Some Practical Advice for Startups

To my fellow entrepreneurs, over the past 10 years, I have reviewed and met hundreds of early-stage companies. I have spent hundreds of hours reviewing presentations late at night on my “free” time, have participated in many video meetings with early-stage companies and investors, etc.?Along the way, I have helped lead the investment in a few companies, have been on the Board of a few, and have helped start a couple. A passion of mine is to help these groups commercialize their business models; I admire and value the passion of Founders. ?With that as the backdrop for my point of view, maybe the following will be useful to startups and investors. Below I offer a few pieces of advice, which all represent my opinion and my opinion only.?I don’t speak on behalf of anyone but myself.??

1. When you present to a system, please don't spend time showing us how big the global problem may be. We know the problem likely happens everywhere but everywhere isn’t our context or our business model. One of the key hurdles you have is gaining credibility that you know the problem in context.??We care about the problem in the circumstance and the pain it causes in our business model. We know the problems. ?We live them! We are interested in learning what you know about the problem. Remember the problem often happens for consumers, customers, and our company. We are truly open to learning about your solution but not as the lead part of the conversation. So, lead with the problem. Remember, in medicine we diagnose before we prescribe, and the scientific method is at the heart of medicine’s progress as is theory.?I suggest avoiding saying anything about your solution until we have a deep dialog about the problem.?Your lead slide should not talk about your company or the solution.?We also don’t need to know about the team you have put together early in the dialog.?That may not follow what your investors want you to do but remember they don’t write checks on our behalf, give you time, etc. So, a few guiding questions to help you shape your slides and the dialog.
2. Questions: what do you know about the problem? what do you believe has to hold true for your solution to be successful? what do you think the real measures of value are? which ones do you believe we truly value? which measures do you think we will use to measure the efficacy of your solution? When have you personally experienced the problem??How do you believe we work to solve the problem or prevent it today? how can we prove that by "hiring" your solution it will cause something good in quality and cost to happen? not correlated:causal! What reasons do you have to believe current solutions fail? ?Share your understanding of the problem in documentary form! What starts the movie? Who are the actors in the movie? What do they hope to achieve? What do they struggle with?
3. One last piece of advice from experience. Back in 2015, an early-stage company asked for time with some of our clinical leaders. In the first two minutes of his team's pitch, the CEO of this new startup said, "healthcare is broken". There are many arguments to that end but to start off with the drama-filled point of view when you don't work within the system doesn't help you. The clinicians in that room were all dear friends of mine and I felt so bad for them that this fellow was sitting there with a sense of arrogance and condemnation about the system. Remember, they each spent at least 12 years getting to their clinical credentials.?Drama doesn't help! It reminds me of Steve Blank’s commentary on Innovation Theatre! ?Instead, he would have been much more effective in taking an empathetic approach regarding a learning mindset about the struggles of the patients and providers.?If you are going to namedrop companies you are in dialogs with or offer reference customers or early adopters, we want to know names of who we can speak with. A name on a slide will not provoke us to buy; it will give us a sense of your progress but remember their budgeting cycle, priority list, etc. is not ours. I have found that doctors are VERY level headed people and often avoid drama so they can make sound decisions. Again, remember who you are in a dialog with. DON'T think about it is a pitch. The initial dialog is an opportunity for you to test some of your assumptions and clarify your understanding.

Let me close by saying, I admire the passion and pursuit of startups to help healthcare be more desirable, feasible, and viable. The industry needs you and you need it! Be very mindful and thoughtful of how you approach your get, keep, and grow strategy with healthcare systems.?