CUTISS CEO Daniela Marino’s career lesson: ‘The important thing is to try, enjoy, and be able to say: no regrets’

15.12.2020 08:05, Isabelle Mitchell

This week, Daniela Marino, the co-founder and CEO of CUTISS participates in our series about Switzerland’s most inspiring entrepreneurs and founders. CUTISS bioengineers large quantities of individually customized human skin grafts to provide an effective and accessible therapy for children and adults who suffer large-scale burns or scalds.

Switzerland boasts countless world-class startups, and our series puts the spotlight on some of the best and most inspiring entrepreneurs and founders to find out what motivates them, what they have learned, and what they do when they are not transforming the world with their innovations. To get this behind-the-scenes perspective, we ask each entrepreneur to complete a short profile and choose eleven questions from a questionnaire about their personal and professional life. Sharing her answers this week is Daniela Marino, co-founder and CEO of CUTISS. The biotech startup was a Venture Leader Life Sciences in 2018, has been ranked among the TOP 100 Swiss startups since 2017, and won first prize at the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award 2020. 

Daniela Marino, CEO of CUTISS at the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award 2020 

Name: Daniela Marino
Location: Zurich-Schlieren
Born in: Agrigento (IT) in 1981
Graduated from: ETH Zurich ( PhD)
Job title: CEO and co-founder of CUTISS AG
Number of employees: 25 FTE (as of 10/2020)
Money raised: CHF 41.5 million (as of 10/2020)
First touchpoint with Venturelab: A networking event in 2016

“At CUTISS, we bioengineer personalized skin on demand for patients with large skin defects.”
 
What is your evening routine?
I go to bed late, at midnight, on average. I have early dinner with my family, take my kids to bed, read them a bedtime story, and wait until they sleep. Then I go down to the living room, have tea, and work.

What is your lunch routine?
I eat small bites, mostly walking or working. Now, with the new offices, I will be able to have lunch with my team more often.

What TV show are you currently watching?
I am watching Friends—yes, for the fourth time. This time in German, and I hope it will help improve my German. I love that series!

What is your favorite movie or TV show?
The best movie is The Matrix because it was just ahead of its time and so innovative! The best TV series is Breaking Bad: It is simply incredible and also marks a passage in my life—my first pregnancy. The best TV show is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. I love that guy!

What is your favorite book?
Harry Potter—my little inner child is still very much alive!

What is your favorite social media platform? 
Linkedin is incredibly powerful in recruiting talent and gaining visibility.

Where and when are you most productive?
I am a night owl: I love working at night when it is quiet and the light is softer. I love my work, so I am never really tired; I am so motivated that it is close to excitement, and this gives me a lot of energy.

How and where do you clear your mind?
I love being alone with myself. I go for walks, just stay in bed, or look outside of the window. Silence is my best cure.

What is the most challenging aspect of being a founder?
Having a healthy life, a balanced life—managing family and business in a way that none suffers from the weight of the other. Not easy but doable with the right kind of support.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
That the important thing is to try and enjoy and to be able to say: no regrets. Just #gogogo, and try to do it the best you can. You are the master of your own destiny.

What is your email strategy?
I hate having unread emails, and I always respond. Definitely, inbox:0 is my strategy, which, however, means constantly being accessible via phone or even smartwatch, and brevity. Email brevity is essential for achieving inbox:0.


Last but not least, watch Daniela Marino talk about Cutiss' vision at the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award 2020: