Youly are shaking up the women’s health industry with their online service that was created to make healthcare hassle-free. The brand has partnered with pharmacies across the country to offer Australia’s first-ever emergency contraception (morning after pill) delivery service, as well as the delivery of the contraceptive pill, treatment of HSV-1 Cold Sores, HSV-2 Herpes Simplex Virus and thrush, putting the power back into the hands of Australian women when it comes to their health.
The brand was founded by Nic Blair, who has a history of success in the startup realm, having launched a number of other businesses since 2011, including Search Factory (now iProspect Brisbane), Brus Media, a mobile advertising network and Bump Shoes, an ecommerce business that produces custom printed shoes.
Tell us about Youly.
Youly is an online health platform for women that provides fast, convenient and discreet access to prescriptions and delivery of treatments including the contraceptive pill, HSV-1 and HSV-2 treatments, thrush treatments and Australia’s first emergency contraception delivery.
What inspired you to start Youly?
It became clear to me through some research and many discussions that there should be a better way for Australians to gain access to treatments that didn’t involve them having to spend long wait times at the doctor or visit the pharmacy to pick up their medication. When it came to emergency contraception in particular, many women have either had a bad experience themselves or know of somebody that has, yet there was no other way to obtain the medication than in person while being questioned at the counter. This is what inspired me to go on a mission to solve these problems and provide an online platform to make it easier for thousands of Australians to access treatments and improve their lives.
Tell us about your career and background.
Since completing a marketing degree in 2006, I gained experience in a handful of digital marketing roles but found my true passion to be in entrepreneurship and startups. I launched my first (failed) startup in 2008 and have started a number of businesses since then. My greatest success has been with digital marketing agency Search Factory, which I founded in 2011 and was acquired in 2019 by global media group Dentsu. That same year I was awarded the Brisbane and Australian Young Entrepreneur in Marketing and PR by Business News Australia. I currently spend my time across three businesses, being Brus Media (mobile app marketing), Bump Products (bumpshoes.com) and now Midnight Health (Youly).
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Describe a typical work day for you.
While Midnight Health and Youly have become my main focus, I do spend time across all three businesses, so I break each day into segments to ensure that I’m most productive when working across each. I usually start working on Brus Media at 7am each morning, followed by a trip to Lemos BJJ for some jiu jitsu training at 11am (I think it’s important to keep active and healthy), then into the Midnight Health office to have meetings with the team and work on that business. In the evening I work on Bump Products when I need to so that we can also continue progressing things there and achieving growth.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a business?
Firstly, make sure you spend the time doing your research and developing a solid business plan. Don’t get drowned in the details, but I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to understand your numbers, the market you’re operating in and how the business will scale up profitably and acquire customers. Most of the time your projections or forecasts will be wrong, but you need to validate the fact that it can be a viable business. I’ve spent weeks on business plans in the past, only to realise at the end that the opportunity is not what I thought it could be. Better to find that out at the start than after investing loads more time and money into it.
Once your business is launched, it is super important that you have good processes in place for managing your financial information. Ensure that your bookkeeping is being done regularly and you review your P&L on a frequent basis. Many business owners mistake revenue for profit, and don’t realise until it’s too late that they aren’t actually making any money, or don’t understand the levers in their business that impact their financials and can either help or hinder their growth.
What’s next for you, and Youly?
Youly is the first brand to be launched out of a parent company called Midnight Health. Since launching Youly, we see an opportunity to provide similar online solutions for a number of different demographic markets that require more tailored treatments and will be launching another three brands this year, with our next venture focusing on men’s health. Between this and the next two brands, I’d say that myself and the team have a pretty busy 2021 ahead of us!
