Building and leading FFUND from the ground up has been an enormous privilege for CEO Judith Smit. After the company’s initial very turbulent years, both her own role as a leader and the company’s business strategy started to evolve. How does she look back on this period? What kind of leadership style has she developed over the years? And what excites her most about the FFUND’s future?
“In the early years of FFUND, the company, its finances, as well as my role were anything but stable,” Judith recalls. “With a team of only 3-4 people, we were busy supporting entrepreneurs in the field while simultaneously developing our vision, products, and future. We had fun, but it was also very stressful at times, being at the helm of a small but fast-growing company. I often felt a lack of control, especially when complicated decisions had to be made without data or a clear understanding of the impact.”
Solid foundation
Judith feels proud that today’s FFUND is much more resilient. “We have weathered the storm and built a solid foundation with two strong business units (Grants & Loans and Venture Finance Support),” she says. “Along the way, we have created a strong team of professionals with a shared vision that takes collective responsibility for building success. Everyone at FFUND wants to make an impact by helping life sciences companies to navigate the path to success as effectively as possible.”
More authoritative
“The confidence to trust my gut feeling, which has grown over time, has helped make me more comfortable in my job as CEO,” Judith states. “When our team was still small, I adopted a pace-setting-style where I would lead by example. Today, I am more authoritative. I stay focused on where we are going and rely on the input and initiative of our team to decide how we get there. What hasn’t changed is my willingness to allow others to flourish and I invite people to take responsibility in their job – giving them the space to seize opportunities, develop, and have fun. I always invite people to pursue their personal dreams within the company’s objectives.”
Recognizing matches for collaboration
Asked about her personal strengths, Judith mentions her ability to connect the various stakeholders needed to turn innovations into market success. “The mediator position is tailor-made for me, as I understand the objectives and speak the languages of all parties involved in medical technologies – the scientist, the entrepreneur, and the investor. I recognize when there is a match for collaboration, translate this for the different parties, and ensure that each of them can fulfill their own objectives as well as report on obligations to their supporters in a collaboration.”
Great team of leaders
Judith feels positive about FFUND’s future. “Through our presence in the field, we help to accelerate the development of new medical technologies for patients,” she enthuses. “It’s exciting to work with so many different parties and achieve great successes with our customers. With the great team of leaders that we have and our continuously expanding and strengthening network, I am sure that in the coming years we will take even higher numbers of innovative companies to the next level.”
Balancing business and ambition
As always, challenges remain. “One of our biggest struggles is finding the right balance between our own success and our ambition to support innovative start-ups in growing towards a scale-up,” Judith explains. “Especially in their early phases, life sciences companies have very limited resources to build their company and business strategy. Over time, we have therefore developed affordable products specifically for pre-start-ups, start-ups, and scale-ups. The structure of our company is now such that we’re flexible in matching support from experienced entrepreneurs and fundraising experts with the development phase, capital needs, and financial means of our clients. This improved service enables us to increase our impact.”
Privileged to dream even bigger
“It was my dream once to build a business model in which entrepreneurs and professional consultants jointly accelerate innovative life sciences projects with their knowledge, skills, analyses, and business plans. I am proud that this has become a reality today,” says Judith. “Last Christmas, I realized that we have already reached the ‘dot on the horizon’ we set a few years ago: we service parties with their fundraising strategy, and secure equity and non-dilutive funding. I feel privileged that we can already dream bigger about our impact and, together with the people around me who share my dream, I look forward to continuing to help life sciences innovations reach the healthcare system.”
