THE ONE'S TO WATCH

Dan Philpott, John O’Donoghue and Vincent Grady are three men on a mission. Their brainchild EnBIO has shown that bio-medical start ups are at the cutting edge of technology.

EnBIO is an innovative start-up based in the Rubicon Centre in the Cork Institute of Technology. Since its incorporation just over a year ago, the company has demonstrated that they are leaders not just within the medical technologies industry but also amongst Ireland’s most inspirational start-ups. Last year EnBIO won the InterTrade Ireland Seedcorn competition, and the trio of founders reveal that the win has thoroughly enhanced the profile of the bio-medical firm.

“We are very proud of the accolade as the best start-up in Ireland in 2006 and it certainly has been a great door opener as regards engaging with customers and investors,” says Dan Philpott, CEO of EnBIO. The Seedcorn win involved a substantial cash prize of €100,000, which the high tech Start-up has put to good use in the development of their innovative technologies.

THERAPEUTIC RECOVERY

In essence EnBIO’s technology focuses on the area of surface modification in medical implants. “For example if you were getting an artificial hip we can introduce a therapeutic agent onto the surface of the artificial hip that may help with the primary function or deliver medication to the body for a secondary function,” explains John O’Donoghue, the firms Chief Technical Officer (CTO).

EnBIO’s technology expedites the healing process giving the implant patient a better outcome through and after their recovery period. The surface modification technology targets all the main medical areas; orthopaedic, heart tissue and cardiovascular. As the CTO explains, it is an alternative to the type of polymer coating that is currently used for drug delivery on the surface of medical devices.

When working together in Johnson & Johnson, Philpott, O’Donoghue and Grady fused a vibrant relationship and together nurtured the idea of becoming their own bosses. This bond would form the backbone of their entrepreneurial dynamic and lead to the subsequent development of EnBIO.

“The three of us started out in Johnson & Johnson and that was up until the end of the 90’s. We had discussed breaking out on our own at that stage but I suppose we didn’t come up with the idea, the motivation and the time until 2005 and 2006,” reveals Philpott, who shares a complimentary engineering background with O’Donoghue, while O’Grady is the financial brains of the set up.

TEAM DYNAMICS

EnBIO exemplifies the importance of an exceptionally strong team relationship which has helped maintain the spirit of the start-up. “We’ve spent a lot of time together working in other companies so we all know each other very well and we always made sure to pick the right people because we have seen first hand that having the wrong team can be damaging to business. So many Irish start-ups fail because they have poor team dynamics but we have put a tremendous amount of time into building our board and building our team with people that are comparable and compatible with ourselves ,” explains O’Donoghue. At the moment there are five people working for EnBIO as much of their productivity is outsourced. The University of Ulster are involved in much of this productivity, at their state of the art facility in Jordanstown in Belfast (UUJ) which includes surface science and biology departments.

SHARED VISION

Over a year after set up the EnBIO team continues to work toward a shared vision, constantly helping each other out and ensuring that the number one priority for the trio is the wellbeing of the company. The three partners believe that they are very lucky, in the sense that they are finding that their technology really is speaking for them. EnBIO’s stake holders are also helping in the development of the company in a big way.

“Anyone that is investing in us is introducing us to other people involved in our own arena. For example our US based patent attorneys are very active in terms of telling us who we should talk to. So we’re finding that the extendibility of our relationship with our various partners and stake holders is standing to us,” reveals Philpott.

The partnership believes that because they are a little older than a typical start-up, they had developed very strong networking links before they set up the business, which is vital to its success both at home and abroad.

NETWORKING APPROACH

EnBIO’s equipment provider in Los Angeles has a very strong presence in the medical device sector and they are further helping to introduce them to potential customers.

The firm has noticed their own ability to extend the Irish networking model to their international partners and encourage them to mimic this and push it out a bit further. “On every possible case we ask our partners, what little bit extra can they do for us other than what their primary function is and we’re finding that this approach works very well for us,” concedes Philpott.

Regarding investment, EnBIO is well on target and all their investment needs so far have been met. Their clear focus is on customer engagement and meeting revenue milestones both of which are making excellent progress.

Cork has a strong medical industry background, which has helped EnBIO engage with local equipment suppliers who have direct experience in dealing with EnBIO’s service needs. These links have also allowed the medical company to avail of the relevant technical expertise available in Cork IT and UCC.

