$1m+/year tech startup idea for non-tech founders
Welcome to issue #3 of No-Code Startup Ideas. This week’s idea: A Nurse Hiring Platform.
Read on to find out why this is such a massive opportunity, how to build it with zero code, and how to get your first 10 customers.
What is this newsletter about?
After bootstrapping my first company (a software recruitment platform) to $20K+ per month using no-code tools, I started having way too many no-code startup ideas to ever pursue myself.
So each week, I send out a deeply researched business plan for a validated, profitable startup that you can start with no coding and very little money.
My goal: To help you start a bootstrapped business that pays $10K+ per month and lets you live the life you want. 🚀
The methodology
For each idea, we go through:
- The opportunity
- JTBD (Jobs to be done)
- Why now
- Companies that have proven the market
- The niche
- Pricing and revenue projections
- How to build the no-code MVP step-by-step
- Startup costs and time to profitability
- Tactics to get the first 10 customers
Let’s go!
The Opportunity: Nurse Hiring Platform
What are the hardest jobs for recruiters to fill? You’d probably say software developers… but it turns out nurses are equally difficult to hire.
There are fewer nurses than nursing job vacancies. Which means that helping hospitals hire nurses is a very valuable service.
This is proven by Incredible Health, a nurse-hiring startup that helps hospitals save $2M/year in HR costs (they just raised a $15M series B) by providing a “flipped job board” model.
How it works: Job-seeking nurses make profiles, then the platform shows matching profiles to hospital recruiters, who pay a fee for access.
In this issue, we’ll discuss why this is an awesome business model for a no-coder and how you can build it & get customers.
Side note: Nursing is just one angle. Turns out there are other wide-open hard-to-hire niches. For instance:
- Financial controllers, accountants and valuation analysts
- Optometrists
- Sales
JTBD (Jobs To Be Done)
Here are the jobs that hospitals need done when they’re hiring nurses (applies to just about any hiring process):
- Reach a pool of candidates
- Narrow down that pool into a shortlist that are most relevant and qualified
- Schedule interviews
- Conduct the interviews and score the candidates
- Select the right candidate and hire them
And nurses? They want to:
- Find a new job without spending too much effort
- Make more $$
- Reduce commute time
- Improve working conditions
Why now
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that medical professionals are the heroes.
There was a 186% spike in demand for nurses due to the pandemic, plus increases in nurse turnover and stress. Industry projections show there will be a shortage of 1 million nurses by 2024.
Nursing is a job-seeker’s market. By giving nurses a way to apply to many postings with just one profile, you’re making it easier for them to find their next job.
By helping hospitals hire more easily, you’re enabling them to put resources they would have spent hiring to better use elsewhere (to the tune of $2m/year).
Companies that have proven the market
Incredible Health is crushing it. Not only have they raised $17m+, but they appear to actually have customers.
Incredible Health’s model is very close to that of Hired, a hiring platform for software developers. They made a splash with their whole “let companies apply to you” thing. They raised $102+m before getting acquired last year.
Nursing staffing firms have also been very successful, which shows how dire the problem is for hospitals. These firms exist solely to help hospitals fill hard-to-hire roles by providing temporary nurses at a higher cost.
The space is so hot, there are even companies focused on helping other people start their own medical staffing companies.
As icing on the cake, the big job boards have thriving nursing sections (260k+ posts on Indeed). And there are several dedicated nursing job sites (NursingJobs.com, Nurse.com) with “meh” experiences.
None of these companies can afford to go niche. They need to focus nationwide, targeting all nurses everywhere. That’s your opportunity.
