Interview With Young Entreprenuer Bijan Zamani

In 2004, Dr. Bijan Zamani built his first startup – a general web portal website that had more than 40 different services such as news, mail services, social networking and etc. The website was successful and won the 1^st Iran Web Festival prize later that year. He later began building and selling more startups & then started studying Computer Engineering in London, England. Being in a family full of doctors he knew all the weak points of the health care system in Iran, that’s why he decided to build MihanPezeshk in 2011 to help and serve the Iranian people and doctors to have a better healthcare service online. He later decided to become a doctor himself and started studying General Medicine as his second degree in University.

Born in 1989 in Iran, Dr. Bijan Zamani other than Iran studied in different countries such as United Kingdom, Russia, Belarus and UAE where he did researches on online businesses and decided to build startups in different countries that’s why he is fluent in different languages such as Persian, English and Russian.

We decided to have an interview with Dr. Bijan Zamani and talk about his future, startups in Iran and if he has any recommendation to the young entrepreneurs.

Bijan, are you planning to leave medicine and work as an entrepreneur?

Not at all, I’m just not focused in direct patient care. I’m still working and thinking about how healthcare gets delivered and how healthcare systems work.

At which stage of your life did you decide to build MihanPezeshk?

After seeing people still using paper magazines to see and find a doctor with no additional information like the working hours, photos, articles, list of services and etc. it came to my head that what if there was a website where people could find all the doctors in their city, see their information, make an appointment or even have an online consultant. That’s where I decided to make this website.

What’s the advantage of being a doctor and a computer engineer at the same time and working for MihanPezeshk?

I think doctors deeply care for patients. That’s something that they don’t shed, even if they move on from direct patient care. This works really well with our mission-driven, patients-first culture here at MihanPezeshk. The medicine background helps to speak a common language with people in business, and have a structural familiarity with a lot of the challenges of the day-to-day of running a practice and being a computer engineer and programmer makes it much easier to connect these fields together and make a perfect project.

What services do you give to doctors and patients in MihanPezeshk?

Basically MihanPezeshk is an online platform that helps people to find a doctor in their city. Doctors and medical related organizations can sign up and have their own page. In their page they can provide patients their address, telephone numbers, working days and hours, list of services, biography and description of their work and education. Doctors can upload photos and videos of their work or workplace. In addition to these in they can activate their online appointment service and online consultant service where patients can make an appointment or have an online consultant with the doctors without leaving their home. Patients can use the services that each doctor provide in their page. Patients can also use the Questions service to ask a general or specific question from all the doctors in the MihanPezeshk network, for example “what should I expect after plastic surgery?” The doctors will browse and answer questions if it’s in their field of work for free.

How do you deal with risks?

I try to understand the risk at first. Once I decide to do something, I stick to it unless one of the factors of my original assessment changes. I think that helps to keep me cool under pressure.

What do you do to keep yourself motivated through tough times?

I guess I’ll be visualizing what success looks like, and keep striving to get there. The tough times are always there but if you have enough hope and motivation it will get you through tough times.

Who have been your role models or people that inspire you personally on your way?

There are many people I have learned from along the way – and I still learn from new people every day. I guess people who never give up and follow their dream are the people who inspire me.

What’s your most valuable skill?

To listen and to focus.

What would you recommend to your 18-year-old self?

I would probably tell him to have more patience.

Do you have role models?

The common characteristic in those I admire is their ability to act on insight and then stick to it. Perseverance is better than motivation alone. I think a lot of great individuals who I consider role models have that attribute.

What do you want to say to the young entrepreneurs in Iran?

Never stop dreaming and do your best and more importantly have patience as success may take some time. Talk to other entrepreneurs and listen to their story, you will learn a lot from them. I was one of the first persons who started the internet startups in Iran and we made a lot of mistakes back then. If there were entrepreneurs before us that we could use their experiences and thoughts I’m sure everything would have been different and better.