Taware’: Emergency Response Startup – Tomooh Program
How Taware’ Started:
Taware’ (emergency) was the state which so many countries around the world were in during the past year of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Taware’ is also the name of the startup that seeks to provide the Egyptian medical field with the necessary support to overcome this state but not only during COVID-19 but also after the pandemic is over. Taware’ was founded by a group of medical professionals who come directly from the emergency rooms and who have first-hand experience of what it means to see patients come in too late for them to provide the services necessary to save their lives. Therefore, the group founded the startup to function as the link between the patients and the hospitals by ensuring that the patients get access to emergency cars and the necessary first aid tips and guidance they need to execute while they wait for professional help. Unfortunately, as the team mentioned, “We could not break the validation barrier … we were lost”, which showed that the team lacked the necessary knowledge and experience they needed to get their startup running from the technical and financial aspects of their operations. Once COVID-19 was announced as a pandemic, it was a ticking clock for the team of Taware’ to realize they had to immediately start their operations effectively and add their value to the medical service providers sooner than they had expected.
Tomooh’s Mentorship:
The team applied to be part of Tomooh’s training and mentorship program through Gust in hopes that they can get that extra push they needed to set their market validation, operational and financial plan and run their startup. In Tomooh, they were able to address the challenges they faced and could discuss their startup’s validation process in-detail in the training as well as the one-to-one coaching sessions. In one of the sessions, the mentor made them realize that the way they tried to validate their model was through their own subjective experience as professionals in the field of medicine which then allowed them to construct a more objective plan to validate their startup. This process allowed them to move past the initial plan to focus their model on getting support from medical volunteers and to bypass the reluctance they had towards having a call center which were the most crucial breakthroughs in their startup’s development during the training. Taware’s team agreed that they had a “spark” moment during one of the sessions after they heard the feedback from their colleagues and mentors who convinced them that their patients “need someone to be on the phone and guide them” which led to the eventual launch of the startup based on a 911-like call support service for their callers.
Participation in Tomooh’s demo day:
With this change, and after being lost and unsure if their model is even valid, Taware’s team was able to find its niche in the market and to showcase their competitiveness during Tomooh’s demo day through which they emphasized the dramatic development they had during the training. Fortunately, when asked about their validation, they were prepared to present to the panelists and everyone that they have indeed overcome the most challenging barrier they faced prior to joining Tomooh while also presenting the other remarkable changes they made including their success in finding partnerships with different clinics in Sheikh Zayed city. Therefore, Taware’s team was able to be the 1st winner, in Tomooh’s demo day competition, awarded by 30,000 EGP which celebrated their hard work throughout the program and their commitment to the people they serve.