Guillem Serra is the CEO and Co-founder of mediQuo, one that allows its users to chat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with doctors and other specialists from a wide range of health specialties. This week, mediQuo has taken an important step in its growth,
To find out a little more about mediQuo, this recent investment and its plans for the future, we spoke with Guillem.
Interview with Guillem Serra, mediQuo
You have just closed your second round of financing, this time for 1.5 million euros with Target. How do you rate the support received in this operation?
It has exceeded our expectations. Our initial objective was to open a round of 1 million, and to involve international funds with experience. We have had to limit the round to €1.5 million and large international investors have entered, such as TargetGlobal – as well as other funds specialized in Health.
What will be the destination of this injection of resources?
The objective is twofold. First, maintain and expand our leadership position in the countries where we are, managing to resolve millions of queries at the end of the year. The second objective is evolve the product to be able to offer this solution openly to all health professionals.
You are in Spain, but also in other countries such as Argentina, Peru or Chile. Where are your next steps? Are you going to continue with your international expansion in the short term?
For now we are going to focus on the countries where we are currently present and establish a brand and increase our leadership position in the countries we have already opened. We do not have in mind in the short term to open more countries, at least the medical service.
What differences do you see between the use of mediQuo in Spain and these other markets?
Above all, we have found a difference at the level of medical service. We find that clinical practice, as well as the pathologies of each country, although similar, are not the same.
For example, in certain Latin American countries there are much more common infectious diseases than in Spain and professionals in these countries are much more used to dealing with these cases. Also the way to express yourself and write messages. That is why we are expanding our medical team with professionals in each of these countries.
How was mediQuo born?
mediQuo was born out of the need for my medical friends to talk to patients. Both myself and my medical colleagues found that each time we went too far more time talking on Whatsapp with our patients and that many of the doubts that came to visit us in person could be solved without having to travel.
Especially if you had already seen the patient and wanted to follow up, or a specific plan or if the patient had specific doubts but they did not mean an emergency.
Based on this need, we studied the market and realized that it didn’t just happen to usbut the rest of the professionals in the sector, not only in Spain, but also in the rest of the world, used and use more and more systems such as WhatsApp to communicate with patients.
On the other hand, at the user level, we have seen that you can feel very lonely if you have a medical question, and that Dr. Google, although always with immediate answers, can create and generate more anxiety and doubts than solve them. In fact, health issues are one of the most searched and commented topics on the internet – not only in Google, but also in forums, Whatsapp and Facebook groups -.
We wanted to offer a professional tool and service to users so that they can have this medical/psychological/nutritional monitoring they are looking for at a super affordable price and immediately.
How many users do you currently have? What is your goal for this year?
We currently have more than 140,000 users and we have resolved more than 145,000 medical queries. Although our objective is not to grow for the sake of growth, we hope to reach more than 500,000 users and reach one million resolved medical queries.
What are mediQuo users like? What kind of queries are the most common? How often?
mediQuo users are really users. We have a majority of women (70%) between the ages of 25-45. Although we have a majority of consultations in general medicine, our star service after general medicine is gynecology – with many questions about pregnancy, fertility and lactation -, followed by nutrition – where we make many tailored nutritional plans, with regular personal follow-up-, pediatrics, psychology and sexology with many queries about couples therapy.
The frequency depends a lot on the type of consultation. If it is a specific consultation, where we will follow up later, or if it is a nutrition plan where we do weekly follow-ups with our users.
How many doctors do you currently have? How do you select your medical team?
We have more than 50 professionals from different specialties. We not only have doctors, but also nutritionists, psychologists, sexologists, personal trainers and pharmacists.
The selection for now is double. Either we contact the prestigious professionals or clinics that we are interested in joining or they come to us through the website and the app and They go through a certification and evaluation process.
All our professionals must, according to their availability schedule, respond in less than two minutes while online, and follow our medical service protocol. In addition, users can give their feedback to evaluate the quality of the service that the professional is performing.
Let’s do a bit of futurology, what headline about mediQuo would you like to read in Marketing4eCommerce in a year?
mediQuo replaces WhatsApp as a communication platform between doctors and patients, becoming the largest “hospital” in the world.
And a little more difficult: How do you imagine healthtech will evolve between now and 2023? What will be the next big revolution in this field?
I think it’s easier to answer you with questions:
Why do I have to go to the doctor, to wait 30 minutes for him to see me for only 5 minutes and then ask me for a blood test? Couldn’t you have spared me? Why do I feel so alone with my problem or situation? Can no one guide me or guide me where to go or explain what to do? Aren’t there others who are the same as me and can help me?
Why, as a doctor, do I have to spend more time typing everything on a computer instead of talking to a patient? Why are all the medical softwares so complicated and help me so little? Why do so many patients come to me that with a chat or a call I could have solved it much faster? How can I create a relationship of trust with my patients in the current maelstrom?
I believe in a digital, collaborative, efficient and transparent medicine. I believe that before so many automations, artificial intelligence systems, and other substitutes for professionals, the revolution will be in the health service/platform that is capable of solving these four points, offering a complete health solution.
Quick questionnaire to Guillem Serra
- What is the first social network you open in the day? Reddit
- iOS or Android? Android
- App or website? Both of them
- In which eCommerce and how long ago did you make your last online purchase? amazon
- And it was? A tap
- Last book read?
- Recommend us a fiction series stranger things
- What website have you come across lately that has surprised you for the better? The mobile Aena website. Simple and effective.
- What is your favorite thing to do that has nothing to do with digital?Read books, paddle tennis and go to
- Let’s spin a magic chain: Which acquaintance of yours do you think we should interview? Why? A Because it is creating a new real ecosystem of entrepreneurs in Spain that works and gives many people the opportunity to create their own company.
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