Belma Alispahic — AnalysisMode & the Smart Revolution in Bioprocessing

Cedric:I am Adam Walker, a biometrics consultant, and this is the Pharma Prescribed Podcast where leaders, innovators, and hidden voices in healthcare open up, no sound bites, no spin, just raw insight, one prescription at a time. In an industry driven by data protocols and pressure, we rarely pause to ask the human questions.

Speaker:What drives us, what breaks us, and what truths live behind the titles we wear? Belmar. Alice Bahi, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Analysis mode has a master\'s in applied Biotechnology from UPS University, and she has a track record of turning complexity into clarity. Belma is reshaping how we think about bioprocess development.

Speaker:At analysis mode, she leads the charge behind Sim Cell, an AI powered platform designed to accelerate bioprocess efficiency, reducing time to market, and future proof, and future proofing pharmaceutical workflows. Belmar recently took to the stage at the ninth Bioproduction Congress in France. Where she shared her insights on future proofing, AI-powered prior.

Speaker:Start that again. Belmar recently took to the stage at the ninth Bioproduction Congress in France where she shared her insights on future proofing with AI powered bioprocess development. Her message was clear. AI is isn\'t optional. It\'s essential for navigating the increasingly complex biopharma landscape.

Speaker:This isn\'t just about algorithms, it\'s about empowering scientists to make smarter decisions. Faster ER\'s work is testament to what happens when deep scientific expertise meets bold technological vision. Belmar, welcome to Pharma Prescribed. How are you?

Speaker 2: After this wonderful introduction, how can I be m Excellent.

Speaker 2: Thank you, Adam. Thank you ~~for, for~~ this, very good summary. And thank you for having me here.

Speaker:It\'s a delight to have you here today. Over the last couple of weeks, we\'ve got to know each other a little bit better, talking outside of the podcast, and it\'s very interesting to me, but also I think it will resonate with our audience.

Speaker:If you could share a little bit of your background story and how you got into clinical research and what you\'re doing today.

Speaker 2: Yeah, ~~so, uh,~~ my story started in Bosnia. Herzegovina in a very small town called I was always a curious child and a must still a curious person. That\'s, I think my, one of my main drivers.

Speaker 2: And I always liked to know why behind the things that we can see. That could be universe, that could be stars, ~~uh,~~ that later on translated into biology because I couldn\'t become an astronaut. So in Boston at least, biology was ~~a bit, a bit~~ closer to that. And fast forward, ~~uh,~~ I venture deeper than into biotech.

Speaker 2: And, ~~uh,~~ during my master studies, I realized that, I am of much more well suited for maybe a more into the industrial career and I wanna see what I can contribute there. And then I met the co-founder during COVID, and that\'s how I co-founded analysis mode. So that, that\'s the very long story short, I skipped couple of chapters, but, ~~uh,~~ that\'s who I am today.

Speaker:So you wanted to be an astronaut, you find yourself as a bio technologist. Is that how you would describe yourself? Is that a fair assessment?

Speaker 2: A fair one, yes. Yes. There were a couple of other career that were surrounded that were ~~kind of~~ there, but yes, I would say that was the closest one.

Speaker:So what is your goal around analysis mode and what it is you\'re trying to achieve?

Speaker 2: Our goal is, I would say one that is more on, on a, on a grander, ~~uh,~~ vision, which is that, we should not have to pay a lot for therapies. Therefore, solutions that that are. ~~Uh,~~ from an ai, ~~uh,~~ perspective should help the industry reduce the cost, either of manufacturing of the drugs in, in general, increase the success in getting the drugs to the market, getting to the patients, and then, ~~um,~~ on the technical side of view, ~~uh,~~ the AI should, ~~uh,~~ be accessible.

Speaker 2: How we interact with models in this modern day of age should. Change. ~~Um,~~ this is, ~~uh,~~ where, where we took the, the other part of, of translating, ~~uh,~~ our models into, ~~uh,~~ a dashboard and a feature, ~~uh,~~ features that actually are. Contributing, ~~uh,~~ not only to the specialists themselves or to people who are accustomed to complicated softwares, but to really someone who, who just wants to explore and has a couple of questions and wants to be on a laptop and, test ideas, on a laptop.

Speaker:Okay, so when you started the company, AI was slightly different and I listened to a lot of podcasts myself outside of this. So.

