Chevy Beh: No Better Time to be 'Married' to so Many 'Wives'

“I’m very married to my work and I have many wives, which are my companies.” says Chevy with a laugh. “There’s really no better time. If i were to start a med-tech company say five to six years ago, there was no ecosystem - smartphone penetration was low, internet speed was slow. Now, is the time.”

“So, this is my window of opportunity and I have to grab it and move very quickly. That's my priority now.”

Chevy is the founder and CEO of health tech company BookDoc. The company, which he started in 2015 had a goal in mind - to connect people in need of healthcare with professional providers as fast as possible, with an initial focus on the B2C model.

Fast-forward to January 2018, BookDoc has garnered over 350 thousand users - on its website and application - with B2B shaping up to be a bigger growth area as sixty percent of its users are currently made up of the corporate segment.

“This is through providing end-to-end solutions for companies. We created products and services managing healthcare benefits, costs and claims."

“As time goes by, a lot of companies were talking about corporate wellness. So we launched a new module on corporate wellness program,” a strategy which is also in line with BookDoc’s MyActiv program that rewards its users for being active.

Chevy on Growing Up in an Entrepreneurial Family

GAMIFYING HEALTHCARE

With over 60 partners (Zalora, Secret Recipe and Guardian, to name a few) in 12 countries, Chevy is also eyeing growth arising from innovations in the health and insurance sector.

“We are talking about how to do gamify people’s behavior - not just limited to tracking - but how do you give them a carrot, to incentivise them (to be healthy),” says Chevy, citing RHB, Prudential and Sun Life Malaysia as partners. “MyActiv is working out like sort of wearable insurance. If you exercise more, you have lower risk, and you pay lower premium. So, we are working on these things.”

Chevy is indeed setting his sights on many big things. Medical tourism being another key area as BookDoc looks to position itself as a go-to platform for medical tourists looking for end-to-end solutions.

At the moment, BookDoc’s partnership with Uber, Grab, TripAdvisor, Agoda and Airbnb aims to help sort out the transportation and accommodation needs, as well as recommendation of restaurants and attractions for users.

"For instance, our partnership with Agoda, users get discount to hotel room rates, in addition to what Agoda is giving them. So, some people use that, reverse engineer it and then go see doctor - instead of seeing doctor as primary reason!" says Chevy.

IMPRESSIVE LIST OF INVESTORS

In less than three years since BookDoc’s inception, the company has set up presence in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. “Indonesia soon, hopefully,” says Chevy.

One would think that getting into new markets would be an easy feat with backings from investors like Stanley Ho family of Macau, Prince Abdul Qawi of Brunei and the Hamimi family of Indonesia - a list that would draw envy from many entrepreneurs - but track record and persistence, insists Chevy, was what helped opened doors.

“Malaysia was obviously easier as in the healthcare scene as most of the owners, CEO or chairman knows who I am. But once you get out of the country, people will be like ‘who are you!?,” says the former managing director of BP Healthcare Group, a company founded by his father Datuk Beh Chun Chuan.

(Chevy left BP Healthcare in October 2014 and founded Asian Healthcare Group)

“We are quite fortunate, so far, as the list of investors (that you named) have approached us instead of us going to them.”

“It’s about looking at track record - my previous capacity and how I scaled my businesses, and once they see the track record and that I can execute, they’ll have more confidence and things just keep adding on to the momentum.”

Chevy on Why Singapore is the Toughest Market to Crack

WHAT'S NEXT FOR BOOKDOC?

Chevy targets to grow BookDoc’s B2C segment to one million users, in two years time - a seemingly achievable target particularly with BookDoc being recognized as the first and only official healthcare platform endorsed by Malaysia’s Ministry of Health.

“The ministry will be leveraging on BookDoc tech platform to help them to monitor (engagements and activities). We will be running a lot competitions nationwide for them too .”

“Then on the B2B part, obviously signing up more corporate companies. Most of the companies that sign with us are 3-5 years contracts. So, our revenue’s pretty solid. And we'll be adding more services to help solve problems organizations have."