Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Starmind CEO Marc Vontobel (Part 1)

Marc is yet another techie who has made a successful transition to being an entrepreneur.

In this interview, he discusses his journey, as well as a lot of the nuances of positioning his venture, Starmind, for success.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to Starmind.

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Catching Up On Readings: India’s 100 Unicorns

This feature from Inc 42 provides a comprehensive list of all the 100 unicorns in India, which have collectively raised $90 billion in funding and are valued at a combined $333 billion. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

575th Roundtable Recording on May 19, 2022

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:

Video FAQs

Colors: Le Ciel II

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Le Ciel II

Le Ciel II | Sramana Mitra, 2020 | Watercolor | 9  x 12, On Paper

Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Praava Health CEO Sylvana Sinha, Bangladesh (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Tell me about the team.

Sylvana Sinha: Today we have 450 people. My Chief Medical Officer is an amazing woman. She has been working in healthcare for more than 40 years. She’s an expert in quality management. Her husband was a diplomat, so she’s lived and worked all over the world.

She moved back to Bangladesh 12 years ago. She had been working as the Head of Quality at a large private hospital in Bangladesh. She had gone into retirement and I convinced her to come out of retirement. She has been with us since 2017.

Colors: Le Ciel I

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Le Ciel I

Le Ciel I | Sramana Mitra, 2020 | Watercolor | 9  x 12, On Paper

Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Praava Health CEO Sylvana Sinha, Bangladesh (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What is the pricing model?

Sylvana Sinha: We like to say we are offering more value for money. We price at market. It’s in between the fancy private hospitals and the free and affordable care. To see a doctor, it’s less than $8. To see a specialist might cost $12 to $15. We acquire patients through consultations or through the pharmacy. We upsell them to longer-term patients through diagnostic testing and health checks. The most profitable part of the business is diagnostics testing.

Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Praava Health CEO Sylvana Sinha, Bangladesh (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s focus on the first year. What did you build to qualify yourself for funding?

Sylvana Sinha: I spent that year on a listening tour. I was traveling all over the world to meet entrepreneurs and investors to understand business models and innovations in healthcare. I funded myself to do that and just live during that time.