The Alum Sessions: Joseph Anya of Lifebox Labs on Building Startups with Pharmacology
The Health Tech founder talks about his time as an APSULite juggling a business, his love for research, and the challenges of running a startup. By Precious Umeasalugo.
For April's letters, we're bringing APSoUL back home and talking to alums who have worked and built in different fields, including startup culture, art, public health, drug discovery, and finance. Here, they share their post-undergrad journey with us and give us a much-needed hint of what to expect as we leave the smelly yet safe confines of our hostels.
APSULites, meet the Alum Sessions, with Joseph Anya of Lifebox Labs.
At first glance, you can tell that Joseph Anya has lived many lives. He has an unassuming yet confident air around him, one you can see even through a video call with him on a hot Wednesday afternoon. That air is probably the result of his many experiences, from being a bookstore owner to a health tech founder.
Joseph Anya is the founder and lead product engineer at Lifebox Labs, a health tech company specialising in building products across several healthcare verticals. Some of the products and clinics Lifebox Labs offers include Priv Health, a men's health offering, and Custodia Health (FKA Sustain), an online clinic for diabetes reversal rather than management. But Joseph did not start off wanting to be in the health tech space. In fact, like many of us, he wanted to be a doctor.
"I came in via diploma, and in my foundation program, I wanted to be a doctor. I can't say I want the same right now, but at the time I wanted to study medicine. Fortunately, I got 14 points, and the cutoff was 15. That meant I couldn't get in," he narrated, including that he was given pharmacology as an option instead.
"I didn't want to stay in Akoka, and pharmacology sounded cute when I did my research, so I went for it".
On undergrad and its challenges
School started on a high note for him, with excellent grades in the first semester. While neuroanatomy proved a bit difficult for him in the latter semester, he still made good grades. However, things took a turn in the first semester of his third year.
"Unlike the current curriculum, where you start pharmacology courses in 200 level, the curriculum in my time had pharmacology courses starting in 300 level. With the other courses, I got to read up and not limit myself to what we were taught in class, but I quickly found after pharmacology exams that I was expected to regurgitate whatever we were taught", he explained.
To Joseph, who loves research, stifling his knowledge with a few bullet points on slides was as exhausting as cramming for the exams proved to be. So, when the results did not reflect the scale of his hard work, he switched gears to tech and a quaint online bookstore called BookMall.
"I started a business –an online bookstore. It had a website and everything. I even built the website myself. The more I failed in pharmacology, the more my interests in business and tech grew as it looked like those were paying off."
It also helped that tech in Nigeria was at the start of its golden age. "Paystack just got into Y Combinator, and Flutterwave was booming, so tech seemed a great place to position myself. Plus, I had already exposed myself to the tech world. I attended tech events and networked with senior executives in tech. I wanted to be in that space."
Regardless of the tech and the success of his bookstore, he still made a conscious effort to get good grades.
On expectations of life after undergrad and the realities
If you take a survey of the emotions of students nearing graduation, you'll probably hear the words "anxious", "scared", or "confused" more times than you can count. In Joseph's time, however, he was… optimistic.
"I was very optimistic about life after pharmacology. At the time, startups were hot and upcoming", he added.
But building a product or startup right after school is not easy, and Joseph knows that all too well. "The hardest part is getting people to pay for your services. So whatever you're offering, it has to solve a vital problem for them, it has to be priced right, and the marketing has to be on point".
However, that was not the only challenge he and Lifebox Labs faced after graduating in 2018.
"Another issue I had was finding a doctor to be my co-founder. A co-founder has to love the company, believe in your vision, and dedicate time to it. It's almost like looking for a spouse, as you both have to be compatible."
Finding the right co-founder for his health tech startup was so difficult that Joseph even had a few doubts about whether medicine would have been the right path for him. "If I were a doctor, I would not have had to bother about finding a doctor to work with," he said.
Of course, his experience applies to startups, which he confessed are much harder to run than they seem. However, he found some success outside the startup space, as did his classmates, who got jobs immediately, with a few leaving the country.
On pharmacology and its value to his work
"Is pharmacology a degree that has opened doors for me? I'd say somewhat. When I talk to people and tell them I have a pharmacology degree, it gives me a lot more credibility. It makes people trust me more and gives them the idea that "he knows what he's saying". Pharmacology also helped me understand research," he said.
Compared to traditional healthcare, where diabetes management is the norm, Custodia focuses on diabetes reversal, a treatment option that's not notably popular in Nigeria orthodoxically. "So it's important to stay on top of research, constantly read, and then commercialise the solutions you get from the research. My science background allows me to relate and understand; I can explain these terms like a doctor, which is essential in health tech."
On career advice for young pharmacology students
Make no mistake, Joseph's still figuring life out himself. But he does have some tested and trusted advice for everyone sitting in the classroom he sat in some six years ago.
"Find something aligned with your interests and work towards it. And the earlier you find it, the better. If it's academia, work towards getting good grades and contacting schools. If it's in health tech, attend tech events and network with industry leaders".
Finding something you want to do will take time, but starting before you graduate is better so you're not entirely starting from scratch. And as we all agree, "it all depends on your unique situation".
Connect with Joseph on LinkedIn and follow Lifebox Labs on Instagram, X (FKA Twitter), and their website.
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I really love this series. So insightful!❤️