Get to know ACE startup founders & find out what drives them!

The ACE-List: We are proud and excited to introduce our awesome startup founders. The ACE-List is a regular installment where startup teams from the ACE Incubation Program introduce themselves and share a little insight into their startup journey!

Meet the founder

Jan Hudecek (Scientific Programmer, NKI)
Company: Slide Score
Industry: IT, Scientific Saas Software
Founded: 2018

In short

Slide Score is an online platform to help pathologists gather high quality research data about microscopy slides.

Tell us more!

How did you come up with your startup idea?

I’m managing, cleaning and analyzing research data at the Netherlands Cancer Institute since 2013. I started working with Hugo who is a pathologist, which means he looks at slides of tissue with a microscope (or digitally). He needed to record data from hundreds of these slides (“score” them) and compare notes with colleagues abroad. We’ve tried a couple of very hacky solutions before I sat down and created Slide Score. We’ve shown it to other pathologists and everyone was very enthusiastic. That’s when I knew I could help other researchers like him improve their efficiency and  increase reproducibility of their research.

What is your company’s unique proposition?

Increase efficiency when scoring slides with the best possible user experience producing high quality data that can be immediately analyzed. Make research pathology workflow integrated with the rest of the lab. All to improve the reproducibility of research.

What has the shift from academia to entrepreneurship been like for you?

I have an analytical mindset which helps when preparing for sales calls and calculating the benefits for a business case. Since my customers are often scientists, when approaching them I can show I’ve faced similar problems as they are facing now and I have a solution.

What is the best advice you could give someone who wants to start their own business?

Don’t overthink it – speak to your potential customers early, frequently and about everything. Not just the problem and solution but also their processes, timelines, roles and budgets involved in acquiring solutions.

What are your next steps for the coming months/half year?

Get the product in front of as many relevant people as possible by presenting some of the research that was done with Slide Score at big conferences. Get validation by closing deals with first customers.

Want to know more about Slide Score? Check out the  or contact our head of growth Darya at darya@ace-incubator.nl.