A-Nova way to launch a startup

Med-Tech Innovation’s Ian Bolland and Dave Gray went along to Box Studios and Sensor City in Liverpool to meet the people behind Nova – a cofoundery which works with start-ups at the early stage of their development.

Different from an accelerator and different from an incubator. That’s how Nova sees itself. It works with people who come with a problem and helps them find their solution.

Nova co-founds businesses with individuals or groups and works with them as 50-50 partners. Those behind the idea don’t have to provide any capital up front, as is the norm in accelerators or incubators, with Nova allowing people to develop their idea alongside their day job – acting as mentors.

Paul Dodd, Nova’s head of marketing, explains: “Until you’ve reached a point where you’ve actually proven that business model, proven that it works within the market and actually got market traction to that point where it’s safe enough to jump across – what we say is that we’ll support you until you get to that stage with our resource.

“We have investment partners that we work with and we say ‘you can come to us with a great idea, you don’t know how to move it forward or you don’t have the time, skill or gumption to move it forward at this stage, but we can allow you to do that. We will mentor you and bring you to the stage where we put you in front of our investors and when that investment is received that then goes to support our resource of the team here, and essentially we end up as partners in the business.’”

Dodd acknowledged the high failure rate of tech startups, with Nova quoting figures for the industry to be around 90%. With Nova, it’s lower at 50% - significantly lower by comparison. In the last financial year, Nova managed to found 36 startups, and this year it’s aiming for 50.

This involves a presentation and then an intense cross-examination from investors who provide the capital to fund these ideas. In fact, we were invited to sit in on a pitch. It’s all very Dragon’s Den (sans the dramatic music and weird lighting).

While at Nova’s HQ, we met Rebecca Taylor, the MD and founder of Aquarate. Rebecca said she had an interest in medical engineering and did some research surrounding kidney health and hydration. From this, along with Nova, she developed the idea of a hydration monitoring system for the care setting. She met with the cofoundery in June 2017 at a Hackathon event run by the Innovation Agency, and has been working with a design house called Design Reality, which has had a role in working on the electronics side of the product.

The system is a smart cup and mug that tracks what patients are drinking and provides clinicians data – digitalising the process – but there are ideas to further develop the device. The product itself can also be used in a dishwasher.  

The product has been tested in the care setting at Liverpool Royal Hospital, Southampton Hospital and Aintree Hospital – with studies taking place on renal, geriatric and cardiac wards.

“Clinical staff are desperate for a tool that can stop preventable hydration-related illness, so they’ve been pretty open to it. I think it’s just about being clever about how we engage with them and making sure there’s not too many meetings, making sure people feel engaged and they’re making a difference with the work they’re doing.” 

Up to 40 people work across the health startups at Nova – some based at the Box Studios HQ, some offshore, while others work at Sensor City – which builds, engineers and develops some of the ideas that come through Nova.

Dr John Kenny, chief engineer at Nova, who previously worked at Sensor City, explained: “It is a relatively new initiative and the whole point of it is that it’s an innovation hub.

“Nova not only has the engineers to build those prototypes but has the funding streams, product managers, the start-up consultants, and the business managers. It has the full support of those new businesses and it certainly does put contacts in for mass manufacturing and things like that. It can take a product right from nothing, something coming in with no money, no resources, nothing but a problem.”   

The facility has 3D printers, protolasers, microscopes which have 5000X magnification, and a virtual reality suite. There are also close relationships with both the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University – based walking distance from both of the main campus sites.

Andy Davidson, Nova’s CEO, said: “I believe we’re at a really fascinating phase of technological adoption across the health industries: one where the real value and possibilities of the successful application of technology are being realised, and the momentum of change is gathering pace. 

“For a long time, this hasn’t been the case. A lack of support for entrepreneurial people within these industries has made change difficult, frustrating and slow, and contributed to a startup failure rate within the health industry of over 90%. To see the green shoots of change, with some of our founders and their products making a real impact and being adopted in the industry, is really exciting for us.”