Device Case Study

Startup

Evolving Business Model From Crowded Healthcare to More Open Wellness

Background

Faced with endless healthcare cost increases and an industry that’s only at the initial stages of evidence-based medicine, patients with a wide range of disease states have been increasingly receptive to “non-traditional” solutions. Against this backdrop, a pre-revenue startup approached me and a partner to create a pitch deck for opening care delivery clinics based on its patented technology.

Solutions

Determined to help a startup with its noble purpose and partnering with the technologist, I ended up not being able to write the pitch deck because the underlying business model was poorly aligned with patient needs and potential financials.

In terms of the needs disconnect, patient trust is more anchored in clinical trials and third-party endorsements than patented technologies. [Referring providers, based on my experience in other categories, would arguably have similar concerns.] This market driver would be even more pronounced in the startup’s category because the type of provided care had been in-and-out of the public eye for decades.

And the financials would be hampered by massive capital expenditures to build company-owned clinics. Moreover, across disease states and care scenarios, delivery was provided by industry giants or innovative models such as clinics-within-clinics; opening clinics out-of-the gate was uncommon for a reason.

The solution was to avoid the highly competitive health care space, create a modest physical footprint based on wellness (think acupuncture or yoga), and conduct clinical trials to create stakeholder trust. We sold-in these ideas to the Client.

The pivot, however, resulted in having to postpone their initial fundraising round because too many new operational issues needed to be worked-through.