Jan Krikava — Docuply, Affordable QMS & Why Small Pharma Deserves Better Tools

Adam Walker: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.

Adam Walker:What drives us, what breaks us, and what truths live behind the titles we wear? Today we're joined by Jan Krikava, co-founder and managing director of Docu Ply, a document automation platform purpose built for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors with a degree in software engineering and a background in enterprise.

Adam Walker:He spent over a decade optimizing digital workflows for regulated industries Before launching docu, I Yan led product and strategy teams across Europe, helping life science organizations modernize their compliance infrastructure without compromising security or speed. Designed for CROs, biotech startups, and pharma service providers.

Adam Walker:Docuply delivers a fully compliant, pre-validated electronic quality management system. Jan, welcome to Pharma Prescribed.

Adam Walker:How are you today? Thanks for the invitation. Thanks for having me, Adam. Doing well. How about you?

Adam Walker:Not too bad, thank you.

Adam Walker:So for those of our audience who aren't familiar with you, how did you come into this industry and what brings you here today?

Jan Krikava:Good question. I started my career at, SAP here in Germany 30 kilometers away from Manheim, where I'm at right now in the office. I started working in, quality management there, I've been working with SAP for four years and then, turned self-employed.

Jan Krikava:after I finished also my Bachelor of science in, software engineering slash business informatics. And, yeah, basically I've been, also working for the life science industry, in my self-employment. And, yeah, everything worked off as fine as I didn't think before.

Jan Krikava:And, then this turned out to be a bigger success than even, imagined. In 2018, I've actually founded my first company, a consulting company called, KLQC, which is, focusing until today on, developing, MVPs for the life science industry, but also for the energy sector.

Jan Krikava:regulated industries are my hobby. this is, how we got, to Docuply because in, 2022, after validating our idea for almost two years, we had like plenty interviews at the end . Like 200, 250 interviews and 220 interviews in depth. And we also wrote a white paper together

Jan Krikava:So this was the white paper where it all started based on the white paper we did 250 quantitative interviews. this validated the idea to build document management software for, smaller companies in, biotech and pharma.

Jan Krikava:as it turned out, document management is not the only problem. what are you doing with the documents? in your day to day, job. It's actually quality management. So yeah, this is, how we pivoted. Into quality management from document management to apply got, bigger and better.

Jan Krikava:And, that's, how I came here.

Adam Walker:I'm delighted you are. for full transparency. we've been working together for just over a year now. Yeah. On your scientific advisory board. I'm really delighted to support you with those activities.

Adam Walker:more importantly, I think our audience would love to know some of the interesting findings that you've had in working in and around the pharma industry as opposed to more broadly general it, because they're very different, aren't they?

Adam Walker:What are the things that, as an outsider coming in, you've identified as being specific to the pharma industry?

Jan Krikava:that's a good question When we validated, Our idea I think it was late 2020 back then. we really ask ourself like, where do we want to, start, interviewing for potential challenges to be solved?

Jan Krikava:And then we actually were like. Writing down on a big sheet, which, industries we actually got, connections to, yeah. Meaning like some kind of network customers from the consulting company. Then we actually did, evaluation on which industry to really, pick for the interviews. And we ended up with the life science industry, because. We had, and I can still remember it was just across me here. we had basically the people within the life science industry, motivated. Everyone very motivated. and, then on the other side, people have a altruistic Yeah, altruistic motivation. And, this is why we actually went for the life science industry. we had some experience with MedTech.

Jan Krikava:We had some experience with pharma and we went for pharma because we saw the lack of digital solutions within the pharma industry, what we could actually notice when looking into the MedTech industry.

Adam Walker:It's an interesting thing that you've identified I would like to think that people do come into this industry for the right reasons. It was certainly what brought me into the industry to try and improve the lives of patients and those people in and around my family that were directly impacted by medicine.

Adam Walker:you are right about the altruism for sure. It seems to run through. Most people that I come across there is a consistency of behavior as well around the people that I'm sure you come into contact with, whether it's in conferences, on webinars, but there is that consistency of behavior that we find across the industry Isn't.

Jan Krikava:Definitely, we are very happy that, after the 250 interviews, we came across the same sort of people, motivated, very happy most often. And, yeah, that's, actually makes it a lot easier. starting a startup. Finding a startup, and, sticking with it.

Jan Krikava:Because, this is, like a rollercoaster Sometimes. you have to work through the bad times. And, it makes it a lot easier if you have the right people

Adam Walker:Starting up a company in this industry cannot be easy. And you had experience previously of starting up your own businesses and clearly you have that entrepreneurial drive

Adam Walker:Perhaps you can elaborate. A bit more about that because having got to know you a little bit over the last year I can see that, but I think it would be great if our audience could hear that directly from you as well.

Jan Krikava:how do I come to the decision, to work, self-employed.

Jan Krikava:Basically after working, at SAPI saw that, working within a big enterprise is, not as, momentous

Jan Krikava:Working for a big enterprise is, sometimes not as self-driven. as you, would like to be. how did I come to the decision to, become self-employed working at a big enterprise like SAPI actually, found out that, sometimes, certain decisions are not as fast as, I would imagine them to be. This is, why I Wanted to do it on my own. So I turned self-employed and I also had some, references.

Jan Krikava:My father was self-employed like the first, 10 years of his life. also my uncle was, self-employed, working as a freelancer in the IT industry for plenty years. And, just actually made the decision easy for myself also knowing that it's, really, Stressful sometimes.

Jan Krikava:on the other side, you, have to carry your own responsibility,

Adam Walker:Yeah, that's absolutely true. clearly having people around you that. Showed you it was possible, drove you forward. And it's something that I often talk to my now adult kids about that. there is something that I often say, which is, you can work for lots of big corporations, but ultimately the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning is putting food on the table and putting a roof over your head.

Adam Walker:And you certainly have that motivation a lone entrepreneur in the beginning, don't you? and I know. you're a recent parent as well, so that must also have fired your motivation a little bit more.

Jan Krikava:The motivation, even gets higher when you turn a father and, I did so two and a half years ago this is definitely.

Jan Krikava:More motivating than even before because, on the responsibility side, it's ever growing and, yeah. I'm still sticking to the idea, so I don't have any problems taking on the responsibility I totally, love it.

Jan Krikava:it's family life.

Adam Walker:I'm delighted you do and certainly. As I say it drives you in a different way than you ever thought possible.

Adam Walker:So circling back to Docuply, I'm curious to know how the name came about, because there isn't another company out there that even sounds like it. I reckon you must have done some real deep dive around that.

Adam Walker:Did you?

Jan Krikava:Another good question, Adam. it's funny you first thought, it would be A document management system back then? for laboratory use. that's why we named it, Doku lab first you can still do some research at, the European, patent register and see that, we tried to register Doku lab

Jan Krikava:Funny thing is, there was actually a company from Munich, sounding a little too close, And, they got, two out of, the four classes we've registered for. And, if the European, trademark is, Does some, decisions. It's not done from today until tomorrow or next week.

Jan Krikava:It takes up to two years. So we were like, do we wait for two years until the final decision? And, we said, Nope. we want to keep pushing and, went with another name. So it was like a early morning here in the office. We sat like exactly in this room and, we thought for some new names.

Jan Krikava:And, basically we just tried to keep it like seven, seven letters. And then if you just think about, the suppliers, then if you think about, also word multiply, we had this idea to, to add up the ply at the end. guess what? The domains were still unregistered and we went for it.

Adam Walker:Yeah, that's a cool story. I like that. and your branding behind you is also quite noticeable. It's on everything that you put out there. Is there a meaning behind that as well?

Jan Krikava:if you look right here it looks almost the share symbol you have on your smartphone or in different apps.

Jan Krikava:This is exactly, what we want to achieve in the bigger picture as a vision. We want to make documents, regulatory documents, quality management documents, shareable across suppliers, consultants, et cetera. 'cause we don't want to be a data silo. And, we want to make the data easily shareable with your third parties,

Jan Krikava:And this is why we went for the logo and then we had the. good luck to, have, Felix, a close friend of ours, who said he would like to do the design for us. And, I think it even didn't took him like, like a day or so. Like we had it instantly. Felix sent it over to us and we didn't have a second round, we straight up went with the logo

Adam Walker:That's good to know. I think coming from an IT software background as you do, it's decisive decision making, isn't it? It's throwing out ideas quickly, failing fast, deciding, and then going with it

Jan Krikava:Failing. Fast forward.

Adam Walker:It is a very crowded market that you've decided to work around electronic trial master files.

Adam Walker:There are some big players out there. Everyone who listens to this who's familiar with pharma and biotech will be aware of them. I'd really like to know what your experience has been in going out to conferences and putting your capabilities out there. In comparison to these enormous corporations that you're really up against, how has that been for you and how do you focus your attention on clients that you're really interested in and possibly more likely to get hold of?

Jan Krikava:I think with the crowded market, if you look from far away it looks like a crowded, market. But if you zoom in you can actually. See what's really available and affordable for small, medium sized companies. let's say up to 150 employees, 200 employees, and, especially for biotech biopharma startups.

