Right after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was very much into blogging and newsletters, trying to make it big in the creator economy. That didn’t age very well.
Nevertheless, writing online paid off. Around the same time, I got a LinkedIn connection request and message from a medical student in the UK. She found my website appealing and what I was writing about insightful. She mentioned she might create a healthcare startup and if I’d be willing to be a part of it once it takes off.
A year later, she messaged me that indeed will need help with the website. Naturally, I could also help with the knowledge I have as a medical student. After some discussion and brainstorming, we published a website with all the necessary components and roughly decided which direction we should take.
The name of the startup is Dama Health, and we aim to improve how contraception is prescribed to women. I started working remotely part-time for them, taking care of the website and helping with the development of the online questionnaire for our customers. I was surprised to see how good we were able to cooperate almost 100% remotely.
This August, I found myself in London and made good use of the trip. All the pieces luckily fell into place, and we were able to meet for a coffee. Three years after the initial message, the circle to the first in-person meeting was completed. Meeting the whole team was empowering and confirmed that I made the correct choice to join them. I’d say this story aged pretty well.
Networking on platforms and then transforming these relationships into in-person ones is how the internet should be used. It’s such a wonderful tool, but sometimes used for the wrong reasons. Reaching this level of networking, which I could consider the highest use-case of any platform, has been truly remarkable. Scrolling through LinkedIn finally makes some sense!
