Meet Venture Leader Nicolas Vachicouras and find out his secret to making decisions

07.08.2020 08:30, Isabelle Mitchell

Venture Leader Life Sciences Nicolas Vachicouras co-founded Neurosoft Bioelectronics, a medtech startup that develops a new generation of implantable electrodes. Learn more about Nicolas’s expectations for the Boston roadshow, his most important leadership lesson, and why he acquired a working knowledge of finance, legal, and sales.

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: Nicolas Vachicouras
Job title: CEO of Neurosoft Bioelectronics 
Location: Chambésy
Nationality: Swiss
Graduated from: EPF Lausanne 
Number of employees: 6 (as of 07/2020)
First touchpoint with Venturelab: A pitch competition at EPFL in 2018

“At Neurosoft Bioelectronics, we develop the next generation of soft implantable electrodes to interface with the nervous system.”

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
In 2009, I started my studies at EPFL with a dream to engineer medical devices to help patients. After finishing my bachelor's degree, I focused on the application of microelectronics to the development of neural interfaces by joining the laboratory of Professor Lacour, who was developing new technologies for neural interfaces. I was attracted to this field because of the large potential of these medical devices to restore the impaired functions of the nervous system through electrical stimulation or recording of neural tissue. I was struck by how clinical implants were made using 50-year-old technologies, with limited benefits to patients. It was apparent that the full potential of these devices was still to be unlocked by using better technologies. Six years later, after my master's studies and a PhD at the laboratory of Professor Lacour, I started working on Neurosoft Bioelectronics with my two co-founders, Ludovic Serex and Florian Fallegger. 

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
The USA is our primary market for our first medical product, and we wish to meet potential partners and to better understand the medical device ecosystem in the USA. Moreover, the Boston area is a large medical hub, in particular for neurological disorders, and it is home to leading clinical centers that have the capability to perform complex epilepsy surgeries using our first product. During the roadshow, we, therefore, wish to get in contact with some key opinion leaders who could provide great feedback on our device and potentially join our clinical board. Finally, we would like to meet with like-minded investors who share our ambition and vision for the financing of our Series A round.  

What is the most challenging aspect of being a founder? 
The most challenging part of being a founder is that you cannot afford to ignore any topic. Even if you hire consultants for regulatory affairs, for business strategy, for reimbursement, for finance, for legal affairs, for sales, etc., you always need to learn at least the basic foundation of each subject. Obviously, you can never be a specialist in all of these fields, but it is important to learn a little bit of each to communicate efficiently with relevant experts. It is overall quite challenging to always be able to learn new topics quickly and keep up with subjects that you have no training in. 

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder? 
When building a company, I have learned that there are no right or wrong answers when making decisions about business and strategy. Many times, my co-founders and I have asked multiple experienced people for advice, and we usually receive as many different opinions as people we talk to. At the end of the day, we learned that we have to be able to make our own decisions with incomplete information, to accept uncertainty, and, especially, to accept potential failures. We have learned that the only thing that actually matters is our ability to learn from our mistakes and adapt.  
 
What is your favorite movie or show and why? 
I like most thrillers directed by Christopher Nolan, such as Memento, The Prestige, or Inception. Most of his movies have great unexpected twist endings and are beautifully directed.  
 
What is your favorite podcast and why?  
My favorite podcast is Without Fail. It features interviews with various people, such as artists, entrepreneurs, or athletes, who talk about their successes and failures. It is a very informative podcast and has taught me a lot about how to run a business. 


For more information and updates on Neurosoft Bioelectronics 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.