Amy DuRoss is the co-founder and former CEO of Vineti, an enterprise software platform for personalized cell and gene therapies. Personalized medicine—designing custom therapeutics for each patient to cure diseases like cancer—is a whole new terrain in the pharmaceuticals industry. So, what’s it like to start and build a company in a brand new category? In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Amy talks about what it takes to become a trailblazer in a new market, including the role of passion, storytelling, networking, and referrals. If you’re a CEO entering a new market (or innovating in an old one!), you’ll want to listen in.
During the episode, Amy talks about how Vineti got its start with one customer who took a chance on the company because they shared the same passion and vision. Next, she explains the role of storytelling in acquiring additional customers and the importance of networking to build a pipeline. Finally, Amy and I discuss making complex sales more customer-focused and the customer success team’s role in growing trust and reference-ability. Listen to Amy’s advice and take some of her tips to become a trailblazer in your own industry!
Watch the podcast below or on our YouTube channel.
Highlights of this Episode:
[2:28] Seeing the gaps in the medical market
[7:52] How to sell a business in a new category
[13:08] Forming powerful partnerships
[18:21] Crafting a story that carries itself
[25:40] Customer-focused complex sales
[38:45] Increasing reference-ability
[46:18] A continuous learning mindset
About Our Guest
Amy is a long-time leader in biotechnology innovation. Prior to Vineti, Amy was Managing Director of GE Ventures, General Electric’s venture capital subsidiary, where she focused on creating new healthcare businesses in addition to venture investments. Before joining GE Ventures, Amy was Chief Business Officer at Navigenics, a genomics company sold to Life Technologies in 2012.
Amy was also the Co-founder and Executive Director of Proposition 71, California’s $3 billion stem cell research initiative passed in 2004, as well as Chief of Staff for the resulting state grant oversight agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Earlier in her career, Amy was one of the first employees of E-Loan, Inc., an online consumer mortgage company, and worked with that company through its IPO. She also worked for the World Bank Group to scale and deliver leapfrog technologies to developing countries.
Amy holds an MBA and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in English from Stanford University. She is a Coro Fellow, as well as an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow. Amy serves as a member of the Board of Directors for BioLife Solutions, and also serves on the board of the ARM Foundation for Cell and Gene Medicine. Under Amy’s leadership, Vineti received the prestigious Technology Pioneer award from the World Economic Forum in 2019 as “a company with the potential to “improve society for years to come. Amy has raised more than $115M in investment for Vineti to date, including a Series C round in 2020 with Cardinal Health and Marc Benioff.
Connect with Amy DuRoss in the links below:
Website: https://vineti.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-duross-695b743/
You can learn more about and connect with Alice Heiman in the links below:
Website: https://aliceheiman.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceheiman/
0 Comments