Meet Imen Jelassi, Founder of Corstrate
Great science does not sell itself. After more than 17 years in the life sciences industry, Imen Jelassi had seen promising companies struggle to grow because they lacked the commercial expertise to reach the right partners. She founded Corstrate to bridge that gap.
A life sciences company can have exceptional science, a genuinely innovative technology and a product capable of making a difference.
And still struggle to get anywhere.
Imen Jelassi has spent more than 17 years working in the industry, across business development, commercial strategy and international growth. Again and again, she saw the same disconnect.
Small and mid-sized companies were doing impressive scientific work, but many could not afford to build an experienced business development team around it.
The science was there.
The commercial infrastructure wasn't.
“As a result, many promising innovations struggled to reach the right pharmaceutical and biotech partners.”
For Imen, a pharmacist by training who had built her career on the commercial side of life sciences, it was a problem she knew how to solve.
So she built Corstrate.
The space between science and business
Imen works in a world where understanding the product is only the beginning.
A biotech company looking for a pharmaceutical partner, a CRO entering a new market or a CDMO searching for new customers all need to answer commercial questions alongside scientific ones.
Where is the opportunity?
Who is the right person to speak to?
How should the company position itself?
And how does an initial conversation become a partnership that lasts?
Corstrate works with life sciences companies on those questions, helping them develop commercial strategies, identify new markets and build sales pipelines across Europe and North America.
Imen believes her own background gives her an advantage.
“What sets us apart is the combination of scientific expertise and commercial strategy.”
As a pharmacist, she understands the science. After nearly two decades in business development, she also understands what it takes to turn that science into a commercial opportunity.
That distinction matters to her.
Corstrate isn't there simply to generate a list of leads.
“My goal is not just to generate leads, but to create opportunities that drive sustainable growth.”
Expertise without the full-time team
Corstrate emerged from a practical constraint Imen had seen throughout her career.
Experienced life sciences business development talent is valuable. It is also expensive.
For a smaller company, hiring an entire senior commercial function before revenue justifies it can be difficult. Yet waiting until later can create another problem: without commercial expertise, the company may struggle to generate the growth needed to build that team in the first place.
Imen saw an opportunity between those two realities.
Corstrate gives companies access to experienced business development support without requiring them to build the full capability internally from day one.
The work can include defining a commercial strategy, identifying the right companies and decision-makers, opening new markets and developing relationships with potential partners.
For Imen, the value lies in being able to enter a company, understand both what it has built and where it wants to go, and then create a route between the two.
When small means proving yourself first
Starting Corstrate also meant giving up some of the credibility that comes automatically with a larger organisation.
“One of the biggest challenges was building credibility as a small, independent founder in a highly competitive industry.”
Life sciences is built on trust.
Companies are making decisions involving valuable intellectual property, long development timelines, significant investment and highly specialised expertise. Choosing the person who will represent your business to potential partners is consequential.
Imen knew she couldn't manufacture that trust with branding alone.
She had to earn it.
Her strategy was uncomplicated: do good work, deliver consistently and build relationships that last.
“I overcame it by consistently delivering results, building long-term relationships and letting the quality of my work speak for itself.”
Over time, the thing that had initially been difficult to establish became one of Corstrate's most valuable assets.
“Trust became my strongest asset and the foundation of my business.”
“Building a business takes resilience, and I believe that thoughtful decisions and consistency lead to better long-term outcomes than reacting under pressure.”
Calm is part of the strategy
Imen doesn't describe herself as a founder who thrives on chaos.
Her leadership style is almost the opposite.
Patience. Perseverance. Calm. Logic.
Those qualities matter in an industry where deals can take time, decisions involve multiple stakeholders and a promising conversation does not necessarily become a contract next week.
“Building a business takes resilience, and I believe that thoughtful decisions and consistency lead to better long-term outcomes than reacting under pressure.”
That philosophy shapes how she handles uncertainty too.
When something goes wrong, her instinct is to understand the problem rather than amplify it.
Look for the solution.
Make the next thoughtful decision.
Keep going.
It is less dramatic than the popular mythology of entrepreneurship, but probably more representative of how enduring businesses are actually built.
Consistency over quick wins
If Imen could give an earlier version of herself one piece of advice, it would be to have more patience.
“Trust the process.”
Building Corstrate has taught her that meaningful growth often takes longer than expected.
Relationships take time to develop. Credibility accumulates. A business becomes stronger through dozens of small decisions that may not feel transformative in the moment.
“Meaningful growth comes from consistency rather than quick wins.”
It is a lesson that fits both her personality and her industry.
Drug development is measured in years. Scientific progress is iterative. Partnerships are built through repeated interactions.
Imen has learned to think about entrepreneurship with a similar horizon.
Her motivation comes from focusing on what she is building over the long term, rather than judging progress only by what happened this week.
What comes after consultancy
Imen is now beginning to explore what Corstrate's expertise might look like at a larger scale.
She is developing a new solution designed to help life sciences companies make better strategic decisions and accelerate growth.
For now, she is keeping the details close.
But the direction is significant.
Consulting allows Imen to bring her experience directly into individual companies. A scalable solution creates the possibility of turning some of that knowledge into something more organisations can access.
It is another version of the problem that led her to Corstrate in the first place:
How do you make experienced commercial thinking available to companies that need it?
After years of solving that question one company at a time, she is beginning to consider what the next answer could look like.
Investing in people
Asked which Founderland symbol resonates most with her, Imen chooses For People.
“Because I believe businesses are ultimately about people.”
It might seem surprising from someone working in an industry defined by science, technology and complex commercial transactions.
But partnerships still begin between people.
Trust exists between people.
And behind every company trying to get an innovation to market are people who have spent years building it.
That belief also shapes who Imen looks to for inspiration.
She names Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia's first president, for his emphasis on education, progress and long-term development.
“He believed that long-term development starts with investing in people, knowledge and opportunity.”
For Imen, the lesson is to build beyond the immediate challenge in front of you.
Think longer.
Invest in knowledge.
Create opportunities that can compound.
Building for the long term
Imen's favourite mantra comes from Lao Tzu:
“He who conquers others is strong; he who conquers himself is mighty.”
It is fitting for a founder whose approach to business is rooted less in urgency than self-command.
There will always be a deal that doesn't close.
A strategy that needs adjusting.
A company that says no.
The challenge is continuing to make clear decisions when those things happen.
Imen stays creative by learning, exploring new ideas and listening to different perspectives. She stays resilient through the same qualities that have shaped Corstrate from the beginning: patience, logic and perseverance.
And she keeps returning to the long view.
Because whether you are developing a scientific innovation, building a commercial partnership or growing a company, some things cannot be rushed.
They have to be built.
Finding community in the founder journey
For Imen, Founderland brings another element into that process: community.
“Building a business can be challenging, and I believe that sharing experiences, exchanging ideas and learning from diverse perspectives makes us all stronger.”
After years spent helping other companies grow, she is now building something of her own.
That comes with a different set of questions.
But it also comes with the opportunity to learn alongside other founders answering theirs.
Imen wants to contribute the experience she has accumulated over 17 years in life sciences while continuing to grow herself.
It is the same exchange that sits underneath much of her work.
Knowledge matters.
Relationships matter.
And sometimes the difference between an excellent idea remaining an idea and becoming something much bigger is having the right person help open the next door.
Follow Imen’s Journey
Stay in the loop: