Elizabeth Melton

🌶️ 8 spicy hot takes about Health Tech that may land me in trouble 👇 1. If a brand name hospital charges a vendor to perform a clinical study but doesn’t buy your product (even if the results are “good”)... that is a BAD signal for your product and product <> market fit (as much as they may tell you otherwise). The market votes with its wallet. 2. Grant money is like winning a lottery ticket. It may help a health system kick start using your product, but you actually haven’t sold anything yet. If you need a grant to get into a health system (because no one would pay for it off a real budget) you should assume the initiative is permanently at-risk until proven otherwise. 3. Flashy demos and brand name VC investors might win you pilots. Subject matter expertise wins real health system partnerships. 4. Procurement processes are not a true barrier to Health Tech adoption. If your innovation is a “must-have”, procurement issues magically disappear. But if your innovation is simply a “nice-to-have”... procurement issues will suddenly appear. 5. Health systems are not anti-innovation - they are just rational actors. If your Health Tech product isn’t selling like hot cakes, it’s most likely because the market incentives are weak. 6. Most Health Tech products fail because vendors focus on building shiny Tech Features instead of Clinical Content and Workflows. No features that are empty shells ever improved a clinical outcome. 7. There are no “kingmakers” for Health Tech products. Any health system that promises you that their brand will give your product a halo effect is exaggerating their influence on the market. 8. Health Tech products that increase revenue will always be more attractive than products that improve clinical outcomes. Health systems may not say this publicly but they will admit it privately. Which of these would you agree with? Which would you disagree with? What’s one of your spicy takes?

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The FTC's non-compete ban is sending shockwaves through health tech. As a founder, I see this as both a massive risk AND an opportunity... 💥 The Good ➡Leveling the Playing Field: My small but brilliant team finally has a shot at disrupting those slow-moving industry giants. Innovation was never about big budgets but about having the right talent. ➡My Team, Their Future: If those superstar coders trapped in dead-end jobs finally jump ship, guess who I aim to recruit? 📉 The Bad ➡Poaching Season Is Open: Those same giants can now throw cash at my top people. It's time to get creative about retention—thinking beyond competitive salaries. ➡Short-Term vs. Long-Term Vision: Will this ban fuel healthcare startups wanting fast exits? My goal is lasting change, but investors get skittish... 👹 The Ugly ➡ Losing Your Rockstar MID-Project: Imagine a major update stalling out because your AI whiz took a competitor's offer. That's the new reality. ➡The Ethics of Offshoring: Will companies desperate for talent send sensitive healthcare work overseas? That's a slippery slope. Did health tech need this kind of jolt? The potential for a true shakeup will make the short-term chaos worth it, but could you let me know your take? #healthtechfounder #noncompete #talentwars #innovation

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Here is the hard truth about building a health product: skipping early feedback from healthcare insiders and payers can cost you YEARs of time and MILLIONS of $$$. At MDisrupt we are seeing a powerful shift. More and more companies are finally prioritizing feedback from real healthcare stakeholders - a critical step in the rush to scale. This isn't a nice to have, its the difference between products that SCALE and products that FAIL. So what are we doing about it? Today we are helping clients to: 👉🏼 Get feedback from PAYERS early on, crafting a reimbursement strategy that sets the stage for growth. 👉🏼 Consult CLINICIANS ensure products align seamlessly with clinical workflows — no more “great product, but hard to use” feedback. 👉🏼 Engage HEALTH SYSTEM LEADERS to confirm that the product addresses real, pressing clinical needs. We are making it as easy as possible to find these valuable experts and engage them in hourly calls so companies can get feedback quickly. Please talk to me if we can help you with this.

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Enjoyed digging into the complexities of finding effective product-market fit for health companies. To read the full article go to the Animus Health page. What's your best advice on getting to product-market fit?

