november-2010

BUSINESS PROFILE
Beyond the boardroom:
living in Nice allows Castelo
to enjoy the outdoor life
Castelo studied to be a social worker at
university, but found it wasn’t right for her,
so she entered the working world and landed
a position as the business manager of a
technology association in Nice – where she
met her future husband, robotics engineer
Alain Delache. She enjoyed her work, and
was soon planning to create a business. In
retrospect, she says she “was lucky to be a
woman in high tech” (where women were
relatively rare), because it helped her stand
out and get her ideas heard. She had a knack
for data systems, and started working with
local hospital administrators on digitalising
progressively bigger chunks of their data.
Her company, Technème, which she founded
when she was 23, grew, going on to develop
an ambulatory and fully automated
diagnostic system for sleep apnoea – it was
groundbreaking technology to diagnose the
disorder, which disturbs breathing and sleep.
Big ideas
Castelo sold Technème in 1997 to Nellcor
Puritan Bennett, a healthcare equipment
company based in the United States. She
was soon off on a new venture: she had
70 Brussels Airlines b.there! magazine November 2010
mastered the diagnostic side of the sleep
apnea equation, and was now focused on
treatment. She and Delache designed a small
respirator ventilator – just half the size of
then-current devices – and its software. The
device turned what had been a procedure
done in a hospital into one that could be
done at home. It was no small deal. In fact, “it
was a market-creating event,” says a current
colleague, Candace Johnson, president of
Succes Europe in Nice – an early-stage
investment fund where Castelo serves on
the investment committee.
The respirator venture became Castelo’s
second company, Kaerys, and the device
soon reached 10 national markets,
eventually becoming a large seller in France.
By then she had received various business
Castelo’s design for a
sleep apnoea respirator
ventilator was ‘a
market-creating event’
Angelic advice
Castelo, right, regularly shares
her knowledge and experience as
a speaker on entrepreneurship at
business forums around France
Tips for entrepreneurs
≠ Keep it simple. Ask, “What is my product,
who are my customers and what is the
environment in which I will be working and
growing my company?” If you have solid
answers to those questions, you are ready.
≠ Focus on three things: customer,
customer and customer.
≠ Remember that the technology is
not enough; it is also about people.
Think through how you will reach them,
and why. The point is to be able to market
a technology or service because it provides
something useful.
≠ Choose your investors carefully. As well
as giving you money, they should be able to
offer something else: support, advice,
contacts, experience.
≠ Be sure that you and your investors are
pulling in the same direction.
Tips for investors
≠ Take it one step at a time, and spend
the time it takes to discuss a potential
investment with the right people, and plenty
of them. Be confi dent that entrepreneurs
will do what they say.
≠ Choose a sector that you know and take
it from there.
≠ Every time an entrepreneur is pitching to
investors, ask yourself, would their pitch
work with customers?
Tips for entrepreneurs
seeking investors
≠ Have a good pitch: you need to be able
to boil it down to one sentence.
≠ Think “market, market, market, sales,
sales, sales”.
≠ Bear in mind that raising money is not the
same as bringing a product to market. Hone
not only your pitch to investors, but also
your market vision.
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