IMD is known for the success of its Entrepreneurship Stream, which puts participants in the shoes of a startup from the second week of classes and throughout Module 1. Having just started settling into courses and our new lives, this was a bit nerve-racking because we had to be ready to dive in and take action even though we had so few classes under our belts. 3 months later, this has been one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of the program!
The 15 start-ups we could choose from were from a wide array of industries, of various sizes and at different stages of funding. As we ranked our favorites, the teams were created around preferences such that we already had something in common. Shortly after making our selections, our team was formed. We had the honor of working with Nagi Bioscience, a biotech startup founded in January 2019, spun out of EPFL.
For those of us on the team with a more scientific background, this gave us the opportunity to nerd out a bit to understand the science behind Nagi’s core technology, the product itself, and its potential in the pharmaceutical industry. All of which were pieces to a puzzle we needed to understand before we could figure out how Nagi Bioscience’s technology could add value to this space. Those in the group with a less scientific background then took the lead in understanding deliverables we could provide to best help our startup evolve as a company.
This project required us to reach out to networks from our previous experiences, but also gave us the opportunity to reach out to the IMD network to help inform and create value for our start up. All in all, after many nights of researching, and brainstorming we were finally ready to handover our final project deliverables to Nagi, during an online presentation this week.
We have had a great experience, which really was due to working with such an amazing and diverse team!
The Nagi MBA team: Hannah Kohrs, Jingyi Li, Dennis Stone, Raffaele Borrello, Pamod Hemakumara, Sammit Purandare
