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## The Problem With Where We Are
Our current model was good for survival. When we started, Upwork gave us cash flow, experience, and a track record. It served its purpose.
But it's awful for building upon. The only thing that compounds is our portfolio — one more case study after each project. That's something, but it's weak compounding. Beyond that, **nothing feeds the next thing.** We finish a project, collect €7.5K, and start from zero again. The client we just delivered for doesn't make the next client easier to find. The technical problems we just solved don't deepen any particular expertise. The reputation we build lives on a platform that commoditizes us. We compete on price against the entire world, for clients who expect the moon for peanuts.
Meanwhile, AI is turning generic software development into a commodity. "We build React Native apps" will mean less every year. If we stay as generalist devs-for-hire, the business shrinks — not because we're bad, but because the market won't reward generalists the way it used to.
So the real questions become: **How do we make each project feed the next one?** How do we stop competing on price and start competing on expertise? **Who should we be building for** so that our work compounds into something defensible? And **what do we already have** that we can build on? Where do we find a real moat ?
### The Answer
Several sectors would work for what we need — industries with a natural moat against AI commoditization, high budgets, and real technical complexity. Finance, legal tech, healthcare — all fit the criteria.
Among those, healthcare is clearly the best one for us. It's the sector we've both always wanted to work in — and we're not starting from scratch. We've already built Doctr (a platform for Canadian healthcare providers), we're working with Brain Analytics on sport analytics, and we're building Cadence, our own AI running coach. We already have real case studies at the intersection of health, sport, fitness, and technology. And the moat is real: health data regulations (HIPAA, GDPR health provisions, HDS in France), complex device API integrations (Garmin, Apple HealthKit, medical devices), and the technical rigor required to handle sensitive patient data. These barriers mean healthcare is one of the last sectors to be fully disrupted by AI — the compliance and domain knowledge required keep generalists out.
But picking a sector is the easy part. The real question is: **how do we show up in it?** Not as vendors. Not as devs-for-hire on a freelancing platform. We need to show up as builders who have skin in the game — a studio that builds its own health platforms, and partners selectively with others to fund the journey.
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NativeSquare is a Healthcare Startup Studio. We build our own health, fitness, and wellness platforms. We selectively partner with companies we believe in to help them build theirs — and that's how we fund ourselves.
This changes everything:
- We're no longer vendors. We're peers who build in the same space as our clients.
- We're no longer generalists competing on price. We're specialists in a sector with a clear moat — health data regulations, device integrations, compliance requirements — that keeps AI commoditization out and keeps generalist agencies out.
- Most importantly, it's a sector that appeals to us both deeply. That matters. You don't build something great in a vertical you don't care about.
Every piece now feeds the next. Our portfolio becomes niched and credible — not a random mix of unrelated projects. The clients we attract are higher-quality: health tech founders, Station F startups, funded companies with real budgets. When we impress them, their referrals go to other health tech founders — exactly the people we want to reach. A startup we helped launch at Station F introduces us to three others in their cohort. A CTO we delivered for mentions us at a health tech event. That's real compounding — not just another line on a portfolio page.
Honestly? Because this repositioning requires doing the things we don't like doing.
We're developers. We like building. We're comfortable in code, in architecture decisions, in solving technical problems. What we're not comfortable with is putting ourselves out there — writing LinkedIn posts, attending networking events, doing outreach to strangers, positioning ourselves publicly, selling.
And that's exactly the point. The bottleneck was never the building. It was always the distribution. We can ship Cadence in a month. We can deliver a health platform for a client in a sprint. But none of that matters if nobody knows we exist, nobody sees what we've built, and nobody thinks of us when they need a health app.
The uncomfortable truth is: the things we've been avoiding are the things that actually move the business forward. Building is what we're already great at. Distribution — content, networking, positioning, outreach — is what separates a freelance operation from a studio that compounds.
So that's the primary focus of this plan. Not building more apps. Getting out there, being visible, and making the right people know we exist.
Maxime and Alex's personal profiles are the content channels. Company pages get 5-10% of the reach — nobody follows agencies, they follow founders.
