Just over five years ago, Isabella and I met for our bi-weekly coffee and mentoring session. This time she surprised me with a very unexpected topic. She was planning to quit her job and set up a business to make technology to help people with diabetes. She wanted my advice on how to get going, …
Thoughts December 13, 2018 A different take on diabetes
We believe diabetes is not a disease. It’s an umbrella term for chronic high blood glucose. And underneath that umbrella, there are other umbrella terms like “type 1 diabetes”, “type 2 diabetes”, “MODY”, and a few others. But there are possibly hundreds of different conditions rolled up under these broad classifications, and because of this …
Thoughts November 14, 2018 World Diabetes Day: a day like any other?
Let’s come together Oftentimes you will hear marketers talk about community building as a goal. It looks like a beautiful goal especially when you’re trying to achieve social impact. As a marketer, you imagine a digital (and physical) crowd of amazing people, loving each other, supporting each other, a pool of advocates willing to push …
Thoughts October 29, 2018 The journey so far – our challenge
When Isabella came to me four years ago looking for a partner to set up a business that would help people take insulin, I was all ears. I knew nothing about diabetes or insulin, but I was moved by the magnitude of the need and the challenge, and I had worked with Isabella for 8 …
Thoughts January 19, 2017 Why AI won’t solve diabetes (yet!)
If humans don’t know how to solve a problem, no artificial intelligence can magically create the missing knowledge to solve it for us. We have driverless cars because we know how to drive cars. Computers are world chess champions because we know how to play chess. We have factory robots because we know how to do …