Who is Vitor?
Vitor is a Co-Founder and CPO of Mindsurance. After starting his career in banking & investment banking he has worked in a number of startups ranging from very early stage to enterprises such as Delivery Hero.
Vitor is a generalist who has found passion in product development where he advocates for building products and driving innovation through the application of fast iterative cycles. He holds an Executive MBA from ESMT Berlin and mentors other entrepreneurs from the Vali Berlin program.
Outside of work he can be found planning his next hike or running through one of many parks of Berlin.
Tell us more about your role in Mindsurance.
First and foremost I am responsible for the product vision, strategy and execution at Mindsurance. In simple terms that means first to define what we should build next so we can generate the most value for our clients, secondly to ensure that it is built in a way that is intuitive for the user and keep it to the minimum our development time.
In addition to that, I also work with my Co-Founders and the team members in various tasks ranging from financial planning to pricing strategy. While working in an early stage company it is important to have some core responsibilities defined but also be flexible and available for the next task with the highest priority.
What is the most difficult part of your job? But the most rewarding one?
In an early stage startup we have to work with very limited resources. That means lower budget for research and development and fewer data points available for validating our concepts and product. On the other hand, this difficulty forces us to be more creative and to find smarter solutions for complex problems.
Is there anything that you would change about your professional path?
That is always a difficult question because changing something in the past could mean not being where I am today, and I am very happy to be where I am.
In any case, investing more and more on your own mental health and on your network are two lessons worthy to be shared.
What’s your key strategy for the development of your company?
We understand that when it comes to mental health care there are hundreds of possible diagnosis and even more solutions available for specific problems, so finding the right solution is a challenge. Moreover, navigating in the process of financing the treatment using the health care system can be daunting.
Therefore, our strategy is to focus on building an interface where people receive guidance and the infrastructure to access the best care.
Our service becomes even more valuable in the B2B space where the problems are as diverse as the workforce.
What do you think about the next period of time, keeping in mind the pandemic and the new business climate? How will your industry be affected?
Right now, we are experiencing an important mega-trend towards destigmatization of mental health. Even though this change has accelerated in the last few years we still have a long way to go. For example, only now companies are starting to realize that investing in the workforce mental health generates a high return.
The pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the climate change and any other situation that causes suffering to a large number of people make our service even more useful.
Please name a few technologies which have the greatest impact on your business.
As a company acting in the mental health space, hence processing patient data, technologies used for data protection are imperative for our business.
As a Saas enabled company with a marketplace in our product portfolio we leverage and experiment with various technologies, for example, machine learning for matching the patient with the most effective solution or softwares for video conference and facial expression analysis that can enhance the diagnosis of a patient.
What books do you have on your nightstand?
- Endurance (Alfred Lansing)
- Thinking, fast and slow (Daniel Kahneman)
- Trillion Dollar Coach (Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle)
