The Startup Protocol

There are lots of founders and lots of ideas floating around to help improve the delivery of healthcare services and positively affect the health of each of us as individuals, as well as groups of patients afflicted by chronic or acute diseases. Unfortunately, many of these ideas never reach their full potential to improve patient outcomes or reduce costs of care. Sometimes, it’s because the idea isn’t feasible or scalable. Sometimes, it’s because the market isn’t ready, or regulators aren’t ready. And sometimes, it’s just because the founder or founding team has a blind spot (or two). Not only do these hidden blind spots ensure their failure, but in many cases, with better planning or a greater, more holistic understanding of the market forces, the blind spot can be overcome. Or better yet, the founder can realize that their idea is doomed from the start and consider other, better options to solve the problem they are attacking. The goal of this book is to help founders and their teams identify blind spots and avoid the most common pitfalls of starting a digital health company. Having spent time with founders, VC companies, and most importantly, prospective digital health startups, patterns have emerged regarding those startups that are successful and those that die an often slow and painful death. While not a recipe for guaranteed success, having a guidebook of sorts can help navigate the perils associated with building a digital health company and can very likely improve the odds of success. The book will go through the typical life cycle of an early-stage company, from ideation to the first few customer deals, and highlight best practices for tackling the challenges at each stage including: ◾ What problem are you trying to solve? ◾ And why are you trying to solve this problem? ◾ Who will help you build the solution and company? ◾ How will you build the solution? ◾ How will you pitch your company? ◾ How will you sell your solution? ◾ And, what does success look like to you, your stakeholders, and your customers?