Metofico

Founder: Mehdi Boudjadja

Neuroscience meets computer programming in new laboratory software solution

MEC: Mehdi, as a neuroscientist and computer programmer share with us how these two different skills came together to create your business Metofico.

Mehdi: With the advent of new technologies, life science research has become more complex than ever. Experiments are more sophisticated and the sheer amount of data produced is unprecedented. I noticed that life scientists without programming or engineering skills struggled.

I have an unusual background for a biologist - but that’s my strength. I routinely designed and created my own acquisition tools and analysis software to perform innovative research and decided to provide this service to other scientists.

That’s where Metofico comes in. Metofico is all about inventing better tools for better science. We build software and hardware for scientists making sure that people without programming or engineering skills would be able to perform advanced data acquisition and analysis of large and complex datasets.

The primary goal of Metofico is to boost scientific outputs in any private and public laboratory that is monitoring brain activity, performing cellular analysis or doing nutrition-related research. Our user-friendly tools interpret, filter and analyse the data from even the world’s biggest spreadsheet! Additionally, they allow you to quickly plot findings for data visualisation of your experiments. They have applications in pharma and drug development and testing and we can see it being used to fight obesity, diabetes and addiction-related behaviours.

Our tech is already being used in laboratories in the UK and Spain and the feedback is excellent. But there are more than 1,000 eligible laboratories across the UK and 20,000 eligible laboratories worldwide, so there is a potentially huge market for this.

We have major companies interested in acquiring our IP because it’s so innovative. There is also the potential to build other modules which are applicable to other kinds of research.

MEC: How did you discover MEC and what were your initial impressions?

Mehdi: When I arrived at The University of Manchester to do my Ph.D. in Neuroscience I noticed that the labs we were working with were analysing complex datasets in a fashion which was extremely tedious, time consuming and inconsistent. I knew I could build something that was much better in order to help speed up the process, and increase accuracy, but it required some funds.

It was at this point I contacted MEC to talk about the project. I knew nothing about business. I told MEC that I have the abilities to build this software which will turn something that takes hours into just seconds. They were interested but they recommended that the proper approach was to attend a business workshop and try and improve how to sell my idea to potential investors.

The workshop was really good for refining the idea and was integral to developing my knowledge of business, how to talk about this idea and sell the concept in order to get the funding I required.

MEC: Tell us about how your entrepreneurship skills have developed over the course of your time here.

Mehdi: Metofico was awarded a £2,000 Kickstarter grant which helped pay for us to go to conferences to build connections. The money also allowed us to develop our website, recruit a scientific writer to create blog posts and a hire a freelance market researcher to gather information about our field. All of that help was really useful.

Crucially, MEC provided me with the best business coach for my needs. They were amazing at pinpointing any weak point that required attention. Working closely together, they helped me develop my pitch, focussing on how best to talk about the idea and how to effectively do market research.

The way I talk about science is almost like a businessman now - it’s horrible for people in my lab! Every time we have this new idea I’m saying: ‘it would be nice if we could create a module and start selling it or do a subscription’.

I now see the value in accurately acknowledging a product and its potential. I try to understand, at all times, what is the potential value for customers, who would be interested in it and what’s the best way to provide them with the information. It has improved my entrepreneurship skills a lot and thanks to that I’ve got a few meetings with investors. I’m really grateful to MEC and my business coach.

MEC: What were the pivotal shifts in your thinking or behaviours along the way?

Mehdi: I was always ensuring that the quality and validity of the product is of the highest standard. I sacrificed lots of time and money to make sure that I would achieve this standard. That was the focus I had when describing the products – I was talking about how the product worked and why it was the best. But I was never explaining why it was the best for customers and for their needs. Now I’m able to understand that people are not really interested in the details of the product itself. They want to see what need it addresses for them. That’s really important because my discussions with scientists or business partners now focus on value proposition for customers, instead of the superior quality of the products we develop. I focus on outcomes and being customer-centric.

MEC: How did MEC help you with any challenges or obstacles?

Mehdi: The biggest challenge at the beginning was that I had no business skills. MEC helped me with this first challenge by helping me to talk about this business idea, the market and to customers in a way that is convincing.

MEC: What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone at the beginning of their journey?