Studying medicine while building a startup: systems, not motivation

People often ask how I build nqrah while in my final year of medical school. The question usually comes with an assumption: that it takes extraordinary motivation. In my experience motivation is the least reliable part of the whole thing. What works is a handful of boring systems.

#1. Fewer projects, on purpose

The most important decision is what not to do. I take on only a few client projects at a time, I said no to joining an accelerator until the remaining features ship, and nqrah’s roadmap is cut into pieces small enough to finish. A short list of things that actually move is worth more than a long list of things in progress.

#2. Medicine gets the protected hours

Clinical work and exams don’t move, so they go into the calendar first. Building happens in the time that is left, and I plan around that honestly instead of pretending every week will be the same.

#3. Small doses, shipped often

Big releases need big uninterrupted blocks of time, which a medical student rarely has. Small changes can be finished in an evening. nqrah has been built for more than a year in exactly that way: one tested section type, one integration, one fix at a time. The public beta in October 2026 was not one leap; it was hundreds of small steps.

#4. Write everything down

Context switching between a ward and a codebase is expensive. Notes make it cheap. End each working session with a few lines: what you did, what you were about to do, what is blocking you. The next session then starts by reading, not by remembering.

#5. Automate the repetitive, early

Anything done three times deserves a script or a checklist: deployments, tests, backups, the messages a store sends after an order. Automation is not a luxury for a busy person; it is how a busy person stays reliable.

#6. Let AI be a teacher, not a crutch

AI has been one of my best teachers, of code and of English. I use it to explain, to review and to draft, and then I do the understanding myself. That habit matters even more in medicine, where you are responsible for every decision.

#7. Rest is part of the system

Exhaustion makes bad code and bad clinical decisions. Sleep, a day off and time with family are not interruptions to the plan; they are what keeps the plan running for years instead of weeks.

#The two fields help each other

Medicine taught me to take a history before writing a prescription, and that every behaviour has a reason. Building products taught me to ship, measure and improve. Each makes me better at the other, which is why, after graduation, I plan to specialise in psychiatry and study business administration, and keep working where the mind, health and technology meet.

If you are trying to do two demanding things at once, don’t wait to feel motivated. Build the system that works on the days you don’t.