Helping health-focused start-ups grow with fresh ideas
Explore: Arts and Culture / Education, Skills and Training / Health, Performance and Wellbeing / Safe and Inclusive Communities / Sustainable Futures
Business and management students at ARU teamed up with two innovative tech start-ups – Monitree and Orli Health – to help them grow their user base and connect with their communities.
This collaboration was part of our Live Briefs programme, which gives students the chance to work on real-world challenges with external partners. It’s a way to build confidence, develop employability skills, and make a genuine impact.
The companies
Monitree, founded by NHS doctors Stuart Foster and Sabrina Ahmed, is a digital platform that curates financial and career opportunities for healthcare workers. They asked our students to help raise awareness of the platform through influencer marketing and social media strategies.
Orli Health supports neurodivergent children and young people, and their families, through a playful, gamified app. It helps ease anxiety, build connection, and signpost trusted support. Orli Health invited students to develop ideas for community engagement, events, and a social media campaign.
Outcomes
Students explored key areas like app store optimisation (ASO), audience segmentation, and digital behaviours. They considered how factors like age, lifestyle, values, and tech adoption influence engagement.
For both companies, the students’ insights were practical, creative, and valuable – offering fresh perspectives that would otherwise require costly consultancy.
"A huge thank you to all of the amazing students for the impressive level of enthusiasm, knowledge, imagination, nerves and reciprocal appreciation they showed us. They have very bright futures ahead and should be proud of themselves."
Dr Stuart Foster, Monitree"The students were impressive – giving us new ideas, affirming some of what we already are planning, and showing us where we can improve. It was clear that young people have fresh ideas."
Dr Mark Cox, Orli Health