When developer, technology expert and entrepreneur Maxim Shklyar and Melbourne GP and financier Dr Asher Freilich joined forces to launch online prescription service InstantScripts, little did they know how successful the platform would become in just two years. Starting with just $50,000 of Asher’s own savings, today InstantScripts is Australia’s fastest-growing digital primary healthcare service, has helped more than 350,000 Australians, earned more than $7.5 million in FY21, and ranked #2 on the AFR Fast Starters list and #1 on the SmartCompany Smart50 list.
Maxim’s success story to building InstantScripts echoes the likes of successful, technology-backed brands Menulog and Kogan, which wouldn’t have come to fruition without technologically talented Soviet-born entrepreneurs at the helm.
Maxim was born in Belarus and has been living in Melbourne for nearly 20 years. Equipped with a degree in Computer Science from Ben-Gurion University, one of the world’s leading universities in Israel, and a Master of Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Swinburne University, Maxim established a freelance web development business, kisla Interactive. For the last 25 years he has spearheaded more than 150 projects, from building new websites to CRM systems, for some of the largest Australian and international companies and Government entities, including Holden, City of Melbourne, Lonely Planet, Lee Jeans, Arts Victoria, and Windsor Hotels. A serial entrepreneur, Maxim also built 10 start-ups prior to co-founding InstantScripts.
Maxim and Asher met in 2018 at a networking event. Maxim says: “Asher brought to me his idea for an online healthcare service. I offered to build him a prototype. Within three months, we brought InstantScripts to the market.”
InstantScripts initially offered prescriptions through its website or app, which are sent to the patient’s local pharmacy and can be picked up or delivered.
InstantScripts sought to capture the large patient market that only seeks a GP for prescriptions. The service delivers prescriptions only for common medications, such as the contraceptive pill, antibiotics, thyroid hormones and antidepressants, and does not prescribe controlled, addictive, S8 or S4D medications, such as morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl. InstantScripts’ own research found 69 per cent of Australians who visited their GP over the course of a year do so just to get a prescription.[1] Ninety-five (95) per cent of its own prescriptions are repeat prescriptions.
Maxim and Asher bootstrapped the business and reinvested nearly all their profits back into InstantScripts in their first year. Maxim is Chief Technology and Product Officer and oversaw the company’s operations, allowing InstantScripts to be in a strong position before approaching investors for funding.
Maxim attributes the rapid growth of the company largely to technology. “This is our biggest advantage over other healthcare start-ups. InstantScripts by and large is a technology-first company. While Asher has been able to bring on board a team of experienced and qualified doctors and expanded the InstantScripts service portfolio, without fast, user-friendly technology to deliver it, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
“I think a mistake a lot of start-ups make is outsourcing this function of the business. While outsourcing the technology can be cheaper, it is not sustainable and ultimately a lot of companies can be left with a slow system and a product offering that is convoluted and challenging for customers to use. Each time we develop a product or service, technology is always front of mind for this reason.”
In 2020, the co-founders began to expand the InstantScripts service, launching telehealth consultations and pathology.
Maxim, who originally built the platform on his own, now leads a team of six developers, who continue to innovate and help evolve the platform’s services.
After receiving a $10.9 million investment in 2021 from a consortium of investors led by specialist investment management firm Perennial, Maxim and Asher have continued to grow and expand the service. The service is now supported by a team of 30 registered doctors and RACGP-certified GPs and over 3500 pharmacy partners.
InstantScripts launched InstantCosmetics, which provides supervision and training for cosmetic nurses at 700-plus cosmetic clinics. InstantScripts also launched new medical tests for specific concerns, including a PCOS pathology referral test, vitamin deficiency tests for patients with sleep issues, tests to determine the cause of baldness, and HIV Prevent, a prescription offering for PrEP, a preventative HIV medication.
In January this year, InstantScripts launched a game-changing offering, The Green Doc: a telehealth cannabis service. “With the recent national legalisation of medicinal cannabis and growing evidence showing its health benefits, we’re offering medically proven products through our service. It’s something we’re very excited about and is a first-of-its-kind service.”
Today, InstantScripts fulfils over 40,000 prescriptions and telehealth consultations a month. The service has grown 1441 per cent since the 2018-19 financial year.
