Shamshad Ahmed - Serial entrepreneur who founded a stem cell blood bank

Nottingham Business School Business Leaders

Shamshad Ahmed is a serial entrepreneur. He’s tried everything from importing cotton bath robes to dabbling in discount retail stores.

But it was while working in clinical drug trials that he spotted tens of thousands of potentially life-saving stem cells – used to treat conditions such as leukaemia and cerebral palsy – were being thrown away every year.

He immediately recognised parents would pay to have stem cells from their new-born babies’ umbilical cords stored for use in the event of future illness.

So in 2000 he founded the Smart Cells company, to store cord blood and tissue for 25 years at a private blood bank near Heathrow Airport.

The Smart Cells owner – who graduated from Nottingham Trent in 1982 with a Business Studies degree – says: “I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a businessman. But I surround myself with people who are experts in their [medical] fields.

“I’m never afraid to say, ‘I don’t know the answer, I’ll have to go away and ask someone and come back to you’.”

Talking to Honorary Visiting Professor Mike Sassi, Shamshad describes how, in the early years, his company faced opposition from NHS obstetricians and midwives.

The Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians said there wasn’t enough evidence of stem cell transplant success, to support people being allowed to store their own umbilical cord blood and tissue.

But the evidence has grown.

“Well over 50,000 cord blood stem cells have now been used for transplants around the world,” he tells the NBS Business Leaders’ Podcast.

“You can’t now say that it’s a waste of time and it doesn’t work. And in the future, we’re going to find more and more applications for these stem cells.”

Today many NHS hospitals are willing, for a fee, to have their maternity staff collect blood to be passed on to Smart Cells for storage.

For other customers, Smart Cells sends in its own phlebotomists to collect the samples.

The range of blood cancers, genetic disorders and brain infections that can be treated with stem cells is increasing.

“In the last few months there has been work which has demonstrated the success of using cells to replace damaged tissue in the lungs once you’ve had Covid,” Shamshad says.

“It’s very promising – and it’s another potential use of stem cells.”

Shamshad started his career as a management trainee with Dupont, before moving into banking with CitiBank.

A friend invited him to work in medical research, from where he went on to set up a joint venture company to conduct drug trials – and then to found Smart Cells.

Smart Cells is now a successful, global business with offices and agents all over Europe and the Middle East. Customers pay an upfront fee, then an annual charge for storage.

Shamshad admits that in two decades running the company he has made mistakes.

He says he was too eager to outsource finance and laboratory functions – and too slow to realise the value of taking on high-quality staff.

He also had to buy out family members from whom he’d borrowed £250,000, after relationships turned sour.

“The experience almost wiped me out. I almost had to start all over again,” he adds, candidly.

His advice to young entrepreneurs is unusual – but chimes perfectly with his dynamic career. He warns would-be businesspeople not to over-think.

“I don’t see how you can make any projections beyond a year. And five-year projections are just pie in the sky,” he says.

“Over-thinking is a disease. Success is all about activity!”