Growing the top and bottom line of your mind - an entrepreneurial journey as a joint venture with mentors
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Growing the top and bottom line
of your mind – an entrepreneurial
journey as a joint venture with
mentors
Susanne Trillingsgaard Venø performance.1 The right mentor can contribute help me improve my CV and build a career plan;
Omiics ApS to one’s self-awareness and self-development. instead, the mentorship exceeded my expec-
Aarhus, Denmark To me, anyone who takes an interest in helping tations and I found my Yoda (the sage Star Wars
you grow can be a mentor (from boosting one’s guru) in my first mentor: Meredin Stoltenberg.
technical skills to emotional intelligence). My conversations with Yoda were my first
Correspondence to: A mentor’s support may come in many forms, taste of how a mentor can help one become more
Susanne Trillingsgaard Venø knowledge, networks, feedback and discussions, self-aware. At the industry-academia crossroads,
susanne.veno@omiics.com and it is up to you to make the message he helped me realise my reluctance to leave
significant. For medical writers who may want to academia was due to my passion for solving the
start up their own companies or start freelancing, puzzles that came from research. He asked if I
Abstract the stories here may help you navigate the could find other ways to quench this thirst.
Having spent more than a decade in aca- turbulent early stages of starting out. The main He also introduced me to “The Alchemist”2 (a
demia, it has been almost inherent to me to lessons here are: story about journeys), which helped me see that
think of learning as exercising your IQ, 1. openness to seizing unplanned opportunities academia was like a safety net and that it would
thereby improving you practical and technical and be alright to venture out into the unknown. So,
knowledge. It is quantifiable and can easily be 2. the ability to identify knowledge gaps and I took a leap of faith and quit.
described on your CV. The mentor experi- seek out said expertise. Another pivotal event came from a job
ence opened a whole new world of education interview aptitude test that separated an
I had neglected: studying my own emotional My first mentorship individual’s ability into three main categories:
intelligence (EI) and boosting my self- While still a postdoc at Aarhus University, verbal (derives knowledge from reading a text),
awareness. Fully balanced growth requires I enrolled in the university’s mentorship numerical (from graphs and diagrams), and
exercising both IQ and EI. This is my account programme to get an out-
of several very different mentorships, all of side opinion on whether to
which have contributed to the speed of my aim my efforts towards
personal entrepreneurial journey. staying in academia or
going to industry. The
coordinator of the program
Introduction matched my profile with
This is a story about the development of a start- three candidates and pre-
up company finding a place for itself in the sented me with their
market and how different mentors played a role. profiles. All three candi-
My journey into entrepreneurship was not dates had an academic
planned; yet here I am, a partner in a spinout and career and moved to
start-up company from Aarhus University, industry in their forties so I
Omiics. Coming from academia, the unique could discuss the pros and
combination of expert knowledge and skills that cons with them. I chose the
you gain there is highly valuable, but many may one who had a reputation
not know where they fit in outside of academia. for focussing mostly on
Therefore, self-awareness is instrumental to mindsets and soft-skills
discovering what makes you special and how you because I felt the questions
fit in. According to Daniel Goleman, self- I had were about emotional
awareness is defined as an honest image of one’s components in addition to
strengths, weaknesses, values, and drives; it is also professional and technical
one of the key skills for people to maximise ones. I expected him to
46 | June 2021 Medical Writing | Volume 30 Number 2
Venø – Growing the top and bottom line of your mind
diagrammatic analysis (pattern recognition).3 to me networking and job hunting. At the same knowledge and experience that we needed to be
IQ is the average of the three tests. This showed time, Omiics Aps was born from a lab where I successful. My job interview experience thus far
me that intelligence is not the same for people had done a postdoc. Little did I know that the all indicated that an experienced colleague often
with the same IQ value; rather, it is the sum of company’s journey would eventually merge with guided their junior counterparts. Now, with no
different traits. I was surprised to learn Yoda’s mine. real superiors or senior colleagues to support me,
strengths and weaknesses were the exact opposite Morten Venø (my husband), Yan Yan, and I I had to think outside the box. A constant
of mine. We have so much in common, yet our all worked in Professor Jørgen Kjems’ lab at one question I had was “How can I get this another
brains operated very differently. The concept that point or another in our postgraduate careers. way?” I realised I needed a business mentor and
ideas can be conceived in different ways extended Morten and Yan pioneered RNA Next went to a seminar at my union to learn about
my understanding and appreciation of how Generation Sequencing (NGS) in Jørgen’s lab their mentorship programme. At one point the
different minds work. and the two had many successes over a decade, speaker said, “If you have a specific person in
Our mentorship grew from a mechanically attracting other scientists to collaborate with mind, go ask them because then you do not need
mandated programme to one that is more them and starting a company, Omiic, in 2018. us.” That comment stuck with me and before I got
organic with traits of a friendship. From Meredin, However, shortly after Yan realised she was around to applying for the programme, I met
I learnt of a world beyond performance and pregnant and a few months after this, Morten Otto.
