Accelerating Bio-Innovation: Insights from the National Bio-Entrepreneurship Bootcamp 2023

The #2023 edition of the National Bio Entrepreneurship #bootcamp draws its curtains after four days of #enlightening and enthralling sessions by renowned global faculty and entrepreneurial ecosystem experts. The bootcamp was conceptualised by CCAMP under the #BREC (C-CAMP BIRAC Regional Entrepreneurship Centre) program over six years ago with a vision to help India’s promising #early-stage #entrepreneurs to understand key business concepts and take a leap towards market success.

The Boot Camp cohort has always represented the crème de la crème of India’s bio entrepreneurs, such as Fibroheal Woundcare Pvt Ltd (works on ‘silk proteins’ as a bio-material for wound healing); Chimertech Private Limited (focuses on creating sustainable and eco-friendly practices in the field of animal husbandry, veterinary science, bioelectronics, biotechnology, and healthcare); Bagmo (develops a blood bank monitor to eradicate wastage in rural areas). This year was no different, with over forty participants selected competitively from applications across India.

The event kicked off with a welcome address by Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed, PhD , CEO and Director, CCAMP who underlined that the BREC program at CCAMP is one of the most significant access points for #biotech #innovations in India that amplifies bio-entrepreneurship across the country’s four corners. This #platform is a phenomenal opportunity to leverage this matured ecosystem and propel forward innovation thinking in solving societal challenges, he said. Dr. Manish Diwan , Head SPED, BIRAC, encouraged the #startups expressing that this bootcamp is a place where the entrepreneurs will learn about concepts way beyond technology development that will help position them on the path to becoming commercial #success #stories.

Dr. Alka Sharma, Senior Advisor Department of Biotechnology and MD BIRAC, in her keynote address, emphasised that “the bootcamp is an excellent platform for innovators to explore avenues that would take them to the next level.”

An integrative approach to commercialising innovation

Entrepreneurs began #learning about taking their ideas to the next level at the bootcamp, now in its sixth edition, when international faculty Uday Phadke , Shailendra Vyakarnam , and Sam Dods introduced an integrative approach to commercialising their innovations, the Triple Chasm model. The participants were exposed to the 12 meso-economic vectors that are critical for any successful commercialisation, which are oft ignored. Uday remarked that #entrepreneurs often get it wrong due to their approach to solving problems through a staggered and siloed approach. This was accentuated in domains like #healthcare as the time required to reach maximum #customers (cumulative customer growth across the chasms) is incredibly high. The faculty offered examples from their consulting experiences on how several entrepreneurs got it wrong.

Underlining why the case is even more complex in #biotechnology, Shai revealed that “engaging in the failing fast approach might be expensive in cases where there is a high initial investment such as in the case of biotech innovations. Sam advised, “it is critical that you get in front of the customer and start talking to them!” Shai further suggested that “#failure in early phases in biotech could be due to being fixated on only one idea, product, and or customers.”?Uday introduced two self-assessment tools called the ‘The Navigator tool’ and the ‘Triple chasm commercialisation canvas’ to the entrepreneurs to help them assess the current status of their ventures. The tools are a self-reported questionnaire and canvas that help entrepreneurs evaluate their business while offering a systematic #framework to identify the necessary #interventions to improve their chances of #success. Uday, Shai, and Sam discussed the results obtained by the entrepreneurs and helped them make sense of the results offering suggestions and insights to their queries.

The Bootcamp is like a micro-MBA?

The bootcamp was an opportunity for some startup founders to learn MBA concepts and elevate their businesses to new heights. Subrahmanyam Muramalla , the founder of Movement form, a proof-of-concept (PoC) ready company, of this year’s cohort, revealed that “like many of the entrepreneurs with a technology background, the focus is on building the product first” and the bootcamp was like a “micro-MBA though I never did any MBA.”

On the second day, the instructors ‘turned Michael Porter?inside out’ and challenged the entrepreneurs to look from the markets to their firms and not from their firms towards the market. By highlighting the external vectors that deal with market spaces and proposition framing, customer definition, distribution, marketing, and sales, Shai and Sam drove home the point that entrepreneurs ought to have an idea of how the #marketplace works, understand the structure of their value chain, what it would look like in the future, and how can they partner across the #value #chain! For instance, the experience of selling a #vaccine in India is miles away from selling it in Western countries.

