01. Hello!
- The healthcare AI startup co-founded by MD and Engineer, based in Tokyo 🇯🇵, Singapore 🇸🇬, and New York 🇺🇸
- The fastest-growing startup in Japan nominated by LinkedIn in 2021 📈
- One of the most agile companies in APAC/US with 600+ releases and 200+ user interviews per year
- The flat organization without management, applying Holacracy
- Backed up by IDEO and funded by IDEO's partner Design for Ventures
- Hiring founding members of Global Team to accelerate the business for the US
- Partners with Google to enhance its AI-powered symptom checker using Google's cloud and ML capabilities.
Recent Tech Crunch Coverage! 🚀
Japan's health tech Ubie wants to fuel its US expansion with $19M Series C extension
Ubie, a Tokyo-headquartered health tech startup, has closed a $19 million Series C extension to accelerate its U.S. expansion.
techcrunch.com
02. Current Openings
03. Hiring Process
Job Interview Process
- Most of the topics in the whole interview would be about your Ubieness.
- In general, the whole process can be completed in about two weeks to a month. This is flexible and can be adjusted.
- All the interviews are conducted online (Google Meet)
Introduction to “Ubieness”
These principles guide how we work, collaborate, and grow together.
Ubieness Essentials
Embrace uncertainty and thrive in change. Run quick experiments and learn from the results. Adapt strategies based on new information. Focus on continuous improvement.
Prioritize work that creates measurable value. Focus on customer and business outcomes. Make data-informed decisions. Take smart risks to achieve bigger results.
Take initiative without being asked. Make decisions confidently and independently. Follow through on commitments. Solve problems end-to-end.
Prioritize towards shared goals over individual acclaim. Actively seek and embrace feedback. Put mission before ego.
Challenge assumptions. Explore innovative solutions. Always be learning.
Build a psychologically safe team by actively addressing tensions and expressing ideas in open, direct and respectful dialogue.
Living These Values
These principles aren't just words on a page – they're the foundation of how we operate daily. We evaluate these traits in our hiring process, encourage them in the regular course of work and recognize them in our performance evaluations. Together, they create the unique culture that enables our team to build extraordinary solutions for our customers.
04. Our Company Culture
Unique Organizational Design in Ubie
Company-wide Compensation
- Individual compensation is linked to company-wide progress vs. individualized self-reporting
- Company-wide goals are set with OKRs to align the entire organization, teams and individuals
- Compensation is provided in both salary increases and stock options grants
Self-checklist for Assessing Cultural Fit
- The following checklists are the typical "Ubie"-like behavior/way of thinking.
- These are just examples, but we hope they will be somewhat helpful for you to understand our culture more deeply.
Point of View | Those who tend to match | Those who don't |
|---|---|---|
My colleagues say... | I'm "purpose-oriented". Also, they say I communicate "frankly and openly" | I'm "methodology-oriented". Also, they say I communicate "in a modest and reserved manner" |
I'm good at... | hacking the human bias and common sense | doing things in the right and correct way |
I'd like to... | do everything if it has a high ROI and is necessary for achieving user/business goals | focus on my expertise and develop it more |
I love to work... | as a member of a cross-functional team (e.g. scrum team) | with colleagues who have a similar speciality (e.g. design team, engineering team) |
I have experience in... | Identify key metrics/insights that anyone has not discovered before | stretching given key metrics by 10X |
As for setting missions, | I have experience in setting team-/ company-wide missions on my own and am committed to accomplishing them | My boss often sets my missions for me, and I’m good at doing it well |
As for organizational development, | I'm willing to join in recruiting activities, developing organizational values, and fostering its culture | I would rather leave those activities to other members of the team |
As for the performance evaluation, | I believe it's a "waste of time" to evaluate other humans correctly. Instead, we should focus on customers | I deserve to evaluate my bosses/colleagues/juniors correctly, and I deserve to be evaluated correctly too |
05. Our Products
- For now, product team members based in APAC are developing a product that guides patients to appropriate care for the US market.
- We are currently trying to interconnect key stakeholders to redesign the entire patient experience from onset to recovery.
- In the long run, we aim to build an open medical data platform that contributes to better health outcomes.
Symptom Checker
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Ubie - AI Symptom Checker
- Originally launched in Japan and launched the US ver. in 2022
- 7M+ MAU in US/APAC and NPS 50+ points within a year
Doctor’s Note
Ubie - Doctor’s Note
- Originally launched in Japan and launched the US ver. in 2023
- Doctors Note is Ubie's medical media platform that provides reliable, doctor-verified healthcare information to the general public in easy-to-understand language.
- The platform features articles written and reviewed by medical professionals, covering various health topics, symptoms, and conditions to help readers make informed healthcare decisions.
- Through Doctors Note, Ubie aims to combat medical misinformation by offering free access to credible healthcare content that bridges the knowledge gap between medical professionals and patients.
Checkup
Ubie - Checkup
- Ubie Checkup is an AI-powered digital health monitoring tool that currently focuses specifically on asthma management, helping patients track their symptoms and condition over time.
- The service enables asthma patients to regularly assess their condition through structured questionnaires, providing insights about their asthma control status and generating reports that can be shared with healthcare providers.
- While currently specialized in asthma care, Ubie plans to expand the Checkup platform to support multiple chronic conditions in the future, working toward a comprehensive digital health monitoring solution.
Consult (Beta)
Ubie - Consult
- Ubie Consult is a newly launched AI consultation service powered by large language models (LLMs) that helps users better understand their health concerns and find doctors through natural conversation.
- Currently in beta testing with select users, the service combines Ubie's medical knowledge base with advanced LLM technology to provide personalized health information and guidance in a conversational format.
