After spending 15 years overseas, Singaporean entrepreneur Gillian Tee determined to return dwelling in 2016 to be nearer to her household.
It was what she known as “the right storm.”
Three of her shut kin have been residing with continual sicknesses and Tee rapidly found the “ache factors” of caring for people who want specialised care.
“Let’s say you fell and broke your hip, the medical half is kind of clear. It’s important to discover specialists, you may go to… [a] public hospital or personal hospital,” Tee mentioned.
“However what occurs when it is advisable come dwelling, when it is advisable transition again to your neighborhood and your own home, what’s the care plan? What’s the proper factor to even take into consideration, by way of proofing the house, mobility aids?”
She was referring to the guide Founders at Work: Tales of Startups’ Early Days, written by Jessica Livingston, who co-founded seed stage funding agency Y Combinator.
“How do I take advantage of know-how to construct one thing that folks can use, and it impacts their lives?”
And so started Tee’s entrepreneur journey, which incorporates spending two years in Silicon Valley, the place she co-founded Rocketrip in 2013. It’s a web site that incentivizes enterprise vacationers to avoid wasting their employers cash on journey bills.
Know your market
Be it constructing an app for journey or well being care, the enterprise fundamentals by no means change, mentioned Tee.
“You have to know your market rather well. Know your price drivers, development drivers and demand drivers.”
Homage is presently in three markets — Singapore, Malaysia and Australia, the place there are “distinctive traits” that join effectively to the issue that the corporate is making an attempt to unravel, Tee added.
“We checked out caregiver scarcity, the character of the growing old inhabitants and continual sicknesses — which curiously, is not only attributable to age, however extremely correlated with urbanization.”
Construct crew
Enterprise fundamentals are necessary, however entrepreneurs ought to “anchor first on individuals,” mentioned Tee.
This has served Homage effectively in offering the most effective take care of its shoppers, and for Tee, who had no prior expertise within the health-care business.
“It’s necessary to lean on specialists for scientific governance and compliance. That’s why we’ve got our director of nursing, for instance, who has 20 years of expertise throughout totally different medical settings,” Tee shared.
“An enormous a part of what we do is we have to synthesize care high quality with the product and know-how. That’s the crew it is advisable construct — I attempt to do the most effective I can, however I convey on people who find themselves a lot better than me.”
Give attention to the ’100 good issues’
Being an entrepreneur may be isolating, mentioned Tee, particularly so when you find yourself a lady.
“You get snide feedback, however after all, much less so now as a result of there’s a fame and respect that’s been constructed up.”
However issues weren’t all the time simple at first. “For instance, [a director] as soon as informed me, ‘You recognize, now I do know why the newspapers characteristic you, as a result of your eyes are so lovely.’”
“That is my mantra like all the things I am going by way of: I’ve to be twice as assertive, extra data-driven and be tremendous sharp. I do assume we [female entrepreneurs] should do extra to show our level.”
Even so, Tee has discovered to take issues in her stride and lean on the individuals who matter.
“There’s 100 issues, however there’s additionally 100 good issues. You bought to essentially tune out the noise and be okay going by way of that depth,” she added.
“It’s exhilarating in some methods, however tiring in lots of others. Lean in your crew, be open, susceptible, clear with them. I feel that’s crucial factor.”
Innovation drives affect
What does innovation imply to Tee? It’s about making an affect on customers.
“The mission of Homage is so close to and pricey to me. On the finish of the day, there’s nothing higher than constructing one thing that folks can get an answer out of,” she mentioned.
Since 2017, Homage has offered over 1 million caregiving hours, with a crew of 15,000 care professionals throughout its three markets, the corporate mentioned.
Over the previous two years, its enterprise in Malaysia and Australia has additionally grown “700% year-on-year,” it added.
“Constructing an app that may mobilize individuals after which scaling that as a sustainable enterprise, that drives me. It’s doing good, whereas doing effectively.”
