After working for big-name companies like General Motors and Amazon, Alicia Davis wants to be in the business of helping people.
Key Details
- During Axios’s BFD event in San Francisco, Alto CEO Alicia Davis shared with audiences the decision behind her career transition from well-known names like General Motors and Amazon to startup digital pharmacy Alto.
- Davis worked at General Motors for nearly 25 years before moving to Amazon, where she was the vice president of customer fulfillment.
- Now, Davis is the CEO of Alto, a digital pharmacy company looking to improve the healthcare system for doctors and patients by offering convenience and affordable prices.
Why it’s news
Moving from a company as large as Amazon to a startup in the healthcare industry would be a daunting task for anyone, but Davis says that Alto offered something she could not turn down.
“I was just thinking about what I wanted to do next, and I really wanted to continue working in an industry where I could have an impact, where I could really leverage the skills that I have, where I could make a difference,” Davis says.
While Davis says she enjoyed her other jobs, she looked at Alto as a new challenge and thought, “Why not?”
“I can always go work for another Fortune 50 Fortune 25 company if I wanted to, but why not go work at a startup that was really trying to fix an antiquated system and have better outcomes for people?” she says.
Rather than just working in a business she enjoys, Davis wanted to work in an environment where she knew she could make a difference for the customers. She believes she can accomplish that goal while working at Alto. The company says it can find the best prices for its customers while offering delivery services and online chats with pharmacists.
“Alto is really about improving outcomes, making it easier for doctors, patients, payers, and pharmacies to operate,” Davis says.
Already, Davis says Alto is making a difference. She says the company has a 40% higher adherence rate than the standard walk-in pharmacy.
While her former employer Amazon now offers its own pharmacy options, Davis says that Alto provides something more than Amazon’s current programs.
“It’s more than fulfillment and delivery, it’s a technology platform. It’s providing solutions for the doctors,” she says.
Davis says she does not mind having competitors like Amazon in the market. In her mind, there is plenty of space for more pharmacy companies; the more businesses that try to improve healthcare systems for customers, the better.
“(Pharmaceutical) is hard, and it is complex, but it’s important,” Davis says.