Jan Krikava:Then, you will notice like that, close to no solution. It's made, especially for the smaller part of the market. in the end it's really difficult because, those systems, 20 years ago, were only made for big enterprises.

Jan Krikava:this is also why they look like this today. it's you have like plenty functions for big enterprises, but you as a small company, you just need like few buttons instead of a hundred buttons. And, yeah. Then on the other side, this will also keep your organization away from actually adopting the whole solution, because at the end you don't want to buy the solution.

Jan Krikava:We want to create a quality culture. if you have a solution which, works against this bigger goal, then it's, simply not achievable. on the other side, you also have, you also have the pricing. Yeah. If you ever have, went for RP Yeah, for electronic quality management system, you will have noticed that, most often there's like a setup fee in place.

Jan Krikava:if it's not called setup fee, then it's like onboarding fee and, maybe some additional consultants and a few trainer days. this all adds up to a big, block of initial costs. Which, a small startup of 10, 15 employees simply can't afford.

Jan Krikava:yeah, we've been looking around, for quite a while. we've been validating the idea for two years and, we couldn't find a solution matching up the momentum on one side, the usability on the other side. And, additionally also has a affordable price point and, that's why we went for Dock Supply.

Adam Walker:affordability is clearly important companies, under 150 employees as you mentioned. you also touched on quality. It's something that, as having worked in this industry for as long as I have I have to reinforce,

Adam Walker:It's in our blood. If you've been in this industry for any length of time. We have the highest level of regulations, higher than banking, because patients' lives matter and patient safety matters. I'd love to know a little bit more around that quality piece and how your system ensures quality, but also you manage to do it at an affordable level because you talked about cost.

Adam Walker:And how that plays out in smaller organizations around licensing and those types of things. but I'd just like to know how you've managed to find that sweet spot between quality, cost, and affordability.

Jan Krikava:Yeah. At the end, I don't think quality has to cost. A lot for sure.

Jan Krikava:It's like taking up a lot of resources, especially in terms of efforts, but that's only because it's so many repetitive tasks. if you just think about the pharma industry, like how many studied academics sometimes work for quality management doing Repetitive work like, gathering 30 signatures for training.

Jan Krikava:It, shows you how silly some of the processes are, which are accepted close to everywhere if they don't work, already digitally. this actually turned into our motivation that, There should be like some electronics solution out there, but, really helping with the repetitive tasks.

Jan Krikava:We were talking about SOP trainings, writing, change version descriptions. Coming up with a CAPA of suggestions, Those are all like things where you have to have some sort of experience and then on the other side, you have to do it, often.

Jan Krikava:To fast, actually, keeps a lot of people away doing it the right way who's motivated doing repetitive tasks at the end, especially if you are, if you have an academic background. I just wanted to, free up those times from repetitive tasks.

Jan Krikava:And I think in a, in 20, 25 with a large language models, and other technologies like the web technologies we are using this should be easier than handled beforehand. Docuply has all those features, inbuilt, baked in and makes, the life of quality managers and also QA managers, a lot easier.

Adam Walker:It sounds reassuring. And the critical audit and preventative actions that we identify in those. quality management systems are obviously critical to quality. you touched on those more menial tasks that people don't now want to do so much.

Adam Walker:Are you gauging from some of the people that you're talking to in the marketplace that is becoming less and less a requirement of junior level people and more an expectation that there are systems and processes that will do that as a first pass.

Jan Krikava:on one hand, there's a high demand for new quality managers, especially with the arising regulation demands. And, on the other side, you only get experience in the senior if you've been a junior before. So the demand for the juniors also raises.

Jan Krikava:I think it should be way easier as a entry, as a quality manager, in the beginning, like you have to read through the regulations, all the requirements. And then on the other side, if you don't have like a senior, he actually teaches you, it's like pretty hard.

Jan Krikava:I think if you have a system it really makes things. Way easier because Our system works as rails for quality management system because, you can't go too much left and too much, right? Because our system enforces certain things which are essential for quality management.

Jan Krikava:And, yeah, as I said, also happened with the repetitive task and this, Really , makes it easier, especially for younger quality managers who are also, digital natives and used to work with applications just like ours,

Adam Walker:The next generation, as you say, coming into this industry are digital natives born with phones in their hand.

Adam Walker:there is a level of expectation in that generation that they do not want to be doing what we used to do. I'm talking about pen and paper and scanning technology and various other things that now we just take for granted. But it hasn't always been that way, has it?

Adam Walker:clearly in your experiences from other areas you're adapting an approach that is working for you and the industry through what you've seen and learned around the people you're working with.

Jan Krikava:Yeah, definitely. you can see the generational change.

