Nell grew up in Belgium and started her entrepreneurial career whilst studying at the University of York, helping build two start-ups in between classes before gaining a Masters in Management from London Business School. Coming from a creative family, she is a creative soul and writes and performs her own music. Prior to FI she worked at ?!What If! Innovation in the early stages of ideation and product development. During her time at Founders Intelligence she has worked across insurance, beauty, energy, and health tech.

  1. — What motivates you?

Building new solutions and the emotional journey that comes with it. I especially love those moments when you feel you’ve cracked something and the whole team shares the same excitement, pride and ambition. In that instant I really believe that, with the right people, anything is possible.

2. — What is an interesting problem you’ve tackled at FI?

Improving the diagnosis and management of chronic conditions by empowering GPs with patient population management tool. It was amazing to tackle such a big and universal problem and to work on a solution that could so tangibly impact lives.

3. — What is something you’ve engaged in at FI that you loved?

Founders Intelligence lunch conversations about wild business ideas or the future of humanity based on technological developments. It’s always fun to have mind-blowing conversations during a break.

4. — What technology are you most bullish about?

Machine learning applied to drug discovery. Drug development relies on experimentation and prediction, both of which can be accelerated with machine learning whilst diminishing the potential for human error. Admittedly, a lot of analysis in healthcare still requires human intelligence which cannot yet reliably be automated. However, as we improve our ability to consolidate and translate large datasets into insights, I truly believe that leveraging machine learning will unlock big breakthroughs.

5. — What is a lesson(s) you have from working with leading companies?

Innovation requires action, not consensus. I’ve witnessed too many innovation projects suffer from attempts to please all stakeholders involved. This stifles creativity, wastes resources and kills momentum. My advice is to give teams enough runway to go test an idea and only engage stakeholders once proof-points have been generated. Otherwise it’s just opinion against opinion, without a real evidence base, and becomes inherently political.

6. — What do you love about FI?

Everyone’s genuine curiosity and unique personalities. I love that FI provides a home for free thinkers and encourages everyone to develop points of view based on their own experiences and skills rather than a common standard.