Oxford+ in Brief with Riham Satti, co-founder and CEO of MeVitae

Susannah de Jager

Alongside our main episodes of Oxford Plus for Season Four we are introducing a short fortnightly miniseries in between the main episodes. Brought to you by me, Susannah de Jager, and in partnership with Mishcon de Reya. In each episode, we ask our guests the same four questions designed to reveal how they think, what shapes their decisions, and what they're curious about right now.

The questions stay the same. The answers rarely do. This is Oxford Plus in brief. Riham, I've got a few mini episode questions for you now. So, what would success look like if we got this right? And I'm going to qualify for you that this in your case is hiring.

Riham Satti

The success looks like when everyone feels like they can be themselves at work. A sense of belonging. Success is like when they feel like they're empowered and it doesn't feel like work, but like a career that they've built on. Success looks like that they're staying in these organisations and retained and happy in this organisation. It's when you're saving time for companies to make sure that you've got the right candidates in the right organisation, because that's a tricky piece. Making sure that organisations are efficient and then minimising their risks.

Susannah de Jager

That's a lot.

Riham Satti

It is ambitious, right?

Susannah de Jager

I love it. What advice would you give somebody entering the Oxford ecosystem tomorrow?

Riham Satti

Oxford's a very tight-knit community, and it's not what you know, but who, in Oxford I would network and network because everyone's really lovely and they will actually open up doors for you and introduce you to people. And so don't be afraid to ask and say what you want because people are willing to share and provide.

Susannah de Jager

What is Oxford great at and what is it not so great at?

Riham Satti

The networking, it is good at. It is really good at networking and there's lots of pockets within Oxford that specialise in different things. You've got kind of your technology, you've got your kind of biotech space, you've got your student community, so you've got lots of little different pockets and I think that's really beautiful.

What Oxford could be better at is connecting those a bit more. A bit like when we're talking about data of actually connecting these HR systems together, doing the same thing in Oxford, because actually that's where the opportunities lie, and that's where you get more innovation, you get more opportunities, you get more organisations built and scaling on the back of that.

Susannah de Jager

Yeah, and without some of those organisations, you wouldn't be here as an entrepreneur. What do you think Oxford will look like in 2050?

Riham Satti

Oh, that's a really good question. Oxford doesn't move as fast as other places, I'd say. So I'd say it's very similar to what it is now. Here's a short answer. But I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful. I think that the Oxford kind of startup ecosystem will continue to grow because there's lots of spin outs and startups growing on the back of that and I think that it's going to continue to be a hub for that science base and hopefully continue to be leaders in that space.

When I think Oxford, I think the wider Oxfordshire as well, because I feel like we talk a lot about Oxford City, but actually these are the pockets of locations where you've got specialisation is going to be key. And I think that more people are going to be connecting those dots between those regions as well. And I think the power of technology is so much more innovation is going to come out of Oxford and because I know there's fantastic scientists that I'm building some great stuff here. From everything from future cities to the AI space, the amount of technology is going to be driven on the back of Oxford is going to be immense. So I'm excited to see what happens there.

Susannah de Jager

Have you ever been tempted to build a product that's more aimed at companies of that size and scale?

Riham Satti

I have. I guess going through that process and interacting data, you can sympathise and you can understand where they're coming from. But at the moment I've got too much other stuff I need to do. So I've always got a pocket of like ideas I also need to do once, once I've got a scaled and grown MeVitae. So maybe in the future, but not right now.

Susannah de Jager

Fair answer. If you had a magic wand, what would you change?

Riham Satti

This answer is going to sound crazy and wild because it's something that's very dear to my heart, but I know it's going to take a lot of change to make it happen. The magic wand is if I could actually try and create fairness in the workplace. If we do that, the ambition of what I've said earlier can be realised.

Susannah de Jager

I hope that you succeed.

Riham Satti

I hope so too.

Susannah de Jager

Thanks for listening to this episode of Oxford+, presented by me, Susannah de Jager. If you want to stay up to date with all things Oxford+, please visit our website, oxfordplus.co.uk and sign up for our newsletter so you never miss an update. Oxford+ was made in partnership with Mishcon de Reya and is produced and edited by Story Ninety-Four.