Jan Krikava:younger people do come into the industry. have certain expectations. And then on the other side, you have the seniors, leaving after 30, 40 years of work. this is why you have to adapt as organization to, digital workflows because, otherwise, it won't scale.

Jan Krikava:And, you will be starting again point blank.

Adam Walker:You're absolutely right.

Adam Walker:So with regards to, where the business is heading, what do you see for the future of Docu Ply with regards to the technologies that are out there? Things that will streamline the activities that you are already improving upon all the time?

Adam Walker:Are you using many of those new technologies that we talked about? Large language models, GPT systems? I've seen some demos. But I think our audience would love to know more about that particular aspect.

Jan Krikava:it's a lot of text-based content if you think about quality management documents.

Jan Krikava:close to all documents are text-based, with. Not as many pictures, in times like this with, large language models, also understanding pictures is becoming easier, for large language models. we are happy to have Aile, the challenger from France, with us, to make our features, AI native

Jan Krikava:Actually accelerating day-to-day work. Talking about the repetitive tasks mentioned before the SOP training and also, kapa ideas.

Adam Walker:So you talked about AI native. What does that mean in real terms? What does that actually mean for a lay person like myself?

Jan Krikava:AI native means that, we actually.

Jan Krikava:Build everything for adapting AI features. if you look back at old on-premise systems, it's very difficult to integrate and implement AI features. we as a cloud solution with European hosting have everything already there to, enable AI features.

Jan Krikava:for us it's 10 times easier, to roll out AI features for other service vendors, which, helps us adapt fast to customer needs.

Adam Walker:That's good to know.

Adam Walker:with regards to the funding of the company, of course we talked at the beginning around your being the entrepreneur that set this company up on the back of your other experiences, are you bootstrapping it yourself?

Adam Walker:Do you get external funding? How does that work? Because I gather in Germany it's very different to certainly in the UK and the US with respect to funding new startups new companies like your own.

Jan Krikava:We've actually bootstrapped the company, from the beginning on until middle of this year.

Jan Krikava:work at some business angel funding and are now, raising again. I can't disclose too much. But, I'm happy with, all the business angels around us. like Stefan Queening, Florian Bar and Daniel, and, yeah, it's, basically have to think about like, how do you want to build your team because those are sticking with you for a long time.

Jan Krikava:I think we made the right decisions right there after, I think after six months, five months, I can already say so. I'm just happy to have a great team around me.

Adam Walker:It's certainly very evident in the contact that I've had with you and various members of your team, but also I think there is a cultural alignment.

Adam Walker:Germany specific that I wanted to talk about, which is having recently been in Frankfurt, where we met in person, my sense is certainly historically that there has been a lot of investment in life sciences in Germany and it seems to be a place where innovators can successfully build.

Adam Walker:There are other people I've interviewed on the podcast again, who are located in Germany, who speak to those points. And I'd just love to hear a little bit more about that from your perspective.

Jan Krikava:yeah, for sure. There, , plenty options on how to, fund your startup

Jan Krikava:Bootstrapping is only one of them. Business angel funding is another. You also got a VC investment, but you can also, leverage it with, debt, Or venture debt. you have to find the best possible solution, on your own. we went for bootstrapping, first because, we want to have all decisions, in our hands.

Jan Krikava:So this was the right route at the right time. then building up our advisory board, which you are part of Adam, and, also doing the funding. We try to. Gather as many, experienced, veterans from the pharmaceutical industry who can provide insight and help us out with, special questions based, on the experience and knowledge.

Jan Krikava:And, yeah, this is why the business angel funding was also the right decision at the right time. right now we are thinking on, how to actually. build the next funding round and, I will let you know once we've, finished.

Adam Walker:That sounds very positive.

Adam Walker:So there are future plans to expand and are you thinking the boundaries of Germany?

Adam Walker:Are you thinking across Europe? Have you thought about considering expanding to a US option? Is that something that's been on the table?

Jan Krikava:I think there's a saying, software never travels west, we have a customer in the us a biotech from the west coast.

Jan Krikava:But, we are focusing on, dark countries on Germany, Austrian, Switzerland at the moment.

Adam Walker:Good to know. I hope you didn't mind me asking that question because it's something that. Comes to mind, particularly in that growth phase because some companies can be very focused on one particular region.

Adam Walker:It sounds like you've got your goals and objectives set, and you're very clear on those and I think that's quite reassuring to be quite frank.

Adam Walker:the company is building, it's going in the right path. what do you see the next big thing? is there a big thing for docu play as far as. Adapting some of the technologies that it easily and more cost effectively available now for you and the company.

Jan Krikava:talking about the next big steps, I would like to touch back on your last question.

