EP 144 - Rosina Mazumder and Yawar Mehboob - Arogga - It's Genuinely Solving a Fundamental Problem

I had so much fun recording this conversation with Rosina Mazumder and Yawar Mehboob, two of the four co-Founders of Arogga, Bangladesh's online pharmacy.  You may hear us joking about Rosina's 'audio technician' at the beginning of the episode...that is actually Yawar, her husband and Arogga's CFO.  Rosina is the CEO of Arogga.  The other co-Founders are Shamim Hasan, the CTO and Fahad Hossain, the COO...quite an unbelievable team.

Some of the topics that were covered:

• Both originally worked at investment banks in London
• Left that life to become entrepreneurs in the world of cake and publishing
• Rosina worked with Facebook on “She Means Business”
• When COVID hit, took some time to reassess what they wanted to do
• Got introduced to the world of startups in their native Bangladesh
• This wife and husband team really work together well and have complementary skillsets
• Arogga - a service that delivers medicine directly to your door
• In Bangladesh, the pharmacy market is quite fragmented and disorganized
• Complicating the customer journey is the fact that 20% of medicine in Bangladesh's pharmacies are counterfeit
• Building a strong company culture
• Managing through 40% month over month growth
• Word of mouth matters, so service has to be key
• What it means to be role models and also learning from the younger generation of founders

Other episode titles we also considered:

1. It Was Really Interesting Going from Corporate to Creative
2. Authentic, Less Expensive, and Convenient
3. There's Just Enormous Opportunity Right Now
4. What Has Been Amazing for Us Has Been the Word of Mouth
5. I Have Five Stents in My Heart
6. There Is a Definite Sense of Pride