During the kick-off of the competition finals, held at a place called Digital October that felt exactly like the kind of space where start-ups grow like mushrooms, one of the Skolkovo BioMedical Cluster leaders made the comment, “I can feel the vibe and smell of innovation in the room.” That quote kept ringing in my ears as I listened to the 12 finalist presentations, and here’s why: while there was a tremendous amount of driven, wide-eyed entrepreneurship in evidence on stage from the 12 presenters, the innovation thing was a really mixed bag. For each of the 12 companies I saw I could think of at least 1 and often more U.S. correlates of the same concept. There are probably far more, as I am woefully unaware of similar efforts in other countries that might also be duplicates.
So was the vibe and smell of innovation present or was it really the vibe and smell of entrepreneurship—a bunch of guys trying to answer an already defined question that many are seeking to answer similarly, but willing to take significant business risk while doing so? That was a very difficult question for me to answer from inside this event. There were numerous “innovations” posited for how to achieve the world’s most powerful diagnostic device, but there was an odd lack of scientific evidence presented about how such ideas might work and how they were truly different than those that came before them. The 12 finalists spent more time talking about how their devices might be operationalized in the home, how much IP they had and how they will make big money for investors fast (entrepreneurs—same the world over!), but not much time talking about their unique contribution to science and medicine and how their products would truly change the paradigm.
And, just like U.S. entrepreneurs, they often forgot to mention who might pay for such innovations and what the return on that payment might exactly be. Alas. So many sensors, so little time, so few business models. I was reminded once again, as I am at so many of these business plan contests everywhere on earth, of those South Park underpants gnomes and their 3-step business plan: Phase 1) collect underpants; Phase 2)???; Phase 3) Profit!
In the end, the winner of the day, and you can watch the whole event in its entirety HERE, was an organization called Association Fruct, which offered a cloud-based home unit that was, in many ways, much like Qualcomm’s 2Net device, a piece of infrastructure that allows multiple devices and sensors from multiple vendors to be integrated, communicate and data share to enhance diagnosis and monitoring in the home. This choice proved once again that with any gold rush, and the digital health movement is nothing if not that, it’s better to be the pick and shovel than the prospector.
A few interesting observations of the day, at least to me:
There was a strong sense of Russian nationalism present in the room and presentations of the day. It was so interesting, as the efforts to build the new healthcare economy are clearly related at efforts to build an even stronger Russian nation. One rarely if ever hears that “made in America” kind of talk at U.S. business plan competitions really. Occasionally you see the flag waving at the challenges sponsored by the U.S. government, but even there it’s usually all business and an unabashed willingness to outsource and sell product outside the U.S. if that is the fastest path to fortune and fame.
In contrast, there was much Russia/U.S. similarity in the diversity quotient evident in the room: 12 companies, 12 white guys, 0 women CEOs. I note that the underwear gnomes are also entirely male. Coincidence or correlation?
