One of the biggest barriers to Healthcare Innovation is when the system-wide impact just won’t be large enough to matter to the C-suite. Let me explain with a story… I was talking to a startup the other day. They have a novel tech solution that would help a specific department at a 400-bed hospital increase annual revenue for the hospital by $500k. If the solution costs $50k/year, that would be a 10x ROI! Here’s the problem…. Suppose that hospital does about $500M in revenue per year. Even though the cash investment might only be $50k, the C-suite is thinking: → Adding another $500k is just a 0.1% increase on their current top line. It doesn’t really move the dial on their goals for revenue growth. → And although that $50k investment doesn’t hurt the balance sheet, the risk of workflow disruption, a new tech product = a new security risk, possible change management frustrations to the staff… just often won’t seem worth it for a chance at 0.1% revenue growth. Now a bet that could potentially improve revenue or decrease costs by 1% (or $5M?) That’s when it gets compelling. This is also why it’s very hard for health systems to justify buying highly clinical solutions targeted to specific specialties. Your champion will be told “there’s no budget”, but what that often means is “we don’t think this product can move the dial enough across the organization”. Even if something might reduce costs or length of stay or readmissions, but it only works for a very specific department and doesn’t scale across the enterprise…. It’s just much harder for the C-suite to see the value. Now with a really influential, senior clinical leader banging the table for you… often they’ll make it happen. But how long will the solution stay? Often not for the long-term if the solution can’t scale that value system-wide. Because eventually your champion will move on from the org or just move onto something new. They’ll have a new innovation they’d rather put their social capital behind. So that’s one of the hard parts about building in Health Tech. Lots of great solutions that can really move the dial for very specific clinical areas… but not necessarily across an entire health system. So what are your options? 1. Figure out a path to a solution or suite of related products that can drive system-wide impact. 2. Focus on a different ideal customer profile that will care more (e.g. specialty groups instead of health systems) 3. Just keep grinding it out and willing the market demand into existence… because you just want this solution to exist, even if it takes a lot longer than you’d like. No right answer… but operate with your eyes wide open.