How was Cuico Health born and what need did you identify in the healthcare sector that led you to launch this project?
Cuico was born during a family holiday. My sister is a cardiologist, and at the conferences she attended, there was increasing discussion about the positive impact of patient empowerment—that informed and supported patients achieve better clinical outcomes. We started talking about what features a platform would need to genuinely make that happen.
When we came back, she asked several providers for quotes, and they were all outrageously expensive. I was deeply involved in a major project that was consuming most of my time, but I told her, “Come on, I’ll do it myself.” I was already used to building open side projects, but never anything of this scale. That’s how it all started.
For those who don’t know you yet, what exactly is CUICO Health and what is your value proposition?
CUICO Health is a digital health platform that builds a bridge between hospitals and patients. We don’t replace anyone; we connect everyone.
Patient data from any device, wearable, or health app reaches the physician before the appointment. At the same time, patients receive on their mobile phones the tools, tasks, information, and knowledge they need to take care of their health outside the hospital.
We are device- and brand-agnostic: we adapt to what patients and hospitals are already using, not the other way around.
What problem are you trying to solve and how does your technology improve wellbeing and healthcare?
Today, hospitals only know how a patient is doing when that patient comes to the hospital. Between appointments, there is a huge gap, and that gap comes at a real cost—for patients, physicians, and the healthcare system.
Chronic patients leave their appointments with information they no longer remember two days later, unsure about what symptoms are normal and what are not, and without the tools to manage their daily lives. By the time they return for their next appointment, neither they nor their physician have a clear picture of what happened in the interim.
Cuico changes that. Patients arrive at appointments having recorded their measurements, followed their routines, and knowing what questions to ask. The conversation with the physician is completely different: deeper, more useful, and shorter. Doctors don’t have to reconstruct the patient’s story because they already have the information in front of them.
The result is that patients need to visit the hospital less frequently because many visits happen out of fear or lack of information rather than actual clinical necessity. Better-informed patients feel more secure, adhere more closely to their treatment, and significantly improve both their quality of life and the management of their condition.
The healthcare sector involves major technological and regulatory challenges. What has been your biggest challenge so far?
Without a doubt, regulation.
Working with healthcare data in Europe means complying with the GDPR at its highest level of requirements, and our roadmap for expansion into the United States also includes HIPAA compliance.
The challenge is not only technical—our entire architecture has been designed from day one with complete isolation for each hospital—but also commercial: understanding exactly where the line is to avoid being classified as a medical software device when it is not necessary.
What lessons have you learned from your entrepreneurial journey in the healthtech sector?
That in healthcare there is no room for something to work “more or less.” What you build affects real people’s lives. This forces you to adopt a quality standard that may initially seem excessive but eventually becomes part of your company culture.
I’ve also learned that understanding the clinical domain is just as important as technological expertise.
What has it been like to develop CUICO Health from Álava/the Basque Country? What support have you found within the entrepreneurial ecosystem?
Álava has an entrepreneurial ecosystem that not everyone knows about, but it’s truly remarkable.
I want to explicitly thank BIC Araba, the Provincial Council of Álava, and the Chamber of Commerce. This isn’t just a formal thank-you. When you write to them, they reply. When you have a question, there is a competent person on the other side who genuinely helps you. When you’re launching a startup, that is incredibly valuable.
Then there’s SPRI, which is on another level. For us, the visits from international experts to our city were fundamental. They really opened our eyes.
Those of us who are from here or live here need to realise that we are privileged in this regard, and we need to protect it. It’s not something you find everywhere.
Looking ahead, what are CUICO Health’s next goals and challenges?
We are at a very specific stage: consolidating our expansion into the U.S. market with our first American client, while at the same time continuing to develop specialised clinical modules.
We are also structuring our team and need to bring in talent in both engineering and sales.
How do you manage uncertainty and decision-making in a growing startup?
By making decisions with the information you have, accepting that you will get some of them wrong, and building systems where mistakes can be corrected.
In healthcare technology, you cannot become paralysed by uncertainty, but neither can you improvise where there is no margin for error. The key is knowing when each approach applies.
What are the biggest lessons from your entrepreneurial journey so far?
The most important one is that we were too slow and not aggressive enough.
In a startup, time is your scarcest resource, and we lost months being cautious when we needed to move quickly, waiting for the perfect moment that never arrives. You need to push more, call sooner, ask sooner, and propose sooner.
And closely related to that: don’t be afraid.
Don’t be afraid to contact someone important, ask a hospital for a meeting, or present your product before it’s perfect. That fear only holds you back and protects you from nothing.
The worst thing someone who says “no” can do is say “no.” And someone who says “yes” can completely change your path.
To be honest, this is still difficult for me, and it’s something I struggle with every day.
How do you deal with uncertainty in your day-to-day life as entrepreneurs?
When you decide to become an entrepreneur, especially in a sector like healthcare, you sign an implicit contract with uncertainty.
It doesn’t disappear, and it’s never fully resolved. You simply learn to live with it.
What advice would you give to someone thinking about launching their own startup?
Just start.
The biggest mistake is waiting until everything is solved before building anything. And focus on a real problem that you know closely, not on a market trend.
Quick-fire questions
Which movie or TV series about entrepreneurship would you recommend?
As a proud geek: Silicon Valley.
Which brand or company inspires you?
Starbucks.
What quote motivates you the most in your work?
“Hope is neither naïve nor comfortable; it must be earned. It requires effort, commitment, and a certain courage not to let disillusionment have the final word.”
If you could meet any historical figure, who would it be?
Mikhail Gorbachev.
If you could go back in time, would you become an entrepreneur again?
Absolutely, yes.
