In this series “Meet the people behind Biotech Booster” we introduce you to the passionate people who are involved in our mission.
A significant part of our team consists of Biotech Booster business and impact developers. They operate on a national level within five distinct Thematic Clusters (TCs) that each represent specific biotech focus areas. Our business and impact developers collaborate nationally daily to identify early-stage, high-potential biotechnology findings. They guide scientists and aspiring entrepreneurs in their journey to transform their ideas into successful biotech businesses, ensuring that biotechnology findings have a greater and faster positive impact on society.
1. Name
Joep de Vries
2. What is your role within Biotech Booster?
I am an Impact Developer for Biotech Booster at Hanze University of Applied Sciences. I’m part of Thematic Cluster 2, which focuses on the Agri-Food sector.
3. Can you describe your role in a nutshell?
At the national level, I scout for ideas and business plans with IMPACT! Together with the Green Applied Universities, WUR, VU, Radboud, and Hanze, we coach researchers and entrepreneurs in developing their ideas for Biotech Booster. The main questions are always: Who will be your CUSTOMER, and what PROBLEM are you solving? And let’s not forget the importance of your TEAM! Every two weeks, our TC team challenges and evaluates new projects while actively guiding granted projects.
4. What motivated you to join Biotech Booster’s mission?
Biotechnology is of great importance in solving many issues in the Agri-Food transition. Our food production chain needs to be healthier and more sustainable. We have to produce with respect to our earth, from soil to our mouth and beyond. This will only succeed if researchers and entrepreneurs come up with new impactful ideas.
My role is to provoke and guide those people, which is my motivation to be part of Biotech Booster.
5. What do you love most about your role? Pick one thing!
Challenging researchers and entrepreneurs to think about their future customer and the real problem they are solving. We all love talking about our innovations, but that alone isn’t enough to build a strong business plan.
6. What are your ambitions, and what do you hope to achieve in the coming years?
I got involved in Biotech Booster a year before its official start in May 2024. Over the past year, we successfully gathered more than enough high-quality projects for Biotech Booster’s first round in a very short time. We learned a lot about optimizing processes and increasing the value we provide to all granted projects.
My greatest wish? That our impact is recognized by both the market and the National Growth Fund Commission, ensuring we can continue this work for years to come!
7. If you had a few million to invest in biotech, what type of company would you start yourself?
Nature holds many untapped resources that could be used for food production. Biotech is the key to unlocking these opportunities—but it’s not easy! Scaling and energy costs are major challenges, alongside product applications. This is where I would invest and become an entrepreneur myself!
8. If you could have dinner with any scientist, living or dead, who would it be, what would you ask them and why?
Beyond market validation, team dynamics are essential for a startup’s success. One of my biggest inspirations in this area is Stephen Covey. And for all you tech scientists out there, I highly recommend reading The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steven Blank.
9. Anything else you’d like to mention?
Biotech innovations can be game changers: not only in technology but also in the market. I would like to be in contact with you if you think your innovation is the game changer!
