The NanoTemper Success Story – Massive Growth Follows One Great Innovation
Dream big, don’t be limited by current opinion and don’t be afraid to make mistakes – co-CEO Dr. Stefan Duhr shares his tips for success and more
14 May 2017
Co-CEOs Dr. Stefan Duhr and Dr. Philipp Baaske
Dr. Stefan Duhr's Five Key Tips for Business Success 1. Talk to experienced people. Many things have been done before and many mistakes have been made so it’s important to ultimately follow your gut feeling as every situation is unique.
2. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, but make them fast and make changes as soon as you can.
3. Sell your product yourself in the beginning as no one can do it better. Get customer feedback as early as possible.
4. Don’t accept the limits given by current (scientific) opinion.
5. Be visionary. If you start with something that people feel is not possible, you can end up with something really innovative.
Reviews like those found on the SelectScience website are extremely valuable to us, as they are given by customers to an independent party
With its collaborative approach and science-driven insights, NanoTemper Technologies is making a big name for itself as a developer of highly innovative instrument and software solutions for biomolecular analytics. The company is growing rapidly across the globe, with subsidiaries in São Paulo, Brazil; St. Petersburg, Russia; Boston and San Francisco, USA; Krakow, Poland; Cambridge, UK; and Bangalore, India. But it all started just 9 years ago in Munich, Germany, when Dr. Stefan Duhr and Dr. Philipp Baaske founded the company together. After completing their PhDs at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, they founded NanoTemper Technologies as a spin-off from LMU and are now co-CEOs.
SelectScience® caught up with Dr. Stefan Duhr to find out more about the origins and future of NanoTemper, the company’s passion for helping scientists in new ways, why it’s so important to listen to your customers and his own fascinating tips for business success.
SS: What is your background and how did you become the CEO of NanoTemper?
SD: I got into the world of science because I was interested in understanding the molecular basis of life, mainly how the interaction of uncountable molecules on a nanometer scale yields the results we all observe every day. Interestingly, NanoTemper Technologies offers solutions to address this very thing - the interaction of molecules, their stability and prediction of their behavior.
I have a broad scientific background - I studied both biology and biochemistry, and have a PhD in physics. I was always driven to view problems from various perspectives. Every scientific discipline has its own approach and can provide interesting insight. I feel that my broad experiences have allowed me to be part of a success story like NanoTemper. I think really innovative approaches can be found at the interface between different sciences like biochemistry and physics.
SS: How would you personally describe NanoTemper?
SD: NanoTemper is one of the leading companies in the field of biomolecular analysis. Our company’s vision is to revolutionize how drugs are developed by getting new, great tools into the hands of scientists. The company has been started by and primarily consists of scientists. We breathe science and everyone, be it a team member or a customer, believes in our products. The entire company makes a strong effort to keep in touch with our customers’ needs and our industry, and we all play a role in moving the needle by offering solutions no one has thought of before.
SS: What were the key milestones or moments that have defined NanoTemper’s success?
SD: Looking back to when NanoTemper was founded as a university spin-off, the first key to success was for us to build a technology with surprising features that offered a unique value to our clients. From a strategic perspective, bringing the first generation of our first instrument to market quickly was extremely important. This allowed NanoTemper to grow organically, adapt to customer feedback and create acceptance for, at the time, a novel technology. Since those days, we have developed into a globally operating high-tech company because of our desire to constantly innovate. Because of our commitment to investing in R&D, we have brought forward many new applications, a portfolio of instruments to address a multitude of needs, and established ourselves as thought leaders in the bioanalytical space.
SS: How are SelectScience® independent product reviews and customer recommendations contributing to the success of NanoTemper?
SD: We believe that satisfied customers are the best marketers for our products. When you visit our homepage you will find hundreds of customer testimonials. Customers volunteered these statements because they were happy with the quality of our products and they felt they received great application support from us. Additionally, reviews like those found on the SelectScience website are extremely valuable to us, as they are given by customers to an independent party. We are so happy that we have received so many good reviews on SelectScience.
SS: What do you see for the future trends in the scientific industry and what part will NanoTemper play in this?
SD: We see the need for quantitative results, as well as better sample quality control in basic research and in industry, which will require the use of biophysical/bioanalytical instrumentation and other new technologies. These technologies should be easy to use, with a simple user interface to make them accessible to a broader range of scientists, and not just experts. Expect NanoTemper to provide new technologies run by software that proactively supports the user in application, design and interpretation.
Read NanoTemper’s product reviews on SelectScience®.