1. What did you do before business School?
I worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb.  I worked in three different roles during my four years at that company: Supply Chain, Financial Planning and Corporate Development (M&A).  Although I had several international assignments, particularly in Latin America, I was based in the company’s corporate headquarters in NYC.

What I liked most about the company was its mission, which I believed and lived. “Our company’s mission is to extend and enhance human life by providing the highest-quality pharmaceutical and related health care products.”


3. Tell me about your company and how it makes money.
Por ti, Familia’s vision is to establish a chain of retail stores that offer the combined services of a convenience store, a pharmacy and doctor’s office in the same location.

Por ti, Familia will benefit from the cross-selling of pharmaceutical products and health care services while providing its customers with integrated primary care solutions.  By offering primary care at retail locations that can reach the Peru’s uninsured population, the company will capture the out-of-pocket healthcare spending of the urban uninsured segment, initially in Lima.  Therefore, the stores will generate profit from a high volume of small-ticket sales.

4. Where did the idea for the concept come from?
I worked as a pro-bono consultant in a World Resources Institute initiative called: “What Works”.  This initiative provides successful businesses in emerging markets an opportunity to get MBA students from top business schools to help them improve their business models.  In exchange for the consulting services provided, the MBA students write a case study on how to standardize and replicate this business model in other emerging markets.  Then the case studies are published in the WRI’s database.  My project consisted in advising a pharmacy chain that had an interesting product/service business model in Mexico.  When I went back home to Peru, I saw a business opportunity to develop a similar business model in Peru targeting the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid market.  Therefore, I wrote a business plan and now am preparing to launch my first mini-clinic in September 2008.

5. What stage are you at now and how has The Greenhouse program helped you so far?
The Greenhouse was extremely helpful in providing advise and support to make this dream a reality.  At the moment I am getting ready to open the first location in September 2008.

6. What’s it like launching a business while still in school?
It is really hard, my last semester I traveled back and forth to Peru almost every week from Thursday to Sunday.  I also pulled a lot of late nights preparing for presentations with Angel investors.

7. What’s one piece of advice you would offer to a budding CBS entrepreneur?
Follow your dreams and work really hard to make them a reality.

8. Anything else you want to add?
Commitment and resilience is key to success.