July 22, 2025 • 41 mins
When Dominican-born engineer-entrepreneur Rainier Mallol walked into Singularity University in 2015, he carried a single, under-lined word on the napkin he would eventually share with Paper Napkin Wisdom: Decision. That decision—to harness artificial intelligence against mosquito-borne diseases—launched AIME (Artificial Intelligence in Medical Epidemiology), a platform now credited with predicting dengue, Zika and chikungunya outbreaks up to three months in advance, with better than 85 % accuracy WikipediaInnovators Under 35.
Since then Rainier has:
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Been named to MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 list (2017) and Forbes 30 Under 30 (2019) for his public-health breakthroughs Innovators Under 35;
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Served as Director of ICT for two Dominican Republic ministries, modernising nationwide data systems Wikipedia;
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Pivoted to his new venture cxgenies, bringing the same AI rigour to customer-experience analytics.
“At the end of the day it is you who controls your own destiny.” — Rainier Mallol, PNW 272
That fierce ownership threads through our entire conversation. Rainier’s story reminds us that transformation rarely starts with vast resources or perfect timing. It starts with a single, courageous yes.
From Classroom Prototype to Olympic-Level Tool
Rainier reminisced about pitching AIME as a 14-week class project. Within a year the model was mapping disease clusters across Latin America and Southeast Asia. During the 2016 Rio Olympics, his system armed health officials with hyper-local risk maps in real time—a feat four scientists previously needed months to approximate.
“We went from spreadsheets to an AI that did the work in three hours—and governments finally had clarity for their decisions.” — Rainier Mallol
That result didn’t come from luck; it flowed from Rainier’s willingness to iterate in the
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Govindh Jayaraman (00:02):
Rainier Malal. Welcome to paper napkin wisdom. I'm excited to have you here with me today.
Rainier Mallol (00:07):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here with so many people that have been before, and just glad to, you know, share a little bit about me and my experiences so far.
Govindh Jayaraman (00:15):
That's wonderful. Well, ranure for everybody listening accomplished young man, mit innovator and other things. Harvard grad. So you shared a very interesting paper napkin with me, and you underscored a word 3 times, because I suspect that it's pretty important. One decision can change your life, and you underscored the word 1 3 times. Why did you share that with me?
Rainier Mallol (00:46):
So 1st of all, I'm just speaking about you know what I've been doing for the past 10 years. So 1st of all, I'm Dominican. I grew up in Thailand. I was educated here in my school, my university here as well.
and
I know since I've been like very young since I have memory. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, or at least someone that actually actually a businessman. I really don't like the word entrepreneur, but I do like the way that running a business has. You know, you innovate, you provide value.
(01:18):
and you can also change people's lives to their work. So I think it's very noble.
And when I graduated college a year after I got the opportunity to go to a program at NASA at that moment it was called University Graduate program.
And I remember that at that moment, in time.
(01:39):
I had an idea of you know how to build something that could actually impact the lives of millions of people, and that something was an AI model. This is back in 2015, when no one was talking about AI.
But the AI model would be able to predict diseases before they happen. So imagine Covid, imagine the flu. Imagine other diseases like dengue, which is a tropical disease found in countries like Dominican Republic, Latin America, and so is Asia as well.
(02:08):
And on the 1st day of class I met someone who was a doctor who is a doctor and sort of talking, you know, mingling story and idea of how it actually could be done.
And we, you know, said, Okay, let's let's play it up. Let's see what happens.
The program, does it? Then weeks? And at the end of the 10th week there was a competition about the group that could innovate
(02:33):
with a technology that could impact most people's lives. And we won.
And at that time I had to make one choice, had to, you know, decide whether or not I would follow. You know this idea, and see what it becomes.
or just leave at that, and you know and just return to my country, and you know, see what I would do there.
(02:54):
So of course I did what anyone with, you know some kind of
boss would do, and you know, ask around. And I asked people that were dear to me, and I think not a single one of them told me to do it. They always told me, Okay, come back. You know, it's too risky. It's, you know, it's true that you're young. But you know what's what's gonna happen. And basically they shut the door, and I do respect it. It did, came from love. It didn't come from a place that it was not, you know positive. But
(03:28):
I didn't listen to them. And I, you know, make the decision actually following through and see what was gonna happen.
And, thanks to the decision. Not only did the dream became reality. We now have technologies that impact millions of people every year, positively improving their health care and defined risks where, you know, risks could not be identified in such a way before helping governments actually be better and more efficient.
(03:57):
now, you know, I have 40 plus employees under me working in that room. I have the impact to show it, and I have the recognition as well. And it was thanks to that, you know I got other accolades, such as the forestry under 30, the mit under 20, under 35 in order, and also you know, thanks to that, I also got into Harvard as well. So
(04:20):
it's just
to me in hindsight. It's very funny. It's just one decision you talk with other people. They may give you, you know. Pause or not, they may give you encouragement or not.
but at the end of the day it is you who has to make the decision, and it is you who controls your own destiny. And it's true. Down
(04:44):
one issue may weigh more than others, but it still is one decision. So I think that's why I you know, underlining 3 times that it just takes one just one decision to change who you are, who you become, and what would you do with with your future.
Govindh Jayaraman (05:02):
There's a lot that you start off with, and I want to go back to where you began.
And you said that you always wanted to be a businessman, and you didn't really like the word entrepreneur.
Right.
Why, you said, being a businessman was being, it felt, more noble
than being an entrepreneur. Why are you making the distinction? And and there's no right or wrong. I'm just curious as to why. What distinction exists between those 2 terms to you.
Rainier Mallol (05:33):
You know, this movie reminds me of when I was a kid. And I mean, I'm a millennial. I'm a nineties, kid. So I grew up watching nineties show like animaniacs and whatnot. I always remember seeing, like the businessman being the bad guy. There's famous this show called rocket power, which was about. You know, kids who would do surfing and horsekating and whatnot and do extreme sports, and they will always see, you know, that lifestyle of having a business, or being a businessman, as the negative part.
(06:02):
but I was always drawn to it. I was always saying, No, but I want that. I want to wear a suit as I am wearing now.
I want to actually, you know, grow and have my community grow with me.
The distinction to me it's very simple is that entrepreneurs is still a young businessman is a businessman that has not
being validated by the market itself. You know the entrepreneur is crying, and of course there is
(06:27):
a point of of entrepreneur that I cannot deny, which is innovation. I'm still entrepreneur. I don't think, even with 10 years of experience. I'm still a businessman.
you know. I don't own a big corporation, and I don't run a big corporation. Having said that to me it is the natural path of entrepreneur if they have success to become businessmen or businesswomen. So, for example, we used to think about social media as this big innovative thing, and of course, to some degree I still are. But right now there are full-fledged corporations, and Max recovery, for example, is much more a businessman than entrepreneur.
