The story of your idea

Innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare demands great effort. No pain, no gain. It is often a very chaotic process, although we can identify some steps in it. Knowing the “general” story of one idea, from its conception to its arrival to the marketplace can help wanna-be entrepreneurs “see” the path ahead and better planify what to do.

Step 1: Having the idea. Where does the idea come from? Learn to identify when and why you are angry. Behind an angry physician or patient lies an opportunity waiting to be discovered. Find needs and provide solutions.

Step 2: Is it just a good idea, or is it an opportunity? An opportunity means you will capture value from it. Is it economically viable? Can you secure strong intellectual protection? Has it got a big market size? Can you find a great team to execute it?, Is there a clear path to market? Can you build a profitable business model around it?

Step 3: Write a business plan. The purpose of a business plan is to tell a story, the story of your idea. The plan must establish there is an opportunity worth exploiting and must describe the details of how this will be accomplished. Some entrepreneurs see the business plan primarily as a tool to raise capital. Well, it indeed is necessary to raise capital, but its primary purpose is to help entrepreneurs gain a deeper understanding of the opportunity they are envisioning. It helps entrepreneurs to shape their original vision into a better opportunity by raising and answering questions.

Step 4: Protect your idea. Intellectual property is a very important asset in healthcare, especially in life sciences or medical devices. Protecting your idea will generate barriers of entry and can represent a source of revenue to your start-up.

Step 5: Prototyping. At some point you will need to test your product or service with a “mock-up” or a rough prototype, it will help you attracting capital, clients or employees.

Step 6: Choosing a future. Once you have a patent, you can choose to sell it or license it. You may want to find an ally in the sector to help you bringing the product to the marketplace or, maybe, you will create your own start-up.

Step 7. Build your team. Remember no investor will invest money in your idea, but in the execution of your idea. An idea is worth nothing, its value comes from its execution, and therefore the team that is going to push it forward is essential.

Step 8. Raise capital. Your idea may be able to raise government capital in from of grants (if that’s the case you probably have raised capital before step 4, no need to wait that long). At some point you may want to raise private capital from business angels or venture capital.

Step 9. Go! As a friend of mine once told me, once you get here you have already 90% of the job done… now you just need to do the other 90%... entrepreneurship is a never ending task.

Obviously, depending on the nature of the innovation you are bringing to the market, you will need to prove it “useful” and “safe”. Healthcare is a heavily regulated market. More on clinical trials in a future post.