Building SmashUrology: The Story So Far

When I sat FRCS Urol Part 1 back in January 2025, I was desperate for an online, up-to-date question bank to study from — but there wasn't one. Not a proper one. Nothing built around the actual exam, nothing that reflected how the questions really felt on exam day. So I just started writing my own.

That's the start of SmashUrology. No business plan, no pitch deck — just an ST6 registrar making the resource he wished had existed.

Why the name?

It almost wasn't SmashUrology at all. My first instinct was "PassUrology" — functional, clear, did what it said. But it just felt too serious and plain. I didn't want trainees just scraping a pass; I wanted them walking in feeling prepared enough to smash it. That ambition suited my personality far better than simply getting over the line — and the name stuck. It's been SmashUrology ever since.

Started with a blank page

I wrote questions because no other platform offered them for this exam, and the books were too outdated. In the beginning it was just me, a growing bank of questions in a Word document, and some ideas scribbled onto a bit of paper that I could barely read myself.

To turn that into something usable, I hired a development team based in South Asia to build the website. I self-funded the whole thing. There were no investors, no runway — just me deciding this was worth paying for out of my own pocket because I believed it would help people. (Disclosure: I have built apps and websites before, with a team from Vietnam, in the past.)

In May 2025 I sat FRCS Urology Part 2, and passed. By then I understood both halves of the exam too well, and that shaped everything the platform became.

Getting it wrong before getting it right

My original plan was to have the platform ready for the July 2025 exam sitting. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The quality simply wasn't where I needed it to be, and I had to hold back rather than ship something I wasn't proud of.

That followed with months of revisions and feature development through the summer, leading to a soft launch staggered across August to October 2025. I kept the cost deliberately low — barely break-even — because at that stage the priority was getting it into candidates' hands and learning, not making money. In fact, anyone I spoke to advised me to charge way more.

The feedback was the turning point. People told me what worked and what didn't, and it became clear the platform needed to be far more than a list of questions. So I went away and rebuilt it.

Learning AI, keeping the content human

Around this time I started teaching myself how to use AI tools to enhance the platform — better functionality, smarter features, a genuinely interactive experience. But every question remained written by me. AI shaped the platform; it never wrote the content. That distinction mattered to me, and it always will.

The enhanced platform launched in November 2025, based on the early feedback that I'm forever grateful for. I was fortunate enough to share my ideas and upcoming plans with Linda Kelly and Jennifer Fallon from Urology News, who were so supportive from such an early stage.

The first real test

In January 2026, the first cohort of users sat the FRCS Urol Part 1 having revised on the new platform. The feedback was excellent, confirming I'd actually built something people needed. In fact, some people said they relied entirely on SmashUrology and passed — which was so humbling to hear.

I won't pretend it was all smooth. There was criticism along the way, some of it from competitors. I chose to treat all of it as fuel: learn, improve, get better, keep building on what users were telling me. That mindset did more for the platform than any single feature.

Building out for every stage of the journey

From there, things moved quickly. In fact, very quickly. Luckily, I brought on Rizwan Iqbal (a friend and a colleague) to develop the interview preparation content, which launched in February 2026 — just in time for interviews in March. The feedback from candidates going through that process was some of the most rewarding I've had.

I introduced interactive avatars for interview and viva practice — a genuinely new concept in this space. The response was mixed, which I expected from something this novel, but a meaningful group of users found it extremely helpful, and that told me it was worth refining rather than giving up. It took hours and hours in my evenings of refining until it got right, but we got there.

Ahead of the May 2026 Part 2 sitting, I launched dedicated viva content, uploaded my own revision notes as free resources (trainees were already finding them useful, so it felt right to make them open), and released flashcards for active recall in the run-up to the exam.

I also sponsored the West of Scotland Registrar Teaching Day — a chance to give back to the training community that SmashUrology came from in the first place.

Where things stand now

As it stands, SmashUrology has:

From a single candidate writing questions on a blank page to a platform supporting FRCS Urology candidates worldwide, in just over a year.

What's next

There are some genuinely exciting plans and collaborations coming soon — things I can't quite share yet, but that will take SmashUrology meaningfully further. If you're preparing for FRCS Urology Part 1, Part 2, or your ST3 interviews, this is a good moment to come along for the next chapter.

Thank you to everyone who's trusted the platform, sent feedback, and helped shape what it's become. This was only ever built for you.