The ultimate goal for Almouneer is to eliminate diabetes-related blindness, the leading cause of blindness in Egypt and the Middle East, by providing easy access to low-cost clinics that provide specialised treatment.
My first touchpoint with Almouneer was at INSEAD. Almouneer was the business explored by our batch during the “Master Strategy Day” Competition as part of the Introduction to Strategy coursework. Our team won the competition, and I could have the first 1:1 conversation with the founders, the CEO, Prof. Dr. Noha Khater, and the CTO, Dr. Rania Kadry.
Dr. Noha Khater – The founders inspired me with their eagerness to expand the business and willingness to improve people’s lives in Egypt
Next is “the challenge” that occurs daily: “It’s not clear what services get covered by insurance, and very hard to identify the medical history of the patients.”
Then you ask the customer, “What if you could solve the issue? What would that mean for your business?”
You listen, and then you show a software demo revealing to the customer exactly how the software makes it easy for them to identify the insurance coverage and the patient’s medical records. In the end, you ask for the customer’s opinion, show the value proposition and define the next steps. This framework is simple and powerful because it creates a logical flow in the presentation.
I liked Almouneer’s software solution because the complete medical records of one patient can be shared with different doctors so that patients don’t need to carry tons of papers with them. It’s a great advantage to keep the medical records in a central place because patients often lose the medical documents. Especially for elderly patients, it is difficult to keep track of all the paperwork.
Beyond the technicalities of a medical consultation, Dr. Noha explained that elderly patients also want to talk to doctors because they are often alone. Since the software frees up admin time, doctors reported that they could use that free time to spend with the patients.
The moment the patients leave the clinic, they tend have a lot of follow-up questions. Therefore Rania suggested in a brainstorming session that a chatbot that responds to the patient’s questions could be very helpful. We directly included this in the future feature list.
I observed that attitude is the main character trait that matters for an executive position.
We also discussed with the VCs the right incentivisation for C-Level hires at a start-up. It became clear that a start-up can’t pay as much as an established company, but there is high upside potential if the start-up is successful. The people that apply for the start-up must be aware of this fact and not expect a comparable monetary incentive to their previous secure corporate job. Finding great early hires was crucial for Almouneer because the right hire can improve the business and generate great ideas.
The third challenge was the branding of the software. It was an exciting challenge because it helps founders write down a clear business goal and identify the customer segment. Is it B2B, B2C, or B2B2C? What logo do you want to have, and what should it represent?
We met some branding companies from Cairo, and I could see that the knowledge I had acquired in my “Customer Behaviour” class was beneficial in discussions with the branding experts.
I worked with Rania and Noha towards the project’s success and was fascinated by their commitment to extend the NGO arm “Almouneer Control” and impact more low-profit patients
It was eye-opening to me how important it is to have excellent ommunication skills and an open mind.