The Diary of
Bue Lusuwi
MBBS graduate, TIR practitioner, founder of Tandaai, and frequently mistaken for a work-experience student.
Dear diary, I have a medical degree, a therapy practice and a company, and I still got asked for ID buying a bottle of wine last week.
This is the story of how 3 unrelated fields (and one baby face) turned into a business.
this bit is the "serious credentials" part. don't worry, I ruin it in the next entry.
Entry 1: Who Is This
I grew up in Zimbabwe and started out as an ophthalmic assistant, which is a fancy way of saying I got very good at telling people to look at the little red light.
Then I moved to China for medical school. 6 years at XuZhou Medical University, including a full clinical internship year, and I came out the other end with an MBBS in 2024.
I didn't do those 6 years because medicine was my dream. I did them because I'd started and I don't leave things unfinished.
Then I went home for an MDPCZ observership in Zimbabwe, and that's where it came apart.
Being back showed me how easy the doctor path was actually going to be. Foreign trained doctors were passing the exams. Doctors kept telling me to focus on the theory and learn the rest on the job. It was safe, it was set in stone, and it was about as certain as a life gets.
Then I pricked myself with a needle I had just used to draw blood from a patient.
Oh my goodness, I cried. All I could think was that if I'd caught something from that one needle, doing a job I never actually wanted, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.
That was my last day.
The honest part is that I was only in that hospital because of something I've since learned to call FOJ, fear of judgement. I wanted to look like I was doing the approved thing. Walking away meant letting go of a very real safety net, and I technically still have it, which is probably why it took a needle to make me choose.
So I went into mental health instead. I trained as a TIR (Traumatic Incident Reduction) practitioner through TraumaSol, and I still see clients today.
Along the way I worked with the Tafara Wellness Initiative, and I volunteered with 7 Cups and Be My Eyes. Different people, same job really, which is paying proper attention to someone who needs it.
Somewhere in the middle of all that I taught myself to build. I'm what people politely call a "vibe coder". I shipped a client management web app because I could see the admin becoming a problem, then an app called What If for working through fear, which I entered into a competition and did not win.
Then my husband Kim showed me some YouTube tutorials and I heard a voice AI agent for the first time. It sounded so human that I ran to play it to my parents. That was it.
I went through a voice AI bootcamp and founded Tandaai in March 2026.
None of this was a plan. It was closer to a series of "well that's interesting" decisions that eventually formed a shape.
Entry 2: Exhibit A, The Gap
I am 27 years old. I look, on a good day and with excellent lighting, about 17.
On a bad day, someone at a bus stop calls me "sweetheart" and asks if my mum knows where I am. I have decided, after years of mild indignity, to stop fighting this and start using it.
Here is the actual paperwork versus what people assume when they meet me:
What people assume
- Still in school
- Someone's intern
- Definitely doesn't run a company
- Needs to be walked through email
- Probably here for work experience
What's actually true
- MBBS, 6 years, XuZhou Medical University
- Practising TIR practitioner (TraumaSol-trained)
- Founder of Tandaai, making sure dental and aesthetic clinics answer every patient call
- Built 2 live apps without a CS degree
- Has been genuinely carded buying paracetamol
The gap between the two columns used to embarrass me. Now it's basically my whole personal brand.
Nobody forgets the person who surprised them, and the surprise is the memorable part. Turns out being underestimated is a free marketing asset, if you're willing to laugh about it in public.
drawn from memory, so the dates are right but the emotional damage is approximate.
Entry 3: The Journey So Far
Worked as an ophthalmic assistant. Learned to read people before I learned to read charts.
XuZhou Medical University, pre-clinical years then a full clinical internship year. Learned medicine, and also how to order food in a language I did not speak when I arrived.
Graduated with an MBBS. Went home to Zimbabwe for an MDPCZ observership. Pricked myself with a used needle, realised I'd regret spending my life on a job I never chose, and that was my last day.
Trained as a TIR practitioner via TraumaSol and started seeing clients. Worked with the Tafara Wellness Initiative, and volunteered with 7 Cups and Be My Eyes.
Taught myself to build with AI tools. Shipped a client-management web app, then What If, an app for working through fear. Still not a "real" programmer, by my own definition. The apps disagree.
Founded Tandaai, built around private dental and aesthetic clinics in Staffordshire and Cheshire so every patient call gets answered.
Doing outreach, seeing clients, building the company, and writing about all of it like it's a diary, 'cause honestly it kind of is.
Entry 4: How I Became a Walking Venn Diagram
3 things I never planned to combine, drawn as 3 stickers on a page. Go on, drag them around. They'll still find their way back to the middle, a bit like me.
(drag the stickers, works on mouse, trackpad, and stubby toddler-sized fingers)
Yes, I'm aware Venn diagrams don't technically "converge into" a fourth company. Poetic licence. I have a medical degree, let me have this one.
Entry 5: What I Actually Do Now
Tandaai 📞
I build around how a private dental or aesthetic clinic actually runs, so every patient call gets answered in 15 seconds, day or night.
I'm the founder, the builder and the face of it. I don't lead with the mechanism when I talk to clinics, 'cause most of them just want their phones answered, not a lecture on large language models.
TIR practice 🧠
I still see clients as a Traumatic Incident Reduction practitioner, trained through TraumaSol. Before this I worked with the Tafara Wellness Initiative and volunteered with 7 Cups and Be My Eyes.
This is the part of my week that has nothing to do with building, and it's also the part that makes the building make sense. You can't shortcut your way around how people actually feel about change.
Medicine taught me the body. Psychology taught me the mind. Building is the current tool in my hand. The throughline is being the person who gets curious about a problem and then refuses to stay in one lane about it.