scores, and about life between tasks. His value for broke his collarbone doing sports. As Mortens
authenticity encouraged me to check my gut- wife, I followed their journey from the side lines. Business and biotech acumen in one
feelings and speak honestly even when it is hard. While I was amazed at their achievements, At a networking session of a public seminar on
He does this by validating what I say even when I never considered joining them. However, since “Fundraising for Entrepreneurs”, people mingled
he does not agree. He is always honest about I found myself between jobs, I decided to help and pitched ideas. I quickly developed an elevator
what he hears me say even when it is difficult for Morten and Yan get a good start on Omiics while pitch: “We are a biotech spinout, selling NGS (next-
me to hear. This helped me identify my method finding my own path. The rest, as they say, is generation sequencing) and analyses services to
of communication so that I learnt how to be history. academic institutions, industries, and hospitals
perceived the way I really intended. across Europe…”. I highlighted our customer
Finding business mentors track record, as this was the bestseller to this
The seeds of my in a start-up company audience. Out of nowhere, an investment
entrepreneurial journey As I found myself in a start-up environment with manager responded to my pitch with “Oh, I have
My journey with Yoda started my mental only a few days’ notice, I was very conscious always had an interest in NGS”. We chatted a bit,
transformation away from academia, which led about the immediate challenge: the lack of the and while he was an investment-manager by
www.emwa.org Volume 30 Number 2 | Medical Writing June 2021 | 47
Growing the top and bottom line of your mind – Venø
trade, he clearly understood the central elements meetings (where I did
of the academic research community. He was not know what to
open and patient with every start-upper who expect), I would always
spoke to him and I made sure to write down his consult him. He has a
name: Otto Bjerg Hausgaard. talent for keeping things
It turned out that he had been a chief financial simple and I would
officer in a biotech venture and later became an leave the meeting less
investment manager handling a biotech portfolio. confused and more
I set up a coffee meeting after the event. He may focused. Within Omiics,
have expected me to come through the door with we repeatedly were told
a strong pitch to apply for funding; instead, that our team did not
I came in with my honest concerns looking for contain a strong extro-
advice. There was no doubt that this guy was vert (we are all intro-
brilliant, having both technical experience and verts to some degree).
strong interpersonal skills. I asked if he would be After I shared my
my mentor after the meeting. He declined, but thoughts about this and
said we could always have a cup of coffee now and concerns about acquir-
then. So, I kept coming back drinking his coffee ing new profiles, he
for a couple of times a year and he kept replying simply said, “Let us
to my emails. Although not officially labelled a decide now that this is
mentor, his role surely fit the title. the right team!”
