Business: SeeYouDoc 

Founder and CEO: Noel Del Castillo

Year it was founded: 2016

Industry: Healthcare Technologies

Location: Marikina, Philippines

Noel Del Castillo made the most of his extensive experience in the information technology industry to plunge into entrepreneurship and establish his own health-tech startup — SeeYouDoc.

SeeYouDoc is an online medical and/or dental appointment booking system, to fill the gap between connecting patients and doctors in the Philippines. Through continuous customer validation coupled with perseverance and teamwork, they were able to officially launch the platform last year after a two-year process of improving and developing the product.

In a conversation with GlobalLinker (GL), Noel shares his business journey.

GL: Tell us about your business and how it came into being.

Noel:  It started last September 2016 as a research and development project of Pragtechnologies, a software development company that I own as well. During that time, we were mostly involved in the health industry, that’s why we were looking to solve a huge problem (in that industry) where we can make a huge impact.

Also read: How successful startups are born 

And we found out that there’s a gap between connecting patients and doctors in the Philippines. Thus, we started building SeeYouDoc, and we partnered with Marikina Valley Medical Society (to test the platform). It was a two-year process of product development. By 2018, we were confident enough to launch it in the production environment under a company called SeeYouDoc corporation. 

GL: What is your business all about?

Noel:  It’s an online platform for healthcare services. We built a platform for patients, medical practitioners, medical facilities, clinics, and medical organizations to have a holistic experience in using the system.

GL: What are the challenges you have faced in establishing your business?

Noel:  Here in the Philippines, it’s still not a common way of going to the doctor. Filipinos still want to go directly to the clinic and wait for the doctor for them to have a check-up. That goes with the doctors as well. Their usual method is that they ask their assistant if there are any patients, and then they will go there once they have patients.

For us, the challenge is proving that SeeYouDoc is a solution that will allow patients to have a better experience in going to their doctors. Also, proving to doctors that the platform will provide more revenue to their clinics. It takes time to prove that it works.

 
Also read: Workforce management for SMEs: Challenges & Solutions 

GL: What role do you feel GlobalLinker plays in connecting & assisting SMEs?

Noel: UnionBank GlobalLinker can help us connect with medical practitioners which are SMEs as well to be our potential customers and partners. Another great thing about UnionBank GlobalLinker is that we can validate our product with different SMEs who want to be involved in improving the healthcare experience.

GL: What is your big business dream?

Noel: SeeYouDoc’s big business dream is to change the healthcare experience in the Philippines. We want to be in the position wherein anyone can access healthcare experience and services, and use SeeYouDoc with ease. We want to achieve it first in the Philippines, then go globally in the future.

GL: What is your message to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Noel: My message to aspiring entrepreneurs is to understand your customers’ pain points and focus on the solutions towards that (problems). You may not get the right solutions at your first try, but don’t stop trying until you find it.

Remember that there’s no failure when you learn something new. Just keep on learning and adapting to new solutions, but don’t burn too much cash. The safest investment is your time and not someone else’s money.

Network with Noel Del Castillo by clicking on the 'Connect' button on his profile.

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