Just after investing 15 decades overseas, Singaporean entrepreneur Gillian Tee decided to return dwelling in 2016 to be nearer to her spouse and children.
It was what she termed “the fantastic storm.”
A few of her close kin have been dwelling with continual ailments and Tee speedily learned the “ache details” of caring for folks who want specialised treatment.
“Let us say you fell and broke your hip, the healthcare component is quite apparent. You have to uncover specialists, you can go to… [a] general public clinic or personal healthcare facility,” Tee said.
“But what happens when you require to appear dwelling, when you will need to transition back again to your neighborhood and your dwelling, what is the care strategy? What is the appropriate thing to even imagine about, in conditions of proofing the residence, mobility aids?”
Homage delivers a assortment of home treatment providers, like everyday dwelling support, nursing care and house therapy.
Homage
That’s when she decided to commence Homage, a business that matches individuals who need to have lengthy-term property care with experienced caregivers.
Since 2017 when the business was started, the startup has lifted $45 million, she reported naming noteworthy buyers these as Golden Gate Ventures Sheares and Healthcare Team — a Temasek wholly owned subsidiary, as perfectly as early phase undertaking company 500 Startups.
Homage is now valued at additional than $100 million, in accordance to Tee.
But this is not the 40-calendar year-old’s initial foray into entrepreneurship. She was a administration marketing consultant for Accenture when she chanced upon a e-book that modified the program of her vocation.
“I started off as a computer software developer and I was just quite drawn to it for the reason that I favored building things. But what really hit me was this idea of application,” she advised CNBC Make It.
How do I use technology to construct some thing that folks can use, and it impacts their life?
Gillian Tee
Co-founder and CEO, Homage
She was referring to the e book Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Times, prepared by Jessica Livingston, who co-launched seed phase expenditure company Y Combinator.
“How do I use know-how to establish something that folks can use, and it impacts their life?”
And so commenced Tee’s entrepreneur journey, which includes paying out two yrs in Silicon Valley, in which she co-founded Rocketrip in 2013. It is a website that incentivizes enterprise travelers to help save their employers income on trip expenses.
The firm elevated $32 million — including $15 million from Google Ventures — prior to being obtained by Mondee Holdings in 2020.
This serial entrepreneur shares her major tips for managing productive startup.
1. Know your marketplace
Be it creating an app for travel or health care, the enterprise fundamentals by no means improve, said Tee.
“You require to know your sector actually effectively. Know your charge drivers, growth drivers and desire motorists.”
Homage is currently in a few marketplaces — Singapore, Malaysia and Australia, the place there are “distinctive traits” that join properly to the trouble that the company is trying to remedy, Tee extra.
“We looked at caregiver shortage, the character of the aging inhabitants and continual diseases — which apparently, is not just brought on by age, but remarkably correlated with urbanization.”
Even though end users of Homage lengthen outside of seniors, the prospect in eldercare engineering carries on to grow as people live extended. In Asia alone, one particular in 4 folks will be over 60 years outdated by 2050, in accordance to the Asian Development Bank.

Even so, Tee said she is “a huge lover of likely deep and not overspreading” the company.
“Emphasis is every little thing. We do have a incredibly distinct view of what the markets are, if we should really expand to extra [countries]. But right now the present-day concentration is on deepening our present-day marketplaces,” she additional.
2. Create a great team
Small business fundamentals are important, but business people really should “anchor 1st on persons,” explained Tee.
This has served Homage well in providing the ideal treatment for its purchasers, and for Tee, who had no prior expertise in the health and fitness-treatment industry.
I check out to do the ideal I can, but I convey on men and women who are a lot improved than me.
Gillian Tee
Co-founder and CEO, Homage
“It is essential to lean on specialists for clinical governance and compliance. That’s why we have our director of nursing, for instance, who has 20 years of knowledge throughout diverse health care settings,” Tee shared.
“A big element of what we do is we need to have to synthesize care high quality with the merchandise and technological know-how. That is the crew you need to build — I check out to do the best I can, but I carry on men and women who are much superior than me.”
3. Concentrate on the ‘100 very good things’
Being an entrepreneur can be isolating, mentioned Tee, specifically so when you are a woman.
“You get snide comments, but of system, a lot less so now for the reason that there is certainly a reputation and regard which is been designed up.”
But factors have been not usually easy in the commencing. “For illustration, [a director] at the time instructed me, ‘You know, now I know why the newspapers characteristic you, simply because your eyes are so beautiful.'”
“This is my mantra like everything I go as a result of: I have to be 2 times as assertive, a lot more data-pushed and be tremendous sharp. I do think we [female entrepreneurs] have to do a lot more to show our position.”

Even so, Tee has uncovered to choose items in her stride and lean on the people who matter.
“There is certainly 100 difficulties, but there’s also 100 superior things. You acquired to seriously tune out the sound and be okay likely via that depth,” she added.
“It is really exhilarating in some techniques, but tiring in a lot of some others. Lean on your team, be open, vulnerable, clear with them. I imagine that’s the most crucial thing.”
4. Innovation drives effects
What does innovation suggest to Tee? It is about creating an effects on people.
“The mission of Homage is so near and dear to me. At the stop of the day, you will find nothing better than making one thing that individuals can get a answer out of,” she claimed.
“At the conclusion of the working day, you can find nothing superior than setting up something that persons can get a answer out of,” said Gillian Tee, co-founder and CEO of Homage.
Homage
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