasm and vision with people I met. Some of them would be intrigued enough to get involved and help. Some of those individuals have proved to be very helpful and subsequently joined the company. Of course, as we grow, this process is becoming more organized and systematic, where the prospective candidates undergo multiple interviews with the members of our team. The core criteria that we are looking for outside the professional skills are independent thinking and the ability to take initiative, but also being an effective team player.

IF Lausanne: There are many fields where drones can be used. Why did you decide to apply it to agriculture?

Yosef: We started from the imaging spectroscopy and its applications in environmental research and agriculture. Our initial approach was to use a manned aircraft to acquire our data. A drone is just a convenient way to place an object in 3D space, or make an object move from point A to point B. And in our case this object is a hyperspectral camera. The drone technology has a great “cool factor” and it allows us to dramatically simplify and reduce the costs of our operations, but it is not really the core component of our business.

IF Lausanne: What is your long-term vision for Gamaya?

Yosef: We would like to become a key player and a knowledge hub in the emerging smart agriculture industry. Today we have unique technology and we are well positioned to build the analytical platform that would empower farmers with unprecedented level of understanding and awareness of their land and crops. Of course this is a very rapidly developing market with some very strong organisations starting to take interest in what we are doing. So, the challenge of building the necessary momentum, while staying true to our vision will be enormous.

IF Lausanne: How can the technology of Gamaya save the world?

Yosef: Today, industrial agriculture constitutes one of the main sources of pollution and climate change. Our relationship with our environment is largely parasitic, where enormous expanses of land are effectively removed and isolated from our planet’s biosphere using large quantities of synthetic chemicals. The resultant monoculture deserts are then exploited for the production of food before being exhausted and discarded. This industry is fully reliant on fossil fuels as the source of energy, is extremely inefficient and unsustainable.
One of the main reasons for the existing industrial farming practices is our very limited ability to gather data, monitor and study complex ecosystems on a large scale. We try to simplify, sterilize and minimize the interaction of our crops with other plants, bugs and microbiota because we don’t want and don’t know how to deal with complexity.
Our technology is among the most effective known methods to obtain the necessary knowledge and thus facilitate significant progress towards smarter, sustainable farming that can one day become the solution in our relationship with our environment instead of being one of its major problems.

Viewing life in 3D

By Sandra Sulser & Maria Broggi

Nanolive is a two year old hightech startup based at EPFL. They have raised millions from private investors and won numerous awards for their development of the 3D Cell Explorer, a revolutionary tomographic microscope to look instantly inside living cells in 3D.

IF Lausanne: Hi, can you briefly describe yourself, what you do, and why you think you are here today?
Yann: Hi, my name is Yann Cotte and I am the CEO of Nanolive. During my PhD in Physics at EPFL, together with my colleagues I had the chance to make a fundamental discovery in microscopy. Afterwards I decided to utilize this new technology to create a product which could be useful for almost everyone from researchers to students as in my case. I founded a company: Nanolive and got the best qualified and motivated people on board who helped me to accomplish this mission. I guess these are the main reasons for which I am here today.

IF Lausanne: What does the concept of being an innovator mean to you? What should a person do to become one?
Yann: I believe that an Innovator is someone able to bring something better than what existed before to the public. Something new, more useful and usable. To do so, one needs to permanently question himself, hurry up to make all the necessary errors as soon as possible (then they cost you less), continually check and refine the vision, and be ready to walk the extra mile 😉

IF Lausanne: Do you consider yourself an Innovator? And what about the others, do people consider you and the technology you invented as innovative?
Yann: This is a difficult question to answer, I would start from the second one, well, if you invited me to give this interview, I guess yes, people consider me an innovator and yes, no doubts about the technology. We created a revolutionary product, a microscope, which enables scientists, MDs but also undergrad students to finally look inside living cells without any marker, any stain and any preparation of the sample.
About how I consider myself, I have never thought about myself as an innovator. I just always did what I love to do. When I decided to create Nanolive I set a target and I worked for it every day (and many nights) with passion and determination. It was not easy all the time but I had the chance to meet very talented and motivated people who shared with me the same challenge and walked by my side during these last two years of success and challenges.

