The final idea I didn’t stick with will be in MedTech from all places.
Health Spy
We actually “tracked-out” this idea. That means we have formed a team, got a couch from the venture capital firm, and started to kick the tires of it.
We even got to practice pitching to investors.
The idea is simple:
Step 1) Connect wearables
Step 2) ???
Step 3) Profit
Why is it cool?
Doing something for healthcare was different from what I joined Antler for. However, during the program, we did get to talk to some folks in medicine, and they did a great job presenting the issues and the urgent need for startups to disrupt the industry.
Also, my awesome wife is a medical doctor, which feels like an unfair advantage.
That connection with the very charismatic Nick Nicksan got me!
Is it weird that we check our financial apps every day, yet we have no insights into how our bodies are doing?
Nick
The quote above still rings true to me. I do a lot of work to analyse and optimise my financial health, yet there are no tools that I am using to do the same for arguably more critical health of my body.
Challanges
Building a startup in this area comes with a few challenges:
Integrations
To have a shot at being the ultimate health app, we needed to collect data from many wearables. Many of them use private protocols and force you to go through the APIs of their manufacturers.
There are aggregators on the market, such as Terra, which can significantly shorten the implementation period.
I also reverse engineer the RFID protocol the flagship continuous glucose monitor is using.
I felt most at home with this challenge.
Smartness
For the tool to be valuable, we needed an AI plan. We needed a system to review all the data and deliver tailored recommendations or insights about your body.
Machine learning and AI are definitely out of my comfort zone, but having a long career in tech gives me access to some exceptional professionals. One of them is my good friend Yuri. He shared some tips and pointers, and I would be able to navigate this, too.
We may need to hire an expert later on, but that is something within reach with venture backing.
Business Model
This challenge is, to me, the toughest to face. It is tough to get people to do stuff 🙂 Wearing many devices to provide data for our tool is one such thing.
And then, even if you can motivate them, having a B2C approach was something I couldn’t see myself fighting for. I couldn’t imagine myself buying such a solution.
The business obstacle was the core reason I abandoned the idea. I was not the right problem-founder match. Ultimately, the problem needed to resonate with me more to push through the challenges.
Nobel Mission
MedTech is still an excellent area of work. I think B2B models focusing more on the clinics might help more, but even the ultimate health app has a lot of merit.
Check out my friends from Closar AI, who follow a similar path towards medical data and manage to secure the Antler funding.