Local Physio Network was founded in May, 2020 with the aim of making booking a physio appointment easy and friction-free.
Co-founded by Matthew Gregory and Scott Gentle, Local Physio Network uses expert knowledge from physiotherapist Scott, and tech startup skills from Matt, to provide a relevant and user friendly booking service.
When asked what started the business, co-founder Matt said “It was may 2020, a couple of months into Covid when one of my best mates Scott Gentle, a physiotherapist and clinic owner came to me looking for some digital help. Like many small businesses at the time he was experiencing a downturn in revenue, which, in his case, meant fewer patient bookings”. It was likely Scott was not the only practitioner who experienced this problem, with 35 611 physiotherapists being registered Australia wide in 2020 according to the Australian Government Physiotherapist Board.
The pair decided to delve into this problem space when Matt overviewed Scott’s digital setup and highlighted the need to implement some basic search engine and conversion rate optimisations. With this change, they noticed that Scott’s website wasn’t alone and booking an appointment with any physio was a process that involved researching, phone calls, and constantly being put on hold.
The friction between patient and clinic and their experiences combined, led the pair to ideate the Local Physio Network. The platform is a physiotherapy booking service that bypasses all the pain, frustration and time-wasting by booking an appointment with a nearby physio in less than 60 seconds.
When asked what drew co-founder Matt to becoming an entrepreneur he said “ My creativity is a large part of what draws me into starting a business. As an entrepreneur, you’re a creator, and for me, there’s nothing more exciting than creating a solution that solves a problem for yourself, and other people decide to use it – because it helps them too.”
As for Scott, he is still practicing physiotherapy at his clinic, whilst putting in the efficient efforts to help scale the platform. With this, the pairs biggest success so far has simply been their ability to work so well together and get sh*t done. Co-founder Matt says “When you’re starting out, money is always an issue, and it’s easy to cut corners, but when you’re trying to create something meaningful, cutting corners almost always leads to disappointment.”
Now the majority of the strategy and planning has been completed, they are ready to take on scaling the platform by adding new patient funnels like Physio Near Me and Book Physio, executing more sales and on-boarding clinics.
Matt and Scott find a lot of value in working at a coworking space, prior to fishburners co-founder Matt worked at another coworking space and he said “ The difference with Fishburners is that there is a real sense of community, it’s unpretentious and provides a fun environment to work… I can safely say that we wouldn’t be as far down our journey without the Fishburners!”. For Scott “ Fishburners has been the perfect place to fast-track his understanding of being a tech founder”.
Written by Hannah Johnston, Fishburners.
