[Ep 27] CEO of Florence: From NHS Doctor to Tech CEO

In this episode of Master Your Mistakes, I'm joined by Dr. Charles Armitage, the CEO and co-founder of Florence. Florence is the leading platform helping Health and Social Care organisations manage, optimise, and upskill their workforce.Charles shares his unique journey from being a doctor in the NHS to launching a major tech company. He dives deep into the "one-way door" mistakes - the ones that are nearly impossible to reverse - and why the early foundations of your company (like co-founder choice and cap tables) are your most vulnerable moments.0:00 – Introduction & Welcome3:16 – Charles's Background: From Doctor to Entrepreneur5:19 – Mistake #1: Choosing Co-Founders & Dead Equity10:00 – Why Founding Documents Are a One-Way Door14:00 – Mistake #2: Building the Wrong Product First18:00 – Outsourcing Tech on Upwork & Burning the Budget21:00 – Going Back to Basics: Google Sheets as MVP22:00 – Building Your Entrepreneurial Network25:15 – Accelerators, Upscale & Finding Stage-Specific Peers27:15 – Investor Relationships: Angels vs. Institutional Rounds29:30 – Managing Multiple Investors with Competing Interests31:12 – Mistake #3: Over-Expanding on Covid-Fuelled Growth33:00 – The Covid Revenue Spike & Why It Came Crashing Down36:00 – Painful Lessons: Redundancies, Rightsizing & Recovery38:30 – Advice for CEOs Riding an Unexpected Growth Wave40:10 – The Future of Tech & AI Defensibility42:50 – What Charles Would Build Next (and Why)43:50 – Three Final Questions: Advice to Your Younger Self45:05 – Advice from Your Future Self47:19 – The Desiderata: Charles's Favourite Quotation50:04 – Wrap-Up