Being experienced in establishing a bio-
technology-based company, he helped me filter Lost in translation
and analyse events and tasks that were relevant and finding common ground he said it was unclear to him and asked me to
for the business. For example, he suggested to do As things progressed after joining Omiics, explain (step by step) the idea to him. As I went
a “pull”, which was to offer seminars on the I found myself taking on the official Omiics through my ideas and reasoning, he repeated
technology. People with an interest in our mentor, Thomas Lundgaard, to learn about them back to me using the appropriate business
technology (potential customers) would be expert sales and business management. Thomas terms, which I used to revise the application. It
“pulled” in by their interest and then we could was introduced as a mentor to Omiics during its was very educational for me. And we got the
connect. Additionally, sometimes when Omiics inception. He gave a kind of business world wake- grant! The more we talked, the more we
was approached by investors or invited to up call to the academic scholar. He pushed understood each other’s language. I learnt that
for organisation, strict although it is sometimes hard to find the right
deadlines, and effici- words, it does not mean that there is no common
ency measurements. As ground – we are just struggling with translation.
opposed to Yoda, we
did not have much in Community of practicing marketing and
common, but I knew management communication
the value of his know- To increase my business acumen, I attended a
ledge. Admittedly, the mix of seminars, workshops, and a few minor
first few times we met, I courses. The major breakthrough happened
left the meetings very when a professor, Constance Kampf, from the
annoyed. With time, local business school asked Omiics to serve as a
however, I grew to enjoy case study. She wanted her students to work on a
our discussions and I “real life” company so Omiics and I became the
learned a lot from him. focus of 150 students for a semester. This unique
He knew the ways of the opportunity provided an intensive exercise in the
business world and the “language of business” together with beginners
jargon and I was eager who did not mind my broken grammar. The
to understand it. learning curve was steep because the topics
During one session, taught during the course were new to me and the
we reviewed a draft of a feedback from the students taught me important
business model for a lessons on how to communicate across
grant application I had audiences. A classic example is when they
made. After reading it, interpreted DNA in the figurative sense (e.g.
48 | June 2021 Medical Writing | Volume 30 Number 2
Venø – Growing the top and bottom line of your mind
I learnt that although it is sometimes
hard to find the right words, it does
not mean that there is no common
ground – we are just struggling with
translation.
business DNA) when I spoke of it in the literal team used the Knowledge Intensive Business platform whose CEO Simon Gifford, had spent
sense (e.g. the biological molecule). Throughout Service theory to clarify our value as a business4. the last decade consulting in the entrepreneurial
the course, Constance patiently guided me In short, “knowledge becomes implicit when space and launching a few of his own ventures. In
through the feedback and extended my business working as a specialist in a focused environment. preparation for our talk, Simon and I had several
jargon. At the end of the semester, the winning Being able to translate inherent knowledge into email correspondences on agenda suggestions
explicit information is and presentation techniques. Based on this
one of the main chall- positive experience, I asked him to help me grow
enges specialists face in my entrepreneurial mindset. During our first
a new environment. It mentor meeting, I mentioned that I learned by
requires you to practice doing, but I still lacked the basic foundation
telling what you do to needed to build an overview. He enrolled me in
strangers again and one of his online classes and we discussed my
again.” results monthly. I identified with his core-
philosophy that you don’t need to be born with the
Professional entrepreneurial mindset; with the right stimuli it is
entrepreneurial something you can grow.
schooling
In the spring of 2020, The full package – experience in building a
the Omiics team was successful company from an academic
invited to give a talk on spinout
creating a spinout from Meanwhile, I just got a new mentor. This time
academia at an entre- around, I was not looking. Otto suggested I look
preneurial class for aca- into the business model of the local IT company
demics. The course was Mjolner Informatics, as they also started as a
organised by Mash- university spinout offering expert counselling.