EnBIO commends the Cork Institute of Technology, who they say have been absolutely fantastic. The Start-up has been able to avail of state of the art facilities with highly reputable engineering and bio-medical schools within CIT. The Institute also made the start-up aware of things such as the availability of second hand equipment and overall have been acutely aware of the needs of a start-up and where particular opportunities lay.

FAVOURABLE CLIMATE

EnBIO’s first foray into state aid was when Philpott took part in the Genesis programme. Genesis is a year long incubation programme aimed at knowledge intensive start-ups in the Southwest. The climate for early stage entrepreneurship in Ireland is very favourable at the moment, a case that EnBIO exemplifies. “There are certainly a lot of support mechanisms out there, whether it is local enterprise boards or Enterprise Ireland. In addition the topic is given a lot of visibility through publications like the Irish Entrepreneur. My personal belief is that Ireland has some way to go to be internationally competitive,” advises Philpott. During the last year EnBIO have also benefited from their interaction with other high techstart-ups abroad, particularly in the Middle East. “In Israel, entrepreneurship is a national pastime and is almost their equivalent of the GAA with bio-technology start-ups being the most sought after. The level of early stage funding available from the state is far greater than Ireland particularly for high technology R&D activities,” says the CEO.

EXPERIENCED ADVANTAGE

O’Donoghue, CTO at EnBIO, left Boston Scientific last year and after 20 years in the medical design sector he has very strong network links with all the major multi-nationals in the country. However, these contacts only bring you so far because, as O’Donoghue contends, Ireland is essentially a manufacturing base rather than an R&D base but that is beginning to change. This transformation is driven to a large extent by indigenous companies amalgamating with smaller companies into bigger formations and creating their own R&D departments.

Six years ago O’Donoghue undertook a part time Masters in Bio-Medical Engineering between University of Ulster (UUJ in Belfast) and Trinity College Dublin. “The idea for the technology was something that I had already been involved in. I returned to college to do a Masters in 2001 and through that I came across a concept that I thought was worth pursuing and together with the team we came together to kick off EnBIO.”

The EnBIO team made sure that they were all more than adequately specialised in all aspects of business development before venturing into the Start-up arena. Vincent O’Grady, the financial controller at EnBIO explains, “the marketing model that we are using works very well with the technological aspects of the company.” He reiterates the fact that the partnership encompasses a similar platform of ideas and they are constantly working towards company advancement.

“Networking is very important to us and Enterprise Ireland’s support in this regard, particularly for accessing the US market, has been very helpful,” enthuses O’Donoghue.

EnBIO has recently engaged an equipment partner in the US, focussing on their core technology. The high tech entrepreneurs engaged what they consider to be a world leader in the type of technology that compliments their product.

While EnBIO are creating strong ties with the big US conglomerate companies like Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific, in the EU they meet with companies on a smaller scale, which according to the founders, is advantageous to EnBIO in that they develop closer ties with smaller companies.

FAST FORWARD

Next year EnBIO are planning to expand and develop another office in Europe and the USA. They will also be completing the next stage of the company’s technology R&D development. In addition to this they will be commencing pre-clinical trials and will also be beginning their marketing campaign in earnest. EnBIO and their investors have clear revenue goals which they want to achieve within the next 18 months.

With all their success, and speedy advancement with in a very short period of time, the founders’ advice to emerging start-ups is that you must ensure you have the adequate skill sets and can pull the right team together before embarking on a business venture. They also emphasise the need to be generous by offering incentives to employees.

Regarding the business start-up environment, O’Donoghue says, “if I could change one thing regarding government policy and business formation it would be that when people step out of the security of their job and their pay packet, they should be able to draw down their stamps as if they were sick. For a person to step out into the unknown and to not have some sense of security is not conducive to the formation of start-up business. A lot of people dream of doing what we have done and may harbour an idea, but certain circumstances prevent this step.”

The EnBIO team are adamant that Ireland can flourish because the people and the ideas are already here; it’s just a matter of encouraging the next steps. “Overall I think Ireland is moving in the right direction and we are being recognised for our paradigm shift in intellectual and entrepreneurial vision,” concludes O’Donoghue.

Published in the Yearbook 2007 of Irish Entrepreneur