Learning from failure and coming back stronger
Jelena Aleksic came to Cambridge to do a PhD in genetics but soon realised she had an entrepreneurial spirit. She started two businesses on the side during her study, but it wasn’t until she obtained funding for Gene Adviser did she work full time on a startup. Jelena was successfully funded 350K from investors, including Peter Cowley. Unfortunately, the business failed, but Jelena learnt some vital lessons which she shares in this podcast.
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Geneticist turned entrepreneur. Jelena is passionate about the potential of biotechnology to improve patients' lives.
She is the former CEO and co-founder of GeneAdviser, an online ordering platform for genomic medicine now owned by the NHS. As a postdoc at the University of Cambridge, Jelena studied the epigenetics of a rare genetic disorder, Dubowitz syndrome. Patients told her of the struggle they faced to find a diagnosis – on average six year, with visits to eight doctors. She built the GeneAdviser platform to make it faster and easier for doctors to order cutting-edge genetic tests.
Furthermore, Jelena is a director of the charity TReND in Africa, working to improve scientific capacity in Africa. She find it exciting to promote different causes and help organisations grow.
Awards:
Semi-finalist in OneStart £100k competition
Business Weekly Awards - Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, 2016
Everywoman in Technology awards - Founder of the Year, 2016
Rising Star in Biobeat 2015 report
Winner - Cambridge Wireless Discovering Startups Competition 2015
Produced by Mark Cotton, Twitter.
Podcast links: