ACV 42: Test Your Hypotheses With Low Code Experiments (Dorothea Koh, Founder/CEO of Bot MD, Part 1)

BIO
Dorothea is the founder and CEO of a healthcare technology company, Bot MD. Bot MD is a mobile-based AI chatbot that provides an interface for doctors to quickly access information related to hospital policies, formularies, check who’s on call etc. Along with her founder YC, Dorothea started Bot MD back in 2018 and joined Y Combinator’s summer 2018 batch. Prior to starting Bot MD, Dorothea rocketed up through the ranks at Medtronic and then Baxter, eventually holding the portfolios of country head for Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei and Myanmar. However, she chose to give that up and chose the unconventional path, resigning from her job to start Bot MD.


3 THINGS I LEARNED

1. Choosing a co-founder is one of the most important steps. In Dorothea’s words, it’s like being married and raising a baby together with your partner. Only you and your co-founder fully understand “how sucky it is when times are down”. It’s during these times that your co-founder might be vital in providing you with encouragement.
   
   
2. Start by building low-code prototypes. These are prototypes that involve little to no code. The goal is to prove certain hypotheses before you get too caught up with building the prototype.
   
   
3. A startup journey might take 10 years of your life, with lots of stress and sleepless nights. So you need to ask yourself whether your idea is worth the pain of going through that process. Do people want it enough? What is your right to win, and why should you be building it? What’s the size of the market?

TOPICS WE COVERED

• What Bot MD does
• Why Dorothea left her first job at EDB
• The initial experiment Dorothea ran that made her realise that Bot MD was a good idea
• Why building a startup is a painful journey but a very instructive one
• The importance of having a co-founder
• What a cofounder relationship is like
• What Dorothea does as CEO
• Factors to consider when starting a startup
• Dorothea’s epiphany that turned the company around and helped them find product market fit
• Bot MD’s breakthrough product in NUH