Founder Stories: From one to a thousand - How an entrepreneurial doctor increases his impact

CC Diagnostics

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“As a doctor, I don't want to help three patients a day, but rather 10,000 at the same time.” With this in mind, Nutte van Belzen started an ambitious project while studying medicine: improving cervical cancer screening. What started as a student project in 2016 grew into CC Diagnostics - a company that is now about to make a global impact in the early detection of cervical cancer.”

“Just” starting a business

The seeds for his entrepreneurship were planted during an evening course alongside his medical studies. “My dream was to have my own GP practice. I thought: let me learn something about entrepreneurship in advance.” He laughs: “The teacher immediately said: “You only learn by doing it. You're 'just' going to start a company. 'That was not the answer I was hoping for, but it was what was expected of me.”

Entrepreneurship and medicine had to come together somewhere. Through an innovation program at the UMCG, he came into contact with a new technique for cervical cancer screening. “In the Netherlands, a good lab technician may detect 75-80% of cases. In countries with less infrastructure, such as Brazil, this is below 40%. More than half of the cases are missed. And every four weeks of delay in diagnosis, the mortality rate increases by 10%. That can and must be done differently.”

Studying and doing business

Van Belzen combined his internships with an average of twenty hours a week of entrepreneurship. “I arranged with the ER that I could work weekend shifts so that I could be at VentureLab, an accelerator for startups in the northern Netherlands, on Friday. People said I was crazy - why would you want to work on the weekends? For me, that made sense: Friday was my most important day of the week.”

The first breakthrough came with a pitch at the Economic Business Faculty student-startup competition. “We won 2500 euro. The amount itself wasn't much of a deal in medtech, but it provided validation. We were able to go to a conference in Brussels and slept with some local medical students via CouchSurfing. What we didn't know at the time: we came to one of the largest lobbyist conferences in our sector. We spoke to people there who were working at the top level on new regulations and fees.”

The situation came very close

The urgency of his mission became painfully clear when his wife, herself a doctor, received a false positive result in her Pap smear test. “She had to wait weeks for follow-up research. As a doctor, you can make some judgements, but it also sometimes makes you paranoia. When the results finally came, there appeared to be nothing wrong. Exactly what we're trying to solve — that uncertainty and unnecessary stress.”

“That moment was a kind of relentlessness,” says Van Belzen. “But it also became clear that this is not an isolated problem. Look at innovation in healthcare: female-specific disorders are systematically underfunded, underresearched and underdeveloped. More has been invested in Viagra than in research into breast cancer or menopausal symptoms.”

The reality of medtech

The road from innovation to implementation proved to be full of obstacles. A crucial moment came when a major supplier withdrew a few years ago. “We needed an essential resource and thought they would want a strategic partnership. The talks were positive. Until they said: you are too small for us. That taught me how the world really works. Not everyone supports you because you want to make the world a better place.”

This setback took months of work. “We had to go back to the drawing board to find a new wording. In medtech, every step feels viscous when things go well. But it is precisely these checks and balances that are there to prevent these kinds of problems.”

Attracting smart people

CC Diagnostics is run by six people, each with specific expertise. “As a founder, you have to hire people who are smarter than you in certain areas,” says Van Belzen. “Some founders can't deal with that, but in my opinion, you're building a bad company.” His team includes a commercial CEO with experience selling diagnostic kits, a QA certification manager, a PhD candidate in cancer biomarkers, a financial expert, and a medical regulatory specialist.

“People sometimes ask: what else do you do, Nutte? I don't always know that either,” he laughs. “I'm involved in so many different aspects. My role isn't always very clear, but I don't have to. At the end of the day, problems simply have to be solved and there is always something to do within a startup.”

Lessons from Silicon Valley

In the fall of 2024, Van Belzen spent five weeks at Draper University in San Francisco after winning a pitch competition hosted by Founded. "Every lecture was given by someone who had either done a multi-billion IPO or sold their company three or four times. Pure experience." He immediately noticed the biggest difference compared to the Netherlands: "Everyone in San Francisco is hungry for technology. Things move faster and harder here."

He learned that you have to go into every meeting super prepared. “Do your research, know what you want out of it and don't think too small. I've been following someone from Silicon Valley since I was 20 and I invited him to my networking event there. He just came. In the Netherlands, I would have thought: he must have something better to do. Not there. He even gave me this number: “Just send me a message if you have another question.”

Northern Dutch sobriety

Back in Groningen, he appreciates the Northern Dutch mentality even more. “This is a place where people give each other opportunities. The network is familiar. When you know a few good people, you have access to the entire ecosystem. We have a good university, the right knowledge and skills. And that Northern Dutch sobriety helps to put things into perspective.”

According to him, this sobriety is essential for a healthy entrepreneurial mentality. “In the west, you sometimes see startups that think they're sitting on a self-built throne. If that startup then explodes, those people will also die personally. The company may well be your thing, but you should know that 90% of all startups don't make it. You also need to be able to get your mental balance from sources other than just your work.”

Next step

CC Diagnostics is now focusing first on the private market in the US and UK. “The Netherlands is certainly interesting, but the government market is complex for a startup. You have to build a track record first.” 2027 is the year that Van Belzen hopes to have his test widely available in the Netherlands. “Choose your battles. Sometimes you have to take a detour to reach your goal.”

Advice for starters

His most important advice? “Don't become a wantrepreneur - someone who just keeps saying they're going to do business one day. You often think you have to have everything in order to open a door. But sometimes it's not a door at all but a window. Grab that latch and investigate. You'll get to the point much faster where you can make another improvement.”

“It has to come from an intrinsic drive,” he emphasizes. “That you get energy from doing something new. If these are successful, we can do so much worldwide. Then it doesn't feel like work either. When you spend two hours doing nonstop research and suddenly think, “Did I actually eat today?” When I started, I had no idea what was coming. And that's a good thing, otherwise you'll never get started. But I don't regret it for a second.”

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