Hailing from Slovenia, Matjaž Petrovič, Director of Sales at Gene Planet walks us through their success story.
What are you most proud of achieving with your team this year?
2018 was an incredible year for GenePlanet! We doubled the size of our team by hiring professionals in more than 10 different countries, making our environment even more international than it used to be one year ago — our team now consists of 20 different nationalities! This is very important for us since we are a global company offering our services and products in more than 30 countries worldwide. Having such a multicultural environment is crucial for understanding the local demands and specificities of each market. Our multidisciplinary team from the areas of biotechnology, pharmacology, medicine, biochemistry, nutritional sciences and information technology forms the bedrock of our company’s success.
As an R&D oriented biotechnology company we constantly strive for new discoveries that enable us to provide our clients with the latest and best products on the market. For us, the combination of Technology + Science + People is the pillar of our company. Continuous research & development and identification of new product opportunities is our motto and drives our success.
We can also mention our expansion to new markets. In 2018, we expanded our business in Europe, expanded to Asia and developed first business connections in Africa.
What do you value most in people? Especially those in your team?
We value good spirit, proactiveness, commitment, thinking out of the box, positivity and innovation! For us, the experience that each member of our team brings from different international environments is key to position our company at the forefront of the industry and exceed the demands of our clients.
How does GenePlanet actually help its customers to get a comprehensive overview on their health indicators and do you also offer, or plan to, consultancy net to the results customers are receiving?
We help our customers by offering them the opportunity to discover their DNA and make lifestyle changes to improve their health, by giving them valuable insights about their body and how to adjust their diet, sports and lifestyle to their bespoke needs.
One example is vitamin B9 (folic acid), which is crucial for the normal functioning of the metabolism and healthy blood. Because of our genetic differences, some people need to consume at least 50% more vitamin B9 to cover their needs. Without knowing your genes, you wouldn’t be able to adapt your diet to fulfil your requirements. With NutriFit, you can discover your genetic predispositions and tailor your diet and lifestyle accordingly by following personalised guidelines. Because health and wellbeing are what moves us and we truly care about people’s health, we’re now investing even more into R&D and digitalisation. To offer an even comprehensive solution, we’re adding blood tests to our genetic tests, so it will be possible to offer to our clients a complete solution that includes current diagnostics status.
We’re launching in the near future a health engagement platform called Health Intelligence (Hi!).
Can you tell us about a customer success story that you are especially proud of?
We have many examples of success stories to tell! We constantly get positive feedback from our users saying that they achieved positive life changes that impacted their health and wellbeing.
Last week, for instance, we got a testimonial from one of our NutriFit clients saying that she was struggling for years to lose weight, had tried many different diets, and nothing worked. Now, after NutriFit, she managed to lose the excess weight and, most importantly, a healthier diet and lifestyle. Because of the information NutriFit delivered about her specific requirements, she is considering purchasing the service for her teenage daughter so that she can develop a healthy lifestyle as soon as possible.
Another case we would like to mention was a man who didn’t know he had problems with gluten until he got the results from NutriFit. He was constantly feeling tired and bloated after lunch but didn’t know why. He said he decided to follow NutriFit’s recommendations and now doesn’t experience these negative symptoms and energy dip in the afternoon.
In your opinion what are the single best and the single worst things running a startup from Central Europe?
Being located in this part of Europe allows us to have good connections to different markets of millions of people as well as access to a highly-educated and experienced workforce in the areas that are important for us. Another advantage is the facility to conduct business using the same currency inside the EU.
On the downside, being in this region still doesn’t give us the advantage in terms of recognition and credibility that a country like “Switzerland” enjoys, and regionally the market and purchasing power are much smaller than the most developed global markets.
What’s next for GenePlanet? What do you anticipate most the next year will bring for the company and the team?
As we mentioned before, our key innovation for the near future is Health Intelligence (Hi!) — a health engagement platform integrating biological data (genetic predispositions, the current status of blood biomarkers and microbiome data) with information from smart devices and wearables to provide recommendations and action plans to improve one’s health and lifestyle.
By setting personal goals and challenges, the user will receive personalised guidance and be able to monitor their progress in specific areas such as nutrition & diet, training & sports, skincare and mental well-being to facilitate long-term behavioural changes that lead to better overall health. It is also in our plan: expanding to new markets, developing new business models, researching and launching new products and expanding our team.
What were the best conferences you attended in 2018? And why?
2018 was a year full of interesting and important fairs and conferences for us. For the first time we went to Africa visiting Medic West Africa in Nigeria, attended several events in Asia (e.g. Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Philippines) and also grew our presence in Europe by attending events such as Medica in Dusseldorf and WebSummit in Portugal. And, of course, CESAwards and Wolves Summit in Poland! We were really proud to be recognized as the best biotech startup. Despite that, we organised our first GeneHack, the first biotech hackathon in this part of Europe. We’re very proud of this milestone! It was an exceptional event, filled with talented people, innovative ideas and intense teamwork. It took place in December 2018 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and attracted more than 60 participants from the areas of Bioinformatics, Development, Sales, Marketing and UX/UI.
We invite you to watch our video on our YouTube channel.
