How does a healthtech start-up start-up?
Alvin Yuan is currently the Chief Executive Officer of HealthMetrics. He graduated as a pharmacist and spent the next years of his career in healthcare, financing, business management, economics, and technology.
He has been in the healthcare line all his life, along with his family, so healthcare is in his blood. He worked alongside his family’s company, IHM, to learn about business management and was exposed to the healthcare industry. This is where he saw an incumbent problem that HealthMetrics is solving today that did not exist back then.
However, he held onto the idea of HealthMetrics for quite some time until he met our CTO, Advent Phang, who helped draw the blueprints of what would become HealthMetrics.
Back in 2015, sitting in his garage with an old laptop, Alvin was an army of one. Now he was an army of two.
His vision, a better way for corporates to deal with health benefits was soon to be realised… All he had to do was complete his 10-step plan:
The 10-step how-to:
- Graduate from Uni
- See an opening in the health-tech market
- Team up with someone who is just as smart and driven
- Start coding
- Sell the idea to investors
- Raise the funds
- Create a company
- Find an office
- Find staff
- Find paying customers
Boom!
From spotting an opening in the market to the first paying customer took 6 months – yes, only 6 months!
Timeline
Founded in 2015
July 2017 - The first and only Malaysian company to have ever joined the “Google Global Accelerator Launchpad".
July 2017 - First corporate customer signed up - Pacific Insurance.
April 2018 - Seed funding from Spiral Ventures, Cradle Seed Ventures, & RHL Ventures. This funding allowed it to establish its services in Malaysia.
September 2020 - HeathMetrics secured $5 million USD (RM20.7 million) in Series A funding. The company plans to use these funds to expand its product offering as well as its geographical footprint.
November 2020 - HealthMetrics achieves ISO/IEC27001:2013 certification.
March 2021 - HealthMetrics launches e-pharmacy service. Despite it being a new concept in Malaysia where most people still prefer in-person visits to their healthcare providers or their local pharmacies, the contactless delivery for medical prescriptions is now growing. All employees have to do is submit their prescriptions via the HealthMetrics app and once approved, the prescription will be filled, and the medication will be delivered to them.
February 2022 - HealthMetrics, now a leading cloud enterprise healthcare management company, announced that its platform is now available in Singapore to help companies streamline and automate all corporate healthcare-related matters.
September 2022 – HealthMetrics today announced a strategic investment in PT. AA International Indonesia, which operates Across Asia Assist (AAA) Indonesia, a leading third-party administrator (TPA) and international medical assistance company with a presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. AAA is also a core partner of the International Assistance Group (IAG), a worldwide network of assistance companies and services servicing over 118 million members globally.
November 2022 - HealthMetrics is now a next-generation, award-winning corporate healthcare benefits management platform serving companies such as Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 7-Eleven, Berjaya Group, Taylors Group Family Mart, Star Media Group, Pullman Hotels & many more.
Trusted by over 1,000 customers, 5,000 healthcare providers and more than 250,000 individual users across Enterprise, Manufacturing, Hospitality, Education, Logistics & Retail Chains. There's no stopping them now.
Some insights from Alvin
What kept you going through the difficult times?
"To be truthful, I think it was ignorance that kept us going, Lols, we didn't know that it would be so hard and we just kept pushing for things to happen anyway. Looking back knowing what I know now, I definitely wouldn't change anything because somehow or other, we got here having the faith that it will work."
"Oh and I read this book - 'Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill'.
It changed my life. You should read it."
Can you share one piece of advice to people who are looking to join HealthMetrics?
"Do not feel bound to your paper qualifications. As long as you are reliable and would like to work with equally reliable people, this is the place to be, there should not be any fear to apply.
I truly value each one of my employees, and to quote our CTO, just do it."
What's next?
"Onwards and upwards - to be the most valuable Healthtech in the region..."
Thanks Alvin!
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