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Newsletter Issue 1 Vol 1 Final Issn
1. ISSN 1986-1923
Diogenes Business Incubator University of Cyprus
Entrepreneurship Insider
Newsletter Team
Welcome! Publisher
Volume 1, Issue 1 Diogenes Business
Incubator University of
May 2009 We are delighted to “welcome” you to the first Issue Cyprus
1 Welcome Message of Entrepreneurship Insider! EI aspires to be a medium
2 Portfolio Profile of communication on entrepreneurship and on Editor in Chief
MedTechSol: Stavriana A. Kofteros
Ιnnovate Technology entrepreneurship in and around the Diogenes
for identification of Business Incubator of the University of Cyprus. Executive Editor
Gynecological cancer Margarita Kyprianou
3 Business What would a reader expect to find in EI? In every
Message from an Contributors
issue we will be profiling one of our portfolio Andreas Prodromou, Co-
Entrepreneur
companies aiming to introduce our innovative Founder & CEO, EXA High
4 Technology
startups to you, starting with MedTechSol in this Performance Computing
Mobile Computing
Ltd
5 Diogenes’ News issue. Additionally, you will be reading about issues of George Stylianou,
MIT and Beyond interest from the entrepreneur’s side; the pros and Managing Director, VI
Scientific Ltd
cons of creating a startup in Cyprus in the current
MedTechSol Team
issue. The technology oriented can find Technology Stavriana Kofteros, CEO,
news in every issue, making a start with mobile Diogenes Business
Incubator University of
computing. Cyprus
Finally, Diogenes will be sharing its news with you;
Publishing on EI
what we are up to, what we did etc. In this first issue Submit manuscripts and
you will get to know about our training at MIT and article proposals as
Microsoft Send Word files
news on my meetings with prominent organizations (max. words 500) to:
on both coasts. info@diogenes.com.cy
We indent to keep EI multi-directional and would like Permission to
to invite you to contribute to our next issues. reproduce or
Together we can make EI a “platform” on republish EI’s articles
CyBIA entrepreneurship.
Cyprus Business To reproduced or
Happy Readings! transcript one or more
Incubator Association
EI articles by electronic
EI Editorial Team or mechanical means
(including photocopying
or archiving on any
archival system)
requires written
permission.
Diogenes Business Incubator University of Cyprus Obtain permission at
Creating Business Value in Innovation info@diogenes.com.cy
or call +357 22 892220
for more information.
91 Aglandjia Avenue, Green Park, 2112 Nicosia , P.O. Box 20537, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
Tel.: +357 2289 2220, Fax: +357 2289 2211, Email: info@diogenes.com.cy
2. Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 2
ISSN 1986-1923
DIOGENES’ PORTFOLIO PROFILE:
MedTechSol: Innovative Technology for identification of Gynecological Cancer
MedTechSol (Medical Technology Solutions) LTD was established in May 2008 by
three experts in the medical informatics field.
MedTechSol aims to become a leading company in gynecological endoscopy image
processing and quantitative analysis, motivated from the huge new cases of
Computer Aided gynecological cancer, especially in lower ages. MedTechSol supports that early
diagnosis can help to improve the quality of life and reduce the mortality of
Diagnostic suite of
patients.
products in
Gynecological The statistics on gynecological cancer in the USA paint a grim picture:
Endoscopy (CADs- Every 64 minutes, a gynecological cancer case is diagnosed
It is the fourth most common cancer in American women today
Gen) enabling the In 2008, 40.100 women were diagnosed with endometrial cancer with
automated analysis 7.470 deaths
[Source: American Cancer Society]
of gynecological
tissue in MedTechSol’s business vision is to develop a Computer Aided Diagnostic tool
gynecological supporting minimal invasive surgery in gynecology for
the automated identification of suspicious areas of
endoscopy. cancer, increasing thus the diagnostic accuracy in real
time. The mission is to develop Computer Aided
Diagnostic suite of products for Gynecological Endoscopy
(CADs-Gen) that will enable the automated analysis of
gynecological tissue during gynecological endoscopy
resulting in the increase of diagnostic accuracy in each
case and providing a first and direct opinion for the
pathology of the ROI before the
MedTechSol’ s Team histopathological examination. The system
can also support telediagnosis between the
Managing Director involved parts during the examination.
Dr. Marios Neofytou
Technical Director Three unique, highly innovative products
Dr. Constantinos Pattichis based on image processing and analysis
Medical Director technologies for supporting the physician in
Vasilios Tanos (MD) real time during an endoscopic examination
Solution Managers are developed:
Ms. Christina Koumourou
Mr. Ioannis Konstantinou
1. CAD_GEn software: An innovative diagnostic tool for the detection and
characterization of gynecological cancer. This will be installed in
endoscopy equipment
1. The CAD_GEn complete system platform: A unique innovative product
providing a complete solution for the identification of difficult cases of
Contact Details: gynecological cancer in real time, during an endoscopy examination
T: +357 229 2229 2. CAD_GEn web based services: A web based platform for the processing
+357 229 2225 and analysis of endoscopic images via the web.
