From Corporate Roles to Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship

By: Sonam Garg Sharma, Founder and CEO, Medical Linkers

Sonam Garg Sharma is a visionary entrepreneur and women leader known for championing innovation, resilience, and purpose-driven growth. Her leadership journey reflects the evolving role of women in business, as she actively fosters entrepreneurship, drives impactful change, and contributes to building inclusive, future-ready enterprises.

In an insightful interaction with Women Entrepreneurs Review Magazine, Sonam Garg Sharma shares her insights on building a global healthcare venture, highlighting how cross-industry experience, patient-first thinking, and trust-driven partnerships shaped her journey in medical tourism. She emphasizes culturally sensitive care, responsible growth, and encourages women entrepreneurs to pursue purpose-led opportunities.

Read the complete article below for deeper insights.

You began your career across telecom, media, and healthcare; what lessons from these diverse sectors shaped your approach to building an international healthcare venture?

My early career across telecom, media and healthcare has shaped my understanding of how large systems impact human lives. The telecom industry taught me scalability, process discipline and how critical reliability is when serving people across regions. The media industry showed me the power of credible communication especially in situations where decisions are emotionally charged. The healthcare industry anchored everything in unwavering empathy and ethics. When I founded Medical Linkers, I brought these lessons together for me to prioritize strong backend systems, transparent communication and patient-first thinking. My diverse background has helped me build an international healthcare venture that is operationally robust yet deeply human at its heart.

Stepping into the medical tourism space, what early industry realities or patient experiences influenced the direction you chose for your business?

When I first stepped into this industry, one of my first realisations was that patients are not just seeking treatment. The reality was patients were seeking reassurance, guidance and advocacy along with treatments. Many international patients felt lost navigating visas, hospitals, costs, and cultural differences. This reality influenced me directly. I decided Medical Linkers would be supportive and not just transactional. My early patient stories reinforced that clarity, coordination and emotional support were as critical as the medical expertise itself.

As Medical Linkers expanded into multiple countries, what strategic decisions played the biggest role in turning a single project into an international healthcare network?

My biggest strategic decision was choosing building credibility over speed. Instead of rapid expansion, I directed my energy on building trust with my patients. I partnered with hospitals and doctors who met strict quality and ethical standards. I invested early in cumbersome processes like documentation, care coordination, follow-ups and compliance across borders.

Another key strategy was localisation, which is basically understanding patient needs market by market rather than applying a uniform model everywhere. The growth came originally through referrals from patients, hospitals and institutions. This approach has transformed Medical Linkers from a single initiative into a global healthcare network. We have patients coming to India from multiple countries due to our consistent values and service quality.

Working with patients from over 30 countries, how has this global exposure influenced the way you design services and partnerships across different healthcare systems?

Working with patients from all over the globe has definitely taught me that healthcare is rooted in culture. Expectations around communication, family involvement, recovery, and decision-making vary widely. That’s why I have moved away from rigid systems and pushed myself to design flexible, patient-centric services. We adapt language support, counselling, documentation, and follow-ups based on a patient’s home healthcare environment. This also influenced me on prioritising institutions that respect cultural sensitivities and collaborative care.

Over the years, how have you balanced business growth with your original goal of making healthcare more accessible and organised for international patients?

Balancing growth with our goal has required constant reflection and evaluation from us. I have resisted the urge to prioritize scale alone as the demand increased. Instead, my priority was to invest in technology and training to improve efficiency. At the same time, keeping our patient care accessible and organised. My approach over time has helped me measure success in outcomes, in patient satisfaction, and long-term trust instead of just numbers. Growth is expanding impact responsibly. By staying anchored to our original mission, I ensured that expansion strengthened our purpose rather than distancing us from it.

LAST WORD: Advice for Women to Build Businesses in Emerging, Globally Connected Industries Like Healthcare Tourism

My advice to women leaders is to stop waiting for perfect timing or permission. Emerging, globally connected industries need builders who are willing to step into uncertainty. Your personal experience and perspective is often your greatest strength and you need to learn to trust it. Invest deeply in understanding systems, regulations and people. Build your business with a trust-first approach, but don’t underestimate the importance of structure and numbers. There will be skepticism, especially in male-dominated spaces, but gradually consistency builds credibility.

Most importantly, anchor your business on your goal. When challenges come, the drive to achieve that goal will become your resilience. Start where you are, move forward and let action shape confidence.