Speaker:Can you talk to the point around the enormous changes that you\'ve seen in a very short period of time and maybe contextualize that for our audience?

Speaker 2: That, that is an incredible question.

Speaker 2: ~~Uh,~~ I remember even in the industry, we are in bio purchasing industry, so it\'s a very niche industry. And when we started the co the company, ~~uh,~~ even on a global scale, AI was still something that is, was kept in, I would say. Circles, ~~uh,~~ also ~~kind of~~ siloed in industries. Automobile, I don\'t know, healthcare, cosmetics.

Speaker 2: But then, ~~um,~~ I think what changed everything was to ChatGPT no matter how, how many times we hear about it. I think this was a very pivotal moment when not only specialists, but people who just have a phone now can use, an AI. And can chat and interact with it. And after that, I\'ve seen a lot of changes in the industry as well and much more talk, about AI implementation.

Speaker 2: Regardless. It can be ~~just, uh,~~ an LLM to help you prepare your filings for FDA and analyze a lot of. Documents or it can be something that like we are doing more on a deep tech side when you\'re developing models that simulate or digital twins for bio practices of different biological, tele cultures.

Speaker 2: So this is a, what I\'ve seen, I\'ve seen now a lot of people, ~~uh,~~ having different AI strategies, having AI departments, all of the big pharmas are now hiring. Massively. So it\'s an interesting time to, to, ~~uh,~~ run this business. I\'m also a little bit scared it started slow and then expanding super fast.

Speaker 2: For how we run the business, right? We have to think differently now.

Speaker:It\'s curious that you mention around employment opportunities. Many people say that the implementation of AI into big pharma is likely to reduce. Work, reduce workload for people and perhaps specialize skillset. What I\'m curious to know your perspective on that and whether or not you think that\'s fair.

Speaker:Is that accurate? Is that your experience?

Speaker 2: I would say maybe to an extent. I don\'t think we are gonna see any, mass layoffs like we are seeing, for example, in tech industry, that are gonna translate into pharma industry, any. I think what we are going to see is that people are gonna be challenged in how they interact with digital tools overall.

Speaker 2: This is a very, conservative industry. People that do not usually like to interact with computers, that\'s why we still have experiments noted down on paper or hopefully Excel sheets and then different types of data lakes. I think this is, ~~uh,~~ the pressure that, that, ~~uh,~~ maybe the scientists and engineers within pharma companies might be feeling that they are not.

Speaker 2: Equipped, ~~uh,~~ now to understand what is actually happening. And I don\'t think anybody fully is to be, completely fair. But to answer your question, I don\'t think, we are gonna have AI replacing. I think we are gonna have ai, argumenting and also changing how we do science. And I think that\'s a really interesting conversation that could be, that we should have.

Speaker 2: There\'s a lot of things broken in the system and I think AI has a lot of leverage too. Hopefully, ~~um,~~ change some things, how we do, how we develop drugs and get them to market.

Speaker:It\'s an interesting point around conservatism in the industry and across pharma and biotech. I\'ve seen it firsthand and I think.

Speaker:I\'d like to think I\'m part of the young generation, but I\'m not as young as I once was. I\'m surrounded by people, perhaps your generation and younger who are coming into this industry, challenging the status quo, challenging the old way, and bringing new ideas and new approaches to really reenerg, energize that paradigm because we\'re not gonna move forward either across innovation, but particularly.

Speaker:As long as there are ethical approaches to patient information and to ensuring that patients are at the heart of everything that we do and remain to be around , the ethics, that is a key point, isn\'t it? ~~Uh,~~ as to how Yeah, I agree. The industry develops and moves forward. I,

Speaker 2: I absolutely agree.

Speaker:Yeah.

Speaker:So , I\'m curious, without going down too deeply into the ai.

Speaker:Rabbit hole. How much of your work today is involving large language models and developing tools around these particular platforms? Because I think for our audience, it would be interesting to know. What\'s coming? And what\'s behind the scenes in fresh startups like your own.

Speaker 2: So, ~~uh,~~ we as a company, we do not use LLM.

Speaker 2: So we have our own proprietary algorithm that we have, ~~uh,~~ called Ines, which is. Ai, never evolutionary symbolic learning. Very mouthful. But, it describes the complexity of the models that we are developing. So we are developing models that simulate, glucose uptake in cells, t in cells, ~~um, uh,~~ show cells hopefully.