(07:04):
or even the folks at Google, or the folks at Snapchat, or other companies that right now are no bigger than most corporations in the world.
So to me is ideal. To become this entrepreneur is something that anyone can be as long as you have an idea. The business mind someone, that the market has really true, and that has given the support, of course, through money and through growth. Basically.
Govindh Jayaraman (07:30):
I really align with what you're saying, because what you're I mean, you're sort of talking about what Gerber talked about Michael Gerber and the E-myth
that you know there, and his
theory is that most people who are entrepreneurs are just are practitioners. They're really good at doing something, and they've leveraged that into a hustle, or a side hustle or a main hustle, and you take them out of the business. There is no business.
(08:00):
and I think what you're doing is drawing the distinction between the solopreneur, the person who is trading their time and expertise in exchange for disproportionate value to instead a business person who's built a community
that they sustain through leadership, strategy, innovation, and insight, which is different. And I think that's the phase and stage of growth. You start somewhere, and you move into a different state. You have to. Almost. I often say this that you have to take on a schizophregative personality where, when your business grows. You're part shareholder part CEO,
(08:48):
part chairperson of the board, right? I mean, those 3 roles have very different objectives and different perspectives on what's important to the company, and they almost are at odds with each other at times. Shareholder wants to maximize their personal returns.
Shareholder. The chairperson of the board is looking at strategic insights that are 5 to 10 years out. The executive team is looking at, making sure that they're retaining earnings to fund growth. They tend to be at odds with one another, don't they.
Rainier Mallol (09:23):
I agree, especially now. I think it's a practice that we and and I mean at least, I hope it faces out a little bit, or at least changes in the coming future. Because what we're seeing now is that this content from customers and there's that's from from one side, and on the other side you have all of these
(09:44):
culture of being a customer, centric company and whatnot.
but that in itself, like being a customer centric culture, one that puts the customer in front is, as you said, it's counter intuitive to the stakeholder and to the shareholders. Right? Mindset, which is okay? How can I maximize profits, because sometimes in the long term it may seem that you have to cut some costs here to maximize it in the future at the end of day is an excel sheet.
(10:12):
But what we have seen, and when I mean with
people that are focused on the customer, experience
is that you can take sometimes the loss in the short term to have a win in the longer term that is, backed by studies, not only by me.
but but but it is true, and
(10:33):
it's difficult also to grow as entrepreneur and become a businessman. Because when you're starting out, you really do want to make the best product possible, and you want to make you know or provide the best services possible. As you grow, you will have more interest. You have investors that will have other interests at hand, and
it is difficult to manage this new persona. That, of course, is giving you money to grow. But it's also giving you another aspect to see. You know priorities as well. So there is a balance, and that's 1 of the trickiest things to find when you're an entrepreneur who has not been a CEO of a corporation before. Of course, if you have been a CEO, then I think it's more natural. This second hand.
Govindh Jayaraman (11:19):
It never becomes natural.
The the other thing is, I like the the
the Platform's name, but in 2015 you might have been speaking, your company name, or the product name almost like Charlie Brown. Characters would hear adults names. It would be blah blah blah, right? Because in 2015, artificial intelligence and medical epidemiology.
(11:48):
Epidemiology was not a Main Street word. Artificial intelligence was not a Main Street word in 2015, so it was like the wah! Wah! Wah! Wah! Product name! How hard was it to communicate what you even were thinking about doing back then? I mean, you had some great practice, singularity, and the model that you went through is an incredible accelerator. It's a great incubator. They do great work out of there. So you had a really great
(12:18):
test ground. However, you know the real world is a little bit different.
Rainier Mallol (12:24):
And it's more different when you are not, you know, pitching to countries that you know are the States or Canada. But when you're pitching to Malaysia or Singapore or Latin American countries, which you know are still, I mean at that point in time where a few years behind, on what AI was
Govindh Jayaraman (12:43):
And and their value to medical epidemiology. I mean this, this is a this is a big subject.
Rainier Mallol (12:50):
It is, and it was difficult, like most most of my job, was educating at the time.
Govindh Jayaraman (12:58):
Right.
Rainier Mallol (12:59):
Like. The other day I was giving a talk, and I and I would say, I actually thank Openai and Chatgpt, because, you know, it is now way easier for me to talk about AI. At least there is some intentional use of AI like before we had this user, which we did not know we were using AI. So in 2015, we did have Google Maps and Google Maps had had AI for quite a long time now. But you know we didn't know we were using it because it was not
(13:26):
an interface in which you could talk to one. But anyways, most of my job was actually educating this Government senior leadership that I was talking to, so I would sit down with ministers, with Presidents, with Prime Ministers. I was very young at the time. I think I was
discriminated a few times. But that's okay. That's something that you learn how to navigate through. But I have to explain that this AI is not a terminator, because a lot of the people that I sat down with, their only experience with AI was through movies. And the most famous movie about AI at that time was Terminator. Now we have a few more. But I actually, and this is no joke. I had to say, no, no, this isn't the one I enjoy. Life.
Govindh Jayaraman (14:10):
This is not sky. This is not skynet right?
Rainier Mallol (14:13):
Exactly. This is actually going to make your life a lot easier, because this, this and that, and at the end of the day I do have to, you know. Thank
those initial people that believed in us, believed in me and allowed us to pilot technology at the 1st few cities where we want to.
And of course I have more no's than yes, but you know it's part of being an entrepreneur.
Govindh Jayaraman (14:36):
Yeah. So so yeah, like, look, the foundations of AI go back to the seventies. And and the very 1st emails, right? Because the AI was essential in in Hashing and then reconstructing emails as they went across the world.
but you really moved. So the technical terminology and strategic circles for some of what you did was you went from a blue ocean environment
(15:04):
to a very red ocean very quickly, right? I mean it from 2015 in 10 years.
Well, really, in 5 years the world changed, and there was immense competitive pressure around AI, but also immense.
(15:24):
A competitive pressure from 1 billion dollar players in medical epidemiology, and you played in the convergence of these 2 technologies. This is this became very from blue ocean to very red Ocean very quickly.
And so for people listening. When I say that I mean blue ocean is your imagine being out in the ocean all by yourself. Nobody around to red ocean is. It's a very warlike idea, but the water turns very red with the blood of combatants within a marketplace it becomes very tumultuous very quickly.
(16:02):
The strategies that work when you're trying to invite clients to come out into a blue ocean when there's nothing there are very different than a very competitive landscape that occurred over just 5 years. How did you manage that transition?
Rainier Mallol (16:17):
1st of all, I have to be very honest and and be very transparent, and say that back in 2019, we also thought a lot of about closing the business, closing the company, because in 2019 we only had about 3 clients.
which honestly, was not enough for a for a startup, and and not what we envisioned.
