“It started as a sprint, but has turned out to be a marathon”

Heintze found herself becoming an entrepreneur at just 23, joining what she’d always thought of as a “closed circle of superheroes.” Now – ten years later – she’s one of three at the head of Lunaphore, a Vaud-based business that sells ultra-rapid biological tissue analysis. While Heintze may not have any superpowers, she’s nevertheless conquered mountains of work, overcome hundreds of challenges, pulled together a wide array of skills and pushed through moments of doubt. Lunaphore completed a CHF 40 million fundraising round in the spring of 2023 before being acquired by the Nasdaq-listed firm for an undisclosed amount. But that doesn’t mean the founders will bow out. “The acquisition opens up additional markets for our new system, but we don’t plan to relocate or carry out a major restructuring,” says Heintze.

“Fortunately, we were a little naïve when we first set up the company,” she says. In 2012 she graduated with a Master’s degree in bioengineering from EPFL’s School of Life Sciences – a program that included spending a year as a research trainee in the US. Once back in Switzerland, she began looking for her first job and ended up working on the microfluidic device that’s still at the core of Lunaphore’s technology. The system was developed in EPFL’s clean rooms; upon seeing how well it functioned, and how effectively Heintze and her two colleagues worked together, they decided to create a business to market their invention. Heintze was unfazed by the risks associated with entrepreneurship. “I knew that even if our startup didn’t survive, I’d learn so many skills during the process that it could only be of benefit to my career.” She thought she was in for a busy few years before things eventually calmed down – but so far, there’s no slowdown in sight. The first year in particular was very hectic. “We worked day and night, and also over the weekends,” she says. “I still find it hard to switch off. Even when I have the time to take a break, my mind keeps spinning.” The company’s acquisition will help take some of the pressure off, especially in terms of obtaining working capital and raising funding. “But besides that, we intend to keep developing our product, innovating and implementing our marketing strategy just like we have been,” says Heintze.

It’s important to know what you don’t know, so that you can ask the right people for help.

“At EPFL, I learned how to learn”

Heintze, who’s never been short on motivation, took on the role of chief operating officer when Lunaphore was created, and then became its chief marketing officer in 2021. She learned these functions largely on the job. “I took a two-day course a year after the company was founded, but it was too advanced for the stage of business development we were in at the time,” she says. As the company grew, she learned how to negotiate with marketing partners, pitch to large corporations, hone the firm’s product development efforts and outline a marketing strategy. “My time at EPFL was very useful for all of this,” says Heintze. “I learned how to integrate new skills quickly and then apply them.” These capabilities also let her make good use of the advice she got from consultants and role models. “It’s important to know what you don’t know, so that you can ask the right people for help.”

Of course, Heintze’s own talent played a big role in her success, along with her ability to never take her eye off the ball. Or almost never – she admits there were times when she was tempted to leave it all behind.

Lunaphore has been considered a gem of the Swiss medtech industry for several years now. As a new business it was regularly ranked among Venturelab’s top 100 Swiss startups, and more recently it’s been named one of the 25 most promising Swiss scale-ups. The firm has completed three hefty funding rounds and won several awards. “People outside the company see us as a success story, but for us it’s been a real battle,” says Heintze. “There were times when we had to radically change our strategy. That’s pretty typical for a company like ours – but it takes a lot of personal energy to wipe the slate clean and start over. Fortunately, each of us had doubts at different times, so we were able to support each other.”

One thing the founders often wondered over the past ten years is whether they were developing the right product for the right market. But those hesitations have now vanished. “Our latest product is a new version of our turnkey device that includes equipment for running diagnostics as well as software for analyzing images,” explains Heintze. “We’ve seen very strong demand for this product – and competitors are starting to adapt in response, which I take as validation of our strategy.” However, the next challenge is right around the corner. “We’re not sure how we’re going to be able to produce the units fast enough,” she says.

Gender inequality can be surprisingly subtle

In the world of entrepreneurship, there’s still progress to be made on gender equality. Less than 20% of new Swiss businesses are created by women, for example. And according to 2022 data from PitchBook, under 2% of US venture capital is invested in female-led startups – a figure that’s been falling for several years, except among companies with at least one man on the management team. “Most venture-capital funds are run by men, and they often communicate differently from women,” says Heintze. “The gender effect can be very subtle. I tended to underestimate it in the beginning.” She feels that sometimes businessmen hesitate to take her seriously, or they direct their comments on important topics only to other men. This could also be due to Heintze’s age, as she’s much younger than most business leaders. “These are cultural and generational biases that many people aren’t even aware they have, and that can be long and difficult to eradicate,” she says. But such biases also have their upsides. “The discrimination can be beneficial, in that we draw much more attention among young firms and get more media coverage – for the very same reason that people occasionally underestimate us.”

Scale-up funding hard to find in Switzerland

Lunaphore’s founders carried out their first three funding rounds in Switzerland, but for this latest one, “we saw interest mainly from US and Japanese investors due to the amount of money we wanted to raise,” says Heintze. She adds that Switzerland has a great support system for startups, although “it can be tricky to keep your operations and staff here when you’re growing rapidly.” Swiss companies entering the scale-up stage often have to turn to foreign investors to get enough capital. She also finds that foreign investors have different attitudes towards risk-taking: “It’s no secret that Americans tend to be more daring.” In the US, universities are eager to work with spin-offs and purchase their new products right from the start. This contrasts with Lunaphore’s experience in Switzerland, where R&D labs found the company’s system “interesting” but didn’t want to invest in case it didn’t take off.