Meet David Chen | Tech Co-Founder & Boxer

We had the good fortune of connecting with David Chen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi David, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
To answer in a way that is actionable, yet not oversimplified, my answer may seem philosophical. Generally I’d say never give up, iterate. However there are two exceptions to this rule:
(1) You are doing something for the wrong reasons, and
(2) You are doing the wrong thing

Einstein is credited for the quote that insanity is doing the same actions and expecting different results. Therefore if you are experiencing the same, or similar, results, you need to ask yourself have you iterated what you are doing sufficiently. In making small adjustments based on feedback that you’ve been getting on whatever you’re doing, you’ll slowly iterate your way to success.

How do you know if you’re doing something for the wrong reasons, or the wrong thing entirely?

When you think about the business being successful, you first think about how you benefit, stories that you can tell, money that you can make, and networks that you’ll become part of.

Ultimately when you and/or your inner circle are the main beneficiaries of your success, you’re doing the wrong thing. The highest human act is to serve, so if you’re not thinking constantly about what your customers, partners and stakeholders get as a result of what you’re doing, you’re probably doing the wrong thing.

Secondly, if you seem to get the same feedback from unrelated people, the market isn’t giving you the results that you want / expected. Frankly speaking, what you’re doing isn’t solving a pain that is big enough for people to pay you sufficient money to keep solving it.

You need to be married with the problem that you’re solving and indifferent to the solution. Because if you’re solving the right problem, you’ll find a way to do it sustainably and profitably.

What should our readers know about your business?
First and foremost Kapsule is a very mission driven business. Our mission is to drive forward what we call the three As (Affordability, Accessibility and Authenticity of healthcare) by unlocking the power of healthcare data.For African countries to address their healthcare needs, the traditional approaches of building brick and mortar hospitals, powered by doctors and nurses will not be enough. This has been acknowledged by many governments, private companies, and NGOs. As such, digitisation of healthcare records in Africa has seen widespread and fast growing adoption.However the data that is currently being collected and stored, isn’t being used to its full potential because data is stuck between silos, whether they be on premise servers, or stuck with one of the many software providers. So we have built a suite of products that help with the collection, anonymisation and aggregation of data from many different sources, to enable both private companies and governments to have intelligence on healthcare data that spans a whole country / region.To get to where we are today has not been a straightforward path, we’ve had many twists and turns. As with any startup, you need to be agile, responsive and most importantly ask the right questions, listen, and adjust accordingly.Every phase we’ve been through has had its own unique challenges, whether it’s getting people to believe us and take us seriously, to building our first MVP, to making a first sale, and then delivering on our promises. Everything is HARD. An old boss who founded a $400m dollar annual revenue company once told me “the challenges never get easier, just different” and that’s perfectly true.Through all of the ups and downs I’ve learned that there are 2 things that are essential for you to push through any challenges to results. Do something that means so much to you, you’d happily work on it for free in your spare time, just to see it exist in the world. Work with people who bring out the best in you in every aspect. People who can challenge you, inspire you, motivate you, compliment you and make you laugh.What I want people to remember about me and my brand can be summed up by our company motto. “If you’re going to try, go all the way, otherwise don’t even start ~ Charles Bukowski”.We are those who have huge ambitions, and the conviction to follow through all the way.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Rwanda in itself is such a lovely country there’s so much for them to see. From the mountains, to the lake, the gorillas. So much to do and see. If you haven’t been, you definitely need to visit Rwanda.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are too many to name, quite literally. At Kapsule we keep a “gratitude list” which is a list of names of people who’ve helped us along the way in some significant way. In the earliest days, it was simply giving their time to a couple of young guys who had no experience and business talking to them.As we’ve matured, the list has grown to include people who’ve supported / mentored / advised us in every aspect of building a business, from sales mentors, product mentors, people who’ve connected us with their networks etc. Currently that list stands at 53 people. Of the 53, a one honorable mention:Priya Arora – Priya was the first person that believed in Hannan and I when we were literally a couple of guys who said that we have an idea of creating a healthtech company. We talked about our experiences, our why and the impact that we’d like to make. She then introduced us to MSDUK, a transformational organisation that helps large corporations add diversity to their supply chains by connecting them with ethnic minority owned businesses. This network invested heavily into us, they gave us a platform, coaching, connections, and overall been huge in my journey. But it started with Priya.Unfortunately earlier in this year Priya passed away and is forever in our hearts and souls. <3 and I’ll always acknowledge the huge role that she had in our journey.

Website: www.kapsuletech.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkapsule/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-chen-kapsule/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidkapsule