The trials and learnings in MedTech
When working in the startup space, it’s crucial to test and validate your assumptions when developing your product and strategy. But especially when it comes to industries marked by high regulations and legal procedures, testing and documenting become core to the success and development of the business.
REDO Neurosystems, a MedTech startup currently moving into clinical trials, is well versed in the challenges of the business landscape. Below two of their co-founders, COO Mathis and CEO Tor, describe their journey as part of the Beyond Beta Accelerator program and what advice they would give entrepreneurs entering the field.
How has your validation process looked?
“Before the program, we had a lot of assumptions about our strategy, sales, and product – but we were able to work a lot with these assumptions and how to improve, validate and test them to build a much stronger strategy afterward.
We mapped out everything we assumed – how much did we know and how much didn’t we know. There were definitely areas where we had just assumed this is how it was, and on these things, we have gotten much wiser.
To test against potential customers, we hosted some visits to validate our assumptions and conduct interviews. We actually had to go out into the field and test this. And a lot of our assumptions were also tested on a strategic level with people experienced in this industry. We were able to spar with them and see if it made sense or if it was crazy.
Since then, we have validated our target customers and have been a lot more focused on getting wiser on the elements we don’t know.”
What have been your biggest learnings since starting your journey?
“Talk to the customer and get to know what they want, and don’t just assume they want something. Beyond Beta pushed us out into the field instead of just sitting behind a screen and having all of these assumptions.
Another learning we got from the program is it’s easy as an entrepreneur to get caught up in what you’re doing and just be building something you think is right. And most people, in my experience, are afraid to go out and talk to customers.
They are afraid of validating their product because they have this idea that this is great and going to work. But if you don’t actually go out and test it and validate it, then there’s a very big chance you’re developing it wrong and will have to backtrack your work. These programs force you to go out and validate these assumptions, and that’s important for an entrepreneur to learn very early if you want to have success.
We’re still learning. It’s a long process, but we’re getting there and we have the approvals to get started on the clinical trials, and hopefully this summer, we will have a CE certification for selling our product.”
