What made you found MTIP?
On the one side it was entrepreneurship as well as the fascination to identify game changing companies with their respective technologies. And on the other side to guide them on their growth trajectory and successful market establishment.
I wanted to do something that had not yet been done in Switzerland. I started a fund with the vision of empowering innovation that improves lives. The focus on healthcare seemed like the right fit for this undertaking.
What is the best part about being a CEO?
I like taking decisions as well as taking on responsibility. Being able to get the most out of special situations and finding solutions for challenges are very important to me. I appreciate the exchange with people from diverse backgrounds and mindsets and thrive when discussing topics with my team, doing negotiations with Portfolio Companies and engaging with investors.
And what is the worst part about being a CEO?
I think the worst part about being a CEO is ensuring that the team is best selected for our everyday challenges and to accomplish great achievements. Letting go of employees that did not really fit in this setting has always been a task that I never enjoyed as part of my job.
Our first exit was a great accomplishment for our still very young company this year. We have also invested in nine stellar portfolio companies that are globally exceptional in their respective fields, which we are very proud of.
Can you comment on your leadership style and what you value in your employees?
Devotion and dedication towards the company that you work for are very important qualities in my opinion. When I realize that my employees can manage their tasks and responsibilities, I am very happy to empower them and drive their careers forward.
To ensure that projects and tasks are on track it is necessary to have direct interactions with every team member. I do weekly or bi-weekly catch-up meetings to make sure we are in sync and establish communication channels so that if something comes up, we can discuss it directly and efficiently.
What was the first year of MTIP like?
I started being my own and only employee in 2015. My co-founder Hans-Florian Zeilhofer then shared an office with me. The first few months involved establishing processes and setting up regulatory requirements and the structure for the fund. By the end of the first year, I could onboard my first employee.
In this first year I had to decide on investing in our chosen sector healthtech and answer questions like which specific geographic region and development stage of companies we should invest in. Also what size and legal structure should the fund have.
This starting year laid the foundation for our success. Looking back, I am very proud of having moved from a concept on paper for an investment fund to the realization of MTIP as it is now.
What are the most important milestones in the history of MTIP?
This is very simple to answer: Establishing the company. I founded MTIP after leaving Syngenta. I had no safety net whatsoever and took on a very big risk. But I believed firmly in the idea of MTIP and in empowering innovation.
A second Milestone was finalizing the set-up of our first MTIP Fund I in April 2016 and the third one of course was our first investment one month later.
Furthermore, the exit of blueprint genetics, as our first exit was a great accomplishment for our still very young company this year. We have also invested in nine stellar portfolio companies that are globally exceptional in their respective fields, which we are very proud of.
When I started MTIP, everyone said I shouldn’t start the company and that it was impossible to start a fund.
After two years, those voices became silent.
What are some of the most stressful situations you have faced since founding MTIP?
There have been many but the good thing is, intrinsically, I strongly believe that there is always a solution that can be found and one of my ethos is to never give up. So, I always try to find a way to make everything possible.
In our second investment, we learnt that the CEO purposefully hid important information from his investors. As a first step, we took on the instrumental role in ensuring that the CEO was laid off. We took back all the shares into the company and partnered with the other key co-investor, a renowned Israeli based fund, for the turnaround.
They took over the R&D lead whilst we took over the entire management function where I personally stepped in at the beginning as the interim CEO. We restructured. We made sure the product was scientifically solid and hired a new strong team. We accomplished to get 2.5mn non-diluted funding from the Israeli and German governments.
In the end, we were able to make a successful turnaround without any of the investors chipping in money for the company. Now it has the potential to become our best investment in our entire portfolio. It turned out to be a wonderful success story, but it started out as a stressful situation.
Another example was when we had to stop an investment process just a few days before signing. In one case the company got acquired. In another, we identified big flaws at the last moment of our due diligence process. Until it’s signed, it is not signed.
Overall those situations are the best way to learn and to improve!
Who or what has shaped who you are?
The way I grew up, my family, shaped me for one part. I was always very determined already starting from a very young age. As a teenager I did an exchange year at a high school in Pittsburgh. With my host family I travelled once to MIT and Harvard. During that visit I realized that one day I wanted to study at these universities. Years later, I graduated with my PhD from HSG and received a research grant to go to Harvard.
It was never a question whether I would be able to go there or not. Rather: How can I make it possible?
Some lessons learnt along the way and any advice for the less experienced entrepreneurs out there?
There will always be many people telling you why your idea can’t or will not workout. It is important to listen and try to understand what arguments they may have. Take these arguments and try to find a way to still be able to accomplish your dreams. If you just listen to these people, then you won’t go anywhere.
There is a saying that a deal starts always with a NO. When I started MTIP, everyone said I shouldn’t and that it was impossible to start a new fund. They would ask me questions like how to make sure that I could get access to good deals for example. This continued for the first two years, then the voices became silent and people started to say, we knew it would work from the beginning. That is how you learn.
Most Founders of companies need to believe in their product, their solution, and especially in their business model. You need to understand why you are doing what you do. What is special about your company or your product? How can you find a unique selling point? There will always be stressful solutions along the way. Just don’t accept a no. Take on the challenge and roll up your sleeves.
What are your hopes going forward?
I like how our team works together. We are fast, solid and diligent in how we analyse companies. We can be really assured that when we make an investment, it will generate a very successful outcome. We have even managed to find investors during these hard COVID-19 times when the industry has mainly stopped investing.
Looking at MTIP today, it is a very well positioned healthtech growth capital investor in Europe. We are leading this space, not in terms of assets under management, but in terms of knowledge, insights and market knowhow.
Going forward I am confident that I will keep on leading the company successfully. We at MTIP believe in empowering innovation that improves lives. This is not just our claim – it is our credo. By focusing on investments into the Healthtech sector, we try to improve the lives of millions of people for the foreseeable future. And we will never accept a NO for an answer.