10 Sep '24
Ploum's Start-up and Scale-up Team advises up-and-coming companies about legal issues. One of these companies is Momo Medical, named the most innovative company of the Netherlands last year and winner of the National Healthcare Innovation Award 2023. Founder Menno Gravemaker talks about the legal challenges involved in setting up a company: ‘I think many companies need to set this up a bit more conveniently from the start’.
Momo Medical supports caregivers in nursing homes. The Momo BedSense App, linked to a bed sensor under the mattress, gives insight into how residents are doing. Who is in bed, who is about to get up and what are the postural changes? As a result, the Momo BedSense App provides peace of mind for the caregivers and prevents bedsores and falls among residents. Menno: ‘We help caregivers take care of the people we all love dearly: our grandparents.’
‘Our goal is to increase the quality of life for residents and happiness at work for caregivers. I have a real engineering background, but I have relatives who work in healthcare and we talked about the workload. My grandmother moved to a nursing home at one point. That's when I really saw the inside of a nursing home. It made me think about how we could support things better. The first thing I did was work a lot of night shifts. I still do that regularly to keep understanding where the needs lie.
‘In 2017, we started working on our concept. In 2020, we introduced the Momo BedSense App to nursing homes. The Covid period was challenging, but things have really taken off in the last few years. In 2021, we participated in Y Combinator in the United States. As of now, a number of nursing homes in the US, Canada, Germany and Belgium are using our solution. Last year, we won the National Healthcare Innovation Award and we were named the most innovative company in the Netherlands.’
Menno came into contact with Ploum through one of the start-up events organised by Ploum and through Yes!Delft, a startup incubator where Ploum is affiliated as a partner.
‘We started with an issue about one of our brands, in which we were fully vindicated and could continue using the trademark rights. At some point, we also had to deal with other issues, about employment law, for example. Good contracts, settlement agreements et cetera. For example, I didn't know that an employment contract has to be 7 months because otherwise you don't have a probationary period. We had to discover all these things. We learnt a huge amount in that first phase and Ploum thought along with us in many of those situations.’
Menno's advice to new entrepreneurs is to, at least, quickly draw up a simple shareholder agreement between the co-founders. ‘In doing so, you don't necessarily need external legal help yet. Every euro is crucial at this stage. But I personally believe that you don't have to go for the cheapest option. Legal help seems like a waste of money in the beginning. But you are building something beautiful. If you create something valuable, others are going to copy you and then it is nice to have made a worthwhile investment before. In addition, it is very important for funding rounds that you have everything set up properly.’
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