Nurse Tech Entrepreneurs Launch Online Marketplace For Nurses
This episode of the Ask Nurse Alice podcast features Anthony Scarpone-Lambert and Jennifferre Mancillas, co-founders of ADNI, the one-stop-shop community marketplace for healthcare workers. In their interview with Nurse Alice, they explain their entrepreneurial journey, the challenges they encountered along the way, and the advice they have for nurses hoping to pursue a similar path.
This content used under license from "Ask Nurse Alice."
From nurses to entrepreneurs
Scarpone-Lambert's nursing journey began with a passion for problem-solving and caring for others. He initially pursued a career in theater, but found that nursing offered a more desirable intersection of his passions and versatile career opportunities.
Mancillas's journey was influenced by her personal experiences with healthcare from an early age, as her sister had a congenital heart defect and her mother worked as a CNA. She also had a passion for helping people and finding solutions to problems. She quickly discovered that nursing allowed her to use her problem-solving skills to make things more efficient and safer for patients.
Image: Jennifferre Mancillas and Anthony Scarpone-Lambert
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The pair met at a Nurse Hack-a-thon, a conference-like event where nurses come together to create solutions to common problems. Scarpone-Lambert believes this event was the first time he had really considered a nurse’s role in innovation.
After brainstorming several ideas, Scarpone-Lambert and Mancillas came up with the Lumify uNight Light, a wearable light for healthcare workers that illuminates workspaces and care areas without disturbing patients. The launch of the Lumify uNight Light was a huge success and Scarpone-Lambert attributes this to the fact that he and Mancillas were “nurses building for nurses.” As community support grew, Scarpone-Lambert says they were inspired to create something “bigger and better” to serve the needs of healthcare workers.
“We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to bring together everything healthcare workers need into one marketplace?’” Scarpone-Lambert says in the episode.
From there, they went on to launch LumifyCare, which has since been rebranded to ADNI, a community marketplace for healthcare workers.
During this episode, Scarpone-Lambert and Mancillas explain that their nursing education and clinical experience provided a strong foundation for their journey into entrepreneurship because nurses are natural problem solvers and innovative thinkers. However, they also acknowledged that many of the things you need to become a successful entrepreneur are not taught in nursing school, such as financing, marketing, and product development. They faced significant personal challenges when launching ADNI, including imposter syndrome, doubt, and fear.
To address these initial challenges, Scarpone-Lambert and Mancillas leaned on their foundational nursing skills, such as critical thinking, empathy, and resourcefulness. They also found mentors, connected with other entrepreneurs on LinkedIn, and made a conscious effort to learn the skills needed to run their business successfully.
What is ADNI Marketplace?
In 2021, Scarpone-Lambert and Mancillas launched the ADNI Marketplace, a one-stop shop for all of the supplies, gear, and resources that healthcare workers need to do their jobs.
The marketplace offers a wide range of products, including digital resources, scrubs, shoes, stethoscopes, pens, badges, compression socks, aromatherapy candles, and wellness products.
Over 50% of the products are created by other healthcare professionals. Scarpone-Lambert and Mancillas see ADNI as a launching pad for nurses who want to bring their ideas to life and share them with the healthcare community.
Each purchase from the ADNI Marketplace earns you reward credits, which you can apply toward future purchases.
The ADNI Marketplace also provides an opportunity for employers to support their staff by providing credits as a way to offset out-of-pocket expenses.
Scarpone-Lambert and Mancillas’s launch of ADNI marketplace is just one example of how nurses can use their skills and knowledge to create innovative solutions that support their colleagues and improve the healthcare system as a whole.
Image: @adniapp on Instagram
How healthcare workers can create innovative solutions
The podcast episode also highlights the fact that nurses are often told to focus on direct patient care and leave the technical and business aspects of healthcare to other professionals. However, Scarpone-Lambert and Mancillas's success shows that nurses are just as capable of developing and implementing innovative solutions. They emphasize that nurses should not limit themselves and should explore opportunities to use their skills and knowledge in different areas.
“Entrepreneurship is a rough road sometimes, a bit of a rollercoaster,” Mancillas says in the episode. “It’s absolutely important that you are passionate about what you’re trying to solve and who you’re trying to solve for.”
Nurses have not always been welcome in the entrepreneurial space, or taught how to navigate it. According to Scarpone-Lambert and Mancillas, it is also common to encounter skepticism or even criticism from other nursing colleagues when taking the leap into entrepreneurship. Regardless, they urge nurses to take the blinders off, recognize the size and importance of the healthcare industry, and to consider how helpful improvements and contributions can be made.
The healthcare industry is constantly changing, and it is important that healthcare workers be at the forefront of innovation. They are the ones who see the challenges faced by patients and their colleagues on a daily basis and are often the first to identify areas where improvements can be made. This has led to the development of many innovative solutions that have improved patient care and made the work of healthcare workers easier in recent years. Scarpone-Lambert and Mancillas also emphasize the importance of nurses thinking beyond patient care and considering how they can contribute to and improve the healthcare industry as a whole.
“We’re all in this together,” Scarpone-Lambert says in the episode. “That’s exactly what our brand stands for.”
The ADNI marketplace has garnered great success and it is an excellent example of how nurses can lead through entrepreneurship and create solutions that address the challenges faced by healthcare workers. Nursing offers unlimited career versatility and opportunities for growth and development, and Scarpone-Lambert and Mancillas demonstrate the limitless potential for nurses to make a significant impact in healthcare and beyond.
Be sure to visit the ADNI marketplace and follow their journey on social media @adniapp.
