H. Spectrum’s Startups in Their Own Words: Edward Fu, Cofounder of Metology, an AI-Based Virtual Diabetes Health Educator Startup

Metology’s core product Debby, developed by a highly integrated team of doctors, data scientists, nutritionists and healthcare professionals, is an AI-based virtual diabetes health educator that aims to provide a better approach to monitor and manage diabetes. Debby provides patients dietary intake suggestions through food image recognition, records blood sugar levels via chatting with the patient and also answers many healthcare-related FAQs. Patients can easily access Debby via social media chatting platforms such as LINE, Facebook Messenger or WeChat. Debby is supported by e-commerce platforms that provide fresh food approved by doctors and is under collaborations with multiple medical centers in Taiwan.

We were very delighted to interview Dr. Edward Fu, who co-founded Metology and assembled his team at H. Spectrum, to talk about his healthcare startup and share his experience as an entrepreneur.

From a Doctor to an Entrepreneur

H. Spectrum: Let’s start from the very beginning, so why did you become an entrepreneur?
Dr. Fu: I think the most common question people ask me is, as a doctor, why did I decide to “jump outside of my comfort zone” and become an entrepreneur? My answer is that there isn’t a “comfort zone”. For me, going to medical school does not imply having to become a doctor. I often tell junior medical students that they shouldn’t view medical school as a vocational school. You acquire medical professional skills in medical school, but how you apply the skill depends solely on you, whether it is becoming a doctor, scientist or an entrepreneur. The paths are there for you to choose. You shouldn’t consider becoming a doctor as a default option and choosing otherwise requires great courage and “jumping out of your comfort zone”.

In fact, I haven’t made this decision until I traveled to China. After exchanging ideas with the doctors and entrepreneurs there, I realized that there are different opportunities which wasn’t fully aware of, so I wanted to seek what I really could become. I applied for H. Spectrum right after I learned about the program, because I wanted to grasp any opportunity to learn and gain knowledge.

Building Up the Team

H. Spectrum: How did you find your teammates?
Dr. Fu: I met my teammates at H. Spectrum. I think one of the many benefits H. Spectrum provides is gathering talented people of different backgrounds. It is also because of this advantage, at H. Spectrum, we have the opportunity to discuss our ideas from a variety of aspects and not be blinded and be too in love with our ideas.

My teammates, Jason has a biomedical engineering background and Frank is an engineer. We all shared similar views and thought that data science is a good place to start, so we decided to work together.

H. Spectrum: What challenges did you face when trying to find teammates?
Dr. Fu: I think one of the bigger challenges, at least for my startup, is to find people who have experience in both UI and front-end design, someone who knows how to code but also has an aesthetic sense and understands users.

Finding the Unmet Need

H. Spectrum: How did you come up with your startup idea?
Dr. Fu: Initially, I wanted to do health check data analysis, or something related to data science. According to my observation, medical community is relatively conservative compared to other fields. By conservative, I mean in terms of people’s mindset and the ability to adapt to change. There are already a lot of technology out there that can be applied to the medical field, but because not a lot of people in this field have interdisciplinary talents so they are not aware of this possibility. Health check data analysis is something that does not involve very high-tech but at the very same time, having the ability to solve problems and having great potential to be applied in the medical industry.

Our focus shifted when we found out that LINE and Facebook Messenger turned on their chatbot Application Programming Interface (API) and thought that it would be a great advantage to exploit.

H. Spectrum: So, why particularly diabetes control?
Dr. Fu: There are a few reasons. First of all, the base is large. A lot of people in Taiwan have diabetes. Second, it is a very complicated disease but is influenced substantially by diet and habits. Third, the disease management is relatively hard compared to other chronic diseases, namely the distinguishing what you can eat and what you cannot is not that intuitive. For instance, hypertension, low fat and salt intake is easy to spot, but for diabetes, what are foods having low glycemic indexes (GI) is not that simple for patients. That is the need that is unmet and which we seek to take advantage of.

H. Spectrum: Intuitively, we think that the elderly, that is the population that have a higher percentage of diabetes, tend not to use smartphones. Is that a problem?
Dr. Fu: Well, it may be to people’s surprise that there are a lot patients in Taiwan only in their forties, or even thirties. Besides, as the generation progresses, the population of people using smartphones will increase, so in the long run, we don’t consider it as a problem. We also talked to our potential users through Facebook groups and the reaction was pretty positive.

Challenges and Opportunities

H. Spectrum: What are some challenges you faced as a startup?
Dr. Fu: We spent most of our time trying to find angel fund. I think investors in Taiwan prefer to invest in the series A round. People are afraid to lead the investment. I have seen a lot of examples where as soon as one of the investors decide to invest, others join immediately. It is understandable because it is risky, but in my opinion, I think this comes down to that Taiwanese are afraid of failure compared to people from other countries.

H. Spectrum: You mentioned that the Taiwanese are afraid of failure, could you elaborate more on this issue?
Dr. Fu: I personally think that this isn’t something to be blamed of, but it does influence how startups run in Taiwan. People worry too much, which is a good thing to be honest, but then they hesitate for too long, which is not so good for a startup. The Taiwanese often magnify their failures, but failing is not something to be ashamed of, it is just an experience. I know a lot of people from China that have failed three or four times before becoming a successful entrepreneur. Take telemedicine in China for example, at first nobody thought that patient would accept skyping with a doctor, but after several tries, they succeeded.

H. Spectrum: What are some of the opportunities for Taiwan?
Dr. Fu: I think entrepreneurs in Taiwan can focus on IoT. We have very advanced technology and IoT is a trend to watch, and there are numerous applications in the medical field.

H. Spectrum: What has H. Spectrum provided you that you think is most valuable?
Dr. Fu: Connections. I think this is very valuable. For a team in such as early stage, it is very hard for us to have connections with international VCs, mentors and many resources. We have also benefited greatly from business consultants introduced by H. Spectrum. In addition, TRANS ( healthcare startup conference held by H. Spectrum) is also a very good opportunity for us to demonstrate our ideas to potential investors and target audiences.

H. Spectrum: Could you say a few words of encouragements to those starting a startup?
Dr. Fu: Don’t be afraid of failure. Only very few people succeed on their first try. If you try, it could very much be you.

Author: Jeffery Wu
Reviser: Sarah Wang, Ariel Cho