Author
Vlad Tudorie
This article is part of the Serenichron Business Insights Series, where we unpack what’s working, what’s not, and where things are headed for real-world business leaders.
Today’s story follows Attila Szelei, a former care assistant in the private healthcare sector who didn’t just leave the system, he built an alternative to it.
After spending a decade on the frontlines, he went on to create not one, but eight businesses that support nurses and caregivers who are ready to leave behind burnout and red tape. His leading platform, agencycarestaff.co.uk, serves as a hub for healthcare professionals seeking to start their own businesses and take control of their careers.
His work highlights just how deep the cracks run in UK healthcare: over 40% of medical staff suffer from burnout, and top-down reforms like the 2012 Health and Social Care Act have only added to the mess.
But Attila didn’t stop at escape. He built a ladder for others to climb with him. And that ladder?
What started as a survival move quickly evolved into a niche empire.
This is the story of how Attila built a healthcare start-up engine, the cracks he’s seeing in the market, and the digital challenges that every founder will eventually face.
It’s not easy. Around 25% of self-employed professionals in the UK don’t have health insurance. Over half of outsourced tech projects get delayed. Yet, through smart SEO, relentless learning, and community-focused growth, Attila has built a real blueprint for healthcare professionals who want to take back control—and do it on their own terms.
Let’s dive in.
From hospital corridors to company headquarters
Attila didn’t always plan to be an entrepreneur.
His entry into business came after a decade of working in the UK healthcare system, rising to a national role with significant responsibility.
“I started out as a care assistant, and I stayed in that business for about 10 years. I ended up at head office level with a national role, loads of responsibilities, but I got stuck in the corporate rat race.”
Like many professionals burned out by bureaucracy, Attila looked for a way out.
He started a few side ventures, and soon realised they could become more than just distractions.
Over time, his company became a lifeline for others wanting to leave the healthcare system and go independent.
“We became a one-stop company for anyone wanting to start a healthcare business in the UK, and then take it to the next level.”
This wasn’t just about business. It was personal. Many of his clients shared his story—nurses frustrated by endless regulation and poor working conditions.
He offered them a path forward.
Dominating the healthcare niche
Attila’s success lies in hyper-focus. We explored the power of this kind of focused drive in a recent article on how hyperfocus and dopamine loops fuel entrepreneurial success—especially among people wired for intense engagement.
Instead of chasing every opportunity, he zeroed in on a specific, underserved market: healthcare professionals looking to become business owners.
His edge? Deep domain expertise.
“Most of our clients are nurses or healthcare workers. They’re fed up with the system. The UK is probably the most regulated healthcare system in the world. So they come to us and say, ‘I want to start my own business.'”
What started as a narrow niche became a strategic advantage.
With real-life experience and a growing client base, Attila positioned his business as the go-to platform for starting and scaling healthcare ventures.
“We now have around 300 businesses in our portfolio. Some come and go, but many stay with us for other services once they’re up and running.”
This tells us a lot about retention and lifetime value. It’s not just about launching businesses—it’s about supporting them for the long haul.
SEO mastery and inbound dominance
Unlike many service businesses that rely on outbound sales or cold outreach, Attila’s team invested heavily in organic search. It paid off.
“Type anything like ‘start a care business in the UK’ into Google, and you’ll find us. We’re right there on the first page.”
That SEO dominance didn’t happen by accident. Attila built online visibility through persistent effort, niche content, and smart positioning.
“We were among the first in this space. Back in 2019, we were fully booked six months in advance. Clients would pay half upfront just to secure a slot.”
Today, the space is more crowded. The number of competitors has grown, and so has the challenge of standing out.
Tech troubles and digital growing pains
Despite his success, Attila has faced challenges in scaling digitally. His first experiments with automation were limited, and outsourcing software development turned out to be frustratingly slow.
“We started using Zapier about six months ago to automate lead generation. That’s pretty much it. Everything else is still manual.”