Jan Krikava:We are thinking about expanding in Europe, so that's a big step for next year. on the solution side, we want to focus on our current features and also add enough features to have like a full electronic quality management system including, supplier management, solution.

Jan Krikava:Because that's, another big challenge. if you're a small or medium sized company, doing, professional, RFPs and good supplier management, including, audit management, is, very time consuming. And we think there are like plenty shortcuts, especially with, with AI technology and, our technology partner.

Adam Walker:I would agree with that.

Adam Walker:one other feature worth mentioning that I've seen that I think might be interesting also to our audiences. Is that really great piece around the training records and the multiple choice generating AI questions. you upload a document, let's say it's an SOP, and you run it through the AI tool, it comes up with a host of randomly generated questions that have to be answered correctly to push you through to the training acceptability.

Adam Walker:I think I've remembered that correctly, haven't I?

Jan Krikava:You have, a common problem, especially across the auditors. We've talked to many companies here in Europe which are still working, paper-based. They have, training records where you simply state as a employee that you have read and understood the SOP as an example.

Jan Krikava:this leaves a big gap for your next audit. we thought, how about making it easier to come up with a questionnaire, proving , or delivering the evidence really to have a understanding of the document and, Then in, 2024, we've built the proof of concept, with a little bit of data we've collected and, and we are now able generate the questionnaires within seconds

Jan Krikava:You as a professional, Adam, how long it takes to write a questionnaire and, really, fine tune the questions and, make them, as exact as possible. now our solution does this, within segments and, as I said beforehand, makes, the life of quality managers easier.

Adam Walker:It's one of my favorite features, it was a pain point for me over many years when I headed up functions I had to write those questions, prepare them, and judge people on the outcomes there's a fraction of time required in doing that now, and I think there's an enormous time saving.

Adam Walker:It's an enormous improvement in quality visibility and tracking, all the audit trails around that are really extremely important and just fulfilled all of the things that I wasn't able to do with one pair of hands myself in one head. The. The capability that is engendered for others, will be an enormous time saving.

Adam Walker:So I just wanted to give you, plenty of PUDs for that. 'cause I think it's one of the best things I've seen for a long time.

Adam Walker:So at this point in the conversation, I always like to finish with a quick fire round, Yan. So if you'll be so kind, what is the one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

Jan Krikava:Just to simply answer that, I think doing things. The most important thing. I would also, advise , my younger self to do more things because, trying things is very cool. new experiences, make us the people we are.

Jan Krikava:. And, therefore collecting those experience, you shouldn't hold yourself away from that.

Adam Walker:What are the three top qualities you value most when building a team?

Jan Krikava:The qualities when building a team, on one hand you have to have a social cultural fit.

Jan Krikava:if it's not clicking on a social level, you won't be able to work together On the other side, I really like people who can, think second and third, order. And see through dependencies. especially building big digital platform you have to foresee things which others don't

Jan Krikava:And, I would, say pretty good at that. this is definitely what I value, especially thinking about my co-founder, Daniel. the third thing is, especially here around the office, I don't know if I told you before, Brazilian jiujitsu is a big thing here.

Jan Krikava:Yeah. I think third of the team is already, doing jitsu and half of the team at least has, tried it, but, it's not made for everyone. this is a lot of fun and, definitely also something which, we are looking for when hiring and working with people.

Adam Walker:I don't remember that being mentioned, but, wow, that's quite impressive. what is your favorite thing outside of work, Jan?

Jan Krikava:as I already mentioned before, I started father two and a half years ago family is definitely my answer without even thinking about it.

Adam Walker:And shout out to your young son, what's his name?

Adam Walker:Jonathan.

Adam Walker:And finally, what is your number one golden rule for life and business?

Jan Krikava:stay honest. To yourself and to your partners.

Adam Walker:That's a lovely way, to bring the conversation to a close. I want to thank you for giving us a little bit of an understanding to our audience of Docu Ply of you, y the Man, and indeed, you know, some of the challenges you have as a startup in getting from start to. profitability and future facing.

Adam Walker:You've given us a great perspective, on the business, future plans, and where that sweet spot is in the industry for Docu Ply. I really appreciate you coming on to, pharma Prescribe today. For any of our audience that want to reach out and make contact with you, what's the best way to get hold of you?

Jan Krikava:simply send us a email on our website. Do apply.io or contact me on LinkedIn.

Adam Walker:Once again, I'd like to sincerely thank you for being on Pharma Prescribe today. It's been an absolute delight to talk to you and I hope to continue the conversation further.

Jan Krikava:Thanks Adam for your time and hopefully talk to you soon and see you soon.