As emerging businesses disrupt antiquated industries like healthcare and insurance revolutionary ideas will only prevail if their execution is precise, impactful, and driven by authentic values.
Often, execution is a young startup’s most difficult challenge. In the words of Adam Liebman; “It’s what separates the best from the very good.”
“It’s easy to have an idea,” he explains. “What it comes down to is the execution. Only the best are able to push through…The pain is what separates people.”
As he leads the Amino team to redesign the way we find, connect, and interact with our healthcare choices, Co-founder, and CEO David Vivero is familiar with the pain.
Analyzing over four billion health insurance claims and 188 million patient experiences, the two-year-old startup’s chief goal is making their product “usable.”
You’ll learn below and in my conversation with David that there is a stark difference between usable and functional.
When you go to Amino to find a doctor the experience “feels like it is specifically for you.”
This is what the process looks like.
Instead of being presented like a survey, with long drop down menus and challenging questions, Amino uses “baseball like cards” to gather your information.
“It’s like an answering an interview with a trusted friend,” David explained.
From celiac disease to asthma, over 1,000 needs are supported on the website.
You’ll notice small color changes throughout the process rewarding you for successfully completing a field and enabling you to move to the next phase.
Once you fill out the six baseball cards, Amino will search through 893,000 doctors across the U.S. to find you the best matches.
You can then book an appointment with your desired practitioner in a few simple clicks.
Design sensibility plays an enormous role in Amino’s user experience enabling the team to “turn data into stories.”
For many, the first time they interact with the interface may be during an emotional quest to find care for themselves or a loved one.
“The dashboard has as much impact as the underlying information,” David asserted.
“The information has to feel simple but give you the context that you’ve done your research.”
Amino’s storytelling inspires the product’s inherent shareability. I’ve personally sent the platform to family and friends since conducting my first search.
“At Amino, we believe that if we help people feel informed they’ll not only make a confident decision today but their experience will leave an indelible memory of where they are going to go in the future,” David said.
“Effectively achieving that lays the foundation for a strong, leading brand.”
Amino’s mission to simplify the way we interact with our healthcare choices requires an implicitly self-aware culture where team members are constantly evaluating their strengths and weaknesses.
According to David, the diversity of things necessary to make Amino successful establishes humility as a core value.
We all need each other to be where we want to be.
Beyond Amino’s direct team, the sentiment inspires David and his co-founders to be incredibly thoughtful selecting a diverse group of advisors and investors who are willing to be patient as the team navigates growth.
When it comes to their strong advisory board, David explains that his team is “balancing what they know as novices in healthcare with rigorous data and methodologies.”
As they make high-impact decisions, they’re seeking a 360-degree view to put patients first.
Their patient commitment is equally expressed to their investors who recognize that the brand has a long journey ahead.
“We need a large amount of patient capital and we’ve partnered with investors who understand that it takes a long time to become the trusted ally for consumers in healthcare,” David said.
As an investor himself, he advises founders to ensure that the firm they’re partnering with is patient and will enable the team to explore nuanced approaches to sustainably grow the business.
Simply put, your investors need to possess deep conviction in your long term vision.
David also encourages founders to “determine the amount of capital they should raise relevant to their total market size.”
You have to align the type of business you’re building with the capital you’re raising.
Amino is operating in a three trillion dollar market making the $20 million investment they’ve received from Accel, CRV, and Rock Health a realistic, growth-oriented number.
The practice of aligning your mission and the scope of the problem you’re solving is applicable to each part of your business and life.
“Aligning everyone’s interests enables you to not make compromises because you can rely on an agreement that you made in the past,” David explained.
A simple example is Amino’s decision not to host sponsored medical practitioners on their platform. Despite hundreds of doctors reaching out to be featured at the top of the list, they continue to defer in interest of the patient.
As Amino tackles the multi-faceted challenges we face making healthcare decisions, it’s the team’s humility and patience that will streamline the way we find doctors.
To learn more about Amino, try it here and follow the team on Twitter @AminoHealth.