Needed to hit pause. Now we’re building.

Hi there,

After we wrapped up the Remote Nursing Conference in February, I felt something I didn’t expect: the need to pause.

I’ve always worked fast. That’s part of why I left the traditional healthcare system—because the pace of change in hospitals and clinics was unbearably slow. There were meetings about meetings. Layers of approvals to solve obvious problems. I saw incredible nurses get buried in computer work while patients and families fell through the cracks. And many nurses trying to advocate for change, but the system silenced them. It became clear to me that if I wanted to build something different, something better, I’d have to do it outside of the system.

So I began building ShadowNurse. And for a while, it felt like we were sprinting. The nurse response was incredible. We grew quickly. We built the first version of a community. We launched a full-scale conference with over 100 participants. We proved that nurses want more. That we’re ready for a different kind of work.

But after the conference, I realized that speed wasn’t the point. Focus and clarity is.

The past two months have been about recalibrating. I’ve been thinking a lot about what we’re really doing here—what ShadowNurse is, what we stand for, and what we’re building toward. It’s not content for content’s sake. It’s not a generic job board or an influencer brand. It’s a company. A model. A platform where nurses can lead the future of care—remotely, intelligently, and sustainably - and for the first time direct-to-consumer.

To make that happen, we have to start with the core. Our care navigation offering is the foundation. It’s how we prove that a remote nursing workforce is not just possible—it’s essential. And it’s how we begin to generate revenue that can support this community long-term. Once we get that right, we can expand into 1099 roles, training programs, better tools, and better jobs. But it starts with generating revenue from delivering healthcare navigation.

I want to apologize for the drop in communication during this time. The reality is that being a bootstrapping founder caught up with me. I needed to take care of my mental health and make sure that what we were focusing on was the right thing. Burnout can happen in any setting and for me it was just getting a bit to close for comfort.

I also want to say thank you—especially to those of you who are paid subscribers. You’ve helped make this space possible. Literally. Your support has allowed us to take this time to focus, to focus on build the right thing, and to keep pushing forward when it would’ve been easy to stall out. I don’t take that for granted.

And even if you haven’t paid, your presence matters. The fact that you’re here, that you’ve signed up, that you’re following this journey—it’s meaningful. It helps us show real traction to potential partners and investors. It proves that nurses are paying attention, and that there’s a movement worth investing in.

Here is a sampling of some of the projects we are focused on in the near term:

• Website development

• Re-branding (colors, fonts, imagery, tone)

• Marketing & Community Development (now sending newsletters weekly)

• Social media engagement (links are below to follow along!)

• Progress in revenue/Medicare billing

• Our go-to-market/DTC approach and philosophy

• Angel/pre-seed roadshow

Next week, I’ll update you on two partnerships we’ve been working on over the last couple of months—both should support meaningful patient acquisition. And as I mentioned above, our core offering is care navigation, and we need patients to do that. The following week’s update will focus on Medicare, and I will have a specific ask for this community.

In addition to company updates, I will include dialogue on trending tech/navigation topics to help keep everyone in this community updated. Digital health is evolving at a rapid pace.

Hopefully, we can all have a seat at the table.

Thanks for sticking around. It means more than you know.

— Olivia

CEO & Co-founder, ShadowNurse

P.S. If you’d like to support what we’re building in a small but meaningful way, you can follow us on LinkedIn or follow me personally on LinkedIn.