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"I was able to extract so much more insights into my health compared to other annual health checks that I've done, which typically come in PDF format." "This cuts down a lot of the work required to research into products." As startup founders, most days we're dealing with tough clients and various fires to fight. However, this was an incredibly concise but also awesome review to get from one of our clients who really summarized what we're building here at Mito Health (YC S24)! If you're keen to experience a completely different 'health screening, annual physical' experience, do check us out today > https://mitohealth.com/ Keep plugging away at it! One client at a time... Ryan Ware Joel Kek Tee-Ming C. #longevity #healthoptimization #startups

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🚨 🚨 Something I need to get off my chest! 🚨 🚨 Agencies need to move away from this quick, short-term mentality of trying to place every lead today and bring back into focus the importance of building their pipelines by maximizing their database, response times, engagement processes, and remarketing efforts. GQR recently took a stab at this with leads coming from Travel Nurse Source as they noticed areas for opportunity within how they prioritize and work their leads from us. They engaged a Staffing Engine to help streamline and reengage their candidate pool and the results were amazing. 400% increase in placements and a dramatic reduction in delayed responses and manual workload. GQR's initial challenges were not unlike those faced by many agencies: manual lead distribution, missed opportunities, and a focus on immediate placements. However, by partnering with Staffing Engine and leveraging AI for automated lead distribution, GQR was able to revolutionize its recruitment process. Key Takeaways: 💪 Work Every Lead: The shift from manual to AI-driven lead distribution allowed GQR to capture and act on every lead efficiently. This ensured no opportunities were lost due to oversight, leading to a 4x increase in placements. Every lead, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, was given attention, helping to uncover potential placements that might have been missed otherwise. 📣 Building and Maximize Your Candidate Database: GQR’s approach underlines the importance of nurturing a large pool of candidates. Instead of focusing solely on candidates ready for immediate placement, the automated system helped the agency engage with candidates consistently, ensuring they remained in the pipeline for future opportunities. This strategy not only increases the number of placements but also builds a robust database that can be continuously leveraged for future needs. 📶 Long-Term Approach Over Quick Wins: The success GQR experienced was a result of taking a long-term view. By improving response times and ensuring that candidates were engaged promptly and consistently, they enhanced the candidate experience and ultimately placed more candidates with fewer submissions. This strategic, long-term focus on relationship-building and efficiency, rather than just immediate placements, led to sustained success. GQR's experience shows that when agencies commit to working every lead and building a strong candidate database, they not only increase their placements but also enhance their overall efficiency and client satisfaction. This approach moves away from the short-term, transactional mentality, fostering a culture that values long-term success and continuous engagement with candidates. Check out their full case study here - https://lnkd.in/e8n5S2VA

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📈 Demand for fertility services is rising -> 💼 PE recognizes this and wants in -> 🏜 but opportunities are scarce (https://lnkd.in/g6zXEVZh). Highly recommend anyone who wants a deeper understanding of what's going with fertility and fertility tech read Aya Spencer's *2024 State of fertility tech report* (https://lnkd.in/gVjK_UpX) - it's a great summary

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Not sure how your company should approach life science marketing? Here are 6 reasons to hire an agency instead: 1. Expertise: Agencies offer specialized knowledge and skills that internal teams may lack. 2. Cost efficiency: Hiring experts can be more cost-effective than training new staff. 3. Access to technology: Agencies have access to advanced marketing tools and platforms. You don't pay extra for it. 4. Fresh perspective: External agencies provide innovative and unbiased viewpoints. 5. Risk minimization: If they fail, you can just stop working with them. No strings attached. 6. Career growth: Their success will look good on your resume. Check out my article in the comments for more on this topic, and if you're looking for a cool life sciences marketing agency, contact me 😉

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For Health Tech Startups, building a Painkiller product will increase your probability of success… BUT it may also just reinforce the problematic Status Quo👇 Here’s another way of framing it: → Starting with a visionary product in mind often leads to a Nice-to-Have Vitamin (i.e. it’s really hard to get anyone to care about a better future when they’re struggling just to deliver healthcare in the current system) → BUT solving a problem for the current Market sometimes often means you’ll just be making things incrementally better… for an existing suboptimal state of care. Let me explain with an example… When we started SeamlessMD 12 years ago to digitize patient journeys (e.g. pre/post-surgery), it was incredibly visionary because we were asking providers to join us in transforming MANY things at once: → Transitioning from static, one-size fits all paper instructions to automated, personalized digital reminders and  education on mobile/web → Empowering patients to track symptoms and health status digitally at-home (when patients weren’t even being asked to track symptoms on paper) → Providing alerts and dashboards to clinicians to monitor patients at-home and catch problems earlier (when clinicians were at-best doing one post-discharge phone call, but often nothing at all). → Caring to improve clinical outcomes such as length of stay, readmissions, etc. when often there was a lack of financial incentive to do so So unsurprisingly it was a MASSIVE struggle to get health system partners for many years. Lots of enthusiasm and lots of successful clinical studies… but mediocre health system adoption. Luckily we stuck it out and the market factors changed enough over the recent years to evolve our “Vitamin” closer to a “Painkiller”. But if I went back to 2013 with the goal of building a similar business with the highest chance of succeeding, I would start with the Market and work backwards to the Product Vision. I might think to myself: → There is an existing Market category for print education and PDFs → There is a more recent Market category for patient education videos → There is an existing sales and marketing motion for these categories, so if I make a better version of these, I can build a sustainable business And I’m sure we could’ve built a reasonable business out of that. We would probably have spent less time worrying about whether we’d be around in a year and more time actually working with health systems. BUT ultimately we also would not have had the same dramatic impact on helping health systems reduce length of stay, readmissions, mortality and costs in a truly transformative way. That’s why there’s no single right answer to whether innovators should build a Vitamin (that has a small chance of being a future Painkiller) or something that is probably a Painkiller today. Probably the right answer is whatever gives you energy and motivates you to build.

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I’ve been thinking about the best ways I can support startup CEOs before year end, with the goal of helping teams pursue growth more effectively in 2025. One common sentiment I’ve heard from CEOs at all stage of growth in recent months is some version of: “We need to keep advancing all potential paths to growth simultaneously, and we'll see where we gain traction first.” What all of these leaders have in common is that they are pursuing paths to growth that will require their organizations to: ⚡ Sell into fully new customer types ⚡ Learn what these new customers need, how they solve challenges today, their expectations, ways of working, etc. ⚡ Position existing solutions in the context of needs ⚡ Potentially define, iterate, and develop new solutions to address needs ⚡ Assess how existing organizational capabilities and resources available align to serving those new customer types, and identify gaps (The list goes on) As a result, I’ve decided to focus much of the rest of this year on helping existing and new startup clients: ✔ Review their portfolios of growth initiatives ✔ Document their understanding of opportunities ✔ Identify key assumptions and open questions ✔ Prioritize across initiatives Reach out if you would welcome this support for your organization ahead of year end, and happy to schedule time to discuss next steps. Happy weekend. #startups #growth #healthcare #healthtech #q4  –- Hi, I’m Brittany Ryan, Founder & Principal at Sunrise Advisors. I serve as a fractional product and commercial executive to health tech startups, venture capital firms, and venture-building teams. I’m passionate about helping ensure organizations are pursuing growth effectively, and would love to partner if you and your team need support. Thanks!

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🔥Tune In to the Latest Fireside Chat with a VC in Healthech🔥 What percentage of VCs are former founders? 30% maybe more? I'd think a fair amount, yet how *exactly* does that transition happen and what perspectives change *radically* afterwards? Sigvards Krongorns shared exactly that - his journey from PwC consultant to Healtech founder, to a VC shaping the future of Healthtech startups. What we talked about: ✨ Sigvards' transition from a PwC consultant to founder to a VC ✨ What steps are necessary to bring innovative medical devices from concept to market ✨ How being a founder can prepare you for a role in venture capital ✨ What strategies help navigate the regulatory landscape in healthtech startups ✨ The right way to engage with VCs for startup funding ✨ What future trends in venture capital and Healthtech look like #HealthTech #VentureCapital #Innovation #StartupJourney #HealthcareInnovation #Entrepreneurship #FiresideChat #VentureCapitalInsights Full conversation can be found here:

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Seed. Series A. Series B. C. and D. Suki has grown in size, in revenue, in margins, and in user footprint over the years. I certainly did not imagine life playing out this way when I embarked on this journey in 2017. We tend to write congratulatory notes when we raise rounds. I rather just express gratitude. We are very grateful to all new and existing investors especially Hedosophia and Venrock who led this round. I am even more grateful to the Suki team who is so sincere, and works so hard, and cares so much for the mission. There are so many more to thank. But rounds are not much more than milestones in the larger journey of trying to build something meaningful. AI will one day redo healthcare is practiced around the world. I want Suki to be a part of that story. And to that, we will keep working hard, keep serving our users, and hope that we build a company that users love and employees are proud of. More to come. https://lnkd.in/gzQud4iQ

