Talking HealthTech: 301 – Scaling for growth. Jonathan Jeffries, Think & Grow

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Having reached the point where a health technology business has already proved the best product it can give to the market, Customers are content with the products, services, and operations that the company provides to the general public. The founders, typically clinicians who are very good at finding solutions to issues, are now in a position to realise that they need to stretch themselves outside of their comfort zone. Seeking other qualified business leaders to form partnerships with to step up efforts to discover new prospects that will allow the company to grow and spread beyond the borders of Australia.

Meet Jonathan Jeffries (JJ)

JJ is a Brit who calls both the UK and Australia home after moving to Melbourne 15 years ago. He has spent the past 20+ years working across the UK and Australia, and is the Co-Founder of Think & Grow, helping fast-growth tech businesses find and hire great people, as well as how to scale for growth internationally.

Many companies were incubated seven to eight years ago, but now the health-tech industry is beginning to march up and unfold new beginnings. Leading the industry not only to expand on a global scale appropriately, but also to generate revenue and connectivity towards the UK, EU, and Asia.

In a nutshell, JJ and Think & Grow are a support for the tech industry, empowering founders and executives to develop their businesses, their people, and their careers.

The landscape of Australian Healthtech

Many companies demonstrated a grand scale of expansion globally due to the effects of the financial crises. A defining moment in which large venture firms are actively finding businesses in Australia, pouring large amounts of investment that can stand up beyond the country. It is stated that it is a successful event wherein the world began to look at Australian companies that are good at building businesses by creating product market fit, a revenue line that can hold for three to five years stabilising the business. 

Successful stories have emerged in the last five to six years that more VC funding is available, which soar from 1 billion to 10 billion worth of investment. Many businesses are hitting their milestones according to the SAAS Metric, which like more investments, will come. 

Healthtech businesses are now starting to see the trend like iCare health, which was sold to Telstra Health at that time, where smart ward sold into Datacom. These examples are some that are in the product market fit stage but quickly moved into relative success because it was immediately acquired. In Australia, the healthcare system is so strong and respected from a clinician’s point of view, which means health businesses have a stronghold because either hardware or software solutions in the Australian health system, it is straightforward to transition to different markets and industries. 

Helping out businesses

One of the biggest challenges in scaling a business is creating a common language within the company’s structure. Make sure that the founders are on the same page regarding what the board expects and how the leadership feels about the current situation. The methodology in getting things sorted out is utilising the concept that some people are more comfortable telling an external person than persons in the company, from there building a common language everyone can understand, so scaling up a business can start. When people are already aligned with changes implemented, the next step is focusing on finding the gaps in the industry and proposing solutions, either outsourcing services or legal factors like government regulation, sorting out the shares structures.

However, from a health tech perspective, there tends to be a gap around articulating a non-clinical approach that everyday users can understand. Creating a dialogue that brands position in the logical sense of scaling a product from sales views into new markets. Trying to get the correct language overseas, setting up meetings for user research testing, and ensuring the product market fit is right. After that, building support for any expansion can be started, like getting headquarters. 

Preparation for success

The earlier the preparation of a business can give a significant success on a global scale. Some companies can be standalone and very successful in a single market in identifying the size of market offering for where the company can get. The company founder must be aligned with where the business wants to go locally or as a global business.

Sometimes the ease of doing business overseas is by the language. It is easier to do business in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, South Africa, and other commonwealth countries because the language barrier is fortunately not present. Although good business leads can be blessings in disguise, that seems an excellent opportunity for the market, it could also be something that can break a company because of putting all the eggs in one basket. Assessing the merits, whether it is too early or problems may arise. That is why intelligent people would always return to the drawing board, and investors would assess what the company should or shouldn’t do. And if pursuing the idea, should the company hire new specialised teams and deploy more capital. These are usually done in clients going to less common markets like Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, where health systems need the support of Artificial Intelligence, data insights, and technology that are not common for many businesses.

Supporting clinicians

It is common for clinicians to discover a series of problems through their education and training in becoming a medical doctor or experience handling actual patients. Solutions to problems have usually been proposed by people from medicine or any medical background. Building prototypes as hardware solutions or software components are a typical trend in Australia. 

However, in product development, clinicians do not have any connection to a true technologist. The common mistake when starting out is that they usually hire only people they know and assume that they can do what is necessary. Sometimes, it could work for the first three to four months. However, it is much better off taking time to assess the need to have conversations with some advisors or former founders that have already scaled in the health technology business. Getting the proper insight firsthand rather than committing a big mistake requires a lot of effort and time. 

Currently, Australia is in this beautiful position where there are a lot of great CTO, VP ventures, or products within the software. Giving time to asses, providing sounding board advice before making critical hiring of a leaders.

Choosing the right people

In the health tech industry, it is challenging to build business straightforwardly. A company might need to create a product for three to four years before getting regulatory approval before revenue comes in. It is much more challenging in the lead-up phase than post operations. The value of having the right person for three to four years is quite important. 

In reality, in building a product that is firmly based on technology, it is essential to hire CT, a CTO, or even a technical or product-oriented co-founder; without such expertise, the company could fail.

Brand presence

The founder should be the best salesperson in the company. Because they are the reason why their product or their thinking around the development and how they solve for it tends to be the best possible solution. However, in the medical technology industry, a person or a team can set meetings for the company’s leaders, depending on the type of product trying to create inbound through exhibitions and events and trying to develop brand presence.

It is not always right to hire a sales director straight away. Product marketing, showcasing through exhibitions to get that brand presence, and often inbound leads need follow-up. That can be either in the form of a customer success manager or an account executive. In terms of outbound, a person could be trained or an SDR familiar with the hospital system. It could also be a doctor or nurse that can engage the audience and set up meetings for the founders to attend. It is usually in its administration around actual sales funnelling. It is the founder’s diligence to showcase the company’s product.

Investments

It is challenging for people to show energy and enthusiasm in selling their vision in a manner that someone will buy on solving complex problems with hardware or software. Usually, when building a prototype hardware solution for companies, it needs a more significant amount of investment

Board selection

It is common for people to put a lot of money into businesses to secure a board seat. But the challenge is the experience driving the health tech business globally. Building a board structure that is mature in creating success in the company is essential.

More about Think & Grow

Think & Grow empower founders and executives to develop their businesses, people, and careers to be ready for the future economy of work. We partner with fast-growth tech start-ups and companies to attract, nurture and build. Our services cover all aspects at every stage of growth, including: Executive Search and Onsite, Global Expansion and People Advisory. We also coach candidates and leadership teams to land roles in the tech sector and develop their career paths.

Coming up this year is the release of the 22/23 Start-Up Salary Guide, the launch of our Singapore location and our new coaching and mentorship program, Project One.

_{Source talkinghealthtech.com}