It’s been three years since I founded MedoSync with my co-founder, Seamus. The idea for the business started as a problem that I personally experienced as an end-user trying to navigate the healthcare billing process. The inefficiencies that blight the revenue cycle process for hospitals affect patients, insurers, and consultants alike. Founding MedoSync also scratched an entrepreneurial itch that I have had since I was young and which has stayed with me throughout my medical career. We spent a very long time defining the problem and this I believe has ensured that we have managed to make it through the first year and onwards.  

As anyone in the start-up space will tell you, though the external perception is that progress is fast-paced, the reality is that success is more of a compounding formula. Each success quickens the momentum and small successes repeated over time have outsized impacts versus their true size. The importance of momentum can’t be understated and when the momentum slows it can be turgid and deflating. It is during the slow periods, which of course happen, that I know to start shoveling coal and start to get things moving. Even a positive meeting with a potential collaborator can have a galvanising effect though there is no immediate win for the business. This is an important lesson for me and the people I work with – seeking out small wins as they are greater than the sum of their parts.  

Conceptually, momentum is an idea that takes you forward. This forward-facing perspective comes as part and parcel of the precarious nature of any new company. Focus is always on the next customer as that is the path to success. With this focus on momentum, the tendency is for leaders to be “on the dancefloor”. However, if a company is going to succeed, there needs to be time for reflection. This is a perspective I take with me from my time as an emergency consultant. Patient outcomes improve in tandem with my learnings from previous cases and likewise, this applies to MedoSync. By reflecting on the small wins that compound for the company, we become sharper in spotting those wins in the future and become a more effective company as a result.

As we approach four years in business, I am going to take more time for reflection and write up posts related to our area of expertise: medical billing, healthcare, technology, and being a start-up in that ecosystem.