Speaker 2: Cell and gene therapies, ~~uh,~~ viral vectors. So, ~~um,~~ with the idea that you would have less experiments to run in the lab, or very accurate experiments to run in the lab and get enough product and a good quality of your product. So this is, ~~uh,~~ the core of our, ~~uh,~~ AI intelligence. I personally use, JGPT and other AI tools daily.

Speaker 2: So in, in, in my business, ~~like~~ we are a. A team of two co-founders. And, ~~uh,~~ there is, that\'s the core team. And we hire when we on, on, on need, ~~uh, uh,~~ basis. And that means that I, I have to cover , a lot of roles. And then AI becomes, ~~uh,~~ my assistant as a marketing manager, as a business developer, a sales as a brand, as a scientist, and all of these different personas that I do have to,

Speaker 2: have different hats and, ~~uh,~~ hats to wear. So I think this is where, ~~um,~~ this comes in and we are, ~~uh,~~ planning to introduce an LLM, feature on our platform as a way to interact with our models. So it wouldn\'t stimulate science, but it would actually help scientists to interact with our, our models, just by a simple prompt to be able to just then send that simulation.

Speaker 2: That\'s hopefully coming out soon. But that\'s how we see this connection between. What we have now is AI agent type of, ~~uh,~~ LLMs. And in, in a connection with the, ~~uh,~~ ai, models that are simulating maybe could, in this case be clinical trials even, or some other, part of entire drug development for us is manufacturing and, ~~uh,~~ purchase development.

Speaker:Okay. Thank you for sharing that.

Speaker:So from, from a business point of view, it\'s yourself and a co-founder. Are you bootstrapping the business at the moment, if you don\'t mind me asking? Yes,

Speaker 2: yes. I don\'t,

Speaker:And where do you sit as far as, taking on investment or at some point if a big pharma company comes knocking on your door and says, I really, really love what you do, we\'d really like to implement

Speaker:your tools within our organization , and take you under their umbrella. Where do you sit with that particular conversation?

Speaker 2: We are very open for it. We actually are now, ~~uh,~~ thinking. After four years of being bootstrapped and getting, ~~uh,~~ being the first, AI company in this market, developing the brand, scaling the business and the, the technology and the platform to a certain level, it\'s time to scale.

Speaker 2: This is a really question that you asked, ~~um,~~ and we decided to be bootstrapped. Because we wanted to keep control of, how we do the early part of our, business. We were, ~~um,~~ lucky and also smart to apply for an EU funding, which, ~~uh,~~ is also now becoming a part of our another ip, so that, that has covered our, ~~um,~~ costs for the last three years and now.

Speaker 2: We are thinking to, ~~uh,~~ be ready for maybe more similar, not, not, ~~uh,~~ typical venture capital. We are actually not, ~~uh,~~ not interested, to grow into. This, ~~uh,~~ big monster, ~~uh,~~ of a company. Our goal is actually, and I think we would make more impact. It\'s not even about a goal. I had that goal at the beginning.

Speaker 2: Now as I\'m learning guys, I\'m actually seeing that we would make much more impact if we would be taken under an umbrella of somebody who knows what they\'re doing. I\'m not saying that we don\'t, I\'m just saying that, ~~uh,~~ in this case, capacity and scale matters and, ~~um.~~ We as a, as one company, we can be a provider for multiple, but I think the big change happens when you come under one company and kind of take over, their whole, let\'s say ai, ~~uh,~~ intelligence layer.

Speaker:think, I think what you\'re describing really is that scalability, isn\'t it? It\'s the fact that,. With the best will in the world, two people can only go so far, and the expertise that you take on alongside others who\'ve already done these things before.

Speaker:When you\'ve got your core skillset and you\'ve got your core tech in place, effectively, it then becomes scalability, doesn\'t it? And moving it forward into a different realm to potentially different areas, but also I think from a profitability point of view. There is a lot more out there once you\'ve done your, absolutely, you know, your core decision making around what it is you are intending to achieve within that technology stack.

Speaker 2: And the other, ~~uh,~~ important part to mention is people, this is, ~~uh,~~ a change problem. And a lot of initiatives, digital initiatives reportedly fail, not usually not because of technologies. In 70 to 80% it\'s change management. So therefore, it\'s really important to have people on board understand what is it that they are gaining, because they are now forced to use AI tools.

Speaker 2: I think that\'s really important. What I\'m really seeing often in conversations when I am, ~~uh,~~ selling what we are doing right, it\'s, ~~uh,~~ depending on who I\'m talking to, I can be talking to, say top management. And they are very excited about ai. They have many ideas. They have, ~~uh,~~ lots of, ~~uh,~~ different projects that they want to run.

Speaker 2: And more open, let\'s say. But then when you meet the scientists, they\'re like, oh my God, they have no idea what they\'re talking about. They want us to do this crazy thing I have no experience about, and they\'re thinking that because I did this, something similar, that this could work. And there\'s this huge, this balance, not only in one, I have seen this across all of the big companies.

Speaker 2: It\'s always the same complaint. It\'s not even behind the doors, it\'s publicly spoken about. So it\'s not it\'s kind of this. A big monster that I think it\'s, the most difficult one, to actually tackle, ~~uh,~~ when it comes to innovation, especially early adoption.

Speaker:That\'s a great point, ~~uh,~~ around change management.

Speaker:I mean, what often I see in larger organizations is they bring in consulting firms to actually just manage the change management process. Namely, what did you do before? What are you doing afterwards and how does that affect your day-to-day working? And how do you document it? Who needs to know, who needs to be trained, all of those aspects.

Speaker:I mean, that\'s how I understand change management. Is that your, , the approach that you\'re describing?

Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. ~~Um,~~ because you don\'t, if you, this is what I\'m thinking. My, my total is around, I never wanted us to develop something that wouldn\'t be, that would be used once in a while.

Speaker 2: I want something that will be used often. ~~Uh,~~ that means that it has to bring value to people who are using them. The people who are buying them are not gonna use these tools usually. So, ~~um,~~ it\'s really important that they are convinced that this actually makes sense. For them, and then they are not gonna be replaced.

Speaker 2: Going back to your point, right? This is where our role and my role, especially in this case, is to really help and communicate what does it mean to have. A model, an AI model, and what does it mean for you? Are you now more, are you stupid now because you\'re using ai? Because now there\'s a lot of this conversation on cognitive abilities and AI influencing our cognitive abilities and, ~~um,~~ other similar topics.

Speaker 2: And this is where people of course, are protective of, especially as scientists of their knowledge and how are they perceived. So you have to really make a lot of effort in. Pretty much making this more of of educational approach. It takes time. And this is why I think changes is, ~~uh,~~ it\'s really lowering the anxiety and really communicating the expectations from both sides.

Speaker 2: So even if it\'s not ideal at the beginning, you know why it\'s like that? I think this is really important for people to feel that they\'re involved in the process. Even if the decision came from the top. ~~Uh,~~ because sometimes usually I it\'s usually done like that, that you feel like you have ownership, that you have responsibility, and that you\'re still important in this whole process because you are, you are the focus, ~~uh,~~ in this particular case, the beneficiaries are the patient, but you are the focus of this particular tool, so you should be.

Speaker 2: You should feel important. You should feel like it\'s, bringing you knowledge is bringing you more time, is bringing you more creativity.

Speaker 2: I think there\'s a lot that we can extract from AI in terms of how do we critically think, because now when I just go to, to chat GPT and, and prompts, I don\'t know , how often do you use it?

Speaker 2: Do you use it? But. Are you say every day? Anytime I get angry is because I haven\'t put a good context into what I wanted. Yeah. I think, and I do get, ~~I,~~ I get angry sometimes. I\'m ~~like,~~ oh my God, I\'ve been telling you what you\'re gonna, what do you need to do? And you have not been doing this.

Speaker 2: And then I stop and I\'m ~~like,~~ if I just have spent ~~like~~ two more minutes. Into adding more context. I would have avoided, ~~I dunno,~~ this was earlier learnings, right? Five to 10 minutes of ~~like~~ annoyance and anger and be like, why are you not, why are you not doing what I want you to do? And I think this is this fun states to any AI tool that we are gonna see.

Speaker 2: People have this expectations that it\'s gonna be able to read their minds. It\'s not. It, it\'s,

Speaker:it\'s a really, it\'s a really interesting point because yes, as you\'re describing that it\'s almost, it, it\'s almost describing the conversations I have with my two grownup children. Sometimes I feel I have to tell them three or four or five times or change the message until they get it, and it\'s very similar in the way that, I\'m using chat, GPT.

