Episode 18: Dr Henry Carleton on Pioneering NHS SaaS, Scaling Without VC, and Bootstrapping to a Double Exit
Description
What happens when a junior doctor builds a SaaS business for the NHS before SaaS was even a thing?
In this episode, we sit down with Dr Henry Carleton — founder of Circadian and Four Eyes Insight, two healthcare software companies that changed the face of workforce and theatre productivity in the NHS. Both exited successfully, setting a blueprint for clinician-led innovation long before the health tech boom.
Henry’s story spans from sneaking off to France mid-med school to run a classified ads business, to bootstrapping one of the most widely adopted rota management tools in the UK — all without a single VC cheque.
- ✈️ The med student years: failing rotations while flying to Montpellier to run a print newspaper
- 🍷 Why his first wine business failed — and what it taught him about risk, contracts, and taste-testing the stock
- 🧠 Spotting an unsexy NHS workforce problem no one was solving — and turning it into a thriving SaaS business
- 💡 Bootstrapping to product-market fit without investors, incubators, or buzzwords
- 🧾 Navigating acquisition as a first-time founder and why he did it all again with business #2
- 🧭 His no-nonsense advice for clinicians thinking of leaving medicine or building in health tech
This is a masterclass in resilience, timing, and building what the NHS actually needs — long before it’s ready for it.
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