Ayogo builds applications for patients with chronic conditions. Our applications use gameplay and social mechanics to help patients develop new behavior and habits, and increase engagement with their care plans. Our customers are  healthcare innovators seeking to address the national quality and costs crisis in patient experience and engagement.

Who started the company? Do you / team members have tech background?

Ayogo was founded in 2011 by Michael Fergusson (CEO) and Paul Prescod (CTO), based on work they began together in 2008. Paul and Michael both have long experience as entrepreneurs and as technologists. Day-to-day, Michael focuses on business matters, Paul on the technical side.

How are you being financed?

Ayogo is largely bootstrapped, and built itself on revenue generated from sales to clients like Merck, Kaiser Permanente, AstraZeneca, etc. UPDATE: Ayogo raises $2.5M Series A to accelerate growth of gaming platform for chronic conditions

What do you think will be / is a big obstacle to overcome?

As we are leading in the games for health field, our biggest obstacle is marketplace adoption. This seems to be changing quickly, however, so our biggest challenge will be educating the market about the scope of what our current technology is designed to do. That said, we always have arrows in our technology quiver allowing us to work with unexpected healthcare opportunities.

How do you go about finding good developers / IT guys for your company?

There is a good community of designers and developers in Vancouver to draw from. Our philosophy is to build our company around the most talented people we can find, as skills and experience can be acquired, but talent is innate.

Who is your biggest competition?

Our competition is in the minds of the marketplace. This means that we are constantly competing for the attention and interest of the healthcare industry in order to persuade it of the efficacy of our product and process. We’re happiest when we speak with innovators in the healthcare industry. As industry increasingly understands the power that narrative, progression, and social connectedness have to educate, engage, and empower patients, our company’s profile and success grows.

How are you intending on taking your company to million dollars in revenues? In what markets?

What are doing is ramping social, content and thought-leadership mechanisms to greater distribution. Additionally we have to sculpt our current business momentum to achieve greater scale, to listen to our customers requirements. and not become distracted by directions that might cause us to lose focus. Our  market is primarily the US, Segments we work in are Pharma, ACOs, Payers, Care Providers – the whole healthcare galaxy, basically.

We’re focused on delivering scalable solutions to HMOs and ACOs, primarily in the US.

What is the big lesson you’ve learned (success or failure) with this project.

Our big lesson learned is that outcomes are what matter most in health care, and not to let the pursuit of perfection distract us from delivering something that can help improve outcomes now.

Website: www.Ayogo.com