Female Founders: Sylvana Q Sinha of Praava Health On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
The traits to make you successful — patience, a bit of stubbornness, or “fortitude” — a lot of people possess these traits, but to be a founder you need to almost always exercise and display these. I would say you have to be comfortable demonstrating leadership qualities — whether that’s public speaking, delegating tasks, or delivering difficult news. You have to be comfortable with the discomfort of being the go-to for everything, even things you don’t feel you are an expert in. You’re still the leader.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sylvana Sinha.
Sylvana Q. Sinha is Founder, Chair, and CEO of Praava Health, a leading healthcare company focused on improving health outcomes and patient journeys in emerging markets, where 85% of the world lives but whose current systems typically prioritize profits over patients. Since launching in 2018, Praava has become Bangladesh’s fastest-growing consumer healthcare brand, and was designated a 2021 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, and 2020 Fast Company World Changing Idea and Developing World Technology. In addition to Sylvana’s decades of experience leading teams in international law, business, development, and government relations at major international law firms, management consulting firms, the World Bank, and think tanks in the Middle East and S. Asia, she is also a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the World Economic Forum’s UHC2030 Private Sector Constituency, and served on Mount Sinai’s Arnold Institute of Global Health Task Force for Global Advantage.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
My entry into healthcare was borne out of a desire to do impactful, creative work I could feel directly connected to. After working in law, globally and domestically, I had this yearning to create something and do something that made more of a direct difference.
I didn’t have a clear vision of what that could be until I took a trip to Bangladesh for a family wedding, and my mom ended up having an emergency appendectomy. I grew up in the United States and had visited Bangladesh many times, but this was my first up-close experience of the challenges of the healthcare system in the country — and a lot of what I witnessed was alarming. I should note that for this procedure, my mom was being treated in a VIP suite of one of the fanciest hospitals in the country. Despite that, her surgery was delayed, and then there were many complications after the surgery that could have been avoided. We ended up having to airlift her to Bangkok, where she had another surgery, and yet another one a year later in the United States. Having never observed the healthcare system in Bangladesh up close before, I was shocked by this level of quality.
It struck me that despite the tremendous progress I had personally observed in Bangladesh’s economy during my lifetime — one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with a huge growing middle class driving the growth — no amount of money could afford access to excellent quality healthcare. So every day, thousands of Bangladeshis, and every year billions of dollars, left the country to access better healthcare. So I thought to myself, maybe there’s something I can do. That’s how I decided to start Praava Health.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Everything is interesting. I learn something new every single day. The most impactful moments are personal, when I hear from a patient that Praava has changed their lives, quite literally, because of the support we gave a dying parent, or that they had never imagined such healthcare could exist in Bangladesh — I never ever forget those moments. They keep me moving forward.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My parents. They astound me. They immigrated to the United States from Bangladesh starting in 1964 and did everything in their power to prepare me and my siblings for the global stage — enabling us to attend the best schools, supporting our decisions, even if they didn’t understand them. Without having the tools to succeed, I wouldn’t have been able to establish an organization of this magnitude in another country. Because of the life my parents helped me to access, I had the particular opportunity to build a company that is innovating at the edges of healthcare globally, thanks to a team of leaders, advisors, and investors that I’ve collected from arguably the top global thinkers in healthcare and technology globally, all borne of the opportunities my parents made available to me.
On top of that, I think their decision to start a new life in the US as immigrants was extremely courageous — they charted the unknown, learned to succeed and make connections with people from all walks of life. That has given me the courage to do the same in Bangladesh — a country I have always been connected to on a personal level, but where I had never lived or worked before.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
Structural inequality. There is a confluence of economic., health, educational structures working tirelessly to uphold a patriarchy that does not privilege women.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
That’s complicated. I acknowledge this and the previous question as being necessary to ask and consider. But I think it’s complicated to ask women what can be done to overcome obstacles, to “empower” them to navigate and conquer a sexist system. That requires that I first familiarize myself with this system, learn its intricacies, and then make an informed and even more intricate plan to jump through its hoops with a lot of strategy, calculation — which is not something I find particularly positive and fulfilling. It’s also very draining and keeps me from directing my energy where it should go — to ensuring excellent healthcare for my company’s patients.
And then coming up with a solution, figuring out what “can be done” to ensure women and all people equal opportunity — having to articulate that feels like a bit of a distraction for me. I wonder what would happen if that question were directed to those creating and upholding systems that hold women back.
But in short, on a personal level, I navigate this system by remembering why I’m here. Our patients. And then I remember my worth.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Without essentializing women, and saying women inherently possess these remarkable qualities, I will say, I think women founders have likely worked harder than men have to achieve what they do. We had fewer role models and perhaps less support from our families. And because we are undeterred, we often have unique insights that a more privileged business founder might not see.
