You're Too Close!

This week at Zonder, I benefited from multiple activities that encouraged me to take a step back in order to get a different aspect of the business.? The scheduled events weren’t designed along a theme of changing perspective; this was a bonus of retrospection.

My co-founder, Govin, and I kicked off our week with a workshop led by our Sales coach, Luke Davies of Code12.uk.? As we’d met previously, in this session we were able to get right down to work.? We separated out and ranked the challenges our target customers face and the opportunities we provide. ?This helped me take a fresh look at what we offer by writing it on a whiteboard and literally stepping back.? Clearly by now after having spoken with a number of GP Partners in our target group, we have strong hypotheses, however the value of this exercise was to communicate these plainly and succinctly (ie bullet points) to someone not in the health field. And simpler usually is better in comms….

Next, we chatted about the context around the decision to be made.? Who in the GP practice would make the final decision?? Who would influence that?? Would there be gatekeepers at some point?? And what are their roles, interests and hopes?? This was a useful exercise encouraging us to view the proposition from various aspects.?

We brainstormed several ways to trial outreach, including getting past doorkeepers and agreed to make 10 outreaches across each of 3 selected entry points.? We’ll see how we get on and double down or re-approach from there.? This is with the aim of filling a leads funnel ready-to-go once we prove product-market fit in our pilot.? The challenge will be finding the time for cold outreach when there are so many urgent priorities to also get done.

On Wednesday, we had our first Zonder ‘day out’ when we made our way by train outside London to meet up with a prospective angel investor as well as be introduced to the Partner of a large GP practice.? This entailed us practicing our pitch quite a bit the day before, including with our Zinc Accelerator partners, Rosie Webster and Maria Fomina , who were especially helpful in framing where we are with the product at the moment and where we’re heading.? Govin and I also worked on expected Q&A and some possible objections to our service (objections?... hard to believe, I know!).? As the meeting was happening over lunch (using chopsticks no less), we also practiced delivering ‘the pitch’ in a more conversational way.? Besides ‘elevator pitches’ when meeting someone new, we normally have the support of our pitch deck to take audiences through our proposition, so this was new to us.?

We would have been ecstatic to have walked away with a 2nd pilot GP practice signed up, which was not the result this time.? However, overall, I was pleased with the meeting.? We learned a different perspective, this time from someone leading a well-performing practice in an area with very little economic deprivation who already has a process for treating chronic illness that works reasonably well.? The GP Partner is keen to improve that process with automation, something we will be developing in the medium term, once we validate which are the most valuable areas to automate.?

A tenet of successful startups is not to build until you know in depth the problem the product you're building is trying to solve.? We are at the stage of validating or reformulating our hypotheses through our pilot.? As an outcome from our discussion, I'll now be especially mindful to build something that’s valuable to practices across a broader continuum of satisfaction with their current chronic care processes.?

The conversation also encouraged us to increase the importance of ‘control’ to the practice decision makers delegating chronic care patients to us.? We were prepared with the answer to this question; however, we will now include it in the main messaging.? The more someone feels they’re in a good position, the more likely they will view a change as risky, as they believe they have more to lose.? Makes perfect sense.? Yet these are the types of things that are most valuable to hear directly from the stakeholder.?

The meeting was also a success in that I didn’t embarrass myself with my 'needs improvement' proficiency level with chopsticks (despite my California upbringing, I don’t like sushi so don’t practice often). Thankfully, no tempura landed on the floor and no soy sauce splattered on my clothes.? I even got to taste matcha salt for the first time. Yum!

We had a 2nd opportunity on Wednesday to introduce a new point of view on our startup journey.? This took the form of our first meeting with our team coach, another benefit of the Zinc Accelerator program. Philipp Essl will be supporting us on the ‘Team’ portion of our build, coaching us on constructing a healthy partnership and team values, one with clear roles, communications and a positive culture where we’ll continue to enjoy working despite the changes and challenges ahead.

More than once, Govin had referred to our upcoming session as ‘therapy’ from our ‘team therapist’.? Frankly, I was beginning to think he was going to unleash some extensive revelations about cracks in our working relationship.? I imagine he was thinking it might go something like this:

While I was imagining something more like this:

In the end, it was neither.? Instead, as the session was scheduled close to our important lunch meeting, we ended up renting a ‘meeting room’ (more like a hall) in the local library for 20 quid, where we set up a folding table and 2 folding chairs and had a productive introduction to Philipp by Eleanor Ford over Google Meet.? We shared what we’d like to get out of our time together and that we’d benefit from starting with discussing how to ensure role clarity now and especially as Zonder grows in complexity and team size.

We ended our week with some disappointing news on Friday afternoon.? Our pilot practice has had to postpone our in-person meeting with all the GP Partners by two weeks as one of them has had to attend to an urgent family health matter.? Whilst deflating, it’s hard to argue with the principle of wanting the best health outcomes for your loved ones.? That’s why we’re here, after all.

I’d like to use this delay in kicking off the pilot to fill our sales pipeline and hone our proposition and pitch even further.? There is no lack of something meaningful to do in the startup journey.? Meanwhile I’ll be found on our rare bank holiday tomorrow in a field of ‘pick-your-own peonies’. This announcement was a source of mirth amongst some of our accelerator colleagues.? I’m sure readers can imagine how these words were twisted to provide entertainment for the rest of the room.?