You’ve had leadership roles in industries as diverse as retail, beverages, and tech. What drew you to healthcare?
I have had a varied career in terms of healthcare but what drew me to healthcare was first and foremost the ambition of Commure, the vision, and also just the scale of the problem.
Healthcare in America is a massive industry and it is ripe for transformation. My career, while in different industries, has been largely focused on driving transformation from being customer obsessed.
Thinking about the customer journey and the customer experience. Whether that was in footwear, apparel, in the coffee or alcohol businesses, that customer obsession was what served me well. I think that’s what we really need to do for healthcare.
If you talk to doctors and patients, neither are happy with the service that they’re getting. Technology now has reached a point where the customer experience and the clinician experience in the US should and must transform.
How does your experience in consumer strategy inform your approach to transforming healthcare with Commure?
My approach is always to start with the customer. Understanding what the customer problem is, is the foundation of all the work that I have ever done.
Whether that is with ambient documentation and understanding the pressure points that are on both the clinician and the business and the financial model and solving for those in new and novel ways.
That is how we are going to shape and strategize our focus. Starting from the customer problem, their journey and building back from there.
How is Commure planning to shape the future of ambient AI and automation in clinical settings beyond medical transcription?
We have this very unique advantage in having what we have in Bangladesh. Which is, the Augmedix business where we’re already doing a lot for clinicians beyond medical documentation.
Our MDS team and the service we provide at Augmedix is ready to do a lot of that. Now, AI can't do that yet, but we have this unique perspective where we have a vision into what clinicians feel is a magical experience.
I think whether it is a focus on particular specialties that are really complicated and developing that or its understanding beyond the capabilities that we are able to deliver through our team here and figuring out ways to build them into our AI products, that is how we are ultimately going to differentiate in the market.
In what ways do you think AI can not only replace but also augment human talent in healthcare, particularly in emerging markets like Bangladesh?
We are not really focused on replacing one to one. To me, with both our internal team and with our team in Bangladesh, AI is a productivity tool and a multiplier.
What we are seeing in the business is the customers that were signing up on AI in the US are not traditionally customers that we were getting. They are kind of simpler use cases where a lower cost product is now available to them and is appealing.
All the advantages that people are talking about, that AI is going to give to workers in San Francisco, hold true for our team in this office.
I think being a really progressive, tech-forward company in Bangladesh is going to make us a leader in productivity for our workforce here, just as we’re trying to do in San Francisco. I don't actually view them that differently.
Our workforce here should have all the best tools available to them so we can have the most productivity and the maximum revenue from our operations, just as people are trying to do in the US.
What has surprised or impressed you most about the talent or operations in Bangladesh since the acquisition of Augmedix?
I have been super impressed with both the engineering talent that we have in Bangladesh as well as just the strategic thinking of this team and how they understand the market, the competition, and the business is central to our business. It is not just an outsourced function.
When I think about the team, it’s more than just the MDS function. I see no reason why we cannot continue to build in Bangladesh.
Do you see Bangladesh evolving beyond a backend support hub to become a center of product innovation or R&D for Commure?
I do not view Bangladesh as a backend support hub. I think it is central to our operation.
I think we have an opportunity to grow our team here and one of the reasons we are so excited about the team here is because innovation happens from understanding the customer problem, and our team here has spent the better part of a decade understanding the problem, in a way that none of our AI competition can.
It is up to us to figure out the best way to leverage that knowledge-base and that understanding.
When it comes to ambient, the knowledge that we are able to generate from this office is going to be central to helping shape our roadmap and what we want to build.
How does the Commure–Augmedix integration reflect broader trends in how global tech companies are leveraging South Asia as a strategic pillar?
It all comes down to access to talent. In South Asia, there are cost-advantages compared to San Francisco.
To me, what has been super interesting about Bangladesh is that there is a lot of talent density here and a lot of ambition.
Honestly, there is a little bit less competition here than some of the other South Asian markets. We have the opportunity to carve out our name here in a way that I do not think is possible in maybe some other markets.
I always like being first. That is really the unique Commure-Augmedix advantage in Dhaka.
What are Commure’s top 2–3 strategic priorities for the next 18–24 months, and where does Bangladesh fit into that roadmap?
We’ve been transparent about the fact that we’re building a platform of solutions and ambient documentation is at the centre of that. Whether it's live and assist, or AI. They ultimately feed our revenue cycle management business which we’re building in Bangladesh.
The quickest growing team in our office here is our revenue cycle team and as we’ve been growing our US team, we’ve been growing our operations team in Bangladesh parallelly. Over the next 24 months, the chief growth leverage for Commure is gonna be our ambient and revenue cycle management and our team in Bangladesh is gonna provide the backbone of both of those from an operations standpoint.
How are you applying lessons from brands like Nike or Blank Street to health tech—an industry that traditionally moves much slower than retail?
Regardless of whether I’ve worked with startups or big brands, I have always started with the customer and what we are going to do here is really understand those pain points.
I think a lot of people think that they understand the problem without actually talking to the user or the customers, and that is what we’re going to be obsessed with, trying to understand what the customer is saying and building to that.
What has allowed companies to disrupt or maintain their dominance, is just speed.
What is going to be central to our strategy with Commure is moving faster, building better and listening to the customer.
What’s your long-term vision for how Commure can impact healthcare globally—and do you see any role for Bangladesh in exporting health tech expertise?
The long term vision is that when customers come to us with a problem, we build a solution.
It is tough to say where exactly we are going to go, but we are going to be focused on building that next solution.
The knowledge base that has been built up by our team in Bangladesh is second to none and that is going to be central to any of the engineering and product decisions we make.
As someone who’s scaled both startups and enterprise giants, what do you think health tech founders most often get wrong—and how can they fix it?
Startups have a tendency to lack focus, what I always say is when it comes to strategy, let us talk about the things that we are not going to do.
That is what has made me successful, focusing mainly on what we are not going to do. With a startup, that is essential.
In healthcare, more particularly, it is a level of grit that is required to start transformation. It is an industry that resists change, because it is a giant industry that has done things a certain way for a long time.
What would your advice be to young Bangladeshi professionals who want to build global careers in health tech, AI, or product strategy?
My advice is always the same -- say yes to the hard jobs and the jobs that no one else will do.
All of the opportunities that have ever come is usually from raising my hand for things that other people do not want to do.
It might not be the sexiest problem to start with, but you can turn it into a really good opportunity.