Alicia Martínez and Time is Brain: a CEO’s account of building a stroke-monitoring MedTech while learning to lead

Brussels, March 6th 2025

Summary

›Alicia Martínez Piñeiro is CEO and co-founder of Time is Brain, an IGTP spin-off developing BraiN20, a sensor to monitor the brain during acute ischemic stroke care.
›She credits the EIC Women Leadership Programme with concrete leadership and negotiation tools she immediately applied while preparing to scale a regulated MedTech business.
›Time is Brain has EIC and EIT support and plans team expansion as BraiN20 approaches market, but clinical validation, regulatory clearance and procurement remain major hurdles.
›The EIC Women Leadership Programme offers tailored training, mentoring and three days of business coaching and expects high participant engagement; it is part of EIC efforts to boost women in deep tech alongside Women TechEU and other initiatives.
›EIC Business Acceleration Services report measurable outcomes since 2021 but translating programme participation into market success depends on sector specific challenges and sustained follow-through.

Alicia Martínez and Time is Brain: a CEO’s account of building a stroke‑monitoring MedTech while learning to lead

As International Women’s Day neared in March 2025, the European Innovation Council (EIC) Community profiled alumni of its Women Leadership Programme. One of them is Alicia Martínez Piñeiro, CEO and co-founder of Time is Brain, a Spanish spin-off from the Institut de Recerca Germans Trias i Pujol. Her company is developing BraiN20, a sensor intended to monitor what happens inside the brain during the acute care pathway for ischemic stroke patients. Martínez describes how leadership coaching and peer learning helped her address the nontechnical challenges of scaling a MedTech start-up.

Why Time is Brain exists: a clinical problem and a product idea

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Rapid diagnosis and treatment matter because neuronal loss happens fast during an acute ischemic event. Time is Brain takes its name from the clinical aphorism that minutes count. The company says its sensor, BraiN20, is designed to allow clinicians to ‘see’ brain status during the entire patient journey. According to the company website, 1.9 million brain cells die every minute after a stroke, a figure the team uses to stress urgency. The product aims to support faster, better informed decisions in diagnosis and treatment with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes.

Acute ischemic stroke explained:An acute ischemic stroke occurs when a blood vessel supplying part of the brain is blocked. Without blood flow, brain tissue is deprived of oxygen and nutrients and cells die. Clinical responses include thrombolysis or thrombectomy when indicated. Key determinants of outcome are time to treatment, accurate diagnosis of the affected brain region, and correct patient selection for interventions. Real world improvements require robust diagnostics, rapid workflows, and evidence that new devices change clinical decisions in ways that improve outcomes.

BraiN20 sensor in brief:Time is Brain describes BraiN20 as a sensor that can monitor the brain across the patient care timeline. The company positions the device as a tool to reduce uncertainty in acute stroke management by providing ongoing physiological data. At this stage the available public information centers on the concept and intended use. As with all early MedTech claims, clinical validation, regulatory approvals, reimbursement pathways and adoption by health systems will determine real world impact.

From neurologist to founder: the team and the mission

Martínez and her co-founders are neurologists who launched the company in 2020 out of clinical frustration. Since then the firm has grown to a reported 13 employees and prepared for an imminent product launch. The team has received support from European innovation instruments including the EIC Accelerator and involvement with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. Martínez frames the work in clinical terms: the technology is about giving patients a second chance and reducing the human and economic burden of stroke.

Leadership gaps and the EIC Women Leadership Programme

As Time is Brain prepared to scale, Martínez identified nontechnical leadership demands she needed to master. She says negotiating with critical stakeholders, managing team growth and sustaining company culture were priority challenges. Martínez enrolled in the EIC Women Leadership Programme and highlights how the programme offered actionable, concrete steps. She reports that immediate feedback during the kick-off helped her implement time management, assertiveness, and boundary setting strategies from day one.

What Martínez says she gained from the programme:Martínez cites specific changes: notes from the first meeting led to three to four actions she implemented right away, improved negotiation skills, increased assertiveness in leadership, and greater comfort saying no when necessary. She also emphasised the value of shared experience with other women founders and the combination of peer learning with direct mentoring and coaching.

Programme design and what it promises

The EIC Women Leadership Programme is part of the EIC Business Acceleration Services. It aims to strengthen leadership skills among women researchers and entrepreneurs in deep tech through a mix of training, mentoring, business coaching and networking. The programme targets both experienced entrepreneurial leaders and researchers with ambitions to commercialise their science. It is presented as a tailored journey following a needs assessment and includes both virtual and in-person components.

Component	What it offers	Typical participant commitment
Training sessions	Interactive modules on negotiation, pitching, leadership, marketing and public speaking	Weekly 2 hour sessions; needs assessment guided content
Mentorship	1:1 matching with experienced CEOs, investors or serial entrepreneurs	Bi-weekly mentor meetings over 6 months
Business coaching	Expert coaching for business priorities such as go-to-market and partnerships	Three days of coach time divided into exchanges
Networking	Events, speed-dating with mentors, alumni group on LinkedIn	Multiple online and some in-person events; active engagement expected

Practical details for the 9th cohort

The 9th cohort timeline was run in 2025 with a public call in April. Key dates published for that cohort included an info session, a June introductory workshop, an in-person kick-off bootcamp tied to EU R&I Days in mid September, weekly online sessions from late September to November, and a closing ceremony in November. Selected participants must attend at least 85 percent of training sessions and participate in the in-person kick-off. No financial award is provided to participants and travel costs are to be covered by participants.

