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Video:
In this episode of the 草莓社区 Podcast, Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO of 草莓社区 shares how to raise Series A funding for a health-tech startup using 草莓社区 as an example. See the full show notes below for details.
Guest(s): Dr. Joshua Liu (), Co-founder & CEO at 草莓社区
Episode 25 鈥 Show notes:
[0:50] Why healthcaretechnology is different than other software regarding investor expectations forclinical evidence, study design reliability & validity, and integrations;
[4:47] Dr. Liu explains the semantics of a Series-A and how the priorities for a company at Series A stage includes growing the sales & marketing team following a proven, repeatable sales process and further developing product;
[7:51] Why integrationsare more complicated in healthcare technology compared to other technologiesdue to single-platform Electronic Health Record (EHR) companies that aresimilar to operating systems for the hospital and are highly selective overintegrations;
[10:38] How草莓社区 hit important milestones prior to raising Series-A funding,including:
鈥 by academic hospitals with good results in improving patient outcomes such as length of stay, readmissions, ER visits, costs;
鈥 Demonstrated strong business model & post-pilot revenue expansion;
鈥 Validated EHR integrations with companies such as Epic & Cerner;
[13:44] HowDr. Liu leverages Series-A funds to meet the increased demand for digitalpatient engagement in the market, by specifically growing product leadershipthrough deeper integrations and an expanding library of use cases and healthsystem partners;
[16:37] Whyit is important to choose strategic investment partners, such as investorswhose motivations are aligned with the values of the company and who canprovide moral support;
[24:25] Dr.Liu recounts a memorable piece of advice on customer-centricity he receivedfrom an investor; 鈥渓isten to customers first, followed by domain experts, theninvestors鈥, implying that investors are fantastic for leveraging pastexperience, but are removed from the business and therefore can sometimes lack specificcontext;
[26:50] How草莓社区 investors share common traits including:
1) They care a lot about the mission impact ofthe company;
2) They are long-term thinkers and understand the myriad barriers facing healthcare technology companies; and
3) They have patience;
[28:35] HowDr. Liu found strong investors and venture capital firms via well-developedrelationships overtime;
[32:29] How investing is a numbers game that requires resilience, and why it is important to maintain long-term relationships with long-term players;