Juan Pablo Segura (accounting, class of 2010) launched Babyscripts in 2013
JUAN PABLO SEGURA
| Company Founded: | Babyscripts | Year Graduated: | 2010 |
| Title: | Founder | Degree: | B.B.A., Accounting |
| Location: | Washington, D.C. | Residence Hall: | Knott Hall |
Juan Pablo Segura hadn’t considered working within the healthcare industry during his time as an accounting student in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business; now he has raised millions in funding for his health IT company, Babyscripts. “When I was at Notre Dame it was always very consulting, banking, and accounting-focused. It seemed that everyone wanted to be an investment banker.” Although this was the path Segura also started out on, he soon discovered it was not his true passion.
For Segura, the transition into healthcare was a “personal encounter and movement.” “It was not preplanned,” Segura explains. “I got into healthcare for personal reasons. I had a couple of friends who got sick in their early twenties and they had a terrible experience with navigating the healthcare system.” Meanwhile Segura describes feeling stuck in the job he had once thought was so coveted as a Notre Dame graduate. “I wasn’t excited by what I was doing, I was flustered. I was already looking for the next thing.” Segura left Deloitte along with his friend and current co-founder, Anish Sebastian.
Babyscripts’ solution gets to the core of a significant problem within maternal health and care: access to care. Babyscripts is a health IT solution which helps women manage prenatal and postpartum care by allowing mothers to do a majority of their prenatal care at home through the Babyscripts app and connected medical devices. This means that monitoring which is typically done within the hospital setting can be done from the safety and comfort of a patient’s home. This allows new and expecting mothers to take charge of their care and also removes barriers to access for those who otherwise might not have the ability to get to a OB clinic for necessary prenatal care.
Segura watched his own family members battle the healthcare system as well, and in particular, he witnessed first-hand challenges related to maternal health. “As you learn in every business program, you have to find an opportunity; this was it. It is sad from a societal perspective that women's health is often underfunded and ignored. It can take women 2 or 3 hours to get to their nearest OB/GYN, yet very few companies are doing things for women’s health. Technology can help bridge that gap.” Struck with a sense of urgency, Segura jumped at the opportunity to develop a solution to address this need. When asked what pushed him through to build this business, Segura says it was goodwill. “[Anish and I] have a great partnership and great resolve. The initial kickstart did take blood, sweat, and tears, and we decided to make the sacrifices necessary to make it through.”
Babyscripts has partnered with several well-known hospitals and continues to grow nationally. They now have 35 employees and 52 health system customers that manage about 200,000 pregnancies a year, almost 5% of the country’s total births. With such great success under their belt already, when asked what Segura hopes for the future of Babyscripts, he responded, “I want to see it continue to grow. You have to keep getting the message out and create a sense of urgency. The current system for managing maternity is broken. Maternal Deaths are rising, that’s ridiculous. Something needs to give.”
Now more than ever with the sudden onset of the coronavirus, Babyscripts is stepping up to provide much needed virtual healthcare resources to expecting mothers who are experiencing increasingly limited medical access during this COVID-19 outbreak.
As an entrepreneur, Segura has found the Notre Dame network to be an instrument by which he can find other alumni who are also passionate about women’s health. The learning he has achieved and connections he has formed with other people throughout his time as an entrepreneur demonstrate the importance of his piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: attend to listen. “Nothing is going to come to you but show up and listen to a presentation. Everyone can benefit from that.”