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If you know anyone who wants a guest to talk about the Tenet/Pool/Rubin situation -- this is the one thing I am most qualified to talk on. Influence ops, the role agencies play in dark money and astroturfing etc. I can talk about how they do it, from strategy to tactical to how they approach people and the tactics they use. I literally ran this experiment using myself as a crash test dummy. Needless to say, it kinda backfired, because I had no idea a) the extent of the problem b) how damaging it would be and c) how uninterested people were when I talked about the problem.... until it affects people they personally don't like. I am a little frustrated and depressed about dedicating so many years to this specific thing so that when it did explode and the conversation occurred, that I would be front of mind. It seems I failed there, mostly because by simply talking about these sorts of things - platform manipulation, influence ops etc - I found myself mass reported into oblivion so that nobody sees me. So this is me offering to be on any things, talking about the systemic problems with independent media, and content creation and the reforms that need to occur. I don't regret it, because it led me to deciding to practice law. But I'm serious... this is my lane and I can talk about it.

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Launch announcement 📢 Courtney M. first engaged with Apollo Fractional almost exactly a year ago Fed up with her existing development partner, she was looking for a partner to support and grow her custom community platform she had built for Pharm Techs Only! After many months supporting and bug fixing, she was ready to take her platform to the new level We did a Build vs Buy comparison, and ultimately decided that a customizable off-the-shelf solution was the best investment, at least for the near term We evaluated many platforms, and landed on Higher Logic + Web Scribble for the new community and job board Trying to align product vision with an existing platform can be challenging, especially when working with limited resources. We definitely encountered some unexpected bumps in the road as we worked through the onboarding and started to hit limitations or unexpected quarks 🎢 I think we were told at least 5x that "No one had requested that before".. or "That is not possible, but you can try to accomplish it with custom code" But after a lot of hard work, the MVP version of the new Pharm Techs Only platform is live 🚀 ✔️ New Branding ✔️ Improved User Experience ✔️ More Community Features ✔️ And a roadmap for growth I believe that niche communities and the curation of engaging human experiences will be key factors for the success of startups in the coming years It has been a great experience working closely with Courtney helping to bring her vision of an exclusive platform to support, engage, and grow a global community of #PharmacyTechnicians to new life 🌏 If you know any hard working #pharmtechs or professionals looking to break into the industry, be sure to share this growing community Improved experiences, additional resources, and many more features coming soon... But now it is time to celebrate all of the hard work 🍻 and watch as the community gets to explore and engage on the new platform 🤝 https://lnkd.in/gKd8tNpt #startups #launchday #community

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💯 agree with this viewpoint Today there are hundreds of products in every vertical that should really be features not products 🤯 Who actually enjoys having 20+ software applications to run a business? I’ve yet to meet a degenerate who does 😂 Building a compound startup or true system of record is not for the faint hearted. Everything is harder. Navigating through the complexity and the breadth vs depth conundrum is agonising 🛣️ 🧟‍♂️ But if you can stick the course and execute on this strategy successfully to build the ‘one stop shop for X’ both the customer and the software provider get incredible rewards 🏆🏆 #compound #startup

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Pro Tip: True authenticity can't be faked. It's literally impossible. Here's what works instead 👇🏽 1️⃣ Share specific customer wins (like how your startup doubled engagement by letting their customers tell the story) 2️⃣ Create genuinely helpful content (my simple rule: each post should either solve a problem, celebrate a win that inspires others, or share a learning that helps someone else grow) 3️⃣ Keep your message consistent (your audience needs reliable value) 4️⃣ Own your mistakes openly 5️⃣ Listen more than you talk 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲: Stop trying to 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 credible and focus on 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 credible. #MarketingTips #Branding #Authenticity

