Here I go again, another start-up!
Am I being brave or foolish?
My first start-up did not take off due to Covid-19, but I persevered and started another one: MeetMyBrian. It had some success and could become a fair business if I scaled it, but I chose to build another product instead. Crazy or stupid? To me, this is the best decision I have made, and here’s why!
Passion
My second start-up, MeetMyBrian (MMB) is a visitor management system for care homes that I built during the pandemic.
It was exciting and useful because I helped over 14,000 families visit their loved ones in care homes during Covid, and I was proud.
The visit booking options in MeetMyBrian were predominantly for controlling and managing visits due to the numerous restrictions on care home visiting. MeetMyBrian was developed exclusively to work around the government guidance and ensure residents had visits from their families during the pandemic. To date, we have facilitated 148,000 visits!
Realising Covid restrictions would not last forever, I pivoted MMB for longevity, creating a sign-in app as an add-on to the existing booking system.
Combining two major modules, MeetMyBrian now stands as a unique product that is a perfect visitor management solution for care homes.
Yet, I am not using this opportunity because I am not passionate about it!
Why do I lack the passion to scale?
I did not plan to start MeetMyBrian, but I had to because Covid interrupted my first business, and I was not in a position to disperse my team. The only option to hold my team together was to start another project, which was MeetMyBrian.
Fast forward to the middle of 2022, I have had a few opportunities in front of me:
- Give up my full-time job and continue marketing MMB to make it a success.
- Give up my full-time job, increase the number of care home customers, and seek investments for further development and scaling.
However, I don’t have the money to hire more people and scale the product, and seeking investment at this stage does not feel right.
Since there is no proactiveness from care home providers and managers to adopt a visitor management system as much as during the pandemic, it is not a hot commodity. We can make more sales, but only with marketing, and I am not in a position to leave my full-time job.
My first start-up, Jiyanna Care, and the second one, MeetMyBrian, were built for the care homes sector. The sole purpose when I was building Jiyanna Care was to improve the standard of working for agency temporary staff. However, I couldn’t take it to the market.
I could see MMB was clearly not keeping its momentum since there were relaxations for family visits, and as more care homes started visiting without requiring booking, I could see I had only a fairly short time left to get the add-on, the sign-in app, to the market. I was also questioning myself on numerous occasions whether I was making the right decisions here.
Decision-making is difficult, but we all end up making most of them even without a second thought!
I initially thought I could resume Jiyanna Care now that the pandemic restrictions were gone, but I realised the industry and the particular problem I was trying to change had become even more complicated over the last three years.
I need to again spend money and energy again to meet those challenges which is not practical for me at this stage.
What’s next?
I spent time in deep self-exploration, questioning my reasons for pursuing another start-up, given the low financial return from the past six years. During this phase, I became more convinced of my genuine intention to improve care home quality and life.
Jiyanna Care and MeetMyBrian were both built for the care homes sector. I wanted to learn from past mistakes and achieve financial success to revive hopes for my previous start-ups.
Experiencing start-up fatigue, I needed to collaborate with someone who could share the challenges. I was fortunate to meet Romio, an amazing product designer, with whom I shared my vision for “CareScore” and discussed various decisions.
CareScore: A new beginning!
Ultimately, I decided to build CareScore from scratch, as other options seemed subpar and would only prolong frustration and financial loss.
My wife and other family members think I am wasting time and making poor decisions, but it is difficult to make others believe in what I do. Starting a third project while the previous two had limited success may seem foolish, but I am committed to my vision.
When you know what you want and how to achieve it, would you run from fear of failure or stand up and fight again?
I don’t know how CareScore will turn out, but I’m certain this decision is transforming my entrepreneurship journey and me as a person.
