Klaudia.

Intelliseq’s beginnings remind me of my doctoral studies at the Institute of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. It was there that I met the main founders of the company: Michał, Marcin, and Sławek – excellent scientists in the fields of genetics, bioinformatics and molecular biology. While they were conducting research at the Polish Academy of Sciences, they noticed that certain solutions in the field of bioinformatics in genetics have great potential for practical applications.

As part of our research projects, we were in direct contact with various clinics and laboratories. We started receiving inquiries from them about bioinformatics support, especially about providing better data analyses and, thus, more effective diagnoses and treatments. The establishment of Intelliseq in 2014 was a direct result of market needs.

More than a year before the company’s official formation, Marcin wrote down the entire plan and idea for the business and received an award for “Most Innovative Business Plan” by Małopolska Business Incubator. We recently checked the ideas that this initial business plan was based on and to our surprise, most of them still apply today. The fact that similar companies also started their operations in the following years – mainly abroad – only confirmed that this was a good idea.

The first shareholder of Intelliseq was the Małopolska Regional Development Agency, which co-financed the company with PLN 600,000 under the POIR 3.1 Program, which supported the best ideas for creating businesses of the future. This funding allowed us to get off to a good start and start working on our first major project in the field of genetic diagnostics of rare diseases. From the very beginning, we were aware that the further development of Intelliseq in the areas of computational genomics and digital medicine would require greater financial outlays so we focused on activities based on R&D projects financed from public funding (including the National Center for Research and Development and the Małopolska Center for Entrepreneurship).

Within our group of co-founders, we have always been able to work well together on scientific matters and we were able to replicate this in business as well. We each have completely different skill sets and personality traits, and although we don’t always agree with one another, we all share the same business goal. Just as Aristotle said, “the whole is more than just the sum of its parts”.

In addition to the founding group, the initial team also included bioinformatics engineers Dżesika and Kasia, as well as our programmer, Kamil. This was just enough people needed to implement all of the activities planned under our first R&D project, while also keeping the team small enough so that it was easy to communicate and quickly respond to the needs of each team member.

All other operational and marketing activities related to running the company were shared between the co-founders – with varying results, at first. There was a lot of multi-tasking, which is the norm for startups, and the speedy acquisition of new skills in new areas. When I look back at our first promotional materials and marketing strategy today, I get a feeling of disbelief that they once seemed professional to me;).

More than just words, I do not tolerate certain types of behavior such as ignorance, or having a lack of humility or insight. I don’t like being rushed when I’m making decisions or having to do tedious and pointless work. The boss character from Scott Adams’ comic book “Dilbert” is my idea of someone who possesses all the worst traits in business.

I try to avoid citing textbook definitions of a leader, so my description of leadership might be one that is not often used ;). I focus on “natural” leadership, which is something that can be validated by the leader’s team. In my observations, it appears that whenever we seek out strong, confident leaders, we tend to confuse strength with arrogance and narcissism. The person who speaks the loudest is not necessarily the one who is always right.

Success is about people. Professionally speaking, it is found in the team that actually enjoys its work; it is also about satisfied business partners who keep coming back to work with you again. In the individual sense, it is the discovery of your potential and seeing and feeling it in action.

Recently, I have found myself silently repeating Charles Darwin’s quote a lot: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”. I also like the slogan “the first never follows”, which I think might be from an Adidas ad 🙂

Since the beginning of my professional career, I’ve always appreciated having a lot of independence at work, along with the possibility of combining business with pleasure, and having space and time for creative problem solving.

I used to think that with hard work and persistence, you could achieve anything you wanted, as long as you knew what that was in the first place. Now, I know that hard work and persistence are often not enough to achieve your goals. The real world and my work experience has taught me humility. I remember one of our closest associates in the United States saying, “You will definitely fail with your first product; the important thing is to learn why.”

I found out from an Asian business partner that according to the Chinese zodiac, 2022 is the year of the Tiger. I was born in the year of the Tiger, so I am focused on having a year of great opportunities and personal development!;)