This accurately describes the situation. There is a mismatch between ideas and the capital to fund their development. In health tech, AI is improving the situation for some solutions. It is now possible to bootstrap product development to first revenue to demonstrate viability. If successful, entrepreneurs may be in a situation where they can decide whether or not to take capital before proving they can scale.
Thanks, Gary. Fully agree on AI lowering activation energy. It’s a big reason why a different model may be possible now. I'd note that bootstrapping still assumes an entrepreneur willing to take it all on; a lot of what I'm focused on never gets that far
David, I'm on the edge of my seat awaiting parts 3 and 4. You capture the essence of the issue perfectly and from a place of experience. I have been sharing the series with my fellow board members and the leadership at UConn. Thank you for taking the time to write and put this out there.
Capital allocation is a serious barrier to adoption of innovation. I think the other is the systemic misalignment of incentives.
For example - Pharma don’t systematically invest in patient training or adherence management tools because if a patient fails on therapy they will probably be escalated to a more expensive therapy.
Hard not to become cynical over the years to be honest.
Thanks, Chris. The dynamics and misalignment you’re describing are real; as you know, we saw them firsthand at Propeller! I’m cautiously optimistic those challenges are downstream of something more fundamental: a need for more appropriate infrastructure to build these kinds of products in the first place
This accurately describes the situation. There is a mismatch between ideas and the capital to fund their development. In health tech, AI is improving the situation for some solutions. It is now possible to bootstrap product development to first revenue to demonstrate viability. If successful, entrepreneurs may be in a situation where they can decide whether or not to take capital before proving they can scale.
Thanks, Gary. Fully agree on AI lowering activation energy. It’s a big reason why a different model may be possible now. I'd note that bootstrapping still assumes an entrepreneur willing to take it all on; a lot of what I'm focused on never gets that far
David, I'm on the edge of my seat awaiting parts 3 and 4. You capture the essence of the issue perfectly and from a place of experience. I have been sharing the series with my fellow board members and the leadership at UConn. Thank you for taking the time to write and put this out there.
Many thanks for reading and for your feedback, Geoff. Really appreciate you sharing with others, too. Next post is coming soon!
Capital allocation is a serious barrier to adoption of innovation. I think the other is the systemic misalignment of incentives.
For example - Pharma don’t systematically invest in patient training or adherence management tools because if a patient fails on therapy they will probably be escalated to a more expensive therapy.
Hard not to become cynical over the years to be honest.
Thanks, Chris. The dynamics and misalignment you’re describing are real; as you know, we saw them firsthand at Propeller! I’m cautiously optimistic those challenges are downstream of something more fundamental: a need for more appropriate infrastructure to build these kinds of products in the first place