In weekly our column ‘A Day In The Life Of’, we are trying to step into the shoes of the awesome techies from various organisations who are working in emerging tech areas like big data, data analytics, artificial intelligence and the internet of things, among others.
This week, we got in touch with Rashie Jain, the CEO of Onco.com, Bengaluru-based healthcare startup which offers online cancer consultations from some of the world’s best oncologists. Donning many hats — right from making big-picture decisions that may affect the future of the company, to handling technicalities and back end crisis — Jain tries to strike a balance between work and play.
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Onco.com has a virtual tumour board service with a multi-disciplinary panel of specialists for the patients so they get collaborative and relevant advice as per the latest scientific advancements for their cancer. Empowered with the correct, data-driven information, the patients can then choose to get the treatment delivered at their preferred geography or hospital in a more cost-effective manner.
A proud early-riser, Jain wakes up at 6:00 am and spends an hour catching up with news and listening to podcasts. She works out 4 days a week and makes sure that her role as a CEO of a vibrant young startup does not affect her peace of mind too much.
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“Running a startup comes with its fair share of chaos and unexpected developments. This does take a toll on me sometimes, in terms of missed dinners, workouts or dinner with friends and family. But it hasn’t affected my personal life considerably. My husband is a founder as well and dealing with a constant state of chaos is expected,” Jain explains.
Jain believes in having an active social life and says that she likes to go out with friends, plan group treks and travel. “I also love being around interesting people and I make it a point to spend time with team members outside of the office over drinks,” she adds.
When asked about what her work consists of, Jain says, “I am the co-founder and CEO of my company. So I am primarily responsible for hiring, setting the culture, fundraising and in short building the business.”
Jain adds that she spends about 40% of her time hiring talent and putting necessary processes in place to create an environment where people can perform to the best of their abilities and grow in their careers. “20% of my time goes in fundraising, board management and MIS review for the company. I spend the rest of the time providing guidance, inputs to my functional heads and setting up OKRs for the company,” she adds.
When asked about what was the best part of her workday, Jain says, “Brainstorming with my team and figuring out how to achieve extremely hard goals in a limited amount of time is my favourite part.”
“Building a startup is a difficult thing. One the one hand, you have extremely complex problems to solve that no one has attempted to do successfully in the past. On the other hand, resources such as money and time (especially time) are limited. In this scenario, one has to hire some of the smartest people to build the company. But post that, it is truly a privilege to work with some of the most experienced and smart folks in the industry and build products that our customers care about and tackle these challenges head-on. Having these discussions, planning out our next steps are some of the best times of my day,” she says, signing off.