(16:37):
and mainly due to the things that you mentioned, and also, like, you know, people were not
understanding very well, or we're not keen enough to believe in the money yet.
and also because we deal in epidemiology, which is by its core, by its natural preventive medicine. You do epidemic analysis to prevent disease for spreading and infecting more people. So prevention is always
(17:08):
leading factor in being more healthy, at least in communities, but is
also the hardest thing to sell.
Govindh Jayaraman (17:16):
Because nobody's paying for.
Rainier Mallol (17:19):
And nobody has to pay.
Govindh Jayaraman (17:20):
Our entire medical system. Again, context, our entire medical system is based around paying for solutions.
Rainier Mallol (17:29):
Yes, it's been.
Govindh Jayaraman (17:30):
Problems that exist.
Rainier Mallol (17:32):
Yes.
Govindh Jayaraman (17:32):
For paying, for avoiding problems that have not yet occurred. Now.
Rainier Mallol (17:37):
Correct.
Govindh Jayaraman (17:37):
We can have a very robust conversation about which is more valuable and which creates greater leverage. But that's just the system. So finding customers is hard, because there's no one paying for prevention.
Rainier Mallol (17:50):
Correct. The clients that we did have at the time were the ones facing
the biggest outbreaks of dengue at the time, which is a mosquito borne disease and disease that is inhibited by mosquitoes.
Funny tropical climates also Zika and Chikungunya, which are very similar in the way that they are transmitted.
And they had, you know, hundreds of thousands of cases every year. So for them did make a lot of sense. Okay, let's try it out because I don't know what else to try, and there are no vaccines for these days.
(18:18):
But, as I was saying, 2019, you know we again, or at least I am my co-founder made a choice or decision of, you know. Let's let's keep working. Let's let's give it
2 to 3 more years and see what happens, and if nothing improves at the time, then we close shop. That was that that was back in 2019. So in 2020,
(18:39):
Covid happened at the end of well, at the beginning of it.
and then everything changed for us, for the world, in change, for divorce, for the business itself or of any of my company. It did change for the better, and we were one of those few winners of Covid, because it gives us reason.
(19:02):
So we were right. Basically, we had to focus. And when I mean, we and this woman, I mean governments, I mean the world, we have to focus on probation, and we have to focus on epidemiology. It now became mainstream to know about what epidemiology was, and it became mainstream to actually find certainty and decisions that only epidemiologists would give you.
(19:24):
The issue was that there was too much data, too much noise.
and it would be too troublesome for humans to work on that, especially on the time window that we had.
and that was, you know, when AI came in, and who better to work with AI than a company that had been working with it in the past. I know 4 years. So we did have before and after. When Covid happened
(19:50):
we were about 5 employees in 20 by 10 of 2019, and we were about 35
at the end of 2020. So we grew a lot because we had, you know, gotten that. Okay. Yes, we need you. I don't know how we didn't need you before, like I don't know how we didn't hire you before. But yeah, let's work together, and.
Govindh Jayaraman (20:11):
But banging on those doors for 4 years.
Rainier Mallol (20:14):
Yes, right. Helped open the doors.
Govindh Jayaraman (20:17):
In 4 months, I mean, the world changed very quickly for you. But if if you didn't do the 4 years that 4 months wouldn't have existed right.
Rainier Mallol (20:26):
That is correct. There was a path that was walked, you know, and we went through it. I remember also, like there were 2 things that helped us really get those contacts in 2021 is, as you mentioned. You know.
the work that we did in those years. I was key there, because what I did in those years was, you know, applying for grants, applying to competitions, applying to different things that would put our name on top of you know the web, and on top of you know, and if you at that time, if you search AI normally, we would be one of the 1st
(21:01):
hits in in Google, but also, of course, closing deals which gives us experience and validation.
And the second thing that helped us was, thanks to my co-founder who back in 2019, when in Wuhan, were, you know, just releasing news about the virus.
he said. Let's work on this because I think he's gonna change
(21:25):
the way that epidemics are treated around the world. Though this was back in November, I believe.
Govindh Jayaraman (21:30):
So it was a hunch he just had this hunch.
Rainier Mallol (21:32):
You got a hunch.
had a hunch, and what we did was work in a few dashboards very quickly. Not the most complex dashboards at all. We have more. We have built more complex dashboards back in 2016. But
with that dasher we were able to go to the Government of Malaysia today that the you know airports were closed.
(21:53):
which I think they close pretty much at the same week globally, I think
maybe one day close the States, or they close another another country. But I think most countries close at the same week.
But are they close in Malaysia?
It was a Thursday. I was there actually. And on Friday we were already working with authorities because of the same day that they closed doors and they closed the airports. We were showing the dashboard to them.
(22:18):
and that in itself gave them calm. You know there, there was a lot of uncertainty at the time this work that I'm talking about decision makers, you know, have the responsibility to make decisions
that would impact millions of people. And they didn't know what to do.
And this gave them. Okay, at least now we have a North. No, at least now we can have some metrics that could actually be updated every day, every hour and see what's going on and base our decisions on that. So yes, we need this.
(22:50):
Yeah. The 1st is history. That's how we, you know, built and kept building different solutions that were mainly impacted, mainly impacted Malaysia in 2020 and still impact today.
Govindh Jayaraman (23:03):
That's that's really interesting. I love how you followed your hunch
and made a dashboard. And it sounds so. We have this philosophy or this thing that I like to talk about, it's called make it bad. Make it better. And you really embrace that you just. You made a dashboard. You got it out quickly.
But you you made it highly valuable to the audience, and you knew what was going to be valuable to your customer
(23:27):
because you've been trying it. You've been validating it for 4 years, right?
Rainier Mallol (23:32):
Correct.
Govindh Jayaraman (23:33):
So it wasn't just a shot. It wasn't your v. 1. It was your v, 1 of that one. But it wasn't your v 1 overall you. You were coming to it with some value.
Rainier Mallol (23:42):
And you do learn a few things along the way you learn that you know people that musicians like the dashboard this way or not this way. They like this filter here or that. They like this graph here better than this one that they use it, you know, sometimes for political purposes. But that's okay. Because at the end of the day, you know, you're trying, you're trying to make it
as valuable as possible. So you can. So you can
(24:05):
continue impacting the lives of people. And you can continue, you know, having business to, you know, live out of it as well. But yes, and IA hundred percent agree with you. There was
a road that we walked, and, you know, had to be walked in order to get there as fast as we did.
Govindh Jayaraman (24:25):
That's that's fantastic.
The other thing I want to go back to. So you know, I know I'm going back to your introduction a little bit.
and and and I want to talk about how
you had a chance to make one choice to follow this.
you know, and follow this I mean, you presented this AI model in 2015
(24:51):
at Singularity University at Ames Research Park. Right? You did this, and after 10 weeks you won.
and you went to all of the people around you people who care about you, people who know you, your mentors and friends and family, and said, Do I follow this opportunity, or or go back to the Dr. And when you, when you
(25:17):
asked around, everyone said, Play it safe, go home. And it isn't it interesting that when things get uncertain.
smart leaders, smart people, good people
tend to pump the brakes and pumping the brakes isn't really pumping the brakes, it's retreating to something that is safe as opposed to moving forward a little bit.
