Startup Case Study: Ultrablanket

Many University of Oxford students and staff members join EnSpire’s entrepreneurial programmes because of a burning desire to use their expertise to make a positive impact on society by addressing an issue they hold dear. None more so than Netzahualcoyotl Hernandez-Cruz (Netza), a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Engineering Science. He had an idea that his engineering skills and interest in ubiquitous and wearable computing could address healthcare inequality worldwide.

Growing up in Mexico, he witnessed the lack of access to medical services and technology and decided to channel his career into creating healthcare solutions. During his bachelor’s studies, he proposed an affordable screening tool that captures otoacoustic emissions to identify hearing disparity in newborns. Similarly, during his master’s and doctoral studies, he focused on non-intrusive solutions to monitor health in vulnerable populations.

Prior to joining his postdoctoral fellowship, he envisioned using his expertise to leverage the high-speed development of semiconductor technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to build an ultrasound medical device entirely operated by AI. He foresaw that this solution would be simple to use at clinics in small towns and rural areas where a trained sonographer might not always be available. 

The Ultrablanket, as he now calls it, features a built-in ultrasound machine and can be wrapped around a patient by a staff member before the readings are transmitted to a trained sonographer. Ultrablanket can be used locally and remotely; this allows people to benefit from high-quality ultrasound healthcare services, even if there is no suitably qualified sonographer in their local clinic. For Netza, the device is a simple way to open up better care for patients regardless of their location.

“I lived my whole life in a community with people concerned about not having access to the best healthcare, and so you think that's normal until you move around the world and realise it isn’t,” he reflects.

“I could see two needs - more ultrasound technology and sonographers. So, I started thinking how I could use my technical background and scientific interest to make things easier for healthcare providers reporting a shortage of sonographers. For me, the solution was a no-brainer: you need to build a wearable device driven by AI to automate the process of taking readings and have them interpreted by an expert who can be remote.”

All Innovate added momentum

Netza managed to get the outline idea into sharper focus when he heard about the variety of programmes available to students, researchers, and staff at the University of Oxford, accessible through its EnSpire, the University’s entrepreneurship hub. The moment he heard about the All-Innovate idea competition, he thought it would be a great way to get his plans whittled into a coherent argument. 

“Because I was at Oxford, I learned about the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and I could see it was a great way to build and test my entrepreneurial skill, so I gave it a shot,” he recalls.

“All Innovate was so helpful for me in establishing the foundation of what an entrepreneur is. It equipped me with the understanding of how to structure a business proposal and how to effectively communicate a problem and a solution to a business-minded audience. All Innovate was my first entrepreneurial experience, and beyond the knowledge it provided me with, the benefit I appreciated the most was the community of support from the organisers, attendees, colleagues and fellows. Everyone was very welcoming and keen to support me in making my business idea a reality.”

From idea to business plan

Netza felt All-Innovate had given him a helpful insight into what it takes to build on an initial idea and transform it into a potential business. He recalls being well-received in the final pitch, where participants laid out their plans. The next step, he thought, was to carry on getting support from the University of Oxford by joining the Oxford Venture Builder programme. While All Innovate is an ideas competition, the Oxford Venture Builder is a three-month programme run by the Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Centre, in partnership with EnSpire, to help students and staff turn ideas into a business plan. 

“By the time I joined Oxford Venture Builder, I already had a clear idea of what I wanted to build, but I lacked the skills to translate the idea into practice,” he recalls.

“That’s why Oxford Venture Builder was a game changer for me - it equips potential entrepreneurs with the skills to build a business mindset. It was intensive in terms of the amount of information you were expected to translate into your business idea. It was hands-on, with practical exercises that encouraged resilience as the organising team challenged your ideas time after time. Without a doubt, the programme was designed to prepare us for the wildness of the actual entrepreneurial world. Just like with the All Innovate programme, I met wonderful people who supported me through mentoring and access to strategic business connections that I would have never made otherwise.”

Thanks to his performance at the Oxford Venture Builder, Netza was invited to a selective pitch competition as part of the Reuben College Entrepreneurship Forum, organised and led by Professor Lionel Tarassenko, where Netza was the runner-up. 

“This pitch competition was eye-opening. I learned that the judges liked my idea, and all I needed to do next was prove my project's feasibility by working on the prototype,” he remembers.

Pitching for $100k 

Netza now had a clear vision of the idea for Ultrablanket as well as a clear definition of the business model behind it. Hence, he decided to test his entrepreneurial journey by joining the annual Oxford x Yope Award competition at the Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum (OSEF), offering a $100,000 prize. Contestants needed to have been a part of one of the University of Oxford entrepreneurship programmes, such as EnSpire’s All Innovate or Oxford Venture Builder. Each goes through several rounds before a public pitch event at the business school. To Netza’s delight, he won. 

“It was so exciting to win the Oxford x Yope Award pitch competition, and the $100,000 will be instrumental in taking Ultrablanket to the next stage,” says Netza.

With his prize, Netza is now embarking on the next stage of Ultrablanket’s journey to develop an industrial prototype. The $100k will prove essential to getting his project to a stage where he can interest investors in putting in the funds to help confirm the concept behind the device and then get it ready to be tested in real-world scenarios.