From Inception to Present: The Complete Tale of MeetMyBrian
Want to know more about my second start-up?
In this blog, I reveal why I started MeetMyBrian, and why I am moving on to another project instead of scaling it. I outline MeetMyBrian’s journey, its challenges, achievements, and the lessons learned.
For an in-depth look at MeetMyBrian, read on…
A lot of my friends, and even some of my family, ask me this:
“Jijo, you tried to set up a recruitment start-up, then moved into booking software, and now you are telling us you want to introduce a scoring system for care home staff. People might not take you seriously if you keep jumping from idea to idea, especially if you’re looking for investment.
Do you really know what you’re doing?”
I get these questions a lot. Even one of my best mates asked me recently. I have talked about my reasons in a few other blogs, but I thought to write an exclusive article that talk about everything the public wants to know about MeetMyBrian.
So here we go..
I created MeetMyBrian, a visitor management system for care homes, during the pandemic. There were two reasons for this.
- My first healthcare recruitment start-up was stuck, and I wasn’t sure how to keep my team together and continue our journey.
- I really wanted to do something to help care home residents to receive visits from the families despite the pandemic visiting restrictions.
So, what went wrong with my first start-up?
From 2017 to 2020, I worked on a tech solution to address the temporary recruitment challenges in the care home sector.
This was my first start-up, and I made just about every mistake you can think of!
The idea was to connect local healthcare workers to care homes through a platform like Uber. I called it Jiyanna Care.
We made some progress at first. I had a partner, and we had a tech team. But then the business hit a wall because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s rules about moving care staff between homes. This was to stop the infection from spreading, but it was a real problem for us.
Jiyanna Care was all about connecting care home workers to different homes, and the pandemic and the government rules made it really hard to do that. I didn’t know what to do!
The wait for the pandemic situation to improve was uncertain, and my team was growing impatient with the extended timeline to bring Jiyanna Care to market. I was also at risk of losing my financial investment if I were to lose my team.
To overcome these challenges, I proposed a new project. A visitor management system for the care homes.
At first, my team was sceptical, but I motivated them with the vision of the project — to help people who were dying without seeing their loved ones. I also explained that MeetMyBrian could unlock opportunities for Jiyanna Care in the future.
Despite facing challenges and difficulties, I turned the situation around and motivated my team to work towards a successful outcome, demonstrating my determination and entrepreneurial spirit.
The story behind ‘MeetMyBrian’ and its name!
Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I have also been working as a nurse since my start-ups were initially just side hustles. During the pandemic, I served as a bank nurse in a care home based in West Sussex.
The impact of Covid on care homes was huge. Many residents were unable to meet their loved ones due to Covid restrictions, both from the government and the care homes themselves.
There was one resident, Brian, whose wife, Pat would regularly visit and help him eat and drink. Brian always looked forward to his wife’s visits, and she was a loving and kind presence.
Just a few months before the pandemic hit, Pat had to return her driving license. She told me that she relied on a friend for rides, but this made her dependent on others and unable to visit whenever she wanted.
A few months later, the pandemic hit, and her visits to the care home were blocked entirely.
On many occasions, Pat would call and ask about Brian. Every time before I hung up the call, she would ask me, “When do you think I can meet my Brian?” I would tell her, “I’m not sure when, but let’s hope it will be soon.”
One day at work, I was mulling over what next step I should take. I thought of building a booking system specifically for care homes to help work around the Covid restrictions.
I made a few design prototypes in MS Word, presented them to the team, and decided to take the first step. But I wasn’t sure what name I should give the project.
As I thought about the challenges faced by care home residents and their families, I remembered Brian and Pat. Her frequent question, “When do you think I can ‘meet my Brian’?” seemed like the perfect name for my visitor booking system. So, I decided on the name ‘MeetMyBrian.’
So, How did MeetMyBrian do?
I didn’t have much time to think. The decision to start MeetMyBrian wasn’t a long-considered one!
Yes, I wanted to do something to help care home residents and the sector, but my main goal was to keep my team members on board while I figured out what to do next.
I believe I took the first step to building MeetMyBrian on 1st May 2020. By 1st July, I had built the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and secured the first demo request with a care home group based in Wanstead, UK.
Here’s a screenshot I sent to the director of this care home group. He wanted to check out my previous work before getting acquainted with MeetMyBrian.
Since my first start-up didn’t take off, I consider MeetMyBrian as my first project that helped me break into the market, talk to real customers, and learn a ton about product development, marketing, and customer support.
I haven’t spent any money on paid marketing due to the funding shortage, but I have still achieved the following in my side hustle.
Income streams for MeetMyBrian
I have experimented with pricing for MeetMyBrian and had to revise it multiple times. Even after increasing the price by 75% from our initial MVP, I continue to receive inquiries.
I knew the pandemic restrictions wouldn’t last forever, so I transformed the initial product into something more permanent, something that could be used daily in care homes. This led to the development of a sign-in app solution.
The last adjustment to our pricing was approximately a year ago. However, with the recent introduction of the Sign-in app, I anticipate a further increase of 65% if I decide to scale the product.
Now, MeetMyBrian stands apart as a unique visitor management system focused solely on the care home industry.
My learning curves
Certainly, MeetMyBrian was an experimental project, and I made plenty of mistakes and encountered various learning curves.
