Our latest interviewee is Savvas Neophytou, co-founder and CEO of Dr Now. Previously he spent 15 years as an investment banker and equity analyst at JP Morgan, Bear Stearns, Shore Capital, Cantor Fitzgerald and Panmure Gordon. As a highly acclaimed analyst he won multiple awards, most recently in 2015, when Savvas was ranked 2nd overall in the prestigious Reuters Starmine survey, a position he also held in 2014. In the same year, he was also runner up in the CityAM Analyst of the Year awards. Sav holds a PhD in psychopharmacology from Nottingham University and a BSc (Hons) degree in pharmacology from Manchester University. Here’s how our interview went…
How would you pitch your company? What’s your elevator pitch?
Launched in 2015, the Dr Now app provides remote video consultations with GPs for the UK market complete with a pharmacy solution. With some 50m GP appointments in the UK currently requiring more than 7 days waiting time, the company’s platform is designed to service “on the go society.” In a real world test, it has been shown to reduce costs associated with sickness absence in the workplace by more than 25%.
Dr Now’s offering can also be structured in a tax-efficient way so that it is not treated as a taxable benefit. The company aims to have national premium 1-2 hour delivery option or free next day delivery.
What sets you apart from competitors?
Our platform has been built bottom up, designed to monitor, measure and model demand so that we can efficiently match it with supply. We also offer broadest vertical integration with pharmacy, diagnostic and adherence services.
What’s your business model?
We aim to provide best in class primary healthcare services in the UK initially followed by targeted international expansion. We continue to add services, including pharmacy services, diagnostics, specialist care (e.g. Mental health). Long term, we also continue to develop integration with wearable technology biometrics, and more focus on ongoing care and management of patients.
Can you share some numbers? How many users do you have?
We are currently in soft launch phase, no active marketing has been undertaken and therefore all our users have been accumulated passively. Currently numbers are in the hundreds, and we aim to have full commercial launch in October.
Where do you see the company going from here?
Obtain a dominant market share in the UK and follow a plan of targeted geographical roll-out. We also plan to develop new innovation and work closely with partners that can help us accelerate that plan.
Where do you see the mHealth industry going?
We expect mHealth to show very strong growth over the next 10 years
How long are we from seeing modern mHealth technologies going mainstream?
We expect mHealth technologies to overtake Telehealth technologies this decade.