Gosh, it’s been a long time since I posted about my startup.
I’ve decided that this will be the last blog post which talks about the minutiae of my startup and the challenges a new company in the healthcare scene has to face in the UK.
The reason this will be the last update is because the specifics of my startup are not helpful to other entrepreneurs / healthcare innovators out there. The fact is that everyone will have to traverse a terrain which is different and face challenges which are different. This I have come to realise is why so much advice surrounding entrepreneurship is so general.
“Solve a problem”
“Expect the unexpected”
“Provide value”
“Make connections”
These platitudes may seem clichéd and obvious, but they are cliched for a reason – it’s the truth and giving advice more specific is often not relevant or helpful.
Having said that here’s another update!
I Am a GP Partner Now
GP partners are owners of clinics in the UK.
This is a very privileged position I am in. Basically I now have a test bed to test my application in. I also have an allocation of money from the practice to keep building my app. So, I am very lucky indeed to be have been given such a massive opportunity.
This is the best position a founder could be in! Solving your own problem with outcomes which will be beneficial to yourself validates your idea for a business and ensures that at least one person will benefit from your product or service!
Keep in mind that 88% of founders fail because they fail to make something that people really want and will pay for.
To Spread or Not to Spread
The app is being used in a few test beds now. As such I haven’t pushed for it to go into more and more healthcare settings.
The reasons for this is that the app has potential to become really killer. But I need time to build the rest of the necessary features. This will take 8 months or so.
It may seem risky to not keep pushing for it to go into more and more places, but there are a number of reasons why think it’s a good idea to not spread to quickly in the healthcare space.
The first is that it’s very difficult to get into anywhere – but now that I am convinced that I will be able to get into more places, I need to make sure to not blow it by providing bad services or a crappy product.
The other reason is that when you’re creating enterprise software, the app itself is a small part of the whole business. This is another reason why it’s a bad idea to learn to code just to make a business. The fact is that people don’t just pay for an app (particularly in healthcare), but infrastructure, support, insurance, certification, governance etc etc. Also, as you provide software to more settings and businesses, more code needs to be written to provide infrastructure for billing, handling new data and new protocols have to be written for implementation. The legal implications and finances also becomes a whole lot more complicated.
Looking at it this way, I’ve figured that the best way to go forward is to really make an awesome product, get sales lined up and then launch in more places once we’re happy that we can deliver something remarkable.
The Future
The future looks good at this point. I’m solving a real problem, we have customers, the scope of the app could make a really positive change for both patients and healthcare providers.
There will be plenty of challenges up ahead. However, just because I’m not writing these in-depth updates doesn’t mean much for followers of the blog.
The fact is that anyone who really wants to do what I am doing can just read my blog and follow me. As the whole blog is about entrepreneurship and healthcare, people will learn a lot more by reading and understanding the general view-point of an entrepreneur than to follow all the details closely.
Because let’s face it, how many other people out there are GP Partners and creating software for the NHS?
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