Labster – Mads Tvillinggaard Bonde

By Eva Somogyi on June 9, 2017

Co-Founder and CEO: Mads Tvillinggaard Bonde

Mads Tvillinggaard Bonde is a talented biotechnologist and serves as the CEO & founder of Labster.  At the age of 27, Bonde started Labster during his training as a civil engineer in Biotechnology at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The idea started as a small project in the student organization Biotech Academy and resulted in the founding of Labster in 2011 with partner Michael Bodekær.In an interview with

His idea for Labster began with his dissatisfaction with  teaching experiments in his own science education.  “It was inefficient, demoralizing and very far from how real research is done”  The former Harvard student was inspired by today’s use of flight simulators. They are helping to solve some of the same problems as in a lab, such as expensive equipment and reduced access for students. So why not make a simulator to educate science students and thereby raise the level of education and motivation?

Education

• 2016 – Honorary Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
• 2015 – Harvard Business School, Leadership Program
• 2015 – Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Synthetic Biology, and Bioinformatics, PhD researcher
• 2014 – University of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School, Reimagine Education Program
• 2012 – Technical University of Denmark, Master’s degree (Honours), Biotechnology, and Systems Biology
• 2011 – Harvard Medical School, Research Training Program, Molecular Biology, visiting scholar
• 2009 – Technical University of Denmark, B.Sc.Eng., Biotechnology

Co-Founder and CEO: Michael Bodekaer

Michael Bodekaer had a very early start in entrepreneurship and business. As a self-taught developer his first business venture, a software company, emerged when he was just 14 yrs old in Denmark. Currently, he is the founder of five unique organizations, managing a specific area of each where his expertise lies. He says that his work basically consists of getting good ideas for Windows software applications or online services, then finding and hiring a design and development team to realize his ideas, then marketing in the software online.

Education

• 2008 – Northwestern University – Kellog School of Management, MBA Studies
• 2007 – Harvard, Graduate, Business Valuation, Mergers & Acquisitions
• 2006 – Copenhagen Business School, M.Sc., Finance and Strategic Management
• 2003 – Copenhagen Business School, B.Sc., Finance and Mathematics

Venture: Labster

Founded in Copenhagen in 2011, Labster is a next-generation education technology company that develops fully interactive, virtual laboratory simulations to empower STEM students, geared at teaching advanced High School level and University students. Many of the laboratory simulations are aimed at university and college level Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Biotechnology, and Chemistry

The idea is to use technology that makes STEM fun and relevant. A common question for students that are taking calculus or chemistry is “when will this matter in my life?” The labs highlight the connection between science and real world issues by using resources that show students how to solve real-world problems.

Labster’s  offers more than 50 biotechnology lab simulations that are aimed mainly at a University/Collegiate audience. The simulations:

• Perform and engage users in advanced experiments and labs
• Uses storytelling to contextualize each simulation in real-world scenarios.
• 3D animations show students what is happening at the molecular level when performing experiments.
• Embedded questions check for understanding.

The other value proposition for Labster was to provide a virtual laboratory to students and professors who can’t afford the latest and greatest laboratory equipment for learning. Science programs at universities are finding it difficult to offer quality labs in their courses due to a lack of time, costs, and safety concerns.

The labs are being used by MIT, Harvard, Stanford, California State University, The Technical University of Denmark, Exeter University, University of New Haven, University of New England, Trinity College, University of Hong Kong and Berkeley among others internationally.

Labster has received several awards, including two Venture Cups, the prestigious iGEM competition under the auspices of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and most recently Innovationsfonden’s 2017 Innovator of the Year award.

Team

Labster seems to have a strong core team of team of approximately 55 developers, marketers, content writers, and account managers are located in Copenhagen, Bali, and Zurich.

The background of the content developers is quite extensive. For example “I did my master thesis work at The Stem Cell Center, Lund University in Sweden where I studied human embryonic stem cell differentiation and then I did a breast cancer research for my Ph.D. project.”

The team goal is to have scientific fidelity built into every scenario, which requires input from multiple areas of expertise, to ensure both high scientific and educational standards. The idea for a lab comes directly from the collaborators, who are professors at universities they have partnered with, like MIT, Stanford, the University of Copenhagen. The collaborators discuss what they want out of the lab, the key proposed learning objectives and the learning structure that will be covered in the case.

Reflections

Two things really struck me in looking at this venture:  Starting this course I had no intention or thought of entrepreneurship or starting a venture. My thought being that my educational background to date was entirely in nursing and not technology or business. This makes me see that there are possibilities and that I don’t have to have the extensive technology experience in order to be successful. No single person can start/ run a venture, they need a team of experts who bring their experience and knowledge to lead a successful venture.

It all starts with a great idea, seeing a need in your field of experience. This helped create a venture that solves the need for others in the same field. It started small, not as a hugely successful venture, and grew from there. Most importantly it started and didn’t stay just an idea in the back of someone’s mind.

I think what worked was the combination of people involved, both highly motivated, creative, but also highly educated partners, each with their own strengths in very different areas of the venture. They have also made sure to recruit or partner with experts in the field that the venture was created for. Partnering up with Universities, research labs, and educators for content and pedagogy.

Finally, they have kept pace with changes in society, education, and technology over the years and keep developing their product. Adding the capability for virtual reality goggles, a new project that allowed students to author their own labs with the Labster team, and the rumour that this summer is that they will announce access to the lab platform so that teachers can create their own custom lab experiences for their students

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