Nymbl Systems (nymbl.systems)
Countdown to the 2019 Client Showcase: #9
SBDC: Bluegrass SBDC – Kentucky (www.ksbdc.org)
SBDC Advisor: Gordon Garrett.
What do you do after you graduate from college with a degree in biology and realize you don’t really have the passion to pursue a career in medicine? Start a software company of course!
Josh Lau graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in biology and the realization that he did not have the passion necessary for a career in medicine. He decided to take a year off and see what opportunities might arise. He told himself that if nothing big came up he would return to school for a graduate degree. Luckily something big did come up.
While working in IT, Josh was asked by a client to help him find some new software for his orthotics and prosthetics business. Josh searched for months for software to meet his client’s needs and found nothing to fit the exceptionally specialized field. His client’s need and his own background propelled Josh to find ways to meet the need himself. He spent the next six months talking with orthotics and prosthetics providers, checking into every type of software available and really getting a handle on the software needs of the field.
At that point, Josh had an idea for a software product that could very easily take off. But without coding skills, Josh could not bring this software to market on his own. He started pitching the idea to IT firms around Lexington, but without investment dollars his vision of the best possible orthotics software was not going to get built.
One of the firms Josh spoke with put him in contact with a physician who was working on his own tech start-up. This doctor put him in contact with Kentucky SBDC Associate Director and tech entrepreneur Gordon Garrett.
“At that time, I had nothing to lose, I just went in and asked for advice,” says Josh. “Gordon helped me significantly in this whole process of narrowing down my mission statement and value proposition, and doing due diligence on the market — seeing if my idea was investor-friendly enough to bring in the type of money I needed. He also did everything within his power to get me in front of local investors. Going through all the exercises with Gordon helped me understand what I needed to do and really drilled home a pitch I could take to outside investors.”
With a honed pitch and the confidence to go out on his own, Josh found the investors he needed, raising $2.1 million to date. Investment dollars in place, Josh was able to hire the right team members and Nymbl Systems was up and running. They wrote the software in six months and started on-boarding clients, receiving their first payment on March 28, 2018.
Nymbl is a Cloud-Based Electronic Medical Records and Practice Management System. It caters to smaller, niche industries, specializing in outpatient care. Nymbl designs industry-specific software to help improve workflow and billing efficiencies.
“It’s been fun. At the beginning of 2018 there were only two of us and now we have 9 employees,” says Josh, “The growth has been fast and it was an awesome learning experience.”
Josh has also found within entrepreneurship a new passion for life, “This experience opened my eyes to doing something that I love. In college it felt like I was going through the motions, but every day I am excited to get up in the morning…. I love technology and solving complex issues with simple and elegant solutions. Every day there is a different puzzle to solve.”
Earlier this year, Nymbl Systems was selected to display at the Forbes under 30 Innovation Hub, and Lau has been nominated for the Forbes 30 under 30 list.
__________________________________________
The America’s SBDC Client Showcase and Reception will be held from 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm on Tuesday, February 12, 2019, in the Rayburn House Office Building Cafeteria.
Invite your Representatives and Senators to the Client Showcase and Reception now!
For more information about America’s SBDC and to find an SBDC near you, go to www.AmericasSBDC.org.