Tuesday 10 December marks 12 months to the day that uPaged officially became, well … official. As in, proof of concept was validated, the business plan was finalised along with financial projections, seed funding sourced, the minimum viable product (MVP) was endorsed by an early adopter, the business name was registered, and our very first uPaged nurse completed her very first uPaged shift (amongst the million other things that it takes to get brilliant idea from that lightbulb moment to blast off).
It had been an intensive two-year journey to get to that date 12 months ago, punctuated by many more highs than lows, and of course, underpinned by sheer grit and confidence in the knowledge that uPaged was not only going to make a huge difference to agency and casual nurses, but also to hospitals, and importantly, to patients.
Of the highs, there have been many.
The first of these would without a doubt, be the early support of four Sydney hospital CEOs / Workforce Managers / Shift Booking Managers / HR Managers / and Finance Managers who immediately recognised the value the uPaged could offer them with access to what they consider their own private casual pool while saving tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of year because they no longer had to pay the agency middleman.
(Big thanks to Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, Bondi Junction Private Hospital, Sydney Adventist Hospital and Kogarah Private Hospital for your ongoing support).
Equally, our early adopter nurses, who love the freedom, flexibility and choice offered by uPaged, have been critical to our success.
We’ve also had the privilege of being selected to pitch to raise capital to support our growth and showcased our casual nursing solution at StartCon, Investible Games, TechReady Women Female Founder Pitch Night, to name a few.
We’ve met with the Federal Department of Health in Canberra; been quoted or published in a dozen publication; been a finalist for a business award; launched version 2 of the nurse onboarding experience, and grown the team to 10 covering Tech Development, Marketing, Customer Experience, Finance, Business Development, Partnerships, Research and Business Support.
Fortunately, the lows have been few, and all of them have been learning experiences. (We’ll never turn up at a presentation again without converting KeyNote to PowerPoint beforehand; we’ve learnt to always double the time allocated to each project, and we won’t overwater the office maidenhair fern again!)
As we head into our 2nd year, we’re brimming with enthusiasm and excitement about the enormous impact uPaged is already making for hospitals, casual nurses and patients, and today we send a special thanks to all our supporters who backed us from the get-go. You’re the best.
Happy birthday to us all!
