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If you only learn one thing from Vikram and George, it should be…

Don’t be an aspiring entrepreneur; be an entrepreneur. Make the necessary mistakes for future success, because you learn best by doing. Instead of thinking about starting a company, just go for it! Starting to talk to people and building a startup will teach you a lot more and faster than just reading secondary sources. Also, having a good combination of persistence and flexibility is critical on the entrepreneurship journey.

When Vikram Krishnamoorthy (C’20, W’20) and George Pandya (E’20, W’20) saw the first FDA approved cell-therapy technologies come out of Penn, they were excited by the possibilities this breakthrough could have. However, the treatment was not without a cost—in fact, it came with a rather hefty price tag. They used this as inspiration to create a better way to reengineer cells, and that technology turned into their startup: CytoFoundry.

 

CytoFoundry uses a new method of genetically engineering cells for cell therapy to make cures that are unique on the market for a variety of diseases. There are many problems in the currently existing abilities of cell therapy, such as a limitation on the number of lines of biological code that is able to be inputted. The two founders have dedicated themselves to unlocking the full potential of this type of innovation as well as to allowing patients to overcome the inhibitive expenses of this technology.

 

As student entrepreneurs, one of the biggest challenges Vikram and George have to face is time management. Both startups and school are very time-consuming, and trying to coordinate these two at a reasonable pace is in no way an easy task. However, the founders mentioned that it is definitely doable. In the biotech industry, capital is an essential part of the startup process. The demand for funding to invest in materials creates a barrier entry that companies in this field must overcome. Vikram and George have effectively utilized new technologies, ones that may speed up the prototyping process or cut corresponding costs, to maneuver around this. They said that the Weiss Tech House has also provided great resources, mentorship, and funding opportunities to help with their startup. Even though they have only worked on CytoFoundry for one year, they have already accumulated multiple notable accomplishments, such as being finalists in the Y-Prize Competition and winning second place at Pennvention, just to mention a few.

Check out the full interview here: CytoFoundry

If you only learn one thing from Johnny, it should be that…

You should talk to Professor Jeffrey Babin if you want to be inspired. Also, aspiring entrepreneurs should not be risk-averse, but rather have a keen eye for existing problems in today’s world and leveraging your skills to solve these problems. There will always be someone who can solve a problem, but the critical part is identifying it in the first place.

This founder created his first website only 48 hours after he decided to pursue the endeavor by watching Youtube videos . His inspiration stemmed from wanting to help his mother’s art studio gain more exposure after she mentioned that it would be really helpful to have a website. From this, Johnny Forde has taken his passion for inventing and creating to build a startup that helps turn the creative language of coding into a technical one.

Johnny’s company, Forde Design, creates functional and aesthetic websites for students and professional institutions, striving to mitigate the learning curve that customers face when using traditional website-building services. By building a virtual platform to showcase their services or work samples, Forde Design helps individuals realize the potential for their businesses or portfolios. He believes that this is especially crucial given the environment of our digital age. In his field, many build-your-own-website companies like Wix or Weebly don’t realize that consumers can find the initial starting stage difficult, and this is where Forde Design’s client-oriented model comes in to help alleviate that issue.

Like many student entrepreneurs, Johnny faces both business and academics responsibilities. He says that his biggest challenges stem from trying to strike a balance between these two types of duties, given that he is simultaneously pursuing a master’s in mechanical engineering alongside his bachelor’s degree in bioengineering. All of Johnny’s marketing has been executed in a word-to-mouth manner as of now, but this can still be overwhelming with his academic obligations. Speaking of school, he praised the Engineering Entrepreneurship (EENT) I and II courses at Penn and Professor Babin’s instruction. Johnny was also in WeissLab’s previous summer cohort, and received thorough mentorship in a variety of business areas like marketing, legal aspects, and pitching to investors. This has enabled Johnny to help noteworthy clients such as the head of Penn’s bioengineering department to promote his research.

Check out the full interview here: FOTW Forde Design