How to crash test your AI startup

Now that the pandemic is winding down, maybe you have decided to start a sick care start up. Maybe you are bored. Maybe you are just looking for something different. Maybe you are at a phase in your life where you are looking for more purpose or meaning. Maybe COVID has changed your perspective. But how should you start your startup?

Here are some tips:

1. How to staff your startup team
2. So you have an idea. Here's what you should do next.
3. Are you ready to innovate?
4. Pick the right corporate entity
5. How to fund your sickcare idea
6. Design your value proposition and validate your business model
7. Execute a go to market and sales strategy
8. Protect your intellectual property
9. Be sure someone is going to pay you enough for your product
10. Answer these questions in you are an AIntrepreneur
11. Be sure you understand the fundamentals of digital health entrepreneurship
12. Fail it, nail it, scale it, sale it
13. Watch these videos
14. Here are 35 more steps
15. Know when to pull the plug and learn from your mistakes
16. Make it personal but don't take it personally
17. Watch out for the distraction of traction
18. Prune
19. How to divorce your cofounder
20. How to divorce yourself

According to participants in a recent Forbes conference, the volatility in the public markets and the slowdown in later stage financing after a whirlwind 2021 shouldn’t deter future founders. “It's still a great time to start a company if you've got a good idea,” Vineeta Agarwala, general partner at a16z told the Forbes Health In Action event on Wednesday. Since we cannot control the macroeconomic environment, Agarwala said founders and investors should instead focus on what they can control: “a rational plan for every financing that a company goes through.” This means past, current and future rounds need to be “back calculated from important milestones that help you hit that next inflection point,” she added.

Deena Shakir, a partner at Lux Capital, still believes it’s an exciting time for early-stage startups, even though the current environment may be more challenging for mid-to-later-stage companies. “I think now there's going to be more scrutiny and focus – which is a good thing – on sound fundamentals, on the quality of revenue (not just top line growth) and on the importance of healthy margins,” said Shakir. “A lot of things that perhaps were overlooked or maybe dusted under the rug, and the funding environment in the last few years.” Belt-tightening and recalibration in the present means the industry will see stronger long-term growth.

These days, it is easy to start a startup. It is not easy getting your product to patients and you will likely fail. Here's why.

Good luck and don't say I didn't warn you. If I told you once, I told you over 2000 times.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack