Tool Review of the Week: How Buildpad Helped Me Create a Healthcare Venture from Scratch
As someone who loves new ideas, I’m always curious about tools that promise to simplify the often overwhelming journey of testing whether an idea actually has legs. This week, I put Buildpad to the test (an AI-powered tool that claims it can take you all the way from idea validation to a full product launch plan).
Spoiler alert: this one is so good it feels illegal to know.
Starting from Zero
I wanted to test Buildpad without a prepared idea, so I dove in cold. My goal was to create something meaningful in healthcare (an area I’m passionate about) but with no specific concept yet in mind. It helps to have a general sense of the niche you want to start a business in but this isn't a prerequisite.
Step 1: Deep-Dive Validation
Buildpad starts you off with problem validation, encouraging you to clearly define and deeply understand the issue you want to tackle. I typed in some general healthcare-related interests, and Buildpad performed a deep search, combing through thousands of Reddit threads and online discussions. It took a little time, but the insights were worth it.
What really impressed me was how Buildpad didn’t just dump a bunch of data on me. Instead, it prompted me with targeted, reflective questions that genuinely helped me explore nuances I hadn’t considered. The quality of these prompts clearly showed the influence of people with genuine startup expertise.
Through these exercises, I narrowed down my broad interest in healthcare to a very specific problem area: diabetes management within NHS clinics.
Step 2: Shaping the Solution
Interestingly, Buildpad placed the solution-shaping phase before developing detailed user personas: unusual at first glance, but this actually highlighted the elegance and sophistication of the platform. Often, the richest insights into your problem and target audience emerge as you start to define your solution.
Although Buildpad doesn't invent ideas for you (it expects users to have foundational knowledge) it significantly improved my depth of understanding. It even highlighted complexities I might encounter integrating solutions into NHS systems.
Step 3: User Personas (and a Minor Hiccup)
Next was crafting detailed user personas. While the persona-builder interface was visually engaging and insightful, there was a small hiccup: Buildpad seemed to momentarily forget insights from previous phases, prompting me again to define the user problem.
Additionally, Buildpad expects you to know your primary/secondary users well; I pivoted mid-process from patients to clinicians and unfortunately had to start again. Lesson learned, but look at how creepily accurate this AI-generated persona is!
Step 4: Verifying Demand
Buildpad then helped me verify demand through well-structured questionnaires and surveys targeted directly at my user group. It provided concrete advice on reaching potential users, including strategic online communities and specific platforms, making this step clear to execute. Note that the platform doesn't use synthetic personas or any other built-in research methods.
Step 5: MVP Development Plan
With solid validation data, Buildpad delivered a clear, actionable development roadmap. Initially, it felt a bit lazy when prompting me to choose the platform's core features (how dare it!), but nudging it quickly yielded useful recommendations.
Its recommendation for the ideal no-code platform (Bubble) based on compliance, database requirements, and healthcare suitability was pretty impressive.
Step 6: Solid Go-To-Market Planning
The final stage, GTM planning, was detailed, providing clear timelines and prioritising channels logically, though more explanation on why specific channels were prioritised would have been helpful.
An impressive bonus was the tailored recommendation of specific NHS trusts to target first, based on their significant diabetes services. They also generated this one pager to share with my target users!
A Missing Piece: Venture Naming
Interestingly, Buildpad didn't prompt me to create a venture name upfront. When asked, its generated suggestions were somewhat cheesy but served as a helpful starting point; with some minor tweaking, I settled on "DiaCare.."
Should You Try Buildpad?
This is one I was tempted to gatekeep but, absolutely. Buildpad’s intuitive interface, thoughtful prompts, and structured guidance vastly outperformed generic AI solutions like ChatGPT alone. The platform genuinely makes entrepreneurship accessible, perhaps worryingly so. This is just one platform that reinforces my view that the future belongs to businesses equipped with specialised data, strategic relationships, and strong talent.
Have you tested any interesting tools lately? Drop me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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