Product Market Fit

Global Care was a health tourism and telemedicine startup I co-founded during my MBA studies, allowing me to directly apply my academic learning in entrepreneurship, product development, and market validation to a real-world venture.

Iran offers highly subsidized, high-quality medical care, making it a popular destination for patients from neighboring countries. However, interviews with departing patients revealed major pain points: lack of transparency, long waiting times, poor coordination, and communication barriers throughout the treatment journey.

As CEO, I led the creation of a three-sided platform connecting patients, physicians, and dedicated patient moderators. Patients received a personalized assistant before traveling, enabling clearer planning, faster access to doctors, and significant time and cost savings. Building Global Care during my MBA allowed me to test concepts such as lean startup, customer discovery, and product–market fit in practice.

The startup scaled rapidly to a 10-person team within six months and gained early traction in the regional health tourism market. However, international sanctions disrupted online payments, and shortly after, COVID-19 halted cross-border medical travel, ultimately forcing the shutdown. The experience provided deep, hands-on lessons in resilience, market fit, and operating under extreme uncertainty.