Start up Ideas

Start-up Ideas and Business Plan

The business plan is a tool document for learning, risk reduction, and rationalization. It is prepared when starting a new business or a new project, containing both qualitative and quantitative information.

How to write a business plan

• Define your vision and mission.
• Set your goals and objectives (short, medium, and long term).
• Define your unique selling proposition: what makes you different (additional services, personal customer services).
• Know your market: how many competitors? What services?
• Know your customer: having thousands of options for any problem, focus on the area of interest of customers and think of the reason they would choose you.
• Research the demand more than the supply.
• Set marketing goals: define how the product would look, how much it will cost, and develop a strategy for promotion and delivery.
• Define marketing strategy: plan to achieve marketing goals and plan for every eventuality.
• Take action.

Advantages of a Business Plan

Internal advantages:

• Motivate the work better towards achieving goals.
• Help to stay on the correct path.
• Have clear and concise business objectives.
• Prioritize requirements at the beginning of the year.

External advantages: Make an impression on your investors and bankers.

Start Cup

A business plan is a document prepared to present an idea or a company. It is very important because it contains all the information. In a competition, different competitors try to explain every idea. Start Cup Veneto is a university competition, with a monetary prize assigned to 5 winners. Joining is useful to improve skills, learn something new, and it is an opportunity. Everyone can join the competition, even if not involved with the university, and from 2019 there is no minimum for the team; even an individual person can participate.

A pitch is a small presentation of the idea to catch the attention of the audience and convince them about it.

Microbiome

The microbiome is a mix of microbes (many types: bacteria, archaea, lower and higher eukaryotes, and viruses) living on external and internal surfaces of a living organism and contributing to its body functioning. The human microbiome is the most studied one, probably having more microbial cells than human cells, and probably 99% of genetic information found centrifuging a human is microbial. There are 20k genes in humans vs 3.3 million genes in the gut microbiome. 90% of the human microbiome lives in the gut because it is a nutrient-rich and stable environment.

Nowadays, most information on the microbiome is about bacteria. The sequencing effort is easier on bacteria compared to other organisms.

Microbiome and Microbiota

The microbiome refers to the entire habitat, including microorganisms, their genome, and the surrounding environmental conditions. The microbiota refers to the assemblage of microorganisms present in a defined environment or time period. Although these terms are usually interchangeable, we will prefer to use "microbiome." The bacteriome refers just to the bacterial part, mycome to fungi, and virome to viruses.

Features of the Microbiome

• Unique for everyone and also used in the forensic area (to identify people?). There is 0.1% difference between two people's genomes but 85% difference between two people's microbiomes.
• Relatively stable during life (70%) but changes with diet, environment, etc. Stable after 3 years.
• There are 500-1000 species more or less, and two people could share no species.

Microbiome in Pregnancy

The placenta is not a completely sterile environment: the fetus has a few microbes, while the mother is full of microbes. Some microbes come from the mother, but the most important moment is when the newborn exits. At birth, humans first come into contact with microbes, which differ between natural and caesarian births (different microbiome). The microbiome of a newborn is simple and specialized for digesting mother's milk. In the mother's milk, there are bacteria that help the baby digest the milk. Babies not breastfed have more problems with respect to those who are, making them more sensitive to allergies, etc.

Mom's microbiome changes before the baby's birth. It is ready to pass the right bacteria to the baby. The microbiome has an important relationship with the immune system, quenching the immune system and reducing the response towards the baby. This knowledge is also studied in mice for transplantation to reduce rejection (reducing immune response).

Types of Microbiome

There are different microbiomes in different sites of the body, as they are exposed to different environments, conditions, nutrients, presence/absence of oxygen, pH, etc. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes are the dominant phyla in the human microbiome (in the gut).

Skin microbiome: Vigorous washing can change the microbiome, and it is responsible for smell.

Vaginal microbiome: Important for women, very stable, especially during the fertile period, it is dominated by lactobacillus that acidify the environment, preventing colonization by pathogens, thus providing protection. Used as a biomarker. Several factors affect the vaginal microbiome: ethnicity, female hormones, hormonal contraceptives, menstrual hygiene practices, vaginal douching, vaginal dysbiosis, and infection and gut microbiota.

Oral microbiome: Important not just for mouth health, but also for general health (can be a marker). Dysbiosis can cause oral and systemic diseases. There are many profiles, depending on the sites, with about 700 species present. Factors affecting the oral microbiome include drugs, diet, smoke, pregnancy, and socioeconomic status.

Role of the Microbiome

• The microbiome acts as a barrier against pathogens.
• It regulates the immune system, especially in the early stages of life.
• It has a role in nutrient management: we are not able to digest fibers, but microbes are.
• It is involved in behavior modulation, related to anxiety, depression, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's diseases.

The importance of the microbiome is underscored by the increase in chronic, autoimmune, and allergic diseases, which may be due to the microbiome. Its effects are widespread throughout the body.

Classical Infection Theories

Classical infection theories, such as the single-germ theory and Koch's postulates, are not reliable anymore. Microbes are fundamental for our health and can be used to fight microbes.

Perturbation of the Microbiome

• Microbiome-intrinsic factors: Disease states, age-dependent state.
• Host-intrinsic factors: Immunity, genetics, sex, BMI.
• Host-extrinsic factors: Drugs, diet, physical activity.
• Environmental factors: Place of living, family.

There are many links between the gut microbiota and diseases, making the gut microbiome a therapeutic target.

Modulation of the Microbiome

Precise intervention requires a precise understanding of the target system. Some interventions are more efficient than others.

Fecal Microbiome Transplant (FMT)

The transfer of the gut microbiome from one organism to another aims to improve health or correct an undesired microbiome state. It is an untargeted modulation, not specific to bacteria or molecules, and is highly efficient in treating recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (RCDI) with 95% of patients healthy the day after. There are more than 200 clinical trials, also in study for IBDs, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, alopecia.

Probiotics

Probiotics are living microorganisms that confer a health benefit on the host when administered adequately. It is a targeted modulation, but it depends on the gut microbiome of the patient, as bacteria can adapt or not and be expelled. In the future, new probiotics may be developed, but currently, they can be ineffective or even toxic. After antibiotics, probiotics are suggested for the recovery of the microbiome, but they colonize the gut, potentially lowering the recovery rate.