“Think carefully about your vision, your product idea and the business model that it requires.”
With only three weeks left before applications close to the Building Better Futures for Health challenge, ide Group Co-founder and Managing Director, George Sidis offers a few tips and advice for individuals hoping to win $25,000 worth of product design and development support. Don’t forget to join us at the final event! Get your tickets now.
Where do you see future opportunities in the Medtech space?
George Sidis: We’re all getting older and in first world countries, healthcare is getting more expensive. I think the biggest opportunities exist in ideas that can save healthcare systems money and improve the efficiency of treating an ageing base population. Low cost solutions for emerging markets could also prove important over the next few years. Particularly solutions that can provide first world standard health care on a second or third world budget.
Connected health devices are another big area of opportunity. However, I think the key to realising value in this space lies in the transfer of big data and how it can be used to make healthcare more efficient and effective.
What advice can you offer individuals entering the challenge?
GS: Think carefully about your vision, your product idea and the business model that it requires.
Commercialisation needs to be front of mind when you’re developing a new product. It is important applicants are thinking about how they intend to generate positive cash flow from their idea. Applicants should be asking themselves; Who’s going to buy my product? What are they going to pay for it? Is that something that can produce a profit on a regular, long term basis? It sounds very simple, but it often gets overlooked.
We do understand that it’s not always easy to find answers to these questions at the start of a project. So for the winner of the competition, this is one area where ide Group’s expertise will really help make a difference and accelerate the commercialisation process.
How can individuals make their product idea irresistible to the judges and external investors?
GS: Communicate clearly how intended customers will benefit from buying the product. Also think about your stakeholders; who they are and how they interact with the product across the full supply chain.
In healthcare, buying decisions can be complicated. There are models for reimbursement, different models for purchasing and usually different stakeholders involved in the purchasing decision. For example, at a hospital level there might be a purchasing department, a finance inventory manager and a surgeon using the product. There are usually a lot of different people involved. Every stakeholder along the supply chain will be evaluating whether there is enough value in the product to warrant the purchase of it. Therefore it is important to understand how the product is perceived from different stakeholder perspectives.
ide Group has a lot of experience navigating the stakeholder landscape. Transfer of this expertise is another perk the winner of the challenge can expect. However, we encourage prospective applicants to evaluate return on investment in their own idea. Try to get out and talk to the community. This could include doctors, nurses, clinicians or patients. There is also a lot of publicly available information on public health websites that can help provide insight. The more information you can find about the problem you are trying to solve, the better you will be able to solve it.
How far can $25,000 worth of product design and development support go?
GS: It really depends on the idea. For some product ideas, it may support research into an area. For other product ideas, it could support the development of a prototype to generate further interest and investment. Ultimately, this competition is about funding a project where $25,000 can make a significant difference to understanding the problem, navigating risks early on in the project and realising value to help build a better future.
Submit your application now
