Cover Emil Eriksen, founder of &you
Emil Eriksen, founder of &you
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For Emil Eriksen, building &you was less about speed and more about trust. He explains how the platform is addressing shame, access and outdated systems
In Metro Manila, a doctor’s appointment often means taking a day off work, braving long queues and wrestling with paperwork that seems designed to confuse rather than assist. Yet amid this tangled system, a new digital health start-up is quietly making waves by asking a deceptively simple question: what if healthcare were as user-friendly as ordering from Grab?
Enter &you, a health tech company offering an end-to-end service for consultations, prescriptions and medicine delivery, all on a streamlined digital platform. Its founder, Emil Eriksen, is no stranger to the digital terrain, having spent the past decade building e-commerce and wellness ventures across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe. But with &you, he’s pursuing a different kind of scale: trust. With an emphasis on discretion, compliance and behavioural design tuned to local needs, the platform has quickly gained traction by meeting users where they are—not just geographically, but emotionally and psychologically.
Tatler spoke with Eriksen about what led him to start &you, what gaps in the system the company is trying to address and what trust really looks like in the context of Filipino healthcare.
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Above &you offers licensed doctor consultations and FDA-compliant treatments through a streamlined digital platform — no clinic visits required
&you offers licensed doctor consultations and FDA-compliant treatments through a streamlined digital platform — no clinic visits required
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What experiences led you to start &you? Was there a specific moment that made you say: this needs to exist?
Emil Eriksen (EE): I’ve spent the last decade building in e-commerce, wellness and health—but nothing felt more broken than trying to get real medical help in Southeast Asia. In the Philippines especially, it’s wild: you can get serious prescription meds from a Facebook group in minutes, but try getting it from a legit, safe and FDA-approved source? Nearly impossible. Long wait times, outdated processes, zero customer experience. The real “this needs to exist” moment hit when I saw how many people were self-medicating through black market channels, not because they wanted to, but because they had no better option. That’s when I knew we had to build something radically better.
What are the most painful or visible gaps in the system that &you is trying to solve first?
EE: Start with access: most people either can’t afford proper treatment or don’t trust the system enough to use it. Seeing a doctor can take hours, sometimes days. On the backend, clinics are still running on pen and paper. But there’s also something deeper—shame. A lot of what we treat at &you carries unnecessary stigma. People don’t want to walk into a clinic or talk to someone they might know. That’s holding people back from getting real help. We’re fixing that by building around three things: trusted access to licensed doctors, safe and discreet delivery of medication and a seamless digital experience that puts users fully in control.
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How does &you differentiate itself from existing healthcare platforms in the Philippines?
EE: Since day one, we’ve focused on making healthcare more accessible, not just more available. That means simpler user flows, faster delivery, local doctors and fair pricing. Sure, we could make investors happier in the short term by raising prices—but we’re in this for the long game. We’re building real trust and long-term value by actually improving care, not just selling it.
Walk us through a user’s journey, from symptom to delivery. What services does it currently offer through its digital platform?
EE: Here’s how the journey works: It starts with a quick, conversational health questionnaire where users share their symptoms or goals. From there, our tech guides them toward the most suitable product or treatment. If a prescription is needed, a licensed Filipino doctor reviews the case or does a short video consult. Once approved, the medication is delivered discreetly through our in-house logistics, often within 24–48 hours. After purchase, patients have unlimited access to follow-up guidance from their assigned doctor. The whole experience is designed to be fast, private and easy to use—with real medical support every step of the way.
Above All &you orders are handled through carefully selected partners to ensure a smooth and confidential delivery experience
All &you orders are handled through carefully selected partners to ensure a smooth and confidential delivery experience
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You emphasise working only with FDA-compliant partners. Can you share how you vet these partners and ensure ongoing compliance?
EE: We’re lucky to have one of the country’s top medical players as a partner, and all our doctors are personally vetted by her, professionals with proven track records and strong patient relationships. On the product side, we work with the best compounding pharmacy in the Philippines: locally produced, family-owned and known for top-grade ingredients. We could cut corners to boost margins, but we’re here for the long game—focused on trust, quality and long-term care.
What has the public response been like since your launch?
EE: The public response since the launch has been overwhelmingly positive. Thousands joined our waitlist early on, and we’ve seen strong demand from day one. There’s still a long way to go, but it’s been a very promising start.
How does &you aim to transform the healthcare experience in the Philippines? Do you see it succeeding in the way you imagine?
EE: This is just the beginning. While we’ve started with digital medical services, the vision is much bigger—to build a full health and wellness ecosystem in the Philippines. That means not just tech, but also retail, in-person healthcare, and real-world experiences that make care feel more human and accessible. The entire category has huge room for improvement, and we see &you playing a major role in shaping what the future of healthcare looks like here.
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Angela Nicole Regis Guiral is a digital editor at Tatler Philippines. She studied journalism and has since written features that look closely at how culture, lifestyle and social impact converge, while occasionally wandering into the worlds of style and travel.
