The United States is an appealing market to UK startups, given our shared first language and its population of around 330 million.
However competition is fierce Stateside – and the differences between our healthcare systems can also make establishing a foothold there tricky.
Impressive, then, that MedTech Scan.com managed to gain traction in less than a year.
Scan.com aims to make diagnostic and preventable medical imaging accessible to all by integrating with private hospitals and diagnostic centres via a proprietary API and making their spare capacity available to patients.
“Our biggest challenge was expanding in the USA market,” CEO Charlie Bullock explains to TechBlast. “We had to develop an entire new software platform, learn an entire new industry and build a brand new team.
“We went from idea to first sale in nine months in the USA, and we’re now firmly established in our first US city – Atlanta, Georgia.”
Founding clinicians
The company started out as National MRI Scan in 2017 after two clinicians – registered osteopath Jasper Nissim and consultant radiologist Dr Khalid Latief – noticed the administrative difficulties in referring patients for private imaging, and the spare capacity of MRI scanners at independent hospitals within their own networks.
Bullock was brought in alongside COO Oliver Knight and Joe Daniels, head of front end and UX, to help build a platform to connect patients with the imaging they need. The company launched CT, Ultrasound and pregnancy scans and rebranded to Scan.com in 2022.
“I’ve run and exited my own startup before and Oliver helped scale a Rocket Internet business, so we both saw the potential of Scan.com when Jasper and Khalid initially conceived it,” says Bullock. “Joe designed and built the first iteration of our platform, and was very well-placed to do this given his background in Computer Science.”
Now backed by a network of over 150 partner scanning centres, its patient platform makes it easy to find and book self-pay scans, without the need for a GP referral.
The platform also offers a portal and proprietary API, through which clinicians, medico-legal firms and digital health providers can refer their patients in less than five minutes, track referrals and download the results.
“Jasper and Khalid are practising clinicians, so our founding team benefits from a balanced perspective between clinical, entrepreneurial and tech-focused mindsets,” Bullock says of the team’s complementary skillset. “This helps us make sure our products are usable, scalable and innovative, while keeping the focus on providing the best possible outcomes for patients during potentially difficult times in their lives.”
UK & US plans
Employing around 25 people across three countries, Scan.com turned over around $3.5 million in 2022 and grew over 200% YoY.
Bullock hopes that this year it will hit $10m in revenue between the USA and UK.
“In the UK, we’re focused heavily on growing the infrastructure side of business in the UK, becoming the API that is being used by all businesses that have diagnostic imaging needs in the UK – whether that’s clinical research organisations, insurance companies, individual physiotherapy practices or large TeleHealth apps,” he explains.
“In the USA, the next few years are all about scaling our go-to-market, going from our hyperlocal launch in Atlanta, Georgia to becoming a national player. We’ll be hiring a large go-to-market team throughout 2023, as well as investing heavily in product and engineering.”
Simplyhealth
In January it partnered with Simplyhealth, a leading provider of self-pay health plans, to streamline access to medical imaging, reduce pressure on NHS waiting lists, and improve patient outcomes for over 2.3 million users.
What one nugget of advice does Bullock have for people looking to found a tech business?
“I would advise potential founders to start their own side projects in areas that give them energy,” he replies. “I stumbled across both Kaampus – my first startup – and Scan.com by building these side-projects with my friends, after work and at weekends.
“Building a business like this removes all short term pressure on financial metrics, and encourages you to genuinely just be curious about solving problems you find interesting.”