Three content pillars:
- Building in public — documenting Cadence development, beta learnings, health tech decisions
- Technical authority — architecture posts, health API integrations, AI in health, stack decisions
- Industry perspective — reacting to health tech trends, digital therapeutics news, AI regulation in EU
Cadence: 3-5 posts/week across both profiles. 1-2 on building in public, at least 1 technical authority, at least 1 industry perspective. Short text, one idea per post, end with a question or a take. Write naturally. English primarily (wider reach), French occasionally (Paris health ecosystem).
Target: health tech startups that recently raised Seed or Series A (they have budget and need to build).
Approach: connect first, provide value (share insights, articles, relevant experience), pitch later. Never cold pitch.
Volume: 10 targeted connections/week.
Attend 2 events/month minimum. Station F health programs, French Health Tech meetups, incubator demo days.
Goal: become known in the Paris health tech scene within 3 months.
There are consulting firms that advise hospitals, clinics, pharma companies, and health organizations on their digital transformation strategy — but they don't build the actual software. They write the roadmap, then need a technical partner to execute it. If we become that technical partner for even one such firm, they bring us into projects that are already scoped, already budgeted, and already sold. We skip the entire sales cycle. One partnership like this can feed us 2-3 projects/year at €30K+.
Keep the profile active and running. Starting from June, only accept health-related projects above €10K. Gradually reduce dependency to zero by August.
| Phase | Source | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Now | Upwork generalist | ~€7.5K/month |
| June | Upwork + 1 direct client | €12-15K/month |
| August | 2-3 direct retainer clients | €20-25K/month |
| October | 2-3 retainers, minimal Upwork | €25-30K/month |
Target retainer structure: €8-15K/month per client, health vertical only. Work is delivered through our Spec-Driven Development methodology (vision → milestones → versioned specs → tasks), the same framework we use internally on the Ops Center. This gives clients clear visibility on progress and deliverables.
For early-stage startups we believe in: shared CTO role at a reduced rate + equity. Not plain money — less money upfront, skin in the game long-term. This is for later once we have the bandwidth, but it fits the studio model perfectly.
Objective: Rebrand, start content, establish presence, prepare outreach strategy.
Week 1 (Apr 7-13) — Reposition & Start Shipping Content
- Rewrite LinkedIn profiles — both Maxime and Alex. New headlines, about sections, experience descriptions reflecting the healthcare studio positioning
- Update NativeSquare company LinkedIn page
- Update nativesquare.fr website with new positioning (health studio, Cadence as proof, stack, contact)
- Reframe Upwork profile toward health vertical (or deprioritize entirely)
- Publish first LinkedIn post: introduce NativeSquare and what we're building — a healthcare startup studio, why healthcare, what we're working on (Cadence, client projects).
- Prepare Week 2 content: draft 3 posts across the three pillars (building in public, technical authority, industry perspective)
- Repurpose storytelling/building-in-public posts on Twitter (light rephrase, minimal extra effort — same ideas, different format)
- Build a Cadence landing page with a waiting list signup — we need to start collecting early interest from runners now, not in May
- Research and list 20 health tech startups in Europe that raised recently
- Register for 2 health tech events happening in May
Week 2 (Apr 14-20) — Content Rhythm + Outreach Foundations
- Publish the 3 prepared posts (+ repurpose on Twitter)
- Run small paid ads (Instagram/Meta) pointing to the Cadence landing page — target runners, test messaging, start building the waiting list for early market signal
- Start NativeSquare landing page if website not yet updated (health studio positioning, Cadence + Doctr + Brain Analytics as proof, stack, contact form)
- Send 10 LinkedIn connection requests to health tech founders/CTOs from the prospect list
- Define the outreach playbook (see below)
- Send first 5 value-first messages to accepted connections — following the playbook
The Outreach Playbook — Peers, Not Vendors
This is critical. We don't cold pitch. We don't say "we build apps, do you need one?" We show up as fellow builders in the health space.
The approach:
- Connect with a short personal note referencing something specific about their company ("Saw you're working on X — we're building in the same space with Cadence")
- Give value first — share an insight, a relevant article, something we learned building health apps. No ask attached.
- Let the conversation happen naturally. If they engage, talk shop. Talk about their challenges, share ours. Peer to peer.
- Only discuss working together if it comes up organically — or after 2-3 genuine exchanges. Even then, frame it as: "We sometimes partner with health startups on the technical side — happy to chat if that's ever relevant."