On Day 3, the discussions centred around the internal vectors, namely, contingent technology deployment, intellectual property, product definition and manufacturing and deployment, and #funding and #investment. A key #insight that is particularly significant in the case of technology-focused ventures was that customers would provide a bulk of the funding in the third chasm.

Defining customers using ‘SPIN’

Action-packed Day 2 of the bootcamp witnessed Guhesh Ramanathan of Exubator engaging the entrepreneurs in exercises wherein they role-played as sellers and customers in different scenarios to help define customer segments. Guhesh’s interactive and power-packed session introduced the SPIN framework asserting that it is one of the best ways to uncover customer needs. While two entrepreneurs donned the hats of a seller and buyer, other entrepreneurs analysed the conversation utilising the SPIN framework. Guhesh disseminated a few selling sutras to the entrepreneurs. He insisted that there is “no excuse to know more about the problem or the solution than your customer!”

Guhesh further advised the entrepreneurial founders stating, “you are the flag bearer of your product; if you are not able to sell it, your sales guy can’t sell it.”

The engaging sessions ended with Guhesh urging entrepreneurs to utilise the lean canvas framework in their businesses to quickly go to market. On Day 3, Jogin Desai , Founder & CEO, Eyestem Research , illustrated the nuances of how entrepreneurs should communicate their business ideas effectively.

Protecting your IP

The BREC team organised several sessions across four days to raise #awareness amongst the entrepreneurs on the importance of protecting their #intellectual #property (#IP) and the legal aspects of their businesses. Abhijit Ghosh, Assistant Drug Controller, CDSCO, provided an overview of the #regulatory pathway for devices and #diagnostics. Amrut Joshi , the founder of GameChanger Law Advisors , revealed his legal #playbook for startups highlighting the importance of framing and structuring founder’s, employment, IP, and commercial agreements. The regulatory aspects to be considered in light of rapidly emerging #medtech – digital health, AI and big data were brought to the limelight by Siddharth Jain, CEO, Symbiorph Clinical Trialogy. CCAMP’s Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) team offered one-on-one meetings with the entrepreneurs. Mr. Shivakumar R , Head, OTT, CCAMP, educated the entrepreneurs on #patenting and commercialising their ideas. The OTT team and law advisors team engaged in one-on-one meetings with the entrepreneurs to clarify and offer advice on their IP-related queries.

Wrapping up

The bootcamp wrapped up with an insightful #panel #discussion on the stages of #fundraising and finding the right #investor at each stage, featuring distinguished experts such as Mr. Madan Padaki , President, TiE Bangalore , Dr. Geetha Manjunath , Founder, Niramai, Mr. Naganand Doraswamy , Managing Partner and Founder, Ideaspring Capital , and moderated by Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed, Director and CEO, CCAMP.?

CCAMP hosted the entrepreneurs to witness the cutting-edge and state-of-the-art research and innovation happening at the campus and beyond.

“Excellent ideas in the room”?

Shai Vyakarnam was all praise for C-CAMP and the BREC team’s organisation of the event. He remarked, “there were excellent #ideas in the room, and we saw and heard high-quality of questions and #engagement from participants. As an Indian living in Cambridge, UK, which has a vibrant life science/biotech entrepreneurial #community, I took great pride in seeing that the cohort assembled in #Bangalore, #India was equal to anything I had seen in UK and Europe.”

CCAMP wishes the entrepreneurs the very best in their entrepreneurial journeys. We look forward to welcoming a new cohort of India’s rising bio-entrepreneurs next year!

About BREC: BREC or BIRAC Regional Entrepreneurship Centre at C-CAMP works with the goal to encourage the spirit of bio-entrepreneurship across all corners of India, facilitating the creation of life science start-ups and mentoring start-ups to increase their chances of success. BREC also enables and empowers bio-entrepreneurs through business and technology advice and mentorship covering all aspects of business such as Finance, Legal, IP, HR, Business model, Business plans, Go-to Market strategy and others. Some of the key programmes under BREC include the National Bio-Entrepreneurship Competition (NBEC), Boot Camp, Meet the Investors, Entrepreneurship Advanced Programme. Check out more: https://www.ccamp.res.in/brec