At least once a week pharmacist Alicia Martin consults a patient who is struggling to taper off or stop a medication.
Browsing online forums to try and answer a patient's question sparked an idea that remained dull until Ms Martin came out of the COVID-19 pandemic ready to change the world.
"I was actually using a period tracking app ... and I thought, it would be cool if there was something like for people who are tapering and they could track their symptoms and identify patterns after dose reductions," Ms Martin said.
"Sometimes the information in [forums] isn't very accurate or trustworthy, and so I wanted to be able to give people access to that more evidence-based advice."
While Ms Martin has big ambitious plans for her startup, the born and bred Canberran and her schoolmate co-founder hope to stay in the capital.
Startups are not everyday companies: they are new ventures offering unique solutions to market problems with the potential to grow very big, very fast.
There is a high risk of failure but the possibility of large returns. While most fail, some grow to be unicorns - companies worth more than $1 billion. Australia has nine.
Local grants provided Ms Martin and co-founder Christian Townsend - both Mount Stromlo High School alumni - with enough money to develop and publish an app, but both still work full-time.
They are now looking for about $500,000 to grow the business.
"We've got early users, we've got paying [customers], so we've got that early traction," Ms Martin said.
"I think we can convince some [investor who can see through personal experience] the potential benefit and huge market."
She wants to stay in her hometown, but is open to following the money.
"I have felt a lot of support being in Canberra, and I can envision our company staying and growing here, and I love Australia and I don't really want to leave," Ms Martin said.
On the other hand, moving to the US technology hub San Francisco was always in the sights of Radford College alumni and accounting graduate Annie Liao.
With funding from a Sydney-based venture capital fund, Ms Liao is building her artificial intelligence company, Build Club, in the startup capital, living in a "hacker house" with colleagues.
"Growing up I watched a lot of [TV show] Shark Tank and knew that a lot of the best tech founders go to [San Francisco]," she said.
"The [potential] for success is a lot larger when you surround yourself with people who have a very similar mindset."
Others like defence startup Seitec founder Daniel Stevens also want to stay in the capital, but see benefits in accepting money from bigger markets.
"I think it would be very narrow-minded to only look here in Canberra for investment. If you're rising, you should be looking for investors across Australia or across the world ... you shouldn't be picking investors based on their location," he said.
"You should get investors that are in support of your company's mission.
"You should get investors that preferably ... have smart money, where they can accelerate your growth. So they might have expertise within the investor group that the company doesn't currently have."
The air force veteran is currently in the US. He knows many founders that have moved their businesses to that country, taking their technology with them.
"Investors here in Australia, they're just working with less money, there's less opportunity for them to invest and as such, they are going to be more cautious," Mr Stevens said.
"In the States, there's so many startups and so many investors and so much money that if they miss one or they get one wrong it's not critical to that [investment funds survival]."
A new ACT-government backed investment fund, ACTivate Capital, wants to prevent that happening by keeping people in the city they love.
"We're not convincing people to be here or come here, we're really helping them do what they want to do, which is stay and grow in Canberra," Mr Kroeger said.
With an initial fund of $23 million to invest, including $10 million from the ACT government, it might not stop the need for manufacturing or employment in other places, but will hopefully keep some of the company in the capital.
