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For the next instalment of our Profiles series, I had the chance to sit down and chat with Pete Macleod, COO and Co-Founder of PurposeMed. PurposeMed works to connect patients with specialized clinicians to improve access to individually-caring healthcare for underserved communities. They want to equalize care for those who need it, regardless of boundaries put up. Their brands are Freddie, Frida, Foria, and Affirming Care Pharmacy. Find out more on their website and their LinkedIn
Who is Pete?
I am an entrepreneur. I grew up in Kelowna. I moved out here to go to university, then I stayed out here. Met my wife out here. Four and half years ago my myself and my co-founders started building PurposeMed, and now a big part of my identity is being an entrepreneur and a builder. In addition to that, I'm a good partner, I'm a good friend, I'm someone who's reliable and people can count on to get things done.
Did you always have this vision of being an entrepreneur?
I had a unique journey. In high school, I started my own landscaping company. I really liked entrepreneurship, I liked running my own business but I thought I was going to go down a more conventional path. I did the Pre-Med thing, didn't like it, then I thought I’d go to law school but that didn't work for me either. I then started working at a small start-up in town and really fell in love with entrepreneurship, building something and doing something for yourself. Being independent. Growing up both my parents were physicians, so my entire life was about being a doctor, that’s the view I had, but my experience at the start up changed my view on entrepreneurship.
My team is actually family. My co-founder, Hussein, and I met through our wives and we've had a friendship for going on 10 years. I got connected to my third co-founder, Amaan, through Hussein. We had a common bond through integrity, accountability, and responsibility. We wanted to do cool things, wanted to pursue cool things, but all three of us were doing different things independently. Hussein, and I got together to start this and then we looped in Amaan because we needed someone who knew more about commercialization than we did.
With work ethic being a connection point between y’all, where do you think this developed for you?
It's been nature and nurture, I think. My parents instilled hard work in me since I was a kid and I've seen them work tremendously hard. I had a few jobs before this where work ethic was the only thing that kept me going. It's a combination of factors that built my work ethic. But it comes down to honesty, integrity, and trust between us and I think that’s allowed us to have a really strong bond to build this business.
Something that I get from PurposeMed is this fundamental idea of integrity and hope.
I don't know if I would call it hope, but I would definitely agree with integrity. Having two physicians in our leadership team, we’ve always put patients’ outcomes first, we never wanted to do anything that would ever jeopardize patient outcomes. We've tried to create best-in-class standards for all health care, not just virtual care. And that’s where integrity comes in.
When you’re launching each brand, do you set up a mission statement for that brand in particular?
Our mission statement for PurposeMed is to improve access to care for underserved communities. We have goals for each brand and they need to align with our mission at PurposeMed. We believe if we create healthcare brands that speak to these communities, we’re going to open access.
What do you think drives you?
I’m motivated by our mission and what we do everyday. I like problem-solving. It is a benefit that I work with such a great team that bring unique and creative approaches to problem solving.
What is the element of creativity in solving these problems for you?
I think there are all different elements of creativity and for different teams, creativity means very different things. For a design team and a product team, creativity is part of the process. For our developers team, creativity can mean something fundamentally different. I don't know how many people would appreciate the creativity in a spreadsheet, but I do. Data and numbers are ways to express yourself, and there are different kinds of creative outlets all across our organization.
How do you approach work and life? What’s the balance for you?
Some people may say my approach to work life balance is bad, but it works for me. I have a super supportive partner at home that knows what I'm doing. And my work doesn't feel like work. It's enjoyable to work with the team, solve problems, and do all the things that we're doing.
I embrace work-life harmony. I have a life outside of this, it’s not all-consuming. I think it's just accepting and knowing how much you want to put in. Putting boundaries up when you need them and embracing when you want to do things.
What are you proud of?
You know, we've received a ton of accolades and there has been external validation now, but there are two things I am really proud of: 1. The impact that we have and; 2. the team that we've built. We have a great team and the people here are the reasons why we have momentum and keep improving access to care for underserved communities.
What have you been reading lately?
I’m more of an audiobook person. But one book I recently listened to was The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton, who was on Lance Armstrong's US Postal Service team. It just talked about the doping in cycling during the late 90s and early 2000s.
Are you a big cyclist? Do you have any other hobbies?
Yes. I tried to ride as much as I can in the summer. My two biggest hobbies are cycling and then in the wintertime skiing.
Do you think having an athletic pursuit has been a factor in your work ethic?
I've been active, but there have been highs and lows in my physical ability correlated to how much time I have been working. I don’t think this has been a big driver in my work ethic but I do think people who have been high-performance athletes are coachable and great on teams.
What comes next?
Tomorrow. We've been successful but we still gotta show up tomorrow. Put our left foot in front of our right foot. And we want to expand our services here in Canada and we want to grow into the U.S. And we just want to make care more accessible. I think there are a lot of opportunities for us to expand and further pursue our mission, adding treatments and expanding geographically.
Thank you Pete!!
Writer and Photographer | Sam Doty
