SG Virtual 

We are not going to stop our next generation entrepreneurs even during these tough times due to the coronavirus pandemic. Startup Grind global community has organized more than 300 virtual events in the last 4-5 months, worldwide having virtual fireside chats with successful entrepreneurs from all over the world. Likewise, we at our Duisburg chapter of Startup Grind also inviting successful entrepreneurs within Duisburg and now going outside Duisburg for the first time to Frankfurt. 

Innoplexus

We are extremely lucky to be joined by Dr. Gunjan Bhardwaj, CEO, and founder of Innoplexus.  The idea for his business started sadly in a tragedy. When a close friend and mentor of his was diagnosed with cancer Dr. Bhardwaj was looking for alternative forms of treatment, but he couldn't do anything to help. So, he went to experts from the cancer society for guidance. The reply was not positive. The entire industry was unable to deal with the exploding size of data in cancer research as more and more innovations were being developed. These include both published and unpublished research. From here on the idea for Innoplexus was born. They are providing advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain solutions that support all stages of drug development from the pipeline to the market. Innoplexus identifies and extracts structured and unstructured life science data by scanning up to 95% of the world-wide-web and merges it with enterprise and third-party data in an ongoing, real-time process. And recently they offered their product for free to researchers, medical institutes, governments, news portals, and the public in the fight against Corona. Today, Innoplexus is a 250+ employee strong company and is not only fighting cancer but various diseases. 

Dr. Gunjan Bhardwaj

During this fireside chat, we are also going through the entrepreneurial journey of Dr. Gunjan Bhardwaj who studied at IIT Mumbai and came to Germany in 2005 to study his MBA in International Management and Marketing at the Pforzheim University Germany. His versatile and adventurous entrepreneurial journey started with the selling of bean bags in Mumbai while he was pursuing his bachelor's degree. Dr. Bhardwaj has also worked as a consultant at Ernst and Young and the Boston Consulting Group before he started his new journey with Innoplexus. 

Dr. Bhardwaj is an incredible speaker and true motivator - listen to his TED talk.  Also, check out this video of a presentation he did at Frankfurt’s Data Science Meetup. He is also the author of the book “Inside the Cockpit: Navigating the Complexity of Drug Development with AI and Blockchain”.

Dr. Bharadwaj also has the following publications which you can look up before the fireside chat:

- Forbes - How Five Technologies Are Shaping The Future Of Health Care, December 2017

- Forbes - How Blockchain, A.I. And Other Tech Trends Will Disrupt Healthcare In 2018, December 2017

- CAR-T Based Immuno-Therapy: New Hope for Cancer Patients, July 2017

- 'Does Corporate social responsibility help protect a company's reputation?'; Andreas Eisingerich, Gunjan Bhardwaj; accepted for MIT Sloan Management Review (for spring or summer 2011)

- ‘Clusters are obsolete’; Gunjan Bhardwaj; Economic development journal of Canada, January 2011

- ‘Doing good and doing better despite negative information? the role of corporate social responsibility in consumer resistance to negative information’ ; Andreas Eisingerich, Rubera Gaia, Seifert Matthias, Gunjan Bhardwaj accepted by Journal of service Research for publication in May 2011

- Harvard Business Review, November 2011, ‘The Rise of the COO’: Gunjan Bhardwaj, Andreas Eisingerich, and Florian Täube

- Book; ‘Unlocking emerging markets: Brand to win’, Andreas Eisingerich, Gunjan Bhardwaj; LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, April 2010

- Indian Newspaper Financial Express, ‘Grooving to the local beat’, an interview on reverse innovation- 10th May 2011

- Wirtschaftswoche special Indien issue ‘ Der Elefant wächst und wächst’

- A series of web articles and blogs on different aspects of innovation management at www.innovationmanagement.se

- China Contact, December 2009 ‘Das »Innovations-Ökosystem« Wissensvorsprung sichert Wettbewerbsvorteile’ - http://www.china-contact.cc/index.php/chc/chc_akt/10481