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.

Follow us on:
🗞 Substack
💼 LinkedIn
▶ YouTube

🎧 Listen now on:
🔹 Spotify
🔹 Apple Podcasts