i n terviews
Don’t fake it till you make it Aline Noizet knows the digital health scene inside out. In an interview, she reveals the biggest mistakes repeated by startups and how to scale the business to succeed. Aline, imagine that it’s around 1439 and Johannes Gutenberg comes to you and asks about your advice on his startup. He wants to build a printing machine, but he has no money, and it seems like some stakeholders – including monks – won’t be happy to lose a monopoly for writing books. What would you suggest to him?
Don’t give up! If you believe in your idea, be bold, resilient and smart. Explain to the stakeholders how this new technology you want to build can benefit them and how it will make their life bet-
ter. Education is key. Find some partners who believe in your idea, are well connected and are ready to support you to take your plan further. But protect your idea somehow. Craft some numbers: define the benefits for each stakeholder – qualitative and quantitative – and put a dollar sign on them, that will help you attract money. The church being afraid of losing a monopoly for writing books is analogous to AI today. We always talk about AI replacing doctors, but we communicate less about the fact that AI empowers
doctors by supporting them in the decision-making process, freeing their time and the fact that AI created new jobs that didn’t exist before like data analysts. It’s a mindset change that takes time. Five hundred sixty-five years later comes to you Elizabeth Holmes from Theranos and also needs help in developing her great idea. Would you believe in her innovation? Why did so many people trust her?
Would I believe in her innovation? I’m not a scientist so I wouldn’t be able to assess the technology itself, but I certainly wanted to believe in it. I remember being in San Francisco in 2014 and seeing the big billboards across the city, promoting Theranos and its promises for the patients and consumers. It was very much
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