Tom Kelly: Italian influences, how to build a start up and raise funding whilst being a doctor with no direct business experience, surgical registrar turned start up founder building the next step in clinical training + secrets for a long life!

The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal

Take flight into Tom's journey - Sunrise in Melbourne, with Italian influences including how his parents meeting at an Italian restaurant, his dad being a chef, and early memories of working in his family’s restaurant business learning how to take orders, process bills and more.

We go into Tom’s time working as a doctor including his

- reflections on spending 10 years in the public health system and advice to future medical students

- The moment that sealed the realisation that its time to go all in on Oscer, the company he’s founder and CEO at, building the next step in clinical training.

- Secrets picked up from treating patients for living a healthy life

and if you have an idea and not quite sure on how to turn it into a business - we spend 30 mins spent on how Tom started the business, Oscer whilst being a doctor, learning how to build a no code platform, finding engineers, learning about investment and how VC’s work through podcasts and online content and more!

TIMESTAMPS

02:48 - Quick Facts about Tom

05:45 - Tom’s sunrise in Melbourne (Italian heritage, family restaurant business)

09:33 - Heroes growing up

12:20 - Meaning of success at 16

15:00 - The decision to study medicine

18:00 - Realising it was time to change and go all in on Oscer

21:20 - Reflections on 10 years in medicine and if anything would have been different in hindsight

23:00 - Advice for future medical students

25:00 - most memorable experience as a surgical registrar and personal impact

29:40 - Secrets picked up from treating patients for living a healthy life

33:45 - how Tom started Oscer the business having mainly Medical experience, not commerce

34:20 - Creating the first online prototype with low or no code options

38:55 - ignore the business and focus on the problem and customer

41:20 - How Tom balanced doctor hours + building a business on the side

44:00 - Adding 1 to a measure of time, putting in the time to reach product market fit

45:40 - How to find engineers to build product and when to bring them into business

53:00 - The decision to consider VC funding and learning business metrics coming from a medical background

55:00 - Learning pitch process and VC funding through podcasts and online content (All in Podcast + The Pitch are Tom’s favourites)

57:00 - Investing time horizons and securing capital at early stage

1:01:17 - Biggest difference between surgeon and entrepreneur

1:03:45 - final sprint and parting thoughts

Enjoy!

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Stay tuned for the launch of CURIOSITY CENTER, coming in early 2022!

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This episode & show is to inspire all us to be high flyers in any aspect of life & flip the notion of a high flyer, learning from value creators to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.