PatientsLikeMe: The Founding Story
Q2.) To what degree does PatientsLikeMe’s founding story debunk one or more of the common myths of entrepreneurship?
The founding story of PatientLikeMe can be taken as an example to debunk some of the common myths of entrepreneurship.
Myth 1: Entrepreneurs are born and not made.
“Necessity is the mother of invention”
PatientsLikeMe was founded by two brothers, Jamie and Ben Heywood with intent to help people fight life threatening diseases when they witnessed their brother, Stephen Heywood deal with the challenges of fighting ALS. They became entrepreneurs owing to the circumstances they were in. Therefore we can conclude that entrepreneurs are not born, rather they are made (due to the environment, life experiences and personal choices one faces)
Myth 2: Entrepreneurs are primarily motivated by money
PatientsLikeMe was founded with the vision to become a platform that eases a patient’s journey through a life threatening disease. One of its goals was to change the way medical industry thinks about patients and patient care.
Although it has been able to leverage the data that it collects from its online patients as a revenue driver, PatientsLikeMe’s services are free to all its users. It works against the medical industry, for the benefit of its users, for example: communicating the side effects of a certain drug to the manufacturing company, may help the patient community get rid of those effects.
Therefore we can conclude that, the intention behind founding PatientsLikeMe was not motivated by money, rather by the desire to help people fight diseases through the services provided by them
The founding story of PatientLikeMe can be taken as an example to debunk some of the common myths of entrepreneurship.
Myth 1: Entrepreneurs are born and not made.
“Necessity is the mother of invention”
PatientsLikeMe was founded by two brothers, Jamie and Ben Heywood with intent to help people fight life threatening diseases when they witnessed their brother, Stephen Heywood deal with the challenges of fighting ALS. They became entrepreneurs owing to the circumstances they were in. Therefore we can conclude that entrepreneurs are not born, rather they are made (due to the environment, life experiences and personal choices one faces)
Myth 2: Entrepreneurs are primarily motivated by money
PatientsLikeMe was founded with the vision to become a platform that eases a patient’s journey through a life threatening disease. One of its goals was to change the way medical industry thinks about patients and patient care.
Although it has been able to leverage the data that it collects from its online patients as a revenue driver, PatientsLikeMe’s services are free to all its users. It works against the medical industry, for the benefit of its users, for example: communicating the side effects of a certain drug to the manufacturing company, may help the patient community get rid of those effects.
Therefore we can conclude that, the intention behind founding PatientsLikeMe was not motivated by money, rather by the desire to help people fight diseases through the services provided by them