Becoming Dr Purcell has been my North Star from a really young age. I have always been driven and worked hard to get my place at Bristol University studying medicine. But university was also where my dyslexia threw up more learning challenges than I’d ever faced.
No amount of buckling down can help with the hurdles faced by people who take in information differently to “the norm”, and I found the intensive study, wide-ranging presentations and mass of medical terminology particularly hard to navigate.
Starting my first business
Plucking up the courage to discuss this with others on my course over beers (which turned out to be my first, rudimentary market research) I realised I wasn’t the only one. So, a friend and I decided to do something about it. We pooled a small amount of our student loan and recruited two computer science undergrads by sticking up a post on a notice board. After many long days and late nights, we released our first piece of assistive technology, which we eventually managed to get taken up by Bristol Uni itself.
Generating a small amount of capital, we were able to re-invest this and re-built various aspects of the software and pedalled relentlessly. Eventually, and against all odds, we started to see the business grow. When starting CareScribe, I was able to not only invest more into it but also I’d learnt a huge amount about building a business. Most importantly, where to spend money and where not to. Spending your own money means you really think about where every penny is spent and what impact it’s likely to have.
Growing CareScribe
Now a qualified doctor and few years into the business, CareScribe offers two key products: the newly-updated Caption.Ed (AI-powered captioning and note-taking) and TalkType (dictation software for Mac). Both are used by thousands of people globally, every day. Our team has grown from three to 30 in just 12 months, and we’re working and innovating at pace.
My brother joined me as business partner, having left his job in the City, and our mission remains one of creating assistive technology to help people access the world and level the playing field. We believe that everyone has the right to live the life they wish, and disability and neurodiversity should not stand in the way.
Developing our products
It’s brilliant to help people who are in the same position I was at medical school, and there’s so much we want to do with the products. They’re currently helping university students in London and beyond, and we’re branching out into schools and also workplaces. There’s so much potential – for example, with Caption.Ed, [nine] different languages can be captured, accurately, and captioned, from pre-recorded presentations and lectures to live conversations. Then people can go back in and add notes and annotations – they can even attach images and relevant presentations. It’s designed to support the way we all absorb information.
We know how important captions are to everyone – according to Netflix figures 80% of all viewers watch with subtitles. Captions improve how information is processed, whether you’re deaf, have hearing loss, are neurodivergent, or just trying to be attentive in lectures and meetings. The idea is that note-taking can become effortless – feedback is that it’s a gamechanger in terms of accessibility and also productivity.
Facing into our business challenges
So running and growing CareScribe is incredibly rewarding, but, as a business owner, the challenges haven’t ended there. Growing a business so quickly and balancing that with my vocation as a doctor has been tough. I’ve also gone back into hospitals during the pandemic.
Having a sibling as business partner has been both incredible (there’s no one I know better or trust more) but also difficult to navigate. Inevitably it’s all-consuming and we are always focused on the business rather than the personal. And our partners are inevitably involved, as well as our parents. They all want us to succeed but have all probably had to make sacrifices along the way as well. The business will come up without fail at every family gathering.
For the time being, we’re also self-funding to retain control. We firmly feel that we should answer only to ourselves and our customers, rather than investors. We aim to stay creative and build great products that make the world more accessible and inclusive. And being Dr Purcell is still a guiding light for me – I’m not ready to put down my stethoscope just yet.
Richard Purcell, founder, CareScribe
