23. Oct 2019

TWIST Talk: Taking the plunge: How I quit academia and started my first start-up

by Nikolaus Krall, Allcyte GmbH

Datum: 23. October 2019 | 15:00 – 16:00
Sprecher: Nikolaus Krall
Veranstaltungsort: Down-Town (beneath the Crazy Duck Pub), Main Building

Abstract

In December 2016 together with three colleagues, I co-founded Allcyte GmbH as a spin-off of CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. What seemed like a massive achievement at that time, however, really only marked the beginning of a journey full of excitement, learning but also frustration and disappointment. Whilst this journey is still ongoing, I would like to give you a very personal account of how a "crazy idea" in the lab ultimately developed into a highly innovative and independent company of now 15 people. I would like to tell you about the challenges of convincing sceptics, assembling a team, developing a business model, fundraising and now growing and, in the end, how running a biotech startup isn't that much different from conducting a very big (and expensive) experiment. Whilst ultimately Allcyte's success is not guaranteed, I can already say for sure: building your own company is one of the most rewarding and exciting things you can do!

About Nikolaus Krall

Nikolaus Krall is a Vienna, Austria based biotech start up founder with a passion for translating cutting edge biomedical innovation from bench to bedside. In 2017, together with colleagues from the CeMM Research Centre for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, he co-founded Allcyte GmbH with the goal to leverage automated high content microscopy and artificial intelligence to accelerate the development of new anticancer drugs and diagnostics. Prior to this, he obtained his PhD in Chemical Biology at ETH Zurich, Switzerland developing novel targeted drug delivery strategies and companion diagnostics for the treatment of solid tumours and trained as an organic chemist at the University of Cambridge, UK.