Speaker:What I\'m often disappointed at both as a parent and as the user of Chat gpt is is what you are describing, which is. I\'ve told you once, surely you get it. No, I told you twice. Surely you get it. Do you not learn? And then the next day, have you forgotten everything that I told you?

Speaker 2: Oh my God, I forgot.

Speaker:assuming you\'re not a parent, but correct me. No, no. Well, ~~uh,~~ I, I hope one day you will be, and you\'ll understand how complimentary these, these questions are. But it\'s, it is a really fascinating thing because I think by. Everyday use, use of software and technology.

Speaker:We get used to getting the right answers, and particularly as scientists and technologists, you don\'t really feel like you have to reiterate and reiterate, but actually, in reality, scientific experiments are exactly that, aren\'t they? ~~You know,~~ what\'s your method, right? How are you gonna do it? Try it again.

Speaker:Try it again. Try it again. And it\'s educating the model, whatever that be, whether it be wet chemistry, as much as, ~~uh,~~ a large language model and educating it into what you\'re really wanting to ask. But, ~~um,~~ I use it all the time and I was recently, I a conference actually in Frankfurt where I know you are, and I had many conversations around.

Speaker:S applying to large language models, but also I think to an earlier point that you made around EU funding for these technology opportunities. There\'s a company that I work very closely with based in in Germany as well, and Frankfurt seems to be an amazing hub for life scientists and technologists. More generally there is funding for development of these things.

Speaker:Can you expand a little bit more about that and why that might be the case?

Speaker 2: I am not that yet familiar around the funding. I will have to look it up into a bit more details. What I did notice is, Frankfurt is not usually seen as a life science hub of, germany, ~~uh,~~ it\'s Munich, but ~~uh,~~ just next to Frankfurt, Dan in Danta, there is, ~~uh,~~ the biggest Mercks facility, their manufacturing facility, and Merck was just announced as the second, top four leader in AI readiness.

Speaker 2: So for me, and I was just, ~~uh,~~ using bound to like drive, I was going to dump that. And I saw the, I dunno how many, ~~uh,~~ hectares of. It\'s massive. It\'s, I think over 2 billion euros investment, massive infrastructure. It\'s amazing. I hope I\'m gonna get in soon. But that\'s also, I think in Frankfurt.

Speaker 2: My interest is more in, in funding, in the funding part. Not that much in the. Biotech because I can travel from here to Milli in a very short, frame of time. For me, it\'s really the funding part and the way we do business. I, as I\'m, I was the one and I\'m still the one in the company who is who\'s done the business models and go to market strategies has validated, I dunno, how many iterations in these last years, ~~uh,~~ to get to, a business model that would actually work in our case.

Speaker 2: Because that\'s the part where I think, ~~uh,~~ for the future founders and then people who are listening who want to venture on an AI business, ~~uh,~~ AI is not gonna be your business. It is not even gonna be your unique selling anytime sooner. It\'s just gonna be a means to an end, and you need to know what that end is and be able to present your.

Speaker 2: Your solution to whatever problem you have identified, without, ai. And that\'s, I think, very tricky. And, ~~uh,~~ it, especially when AI is your core value, and you\'re still learning, and you\'re still developing your, your corett text. So this is, for me, ~~uh,~~ now. Different business model, different funding opportunities, ~~uh,~~ that are not typical VCs.

Speaker 2: I, ~~uh,~~ am personally a person who had, I prefer scalability and sustainability over speed. And, ~~uh,~~ they are prices that you pay with either decisions, of course, but I, ~~um.~~ I, I, I am the founder, the co-founder as well, have decided to rather sacrifice, on being, let\'s say, later to the market rather than taking on a huge investment later, early.

Speaker 2: So that\'s why I\'m, ~~uh,~~ partially in front. I wanna see how. These bigger deals are constructed, ~~uh,~~ because I don\'t have that experience, right? I have the scientist experience. I have a startup experience. Now it\'s time to get into, let\'s say, bigger money experience, private equity, merger acquisition, different types of funding, strategic investments.

Speaker 2: Different commercialization strategies. That\'s something that I have found, ~~uh,~~ interesting. I have never thought I would be in business in the first case, but now I\'m like, oh, I\'m really interested. How do we actually make, ~~uh, uh,~~ an an environment that is, good for businesses. It doesn\'t push startups to go for VC fundings before they have a client, before they have something that would actually be AC company.

