Based on 20 years of experience in the field, we will review the best practices, retrospective patterns, and specific challenges of leading neurotech startups from ideation to market introduction, at the interface between technological breakthrough, therapeutic innovation, and business creation.
An engineer in applied physics from the Free University Brussels (1992), Michel Decré obtained his PhD in physics at the ENS Paris in 1994. After a post-doc for the ESA at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Brussels, he joined Philips Research in Eindhoven (NL) in 1996. There, he contributed to the development of the Blu-ray disc and the micro- and nanocontact printing now marketed as SCIL by Suss Microtech. From 2005, he started and lead the Philips Research implantable neurotechnology programme, and in 2010 he initiated its Healing Environment programme. In 2011, he left Philips to spin-off Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation as its founding Chief Technology Officer. After Medtronic acquired Sapiens, he became Director of Research and Technology at the Medtronic Eindhoven Development Center. In 2017, he co-founded Salvia Bioelectronics and has been an independent consultant for neurotech and medtech startups since 2018. He currently devotes most of his efforts to the destiny of INBRAIN Neuroelectronics (Barcelona, SP). Michel Decré was a visiting professor at the Mechanical School of Leeds University, UK, from 2003 to 2013; he co-authored 23 peer-reviewed articles and is the inventor of 20 US-granted patents.
