In the following sections you will read in detail how we closed the year in each function, and the budget and strategic outlook for the year ahead. But first let me share with you a more personal summary.
2022 was challenging, both for Wúru and for me personally. We made great progress in communicating our vision, to gather a group of invaluable followers and believers - employees, customers, investors, advisors. But at the same time we had to transition from a vision to product value, and boy, this is painful in many ways: confusion, product back and forth, tough feedback from the market, adjusting. It could have broken us, but we came through.
A couple of months ago, my mother (also Wúru’s investor) recommended me a book: Hackear la Argentina. She told me that after reading it she understood our challenge much better, and my constant running and lack of time. I recommend it to you too. It makes clear by interviewing many argentine entrepreneurs how hard and improbable this journey is. Get real, they tell you: the amount of energy, drive and persistency it takes to build a company from scratch is enormous. Of course, that does not even guarantee a good final outcome. So why do it? Well, the answer intertwines work with your values and your outlook on what a good life is. As Jeff Bezos wrote in his last shareholder letter before stepping down as CEO:
You have to pay a price for your distinctiveness, and it’s worth it. The fairy tale version of “be yourself” is that all the pain stops as soon as you allow your distinctiveness to shine. That version is misleading. Being yourself is worth it, but don’t expect it to be easy or free. You’ll have to put energy into it continuously. The world will always try to make Amazon more typical – to bring us into equilibrium with our environment. It will take continuous effort, but we can and must be better than that.
Wúru is the place to be if you want to take on a mission in healthcare that is important and very difficult. A big part of my leadership role is communicating honestly about the size of the challenge. But at the same time, showing how important it is to enjoy the process of building something valuable. You must get satisfaction on the road, it must make you proud, it must infuse you with energy and meaning. Otherwise, you will not persevere, you will be rational in calculating pros and cons at every step, and you will quit. It took some evolution to find my own way to synthesize this. Specially to walk the talk, leading with the example of hard work and optimism, not stress and pressure.
I can tell you that we have built an organization that believes that the hard work ahead is worth it, and that it matters. We have a team that strongly believes Wúru “vale la pena”, as we say in Spanish. And this is the main reason I am so bullish about the future.
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Note: You will notice that we moved from a monthly to a quarterly reporting frequency. At this new stage - one in which we have more mature functions with clear goals - the quarter is the right time frame to report and view progress. You can still find all past reports in this index page.
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During November we got together in Wúru’s 8th ALMAH meeting in Campana, Provincia de Buenos Aires. Always a great moment for shaping our culture and purpose.