Jean-Francois (JF) Legourd is the co-founder of Elfie, which raised $4M in a recent funding round. The company builds and manages software to increase prevention, detection, and control of chronic diseases. Entirely free for patients and doctors, their revenue comes from pharmaceutical companies and insurers to help increase adherence to treatments and health risks, respectively.

Elfie started in Latin America and Southeast Asia from day 1. It has now expanded to the Middle East and Africa and will continue on their global roadmap.

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👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

The COO job is common across all startups: go figure out how to build and scale the vision of your company, defensibly, sustainably and profitably.

As I have the professional skills to do the jobs of product designer, product manager, corporate finance manager, data scientist, digital marketer, and HR manager, I end up stepping in most of the operations roles until I recruit the full-time employees to take the roles to higher levels/scale.

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🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

Most people were dubious that we could operate in healthcare without a healthcare / medical background. Well, most jobs can be learned and/or hired for. What matters is to bring a defensible competitive advantage to the table — a "super-power" — and technical expertise alone doesn't cut it.

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🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

The highlight of my career was also its lowest point: when I realized that I had wasted at least a decade in big brand companies that provide nice LinkedIn profiles and high salaries instead of prioritizing startup roles where you grow first-hand expertise, lead impact and can feel a genuinely humble pride in the work that you do.

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🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

With the limited time I have left, I screen any trend or space that I can leverage in Elfie: phone sensors that can be used for vitals/health tracking and the alternative business model to classic Digital Therapeutics reimbursement (that doesn't work).

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💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

As the industry is fragmented into local quasi-monopolistic leaders, you will need to first build the most scalable alliance at C-suite level. This is particularly essential in Asia where innovation is CEO-led.

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🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

Any new business opportunities: whether I am familiar with the topic or new to it, I have 100s of questions and interest for those who dare to build new products & services.

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🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show?

Sherlock

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🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Chocolate-Mint