A Founder’s Success Story with Kelvin Summoogum, founder and CEO of MiiCare
Discover the success story of MiiCare, a pioneering healthcare digital tech brand that’s making waves in the North American market. In this case study video, Kelvin Summoogum, the founder and CEO, shares invaluable insights into MiiCare’s AI-driven solutions, designed to empower adults to maintain independence at home by managing chronic conditions and combating loneliness.
Learn about the strategic move to target the US for growth, the careful selection of Arizona as a launch point, and the pivotal role GTM played in facilitating this ambitious expansion. Kelvin offers candid advice based on MiiCare’s journey, outlining the importance of leveraging expertise to avoid common pitfalls when entering a new market.
This video is a must-watch for entrepreneurs and business leaders looking to understand the complexities of scaling internationally, especially in the competitive and fragmented US healthcare landscape. Get inspired by MiiCare’s story and gather practical tips that could be the difference between a successful launch and a costly misstep.
Key Takeaways from MiiCare’s US Market Breakthrough
- Innovative AI for Independent Living: Discover MiiCare’s groundbreaking AI model, Monica, and its role in revolutionizing support for adults with chronic conditions, helping them to live independently and combat loneliness.
- Strategic Market Entry: Learn about the strategic planning and market due diligence that led MiiCare to choose Arizona as their entry point into the competitive US healthcare scene.
- GTM Partnership Benefits: Understand the value of partnering with go-to-market experts when expanding internationally, as Kelvin highlights the tailored support GTM provided in making MiiCare’s transition smooth and successful.
- Real-world Business Advice: Kelvin shares the hard-earned wisdom that comes from taking a healthcare tech brand from the UK to the US, including navigating different health systems and understanding complex models.
- Actionable Insights for Entrepreneurs: Whether you’re a startup or an established business looking to scale, this video offers actionable insights into overcoming the challenges of international market entry and seizing growth opportunities.
- Expert Guidance on Scaling: Absorb the lessons of MiiCare’s experience to avoid common pitfalls, save resources, and ensure a focused, effective approach to scaling your business into new markets.
Watch as MiiCare’s story unfolds, providing a roadmap filled with strategic nuggets and advisory gold that can help shape your own company’s success story.
Transcript
GTM helps ambitious companies smartly scale through a series of inflection points, particularly into North America. I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to a really successful healthcare digital tech brand that’s starting to perform well in North America. Kelvin, tell us a little bit about the core value proposition of MiiCare and why you’ve got a US focus.
Thank you, Mark. MiiCare developed an AI model, her name is Monica, and Monica has been trained to support the adult population in maintaining their independence at home. We focus on chronic condition management but also on loneliness. And why the US, Kelvin? Tell me a bit about the challenges and opportunities in planning to go there.
Sure. The UK, by design, has always been a market for validating our product-market fit, but for growth, we’ve always targeted the US. Within the US, we spent about a year identifying where to land. After a year of market due diligence and with support and advice from companies like GTM, we’ve decided on Arizona as our soft landing spot.
Kelvin, would you mind telling me a bit about how GTM has helped you and what that help means for the business’s growth in the next year?
Absolutely. Moving from the UK to the US is a huge challenge, and my advice to anyone attempting to do this is not to do it alone. You’ll waste so much time and money. Make sure you tap into the advice you can get from companies that have helped a countless number of startups because they will save you valuable time and provide good advice so you know that you’re not wasting your efforts and resources making the move.
The advice can range from identifying a distributor, understanding the taxation involved, to what you need to do before you even go there, such as ensuring that the founder has a work permit to operate there. All this advice is precious, and if you start early enough, you can make sure you don’t take any mistakes.
GTM has been known to us for over two years. They’ve helped us enter Austria, they’ve helped us enter the US, and our conversation relating to Arizona dates back more than two years if memory serves correctly. It’s been a long journey and tough, but they’ve been consistent in their advice and support to MiiCare. MiiCare is now starting to make significant progress in our move into the US. We’ve won a lot of competitions, and most of those were actually initiated through one conversation I had with Mark, like “Have you considered this?”, “Have you spoken to this person?”, “By the way, we’ve just helped another startup; you might want to talk to them.” We followed all these pieces of advice, and today, we are really pleased with the results.
Kelvin, that’s really good to hear. Just finally, if you were to give one piece of advice to a founder or CEO in your position two or three years ago, what would be the key thing you’d tell them to do?
I think it falls back to the reality that it takes much longer and much more effort than you think. It’s a huge commitment that you’re making to your shareholders and to yourself because moving from the UK to the US isn’t like moving from the south of England to the north. The reimbursement model is different, the pricing model is different, and the health system is different. If you think the UK health system is fragmented, wait until you see how much more fragmented it is in the US. That’s why you should take your time, get the right advice, and make sure that when you decide to move, you get it right because you’ve got one shot at this.
Kelvin, it’s always a great pleasure. Thank you for your kind words, and we’ll see you again very soon. Thank you.
