Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

Angel of the south

In her 20-year journey from social worker to medical sector innovator and now angel investor, Véronique Castelo has proved herself a business force to be reckoned with. Scott Berman meets this “exemplary entrepreneur”

When Véronique Castelo created her first company more than 20 years ago, she didn’t spend a lot of time dreading the risks. She was too busy doing her homework, crunching the numbers, doing more homework and then forging ahead. And the Nice resident must have been doing something right – she went on to become one of France’s leading entrepreneurs in the field of medical devices.

Why high tech? “Tech is a very interesting and exciting world. It’s something that’s moving all the time. There are always new improvements, greater performance, faster service, better products – always more, more, more of something,” she chuckles. And she finds that keeping up – indeed ahead – of that wave is stimulating: “It’s a challenge to understand and build something around that.” The mother of two was born in Morocco of Italian and Portuguese parents, but has lived in Nice since she was a toddler. She adores the city and its province of Côte d’Azur, and when not working, she enjoys time with her family as well as “boating, running, reading and the arts.”

Castelo studied to be a social worker at university, but found it wasn’t right for her, so she entered the working world and landed a position as the business manager of a technology association in Nice – where she met her future husband, robotics engineer Alain Delache. She enjoyed her work, and was soon planning to create a business. In retrospect, she says she “was lucky to be a woman in high tech” (where women were relatively rare), because it helped her stand out and get her ideas heard. She had a knack for data systems, and started working with local hospital administrators on digitalising progressively bigger chunks of their data. Her company, Technème, which she founded when she was 23, grew, going on to develop an ambulatory and fully automated diagnostic system for sleep apnoea – it was groundbreaking technology to diagnose the disorder, which disturbs breathing and sleep.

Big ideas

Castelo sold Technème in 1997 to Nellcor Puritan Bennett, a healthcare equipment company based in the United States. She was soon off on a new venture: she had mastered the diagnostic side of the sleep apnea equation, and was now focused on treatment. She and Delache designed a small respirator ventilator – just half the size of then-current devices – and its software. The device turned what had been a procedure done in a hospital into one that could be done at home. It was no small deal. In fact, “it was a market-creating event,” says a current colleague, Candace Johnson, president of Succes Europe in Nice – an early-stage investment fund where Castelo serves on the investment committee.

The respirator venture became Castelo’s second company, Kaerys, and the device soon reached 10 national markets, eventually becoming a large seller in France. By then she had received various business and entrepreneurial awards in France and elsewhere. They couldn’t have hurt: In 2008 she sold the company to Respironics, an American subsidiary of Dutch electronics giant Philips.

Business leader

Now 47, Castelo is taking what she’s learned and applying it as a full-time angel investor: someone who invests in often-risky start- ups. Headquartered at the Sophia Antipolis technology park outside Nice, she sits on the boards of various companies and is a member of tech group Mediterranean Technologies, as well as the aforementioned Succès Europe, which has invested an €8.2m fund in 21 companies in med- bio- and clean- tech, ITC and internet sectors. She is also a member of Sophia Business Angels, a group of international investors.

Castelo “has entrepreneurship in her blood. No question,” says Delache. She is a natural leader, he adds, with the personality and knowledge “to create momentum and make things happen.” Johnson describes her as “an exemplary entrepreneur, mentor and business angel investor. She started her companies from scratch and hit the top of the scale each time [through] very hard work, and calculating again and again on how to keep costs down and add value.” In 2009, for example, she applied “analytical skills, passion, due diligence [and]… absolute aplomb” in the painstaking process of whittling down a list of dozens of companies applying for funding to the final 21.

“My next challenge will be to acquire a company or start a new company,” states Castelo. What motivates her to keep at it? “It’s important to build, to have dreams.” She adds, “Building a company is trying to make a dream into reality.”

Angelic advice

Castelo, right, regularly shares her knowledge and experience as a speaker on entrepreneurship at business forums around France

Tips for entrepreneurs

Keep it simple. Ask, “What is my product, who are my customers and what is the environment in which I will be working and growing my company?” If you have solid answers to those questions, you are ready.

Focus on three things: customer, customer and customer.

Remember that the technology is not enough; it is also about people. Think through how you will reach them, and why. The point is to be able to market a technology or service because it provides something useful.

Choose your investors carefully. As well as giving you money, they should be able to offer something else: support, advice, contacts, experience.

Be sure that you and your investors are pulling in the same direction.