You decided to go forward, anyway.
(25:40):
Let's talk about the decision. What? What factored in that decision.
Rainier Mallol (25:44):
I think.
No, I know that back home, like I mean, in 2015,
back home I had a consultancy company. It Consultant Consultancy company that I had built.
It was 3 years old. So I graduated with it already being established. So I did create my 1st company again, an it consulting company about 3 months before I graduated from college, and I already had clients. I remember that the 1st year
(26:12):
I close I myself about 23 different cars, which is, I think, a lot.
And
honestly, I was making money. I was okay, but I was getting tired of it. I was getting tired of the culture I was getting tired of.
I'm gonna make quantities.
How the marketing Tdr responded to technology.
(26:33):
It is not the same as how the States or other countries respond to technology in which
and they are seeing as something that it that is nice to have while in the sales, and that you must have, for example.
and
I knew that even though my talent and my land is very appreciating my work, that I had little room for innovation there.
(26:56):
I think that was the major driver for me. And it actually takes me back to my 1st ever job in tech.
I quit that job because I was doing work that was not innovative at all. It was I was just following, you know.
I was programming things that were built 10 years ago, and they had to be
(27:20):
kept being built that way. So I was unhappy with it.
I came up today. I
I am at my happiest when I take an idea and put it into reality with
they believe that it will change or improve people's lives. It doesn't have to be an impact technology. It doesn't have to be healthcare or poverty. It could be also, you know, for
(27:45):
financial gain. That's okay. But it has to be an innovation has to be something that has not been has not been done before, at least for a specific industry.
or at least for a specific market, and if I'm being very, very honest and very transparent, I think that's the main reason why I didn't, you know, follow what my family friends mentors, as you said, suggested of me. I was not seeing myself happy in the VR. Because I was not seeing myself innovating in the VR. At least not at that time.
Govindh Jayaraman (28:17):
Yeah. And it's not surprising to hear that innovation is so important to you. Like I said, when you launched a platform called Artificial intelligence and medical epidemiology in 2015. And again, the Charlie Brown character, wah! Wah! Wah! Wah! Comes into my mind because that's what most people would have heard back, then.
innovation is in your blood and and following. That must have been a very important part to everything.
(28:44):
So look back at this, you know, and and one of the things that I think is really interesting.
that that I don't know that I heard one
you know, one real big answer to. So I'm going to push back against it was, what did you do with the intense competitive pressure that came in because there were a lot of
(29:11):
other companies that built together with duct tape solutions around AI and medical epidemiology
in around the early mid stage of 25, th 2025, sorry, 2020 to to build a solution that was like yours.
But yours already, was there. How did you differentiate between those 2, especially in a world where, look.
(29:37):
we can say that there's no market around it. But you're still selling to the medical profession more or less, or to governments and governments, as it relates to health are enormously pedantic. They are very slow moving, and tend to bet on big players over small.
You sort of conquered 2 big roadblocks at the same time. How did you do that.
Rainier Mallol (29:58):
That's the thing. The answer is not as sexy as I would put it, but your answer is that
it takes a lot of time like for us to close a requirement is easy. 14 months just having meetings and talks and
and zooms, and I know, and things and whatnot. And
(30:19):
is this something that most people are not willing to spend for a government contract that could change
in 6 months because the precedent, change or department needs to be changed.
Right now we have grown, and we now know how to now make deals better. So if a government changes, we are still intact.
But even at that time, where everyone wanted something using AI or using any technology that was out there just to help them.
(30:47):
I did see a lot of new players, but none of them remain today. Maybe one or 2, which you know are American. Have all the money in the world. But the screen certification we are not seeing that much competition. What we are seeing in our competition using like Llms to build Chatbots and whatnot even ourselves, have built some chatbots that help
(31:08):
our clients digest the data in a in a faster way. But what we've seen now this is, you know, tools that use open AI or some other models capabilities to come up with a chatbot that does X, or does y?
And I'm not saying that there is no benefit of using them. There is no merit. Of course there is merit.
(31:31):
but what we do is way beyond that what we do is we truly analyze. We are a team of medical doctors and data scientists and technologists that truly understand the disease and truly understand what technology can do. And with that we build technologies that you know are in par with in the cities that our clients need.
(31:52):
Of course, we have built models that predict disease. So we also have these models. That profile people, I mean, with their consent, of course, to tell them whether or not they're a candidate. For you know, a cancer, or that we need screening because they're at risk or not.
And these things you only get to them through analyzing the problem in a in a very deep sense, and to having access.
(32:12):
So I think these are building blocks. And when I mean having access is, you know.
keeping with the fight. You have to be there, and you have to keep pushing and pushing and pushing. And when you hear a problem that someone tells you you have to. Okay, let's let's go that way. At the end of the day, as I mentioned at the beginning, I see businessman as
(32:34):
people that are able to have others through their craft.
And there are no, I would say, better works for a businessman to hear.
Then I have this problem.
If tells you this, then you have a way to make them happy. Of course your, you know capabilities align.
But if you hear those words, then you're gonna make back, or at least make an impact.
Govindh Jayaraman (33:01):
What is good enough when it comes to being able to predict these things. You know I think perfection is the enemy of done. Everybody wants 100% efficacy.
What did you find? What level of of completeness was
appropriate for your use? Cases in your mind?
Rainier Mallol (33:24):
For the cases that we have. Now, we aim always to have more than 85% of accuracy.
So out of 100 objects we predict at least 85 must be mathematically correct, at least, and we do so a bit when we are in the field. So when you're in the field when you put it to test with real people's lives. And you know real tests, which is really hard, hard to do, because the way that you test these models out in the real world is that you deploy them and you do nothing.
(33:55):
You see, you wait. Yeah. You wait
for field ones. We are okay with more than 82%. So we have to have, you know, 85 and 82. That's what we recommend.
Govindh Jayaraman (34:08):
And that's pretty tough to do. I mean, I think that's that's the bottom line that it's tough to do. Rainier. I know we could talk for a long time, and I find how you've built
aim, and your companies and your vision and your strategy and your tenacity really admirable.
And I know we could go for a long time, but our time has come
(34:30):
this season. We've been ending every episode with a shout out to our
to an early paper napkin wisdom contributor. His name was John Ruland. He wrote a profound book called Giftology, but a few years before that he appeared on paper napkin wisdom and shared a simple napkin with us is what you appreciate appreciates. And his message was that when you appreciate someone or something, and you do so publicly. It appreciates in value to you and to everyone around them. So we're paying forward his appreciation and asking every guest
(35:04):
to shout out somebody and lay some appreciation and love out there in the world. Who would you like to appreciate today.