Speaker 2: So they don\'t have to go through unnecessary stresses and also unnecessary storytelling to people who don\'t really care at the end of the day about what they do, but how much money they\'re going to get them. So I think this is my personal interest in how do we make businesses, ~~um.~~ That are different, ~~uh,~~ in this modern age.

Speaker:Yeah. Challenges for startup are everywhere, aren\'t there? It\'s one thing, having an idea, it\'s another thing. Monetizing it, commercializing it. Marketing a product, marketing a service.

Speaker:And you mentioned about Merck being just down the road in Darmstadt. I also worked in Munich for nine months of a career.

Speaker:Many, I\'ll say many years ago. In 2016, I was in Munich and. I saw firsthand working in a vaccine company there, ~~uh,~~ near Munich University in the south of the city, how much investment and how big life sciences is in Germany. It\'s incredible. Absolutely. I mean, Germany is a country, I think, I, I\'ve always been incredibly impressed with how well it works.

Speaker:But more and more particularly post Brexit for the uk, it becomes clearer and clearer how. EU , can really facilitate that. And this is not a political point, this is really just an observation that life science innovation is happening in Europe more than it\'s happening in the UK right now. And probably complimentary to what we\'re seeing in the US as well.

Speaker:But ~~um,~~ certainly I would say in the last 10 years it\'s become very, very evident. And I\'ve done lots of work in and around Germany particularly. So it\'s a country that I have very close to my heart. But also I think there are some very complimentary behaviors and approaches to work that I find work really well with me.

Speaker:I like working alongside Germans and Europeans more generally but I do find that the country itself seems to lend itself to innovation in and around life sciences. I don\'t know, I dunno if that\'s your experience as well. You\'re from Bosnia, you\'ve moved to Germany.

Speaker:Clearly there was an intention behind that.

Speaker 2: I could maybe even compare it. So I did my master\'s in Sweden. So I was in Sweden for two years and I was in Finland for two years, and now I\'m all well. Three, four months in Germany. But I\'ve been, ~~uh,~~ Germany is quite close, to everybody in Balkans, right? We sort of, ~~uh,~~ at least go here for, ~~uh,~~ to visit our cousins or family.

Speaker 2: So , it\'s, ~~uh,~~ and for example, my grandfather used to work in Austria. He was a seasonal worker. He used to make ~~like~~ tables, ~~I dunno, like~~ sub special, ~~uh,~~ kitchen tables for some company there. So there\'s a lot of exchange, there. So from that perspective, there\'s something for me, very wonderful in Germany, which is their education system.

Speaker 2: It is very. It\'s very complex to understand, ~~uh,~~ because you have way, way too many options, ~~uh,~~ which for some people seems super weird. But from what happens here is that you have people that are educated for industrial. So for companies, for industry applications, and you have universities specialized in that, and then you have universities specialized in, let\'s say more academic, sciences.

Speaker 2: And I think that produces a workforce that then can produce, ~~uh,~~ different companies, ~~uh,~~ in terms of both how they do science and also how they manufacture, not only in, in biotech always go to, ~~um.~~ Auto industry, which is, ~~uh,~~ their, I would say Germany\'s, prime example of how are they able to also manufacture things and bring industry to scale.

Speaker 2: It\'s not just the science, it\'s industry at scale that I would, my interest , in this particular case, in Sweden, for example, there\'s much more smaller biotechs. I was in Sala, ~~uh uh,~~ which is. Crazy for biotech scene in Sala Sweden area. There\'s around 500 biotech companies, so , it\'s crazy.

Speaker 2: Sweden is also doing a wonderful, ~~uh,~~ job in funding these, ~~um.~~ Then in Finland, which was for me, was quite surprising, which is, it\'s not, biotech is not focus, Healthtech is, MedTech is. So in comparison to, for example, Sweden, where MedTech and healthtech are not that much of a focus. Biotech is, and then Germany,

Speaker 2: it covers almost all. So I think that then explains, on how much they invest, ~~uh,~~ in all of these different sectors, right? ~~Uh,~~ that support, ~~uh,~~ their systems.

Speaker:I think it\'s a really good roundup, actually, , and my experience also of Scandinavia having worked in Denmark and with, ~~um,~~ Scandinavian companies.

