Ever wonder how to avoid getting eaten by a polar bear? Read on to hear how Mette survived!
Q: Where are you from?
A: I’m from Copenhagen, Denmark, which is the happiest country in the world. I’m pretty sure the happiness survey goes out during the summer, though, when we’re enjoying endless sunlight and have long forgotten about the dark dark winters. Other fun facts: birthplace of LEGO, Carlsberg, Hans Christian Andersen (i.e. the little mermaid), and vikings.
Q: What is an interesting fun fact about yourself?
A: I once slept in a glacier crack to avoid being eaten by polar bears. This was in Svalbard, though, and not in Denmark (contrary to popular belief, we don’t have polar bears).
Q: Why did you want to intern with RapidSOS?
A: Almost everyone will at some point in their lives have to deal with the emergency response system – and it tends to be at a time when they’re most vulnerable. So how do we ensure that when that time comes they have the best possible experience? It’s crazy to think about how far healthcare is behind other industries when it comes to technology – Uber can find me but an ambulance often can’t! So many lives are lost because of it.
RapidSOS does more than solve the location challenge, however. Once the technology has been adopted, RapidSOS can start to leverage data to build predictive models around accidents and use that to prevent them from happening in the first place. From a healthcare perspective, that’s the best place to be: preventing people from ever getting sick in the first place.
On a personal development note, RapidSOS fulfilled a couple of key criteria: (1) amazing team, (2) super exciting phase in the company’s life-cycle, (3) still small enough to make a difference even during a summer, and (4) though I’ve worked in healthcare for several years now (as a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group), I’ve never worked in the emergency care space and so this has been a great learning experience
Q: What is the best part of your job?
A: I really love thinking about translating cool technology into implementable solutions. Technology is really only as impactful as its implementation, so how do you build a sustainable business around your technology? How do you monetize? What are the appropriate trade-offs? Which strategic partnerships make sense, and at what time in the company’s evolution? How do you convince partners that they’re better off with you?
Q: If you could switch jobs with anyone at RapidSOS, whose job would you want?
A: Either Henry (programming real things seems really legit) or Reinhard (sitting in between the product team and the business team is super cool!).
Q: What do you like to do in your free time?
A: I love hiking and going to nerdy digital health conferences. Right now I’m doing a machine learning course on the side – I’ll probably be asking the engineering team for help later…
Interested in joining the RapidSOS Team? Check out our open positions: www.rapidsos.com/careers.