Gary Leyden, Director of NDRC launchpad, graced us with his presence this week to share some lean start-up stories and valuable lessons that his team at the NDRC have learned over the past number of years. The Art Of The Start is a monthly seminar series run jointly by the Conway Institute and Systems Biology Ireland. More information on the series is available at http://www.ucd.ie/sbi/ Systems Biology Ireland at the Conway Institute is a multi-disciplinary cancer research centre with a particular focus on understanding the signalling events that underpin Colorectal cancer, Breast cancer, Melanoma and Neuroblastoma. The centre is strongly committed to scientific excellence, entrepreneurial education and disruptive innovation.