Speaker:Again, very complimentary, smart people, highly educated, great countries where things happen and work really well. We\'ve got fantastic infrastructure. Funding for education is pivotal to the nation as much as contr contributing to the tax burden of the country. And that\'s what I also think is missing. If I, ~~you know,~~ if I were gonna start the UK again, there\'d be, there\'d be plenty that we can learn from our, from our, ~~um,~~ our neighbors, our Scandinavian neighbors, and, ~~uh,~~ our European neighbors.

Speaker:So I appreciate your insight into that. I think bma because. As someone who has also, ~~you know,~~ like you jumped around a little bit, ~~uh,~~ but kept my base in the uk I think it\'s really interesting for our audience to hear that perspective across boundaries because our work is entirely global these days.

Speaker:Right? ~~You know,~~ that\'s awesome. Can we can work anywhere with anyone remotely like this through screens. COVID was that great disruptor that enabled us to be able to do this forever. And thank goodness, ~~you know,~~ there were some pros and there were some cons, but certainly opening opportunity for conversations across boundaries, I think has been incredibly helpful.

Speaker:Moving forward, and you mentioned around taking on investment, potentially following your bootstrapping, ~~um,~~ stage. What is the perspective and what is it you\'re looking forward to? ~~You know,~~ over the next couple of years, do you have a, do you have a future plan and a trajectory with which you are directing the company forward?

Speaker 2: Right now. We, there are a couple of things that are lined up and, ~~um,~~ the roads are still, we\'re still the crossroads. ~~Um,~~ ideally, one thing would be to get an exit to get acquired, by, ~~uh,~~ in our case it would ideally be someone like Merck, actually. ~~No, just saying so, or just saying, just saying, uh,~~ actually I\'m saying this because it makes sense, right?

Speaker 2: They provide services to pharma companies and, ~~uh,~~ we increase the value that they provide, to pharma companies. Pharma companies usually buy drug candidates. They do not buy, tech. ~~Um,~~ either them or c BMOs like concept. So that would be our ideal buyer and or strategic, investor. So that would be where I would really want to, ~~uh,~~ see myself and the company the next, ~~uh,~~ two, three, ~~uh,~~ let\'s say years that, we scale.

Speaker 2: We need to scale. We can still continue.

Speaker:Would you see yourself in that future role building that company? Because my sense is that you\'ve got a very sharp brain and you\'ve got lots and lots of ideas. This is one of them. Oh, I

Speaker 2: do. Yes. This is definitely one of many. I think that\'s what, that\'s usually how they handle these deals, so you usually have to stay.

Speaker 2: ~~Uh,~~ I do not mind staying for, two to three years. That\'s why I would love. This exit to happen faster so I could go on and do my other ventures, sooner. I am now actually looking into, now we can cut this off. It doesn\'t matter, but I am looking into more, into how do I, how do I help other people with the skills that I have gained throughout these four years, probably through some consulting services so that I could actually see where I can make, the most impact.

Speaker 2: I know what I love now. I really enjoy, strategy. I love leadership. I love bringing different puzzles together. I love collaboration. I love being around people all listening. What do they have in mind? Kind of asking them questions about their problems and then. Coming up with questions to then, get to the solution together.

Speaker 2: , And then I can do all of , the things that have to be put together. But I think this is the part where I would really love, love, love to see that. And I would love to see our company be there when our company really flies. Flies high because now it\'s still , a little baby. So I would love to be there for, ~~uh,~~ the big takeoff.

Speaker:I I absolutely would concur with you on that. And, and what\'s clear to me is your energy and your drive and your enthusiasm for your subject and for your business. And I think that will, that will come across for our audience as much as it would if I were to have the opportunity to see you on stage talking about this, in, in an in-person setting.

Speaker:So I think you\'ve given us a really lovely. Overview of analysis mode, your background and how you got into the industry and, and ultimately what you want to achieve here and passing that back and through others.

Speaker:So what we tend to do at this point , in the podcast is to go to the quick fire round.

Speaker:And here I\'d like to ask you a couple of very quick questions with regards to, the one piece of advice you would give to your younger self.

Speaker 2: Oh God, I had so many. I would say the one, the most important one is, don\'t doubt your dreams. They\'re not too big.

