FYLink
Numair Khalid
Numair Khalid's Story
Numair Khalid was inspired to start FYLink on receiving his Foundation Programme allocation in MBChB Medicine. In the UK, every newly qualified doctor is assigned a hospital placement through a national lottery system. You submit preferences, but your options are tied to a randomly assigned number, meaning where you end up is largely down to chance.
After five years of medical school, building friendships, living with colleagues, sharing the same wards, the same lectures, the same late nights, Numair was suddenly handed a placement somewhere entirely new and expected to start again from scratch. Like many others, the community that had carried him through training wasn't going to follow him there.
FYLink was built to change that: a social platform where incoming Foundation doctors can find others heading to the same hospital, make connections before they arrive, and start day one already feeling like they belong somewhere.
"I built FYLink while completing my final year of medical school. Spark gave me the frameworks, the confidence, and the network to take something that started as a personal frustration and turn it into a product that thousands of doctors are actually using."
FYLink is a verified social platform for incoming Foundation doctors, connecting users with future colleagues heading to the same hospital and helping them find flatmates they can trust. Because every user is verified, there is an inherent sense of safety and shared experience that generic flatmate-finding sites simply cannot offer. The platform has grown entirely organically to over 1,500 active users and more than 65,000 visitors, without a single penny spent on paid advertising.
Looking ahead and working in partnership with the UK Foundation Programme Office, the focus is on deepening the platform's features and expanding its reach across all UK Foundation trusts, making FYLink the go-to community for every doctor entering the Foundation Programme.
Spark has been a cornerstone of FYLink's development. Access to the incubator space gave Numair a dedicated environment to build and think clearly outside of the demands of medical school.
"The mentorship and commercial guidance from the Spark network helped me approach FYLink not just as a side project but as a real business, from stress-testing the idea early on to refining the model as the platform grew. Being part of the Spark community also connected me with fellow student entrepreneurs whose perspectives, particularly from outside medicine, have been invaluable. Spark showed me that building something meaningful doesn't have to wait until after you qualify."
