Laurence Bargery, Co-Founder and CTO of accuRx, a health-tech startup that improves communication between doctors and patients, detailed how they turned their struggling health-tech product into a solution that now holds 99% market share among all GP practices. That’s right—99% market share.
They had an idea that had the potential to change the world.
accuRx’s initial vision was to address the critical issue of antibiotic resistance—an emerging threat that could leave humanity increasingly defenseless against germs and diseases. They aimed to develop software that would help healthcare professionals determine when patients should or shouldn’t be prescribed antibiotics, ensuring that patients received the appropriate treatment while mitigating the risks of growing antibiotic resistance.
It was an excellent idea, but there was no market for it.
Undoubtedly, this product would have provided substantial value, given that it addressed a genuine existential threat to humanity. However, after a year of effort, the product simply wasn’t gaining traction. There weren’t enough customers willing to pay for it.
“A good day was when we reached double digits [in new customers].”
Despite Laurence and the team’s best efforts, they couldn’t shift people’s behavior and had to return to the drawing board. They had yet to find product-market fit.
Here’s how they discovered the solution.
Talking to their customers was the first step in finding a solution. This required Laurence and the crew to obtain a behind-the-scenes look at a general practitioner’s office.
For three months, a number of the accuRx team members got up early and commuted to an Oxford general practitioner’s office to watch how it operated.
Although they referred to their services as “bespoke consultations,” their true goal was to learn about the issues that their clients were dealing with on a daily basis.
The outcome? The team was flooded with excellent problems they could handle after three months of listening to calls, watching conversations, and generally “getting under the skin” of the general practitioner’s office. The most difficult thing for them now was determining which issue to tackle first.
They prioritized their ideas and began with a straightforward one.
The accuRx team made the decision to create a very simple application that would enable general practitioners to text patients with significantly less faff than previously.
They selected it since it was a necessity for all general practitioners and was very easy for them to construct and for general practitioners to use. Their best likelihood of success was due to simplicity and the potential market for each GP.
After building it swiftly, they began testing it with the general practitioner’s office they had been consulting. Positive comments were left by users, who obviously appreciated the time savings.
How they employed growth hacking to acquire their first customers.
They had a basic product they were confident GPs would appreciate—but they needed to reach those GPs.
To connect personally, accuRx decided to align with GP communications by reaching out offline. They sent leaflets to over 1,000 GP practices, each featuring a hand-written post-it note that explained their new SMS tool. Two GPs responded, expressing interest in trying it out.
Since the product was still in its early stages, they had to create websites for each GP practice that signed up. This was a classic case of doing things that don’t scale, but it worked. They successfully attracted their first customers, and the rest, as they say, is history.
How they achieved a 99% market share.
Their product was highly regarded by GPs, and they experienced robust growth, mainly driven by word of mouth and referral features, reaching a 50% market share just before Covid struck.
However, the pandemic changed everything. All GPs suddenly had to communicate with their patients from a distance, and AccuRx quickly introduced tools to help, such as video consultations. Within weeks, they shot up to a remarkable 99% market share.
They were in the right place at the right time, but most importantly, they were tackling problems that their customers truly cared about. They learned through experience that this is the foundation of startup success.