- When interest surfaces, propose a proper video call. Come prepared with questions about their product, timeline, and challenges. Present how we work — Spec-Driven Development, milestone-based delivery, clear scope. Direct them to a Cal link for a casual call (not the website — keep it low-friction and personal).
The mindset: every outreach message should be something we'd genuinely send even if we didn't need clients. If it feels salesy, rewrite it.
April success criteria:
- Both LinkedIn profiles repositioned
- Website/landing page updated with health studio positioning
- Cadence landing page live with waiting list — first signups coming in
- First Cadence ads running
- 4+ posts published (LinkedIn + Twitter)
- Prospect list of 20 companies
- 10+ new health tech connections
- Outreach playbook defined and first messages sent
- 2 health tech events registered for May
Objective: Land first non-Upwork client, validate the channel, start feeling connected to the ecosystem.
- Content: 3-5x/week, non-negotiable
- Attend 2+ health tech events, 10+ contacts each, 48h follow-up
- Direct outreach: 10 personalized messages/week
- Go beyond LinkedIn — grab coffee, after-work drinks, co-working sessions with people we've met. By end of June we should feel like we're part of the Paris health tech scene, not just observing it from the outside.
- Cadence beta live with 30-50 real users — post about results. By end of June we'll have enough data and user feedback to make a real decision on where to take the app: double down, pivot the angle, or park it.
- Explore 1 health consultancy partnership
- Upwork: only health-related or >€10K
Success criteria by end of June:
- 1 client acquired outside Upwork (even at €5K — channel validation matters)
- 50+ LinkedIn connections in health tech
- Cadence beta live with real users + clear direction on next steps
- 30+ total posts published
- 2+ events attended
- Maintaining real relationships with people in the sector — not just connections, actual conversations
Objective: Prove we can charge €10K+ per engagement.
- Cadence is live, content has traction, first non-Upwork client delivered
- Minimum engagement price: €10K
- Pitch retainer + equity hybrid to one exciting early-stage startup
- Reduce Upwork to <30% of revenue
- Cadence: analyze retention data, iterate, explore monetization
Success criteria by end of August:
- 2 active clients outside Upwork
- Average contract value above €8K
- Upwork <30% of revenue
- Clear Cadence product-market signal
Objective: Studio model is self-sustaining.
- Revenue: €15-20K/month from 2-3 retainers
- Content generating inbound leads organically
- Known in Paris health tech scene
- Cadence: decide to double down, pivot, or park — based on data
- Scope second product idea based on domain learnings
- Consider part-time BD hire to handle outreach
Success criteria by end of October:
- €15K+/month revenue
- 50%+ from non-Upwork
- Pipeline of 3+ potential clients at any time
- Clear product strategy for Cadence (or next product)
- We build our own platforms. Client work funds the mission. Every client we take on should deepen our expertise in health, feed our portfolio, and bring us closer to the people we want to work with.
- Health vertical only. Upwork stays open for non-health projects until June to maintain cash flow. After June: health-related or >€10K only. Turning down work creates scarcity, focus, and compounding expertise.
- Small wins every week. A post that got engagement. A founder who replied. A beta user who gave feedback. These compound into confidence.
- Lean into the discomfort. Posting on LinkedIn, showing up at events, reaching out to founders — none of this feels natural to us. But that's precisely why we haven't scaled yet. We're 26 and 28 with strong technical skills. The gap isn't ability, it's willingness to do the uncomfortable stuff.
- Build in public. Transparency is our marketing. Document the journey — it attracts the exact people we want to work with.
This is scary. It feels like a mountain. Posting publicly, networking, positioning ourselves in a niche, doing outreach — none of this is in our comfort zone.
But this is what we've always known we'd need to overcome at some point to scale. No matter what positioning we'd choose, healthcare or not, this mountain was always there. Content, networking, visibility — these are the skills that separate a freelance operation from a real company. There's no path around it, only through it.
Healthcare just happens to be the perfect sector to do it in. It matches our ambitions, it's a field we genuinely care about, it has a clear moat against AI commoditization, and we already have case studies to prove we can deliver in it.
The only thing that matters now is starting — this week.