Founder’s lens: Building sustainable HealthTech solutions

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The third online session of the EVOLVE2CARE Training Series for Innovators and Researchers took place on 17 July 2025, offering a grounded and insightful look into the entrepreneurial path of a HealthTech founder. Titled “Building a Sustainable HealthTech Business – A Founder’s Journey,” the session was led by Panagiotis Katsaounis, Medical Geneticist and CEO of Metabio, a company pioneering IT solutions for biobanks. 

The session formed part of the six-part EVOLVE2CARE series From User to Market – Faster Validation and Commercialisation for HealthTech Innovators and Researchers, which supports HealthTech innovators working in Transitional Care and Clinical Pathways to accelerate their journey from research to real-world impact.

Why biosamples matter — and Why managing them is hard

Biosamples are a cornerstone of biomedical research and power medical R&D excellence, supporting advancements in diagnostics, drug discovery, genetics and environment.

However, IT systems to manage biosamples and associated data are often inadequate and problematic for researchers; unreliable, leading to poor data harmonization across sources; and limited, failing to capture the historical dimension of biosample usage. As a result, valuable data remains underutilized or inaccessible. 

This challenge laid the groundwork for the creation of Metabio, a next-generation IT platform designed to modernize and integrate the full spectrum of biosample data. By offering real-time access, harmonized metadata, and GDPR/HIPAA-compliant tools, Metabio enables biobanks, researchers and the entire research ecosystem to unlock the true potential of the biosample collections.

Key highlights

Identifying the real value

The instructor described how Metabio emerged from direct experience in the lab, where data quality gaps and outdated biobank IT systems conflicted with cost and time constraints.

Building the business model

Participants were guided through Metabio’s evolution from an idea to a revenue-generating SaaS platform. 

A breakdown of real startup costs revealed a balanced allocation:

  • 35% for team and operations
  • 30% for R&D and clinical validation
  • 20% for sales and marketing
  • 15% for regulatory compliance

This financial transparency highlighted the importance of lean spending, focused prioritization, and resource-efficient scaling.

Practical advice for HealthTech founders

Panagiotis Katsaounis shared several turning points, including a major shift from offering physical infrastructure to delivering modular, interoperable software. He emphasized that being responsive to market feedback and recognizing internal limitations were critical to navigating early-stage uncertainty.

The session closed with a set of key takeaways aimed at helping other innovators design more viable and resilient ventures:

  • Prioritize Speed and Iteration: Avoid over-engineering early on. Launch MVPs quickly rather than chasing perfection.
  • Cultivate deep customer and patient empathy: True innovation starts with understanding. Invest time in interviews, shadowing, and co-creation.
  • Build resilience and a supportive network: Surround yourself with a core team that shares the long-term vision. Replace doubt with determination.

What’s next

The upcoming session “Unlocking IP Value: Protection, Collaboration & AI” on Thursday 24 July, 2025, at 15:00 CEST, will explore how to protect intellectual assets, manage innovation in collaborative environments, and navigate new IP challenges in the age of artificial intelligence.

Stay with us as we continue to equip innovators with the tools to build, scale, and sustain meaningful healthtech solutions—from user to market.

Register here

Applying Service Design in Living Labs: Webinar highlights

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The second session, titled “Designing Tailored Living Lab Services for Innovators”, which is part of the Living Labs Training Series, took place on 9 July 2025. It focused on designing structured, user-oriented services that enable Living Labs to better support innovators, accelerate experimentation, and ensure sustainable operations.

This six part training program is specifically crafted for Living Lab managers, researchers, and innovation professionals. It brings together top experts in service design and real-world practitioners from across Europe. The last webinar featured contributions from:

What is Service Design?

Francesca Sperandio opened the session by introducing the central question: “What is Service Design?” She explained that Service Design is about intentionally planning and organizing all the different touchpoints and interactions—from users and staff to platforms and operations—that collectively make up a service. 

  • Service Design is human-centered, evidence-based, and follows an iterative, collaborative process.
  • Living Labs, likewise, emphasize active user involvement, real-life experimentation, and co-creation.

Case Studies from the Thessaloniki Action for Health & Wellbeing Living Lab

In her turn, Despoina Petsani shared two concrete case studies from the Thessaloniki Action for Health & Wellbeing Living Lab, developed within the framework of the VITALISE project. VITALISE enables researchers from various disciplines to access European Living Lab infrastructures through Transnational Access.

These examples highlighted not only the innovative services developed—such as ASSURE, an AI tool for dysphagia detection, and HESTIA, a thermal monitoring system to support informal caregiving—but also the concrete resource needs involved in delivering them.

For each pilot, she presented a side-by-side comparison of time and personnel dedicated by internal and external teams. Internal refers to the Living Lab’s own staff, who are familiar with lab protocols, logistics, and stakeholder engagement, while external refers to visiting researchers granted access through the project.

The data showed needs for 170h/30d internal vs. 52h external for ASSURE project, and 121/28d internal vs. 14d external for HESTIA—demonstrating that effective Living Lab services require considerable coordination and time investment.

Structuring and Pricing Living Lab Services

Marta I. De Los Ríos White guided participants through a practical methodology for turning Living Lab activities into repeatable, well-defined services. 

The structured 5-step Servive Design Process included:

  1. Discover: the phase of immersion, where tools like interviews, observations, and self-documentation help capture real user needs and contextual insights.
  2. Define: a period of analysis—making sense of the findings, spotting patterns, and setting a clear design challenge.
  3. Develop: the creative core of the process, where ideas are generated, sketched, and prototyped through both visual and tactile methods.
  4. Deliver: this stage transforms ideas into action—pitching, role-playing, testing, gathering feedback, and capturing learnings.
  5. Evolve: a forward-looking stage focused on scaling, building partnerships, tracking impact, and celebrating even subtle change.

Do you know how to price your services?

To close, Marta I. De Los Ríos White presented three guiding steps for Living Labs ready to define the value of what they offer. First, she encouraged participants to assess the value their services provide to innovators, including the time saved, risk reduced, and unique benefits delivered. Next, she stressed the importance of understanding internal costs—factoring in people’s time and expertise, specialized tools, resources, and overhead. Finally, she highlighted the need to align pricing strategies with the Living Lab’s broader mission and funding model, ensuring financial sustainability while staying true to core objectives.

What’s next?

The next session for Living Labs, “Navigating Legal, Ethical & Regulatory Frameworks,” will take place on August 27, 2025, at 15:00 CEST, and will approach the ethical, legal and regulatory frameworks, explores the sector-specific compliance and engages with regulatory bodies.

Register here