Rainier Mallol (35:13):
Those words are very noble, and and I think they have. They hold value by by themselves. But I think
my mom
so quickly. My dad died when I was 4 years old, so my mom was my dad and my mom for me. She raised me, and I am the person who I am today because of her.
(35:33):
and I love her, but I love also that I can count on her and her support.
and she always told me like. If you ever need help, you can come back.
So I really appreciate that. Even, you know, after all of these years, I'm I'm still, you know, someone that she believes in, but also believes in that she needs to take care of me, which is, you know, I'm a very mom thing, too. So I think, I'm gonna be very normal here. And just say, my mom, which who I love.
Govindh Jayaraman (36:05):
I think that's amazing.
Thank you, Rainier.
Rainier Mallol (36:10):
Thank you.
Rainier Malal. Welcome to paper napkin wisdom. I'm excited to have you here with me today.
Rainier Mallol (00:07):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here with so many people that have been before, and just glad to, you know, share a little bit about me and my experiences so far.
Govindh Jayaraman (00:15):
That's wonderful. Well, ranure for everybody listening accomplished young man, mit innovator and other things. Harvard grad. So you shared a very interesting paper napkin with me, and you underscored a word 3 times, because I suspect that it's pretty important. One decision can change your life, and you underscored the word 1 3 times. Why did you share that with me?
Rainier Mallol (00:46):
So 1st of all, I'm just speaking about you know what I've been doing for the past 10 years. So 1st of all, I'm Dominican. I grew up in Thailand. I was educated here in my school, my university here as well.
and
I know since I've been like very young since I have memory. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, or at least someone that actually actually a businessman. I really don't like the word entrepreneur, but I do like the way that running a business has. You know, you innovate, you provide value.
(01:18):
and you can also change people's lives to their work. So I think it's very noble.
And when I graduated college a year after I got the opportunity to go to a program at NASA at that moment it was called University Graduate program.
And I remember that at that moment, in time.
(01:39):
I had an idea of you know how to build something that could actually impact the lives of millions of people, and that something was an AI model. This is back in 2015, when no one was talking about AI.
But the AI model would be able to predict diseases before they happen. So imagine Covid, imagine the flu. Imagine other diseases like dengue, which is a tropical disease found in countries like Dominican Republic, Latin America, and so is Asia as well.
(02:08):
And on the 1st day of class I met someone who was a doctor who is a doctor and sort of talking, you know, mingling story and idea of how it actually could be done.
And we, you know, said, Okay, let's let's play it up. Let's see what happens.
The program, does it? Then weeks? And at the end of the 10th week there was a competition about the group that could innovate
(02:33):
with a technology that could impact most people's lives. And we won.
And at that time I had to make one choice, had to, you know, decide whether or not I would follow. You know this idea, and see what it becomes.
or just leave at that, and you know and just return to my country, and you know, see what I would do there.
(02:54):
So of course I did what anyone with, you know some kind of
boss would do, and you know, ask around. And I asked people that were dear to me, and I think not a single one of them told me to do it. They always told me, Okay, come back. You know, it's too risky. It's, you know, it's true that you're young. But you know what's what's gonna happen. And basically they shut the door, and I do respect it. It did, came from love. It didn't come from a place that it was not, you know positive. But
(03:28):
I didn't listen to them. And I, you know, make the decision actually following through and see what was gonna happen.
And, thanks to the decision. Not only did the dream became reality. We now have technologies that impact millions of people every year, positively improving their health care and defined risks where, you know, risks could not be identified in such a way before helping governments actually be better and more efficient.
(03:57):
now, you know, I have 40 plus employees under me working in that room. I have the impact to show it, and I have the recognition as well. And it was thanks to that, you know I got other accolades, such as the forestry under 30, the mit under 20, under 35 in order, and also you know, thanks to that, I also got into Harvard as well. So
(04:20):
it's just
to me in hindsight. It's very funny. It's just one decision you talk with other people. They may give you, you know. Pause or not, they may give you encouragement or not.
but at the end of the day it is you who has to make the decision, and it is you who controls your own destiny. And it's true. Down
(04:44):
one issue may weigh more than others, but it still is one decision. So I think that's why I you know, underlining 3 times that it just takes one just one decision to change who you are, who you become, and what would you do with with your future.
Govindh Jayaraman (05:02):
There's a lot that you start off with, and I want to go back to where you began.
And you said that you always wanted to be a businessman, and you didn't really like the word entrepreneur.
Right.
Why, you said, being a businessman was being, it felt, more noble
than being an entrepreneur. Why are you making the distinction? And and there's no right or wrong. I'm just curious as to why. What distinction exists between those 2 terms to you.
Rainier Mallol (05:33):
You know, this movie reminds me of when I was a kid. And I mean, I'm a millennial. I'm a nineties, kid. So I grew up watching nineties show like animaniacs and whatnot. I always remember seeing, like the businessman being the bad guy. There's famous this show called rocket power, which was about. You know, kids who would do surfing and horsekating and whatnot and do extreme sports, and they will always see, you know, that lifestyle of having a business, or being a businessman, as the negative part.
(06:02):
but I was always drawn to it. I was always saying, No, but I want that. I want to wear a suit as I am wearing now.
I want to actually, you know, grow and have my community grow with me.
The distinction to me it's very simple is that entrepreneurs is still a young businessman is a businessman that has not
being validated by the market itself. You know the entrepreneur is crying, and of course there is
(06:27):
a point of of entrepreneur that I cannot deny, which is innovation. I'm still entrepreneur. I don't think, even with 10 years of experience. I'm still a businessman.
you know. I don't own a big corporation, and I don't run a big corporation. Having said that to me it is the natural path of entrepreneur if they have success to become businessmen or businesswomen. So, for example, we used to think about social media as this big innovative thing, and of course, to some degree I still are. But right now there are full-fledged corporations, and Max recovery, for example, is much more a businessman than entrepreneur.
(07:04):
or even the folks at Google, or the folks at Snapchat, or other companies that right now are no bigger than most corporations in the world.
So to me is ideal. To become this entrepreneur is something that anyone can be as long as you have an idea. The business mind someone, that the market has really true, and that has given the support, of course, through money and through growth. Basically.
Govindh Jayaraman (07:30):
I really align with what you're saying, because what you're I mean, you're sort of talking about what Gerber talked about Michael Gerber and the E-myth
that you know there, and his
theory is that most people who are entrepreneurs are just are practitioners. They're really good at doing something, and they've leveraged that into a hustle, or a side hustle or a main hustle, and you take them out of the business. There is no business.