Learning curve 1: Product development
In hindsight, I should have conducted more research into existing visitor management systems. This would have allowed me to learn from their limitations and implement a booking system exclusively for the care sector.
Learning curve 2: Vision
I focused primarily on immediate challenges, perhaps too much. While managing pandemic restrictions, I added features to cope with the current crisis but lost sight of the post-pandemic future. I was slow to introduce add-ons that could retain care homes once the restrictions were lifted.
Learning curve 3: Accelerating growth
I should have sought more investors or additional funding to develop our ambitious sign-in app more quickly and efficiently. Instead, I tried to finance these through product sales and other investment methods, which proved time-consuming.
By the time we launched the sign-in app, some clients had already adopted different systems. During the pandemic, booking systems became essential, and care homes rushed to implement them.
Had I introduced the sign-in app earlier and approached investors sooner, MeetMyBrian might have been in a stronger position
Learning curve 3: The team
My first start-up didn’t take off, so it’s hard to say if that product would have been successful. However, with MeetMyBrian, I experienced first-hand what real marketing and sales were like and how challenging it can be to bring about fast changes without enough resources. This taught me that the key to building any great product is the team.
The people working for me were mainly task-oriented, and I didn’t have enough experience and knowledge to utilise their maximum potential.
Learning curve 4: Test the hypothesis
I created MeetMyBrian using my imagination without comparing it to other products.
This sometimes led to situations where I developed a feature that clients did not want. As a result, I had to redo it, which took extra time and money. By the end of 2022, I knew I needed a different approach. However, when you’re trying to solve a problem during a pandemic, there is little time for market research.
Despite feeling nervous about wasting time, I knew deep down that I could have done a better job.
Learning curve 5: Listen to the customers
I believe I received enough feedback from care homes to improve the product and address their needs, but I was often dealing with other business challenges alone and had no breathing space.
However, if I had taken the time to talk to my customers and collect early feedback, it could have saved a lot of time and money!
Keith Milton was a great supporter of MeetMyBrian, providing valuable feedback and even suggesting that the future of MeetMyBrian lay in a sign-in app. However, I ignored his advice and gave too much focus to the family visitor management system, which I now realise was a mistake.
Learning curve 6: Move faster
Time doesn’t wait for anyone, and I believe that in a start-up ecosystem, we are supposed to anticipate future developments and keep innovating.
If I had secured funding for MMB faster, things would have gone much smoother. However, I was hesitant to quit my full-time job without a solid financial backup, which slowed down everything.
Scale/not scale
Towards the middle of 2022, I began to see the churn rate increase. Many care homes were more comfortable removing the booking system for families, which dealt a significant blow to MeetMyBrian.
Our client base gradually started to decline, and at the same time, since I had completed the development of the sign-in app, I was also running out of money.
I did receive some financial help from my close relatives with Jiyanna Care, but as it didn’t make it to market, they were reluctant to help immensely further with MeetMyBrian. With MeetMyBrian also trending downwards, their reluctance grew, and I didn’t want to pursue the MMB journey on my own since I needed money to support the team and for effective marketing.
Finally, I had to disband my team, reaching an agreement for ongoing support for MMB as and when required.
The future of MeetMyBrian
Despite the challenges, I haven’t given up on MeetMyBrian. The experiences have provided me with invaluable lessons, and I see the potential in the product I have created. The journey has been tough, but it’s also been rewarding in ways that aren’t immediately visible!
I believe that with the right resources and the right team, MeetMyBrian could still be a game-changer in the care home industry.
My journey with MeetMyBrian might have taken a pause, but it’s not the end. I am excited about the possibilities and the opportunities that lie ahead, and I am grateful for the lessons learned.
What now?
Since September 2022, I have been focusing on CareScore, my new project. For a few months, knowing that I wasn’t making much progress with MMB, I was in deep self-reflection, questioning why I was doing the things I wanted to.
I contemplated working on Jiyanna Care, my first start-up, instead of starting a new idea like CareScore, but I realised that wasn’t easy without financial support.
Both Jiyanna Care and MMB were geared towards the care home sector, and upon looking deep into myself, I realised that my true vision was to improve the quality of life and care in the care homes.
After months of self-exploration and continuous brainstorming sessions with Romio, the product designer, I began to understand my vision better and made plans to work towards it, rather than building another SaaS product!
The current state of MMB
Even now, I still receive demo requests for MMB, but I am not inclined to invest further energy and money into it, as I understand it won’t be as fruitful if I continue to juggle it with my full-time job.
Therefore, I don’t have much choice but to leave it as is, maintaining the existing clients until they stop using it or until I decide to pull the plug, realising that the income we receive isn’t covering its running expenses.
The road ahead: My next chapter
I appreciate everyone’s advice, but I believe they spend too little time understanding what actually went wrong.
Many people tend to expect their loved ones to succeed without giving much thought to the challenges they face or the help they might need.
When I told my family and some friends that I was starting another start-up instead of continuing with MeetMyBrian, they suggested that I had lost my mind, or that my ego was leading me astray this time.
They thought I was being reckless, constantly moving between ideas, and giving the impression of lacking clarity and focus.
I have stopped trying to explain myself. Now, I simply say, “Let me try. I will see how this one goes!
