In the past month, Astra Wellbeing, Questrom student led Healthcare Employee Recognition Platform received 1st place in the inaugural BU $50k SHA Hospitality Innovation Competition, and took home $25,000. They’ve just received their second award, coming in 2nd place in the $72k BU New Venture Competition, receiving $10,000

The achievements of Astra Wellbeing have been monumental, especially considering Co-founder and CFO Taha Moukara (Questrom ’24), and Co-founder and CTO Josh Bruehwiler (Questrom ’24),  have woken up at 3AM in Australia to virtually participate in competitions. Ellie Kwon (Questrom ’24) also leads as the Creative Director and CMO. Johar Singh (Questrom ’24), Co-founder, and CEO of Astra Wellbeing, is from Needham, MA and is concentrating in Product Management, and Health & Life Sciences. Singh was happy to narrate the story of the organization from it’s meaningful conception, to the bold plans for scale, and launch.

The inspiration for Astra Wellbeing was born from the lived experiences of Singh, Moukara, and Bruehwiler having grown up facing very personal experiences within our nation’s hospital systems – which gave them “a small glimpse into the daily heroic efforts of frontline healthcare workers”, says Singh. After months of independent market research, the all too familiar Healthcare Employee Burnout Crisis became the central problem they set out to solve – and Astra Wellbeing was born: an SMS-based employee recognition platform dedicated to improving the wellbeing and burnout of healthcare employees through messages of positive reinforcement and enhanced intra-hospital connectivity. To learn more about the platform and their mission, visit their Website or check them on LinkedIn!

One of Singh’s all-time favorite quotes from a book called The Third Door by Alex Banayan, “Bite off more than you can chew. You can figure out how to chew later” is the mentality that Astra Wellbeing has adopted and is a crucial reason for their success. Singh says, “By constantly pushing ourselves to achieve more, make sacrifices, be curious, and take advantage of the tremendous support around us – we have been exposed to a world full of new people and exciting opportunities that we would be nowhere without. So the best piece of advice we have for future entrepreneurs is that if you have an idea that you truly believe in, do everything in your power to make it a reality – and you will be pleasantly surprised with what you find along the way.”

Singh would like to highlight the BU Build Lab, Innovate@BU, for all the resources, mentorship, funding, and guidance that they have provided along the way. In October 2022, Questrom and the BUild Lab (Innovate@BU) flew Astra Wellbeing out to Washington, DC to attend the National Academy of Medicine’s Healthcare Worker Burnout Conference, where the team heard from worldwide leaders including the US Chief Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Singh mentions that Questrom courses and faculty have served as an amazing resource. More specifically, his favorite course, Platform Strategy instructed by Professor Marshall Van Alstyne, has “proven instrumental for myself and my team, both as students and as entrepreneurs.” He touches on the course’s theories, frameworks, tools, and real-world experiences of running, launching, growing, and analyzing a platform.

Astra Wellbeing has recently met and formed a strategic alliance with the Massachusetts Health Care Financing Committee, and the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association to discuss rollout strategies in Massachusetts Hospitals. While Astra Wellbeing gears up for their third competition, the Mass Challenge Startup Accelerator, they are also preparing to scale and launch by expanding to other hospitals in the New England area. The team asks any connections to hospitals or healthcare employees interested in a partnership to contact info@astrawellbeing.com. If you would like to get involved and want to submit a positive message that will be potentially shared with healthcare employees across the nation, feel free to submit your message here!