Canostix

Why did you found your start-up, what problem are you addressing and how are you solving it?

We founded Canostix with the goal of developing a blood test for cancer screening that is so convenient and cost-effective that it can be used anywhere in the world and at all levels of society.

Today, cancer screening is available for very few cancers and patient compliance with these contemporary tests is less than 50%. Because this disease is so aggressive and a universal cure is still decades away, early detection is the key factor to survival. Our test will be able to detect and differentiate the most common cancers at an early stage when they can be cured today.

How did you come up with the idea of founding Canostix?

The urgent need of society for a convenient cancer test and the possibility to realize it in a fraction of the time it would take science. During my PhD studies in the field of cancer diagnostics, I came across spectroscopy and saw the potential of this technology. This combined with our broad network in India creates perfect synergies for rapid clinical translation.

What is special about your business model, what do you do differently?

We are taking a highly sensitive technology that is normally used in quality control and repurposing it by using machine learning to turn it into world-class cancer screening devices.

What were the biggest challenges you had to overcome in the beginning?

We are still overcoming the biggest challenge, which is raising a significant amount of money to fund a very early stage project in MedTech/diagnostics, with a technological approach that hardly anyone has ever heard of.

What was the most valuable advice someone gave you during your start-up phase?

My best friend Jonathan: "Just do it!"

What has been your biggest success so far?

Establishing research collaborations that allow us to develop this test at a fraction of the time and cost of developing medical technologies.

What is your biggest need/next challenge?

To show that our test procedure is beyond reproach. So far, we and a large number of research groups around the world have shown in proof-of-concept studies that this approach has immense potential to become the mass screening test of the future. Now it's time to conduct large-scale studies to show that this technology is ready for clinical translation.

Why are you at Startbase?

Our main goal at the moment is of course to find investors for our seed round. However, we are always interested in meeting and talking to like-minded people.

What would you recommend to other founders?

As we are venturing into a field ourselves that is very unusual for start-ups, we would encourage other founders to look beyond what is in front of them and look at markets that deal with big customer needs. There are great minds with even better ideas in areas where there is traditionally no entrepreneurial approach - being innovative, dynamic and adventurous - that would benefit greatly from the creativity and energy of new founders.

Where did you meet?

University and personal contacts.

What has really gone wrong since you founded the company?

Every day something goes wrong, luckily nothing has really gone wrong so far, everything just takes much longer than planned.

Let's say you were mayor of Berlin for a day, what would you change?

Establish a hub for international research collaboration that addresses society's most pressing issues - climate change/renewable energy, physical and mental health, education system, urbanization, recycling, etc.