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The VC defensibility argument for rejection is an empty reason to reject a company, because it ultimately comes down to execution. I understand the argument if a company sells iPhone cases, and that business really is completely indefensible given that others can very easily copy it (for almost nothing) sell fakes, have scale, and IP law can't really do anything here, etc. But is then SpaceX indefensible because Lockheed and Boeing and Blue Origin (who all have billions), can do the same. So why don't they? Why haven't they? It's because it's really hard to do. Defensible businesses are businesses that are really hard to build. The same can be said in banking. Does Revolut also have a defensibility issue? I'm sure they got rejected by investors for this reason many times. There were dozens of digital banks, but there is now 1 leading digital bank. Their defensibility is scale. And that's really hard to do. Defensibility is an ignorant argument, and it's often coming from those that have never actually built a business.

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This week, 153 companies w/ US offices announced over $3.5B of funding. Below are 4 with top VC investors and open roles👇 Use this list to... ↳ Identify interesting companies ↳ Check for open roles ↳ Reach out to people on the team with congratulations ↳ Land your next startup role at a growing company Midi Health What they do: Empowering women through virtual care, Midi's platform is a game-changer for managing menopause and other health issues. With personalized treatment protocols, expert coaching, and specialized labs and medications, they provide tailored support for women in critical life stages. Year Founded: 2021 HQ Location: Los Angeles, CA Series: B Employees: 152 Total Raised: $97.5M Last Known Valuation: $75M Funding Announcement: $60M Top VC Investors: GV (Google Ventures) Hiring: Yes ✅  Hiring For 6 Positions: Operations, Patient Service, Program Management, Sales, Tech Support, Nurse Practitioners Pitchbook Success Probability: 98% Cognition What they do: Meet your new AI software engineer, Devin (if you haven't seen this demo online, go Google it now. It's wild). Cognition's platform equips engineers with a virtual assistant for planning, execution, and collaboration, making project management easier and more efficient. Year Founded: 2023 HQ Location: New York, NY Series: A Employees: 29 Total Raised: $196M Last Known Valuation: $2.00 🦄 Funding Announcement: $175M!! Top VC Investors: Founders Fund Hiring: Yes ✅ Hiring For 2 Positions: ML Research, Engineering, General Applications Pitchbook Success Probability: 97% Augment What they do: In the immortal words from Zoolander, "AI coding assistance is so hot right now." Augment empowers programmers with AI-driven coding assistance, offering optimized suggestions, custom AI models, and codebase awareness. Year Founded: 2022 HQ Location: Palo Alto, CA Series: B Employees: 50 Total Raised: $252M Last Known Valuation: $977M (Not quite 🦄. So close!) Funding Announcement: $227M!! Top VC Investors: Index Ventures, Lightspeed Hiring: Yes ✅ Hiring For 5 Positions: Research, Engineering, Solutions Architect Pitchbook Success Probability: 96% Pomelo What they do: Pomelo's money transfer app is more than just sending money - it's about building financial freedom. With no fees, a secured credit line, and the ability to send money overseas, they empower users to support their families while building credit and financial stability. Year Founded: 2017 HQ Location: San Francisco, CA Series: A Employees: 55 Total Raised: $110M Last Known Valuation: $75M Funding Announcement: $35M Hiring: Yes ✅ Hiring For 11 Positions: Compliance, Engineering, Marketing, Operations, Product & Design Pitchbook Success Probability: 95% Who did I leave off that you're excited about? ---- Want more lists like this? Follow me, Kyle Thomas. ♻ Repost & help others find their next startup role.

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How can start-ups make their new ideas profitable - fast? And without huge agency fees? Zak Weinberg from Echo Boomer Design shared loads of practical advice on DIY digital marketing at Boulder Startup Week today, covering digital strategy, earned channels and paid channels. I'm still mulling over my notes but my top takeaway is: you absolutely must start with a clear strategy, and companies that set clear OKRs (objectives and key results) for their marketing activities stay focused and are more likely to succeed. Amen to that. Oh, and social media might not give you much ROI, but it's hilarious to keep messing with the photo of your boss on the company website, and post it on Tik Tok every day until he finally notices. It's pretty creepy. Ask Zak for the link, I dare you. #BoulderStartupWeek #startups #digitalmarketing

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