Tips for investors

Take it one step at a time, and spend the time it takes to discuss a potential investment with the right people, and plenty of them. Be confident that entrepreneurs will do what they say.

Choose a sector that you know and take it from there.

Every time an entrepreneur is pitching to investors, ask yourself, would their pitch work with customers?

Tips for entrepreneurs seeking investors

Have a good pitch: you need to be able to boil it down to one sentence.

Think “market, market, market, sales, sales, sales”.

Bear in mind that raising money is not the same as bringing a product to market. Hone not only your pitch to investors, but also your market vision.

FR Succès du Sud

D’assistante sociale à investisseur dans des entreprises innovantes… Le parcours de Véronique Castelo, résidente à Nice, montre à quel point elle est une « entrepreneuse » qui compte dans le monde des affaires. Rencontre avec Scott Berman

Lorsque Véronique Castelo a créé sa première société il y a plus de 20 ans, elle n’a pas eu une seconde d’hésitation… Et visiblement, elle a dû faire le bon choix : avec les années, elle est devenue l’une des plus premières femmes entrepreneurs dans le domaine des dispositifs médicaux.

Castelo étudie les sciences sociales, mais entre dans la vie professionnelle comme directrice d’affaires dans une association technologique, où elle rencontre aussi son futur mari et ingénieur en robotique Alain Delache. Selon elle, elle a « eu la chance d’être une femme dans le secteur High- tech. » Douée pour les systèmes de données, elle révolutionne avec Technème (fondée à l’âge de 23 ans) le monde du diagnostic des apnées du sommeil.

Elle vend Technème en 1997, et se tourne vers le traitement de l’apnée. Avec Delache, elle conçoit un appareil d’assistance respiratoire rendant la procédure hospitalière accessible chez soi. Cette machine se vend largement en France, et en 2008 elle vend la compagnie (Kaerys) à une filiale américaine de Philips.

Aujourd’hui, à 47 ans, Castelo s’appuie sur son expérience pour investir dans des start-ups. Elle siège dans les conseils d’administration de nombreuses sociétés et est membre de Succes Europe, qui a investi 8,2m € dans 21 compagnies des secteurs des biotechnologies, des clean-tech, des TIC et de l’internet.

Castelo a « le sens des affaires dans le sang, » dit Delache. Sa plus grande motivation ? « Construire, » répond Castelo. « Fonder une entreprise c’est essayer de faire d’un rêve une réalité. »

NL Beschermengel

Tijdens haar reis van sociale werkster tot particuliere investeerder bewees Véronique Castelo uit Nice dat ze een zakenvrouw is waarmee rekening moet worden gehouden. Scott Berman ontmoet de vrouw

Toen Véronique Castelo meer dan 20 jaar geleden haar eerste bedrijf oprichtte, besteedde ze niet al te veel aandacht aan de mogelijke risico’s… En ze moet toch iets goed hebben gedaan – ze groeide uit tot een van Frankrijk’s vooraanstaande ondernemers op het gebied van medische apparatuur.

Castelo studeerde voor sociale werker maar werkte tijdens haar eerste job als business manager bij een technologiebedrijf. Hier ontmoette ze eveneens haar toekomstige man en robotica- ingenieur Alain Delache. Ze vertelt: “ik had geluk als vrouw in een hightech omgeving”. Ze had een zwak voor datasystemen en haar bedrijf, Technème (opgericht toen ze 23 was) werkte een vooruitstrevend diagnostisch systeem uit voor slaap apneu.

Ze verkocht Technème in 1997 en ging zich voortaan wijden aan de behandeling van apneu. Samen met Delache ontwierp ze een ademhalingsventilator waardoor een ziekenhuisprocedure voortaan gewoon thuis kon worden uitgevoerd. Het apparaat groeide uit tot een bestseller in Frankrijk en in 2008 verkocht ze het bedrijf (Kaerys) aan een Amerikaans dochterbedrijf van Philips.

Castelo, nu 47, past momenteel toe wat ze leerde als particuliere investeerder van start-ups. Ze zetelt in de raad van talrijke bedrijven en is lid van Succes Europe, die zo’n €8,2m heeft geinvesteerd in 21 bedrijven uit de medische, biologische, groene energie, ITC en internetsector.

Castelo “heeft het ondernemingsschap in haar bloed“, aldus Delache. Maar wat drijft haar? “Opbouwen“, zegt Castelo. “En een bedrijf uitbouwen is zoals het waarmaken van een droom“.

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