Brainlab founder Stefan Vilsmeier: “Germany is the best location for digital health”

Mr. Vilsmeier, you founded your company Brainlab in 1989, which now generates around 500 million euros in annual sales with medical technology. Were times better back then?

Anyone who believes this is glorifying the past. When I started, founders in Germany were still looked at askance. That didn't have a positive connotation at all at the time. Especially not if, like me, you dropped out of your studies. I remember traveling to China for the first time. I arrived at the guesthouse in the middle of the night, deep in the province. It was pouring rain, the door was locked, and I was half-sunk in the mud in my suit. Luckily I had a cordless screwdriver with me and was able to break into my room. Once I was inside, I felt like crying. Things really weren't any better before. In any case, I wasted a lot of time in a very unproductive way. And those who are creative can advance their ideas much better today.

How do you like the Federal Republic of 2026 overall as a business location?

It may not be the easiest location. But I care about him. And we have a special gift here in Munich that we can use to make a profit. This is the technical university that attracts bright minds from all over the world. In 1989 that was far from the case.

Don't the smartest people prefer to go to America or China because they can make more money there?

America was the big goal 40 years ago. When I graduated, everyone wanted to go there. Not anymore today. And young people were raving about China 20 years ago, but that's long gone. For anyone who is young today, there is actually no better place than Europe. I don't know where else there would be such broad access to education, such a strong middle class, such a good healthcare system at reasonable prices.

Will this continue to attract talent from all over the world even if the far-right AfD party continues its triumph in Germany?

I gulped a lot on election night. But now I think: As an entrepreneur, you have to counteract this in order to turn it back again. That motivates me. We start by standing up for Israel. For example, we go to schools here in the east of Munich, where a lot of migrants live today, and talk about the attack on Israeli citizens in 1970 at what was then Riem Airport. What exactly happened there? How could this come about? As I understand it, this fits in very well with the company Brainlab, which deals with the human brain, where memory is located.

Many managers and entrepreneurs complain that the bureaucracy in Germany is cutting them off, that taxes are too high and that well-trained workers are hard to find anymore.

I think entrepreneurs complain way too much. I could complain at length about politics, but I'd rather think about what I can do better myself. Of course I would like to have less bureaucracy and lower taxes. But the success or failure of a company should not depend on this. Of course, I sometimes have sleepless nights. But that's not always a bad thing. Looking into the abyss helps to put past successes into perspective and to question things that always went that way in the past.

Doesn't existential fear often lead to stagnation and regression?

I think: Our job as entrepreneurs is to make the best of the conditions and develop ideas that work in the world in which we live. When difficulties arise, we just have to get creative. This also applies to the search for employees. 25 years ago, at the height of Internet euphoria, it was at least as difficult to find new employees as it is today. Back when Brainlab wasn't really a big company, we went on a bike ride through the English Garden with Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who had just recovered from cancer. This became a cinema commercial with the slogan “Come to Brainlab for the Ride of your Life”.

Armstrong was later convicted of doping.

That didn't hurt us. The spot was a huge success. Years later, some applicants told me that the main reason they responded to our job advertisement was because they remembered that cinema advertisement.

Do the applicants still want to work hard or is free time more important to them?

I hear this often: young people lack drive. But I don't feel that way at all. Young people are much less hierarchical, much less complicated than before, and they work more agilely and are more networked. I can learn a lot from this, which motivates me when I come to the office in the morning. You just have to think of something to attract people who suit you.

How do you do that?

For example with the art that I show in the Brainlab company building. I am convinced that it acts like a filter: anyone who can do something with it also has the right qualifications to work here. I primarily collect African and South American art. The current exhibition is about our human roots, foreignness and migration experiences. When I wanted to take down one of the main works as planned after a while, the employees even protested against it because they found it so inspiring.

Brainlab is not an art dealer. It's about sophisticated systems for surgical procedures with millimeter precision, i.e. high-tech. How do you plan to keep up with your competitors from China and America, who increasingly seem to be leaving Europe behind, especially in this field?

We would like to make it a little clearer. My new company Snke, a spin-off from Brainlab, is about the use of medical data. Everyone says: Germany is a total disaster. I would say: Germany is the best country to develop something like this, perhaps even the only one.

Why do you come up with that?

Very easy. Germany is very complicated when it comes to data protection. Maybe even so complicated that a foreign company wouldn't be able to build something here. However, without Germany there will be no European solution to this issue, and without Europe, I am convinced that there will be no global solution. So if you ask yourself where you can develop a global digital health platform, there is evidence to suggest that the answer has to be Germany.

It seems to me as if doctors, patients and politicians in this country are doing a lot to ensure that such a platform never exists.

The Germans are sometimes a bit over-precise when it comes to this. But I'm actually proud of our General Data Protection Regulation. The meticulousness that it demands of us is the prerequisite for us to really be able to gain the trust of patients. And as far as the resistance you mention is concerned: In Germany, around 30 percent of healthcare workers will retire in the next ten years. At the same time, the average age of the population is increasing. The system is in danger of collapsing.

You say it so calmly, but it's a huge problem.

We will solve this. The resistance to the use of health data will disappear, precisely in order to prevent such a collapse. The doctors are too busy to even take care of this. Therefore, patients themselves will play a crucial role, and we are now developing the right tool for this.

Large corporations such as IBM, General Electric and Google have already spent a lot of money on similar-sounding projects without achieving any results. Why should things work better for you?

Innovation is not always just a question of money. And you shouldn't be intimidated by size anyway. When you're smaller, you have to get up a little earlier and think of something. Then you can get it done. Metaphorically speaking, the attempts so far have always boiled down to first occupying the customs booth through which the data has to pass and demanding money for it. We do it differently. I want to develop a liberal, free system for health data that is controlled solely by the patient's wishes and in which we make the data collected once usable for all those medical purposes to which the patient has previously consented. Something like the opposite of Palantir, namely without all the scary structures behind it, but with European values ​​and deep clinical understanding. That's a thick board. But I am convinced that Germany is exactly the right place for this, especially because of its strict laws.

How exactly is this supposed to work?

An example: A patient who has a hip implant inserted is usually willing to continually provide data back to the manufacturer of this implant so that the product can be improved and perhaps extended its lifespan. But this data has not yet been collected in such a way that it could be used for other medical purposes. That's where I see our business model. We want to record such data at the time it is created in such a fine-grained and well-structured way that it can be used to its full potential later. We have now started with a register for the German Spinal Society. After four months it has already been rolled out in more than a hundred clinics, which is happening really quickly. And it brings many benefits for patients. For example, anyone who releases their data for research will be continuously informed about what the scientists have discovered and what influence this could have on their own therapy.

Speaking of therapy: Do you go to Oktoberfest as a true Munich resident from the surrounding area or do you shy away from the hustle and bustle?

In my opinion, Oktoberfest is also a piece of culture. Also, the atmosphere is positive, the people are in a good mood, I like that. So: I'm going there. But it doesn't get out of hand for me. After the second beer, the beer doesn't taste any better than before, then I go back home.