Speaker:I like that. My dad had a principle which he had painted on his garage wall called think Big.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker:It\'s the same thing. What are the top three qualities you value most when building a team? Belmont.

Speaker:Curiosity, definitely. Integrity combined with, ~~uh,~~ candor. I think that\'s really important.

Speaker 2: if you, mess something up and you come and you\'re like, Hey, ~~you know,~~ I, I. They, they said that, ~~you know, uh,~~ just important to, to come and be open. And, ~~uh,~~ empathy. I think, ~~uh,~~ putting humans first in teams is really important.

Speaker:I agree. Taking responsibility in owning that responsibility is something, again, I talked to.

Speaker:Those grown up kids of mine all the time only responsibility if you can\'t get up in the morning. Oh my God. Guess what? You didn\'t set your alarm.

Speaker 2: I, I have that problem with the whole Balkans. I\'m like, can you, can we just agree that we have responsibilities and we are all adults that, have.

Speaker 2: Things that are, they are, ~~you know,~~ accountable for. That\'s the one that I was, ~~uh,~~ looking for. Accountability.

Speaker:That\'s right. ~~Uh,~~ what is your favorite thing outside of work?

Speaker 2: I would say music. ~~Um,~~ I used to play piano when I was, ~~um,~~ a kid that was one of the other, it was an astronaut that there was a p pianist, somewhere there as an option.

Speaker 2: So I, I spent a lot of time listening to music for me. ~~Uh,~~ when I was younger it was. I would say a way to cross borders and meet people without actually ever, ~~uh,~~ being there. So I would definitely be the friend who has, I dunno, music for all of the continents, different countries, and, ~~um.~~ I just enjoy it.

Speaker 2: It\'s what, and then also hanging out with people that I care and love about. I\'m a lot in the screen in my remote studio, so it\'s good to touch grass after I\'m done with work. So I like to do that.

Speaker:That sounds wonderful. And finally, what is your number one golden rule in life and in business?

Speaker 2: Be honest, be weird. This is more in the, , I don\'t like the, it\'s not even authentic. I think that\'s kind of, it didn\'t rub me the right way or, ~~um,~~ it\'s weird. I think people are having, ~~uh,~~ all of us are weird in very wonderful ways and, ~~uh,~~ it\'s ~~uh,~~ when you are able to. Be truly, I feel empowered , in who you are.

Speaker 2: Truly. I think that\'s fair. ~~Uh,~~ you shine the most. I\'ve had troubles and I\'m still struggling with that part. Where I didn\'t like to take up space for, I dunno, many reasons, but, ~~uh,~~ I think taking up space, and therefore not being afraid of coming across as weird. It\'s really important.

Speaker:I\'m gonna give you a compliment. You don\'t come across as weird. You come across as extremely motivated and very driven and entirely focused on what you are doing. So

Speaker 2: thank you.

Speaker:That\'s a conversation for another day.

Speaker:, I think you\'ve been entirely authentic today, Belma and I, once again, I really want to thank you for your openness and your honesty.

Speaker:So as I say, you\'ve, you\'ve given us a good background and an understanding to analysis mode and, and how you got into this industry, and more importantly. How you will continue, on your future path. So thank you for taking the time today. For any of our audience that want to reach out to you directly, what\'s the best way that they can make contact with you and find out more about analysis mode?

Speaker 2: ~~Um,~~ I\'m very active on LinkedIn, so that\'s the. Fastest way to reach me out, to reach out to me personally. ~~Um,~~ I\'m always up for a good conversation, especially good questions. I keep always saying that to people, please challenge me. And, ~~uh,~~ yeah, our website, is, is the best way to, see what we are doing.

Speaker 2: And also LinkedIn, ~~uh,~~ there\'s some things that people can look up there. So if they want any, for anybody who is interested in how do, can, they can use data from the experiments, their processes, and apply AI to it. ~~Uh,~~ they can reach out to me.

Speaker:Wonderful. So the website, is it analysis mode.com?

Speaker 2: Yes.

Speaker:Very good. So once again, I really like thank you for taking the time today, Belma, it\'s been an absolute delight to meet you and to get to know you a little bit better. And thank you for coming on Pharma Prescribe Today.

Speaker 2: Thank you Adam. Thank you for wonderful conversation and I\'m hoping your guests are gonna enjoy it as much as I did.

Speaker:Thank you so much.