Melissa is CEO and Founder of Lantum. Lantum is a powerful platform managing staffing in the healthcare industry. Lantum saves healthcare organisations in both NHS and the US millions annually by efficiently automating processes end to end connecting the right clinicians with the right shifts. Melissa started her career as a management consultant at Mckinsey & Company where she developed a passion for improving healthcare systems. So much so that she left and went to work for the NHS in the Strategy Directorate at the start of its reorganisation in 2010.
Lantum has been featured in The Times, The Sunday Times, City AM, The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, BBC Radio, Sky News and The Mail on Sunday. They have won a string of awards including won Amazon Web Services digital business of the year 2018.
Best piece of advice you’ve been given
Be consistent. Your team look to you to be steady and consistent, they must know what to expect and not be caught off guard because you are in a bad / great mood. This came from Liane Hornsey, the mother of one of our team at lantum who also happens to have been the head of people at Google and Uber globally. She knows!
Worst piece of advice you’ve been given
I really dislike “fail fast” because it is often interpreted as “heck let’s just try it” without analysis or deep thought of the consequences. I think it promotes lazy thinking and a haphazardness and randomness in your organisation that will only complicate later on.
What would you tell your younger self?
…that cause and effect is real. Think about your decisions before you make them, all decisions have a consequence
What excites you most about the future of your industry?
That it’s one of the last to innovate and so bringing innovation to the industry is genuinely changing peoples lives, not just optimising what’s already there.
Who or what is your biggest inspiration?
Every woman who has scaled their business is my inspiration. Women have far less support than men, often have weaker networks and every day, battle unconscious or conscious biases from investors, senior team members, suppliers, clients. To get your business to scale, to series B and beyond takes Herculean effort and resilience
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