Thato Schermer
Community Health App
Thato Schermer is the co-founder of Zoie Health and a passionate advocate for the power inherent in health communities.
Tuck InThato Schermer is an “accidental entrepreneur” who has focused her many and varied talents on making healthcare more accessible to South African women.
After completing her honours business degree at the University of Cape Town, alongside a Business French qualification from the Paris Chamber of Commerce and numerous international internships, Thato started her career as a management consultant at a global management consultancy. Having gained experience in different industries and in a variety of countries, she joined Discovery Vitality as the chief of staff to the CEO.
Having acquired a taste for healthcare, Thato moved on to Life Healthcare where she delivered a new concept of delivering low-cost, high-tech primary healthcare to South Africans. Prior to founding her technology startup Zoie Health, she sharpened her online skills as Uber South Africa’s territory manager for Uber for Business. She also served as co-chair of Women at Uber for Europe, Middle East and Africa, where she drove the agenda for increased diversity and inclusion of women in tech.
In August 2021, Zoie Health was launched and has already positively impacted thousands of women’s lives.
Thato received the Top 200 Mail & Guardian Young South Africans award and the Top 50 Inspiring Women in South Africa award. Zoie Health was named one of SA's Top 5 Most Exciting Startups in 2022.
10 Tasty Bites
Below is a preview of what you can expect to learn in this recipe.
1 - How Do You Ensure That Zoie Is Member-Focused?
2 - What Were The Challenges You Faced When Creating The Zoie Community Feature?
3 - How Do You Build Trust In Zoie Health?
4 - How Do You Ensure A High-Quality Healthcare Service For Your Members?
5 - What Is The Importance Of Bringing A Community Feature To The Zoie App?
6 - How Do You Promote Engagement In The Community?
7 - Why Did You Decide To Build The Zoie App?
8 - What Are The Key Factors That Need To Be Considered When Designing A Community Function?
9 - What Are The Goals For Zoie Health?
10 - What Perspective Do You Have For Entrepreneurs Starting Out?
About This Recipe
The secret to a successful online community is correctly identifying and then solving members’ needs. This is just one of the gems you will find in this recipe featuring Thato Schermer, the co-founder of Zoie Health, Africa’s first virtual women’s health clinic.
Built with an understanding of both the healthcare industry and tech platforms, and infused with a first-hand appreciation of how deeply embedded a sense of community is in women’s health, Zoie is revolutionising how providers and consumers think about healthcare.
In her recipe, Thato discussed the process to select and manage the healthcare providers that join the platform and how trust is built with members. She also reminds entrepreneurs that getting out there and responding to customers’ feedback is more important that launching the perfect product.
What You'll Learn
In this recipe you will learn:
- How to use feedback to maintain a member-focused approach.
- How to build trust in an online platform, especially when personal information is involved.
- About the sense of community that is embedded in women’s health.
- The decision-making process that informed the development of the Zoie app.
- How to draw community members in and keep them engaged.
- The process used to select healthcare providers and ensure consistent quality of care.
- The importance of truly understanding the purpose your online community is serving.
Learn
Learn from someone who speaks from a position of real authority, perspective and experience.
Do
Implement practical tips and techniques learned in the trenches - doing, rather than talking.
Share
Join a cohort of like-minded entrepreneurs in our growing community and share your learnings as you go.
Get Learning
This entrepreneurial micro-course will take you only a few minutes per day (or you can binge if you want to). Feel free to skip around and please let us know what you think.
Tuck InDeep Cuts
Love this recipe? Here are some additional videos to delve even further into the topic.
Why Are Heavy Chef Recipes So Highly Regarded?
One Tasty Recipe.
Ten Tiny Bites.
Each Heavy Chef recipe is made up of ten focused 'learning bites' of five minutes or less.
For Entrepreneurs.
By Entrepreneurs.
Continually focusing on the needs of our ever-growing community of entrepreneurs.
Access Anytime. Anywhere. Anyhow.
As long as you have an internet-enabled device, you can digest a tasty learning bite.
Want Even More?
Heavy Chef has thousands of learning bites, just like these. Search from technology, leadership and creativity topics, served up by the heaviest chefs in the world.
Search Recipes