1st
100 ERs and Urgent Care Centers!
By tylerkileyIn 2006, I started a tiny healthcare software company called InQuicker. I was 20 years old and a university sophmore; this company was a part-time side project.
In 2007, I discovered Hacker News, InQuicker earned its first dollar of revenue, and I set a personal goal of growing InQuicker until it provided online registration and queueing services to 50-100 healthcare facilities in the United States.
In 2008, InQuicker (still a part-time job) grew from one healthcare facility to three. I graduated university and accepted a position with another company as a web software developer.
In 2009, I quit my day job and began working with an amazing business partner who is now CEO and co-founder of InQuicker.
In 2010, InQuicker grew from three healthcare facilities to twenty-one.
Five years into this remarkable adventure, InQuicker has officially surpassed my initial dream in every way; as of September 1, 2011, we count 100 ERs and urgent care centers across the United States as our customers and partners. InQuicker is a thriving business: profitable, with satisfied customers and millions of dollars in annual revenue.
We didn’t go to Silicon Valley or New York City; in fact, the people who power this company are spread between Nashville, TN and Vancouver Island, BC. We never raised outside funding; we grew slowly1, and allowed our limited capital to keep us efficient. We solved problems which many considered to be unsolveable and unmonetizeable. We constantly found ourselves at odds with the prevailing culture of the healthcare industry.
Throughout this adventure, Hacker News has served as a crucial source of inspiration and encouragement. HN was a constant reminder that our seemingly-crazy approach to business wasn’t really that crazy, and that countless other companies were on similar paths in other industries. My adventure with InQuicker has been more enjoyable and successful because of this site.
To Paul Graham, to Y Combinator, and to the many people who comprise this hacker community: Thank you.
-
“Growing slowly” is definitely a matter of perspective. Our year over year growth is in the neighborhood of 7-12x depending on what metric you use, so I’m not sure the word “slowly” really applies anymore. ↩