(08:00):
and I think what you're doing is drawing the distinction between the solopreneur, the person who is trading their time and expertise in exchange for disproportionate value to instead a business person who's built a community
that they sustain through leadership, strategy, innovation, and insight, which is different. And I think that's the phase and stage of growth. You start somewhere, and you move into a different state. You have to. Almost. I often say this that you have to take on a schizophregative personality where, when your business grows. You're part shareholder part CEO,
(08:48):
part chairperson of the board, right? I mean, those 3 roles have very different objectives and different perspectives on what's important to the company, and they almost are at odds with each other at times. Shareholder wants to maximize their personal returns.
Shareholder. The chairperson of the board is looking at strategic insights that are 5 to 10 years out. The executive team is looking at, making sure that they're retaining earnings to fund growth. They tend to be at odds with one another, don't they.
Rainier Mallol (09:23):
I agree, especially now. I think it's a practice that we and and I mean at least, I hope it faces out a little bit, or at least changes in the coming future. Because what we're seeing now is that this content from customers and there's that's from from one side, and on the other side you have all of these
(09:44):
culture of being a customer, centric company and whatnot.
but that in itself, like being a customer centric culture, one that puts the customer in front is, as you said, it's counter intuitive to the stakeholder and to the shareholders. Right? Mindset, which is okay? How can I maximize profits, because sometimes in the long term it may seem that you have to cut some costs here to maximize it in the future at the end of day is an excel sheet.
(10:12):
But what we have seen, and when I mean with
people that are focused on the customer, experience
is that you can take sometimes the loss in the short term to have a win in the longer term that is, backed by studies, not only by me.
but but but it is true, and
(10:33):
it's difficult also to grow as entrepreneur and become a businessman. Because when you're starting out, you really do want to make the best product possible, and you want to make you know or provide the best services possible. As you grow, you will have more interest. You have investors that will have other interests at hand, and
it is difficult to manage this new persona. That, of course, is giving you money to grow. But it's also giving you another aspect to see. You know priorities as well. So there is a balance, and that's 1 of the trickiest things to find when you're an entrepreneur who has not been a CEO of a corporation before. Of course, if you have been a CEO, then I think it's more natural. This second hand.
Govindh Jayaraman (11:19):
It never becomes natural.
The the other thing is, I like the the
the Platform's name, but in 2015 you might have been speaking, your company name, or the product name almost like Charlie Brown. Characters would hear adults names. It would be blah blah blah, right? Because in 2015, artificial intelligence and medical epidemiology.
(11:48):
Epidemiology was not a Main Street word. Artificial intelligence was not a Main Street word in 2015, so it was like the wah! Wah! Wah! Wah! Product name! How hard was it to communicate what you even were thinking about doing back then? I mean, you had some great practice, singularity, and the model that you went through is an incredible accelerator. It's a great incubator. They do great work out of there. So you had a really great
(12:18):
test ground. However, you know the real world is a little bit different.
Rainier Mallol (12:24):
And it's more different when you are not, you know, pitching to countries that you know are the States or Canada. But when you're pitching to Malaysia or Singapore or Latin American countries, which you know are still, I mean at that point in time where a few years behind, on what AI was
Govindh Jayaraman (12:43):
And and their value to medical epidemiology. I mean this, this is a this is a big subject.
Rainier Mallol (12:50):
It is, and it was difficult, like most most of my job, was educating at the time.
Govindh Jayaraman (12:58):
Right.
Rainier Mallol (12:59):
Like. The other day I was giving a talk, and I and I would say, I actually thank Openai and Chatgpt, because, you know, it is now way easier for me to talk about AI. At least there is some intentional use of AI like before we had this user, which we did not know we were using AI. So in 2015, we did have Google Maps and Google Maps had had AI for quite a long time now. But you know we didn't know we were using it because it was not
(13:26):
an interface in which you could talk to one. But anyways, most of my job was actually educating this Government senior leadership that I was talking to, so I would sit down with ministers, with Presidents, with Prime Ministers. I was very young at the time. I think I was
discriminated a few times. But that's okay. That's something that you learn how to navigate through. But I have to explain that this AI is not a terminator, because a lot of the people that I sat down with, their only experience with AI was through movies. And the most famous movie about AI at that time was Terminator. Now we have a few more. But I actually, and this is no joke. I had to say, no, no, this isn't the one I enjoy. Life.
Govindh Jayaraman (14:10):
This is not sky. This is not skynet right?
Rainier Mallol (14:13):
Exactly. This is actually going to make your life a lot easier, because this, this and that, and at the end of the day I do have to, you know. Thank
those initial people that believed in us, believed in me and allowed us to pilot technology at the 1st few cities where we want to.
And of course I have more no's than yes, but you know it's part of being an entrepreneur.
Govindh Jayaraman (14:36):
Yeah. So so yeah, like, look, the foundations of AI go back to the seventies. And and the very 1st emails, right? Because the AI was essential in in Hashing and then reconstructing emails as they went across the world.
but you really moved. So the technical terminology and strategic circles for some of what you did was you went from a blue ocean environment
(15:04):
to a very red ocean very quickly, right? I mean it from 2015 in 10 years.
Well, really, in 5 years the world changed, and there was immense competitive pressure around AI, but also immense.
(15:24):
A competitive pressure from 1 billion dollar players in medical epidemiology, and you played in the convergence of these 2 technologies. This is this became very from blue ocean to very red Ocean very quickly.
And so for people listening. When I say that I mean blue ocean is your imagine being out in the ocean all by yourself. Nobody around to red ocean is. It's a very warlike idea, but the water turns very red with the blood of combatants within a marketplace it becomes very tumultuous very quickly.
(16:02):
The strategies that work when you're trying to invite clients to come out into a blue ocean when there's nothing there are very different than a very competitive landscape that occurred over just 5 years. How did you manage that transition?
Rainier Mallol (16:17):
1st of all, I have to be very honest and and be very transparent, and say that back in 2019, we also thought a lot of about closing the business, closing the company, because in 2019 we only had about 3 clients.
which honestly, was not enough for a for a startup, and and not what we envisioned.
(16:37):
and mainly due to the things that you mentioned, and also, like, you know, people were not
understanding very well, or we're not keen enough to believe in the money yet.
and also because we deal in epidemiology, which is by its core, by its natural preventive medicine. You do epidemic analysis to prevent disease for spreading and infecting more people. So prevention is always
(17:08):
leading factor in being more healthy, at least in communities, but is
also the hardest thing to sell.
Govindh Jayaraman (17:16):
Because nobody's paying for.
Rainier Mallol (17:19):
And nobody has to pay.
Govindh Jayaraman (17:20):
Our entire medical system. Again, context, our entire medical system is based around paying for solutions.
Rainier Mallol (17:29):
Yes, it's been.
Govindh Jayaraman (17:30):
Problems that exist.
Rainier Mallol (17:32):
Yes.
Govindh Jayaraman (17:32):
For paying, for avoiding problems that have not yet occurred. Now.
Rainier Mallol (17:37):
Correct.
