Ever wondered why your medical information doesn't seamlessly follow you from doctor to doctor? Suhina Singh's remarkable journey from practicing physician to healthcare tech innovator answers this question while revealing the critical missing link in modern healthcare.

Born into a medical family in South Africa, Suhina's path to founding Jonda Health was anything but straightforward. After studying medicine in Afrikaans (a language she barely knew), practicing in multiple countries, and even taking a detour into modelling, her most profound insights came from two painful experiences. When her brother-in-law was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer, transferring his medical records between countries proved nearly impossible. Years later, she herself endured seven years of misdiagnosis despite having all the necessary data scattered across different providers.

These frustrations led to a revelation: healthcare's data problem isn't just inconvenient—it's dangerous. Suhina explains how medical information exists in countless incompatible formats, using a brilliant analogy of differently shaped and coloured objects that represent the same health information but can't communicate with each other. Her solution? Jonda Health's data transformation engine that acts like a universal adapter, making fragmented health data usable across systems.

The conversation offers rare insights into the messy reality of building a healthcare startup, from initial UI/UX challenges and development nightmares to the pivotal moment when Suhina realized her backend data engine was the true innovation, not the patient-facing app she initially focused on. Her candid reflections on bootstrapping, technical partnerships, and investor relations provide a masterclass in healthcare entrepreneurship.

For anyone passionate about healthcare innovation, patient empowerment, or entrepreneurship, this episode offers both inspiration and practical wisdom. Listen now to understand how solving healthcare's data plumbing problem could revolutionize patient care worldwide!

From a small town in Penang to surviving one of the most devastating business collapses during COVID-19, Chen Chow Yeoh, or better known as CC, entrepreneurial journey is nothing short of remarkable. As the former COO of Fave (previously known as KFIT), CC shares the raw, unfiltered story of building and scaling a tech platform across Southeast Asia.

The conversation reveals extraordinary moments of serendipity - like securing $2.25 million from Sequoia Capital without even having a pitch deck - alongside heartbreaking challenges when their business revenue dropped 90% overnight during lockdowns. CC's candid account includes the acquisition of Groupon's Southeast Asian operations and the brilliant, resourceful strategies they deployed to migrate millions of customers to a brand-new platform with minimal losses.

What truly sets CC's leadership approach apart is his people-first philosophy. From creating emotional connections with employees by interviewing their family members in secret, to establishing transparent salary reduction systems during crisis periods, his humane approach to building Fave demonstrates that successful businesses are fundamentally built on relationships and trust.

As CC reflects on Fave's $45 million acquisition by Pine Labs and his current transition to mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs, he offers profound insights on resilience: "News said we raised $20 million. News didn't say 61 rejections, 1 investment. That's a 98% rejection rate." This conversation is a masterclass for anyone navigating the unpredictable terrain of entrepreneurship, revealing that behind every success story lies countless moments of doubt, persistence, and heart.

“What does it mean to lose yourself? And more importantly...what does it take to find your way back?”

These were the questions echoing in my mind long after sitting down with Stephen McGown, a South African whose story isn’t just remarkable, it’s transformational.

Stephen’s journey from banker to hostage to international speaker isn’t just a tale of survival. It’s a mirror. One that forces us to look at the lives we’re living and ask: Am I truly free?

Before his abduction by Al-Qaeda in Timbuktu, Stephen was already wrestling with that quiet dissatisfaction many of us carry. He had grown up on a farm, grounded in simplicity and grit, but had ended up in a high-rise banking career that never quite fit. So he did what many dream of but few dare...he took off on a motorcycle adventure across Africa, searching for meaning beyond spreadsheets and city traffic.

That journey ended abruptly in the Sahara Desert, where he was held hostage for nearly six years.

Six years.

No phone. No calendar. No distractions. Just silence, sand, and survival.

And yet, this is where Stephen found himself.

He spoke about learning to track time through the rhythm of nature, by moonlight, by the migrations of birds, by the soft bloom of desert flowers. He spoke of peeling away the noise of life, the endless comparisons, the busyness that so often numbs us. “When all that noise settles down,” he told me, “you start to get in contact with things.”

That line has stayed with me. Because isn’t that what many of us crave...contact? With something real. With ourselves.

What struck me most was how Stephen chose to frame his captivity. He didn’t just survive it, he transformed it. He called it a sabbatical. A chance to go back to his 18-year-old self and ask, “Who was I before the world told me who I should be?”

And that right there is where the heart of his story lies. Not in the extremity of what he endured, but in the quiet bravery of what he reclaimed.

His message is deceptively simple, and yet deeply profound: Be authentic.
Not the fastest. Not the smartest. Just you. Anything else, and you’ll lose yourself. You’ll live a life that looks fine on the outside but feels empty on the inside.

Stephen’s story isn’t just about him. It’s about all of us.

It’s about the invisible prisons we build careers that drain us, relationships that shrink us, expectations that slowly erase us. And it’s about the courage it takes to break free, to look inward, to start again.

When he returned home, a friend told him: “Don’t compare yourself to us we’re more screwed up than you are.”

I laughed when he said that. But there’s truth in it.

Stephen walked through hell and came out whole. Not because he had a map but because he learned to listen to the compass inside him. The one we all have, even if it’s been buried under years of noise.

If his story teaches us anything, it’s this

Sometimes, you have to lose everything to find what truly matters.
And sometimes, the desert...real or metaphorical, is where your freedom begins