F: +357 22 89 2211
Furthermore, MedTechSol is involved as a partner in the European Project,
E: info@medtechsol.com
“SAFETY” whose main scope is to provide standardized protocols for endoscopy
www.medtechsol.com
examination and extract a solution tree for the management of the procedures.
Finally, the company has specialist partners all over the world that cover the whole
field of Biomedical Technology, such as telemedicine, medical image processing,
data mining, medical data bases, medical equipment, patient medical record etc.
MedTechSol Team
3. Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 3
ISSN 1986-1923
Message from an Entrepreneur:
Starting- up an R&D company in Cyprus
The Cypriot economy is based on services. Why then The governmental support offered to start-ups, or
would someone attempt to set up a the industry in general, in other European countries is
technology/R&D based export oriented company not to be found in Cyprus. Lastly, another major
here? Well, let us look at the pros and cons of doing obstacle is the lack of financial support. Venture
so. capital is practically nonexistent in Cyprus and the
government has yet to take advantage of European
Cyprus offers a pool of highly educated individuals. Investment Fund measures for example to create a
The literacy rate of 97%is one of the highest in the Venture Capital Fund geared to investing in
world with 25% of the population above 20 years of technology / R&D start-ups. Banking instruments to
age holding tertiary education qualifications. More support start-ups are extremely limited as well and
than 5,000 students are studying engineering, competitive RTD funding which is the lifeline of start-
computing and the sciences. Commercially Cyprus ups in North America is constricted in Europe and
offers a number of benefits. The salaries of Cyprus.
engineers with advanced qualifications (master’s
and doctoral degrees plus practical experience) are
low compared to their counterparts in North The absence of an
America or Western Europe. In terms of taxes the “establishment” allows for
corporate rate of 10% as well as the VAT (15%) are
the lowest ones in Europe. Personal income tax significant flexibility in setting up
ranging from 20% to 30% of all income is among the and developing a new company.
lowest in Europe making it an incentive to attracting
talent. Add to that low corporate-industrial-
laboratory real estate rental costs and computing,
software and experimental devices costs which are
on par with those in Western Europe. Why then, you might ask, would somebody set up a
technology/R&D based company in Cyprus? The local
environment seems hostile to such pursuits. It is
The local environment, although exactly this environment which makes Cyprus an
ideal place to set up a new export oriented
hostile, makes Cyprus an ideal place technology based company. The absence of an
to set up a new export oriented “establishment” allows for significant flexibility in
setting up and developing a new company. This is
technology based company. evident in the small but continuously increasing
number of start-ups which are being set up. An
Now, what about the negatives? For starters it can increasing number of start-up companies active in
take months to register a new company. This, in sectors such ICT, health/biomedical, and
some cases, might be detrimental to ones business nanoengineering are being set up in Cyprus. The good
plans. Additionally, being in a service oriented news is these companies that start up in such an
economy with no major industrial associations environment where they have to triumph over the
means that there is no real support framework. above difficulties build on this experience and
University level institutions in Cyprus are still in their become resilient and lateral in their thinking. This is
infancy and as such they are unable to provide any considered a plus by the international investment
significant long term support to high community.
technology/manufacturing companies.
The government, in theory, supports the creation of
technology based companies. In practice, this Dr Andreas Prodromou
support is restricted to words and no real action up Co-Founder & CEO
to now. EXA High Performance Computing Ltd
4. Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 4
ISSN 1986-1923
Introducing Mobile Computing
Today, the mobile phone is undoubtedly the most
comprehensive and widespread device. It has Point and Find (Nokia):
autonomy for quite a number of hours, it is small, It applies to the
and it has a camera, it has wireless communication tourist and the
technologies such as Bluetooth, infrared and Wi-Fi local. While
and most importantly it can be programmed. traversing the city
Statistics reveal that each European citizen carries at the user comes
least one mobile phone, there are more than one across film
billion mobile phones in use worldwide, and posters, statues,
smartphones are so popular that their number is restaurants or
larger than the number of toothbrushes. In addition, unknown but interesting buildings for which he seeks
experts forecast that by 2020 the mobile phone will for more information. Using Point and Find he takes a
be the mainstream internet device. photo and sends the photograph to a server. The
server returns the answer that could be the history of
a building, information on the quality of restaurant or
even information on the film.
