Meet Martin Kasa, co-founder of PilulkaLab and Board Member of Pilulka

Hi Martin! Tell us about your background? What attracted you to the healthcare industry?
I have a computer sciences background and as surprising as it might look, I got into the healthcare business by accident. But in life, coincidences are often the best things.The industry appealed to me from the very beginning because of the innovation opportunities. The healthcare sector will go through massive digitalization and bring many new disrupting ideas. Moreover, it is an industry that clearly helps people live a better life so what is there not to like!

You have now been in this industry for 8 years. What are some of the fundamental changes you have seen?
The healthcare market is changing tremendously. Diagnostic gadgets, logistics of healthcare information, patient expectations, the relationship between insurance companies and patients, and healthcare financing are all changing significantly. In the coming years, the industry will be fundamentally transformed from the patient’s perspective.

Pilulka is a very unique and successful company. What is your recipe for success? What makes Pilulka unique?
Perhaps because none of the founders are medical graduates, we maintain a very healthy view of the industry through the eyes of our customers. I think this is absolutely key in business. The second essential factor is the ability to execute quickly and directly. Even though Pilulka is now a large company, it retains the capabilities of a startup at all levels of management. This is something I am very proud and keen of.

What is Pilulka Lab?
Pilulka Lab is an accelerator where we combine finance and our industry expertise alongside the network from the StartupYard team’s years of experience in supporting startups. We see many excellent emerging projects in the market that we want to help so we decided to set up PilulkaLab to support all these projects. We want to help them get off the runway and enable fast growth.

Why do you think it is important?
I’ve started several businesses from scratch. I have also had successful exits and the experience that came with them. Each business is different of course, but one thing they have in common is the ability to focus on the product, timing of market entry and getting to customers as quickly as possible. The founder’s authenticity and excellent ability to surround themselves with talented people is absolutely key. When you have someone next to you to help you with the experience they have already been through, you save the most valuable thing for a startup and that is time.

What excites you the most in the current e-Health sector? If you were to bet on one technology, which one would it be?
I’m excited about the whole social change where people want to take better care of their health. If I had to bet on technology, I would certainly say data because like in any other industry experimenting digital innovation, data is at the core. Data can then be used for artificial intelligence or better communication between patients and the industry for example. Of course, privacy is also a very important topic I care about. I hope that with PilulkaLab we will find bold new ideas that just need this extra piece of help we can provide, whether it is funding or connecting with the right partners.

You are a strong believer in the potential of the CEE region. What advantages do you see for tech founders here?
I have met many people in my career from different regions. However, I have often seen a hunger for success in people from CEE. The culture of the region is different than elsewhere the social changes that have happened in Eastern Europe have certainly affected us. But not everything is rosy of course, so we also have a number of disadvantages in this region. However, we can fight these and today’s world is erasing many barriers.

What advice would you give to the eHealth startup founder from the region (apart from applying to Pilulka Lab of course!)
Trust yourself. Don’t be afraid. I am a big sports fan. And there’s always a rule in sport, that the easiest way to lose is to give up at the beginning. With PilulkaLab we want to give everyone the opportunity of a good start.

Startups interested in the program can apply now.