Govindh Jayaraman (17:37):
We can have a very robust conversation about which is more valuable and which creates greater leverage. But that's just the system. So finding customers is hard, because there's no one paying for prevention.
Rainier Mallol (17:50):
Correct. The clients that we did have at the time were the ones facing
the biggest outbreaks of dengue at the time, which is a mosquito borne disease and disease that is inhibited by mosquitoes.
Funny tropical climates also Zika and Chikungunya, which are very similar in the way that they are transmitted.
And they had, you know, hundreds of thousands of cases every year. So for them did make a lot of sense. Okay, let's try it out because I don't know what else to try, and there are no vaccines for these days.
(18:18):
But, as I was saying, 2019, you know we again, or at least I am my co-founder made a choice or decision of, you know. Let's let's keep working. Let's let's give it
2 to 3 more years and see what happens, and if nothing improves at the time, then we close shop. That was that that was back in 2019. So in 2020,
(18:39):
Covid happened at the end of well, at the beginning of it.
and then everything changed for us, for the world, in change, for divorce, for the business itself or of any of my company. It did change for the better, and we were one of those few winners of Covid, because it gives us reason.
(19:02):
So we were right. Basically, we had to focus. And when I mean, we and this woman, I mean governments, I mean the world, we have to focus on probation, and we have to focus on epidemiology. It now became mainstream to know about what epidemiology was, and it became mainstream to actually find certainty and decisions that only epidemiologists would give you.
(19:24):
The issue was that there was too much data, too much noise.
and it would be too troublesome for humans to work on that, especially on the time window that we had.
and that was, you know, when AI came in, and who better to work with AI than a company that had been working with it in the past. I know 4 years. So we did have before and after. When Covid happened
(19:50):
we were about 5 employees in 20 by 10 of 2019, and we were about 35
at the end of 2020. So we grew a lot because we had, you know, gotten that. Okay. Yes, we need you. I don't know how we didn't need you before, like I don't know how we didn't hire you before. But yeah, let's work together, and.
Govindh Jayaraman (20:11):
But banging on those doors for 4 years.
Rainier Mallol (20:14):
Yes, right. Helped open the doors.
Govindh Jayaraman (20:17):
In 4 months, I mean, the world changed very quickly for you. But if if you didn't do the 4 years that 4 months wouldn't have existed right.
Rainier Mallol (20:26):
That is correct. There was a path that was walked, you know, and we went through it. I remember also, like there were 2 things that helped us really get those contacts in 2021 is, as you mentioned. You know.
the work that we did in those years. I was key there, because what I did in those years was, you know, applying for grants, applying to competitions, applying to different things that would put our name on top of you know the web, and on top of you know, and if you at that time, if you search AI normally, we would be one of the 1st
(21:01):
hits in in Google, but also, of course, closing deals which gives us experience and validation.
And the second thing that helped us was, thanks to my co-founder who back in 2019, when in Wuhan, were, you know, just releasing news about the virus.
he said. Let's work on this because I think he's gonna change
(21:25):
the way that epidemics are treated around the world. Though this was back in November, I believe.
Govindh Jayaraman (21:30):
So it was a hunch he just had this hunch.
Rainier Mallol (21:32):
You got a hunch.
had a hunch, and what we did was work in a few dashboards very quickly. Not the most complex dashboards at all. We have more. We have built more complex dashboards back in 2016. But
with that dasher we were able to go to the Government of Malaysia today that the you know airports were closed.
(21:53):
which I think they close pretty much at the same week globally, I think
maybe one day close the States, or they close another another country. But I think most countries close at the same week.
But are they close in Malaysia?
It was a Thursday. I was there actually. And on Friday we were already working with authorities because of the same day that they closed doors and they closed the airports. We were showing the dashboard to them.
(22:18):
and that in itself gave them calm. You know there, there was a lot of uncertainty at the time this work that I'm talking about decision makers, you know, have the responsibility to make decisions
that would impact millions of people. And they didn't know what to do.
And this gave them. Okay, at least now we have a North. No, at least now we can have some metrics that could actually be updated every day, every hour and see what's going on and base our decisions on that. So yes, we need this.
(22:50):
Yeah. The 1st is history. That's how we, you know, built and kept building different solutions that were mainly impacted, mainly impacted Malaysia in 2020 and still impact today.
Govindh Jayaraman (23:03):
That's that's really interesting. I love how you followed your hunch
and made a dashboard. And it sounds so. We have this philosophy or this thing that I like to talk about, it's called make it bad. Make it better. And you really embrace that you just. You made a dashboard. You got it out quickly.
But you you made it highly valuable to the audience, and you knew what was going to be valuable to your customer
(23:27):
because you've been trying it. You've been validating it for 4 years, right?
Rainier Mallol (23:32):
Correct.
Govindh Jayaraman (23:33):
So it wasn't just a shot. It wasn't your v. 1. It was your v, 1 of that one. But it wasn't your v 1 overall you. You were coming to it with some value.
Rainier Mallol (23:42):
And you do learn a few things along the way you learn that you know people that musicians like the dashboard this way or not this way. They like this filter here or that. They like this graph here better than this one that they use it, you know, sometimes for political purposes. But that's okay. Because at the end of the day, you know, you're trying, you're trying to make it
as valuable as possible. So you can. So you can
(24:05):
continue impacting the lives of people. And you can continue, you know, having business to, you know, live out of it as well. But yes, and IA hundred percent agree with you. There was
a road that we walked, and, you know, had to be walked in order to get there as fast as we did.
Govindh Jayaraman (24:25):
That's that's fantastic.
The other thing I want to go back to. So you know, I know I'm going back to your introduction a little bit.
and and and I want to talk about how
you had a chance to make one choice to follow this.
you know, and follow this I mean, you presented this AI model in 2015
(24:51):
at Singularity University at Ames Research Park. Right? You did this, and after 10 weeks you won.
and you went to all of the people around you people who care about you, people who know you, your mentors and friends and family, and said, Do I follow this opportunity, or or go back to the Dr. And when you, when you
(25:17):
asked around, everyone said, Play it safe, go home. And it isn't it interesting that when things get uncertain.
smart leaders, smart people, good people
tend to pump the brakes and pumping the brakes isn't really pumping the brakes, it's retreating to something that is safe as opposed to moving forward a little bit.
You decided to go forward, anyway.
(25:40):
Let's talk about the decision. What? What factored in that decision.
Rainier Mallol (25:44):
I think.
No, I know that back home, like I mean, in 2015,
back home I had a consultancy company. It Consultant Consultancy company that I had built.
It was 3 years old. So I graduated with it already being established. So I did create my 1st company again, an it consulting company about 3 months before I graduated from college, and I already had clients. I remember that the 1st year
(26:12):
I close I myself about 23 different cars, which is, I think, a lot.
