Starting Three Companies During a Pandemic: It’s Not Impossible.

Sophie Chapelle decided in October of 2019 to start her own business. A few months later, a pandemic hit. So she did not start one, but three companies. Here, she shares some of her best tips for networking in the midst of Covid-19.

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

I wanted to start my own business, so when my last company closed its last round of financing in October, the team was in the right place to continue without me. I resigned and decided to focus on just that: looking to solve a big medical problem with deep science and people I liked. Successful start-ups typically start with a founding team so I had to surround myself with strong people, aligned by the problem to solve, and united by mutual trust and respect for each other’s expertise. When I set out on this path, I couldn’t possibly have expected that it would happen during a global pandemic or that it would lead me to not one but three companies.

Going about the journey with a strong purpose in mind, but without a preconceived idea of what problem to solve, I started networking full time, and continued from home, lining up zoom calls non stop. Having a background in sales probably made it easier for me than for more introverted personalities and yet, here are some tips that anyone could use:

1. Leverage your networks. You know more people than you think, most are happy to be part of your new venture! I am not talking about the contacts you made randomly at events; your network is all those people you interacted with in a concrete manner, consistently over periods of time, where you got to know each other’s motivations and working styles. I was actively engaged in my biotech ecosystem, so I had quite a few people to go to. In addition to the professionals I had the privilege of working with in my career, in the past few years I became an active member of the Women in Bio Boston chapter, completed the Springboard accelerator and MIT’s Disciplined Entrepreneurship program, and mentored investigators and entrepreneurs at MassConnect, our state’s Bio accelerator. And, when the crisis hit? I, along with 1,500 people from 90 countries, signed-up for a virtual hackathon organized by MIT.
2. Be clear and very purposeful. I needed help finding the right opportunity. With a commercial background, I had a good idea of needs and markets, but I didn’t have the scientific innovation handy. I reached out to my network, and told people I was looking for strong scientific partners to start a company. Within a couple of months, I was actively discussing a dozen different opportunities.
3. Be proud of your values. It takes a lifetime to get to know oneself, where you come from, what you’re good at, not so good at, and what you think is right or wrong in this world. Especially when embarking on associating with partners, it is imperative for values to be shared. You will ask: how did you do this while stuck at home? I was very confident and explicit about my beliefs. Beyond the science and the business, we discussed our visions for the kind of company and journey we wanted to embark on, together, and for the long haul.
4. Experiment working together. All the scientists I interacted with were introduced to me, I didn’t know them. How do you pick founders remotely? It is impossible to accurately assess working styles and compatibility through a few calls. Before making a commitment, I proposed a 4–6 week due diligence and business planning process to force us to work together. Multiply that by a dozen projects, yes that was a whole lot of work, but so worth it!

Long story short, I am now the proud co-founder of three companies. (1) Nano Clinical Ltd, a cancer research/diagnostics company, with two Professors from King’s College in London, and a former Pfizer colleague; it was officially incorporated May 18th, after 3.5 months of weekly zoom meetings. (2) Out of that MIT Hackathon, I met and worked with an amazing group of young professionals, we won first place in the category of helping the vulnerable populations, and started Abrigaid LLC to bring a new digital donation solution (www.bridgeaid.app) to the nonprofit marketplace. Last but not least, (3), with a former Scipher colleague, we decided to help a university professor from Utah University start a company (CED-Immunity LLC) based on her lifelong work on understanding the conserved mechanisms of viruses, to focus on designing next generation vaccines and therapeutic antibodies that will anticipate the next coronavirus mutations.

When I first decided to start my own company, I didn’t expect this journey to bring me three! I hope these tips help you realize that you too can accomplish “impossible” goals, even during a pandemic.

Sophie Chapelle is currently CEO of Nano Clinical Ltd . She has 25 years of experience building and operating life sciences businesses. She developed her career in sales & marketing with UCB, following which she obtained positions of increasing responsibilities in business development and in-sourcing at Pfizer. She then leveraged this experience to build a highly reputable clinical trials business at Cogstate, working with seven of the top ten leading pharmaceutical companies. Most recently, Sophie drove the commercial strategy and execution for Scipher Medicine’s personalized medicine platform in autoimmune diseases; enabling the company through series A and B investments in less than two years. Sophie received her MSc degrees in Chemical/Biotechnology Engineering from University of Brussels (Belgium), and Medicinal Chemistry from University of Lille (France). She earned her Certificate of Business Excellence from Columbia Business School (NY) and is a 2020 graduate of the Disciplined Entrepreneurship Program from MIT Sloan School of Management (Boston).