Meet Dr Anas, CEO and co-founder of Patchwork Health

We spoke with Dr Anas back in 2021 when they raised a £3.5 million venture round and now we’re back to find out how they’ve evolved and to hear about their recent Series B raise of almost £20 million. Patchwork Health was co-founded by Dr Anas Nader and Dr Jing Ouyang with the mission to make truly flexible and sustainable working a reality for all healthcare staff, amid the current workforce crisis.

Congratulations on the impressive growth of Patchwork Health over the past two years, Anas! Can you share some key milestones and achievements that have contributed to the company's successful scale-up journey?

Thank you! When we last spoke in August 2021, we had recently raised a Venture round of £3.5 million. Probably the most pivotal milestone for our scale-up journey since then has been our £20 million Series B funding round in August 2022, which was led by the private equity firm, Perwyn. This has really been game-changing in allowing us to take our healthcare staffing solution to the next level and build the team we need in place to scale successfully. We’re using the funding to strengthen Patchwork’s Research and Development capacity, whilst also investing more in the company’s customer support function. We’ve expanded to over 100 employees - something that feels surreal given we started only a few years ago as a group of 3. As a result, we’ve been able to roll  out our solution across 100 healthcare sites in the UK. It’s been an exciting scale-up journey so far, and I can’t wait to keep working with more incredible healthcare organisations, to progress further towards our goal of addressing staffing shortages and making flexible working accessible in the NHS.

Whilst on a mission to make flexible and sustainable working a reality for healthcare staff, how did Patchwork Health overcome any challenges along the way?

Introducing any new technology into the healthcare industry can be a lengthy process, but this is necessary to ensure the solution is adopted successfully in the long term. NHS organisations need to have the reassurance that if they’re introducing a brand new technology, it works as intended and that it is a proven aid to time-pressed clinicians. For this reason, the launch of new initiatives can be time intensive, but is ultimately worth it.

Additionally, rolling out new systems within an organisation as complex as the NHS requires a lot of coordination and overcoming a number of logistical hurdles. There is no one-size-fits-all approach that can be taken with the NHS - each healthcare setting is unique and new tech systems need to be adaptable to suit each organisation they’re working for.

Patchwork Health has now expanded to over 100+ healthcare sites. How has the feedback and collaboration with healthcare employees and patients influenced the improvement of your platform?

Working with clinicians to gain feedback and insight has been vital for ensuring our solution is the best it can be. Rolling out a healthtech tool without taking into account the needs of clinicians and managers is one of the most harmful things an entrepreneur in this space can do. Clinicians and managers will ultimately be the people using and relying on your solution everyday, so without their crucial and ongoing input, adoption and engagement, your software won’t be successful. Ensuring our end users are involved at every stage allows us to make sure our tech is genuinely improving the lives of clinicians for the better.

Over the years, Patchwork Health has made a significant impact on the NHS, saving an estimated £40 million in temporary staffing costs and enabling almost 4 million shift hours to be staffed sustainably annually. What do these achievements mean to you and your team, and how does it motivate you to continue your mission?

Seeing the impact we’ve had in numerical terms on cost-saving for the NHS and sustainable staffing makes me and the team extremely proud. With agency spend reaching £3 billion last year, we know how important it is that our solution continues to drive down costs for organisations which are already under significant pressure to reduce spending. And most importantly, these results spur us on with our mission to make flexible staffing accessible to all and help more talented clinicians stay in the workforce rather than be pushed out by burnout, stress or poor work-life balance. We can see the extent of what we’ve achieved so far, and we know it’s just the beginning.

As an experienced founder, what advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who are embarking on their fundraising journey for the first time? How can they effectively build strong relationships with investors and secure the necessary support to launch or grow their business?

For those just starting out on their fundraising journey, I’d emphasise the importance of building secure investor relationships from the outset. A strong relationship between entrepreneurs and the people on their Cap Table can unlock a wealth of benefits; from new business prospects to vital emotional support during tough times. 

In terms of achieving this, open communication is the lifeblood of any successful relationship, and the entrepreneur-investor dynamic is no exception. By maintaining regular and honest dialogue, founders and investors can effectively collaborate, navigate challenges and seize opportunities as they arise.

Ensuring you build a relationship based on mutual trust and respect with the investors you bring into your business is a must. Those people will be sitting across the table from you at critical junctures for your startup; if there’s friction or misalignment there from day one, things will only become more challenging and add strain to the scale up process. The support of our investors such as Perwyn, Praetura,and KHP Ventures has been invaluable and we’re grateful for our strong, collaborative partnerships with them so far.

Do you prioritise self-care as an entrepreneur?

Yes, I think self-care is really important. To maintain productivity and guarantee your best work, it’s important to take time away to reset and re-energise. There’s simply no point running yourself into the ground by working too hard, as you’ll burn out - something I’ve sadly seen happen to many of my fellow medics, as well as entrepreneurs. For me, self-care is spending time with my wife  and daughter, heading out on a bike ride, or spending quality time with my friends, including my co-founder, Jing, when we don’t talk about work!

Patchwork Health started as a small team of 3 and has now grown to almost 100 employees. How has your leadership style evolved throughout this growth phase, and what strategies have you implemented to ensure a cohesive and motivated team?

As our team has grown, my role has changed massively. When you’re starting out, you have a very tight-knit culture where everyone is working together on everything - rolling up their sleeves and pitching in where they can. This fluid dynamic needs to change as your team grows, otherwise it would be chaos. That means you need to shift your focus as a leader as well. I can’t stay across the detail of every single element of the business and have had to empower those around me to take on responsibility in order for us to grow. 

However, we’ve also worked hard to ensure we’ve maintained a strong company culture and Patchwork community as we’ve expanded - this is something that’s really important to me and my co-founder Jing. We have a very open culture, with weekly all-hands meetings on company growth and key weekly deliverables, monthly town halls to align on strategic topics and an honest discussion on our challenges and opportunities, as well as regular socials and our annual ‘Patchweek’ -  where the whole team comes to take part in company building activities and a hackathon competition.

How do you envision the company's continued impact on the healthcare industry in the coming years?

I hope that Patchwork can continue to make a positive change in how healthcare organisations manage their workforce and support their staff. We want to work with more organisations to reshape healthcare staffing and work towards Patchwork being the go-to solution for those who want to build a stronger, happier and healthier workforce. 

Looking back on the past two years since our last interview, what valuable lessons have you learned as a founder, and how have they shaped your approach to leading Patchwork Health towards a brighter and more sustainable future?

One of the most important things I’ve learnt is that you’re only as good as your team. Since we last spoke, our projects and team have significantly expanded, and I’ve really taken into account the power of collective ambition. Working together to share knowledge and pool our skill sets has been crucial to achieving success. This has really shaped my attitude to how Patchwork Health ought to be led - I’m striving to create a culture of dynamism, ambition and collaboration through an atmosphere of constant learning and sharing. This collective goal is fuelling Patchwork’s future and driving us forward as a team.