IF Lausanne: We heard you just launched your 3D Cell Explorer at one of the biggest cell biology conferences in the world: ASCB 2015. Do you want to tell us something more about?
Yann: It was awesome, a dream come true. The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) meeting is THE biggest cell biology meeting in the world and a yearly International conference taking place in the USA which groups, every year, few thousands of cell biology researchers from all around the world. This is the second time for Nanolive at ASCB. ASCB2014 was the first big conference we ever attended. We went there with no microscope, and totally unaware of what was exactly waiting for us. It came out to be a huge success. This year we decided to have our official product launch over there and we were proven right. People were just amazed by the 3D Cell Explorer. During the whole conference, we never stopped doing demos and having people over at our booth. The launch event took place on the last night of the conference, two hours after the exhibit hall was already closed. We were seriously afraid that no one would have showed up but, surprise, we hold our keynote lecture in a 50 people room and I can tell that the public was at least the double, half was just standing. Everyone had plenty of questions and many people expressed the desire to order a microscope.

IF Lausanne: What were the most difficult moments and the most exciting ones in your entrepreneurial adventure? The biggest satisfactions?
Yann: As for everyone who is starting a new business, the most challenging moment is actually the beginning, when you are alone presenting an idea, with no product, no team, no money. You come out from academia, you have no entrepreneurial experience and you need to learn fast in order to convince people to trust you and your idea and to help you to realize it. After this first challenge you realize that the learning process just started. You have to hire a team and to learn how to manage people. You might lose some of the best members of your team, for many different reasons and you need to accept their decision, understand it and try to find a replacement for them (for us this happened more than once…). But then you understand that everything happens for a reason and every bad experience makes you stronger. Next time you will be prepared to react faster and more effectively.
About the most exciting ones, the whole 2015 was a year of great success for Nanolive. Beside the realization of the commercial product and the market launch, we were also honored by many many important awards and prizes: We started in February with the “50 start-ups in which to invest” from Le Bilan, immediately accompanied by the memorable success from the Pionierpreis & the FIT, the same month. PERL prize followed in May together with the Photonics technology award received in Munich in June. In August, the international Microscopy Today Innovation Award gave us great credibility among the American scientific community. In September, we made our entry into the Top100 Swiss start-ups. Then the “Oscar of Invention” was announced in Las Vegas during the 2015 R&D 100 Awards & Technology Conference. Finally in December we obtained The Scientist’s Top 10 Innovations of 2015.

Innovation at ScanTrust – An interview with Justin Picard, Co-founder and CEO of ScanTrust

By Sandra Sulser, Photo credits: Endre Horvat

Why did you become an entrepreneur?

Because it is so much more exciting when you feel you have your destiny in your hands!
My entrepreneurial mindset developed initially during the time I was doing my PhD, and afterwards when I worked (as an employee) at different startups. What drives me is to invent and develop new technology solutions that help solve the massive problem of counterfeiting, but at some point I realised the only way to push through my ideas and vision was to get in the driving seat and become an entrepreneur.

What’s your biggest (daily) challenge?

Our startup is driven by the vision that counterfeiting can be stopped by empowering consumers and the brand to verify a product’s authenticity with their smartphone. My biggest challenge is to ensure that everyone on the team, myself included, is doing everyday the right thing that will bring us closer to this ultimate objective.

What’s your most important message for the next generation of entrepreneurs?

Should I interpret this question as being already part of the old generation?
If you have a promising idea and business, tons of opportunities will appear along the way, and a number of people will come to you and offer their help. This is great as you cannot succeed alone, and a very encouraging validation of your idea in the beginning. However it is easy to be carried away, and the challenge is to not lose your focus and divert important resources by following too many opportunities at once, or opportunities for which you are not ready. This means that you will have to resist the temptations that appear along the way, and learn to say “no” more often than “yes”.

Tell me something I don’t know…

I started skateboarding one year ago. Like entrepreneurship, it is a risky (and sometimes painful) activity, but equally exciting and rewarding!

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