The post was originally published in Russian on Startup of the Day. Alexander kindly agreed to republish what we think is of great value to our readers.
‘Uber’ is one of the most blurry words in the startup industry, only ‘marketplace’ can compare by the lack of definition. Here’s Intelycare, the startup of the day, – your typical Uber for nurses. The worker signs up with the platform, picks free shifts at local hospitals – and works at convenient times keeping their work-life balance. Correspondingly, hospitals can easily close the gaps in their timetables. Uber as it is, nothing to talk about.
However, at a closer look, it’s built a lot differently from the taxis. There you have a regular aggregator working with the passenger, i.e. the end client. Intelycare works with a service provider, with a taxi depot in the taxi terminology.
The original Uber has pushed the traditional competition in many countries at the account of non-licensed drivers. ‘We don’t offer taxi services, it’s just some nice guys giving a ride to hitchhikers.’ IntelyCare only works with formal nurses.
The market gets built differently in different cities and countries, but in Moscow, for example, overtiming is normal for taxi drivers, not a hint of work-life balance whatsoever, and for IntelyCare it’s arguably the main advertising statement.
Why employers don’t even have an app to use, everything is through a web interface. Still it’s an Uber. By the way, it’s already a unicorn, the valuation is USD 1.1B after the latest round.
#megaround #uber #healthcare #usa
Translation: Kostiantyn Tupikov
Alexander made his career in Russian internet companies including Mail.Ru, Rambler, RBC. From 2016 to 2018 he was Chief Strategy and Analytics officer in Mail.Ru Group. In this position, he worked on M&A, investments, and new project launches. In 2018 he became Deputy CEO in Citymobil, a Russian Uber-like company that was invested by Mail.Ru Group and Sberbank (the biggest Russian bank), then he left the company to launch his own projects. Now Alexander is a co-founder of United Investors – the platform for co-investments in Russian early-stage startups. His blog #startupoftheday (#стартапдня) is one of the most popular blogs about startups in Russia.