Milestone	Date (2025)	Notes
Launch open call	14 April
Info session	30 April	Online
Application deadline	11 May
Confirmation of participation	26 May
Introductory workshop	12 June	Online
In-person kick-off bootcamp	16 September	Brussels; tied to EU R&I Days
Weekly training sessions	24 September to 12 November	Tuesdays 09:30-11:30 CEST
Closing ceremony	19 November	Online; pitching and feedback

How the EIC and related programmes fit into the picture

Time is Brain has benefitted from EIC and EIT support. The EIC provides a range of Business Acceleration Services designed to help awardees move from funding to market. Those services bundle contracts, contacts and skills development across programmes such as the Corporate Partnership Programme, Global Business Expansion, Innovation Procurement programmes, Investor Readiness and the EIC Scaling Club. The EIC also runs Women TechEU, which provides a EUR 75 000 grant plus mentoring and coaching to early stage women-led deep tech start-ups.

EIC BAS metric	Reported figure since 2021 or since 2024 where indicated	Caveat
One-on-one meetings facilitated	+20,000	Includes meetings with corporates, procurers and investors
Deals reported	595
Investor outreach funds raised	EUR 350 million
Funds raised by EIC Scaling Club members	EUR 1.2 billion	Since joining the Scaling Club
Turnover from trade fairs	EUR 42 million	Data counted since 2024
Innovation procurement raised	EUR 7.7 million	Since March 2024 and from EUR 28.4 million submitted tenders
Pilots supported	22 ongoing and 16 completed	Supported with EUR 1.93 million

Women TechEU in brief:Women TechEU is an EU scheme under the European Innovation Ecosystems work programme offering EUR 75 000 grants to early-stage deep-tech companies led by women. The scheme also includes mentoring and coaching provided through EIC Business Acceleration Services and opportunities to participate in InvestEU and Enterprise Europe Network activities. Since its pilot in 2021 the initiative expanded and several hundred women-led companies have received support across calls.

What to watch and where to be cautious

Martínez’s account highlights the soft skills gap that many clinician-entrepreneurs face when transforming a lab or bedside insight into a scalable business. The Women Leadership Programme and related EIC services are explicitly designed to address those gaps. That said, success for a MedTech company requires more than leadership coaching. Clinical validation, regulatory approvals such as CE marking in the EU, data demonstrating improved clinical decision making, payer acceptance, procurement by hospitals and integration into clinical workflows are long, costly and uncertain processes. Public statements about expected impact should be understood as intentions until supported by peer reviewed clinical data and regulatory milestones.

Key nontechnical obstacles for MedTech scale-up:Beyond product development, start-ups must navigate clinical trials, regulatory conformity assessments, quality management systems, health technology assessment, reimbursement negotiations, hospital procurement cycles and buyer validation pilots. Each of these steps can take months or years and requires specialized expertise and resources. Programmes like EIC BAS can help open doors and provide coaching but translating that into sustained market uptake depends on execution across many dimensions.

What Martínez is doing day to day and her message to other women founders

Martínez says her immediate priorities are growing the team while protecting company culture and mission. She stresses motivation, vision and commitment to patient impact as core. As a woman in deep tech she frequently found herself the only woman in the room and channels that experience into active mentoring and inclusion efforts. She encourages other women entrepreneurs to apply to programmes like the EIC Women Leadership Programme and to push for more representation at C‑level in deep tech.

Her practical leadership takeaways:Lead by example, give women a voice in key decisions, mentor emerging women leaders, and use targeted leadership training to acquire negotiation and stakeholder management skills. Martínez emphasises small, actionable changes such as time management, assertiveness and the ability to say no as critical to sustainable growth.

How to engage with the EIC Women Leadership Programme and related services

Applications to the EIC Women Leadership Programme are managed through the EIC Community Platform and cycles open periodically. The EIC BAS newsletter notifies subscribers of calls, events and services. The Women TechEU stream is distinct and offers grants plus mentoring. Organisations eligible for EIC programmes include EIC awardees from Accelerator, Pathfinder and Transition schemes, Women TechEU awardees and members of the EIC Scaling Club. For programme-specific queries the EIC Community contact page and the programme email hello@eicwlp.com are listed as contact points.

Where to look for updates:EIC Community Platform, EIC Business Acceleration Services pages, Women TechEU pages and the EIC BAS newsletter. Cohort dates and application details for each call are published there and via programme info sessions.

Bottom line

Alicia Martínez’s story is an example of clinician-led innovation seeking to bridge medical need and commercial delivery. The EIC Women Leadership Programme provided her with practical leadership tools and a peer network at a moment when Time is Brain is preparing to enter the market with BraiN20. The support ecosystem within the EIC and EIT can offer useful coaching, contacts and visibility. Nevertheless, for MedTech founders the road from prototype to improved patient outcomes and sustainable revenue remains long and requires rigorous clinical evidence, regulatory success and buyer adoption. Programmes that strengthen leadership and open doors are valuable but they are one necessary piece of a broader and difficult puzzle.

If you want to learn more about the EIC Women Leadership Programme or ask questions about participation, consult the EIC Community contact page and select the 'EIC Women Leadership Programme' category or email hello@eicwlp.com. For broader EIC Business Acceleration Services information sign up to the EIC BAS newsletter through the EIC Community Platform.