It’s a telling sign of how limited their digital infrastructure still is. Even small wins in automation make a difference—but there’s clearly room to grow. That makes the next challenge even more obvious.
“We work with a developer in Turkey and a team in Pakistan. It’s more affordable for us. But one of our SaaS projects is still not finished after a year and a half.”
Scaling a business digitally is never straightforward, and for Attila, it’s come with its fair share of headaches.
“We work with a developer in Turkey and a team in Pakistan. It’s more affordable for us. But one of our SaaS projects is still not finished after a year and a half.”
That 18-month delay isn’t rare—in fact, 52% of outsourced tech projects end up either over budget or running behind schedule.
And when you’re a founder who taught yourself WordPress and coding basics from scratch, the temptation to do it all yourself is strong.
But as Attila put it, “Solo founders wear too many hats,” and that’s not just a hunch—it matches the data, with 19% of tech projects failing outright.
It’s clear that his resourcefulness got him started, but now it’s becoming a bottleneck.
Attila’s DIY roots are still visible. He taught himself WordPress, coding basics, and digital marketing by pulling all-nighters and absorbing content like a sponge.
“I gave myself a year to learn. I slept four hours a night, spent the rest studying WordPress, marketing, business. Built a business directory from scratch.”
This hands-on approach helped him launch, but it also created a ceiling.
Attila now struggles with the limits of being the sole decision-maker on tech.
This is something I’ve seen time and again—solo founders wearing too many hats (and am still massively guilty of myself).
It works until it doesn’t.
That’s where systems and scalable thinking have to step in.
This insight reflects what many founders are quietly battling: the exhaustion of doing everything alone.
It’s not just a matter of effort—it’s about designing smarter, repeatable processes that don’t rely solely on you.
Delegation, capacity, and the bottleneck effect
Even with a team of 8 to 10 people across all ventures, Attila remains the key contact for every new client. That makes scale hard.
“Everyone wants to talk to me. I’m the face of the business. Once they trust me, I assign them to sub-teams, but I have to close the deal first.”
Delegation is a known issue. Finding the right people and training them to deliver at his standards remains one of the hardest parts of his journey.
“It’s hard to find the right people. Not everyone has the skills to do this work well. That slows us down.”
Even though they aren’t as booked out as in 2019, the demand is still there. But converting leads remains manual, time-consuming, and highly personal.
“The founder bottleneck is real—and dangerous. If every sale goes through you, your business can’t grow beyond your energy levels.”, I said.
And this is a message we need to keep hammering home—especially to those building service-based businesses. Delegation isn’t just an operational decision; it’s a survival strategy.
Competition, partnerships, and the path ahead
The healthcare start-up space in the UK has exploded—and so has the competition. That has forced Attila to get strategic.
“There used to be maybe 500 clients. Now there are 50, and we’re all fighting over them. Everyone’s doing what we do now.”
He’s been approached by bigger companies wanting to buy him out—some with tempting offers. So far, he’s said no.
“We had offers from companies that wanted to buy all eight of our businesses. I said no. Maybe I should’ve said yes.”
Instead of selling, he focused on partnerships. Their network of referral schemes brings in extra revenue and expands their reach without adding much overhead.
“We get bonuses every month from other businesses. If a client needs a service we don’t offer, we refer them and get paid for it.”
In other words, Attila is building an ecosystem—not just a company.
Final thoughts: Disrupting from within
Attila’s journey shows what happens when grit meets niche clarity. He didn’t just escape the healthcare system. He built a business that helps others do the same.
“Everything happened naturally. I didn’t know how to do anything else when I left the corporate world, so I started learning. From one thing came another.”
His story is a blueprint for founders stuck in outdated systems: start small, learn fast, serve deeply, and grow through real relationships.
Whether it’s through automation, SEO, or partnerships, Attila is proof that industry disruption doesn’t always come from the top down. Sometimes, it starts on the night shift of a care home.