- While the service is available for public use, Ubie maintains transparency about its beta status and continues to gather user feedback and improve the system's accuracy and effectiveness through real-world interactions.
06. Our Team
Members
US-based
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Kota Kubo
Co-Founder, US CEO,
Jake Bronstein
Head of Marketing (US)
Sanjeev Menon
Head of Partnerships (US)
Kei Ishii
Medical Strategy & Clinical Insights Fellow (MD)
Alexander Kerman
Head of Life Science (US)
APAC-based (in Japan, Singapore, and India)
Dr. Kenji Taylor Lead Clinical Consultant
Amitabh Jain
Software Engineer
Anuj Sahai
Software Engineer
Lukas Prashun
Software Engineer
Priyamvadha Prakash
BizDev
Shoko Suzuki
Singapore CEO,
Product Owner
Michael Buquet
Design Director
Blog Posts
Culture
Why I joined Ubie: An Intersection of Culture, Impact, and AI in Japan
Background
medium.com
So You Want to Work in Japan?
A first hand account of what it takes to make the giant career leap of relocating from the US to Japan.
medium.com
A Year in Japan: Reflecting on My Giant Leap to Work Abroad
Background
medium.com
Joining the Holacracy-driven startup: 3 things I misunderstood
I joined the healthcare startup, Ubie about a year ago. The company has been implementing Holacracy since 2019. It has been quite an…
medium.com
Achieving Effortless Automated Feedback for Your Organization
Do you give feedback regularly in your workplace? In general, most companies give feedback at the time of appraisal, but recently many…
medium.com
Design
Service Design’s Superpowers for Implementing AI-Based Healthcare
A short list of Service Design Superpowers for that can help revolutionize the healthcare industry through patient-centric AIs.
medium.com
Design Paradox: Convenience vs. Wellness
In this post we cover a critical service design challenge: How might we design services that simplify our lives without detriment to our health?
medium.com
Co-design with Doctor
Ubie is a heal th-tech startup company from Japan, founded 2017 by two founders who are doctors and engineer. As of 2022, we have launched two country - Japan and Singapore.We aim to expand other country in the near future.Our mission to "use technology to guide people to appropriate medical care.
medium.com
Human error or Design error?
Recently, a healthcare provider received 5 times the dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Singapore*. The article cites an investigation that showed it was due to human error resulting from a communication lapse. I'm glad to hear the staff is doing well and at low risk of a significant adverse outcome.
drterence.medium.com
Engineering
Introducing the Ubie Platform/SRE Team
Hello, I’m Teruya Ono, responsible for infrastructure engineering and SRE at Ubie. I joined Ubie this June and have been experiencing…
medium.com
Startup Career Transition: A Software Engineer’s Checklist
More and more people have been moving to startups in recent years. At the same time, we hear that not a few people are wondering about…
medium.com
How we nurture our teams with the strong “Tech Culture”
Differences between companies with and without a Tech Culture
medium.com
The Evolution of an Early-Stage Startup Engineering Team
*This article is translated from a Japanese one written in June 2020.
medium.com
Working as a Software Engineer for Japanese Startup Ubie
I want to write a little bit about Ubie, the company I am currently working for, and give some insight in English. I am a relatively early member of Ubie. I am able to speak Japanese fluently and joined the company without the expectation of using English in the first place.
lukasjp.medium.com
Business
The potential of the “Symptom Phase” in the Health-Tech Space
Recently, the health-tech market has been booming with active investment from venture capitalists. In this article, I would like to share…
medium.com
Maximizing healthcare ROI through technology
Yoshinori Abe, CEO and Medical Doctor To develop a healthcare guide for everyone That's the mission of Ubie and we've been working hard to achieve it since the company was founded in May 2017. Since then, we've been on a mission to make this happen, and we've been working on growing Ubie like a rocket to the moon.
medium.com
Stay foolish to build the Zero to One business
The title might be offensive for people working in a “Zero to One” phase. But it looks essential for me to stay foolish while planning and…
medium.com
Design for Ventures(D4V), one of the VCs that has supported Ubie since the very early stage, and its partner, the global design company IDEO, always helps us design for better human-centered experiences.
Designing a Better Onboarding Experience for an AI Symptom Checker at Clinics
With the Coronavirus raising fears of a possible health system breakdown, Ubie has made improvements to anticipate and possibly prevent in-hospital infections. Until recently, Ubie's services have been primarily used by large hospitals; but in light of the global health crisis, Ubie approached D4V-who partners with IDEO-to help rethink the onboarding experience and quickly facilitate the introduction of AI Monshin Ubie in regional clinics across Japan.
www.ideo.com
07. FAQs
Business
Product
Organization
08. Get In Touch
We're all filled up on full-time roles at the moment. Keep an eye on Ubie's LinkedIn for the latest job openings!
Follow Us on LinkedIn
09. Company Overview
Item | Content |
|---|---|
Company Name | Ubie, Inc. |
Founded | In May 2017 |
Co-Founders | Kota Kubo (Software Engineer, Master of Engineering, The University of Tokyo) Dr. Yoshinori Abe (Physician, M.D., The University of Tokyo) |
Funding To Date | USD 74M |
Address | Tokyo: Nihonbashi Life Science Building 4,5th Floor, 3 Chome-8-4 Nihonbashihoncho, Chuo City,Tokyo 103-0023, Japan New York: 379 W Broadway, New York, NY 10012 |
Number of Employees | 240 (Tokyo HQ) 10 (APAC HQ) 4 (US HQ) |
* Information as of March 2025
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakehimself/