Nurseify was launched by health care executives and nursing leaders after seeing inefficiencies and high costs while using traditional health care staffing agencies. The Nurseify platform connects experienced nurses with hospitals and large health care facilities in need of staffing support.

For health care facilities, Nurseify says it can help save costs on finding nursing labor. Meanwhile, nurses are able to set their own rates and their own schedules to boost their earnings and create a better work-life balance.

The concept for Nurseify was formed after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, when issues arose around hospital staffing, CEO Benjamin Foster said. But Nurseify's business was also accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, when traveling nurses have been in high demand across the country.

"What we're trying to solve from a business model standpoint is how can we support facilities by having maximum flexibility on bringing in nurses to provide care," Foster said.

Rama Walker, COO and chief nursing officer for Nurseify, said the company works to assist nurses in other ways outside of scheduling. The company offers nurses resources for wellness and mental health and hosts weekly "Wellness Wednesdays" on social media. Nurseify also can help support nurses seeking to form their own businesses through financial projections, market assessments and backend support.

"We want our nurses to feel connected to us," Walker said.

More than 6,000 profiles have been created on the Nurseify platform since it launched, Foster said.

The Nurseify platform is currently piloting with users in Texas, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Nevada. Hospitals are Nurseify's top client base, and the company works with some of the bigger hospital providers in the Houston region, Foster said.

The company also sees opportunity in growing relationships with post-acute care providers with staffing needs, like rehabilitation hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, hospices and nursing homes.

Nurseify raised capital through a convertible note round late last year. The startup is targeting another capital raise beginning in the first quarter of 2023. Additional funding will help Nurseify expand its staff up to a team of eight to 10 employees and bring more health care providers and nurses onto the platform, Foster said.

Before founding Nurseify in 2020, Foster was regional vice president and regional chief human resources officer for HCA Houston Healthcare, the local division for Nashville-based HCA Healthcare Inc. (NYSE: HCA). Walker also came from HCA Houston Healthcare, where she most recently served as administrator and led facility operations for two freestanding emergency centers for HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast.