Why I Started Velox Labs

There's a moment that many people working in large organisations will recognise: you're trying to solve a real problem, you know what the solution looks like, and you watch in slow motion as it doesn't happen — not because of a shortage of intelligence or intent, but because of the sheer weight of process, procurement, and institutional inertia.

I've had that moment more than once. It planted a seed.

What Roche taught me

Working at Roche Diagnostics has been genuinely formative. The scale at which Roche operates — globally, across healthcare systems with completely different infrastructures and workflows — gives you a particular lens on what it means to implement technology at an enterprise level.

You learn that the hard part isn't usually the software itself. It's the integration layer. It's the change management. It's the interface between what the technology can theoretically do and what people in the real world actually need it to do.

That insight has shaped how I think about product development.

The gap I kept seeing

In my experience, mid-sized businesses — particularly professional services firms, specialist healthcare providers, and technical operations teams — are chronically underserved by software.

The enterprise players are too big, too expensive, and built for a market ten times larger. The off-the-shelf tools are too generic. The custom build route is too slow and too costly.

There's a gap in the middle, and it's where I think the most interesting products can be built.

What Velox Labs is

The name comes from the Latin velox — swift. It reflects the core philosophy: elegant software, built fast, that helps teams move faster.

Velox Labs Limited is the company I've set up to build focused SaaS products targeting that underserved middle market. The plan is to build and launch products iteratively — starting with verticals where I have the most direct insight, and expanding from there.

We're in the foundation phase right now. That means building infrastructure, defining the first product area, and being deliberate about where to place the initial bet.

Running it alongside a full-time role

I'm not under any illusions that this is easy to do alongside a demanding job. Roche is genuinely where my professional energy goes during the working day, and I take that seriously.

Velox Labs is an evenings-and-weekends project for now. I know that comes with limitations. But I also think there's something to be said for building slowly and intentionally — shipping things that are actually good rather than rushing to market with something half-formed.

The goal isn't to have a flashy launch. It's to build something that actually works for people who need it.

More soon.