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Transitions in Tech: How Zarina Bridged Multinational Corporations and Health Startups

Welcome back to Startup Life: Unscripted! We're excited to bring you a captivating chat with Zarina Yamaguchi Roberson, the Regional Associate Director, Marketplace at Doctor Anywhere. Zarina's path, transitioning from multinational corporations to the quick-paced world of startups across multiple industries, offers a treasure trove of lessons and insights.

With Doctor Anywhere, Zarina finds herself at the nexus of healthcare and technology, leveraging her vast e-commerce experience to redefine health tech solutions. In this chat, she talks about the daily operations, challenges, and the exhilarating world of health tech startups, from both a business and personal perspective.

Key interview takeaways:

📚 Industry Crossovers: Zarina talks about her shift from global corporations to startups and the learnings from each phase.

🌍 Day-to-Day at Doctor Anywhere: Get a sneak peek into the multifaceted responsibilities and the dynamic startup environment Zarina thrives in.

🚀 Sector Insights: From food delivery to travel, and now health tech, she shares the unique challenges and opportunities each sector presented.

🛠 E-Commerce in Health Tech: Learn how Zarina applies her e-commerce expertise to drive results in a health tech setting.

🔮 Balancing Acts: She touches upon managing work and personal life in the high-stakes world of startups and offers advice to those aspiring to venture into health tech startups.

Hey Zarina, it's a pleasure to have you here. Let's jump right in. Your career trajectory has seen you working with a variety of companies before landing in the health tech space. Can you share a bit about how you’ve navigated your career pathway, and how the startup environment has shaped that journey?

I started off working in an MNC for a good 6 years before joining AsiaRooms, a startup in the travel booking industry. It was there that I cultivated a passion for regional operations, taking up the challenge of localising and expanding the brand across markets, also deeply immersing myself in understanding the unique needs and preferences of local consumers.

Following that I joined Francfranc, a Japanese furniture and home decor company known for its modern, bold and funky designs, helping to bring an established Japanese brand to the Singapore market.

I found myself drawn back to the excitement and dynamism of the e-commerce space, helming leadership and growth positions at foodpanda, Deliveroo, and Lazada before landing my current role as Regional Associate Director leading Doctor Anywhere’s marketplace.

Reflecting on my journey, it's evident that a passion for innovation, a strong presence in the tech field, and the acquisition of versatile skills were common threads in my experiences across the travel, home furniture, online food & grocery delivery industries.

Many of our readers are curious about the startup lifestyle. Could you describe a typical day for you at Doctor Anywhere? How do you manage the broad range of responsibilities in your role as Regional Associate Director?

The day in the life at a start-up is fluid and dynamic; the only constant is change, so no two days are really the same. My primary focus is always on nurturing my team, fostering an environment of collaboration and mutual support. I make it a point to have regular catchups on their progress, responsibilities, and enabling them to achieve their goals and personal development.

With consumers’ needs and wants being fast-evolving, it’s essential to constantly evaluate how the marketplace is performing against projected targets, and evolve quickly to meet the market trends, yet still keep aligned with the company’s strategic direction.

DA Marketplace sets itself apart as Singapore's go-to health and wellness e-commerce platform by Doctor Anywhere, with the aim to make good health and wellness commonplace. We offer a broad range of over 9,000 SKUs of products and services that range from vitamins, nutritional supplements, over-the-counter medication, health services, with free local delivery on any purchase.

It’s a massive operation that requires deep cross-team collaboration spanning product design, tech, marketing, customer service, sales, finance. This collaboration is essential to provide our customers with a seamless shopping experience, facilitate product discovery, and contribute to their long-term health and well-being. Being in the marketplace is almost like running your own company front to back within the wider Doctor Anywhere umbrella.

You've had leadership roles in several different sectors: from food delivery to travel services, and now healthcare. Can you tell us about the challenges and opportunities you've encountered in transitioning between these industries within the startup environment?

I’ve had varied challenges across different companies, including situations where you just have to grab the bull by the horns. I recall once due to manpower constraints and a lack of riders, I had to physically make a delivery order myself to a customer – which was actually an insightful, eye-opening experience to understand the bugbears of last-mile logistics!