Another advantage is that women represent 50% of the consumers in the world. When it comes to designing products and solutions, the importance of having women leaders to design solutions that serve this massive consumer category’s needs can’t be ignored. In my industry, healthcare, approximately 80% of household healthcare decisions are made by women, and 65% of health workers globally are women. Yet women account for only 13% of CEOs in health care, and nearly 70% of global health organizations have a man at the helm. This leadership gap creates an empathy gap: How are we to expect male leaders to build systems and invest in solutions that meet the unique health needs of women employees, health care workers, and patients? The consequences of this design flaw are disparities in health outcomes and poor access to health care for girls and women.We need women leadership to help correct this.
Finally, I can answer that question from a purely business perspective. In terms of revenue, startups founded and co-founded by women are significantly better financial investments. Data collected by First Round Capital, for example, found that the female-founder companies it had funded performed 63% better than the all-male founding teams it had funded. Adding even more credence, research from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation found that women-led teams generate a 35% higher return on investment than all-male teams.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
I think it’s a myth that pivoting or adjusting your original plan/vision is not optimal, or always a compromise (that does not favor you). Course correction is sometimes a blessing in disguise. What doesn’t work and turns into something else can leave you in a better place than when you started. I’ve had early ideas kind of fall apart but lead to the production of something extraordinary.
It is also a myth that you have to become an entrepreneur early in life. For me, coming to entrepreneurship later in life was a blessing. I brought with me a wealth of diverse experiences, and had worked in cities like Kabul and New York City under a vast range of challenging circumstances, so I became a bit more nimble in new and high pressure environments, which made me stronger and more confident.
I also met such a wide range of people along my career journey — this expands your view of the world and I think makes it easier to make decisions and connections. You are not as scared of the unknown — which is a huge benefit when you are starting out and taking such enormous risks, and asking people to believe in you.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
Definitely not! The traits to make you successful — patience, a bit of stubbornness, or “fortitude” — a lot of people possess these traits, but to be a founder you need to almost always exercise and display these. I would say you have to be comfortable demonstrating leadership qualities — whether that’s public speaking, delegating tasks, or delivering difficult news. You have to be comfortable with the discomfort of being the go-to for everything, even things you don’t feel you are an expert in. You’re still the leader.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
I wish someone told me:
- That coming to entrepreneurship in my late 30s was not a bad thing — that I would have never had the inner resilience or patience required to build something great when I was younger
- That being an entrepreneur shows you the worst and best of people — because you don’t have a big company or law firm behind you to protect your reputation, people will treat you exactly how they want, and sometimes it isn’t pretty. But sometimes it’s extraordinary — the personal and professional sacrifices people will make who believe in the magic and the impact of what you are building are overwhelming and inspiring and truly humbling.
- That the old saying about challenges being opportunities in disguise is true; Covid came to Bangladesh less than two years after we started Praava Health. Bringing fundamental change to the health industry in the midst of a pandemic was certainly challenging. But as a result, we moved faster than I ever would have thought possible, and within weeks we were able to offer our patients — and partner with the government to provide — tele-health services significantly ahead of schedule.
- That being an entrepreneur, while the hardest and most gut wrenching experience of my life — has also been one of my life’s greatest privileges. To come together with a group of people and create something out of nothing is an unparalleled human experience that makes you feel connected to others.
- The fact that as female founders we are held to higher standards than our male counterparts, which makes us better leaders and sets our companies up for success on many levels.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Across low and middle income countries, more people are dying due to lack of access to quality healthcare than lack of access to care alone. Every patient Praava serves with high quality healthcare is an impact. To date, we have served nearly 400,000 patients in Bangladesh, through doctors who are practicing protocolized medicine and spending real time with each patient, proper diagnoses facilitated by our in-house international standard lab (one of only 5 such high quality labs serving Bangladesh’s 170 million people), and through our guarantee of quality drugs in a country where up to 20% of the drugs in the market are counterfeit.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I believe this movement already exists- the universal right to affordable, high quality healthcare for all.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Bill & Melinda Gates have done tremendous work in global health, and I credit them with being part of the journey of countries like Bangladesh to entering middle income countries, based on their donations of vaccines and investments in primary care in rural settings. Now, countries like Bangladesh need private sector development in healthcare. I recently heard Bill Gates speak on multiple occasions regarding the need to invest in primary care and labs to prevent the next pandemic. I’m right here! Yet, there are no pockets of capital at the Gates Foundation or within the Gates’ private capital that are currently making direct investments in our space. I believe if I could get 15 minutes with Bill or Melinda Gates, I could capture their imaginations to join our journey.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Sylvana Q Sinha of Praava Health On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.