auri5, an online entre- Their homepage did not offer the information I
preneurial education was looking for, so I decided to get creative. The
www.emwa.org Volume 30 Number 2 | Medical Writing June 2021 | 49
Growing the top and bottom line of your mind – Venø
development of a profile, I would email Otto. If I need to reflect on
business). He was the how I managed a situation, I go to Yoda. People
co-founder of Mjølner have asked me how I found all these wonderful
about 30 years ago but people. From the story they all sound like
after being CEO for 25 serendipitous events and the relationships grew
years (and looking at his from there; however, part of the answer is
timeslips), he decided quantity. When I started at Omiics, I aimed to
he had worked enough, meet at least one new person per week since I had
retired, and pulled his to grow not only my own but a full company’s
money out of the business network from basically nothing. I did
company. Since then he not always meet my quota but I have seen a lot of
has spent part of his new faces. I still consider myself an introvert,
time mentoring, pro- which means that even during the most agreeable
viding capital to start- sessions, it is an active decision which consumes
ups, and acting on energy. Yet “taking a leap” into a room of new
advisory and profess- people is a muscle that grows with exercise. I do
ional boards. Our consider myself very lucky that my first
meeting ended, but experiences with mentorships have been so
there was still so much positive. If your first try doesn’t turn out well,
to discuss. As with Otto, keep trying.
I was not looking for
money, but experience Acknowledgements
and advice, and Jørgen Special thanks to Meredin Stoltenberg for his
Omiics office is located in a start-up incubator was happy to share his knowledge so he offered mentoring and constant support. Thank you to
known as INCUBA,6 which offers support for to take me on as a mentee and I was very happy Otto Bjerg Hausgaard and Constance Kampf for
start-ups including a website of local business to accept. their open-door policy. Thanks to Thomas
people who are interested in mentoring. There I Lundgaard and Thomas Riisgaard Hansen for
found the co-founder of Mjølner, Jørgen Lind- Concluding remarks their invaluable support in building Omiics, and
skov Knudsen, and proceeded to ask him for In the beginning of my mentorships journey, Simon Gifford for a wealth of learning and
coffee. Jørgen is currently a business angel (an I approached mentorships very formally. When infusion of positive energy and excitement. To
individual who provides capital for the entering a mentorship through a programme, Jørgen Lindskov Knudsen; I believe we have a
guidelines are usually great chapter ahead of us. And to all my Omiics
provided as best pract- interns, students, and the Marketing and
ices on how to conduct Management Class at BSS 2020, I thank you for
the sessions. Nowadays, widening my horizons.
I have discovered men-
tors more organically. Conflicts of interest
My main decree is that The author is employed by Omiics ApS, whose
it should be done com- services are discussed in this article.
pletely on the mentor’s
terms, which sometimes References
mean that they want me 1. Daniel Goleman. What makes a leader?
to lead. In a way, my Harv Bus Rev. 1998;76(6):93–102.
mentors are my senior 2. Coelho, P. The Alchemist. San Francisco:
co-workers in my self- Harper; 1998.
assembled fictional org- 3. Saville Assesment Tests. Verbal, Numerical
anisation (my husband and Diagrammatic Analysis tests. 2021
calls it my personal [cited 2021 Apr 9]. Available from:
advisory board). If I https://www.savilleassessment.com/
have sales-related quest- practice-tests/.
ions, I go to Lundgaard. 4. Nonaka I, Toyama R, Konno N. SECI,
If I have financial quest- Ba and Leadership: a unified model of
ions or want inform- dynamic knowledge creation. Long Range
ation on a business Planning. 2000; 33(1):5–34.
50 | June 2021 Medical Writing | Volume 30 Number 2
Venø – Growing the top and bottom line of your mind
5. Mashauri. Experiential learning. 2021 Author information
[cited 2021 Apr 9]. Available from: Susanne Trillingsgaard Venø, PhD, has science articles, and TV interviews. In 2019
https://mashauri.org/. acquired multi-disciplinary competencies she joined the entrepreneurship Omiics. In
6. INCUBA, Our Team of Mentors. 2021 within strategy, leadership, operations, project 2021 she was awarded a scholarship to the
[cited 2021 Apr 9]. Available from: management, technology, and business Instituto de Empresa business school
https://incuba.dk/en/companies/ development. She has disseminated science, Executive Programme.
incubas-mentorteam/mentorteam/. through scientific papers, lectures, popular-
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