Scheduling with Stuart McDonagh

Scheduling expert Stuart McDonagh joins the podcast for this episode. Stuart worked alongside Kevin Appleby earlier in their careers. Kevin’s son aged with Stuart and so Kevin had inbuilt experience managing his relationship with Stuart. Now, Stuart runs We Schedule It.

Intrapreneur

An entrepreneur is that anti-establishment person in the company, who creates new opportunities. Stuart was a bit like that himself.

What Problem is We Schedule It Solving?

The We Schedule It business was founded in May 2020. Originally, it was to address the back-log of appointments in the NHS. Stuart came up against an immovable object. Despite the fact that the non-care and treatment side of the NHS which desperately needs reform. He cites the booking, the scheduling, the availability.

Stuart really wanted to help the NHS fix these all too obvious problems. Quickly, he got a team around him and produced a Minimum Viable Product, which he took to the NHS. And failed, as he said.

Since then, he has pivoted to become a services scheduling app, where he says there is a ‘white space’ for a service. Now, they are entering pre-seed funding round to acquire funds to develop their business.

Is it Failure, or is it Learning?

Stuart is clearly bothered by the experience, but all that tells us is he cares very much about fixing issues that as a Nation, we can and should get fixed. For example, the NHS app (did you know hey had one?) doesn’t do re-scheduling. His solution can.

With the NHS, there are any number of roadblocks to overcome to get anything done. There came a point when Stuart and his team realised he just couldn’t push treacle up his any further.

The Scheduling Pivot

In this clip, Stuart tracks through from Scheduling App to a much more sophisticated business services solution. This app covers discovery (who do you want to help you), the payment, the interaction, rescheduling, all the way through to feedback.

One example Stuart mentioned was the bereavement process. The app would consolidate all the players in that field. Another example, buying and selling property.

Their marketplace is an alternative to Pay Per Click? Does the marketplace look like Yellow Pages? No. Stuart aggregates everyone you need for the bereavement or property sales process. But is this likely? Stuart says he’d twin a big city plus smaller town. Manchester and Sale.

Seeking Pre-Seed Investment

Stuart is looking for £350,000 of pre-seed investment. Moreover, he has built a ‘Negative Nelly’ model to present a sensible proposition to an Investor.

Therefore, to get a new brand, the service is likely to be re-named ROARI.

Stuart’s Testimonial

 

The Next 100 Days co-hosts…

Graham Arrowsmith

Finely Fettled helps organisations that want to market to affluent and high net worth customers with direct marketing campaigns and data services.
Meet Professionals – Offers large financial advisory groups with 50+ IFAs a white-labelled lead generation and conversion system.

Contact Graham:
LinkedIn: Visit Graham’s LinkedIn Profile
Twitter: Visit Graham’s Twitter Page
Email:  Email Graham Direct

Kevin Appleby

Kevin is a Chartered Accountant who has worked as a management consultant for a number of years specialising in finance transformation and implementing business change. Currently, he is COO of GrowCFO. GrowCFO is Where Finance Leaders Grow Together. Becoming a successful CFO requires commitment and dedication towards delivering your full potential. GrowCFO provides both community and CPD accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at kevinappleby.com