Launching Beacon Biomimetics as a business
While Nicole was still working in the 3D printing lab, taking the lead on the research and development side of the product, Mischa aimed to bring his expertise from his MBA in order to launch and grow the business.
The first big step for them was getting accepted to the Harvard i-lab’s Venture Incubation Program, which is an innovation space and ecosystem designed at helping Harvard students and alumni to launch their own game-changing startups.
This program continues to be important to launching their nascent startup. There are practical resources, like places to meet as a team outside of the research lab, as well as meeting the right mentors.
“We’ve met lots of people in the medical device industry, who have given us valuable advice,” Mischa explains, “As a result, we currently focused on raising non-dilutive funding to further derisk our first product.”
They successfully pitched and were awarded an Institute Project from the Wyss Institute, which provides significant resources and access to equipment to accelerate their key milestones.
“The Wyss Institute’s ecosystem is exceptional, because it is focused on translating research discoveries and there is considerable expertise to draw upon,” Nicole adds.
Both Nicole and Mischa recognize that, at its core, their startup is focused on helping people.
“We are driven by this idea of broadening accessibility to treatment so that more people in need can benefit from our technology,” Mischa adds.
Taking the nascent startup to the next level, through gaining an anticipated technology license from Harvard University, attracting the right venture capital funding to scale up production, and eventually getting approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will be keys to their first product’s success and its wider societal impact.
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