Insightful and Actionable - Easylabs

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Tom Petersil, founder and CEO of Easylabs, located in Toronto, ON, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

At Easylabs, we believe that we are all entitled to access our own health data (as recently granted to all Americans under the 21st Century Cures Act), but it must go further as this data is completely cryptic to most of us. We are big proponents of access to insights, not just the raw cryptic data. This is an exceptionally large undertaking so, we chose to begin with lab data since it's the most common and easily attained by patients. Today, Easylabs allow patients to convert their cryptic lab reports into patient-centric health reports anonymously and for free!

Tell us about yourself

I spent almost two decades at IBM; it was my first real job, so I was somewhat sheltered from entrepreneurial life. At a later point, I had an opportunity to lead a project designed to generate better lab reports for a team of doctors in Dallas. It was incredibly rewarding to experience the appreciation from patients and doctors who were previously accustomed to reports that look like Excel spreadsheets. This small effort toward user-friendliness made a huge impact on them. This was a short stint, but it left an impression, a feeling of having a mission and bringing value, something that was hard to accomplish as a small gear in the massive machine that is IBM.

A couple of years later, both my wife and I had a routine physical that included some blood work. It came back mostly normal and looked very much like the spreadsheet reports I was familiar with. The few items that were outside the optimal ranges were not significant enough and did not require medical intervention so there was no doctor to review them with. However, we wanted to learn more so we started Googling it up as we do with everything. Mind you, my somewhat technical and science-oriented background should have made it easy for me to find the answers, but after a few hours, I was defeated. Yes, I found some information, but I had no idea how to parse it all. It was generic, not personal, and I could make no good sense of it, nor could we take any actions that would move us toward the optimal and away from the abnormal. It felt as if our only easy option was to do nothing and keep getting our yearly testing until one day the results came back abnormal and required medical intervention, maybe a lifelong prescription for cholesterol, sugar, or blood pressure-lowering medication. It was at that moment that Easylabs was born. I knew from experience that some reasonable improvement over those cryptic lab results MUST be the norm and that not only those who are privileged should be able to partake in better health literacy and prevention.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

As an early-stage entrepreneur, I can only be proud of what we have accomplished so far, and that is putting together a team of MDs and PhDs that with my support, built a platform (still in the MVP stage) that allows patients to take ownership of their health by empowering them with an MD curated, educational wellness-oriented interpretation of their lab data.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

It sometimes feels like it requires a split personality. The message, the tone, and the whole conversation require a real-time adaptation to the audience whose interest I am trying to garner. The doctor, the lab manager, the insurance executive, the social impact-health equity advocate, the investor, and my team all want and need to hear a message that resonates with them. Sometimes these messages conflict, and sometimes the various stakeholders are at the same meeting. It's quite the juggling act.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

1. I can speak about startups. Cultivate relationships prior to having something impressive to show. Rejection will be hard; disappointing them because all you have is a half-baked idea on a napkin is inevitable, but coming back later and showing progress is actually easier than showing up with a decent product because for them, it will still be the first impression and what they are most often interested in, is growth. You will be measured mostly by how you progress and, to a lesser extent, by what you've built so far.
2. The other thing that comes to mind is the fact that in most cases, as an entrepreneur, you will get 30 minutes to communicate information that should really span over a few meetings. Expect to be misunderstood, misconceived, and underappreciated. My approach is just to keep going, have more conversations, improve how I communicate, and remember that luck comes to those who work long and hard.
3. Lastly, have a close supporting network, a friend or two with whom it is safe to try some thoughts before sharing them with your team or an investor. A supporting family that could accommodate the hours and unpredictability that is the nature of entrepreneurship. You need to enjoy and learn from this journey. If it breaks you or your family, it wasn't worth it.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://easylabs.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/easylabs.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/easylabs/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/easylabs_org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/easylabs-org/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.