"The main reason start-ups go under is differences between the founders"
Cristian Pascual
Cristian Pascual has a degree in Industrial Engineering and an MBA from Esade and the Carlson School of Management. For 18 years, he held various executive positions at large companies in a variety of sectors. Then, in 2011, he founded Mediktor with Oscar García-Esquirol, a physician, intensive care specialists and medical soul of the project. “Now I am completely focused on revolutionizing the healthcare world,” says Pascual. Plus, he has been a business angel for the past 12 years and is involved in roughly 15 start-ups.
Mediktor is a system that evaluates a person’s symptoms using artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing to guide the interview with patients just as a doctor would, recommend what they should do next and give them a list of possible conditions from the symptoms detected. According to the company, it is the first clinically proven system to evaluate symptoms in the world, and does so with 91.3% accuracy. The company is facing many challenges in 2018, explains co-founder and CEO, Cristian Pascual.
Why did you want to be an entrepreneur?
I’m restless and a non-conformist. I like challenges. This has led me to a wide variety of professional projects. As I matured professionally, it became clearer and clearer that I wanted to start up my own project. I waited for the right time, personally and professionally, to set off on my own and here we are, revolutionizing access to healthcare around the world with Mediktor.
What is the most important strategic decision you’ve made so far?
The most important thing is to surround yourself with the right professionals who share your motivation for the project. You have to find a complete team, with complementary members, that is united. It seems easy… but it isn’t! The main reason start-ups go under is differences between the founders. If you can convey your passion for what you’re doing to someone else, you’ve already ahead.
What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Think big, make a project that is totally scalable. In an increasingly global world, distances and time are approaching zero: take advantage! Think about how you can expand your solution as quickly as possible… and prepare to never give up, because it won’t be easy.
And now what? What milestones do you want to achieve in the short term?
In 2018, we want to consolidate our present in the US market. We just hired a new director for our New York office and plan to hire two more people. The US healthcare market is huge and American companies are more open to adopting new technology. Additionally, we will also bolster our technical team to continue leading the market of symptom evaluation systems. Finally, we’re kicking off 4 clinical studies for further clinical validation of our solution. So, 2018 is going to be full of challenges and we are looking forward to it.
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