Monday, June 10, 2024, 6:00 AM
In today's Founder Profile, Jennifer Seig meets with Ben Maltap, founder of digital-first home healthcare company Cera, to find out what the physician-turned-entrepreneur has learned from his fast-growing business journey so far.
Psychotherapist Katherine Morgan Shuffle once wrote that while ambition is far from the “universal trait” some think it is, if you're one of the lucky few who have it, the opportunities are endless.
That ambition was what prompted Ben Maltap to found Cera, a digital-first home healthcare company, in 2016.
Juggling a career as a doctor with caring for his injured 66-year-old mother at home wasn't easy, but after discovering there was a significant lack of time-efficient healthcare options in the UK, Marutap was ambitious to make it work.
“I have seen first-hand the challenges in this area, not as a doctor or a policy maker, but as someone who has gone through the process of planning care for a loved one,” said Marutap, 36. Ambition AM
What I have found when looking more into this area is that carers and care staff are truly well-intentioned and want the best for those they care for, but are limited in the tools and organisational tools they have.
Ben Maltap, founder and CEO of Sera
With Thera now treating more than two million patients a month (an average of around 60,000 appointments a day) and generating annual revenues of £300 million, Marutap feels more confident in his decision than ever before.
How Sera Works
Cera partners with hundreds of local authorities and the NHS in the UK to enable families and healthcare providers to collect, monitor and respond to a range of key health signs in real time.
The company's AI-powered app aims to reduce hospital admissions and ultimately ease the burden on the NHS, saving an estimated £1 billion per year by 2026.
“We built an algorithm that could predict 83 percent of falls a week before they occurred,” Marutap says.
“Within the first two weeks of implementing the algorithm, we saw a 25 percent reduction in falls.
“Tools like these allow us to provide a much better service than would be possible without our technology, which in turn gives peace of mind to loved ones and people like me when I was planning my mother's care.”
Growing Pains
Marutap may not be the first entrepreneur to turn a personal frustration into a business solution, but he is one who has helped prove that it is certainly possible to scale an idea quickly.
But the bigger you get, the more growing pains there will be.
“We had to build the technology, recruit caregivers, get regulatory certification and then find a bigger office space after we hired more people. [and] “Think about how you train your caregivers,” Marutap says.
“Everything started from scratch and it was definitely a learning experience.”
But when it comes to entrepreneurial ambitions, starting from scratch is never a hurdle.
Building a team
Sera now employs 10,000 people, and Marutap admits that expanding the business has been one of its biggest challenges.
“I've never built a team, never led a team full time, never worked full time at a company,” the entrepreneur added.
His advice? Understand the importance of teamwork from the very beginning.
“Early on, it was clear to me that I needed to assemble a team – a good team – who could cover a lot of the areas I didn't know much about. Otherwise, it would be difficult to set up the business and ramp it up quickly,” Marutap added.
“The biggest responsibility of a founder is to secure great talent, because if you have great talent and a strong mission, everything else falls into place.”
Like any good startup, Cera's growth shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
“We expect further geographic, service and data expansion over the next few years,” Marutap said with a smile.
resume
name: Ben Maltap
company: Sera
Established: 2016
staff: Approximately 10,000
title: Founder and CEO
Year: 36
to be born: London, United Kingdom
residence: London, United Kingdom
Research Subjects: Oxford University, Cambridge University, Harvard University
talent: I strongly believe that motivation, perseverance and passion are more important than talent.
motto: “It always seems impossible until it's done” Nelson Mandela
Best known: Innovation in Healthcare
First ambition: Flying a plane
Favorite book: The 4-Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferriss
Best advice: Teamwork makes the dream work
