Building an AI Startup in the Pharmaceutical Industry

What do you do when you don’t have a startup ecosystem in your town? 

You create one. That's what Maurizio did. He created a series of startup events, to encourage entrepreneurs to exchange startup ideas, learn about startup equity, funding, being startup founder, and creating startup businesses. At one of these events he met one of his future co-founders. 

Through a startup xchange program he spent 1 year working with an experienced startup entrepreneur in Paris. There, he met his second co-founder. Together, the three of them decided to build an AI startup. Or rather, AI powered inventory management for the pharma industry. The Profiter was born. 

He participated in two startup programs, a startup accelerator in Estonia called Startup Wise Guys and in a startup incubator at University of Berkeley California in the USA. Maurizio shared his key takeaways from both startup programs, especially how the US approach to building startups differed.  

Maurizio also shared his perspectives on why startup grants are not sustainable for startup health, and what discourages European private investors from investing their money in startups. 

The road to building Profiter was challenging, as developing a company, team culture and company vision while not having a startup office and working remotely was difficult. Maurizio encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to pursue their startup ideas by testing them, talking to potential customers and focusing on their startup mission and vision. 

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Meet Profiter 

01:59 Profiter - AI Powered Inventory Management for Pharma

05:20 Building the Team: Finding the Right Co-Founders

08:56 Strategic Reasons to Raise External Capital

11:06 The Role of Accelerators in Building a Startup 

14:55 Challenges in Building Profiter

16:56 The Shortage of Private Funding in European Startups

20:47 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

22:45 Pursuing One vs Multiple Ideas at the Same Time

24:10 Overcoming Obstacles: Lessons Learned

25:12 Conclusion and Key Takeaways