Something that is usually
ignored is that last generation Location based Services (UbiSafe):
This technology uses GPS and allows you to track the
mobile phones are very fast location of family, for security purposes, without
miniature computers. invading their privacy. In addition, it allows a
company or even police to track its fleet in real time.
The user can also get information about the
surrounding environment including landmarks,
Even though there are thousands of software nightlife, banks or special offers.
applications available, unfortunately the
mainstream user is still using the mobile phone for Forecasted
calls, text messages or as a camera. Also, something mainstream
that is usually ignored is that last generation mobile applications
phones are very fast miniature computers. Their are linked to
hidden capabilities make possible the development the internet
of a vast number of applications that include, among with the
others, e-wallet, in class helper, navigation systems assumption
or location-based services, vision applications, that every
augmented reality or even e-voting. mobile phone
user is always
Some examples of mobile computing are: on-line. With regards to this possibility the number of
plausible applications is multiplied. Examples include
e-wallet (ViVOwallet). a user knowing at all times the location of its friends
This technology and family, social networking at all times, digital
allows the user to television, watching online videos or uploading
store its credit card videos, or even receiving information with regard to
information in the the history, attractions or nightlife of its surrounding
mobile phone and environment.
pay for any
transaction in
restaurants, Dr. Georgios Stylianou
supermarkets, Lecturer, Computer Science,
airports or vending machines wirelessly. Since the European University Cyprus
credit card or in this case the mobile phone is not Managing Director,
handed to anyone, it becomes quite harder to steal VI Scientific Ltd
credit card information or copy the credit card.
5. Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 5
ISSN 1986-1923
MIT and beyond:
Fulbright Sponsored Networking and Educational Trip to the US
Early this year Diogenes’ CEO Stavriana Kofteros received
the Entrepreneurship Development Certificate from the
… Regardless of your role, whatever you
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The program was
attended by 136 entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship venture into you have to
development practitioners from all over the world and
was taught by MIT Professors and collaborators from Think BIG and DARE!
companies like Innovate4Growth Consulting, Ascend
Strategy, Split Rock Partners, Z Corporation,
Entrepreneurship Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, The great aim of Diogenes is to be on the international
Polaris Ventures, Wolf Greenfield, Flagship Ventures and map of startup creation and entrepreneurship
Goodwin Procter. Both the MIT Entrepreneurship development for the benefit of its portfolio companies.
Professors and practitioners have a long history in
supporting and helping start ups. While in the US, Stavriana had also the opportunity to
meet with the Directors of Yale’s Entrepreneurship
MIT has span-off over 5.000 start ups with cumulative Institute at Yale University, Columbia’s New Ventures,
revenues exceeding $230 billion; with a record like this, if Columbia University; the Chief Scientific Officer of
th
MIT was a nation it would be at No. 17 in the world Harvard’s Technology Development Accelerator Fund,
(Kauffman Foundation). Yes, we are talking about one Office of Technology Development and the Director of
institution! Did anyone say Cyprus was small? Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard
Technology & Entrepreneurship Center, Harvard
These important connections create the grounds for a
Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University.
working relation that can be utilized when it’s needed by
While on the west coast she had meetings with Stanford’s
Diogenes and/or its portfolio companies. The Cambridge -
Technology Ventures Program and Office of Technology
Boston area in Massachusetts is considered to be the
Licensing and Office of Technology Licensing of Stanford
Health / Biomedical hub of the US; as the majority of
University.
Diogenes’ companies are in the health industry these
connections become even more important.
Equally important were the meetings with the Band of
Angels, a business angel’s network in Silicon Valley, Draper
Fisher Jurvetson, an early stage Venture Capital firm in
Menlo Park California with a global network of Partner
Funds, and Rose Tech Ventures, an early stage investment
fund, incubator, and all-around support infrastructure in
New York.
If there is one think Diogenes takes from this experience is
that regardless of your role (entrepreneur, investor,
University, Incubator, facilitator, Government, politician)
whatever you venture into you have to think BIG and
DARE. So we come from a small island on the Med. So
Stavriana A. Kofteros at MIT What? The only think stopping us from achieving our
potential is us - our mind. The rest can be conquered. After
Taking networking to the next step through meeting with all Success is 5% Inspiration and 95% Perspiration. So arm
MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service, Sloan Venture Capital yourselves with a good deodorant and move forward.
& Private Equity Club, Industrial Liaison Program,
Deshpande Center, Entrepreneurship Center, and Center
for Biomedical Innovation, Diogenes accomplished to
establish links to these organizations that deal Stavriana A. Kofteros
comprehensively with entrepreneurship and is proud to CEO
be in their network. Diogenes Business Incubator University of Cyprus