How is the experience of a health startup?
Coronavirus and remote work have been a challenge for the development of our startup.
Since we decided to start with Phonendo we have been four members of the team, so far we are still committed to taking entrepreneurship forward, but there is no doubt that it is a complete challenge, where we apply everything learned from innovation and entrepreneurship.
It has been two years that we have had to travel, work late, research, learn a lot about health, and fail quickly and cheaply. There are times when we support each other, although we have our roles defined, there are issues where we collaborate in the work of the other, being necessary to be able to meet the stated objectives.
More than a year ago we had to make a new prototype to test a design, that day it was one of the most complicated and where we were in the streets of Concepcion “against wind and tide”, that day we walked a lot to find a supplier to do the work we needed, it rained a lot and we were literally completely wet, the streets were totally flooded and you could even occupy a canoe to navigate on the road. That’s when I realized that this was just a small mishap and only one of the problems that happens in startups.
Before the virus arrived we had already adopted the form of telework, which to some extent worked for us, when the virus arrived in Chile there we found ourselves in the need to adopt new tools and methodologies to improve our work, which was a positive point, as it accelerated the team’s process in certain areas, but we were still dependent on third parties for key activities.
These two years of work has left us as a conclusion to have more than one plan to execute, if we had had support from other plans we would not have delays in activities, besides that these plans must go hand in hand with the project leader and the team, to be all aligned on how and when to implement.
On the other hand, the team is a very important factor in this path, where everyone must give their 100%, if someone breaks the value chain, that is where you must make quick changes and concentrate the forces to solve it. It is also important to take care of the team, not only to see the work part, but that part that makes us people and not a working machine.
