The European Startup Show

My guest today is Dr. Tim Guilliams, co-founder and CEO of Healx, a UK-based AI drug development company focused on rare diseases.

Dr. Tim along with Dr David Brown, the co-inventor of Viagra, founded Healx in 2014 and went from bootstrapping their company for 4 years to raising more than $67 million in two years (Investors in Healx include Atomico, Balderton Capital and several others). In this episode, I find out more about how you make the shift as a CEO when you grow from being a startup to scaleup so quickly. I also talk to Tim about the paradigm shift happening in healthtech.

This is a must listen for fast growing startup founders looking to scale and ofcourse for startups in the healthtech space on what to do and what not to do.

Show Notes

Healthtech and Healx
  • [1:53] What inspired you to start focusing on rare diseases?
  • [3:28] Could you define what rare disease means?
  • [3:43] Why has what you’re doing never been done before? And how is your approach to drug discovery different from others?
  • [5:53] What are the trends you’re seeing in this space? And what do you think is accelerating this high amount of investment in health tech?

Startup to Scaleup
  • [8:16] Why did you bootstrap your company in the early stages and how did you execute with minimal resources?
  • [10:18] Why did the inventor of Viagra - Dr. David Brown join Healx?
  • [12:09] - What are some mistakes you made and what would you do differently now?
  • [13:10] What should founders keep in mind while selecting investors for their startups?
  • [14:57] Why did you raise series B so quickly after series A? Why did not just raise a larger Series A?
  • [16:41] What adjustments did you have to make and how did you think about operating the company after going from bootstrapping to raising $ 70 million?
  • [20:18] What has been the hardest thing about scaling?
  • [21:46] How do you deal with making decisions in areas where you don’t have experience? And how do you manage the stress?
  • [23:56] What are the future plans for Healx?

Links
Company: Healx
Book: The subtle art of not giving a fuck

What is The European Startup Show?

To inspire technology entrepreneurs in Europe with stories and practical strategies from other successful entrepreneurs.

If you are a CEO, founder, or work in sales or marketing, and your company is based in Europe or is looking to expand into Europe, then this podcast is for you.