A few months ago, Fortail was approached by an entrepreneur establishing his first startup company, funded by the Israeli Innovation Authority. The entrepreneur emphasized that he found Fortail, while searching for mentorship, not just consultancy. So, he investigated our backgrounds and concluded that we could provide him with exactly that. Usually, we encounter either more specific needs, such as establishing the optimal business model, or a wide and full investigation, mainly during a due diligence process. Hence, we found ourselves facing a new type of challenge entailing a much more holistic advisory service. We realized that unlike our customary services we’re being hired to not only solve existing and forecasted issues relating to business, clinical affairs, regulation, R&D, IP, HR, etc., but also convey the full array of mental requirements, collaboratively generate the right entrepreneurial philosophy, guide and fine tune presentation skills, re-structure perspectives and self-perception in order to support the client’s journey to become the best entrepreneur possible.
We strongly believe that with enough passion, grit, dedication and openness, most people could become successful entrepreneurs. However, at times people hold low self-esteem, a disbelief in themselves, fear of failure which obstruct and limit their progress and achievements and consequently fall short of fulfilling their creative potential. These hurdles can be overcome by employing the right tools and attitude.
A few simply put conceptions to exemplify: You don’t need a brand-new Mercedes to convince someone that you’ve got what it takes; It doesn’t have to be your diploma nor experience that make you a valuable innovator, you can become one by coupling your creativity with personal process; you can recruit resources by making people believe in you and in your dream , not just by paying them; when meeting with big-shots, don’t let that cast-over your confidence, let the fact that they invest their time in you nurture your self-esteem.
Of course, the described work required much more elaborative thought and operations, but the fundamental principles remain the same. You must first believe in yourself, your aspired goal and your team for others to believe in you.
As consultants, we appreciate new types of challenges and the opportunities they generate. Hence, we truly enjoyed the process and learnt a lot. We even acquired and developed new tools and methodologies to achieve maximal accuracy and efficacy. One of those tools is an amazingly simple test to verify gut-feelings. As entrepreneurs, we frequently feel strongly about an issue without understanding the rationale. This feeling has perplexed many entrepreneurs, especially in technological endeavors, where cognitive function is highly thought of, as opposed to the unexplainable gut-feelings and intuitions. The tool is based on a method called Muscle Response Testing (MRT). MRT can be performed in several manners, both on someone else as well as one’s self. It is used to test neural control in a variety of scenarios.
Fortunately, we’ve found that, as entrepreneurs ourselves, we’re very well positioned to identify with our client’s situation and needs, so that we were able to identify and explain the different principals of operation towards advancement. This unique hybrid position allowed us to perform our tasks with minimal friction and misunderstandings, despite the associated challenges and, at times, even antagonistic nature.
Throughout the process, we were also able to decrease the preliminary forecasted financial expenditures by about 85%. We accomplished that by both eliminating redundancies and utilizing our experience and network to recruit low cost resources. After a careful investigation of the plan, we identified several processes that offer little value, at the current stage of the endeavor and could be executed later on with much higher efficacy and accuracy. Once the plan entailed solely the vital operations, we dug deep and generated more cost-effective processes for each operation, by either rethinking the operation entirely or by just implementing improvements. We then identified costly resources we could attain all for the low price of the joy-of-supporting-a-new-endeavor, foregoing their compensation. Resources such as: engineers, experts in different fields, HW components and so forth.
Fortail in cooperation with the entrepreneur managed to rethink the plans, refocus the entrepreneur and set out to jointly make his dream a reality.
We believe in entrepreneurs and see our services and tools as brushes and grindstones, depending on the client, providing sharpening and coloring that will expedite advancement and allow efficacy stemming from our experience and knowledge.
We view our role as a professional expert support system harnessed by you, the entrepreneur, that guides your walk in the industry woods via the optimal route for you, whether scenic or not, and consequently gets you to your destination as safely as possible.
Fortail Life Sciences – Strategic Consulting
Fortail LS provides companies, mainly in the life sciences industry with comprehensive strategic advisory and investors’ relations, while offering investment leads to our worldwide network of investors. Fortail LS increases its clients’ discernibility and appeal within the investment community and directly alerts investors on validated opportunities offered by these companies. Our core capabilities include strategic planning and validation of business models, R&D operations, clinical affairs, regulatory path, QA efforts, IP approach as well as the execution of strategic collaborations, fund raising, and KOL recruitment. Fortail LS provides high grade advisory services for clients hinged upon our extensive healthcare industry specialization. Fortail LS' founders hold over 40 years of healthcare experience in market research, hardware and software R&D, investment raising, strategic collaborations, IP, clinical affairs, VC investing and strategic IR advisory. Fortail LS has considerable relationships with strategic investors and leading figures and service providers across the industry. Our life sciences expertise allows us to provide objective, unbiased advice to biotech, pharma, medical device, diagnostics, and healthcare services companies.
Written by Yehonatan Tirosh
Mr. Tirosh holds over 15 years of experience in entrepreneurship and strategic consultancy. Well versed in leading startup companies. Extensive background in life sciences. Founder of M.I. Medical Incentive & D-MAAD, diagnostic medical device start-ups. Holds a B.A. summa cum laude from the Haifa University in Economics and Statistics.
