TTT Team Up Day: Inspiring meet-up for academic spin-offs, investors, and coaches

Wiendelt Steenbergen and Kiki Liu from Twente Medical Optics (future spin-off UT) were some of the upcoming founders among the participants. After some hesitation, they decided to join the event. Wiendelt recalls: “It’s quite a time investment to join such an event. Ultimately, we decided to join because we wanted to get inspired to accelerate the way we think of our spin-off.” Kiki adds to that: “Entrepreneurship can be lonely. The TTT Team Up Day enabled us to get in touch with like-minded entrepreneurs and connect with investors. It was an advantageous way to network, and we gained a lot of useful feedback.” Wiendelt agrees: “It was interesting to see because we talked to three different investors with different backgrounds, yet they were consistent in their advice. We discussed things we hadn’t thought about before joining the Team Up Day. The entire startup journey is new to me, and the Team Up Day gave me more insights into this world.”

This new dose of insights and inspiration gave Wiendelt and Kiki a renewed sense of energy to continue working on their business. “We want to establish the company and become an official spin-off of the University of Twente,” shares Kiki. “So for now, we focus on two things: we got the NWO Take Off grant phase 1, so we start a half-year programme to study the feasibility to commercialise our device. The second thing is that we want to try to join the Venture Challenge from NWO. Both activities will serve our startup because we want to make it a success.”

Twente Medical Optics

Although the use of laser light for imaging tissue perfusion has been known for years, its commercial availability is limited to rather bulky devices mounted on carts. This strongly limits the application in situations where compactness and flexibility of use are required. Therefore, the team from the University of Twente has developed a handheld wireless technology for imaging tissue perfusion in large areas using Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging (LSCI). The novel handheld LSCI device, the Handheld Perfusion Imager (HAPI), has features that potentially open up new medical application fields and are interesting to explore further.

Perfect combination of results and good vibes

Sanne Melles also attended the TTT Team Up Day. He has been connecting the scientific community to the market for 25 years. Sanne is a business coach for startups so the TTT Team Up Day was the perfect opportunity for him to connect with young entrepreneurs. He explains: “Many early-stage university startups are still in stealth mode: they aren’t visible. The Team Up Day provided the perfect setting to get to know those companies.” Sanne was right. He was inspired by the sessions and scheduled follow-up meetings with an entrepreneur from Twente. “Personally, I think this is a great event that should be repeated on an even larger scale,” Sanne says. “The day was well organised, and the Omdenkshow (flip-thinking show), Prison Break, informative lectures and a mix of other activities contributed to this. I believe that an interactive variety of settings are very valuable for early-stage spin-offs. And thanks to the NetworkApp, it was very easy to connect with each other.”

Sanne is happy with the day’s results. “I often meet new entrepreneurs but a large proportion of those meetings do not get a follow-up,” he explains. “So the fact that I walked away with a scheduled appointment means it was a good afternoon. But non-tangible things can also be a result. After all, I also had an incredibly fun afternoon. It was incredible to see so many young entrepreneurs working on a variety of innovative solutions. The Team Up Day was the perfect combination of results and good vibes. I went home with a lot of new energy.”