Marie Lommer Bagger’s story starts at Rigshospitalet. For several years, she was a nurse at Denmark’s biggest hospital and experienced first-hand the time-consuming, unhygienic and unpleasant task – for both patients and nurses – of measuring the fluid balance in patients.
This kick-started the idea to develop a product that could measure the output of patients automatically.
“My idea came from my job, and then my colleague Louise and I just took the idea and kicked it off,” Marie Lommer Bagger, co-founder and CEO of Measurelet, says.
The idea was Measurelet, a technological toilet that automatically measures the fluid balance in patients.
Marie Lommer Bagger: Danish Tech Challenge provided the right support
In 2018, Measurelet participated in the Danish Tech Challenge accelerator program and went all the way to the semi-finals. Marie Lommer Bagger had initially no interest in participating but was scouted by an employee in DTU Science Park who convinced her to chat with the Program Manager.
“I could hear in that chat that Danish Tech Challenge was serious and intense and that there were many competent people around this program,” Marie Lommer Bagger says.
At the time, Marie Lommer Bagger was quite new to being a tech-entrepreneur, but through Danish Tech Challenge, she was taught how to run a business and prepared to stand on her own feet in the future.
“One of the things I have thought a lot about afterwards is to make small MVPs and to go out and test it on the users, go back and make new iterations,” Marie Lommer Bagger explains.
She adds, “You think you know how users will react to your product, but you don’t actually know it until you test it on actual users”.
Definition of a MVP
MVP is an abbreviation for ‘Minimum Viable Product’. It is a prototype or the pared-down version of a product with sufficient features that people are willing to use or buy. The end product is only designed and developed after considering feedback from the initial users.
Source: Techopedia
The importance of a network
Today, Measurelet has grown into a team of seven people, but in 2018, Marie stood alone with the task of running a startup.
“I was pretty much alone in the beginning, so I had no colleagues to go to. I had a co-founder Morten, but he was only working part-time, so he was only there one day a week,” Marie Lommer Bagger says.
Through the Danish Tech Challenge participation, Marie Lommer Bagger met what she calls “great people” to share knowledge, successes and challenges throughout her journey.
The network was the most valuable to me, and I still meet up with many of them here five years after Danish Tech Challenge.
Marie Lommer Bagger
CEO and Co-founder, Measurelet
As the team and the need for more space grew, Marie Lommer Bagger moved Measurelet from DTU Science Park in Lyngby to DTU Science Park in Hørsholm in 2022.
“It is a good location for us. It is beautiful to go to work in this forest every day. I was a little concerned about whom we could network with and learn from, but now we have a network going,” Marie Lommer Bagger says.
76 % find that DTU Science Park contributes positively to their development
The future is bright but paved with challenges
A huge milestone for Measurelet was the CE-marking of their product last year. Now, the company is entering a new phase focusing primarily on commercialisation and sales.
“There’s a lot of changes in the company because we, until now, have been developing our very complex product, and now we are going out to make the first real sale and thereby prove our business. We have to build up a sales, service and support department. So, the organisation will change a lot in these next months,” Marie Lommer Bagger states.
“It’s a very bright but also tough period we are looking into. There are always challenges for startups and scale-ups. It’s a road made of challenges,” she ends with a smile.
About Measurelet
Measurelet is a Danish medtech company that offers innovative solutions for the future of healthcare. Solutions that automate and improve the procedure for fluid balance measurements to the benefit of patients, healthcare professionals, the healthcare sector, and the healthcare economy.
About Danish Tech Challenge
Danish Tech Challenge is a five month intensive acceleration program where participants have access to sparring from mentors and advisors, a prototype workshop, investors and a grand prize – The Entrepreneur Award – from Industriens Fond worth DKK 500,000. Danish Tech Challenge was established in 2014 and is supporting hardware startups in bringing new products to the market. More than 100 startups apply each year. Danish Tech Challenge is run by DTU Science Park and supported by Industriens Fond.
