Tiffany Truong, co-founder of MiChro
Within her DPhil in health economics, Tiffany Truong focuses on health systems modelling and economic evaluations of new interventions, undertaking cost-effectiveness analyses and identifying the best strategies to optimise health outcomes. By using these concepts, Tiffany's startup MiChro was born, with the aim to provide evidence-backed medication, nutrition and supplement management using a person's own biological clock. Tiffany's start-up is comprised of a multidisciplinary team including a medical student, PhD, an engineer, and a biochemistry expert, each bringing unique skills and perspectives to the venture.
What is your background? What made you decide to become an entrepreneur?
I am very much a newbie to this space. I have a health background and strongly believe that technological advancements can improve and streamline current healthcare systems. My academic research involves conducting cost-effectiveness analyses and optimising health strategies, which naturally led me to explore the possible practical applications of these principles. The decision to become an entrepreneur was driven by my desire to translate my work and new research findings into real-world solutions, that can improve patient outcomes and enhance the efficiency of healthcare systems.
What is your definition of entrepreneurship?
Being proactive when you see problems that you can solve.
How and when did you know your idea was good enough to develop it?
Medication non-adherence is a recurrent concern in healthcare that has not been efficiently tackled. The principle of chronopharmacology which lies in optimising the efficacy of your medications based on your body clock was appealing to me, because it promotes health personalisation and health autonomy aside from enhanced clinical outcomes. We knew the idea was viable after our customer acquisition survey and our discussions with different healthcare professionals.
What would you say are the top 3 skills that needed to be a successful entrepreneur and why?
The 3 skills would definitely be: grit, perseverance, and vision. Building a business from scratch is very hard, you will get a lot (a lot) of rejections, you need to find funding, etc... Having a vision of how you would like the world to be in 5, 10 years will help you with the different decisions you need to make about your product/service.
What is your favourite part of being an entrepreneur?
Being an entrepreneur means that you are constantly learning: it is a very rewarding process even though there are very tiring moments as well. Every small win is a big win.
What individual, company or organization inspires you most? Why?
I recently met Jas Schembri-Stothart, the founder of We are Luna, the first mental health app for teens. It was very inspiring to learn how she just took the initiative and simply learnt coding herself to build their MVP. This exemplifies the power of self-learning and determination if you want to turn a vision into reality.
If you had 5 minutes with the above individual/ company/organization, what would you want to ask or discuss?
If I had 5 minutes with Jas, I would be interested in learning more about what she would do differently if she were to start again. I would also like to know more about her strategies for balancing the technical and entrepreneurial aspects simultaneously, and when is the best time to focus on what when you are at a very early stage.
What would you say have been some of your mistakes, failures or lessons learned as an entrepreneur?
It's better to get it done, receive feedback than trying to perfect everything.
What is good about being an entrepreneur in Oxfordshire? Bad?
Oxford has a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem and you meet incredibly smart and driven people, so there are a lot of collaborative opportunities.
If a new entrepreneur or startup came to you looking for entrepreneurship resources, where would you send them?
I would tell them about EnSpire Oxford and tell them to reach out to the Entrepreneurship Centre at Saïd Business School.
Are there any Business or Entrepreneurship Related Courses that you would recommend?
Any last words of advice?
If you are thinking of entrepreneurship, I highly recommend just trying it out!
You can keep up to date with Tiffany and MiChro by following them on LinkedIn and get in touch with them by emailing them at michro.ox@gmail.com
