Meet Venture Leader Christina Vallgren and learn more about the importance of a network and sourdough starter

27.07.2020 08:35, Isabelle Mitchell

Venture Leader Life Sciences Christina Vallgren co-founded Terapet, a medtech startup that improves proton therapy for cancer treatment. Learn more about Christina’s expectations for the Boston roadshow, her plans to conquer a niche market, and why she is always ready with backup plans and freshly baked bread.

In November, the Venture Leaders Life Sciences 2020 will embark on their week-long roadshow to accelerate their expansion into the US market and build a business network through meetings with top-notch investors and industry leaders in Boston. To shorten the waiting time, we will introduce you to the members of the Swiss National Startup Team. We asked each entrepreneur to complete a short profile and choose four questions from a questionnaire about their personal and professional life: 

Name: Christina Vallgren
Job title: CEO of Terapet
Location: Geneva 
Nationality: Swedish
Physicist from: European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
Number of employees: 3 (as of 07/2020) but we are currently looking for new talents to join the Terapet team
First touchpoint with Venturelab: A Venturelab business creation course in November 2018

“Terapet is developing and commercializing innovative solutions for a safer, more precise, and time-saving proton therapy for cancer treatment.”

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
The idea for this project was born in 2018, when Marcus—our CTO, also a CERN physicist who has also been working on the design of a proton therapy facility in Austria—and I were discussing different possibilities of improving proton therapy, and whether we could benefit from any of the technological development that has been taking place at CERN. 
Shortly after being incubated at Geneus at the beginning of 2019, Professor Raymond Miralbell, medical director at the first Proton Therapy Center in Madrid, joined as co-founder. The company was officially founded in Canton de Vaud in July 2019. In December 2019, we successfully closed a pre-seed round and transferred the company from SARL to SA and joined Fongit in Geneva. In June, we successfully closed a seed round of CHF 1 million to support the development of our first full-scale prototype to be installed for clinical validation.
 
What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
The proton therapy market is a niche market and relatively small but with a great potential for growth. The US has 1/3 of the total proton therapy market, and one of the largest turn-key proton therapy manufacturers, Varian, comes from the US. For us, entering the US market will be the key to success. 
Through our extensive network within Europe, we have already successfully established partnerships with several European proton therapy facilities. Understanding and accessing the US market as early as possible is a cornerstone of our market entry strategy. Boston has an impressive history of proton therapy, and Massachusetts General Hospital is a renowned institution in the proton therapy community and still at the forefront of pushing proton therapy to the next level. We are actively looking for research and manufacturer partners, strategic partners, as well as funding. Therefore, participation in this Venture Leaders roadshow would be an important milestone for us.  

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder?  
Managing to convince other people than ourselves to believe in our product and our dream, invest in us, and grow together with us.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?  
Do not give up, never be intimidated, but always listen to advice. Always have at least three backup plans when Plan A does not work. And network, network, network. Getting to know the right people can change everything, especially if they want to be a part of your venture.

What is always in your fridge?  
A mature sourdough, born in the midst of a global pandemic lockdown, when yeast was scarce and supermarkets contagious, ready to be unleashed and transformed into glorious bread.

What are you most proud of?  
Being a working mum of two amazing boys while managing to balance professional and private life with the sky as the limit.  

Last but not least, can you show us your workspace?
We still work from home, and I often switch between my desk and the kitchen table, so I figured I would show you a more interesting (former) workspace. This picture was taken a year ago, when I was working in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) tunnel at CERN during a technical stop.


For more information and updates on Terapet and the Venture Leaders Life Sciences, follow the Venture Leaders Life Sciences 2020 team with #VleadersLifeSciences on social media or subscribe to our newsletter. 
 
This year’s Venture Leaders Life Sciences roadshow to Boston is supported by EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Hansjörg Wyss, Kellerhals Carrard, Paul Scherrer Institut, swissnex Boston, University of Zurich, Canton Vaud, YPSOMED, and the Canton of Zurich.