Initiated by E52 and High Tech Campus, the 10 most promising startups-to-watch from the Brainport Eindhoven region have been announced for the fourth consecutive year. On July 12th they received a Gerard & Anton Award. The winning companies are highlighted one by one in an interview. Today part 4: Zorgdoc and the practical, personal medication record. read the whole series here.
Name: Cees Schaap en Sven Berkvens-Matthijsse
Startup: Zorgdoc Nederland BV
Year of establishment startup: 2007
What is the goal of your business?
“Patient-controlled exchange and storage of medication data to keep the patient and caregivers continuously synchronized on the use of medication.”
Is this your first startup?
“We already founded a company in the same industry: Autopharma, a company active in the manufacturing of medicine dispenser robots.”
How did the idea come about for your startup?
“We ran into it in the day-to-day practice in a pharmacy. We did not know exactly what kind of medication the patient at the counter was using. The only one who knows what exactly is the patient himself, so we had to have something that allowed us to exchange medication data with the patients.”
Has there ever been a change of focus, a pivot? Can you tell us something about the cause and the result?
“No.”
I’m sure there was a moment when you couldn’t see it all anymore. Can you describe that moment?
“Despite being in the startup phase for a long time, such a moment never occurred.”
Are there startups/entrepreneurs that you see as an example?
“ChipSoft is a large company in our sector that we look up to.”
Where will you be with your company in 5 years’ time?
“We will be the focal point in data processing with regards to medication in the Netherlands.”
What does Eindhoven mean for your company? For yourself?
“Cees is born here, and Sven studied here.”
What is the startup climate in Eindhoven like?
“There are a lot of startups, partly because of the presence of the TU/e I think.”
Do you feel part of it? If so, how is this to be seen?
“Yes, for example, the fact that we are in a TWICE building at the TU/e Campus.”
At what point could the Eindhoven startup ecosystem improve?
“We found good students here who we eventually like to bind to us as employees, that’s fine, but finding software developers for a full-time employment is very difficult (but that’s the case everywhere). Financing options could perhaps be made even better or more easily accessible.”