Federico Cismondi, Founder "From Postodoc to doDoc"

Some of our most interesting founders are immigrants. That is certainly the case with Federico Cismondi, a bioengineer from MIT. His path began at the foothills of the Andes and has led Federico and his co-founders to build a company, doDoc that is radically changing how the world’s technology leaders handle complex documents. This was a scintillating interview.

Highlights include:

• doDoc is not your grandfather’s Google Docs, it’s more like Google Docs on super duper steroids.
• doDoc allows users to do things no other platform offers, for example an owner can share a portion of a document, not the entire document.
• On doDoc every piece of information is an object allowing great flexibility in privacy, accountability and presentation.
• Pharmaceutical companies appreciate that every key stroke is instantly auditable. This saves a lot of time for auditors and significantly reduces the risk of mistakes.
• doDoc’s founders are from Argentina and Portugal and yet was founded in Cambridge. It probably has the best soccer team of any Cambridge startup!
• Los tres amigos, Carlos, Paulo & Federico knew they wanted to build a company but were searching for an idea. Their first idea was to help in scientific collaboration where massive documents are common.
• Competition is MS Word, MS SharePoint, Viva. doDoc’s features make it valuable to integrate with existing offerings.
• Techstars allowed doDoc to expand its connections to investors in Boston.
• Portugal is becoming a dynamic place for startups.
• A long journey to get product/market fit, now the company is focusing on scaling up
• First pivot was from research to industry. Money sparing vs. time sparing.
• Shortening the time to market for pharmaceutical companies is highly important economically.
• Entry point includes the regulatory group, another is quality also R&D.
• In early raises doDoc did not use mentors; now they do. Frankness and good communication are really essential.
• doDoc manages investors with a formal and methodical sales process.
• Federico was initially drawn into nuclear medicine by an inspiring teacher and eventually built a company in the space. An introduction to building software.
• Federico’s advice is to hire fast. Get the new hires involved in hiring new people.
• Read your family into the ups and downs of your company so they are prepared to support you.
• The relationship with co-founders requires really good communication.