And
honestly, I was making money. I was okay, but I was getting tired of it. I was getting tired of the culture I was getting tired of.
I'm gonna make quantities.
How the marketing Tdr responded to technology.
(26:33):
It is not the same as how the States or other countries respond to technology in which
and they are seeing as something that it that is nice to have while in the sales, and that you must have, for example.
and
I knew that even though my talent and my land is very appreciating my work, that I had little room for innovation there.
(26:56):
I think that was the major driver for me. And it actually takes me back to my 1st ever job in tech.
I quit that job because I was doing work that was not innovative at all. It was I was just following, you know.
I was programming things that were built 10 years ago, and they had to be
(27:20):
kept being built that way. So I was unhappy with it.
I came up today. I
I am at my happiest when I take an idea and put it into reality with
they believe that it will change or improve people's lives. It doesn't have to be an impact technology. It doesn't have to be healthcare or poverty. It could be also, you know, for
(27:45):
financial gain. That's okay. But it has to be an innovation has to be something that has not been has not been done before, at least for a specific industry.
or at least for a specific market, and if I'm being very, very honest and very transparent, I think that's the main reason why I didn't, you know, follow what my family friends mentors, as you said, suggested of me. I was not seeing myself happy in the VR. Because I was not seeing myself innovating in the VR. At least not at that time.
Govindh Jayaraman (28:17):
Yeah. And it's not surprising to hear that innovation is so important to you. Like I said, when you launched a platform called Artificial intelligence and medical epidemiology in 2015. And again, the Charlie Brown character, wah! Wah! Wah! Wah! Comes into my mind because that's what most people would have heard back, then.
innovation is in your blood and and following. That must have been a very important part to everything.
(28:44):
So look back at this, you know, and and one of the things that I think is really interesting.
that that I don't know that I heard one
you know, one real big answer to. So I'm going to push back against it was, what did you do with the intense competitive pressure that came in because there were a lot of
(29:11):
other companies that built together with duct tape solutions around AI and medical epidemiology
in around the early mid stage of 25, th 2025, sorry, 2020 to to build a solution that was like yours.
But yours already, was there. How did you differentiate between those 2, especially in a world where, look.
(29:37):
we can say that there's no market around it. But you're still selling to the medical profession more or less, or to governments and governments, as it relates to health are enormously pedantic. They are very slow moving, and tend to bet on big players over small.
You sort of conquered 2 big roadblocks at the same time. How did you do that.
Rainier Mallol (29:58):
That's the thing. The answer is not as sexy as I would put it, but your answer is that
it takes a lot of time like for us to close a requirement is easy. 14 months just having meetings and talks and
and zooms, and I know, and things and whatnot. And
(30:19):
is this something that most people are not willing to spend for a government contract that could change
in 6 months because the precedent, change or department needs to be changed.
Right now we have grown, and we now know how to now make deals better. So if a government changes, we are still intact.
But even at that time, where everyone wanted something using AI or using any technology that was out there just to help them.
(30:47):
I did see a lot of new players, but none of them remain today. Maybe one or 2, which you know are American. Have all the money in the world. But the screen certification we are not seeing that much competition. What we are seeing in our competition using like Llms to build Chatbots and whatnot even ourselves, have built some chatbots that help
(31:08):
our clients digest the data in a in a faster way. But what we've seen now this is, you know, tools that use open AI or some other models capabilities to come up with a chatbot that does X, or does y?
And I'm not saying that there is no benefit of using them. There is no merit. Of course there is merit.
(31:31):
but what we do is way beyond that what we do is we truly analyze. We are a team of medical doctors and data scientists and technologists that truly understand the disease and truly understand what technology can do. And with that we build technologies that you know are in par with in the cities that our clients need.
(31:52):
Of course, we have built models that predict disease. So we also have these models. That profile people, I mean, with their consent, of course, to tell them whether or not they're a candidate. For you know, a cancer, or that we need screening because they're at risk or not.
And these things you only get to them through analyzing the problem in a in a very deep sense, and to having access.
(32:12):
So I think these are building blocks. And when I mean having access is, you know.
keeping with the fight. You have to be there, and you have to keep pushing and pushing and pushing. And when you hear a problem that someone tells you you have to. Okay, let's let's go that way. At the end of the day, as I mentioned at the beginning, I see businessman as
(32:34):
people that are able to have others through their craft.
And there are no, I would say, better works for a businessman to hear.
Then I have this problem.
If tells you this, then you have a way to make them happy. Of course your, you know capabilities align.
But if you hear those words, then you're gonna make back, or at least make an impact.
Govindh Jayaraman (33:01):
What is good enough when it comes to being able to predict these things. You know I think perfection is the enemy of done. Everybody wants 100% efficacy.
What did you find? What level of of completeness was
appropriate for your use? Cases in your mind?
Rainier Mallol (33:24):
For the cases that we have. Now, we aim always to have more than 85% of accuracy.
So out of 100 objects we predict at least 85 must be mathematically correct, at least, and we do so a bit when we are in the field. So when you're in the field when you put it to test with real people's lives. And you know real tests, which is really hard, hard to do, because the way that you test these models out in the real world is that you deploy them and you do nothing.
(33:55):
You see, you wait. Yeah. You wait
for field ones. We are okay with more than 82%. So we have to have, you know, 85 and 82. That's what we recommend.
Govindh Jayaraman (34:08):
And that's pretty tough to do. I mean, I think that's that's the bottom line that it's tough to do. Rainier. I know we could talk for a long time, and I find how you've built
aim, and your companies and your vision and your strategy and your tenacity really admirable.
And I know we could go for a long time, but our time has come
(34:30):
this season. We've been ending every episode with a shout out to our
to an early paper napkin wisdom contributor. His name was John Ruland. He wrote a profound book called Giftology, but a few years before that he appeared on paper napkin wisdom and shared a simple napkin with us is what you appreciate appreciates. And his message was that when you appreciate someone or something, and you do so publicly. It appreciates in value to you and to everyone around them. So we're paying forward his appreciation and asking every guest
(35:04):
to shout out somebody and lay some appreciation and love out there in the world. Who would you like to appreciate today.
Rainier Mallol (35:13):
Those words are very noble, and and I think they have. They hold value by by themselves. But I think
my mom
so quickly. My dad died when I was 4 years old, so my mom was my dad and my mom for me. She raised me, and I am the person who I am today because of her.
(35:33):
and I love her, but I love also that I can count on her and her support.
and she always told me like. If you ever need help, you can come back.
So I really appreciate that. Even, you know, after all of these years, I'm I'm still, you know, someone that she believes in, but also believes in that she needs to take care of me, which is, you know, I'm a very mom thing, too. So I think, I'm gonna be very normal here. And just say, my mom, which who I love.
Govindh Jayaraman (36:05):
I think that's amazing.
Thank you, Rainier.
Rainier Mallol (36:10):
Thank you.
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