For Kuldeep Singh Rajput, founder and CEO of medical technology startup BioFourmis, industry collaboration is one of the most vital aspects of the company’s strategy, but also one of the hardest to engineer.

His solution has been to sign the company up to a unique co-working space now available in Singapore. Singh says BioFourmis was originally borne out of the NUS Enterprise business incubator at the National University of Singapore; so, taking the next steps via a commercial co-working facility has been a natural step.

“Working with 25 companies in the same space was inspiring, exciting, and helped the business grow faster with access to investors, talent, and fellow business founders to brainstorm with,” he recalls.

“NUS Enterprise gave the team visibility when interested technologists came to visit their friends working there. They would remember the name BioFourmis and check out what the company was about.”

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BioFourmis is now one of several founding members of the Collision 8 co-working space in Singapore’s High Street Centre. An initiative of property developer Who Hup, it describes the full-floor venue as a collaborative innovation workspace where people and ideas intersect to create opportunities. It opened for business on August 1.

Singh hopes Collision 8 will mirror the experiences BioFourmis had with more mature companies while at NUS Enterprise. As well as the chance to brainstorm business development strategies with fellow business leaders, meet investors and connect with the corporates in its target market, he says there are some very real advantages for the company’s workforce attraction and retention.

“Being part of a professional community will allow us to attract talent that has more experience, and those who are looking for a serious company to grow with their expertise,” he says.

Cultivating HR

Singh says one of the key aspects of BioFourmis’ Collision 8 membership will be the chance to relocate employees to the space for strategy sessions, getting them out of their regular environment and hopefully inspiring their entrepreneurial sides.

“Not all employees are naturally entrepreneurial. Especially in the health technology field, many are not used to networking,” he reveals. As a small organisation with potential to grow, he notes that BioFourmis’ staff have to be proactive about staying up to date with industry news and coming up with new ideas.

“Since we are not a large multinational and also not an early-stage company that can rely on our network for growth, this is what Collision 8 will help us do,” he says. “It will get us out of our regular zone to become better at what we do.”

Binding the community

Singh says he plans for BioFourmis to co-organise health technology events at Collision 8. These will see his organisation bring its network of clinicians to the community to that other health technology companies can benefit from their expertise, and the clinicians on its board can have the opportunity to mentor the next generation.