Abdul Paravengal is the Co-founder and CEO of hav., a rewards-based healthtech platform. They recently raised a $400,000 round and hit over 1M downloads. Before hav., he was Chief Business Officer at Shipper.

👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

Helping those who think they have no time today for bodily exercise and healthy living realize that they sooner or later will have to find time for illness.

🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I am a Private Pilot Licence (PPL) holder.

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🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

Deployment to Cebu in 2013 as part of the Logistics Emergency Team (LET) after Typhoon Yolanda caused catastrophic damage in the Philippines has to be the biggest highlight, knowing the significance it has had in the rescue and recovery of people in despair.

LET was comprised of four companies: UPS, A.P. Moller – Maersk (Maersk), Agility and TNT, facilitated by the World Economic Forum with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) as the lead of the Global Logistics Cluster (GLC).

🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

Web 3.0, NFT & metaverse. I ain't convinced with the hype and attention around these while we have a lot of real-world problems to solve for, thus keen to see how the current hype plays out.

💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

When creating something new in healthcare, it's not uncommon to be enticed down a product path that turns out to be a dead end. Your first priority should be honing in on the problem you're solving and who you're solving it for.

🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

Angel investing.

🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show?

Air Crash Investigation (aka Mayday).

🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Tender coconut, if available. Else, chocolate.