How to cut out the Loose Ends & Build a Successful Healthcare Startup
The year 2020 is said to be unforgiving, yet transformational for the Healthcare & Medical industry, as the pandemic situation is worsening every second, every day. The world economy has been in lockdown due to a rise in cases, involving restrictions on international & domestic travel. Everyone looks up to the healthcare sector to come up with solutions to curb the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus.
Many entrepreneurs have set foot in the digital healthcare startup because they saw an opportunity to use digital innovation and solve an existing problem. At present, a huge demand-supply imbalance of healthcare infrastructure & technology is challenging due to which understanding the gravity of the situation is vital. Several world economies have taken measures concerned with healthcare policy initiatives that had been locked up and never given the required attention.
Efforts have also been made to seek greater support from private healthcare providers, especially health tech startups. In India, startups like Dozee, WONDRx, Nocca, and Qure.ai have made the fight less complicated for the medical industry with improved monitoring, contact-less diagnosis, and high-tech medical devices. But, even as the health care industry has stepped up with an unprecedented response to the Covid-19 pandemic, health care & health tech companies are on verge of sinking due to the loss of revenue, crumbling of their medical workforce, and the dissolution of normal as we know it. This means disruptions in the relationships of the startup stakeholders, especially the investors.
To think of it, there comes a question on why healthcare startups are still struggling even when there is huge demand? Here are certain aspects which these startups skip while building up the empire:
1. Poor understanding of the healthcare ecosystem
Healthcare startups tend to align their business thinking with society’s welfare but fail to understand that the people, in general, are not the actual buyers. There’s the principal-agent problem, in which the buyer and the user of a good or service are not the same people. The big companies, Insurance, and Medicare organizations should be the target. The fastest way to bridge the gap between concept and product delivery is adopting emerging technologies like Artificial intelligence, Robotics, Virtual reality, etc. & integrate them with them, which brings the big companies down to have business with them.
2. Confusing their medical healthcare business with biotech business
The medical businesses confuse their business model with one of the biotech companies & due to this short-sightedness they fail to keep up with the stakeholders. Adapting a proper business model & Technology can help healthcare organizations meet growing demand and efficiently operate to deliver better patient care, hence satisfying the stakeholders, especially the investors.
3. Formulating a weak team
Generally, most small health companies & startups follow a similar practice: hiring a tech person, a product developer plus a sales and marketing wizard. But what they miss out on is hiring an expert from the medical field. This is usually an established medical figure with a healthcare experience that can support their clinical value claims. This person knows the ins and outs of the industry and acts as an advisor. No amount of customer research that one will do can replace their knowledge. By using the wisdom of these seasoned experts & using their data points for analysis, a company can make it big in the market!
4. Ignoring Data Analysis & Customer Insights
The companies who ignore the data points & customer insights never make it big in the business world. Data helps companies & organizations in spotting new customer behavior and identify trends. In fact, Data Analytics is identified as one of the hottest areas of interest for investors. Startups offering analytics solutions based on understanding the data, & identifying the pain points of the customers & designing the best services & products for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies are thriving the most in marketing.
5. Challenge of getting your first customer
Searching your first customers to demonstrate your solution works when no one is ready to be the first to try it out. Most organizations want to see some proof before buying as they want a tried & tested product/services. Some companies enter pilot projects with organizations, but in many cases, those are doomed to fail as they lack buy-ins.
Healthcare is an industry that is currently being majorly transformed using the latest technology, so it can meet the challenges currently existing in the 21st century. Furthermore, new-Age technologies like Cloud services, AI and Machine Learning, Robotics, Wearable fitness technology, AR/VR, etc. need to be used to run a sustainable healthcare business. Apptread being a Custom Software Development & Cloud Services company provides custom healthcare solutions that help in the smooth integration of medical devices to track real-time data and improve diagnosis. Today, against the backdrop of this exceptional challenge, our promise of disruptive technology & innovation has never been greater.