Having worked across sectors including travel, home furniture, online food & grocery delivery, I’ve found that it’s not only important to have product knowledge, but understanding the local landscape, regulations, and cultural nuances is key.

Other industries such as food services and healthcare have quickly become ‘essentials’ amidst the pandemic, resulting in spikes in demand and volumes that can put tech constraints on the infrastructure. Being able to work collaboratively across teams with data insights was a key takeaway. But perhaps the most rewarding aspect was the opportunity to promptly meet our customers’ expectations and get people what they are looking for. Also, even being able to help people find things they did not initially know they needed.

One common thread across all the industries is the convergence of platforms and online goods and services. Consumers today have shifted their expectations towards superapps or platforms that provide an end-to-end, holistic solution to fulfil their needs, rather than shopping across multiple vendors. Being able to deeply understand these consumer trends, tailoring a unique marketplace proposition, and customer-centricity has been the key driver of success for DA Marketplace.

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It's interesting to see how you've taken your e-commerce experience and applied it to the health tech sector with Doctor Anywhere. What have been some surprising aspects about working in health tech compared to the e-commerce space?

Indeed the healthcare sector has come quite a far way. A decade ago, it would not have been imaginable that online platforms could deliver healthcare holistically. Today, on Doctor Anywhere's health & wellness marketplace you can purchase medication, healthy snacks, vitamins, supplements, ergonomic chairs, and even book home-based vaccinations or health screenings.

Part of this success stems from our focus as a tech-led healthcare organisation, where data analytics and patient centricity is a big part of our DNA. This means leveraging data for insights and decisions, such matching what suppliers/pharmas have to offer and what patients/customers are looking for. We also focus on delivering an exceptional customer experience, which includes streamlining and enhancing product discoverability, pricing, checkout, last-mile delivery, and retargeting customers with personalised offerings.

The data that I also obtain from our video consults at Doctor Anywhere plays an integral part in being able to curate product pairing offerings based on a patient's health conditions - it gives me the ability to offer better assortments and opportunities on the DA Marketplace.

This has also enabled us to create a differentiated marketplace offering, in that we are able to enable individuals on their health journey – whether suggesting medication and vitamins for short-term recovery, or supplements and healthy snacks, wellness services for their long-term health.

With your role being so integral to Doctor Anywhere, how do you balance work and personal life? Any tips for our readers about maintaining this balance in the high-speed startup world?

I find that being a mom of 3 kids is a full-time job as well as working but it takes a strong team both in the office and at home to make that work. I’m privileged that Doctor Anywhere supports working parents and has flexible workplace policies that enable me to succeed at work, yet still fulfil my role as a mother. There are many sacrifices I have to make, but it is necessary. Knowledge sharing and trusting the people in my life and the team that I have built to play supporting roles are essential.

Cross-cultural work dynamics can often be a part of startup life. How has your experience in establishing operations in Japan influenced your approach to managing your diverse team at Doctor Anywhere?

I have worked and lived in different countries, but I think what is a contributing factor is growing up under my father in Japan who has successfully managed his own company and the people that worked with him. The bond that he was able to establish for some of his staff was like that of family.

I took parts of that in working towards gaining the trust of the sales and operations team I established in Japan. I was in a position in which they saw me as someone that was local and could trust and connect with. Connecting with people of different backgrounds is something that was transferable to the team I managed after that and currently at Doctor Anywhere.

Finally, for those looking to make a similar transition into healthtech startups, what advice would you give? Any key insights or lessons you'd like to share from your own journey?

The journey is never going to be an easy one in a start-up; you need to be tough mentally and be ready to take on challenges, criticisms and be able to manage your time well. You most likely might not get answers that you are looking for if you're transitioning as a newbie into a health startup - my advice is to always get your facts straight by doing your own research, be proactive and trust the process. Given that it's a fast-paced environment, the learning curve is steep but worth every second of your time. Never, never, never give up!

From the Startup Life team

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