“Vertebrate Antibodies was established in 2011 by four scientists; including myself, Abdo, Steve and Beatriz. In the beginning, we had a very academic focus through collaborations with prominent scientists such as Professors Graeme Murray and Christopher Secombers, promoting and citing Vertebrate Antibodies’ products through international conferences and publications.
Jump forward to 2017 and although product quality and partnerships with academic institutes would always be part of the company’s ethos, there was an increasing demand for us to become more commercially focused. A call with Tim Bernard in November 2017 led to Vertebrate Antibodies joining the PSL Alliance and subsequently presenting at the 2018 Pivotal Links event.
Pivotal Links 2018 provided a brilliant sales platform for Vertebrate Antibodies – we would even pinpoint the sales growth of the company starting at this event. Pivotal Links 2018 was held in Oxford, UK, and attracted circa 120 attendees all from the research reagent sector. Our presentation took place in the morning allowing us to address all the attendees at once. On a personal note, the excellent feedback received from delegates regarding our presentation gave us the confidence to know that we were on the verge of something great with our product development.
Informal networking followed the morning presentations, so the afternoon was spent in numerous exploratory meetings with potential partners. Having meetings with so many internationally-based companies, who had travelled from across the globe to attend the event, meant for an excellent cost-effective day. Many of these meetings gave rise to immediate partnerships following the event, and others came to fruition several months later.
I believe the collaborations that occurred further down the line highlight a key purpose of Pivotal Links; networking. We made so many new acquaintances that we were able to rapidly expand our connections to other businesses within the industry. In addition, this meant that when the appropriate time came, we already knew who to contact due to the network and alliances we had established at Pivotal Links 2018.”
