Are you a health tech thinking about going global? Let i-Expand help you expand your business internationally.

Scaling and thriving in the global health tech industry is easier said than done. The competition is fierce as more and more new entrants are moving into the industry to revolutionize how we live and navigate our health - from digital pharmacies to holistic patient care and AI-powered robotics.

Fortunately, passionate believers in innovation like Pilar Fernandez Hermida have developed a solution to help health tech startups grow and increase the scale of their operations.

In 2017, Pilar founded i-Expand, a business consulting agency specializing in helping digital health companies to think globally and expand internationally in less time, with less risk and cost. Suffice to say, with i-Expand, the pursuit of international expansion is simplified.

The Mastermind Behind i-Expand

Behind every successful man is a woman, and behind i-Expand is a passionate believer in innovation and a lateral thinker. Pilar Fernandez Hermida firmly states that innovation is vital, especially for scaling up and thriving in the healthcare sector.

And we ought to trust her judgment, as she herself is an expert in health tech. As such, this business extraordinaire has assisted high-profile organizations and start-ups across several continents to actualize the benefits of technology.

Educational Background

Pilar has an impressive academic background, holding two first-class degrees and being PMO-certified by Stanford. As a native Spanish, Pilar attended the public University of Vigo, Galicia, Spain, where she studied translation and interpreting for four years, from 1992 to 1996. Then she was granted a final-year scholarship award at the University of Westminster in London and continued her studies there.

From 1996 to 1998, Pilar enrolled in international relations and economic studies at the University of Westminster in London. During her studies there, she went on an Erasmus study placement at the University Notre Dame de la Paix in Belgium. In 1998, Pilar won the Dame Margaret Cole Prize for the best dissertation of the year at the undergraduate/postgraduate level.

Almost ten years later, Pilar enrolled in an intensive, practical, and interactive course in advanced aspects of program management at the University of Stanford. Additionally, she expanded her knowledge base by taking numerous sales, technology, and science courses, including a genomics course at the University of California, San Francisco.

Professional Background

Pilar has a consolidated international professional background that spans over 20 years. She has an excellent track record as a translator and interpreter.

Today, Pilar specializes in sales, partnerships, and business development, focusing on the health tech sector.

As an international go-to-market expert launching disruptive strategies, Pilar has covered all market segments and verticals, partner types, and geographies. She has worked across six continents, taking innovative solutions to market and helping them scale successfully.

Pilar had been part of the global leadership teams of companies such as Cisco and Wolters Kluwer. As part of her accomplishments, she has led delegations to the UN/WHO and helped standardize digital health solutions at the national level while helping raise 350M in funds.

During her international career track, Pilar has picked up languages as one picks up souvenirs on holiday. She is a polyglot fluent in nine languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician, Dutch, German, and Russian.

How impressive!

The Idea Behind i-Expand

The rapid rise of health tech changes as we adapt to the new world. New entrants with fresh ideas and skills are moving into global healthcare, bringing consumer insight, innovative business models, and more affordable and convenient care options. Therefore, thinking globally

is becoming less of an opportunity and more of a necessity for companies to gain a competitive advantage.

From that premise, Pilar founded her consulting agency i-Expand to help health tech companies at any stage sell their solutions to the global healthcare market, outpacing the competition. Pilar saw that life-altering change is imminent in the healthcare industry, not only because of the competitive health market but also because of the intrusion of so-called consolidated consumer players.

In other words, the lines separating patients from consumers are blurred in today’s markets, and their journeys intertwine. Patients are consumers, and sometimes consumers are patients.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that “people are beginning to expect the same streamlined, frictionless service provision in healthcare that they receive from Amazon,” as Pilar so sensibly puts it.

Sometimes, the most challenging task for companies is to capture what they do, who they do it for, and what sets them apart from their competitors. Pillar sees this as the perfect opportunity to step in and take matters into her own hands. And she does so by helping these businesses translate their ideas into effective go-to-market strategies that eventually monetize.

She built and recruited a stellar team of field experts to help health tech companies go global by developing disruptive channel and ecosystem strategies - and innovative programs to execute them.

Global Market Expansion Simplified

Entering new international markets certainly presents many benefits, but this can also involve considerable costs and challenges.

Fortunately, i-Expand can make your global market expansion pursuit more comprehensible. The go-to-market team will help you structure a simplified yet thorough and sophisticated plan to give you a competitive edge.

No matter which health segment you want to target and at what stage, i-Expand can help you go global by selling your solutions to the worldwide healthcare market and ultimately increasing awareness, size, and revenue.

Within the agency is a team of 30+ on-demand digital experts united to help you create a winning market entry strategy and scale exponentially at an ideal pace.

I-Expand’s go-to-market consultants, led by Pilar, specialize in launching and monetizing digital healthcare businesses. Their sweet spot is business model prototyping and partnerships.

These experts replace the traditional pipeline-dominated strategies with platform solution development and disruptive market strategies, thus transcending the traditional partnerships, strategic alliances, and acquisitions along the way.

Regardless of how complex or intricate navigating the health landscape is, i-Expand’s digital experts will help you build a viable market strategy, stressing the need for patient-centric solutions. They will validate your system, identify shortcuts, and fast-track your business plan.

With i-Expand, the entire international expansion ordeal is faster, smarter, and cheaper.

i-Expand’s Funding

I-Expand is a privately held company with a substantially small pool of shares. Thanks to Pilar’s business background, the company raised an undisclosed amount from undisclosed or angel investors to get its operations off the ground. The raised money went towards working capital and general corporate purposes.

It’s not clear whether i-Expand intends to go public, but the goal to experience dramatic growth is certainly there. The competitive consulting market may pose a risk to i-Expand’s stock.

However, being a public company will only further accelerate the agency’s growth. After all, i-Expand’s digital experts and Pilar are all go-to-market experts, and they will decide whether they’ll go public or not.

What’s Next for i-Expand?

Headquartered in London, i-Expand is a boutique consulting firm that helps digital healthcare companies expand internationally through its digital healthcare solutions. Powered by more than 30 on-demand go-to-market experts, the agency can help you launch successful and actionable go-to-market strategies that will impact healthcare systems globally.

I-Expand is a framework for accelerating growth and has been adopted by over 350 health tech companies. The consultancy has also instituted the i-Expand Global Healthcare Go-to-Market Academy, focused on optimizing go-to-market processes and helping startups scale up and thrive.

The successful startup has planted the seeds for Pilar’s forthcoming book “Cash or Crash: How to Launch Your Digital Business Successfully.” It was just released in October 2022, so grab your copy on time!