Often misunderstood, Redesign Health’s model is a very different way to create, fund and launch healthcare startups, but will it pay off over the long term?
Typically, a story starts with what a company is. In the case of Redesign Health, perhaps it’s best to start with what it isn’t. Redesign Health is not a venture capital (VC) firm, despite the fact that it’s often listed among other VCs in funding press releases. It’s not a startup studio or accelerator, even though it’s named as a partner in building many early-stage healthcare companies.
Instead, Redesign Health styles itself as “a company that powers innovation in healthcare by developing technologies, tools, and insights that lower the barriers to change across the industry.”
What does that mean?
After conversations with Redesign Health CEO Brett Shaheen, in addition to other entrepreneurs in the Redesign Health family, the answer is seemingly that it’s almost equal parts none and all of the things it gets confused with. The overall idea, though, is to streamline, accelerate and improve the healthcare innovation cycle by (i) researching healthcare sectors, (ii) developing and testing theses with market experts, (iii) beginning actual product development and launching companies, and then (iv) recruiting an executive leadership team. By taking all of this on, the thesis is Redesign’s startup companies and the entrepreneurs that lead them are both in a better place to create value more quickly and are able to lure the best and the brightest healthcare leaders to join.
If Redesign Health is right, then those two qualities might be a good thing in the near term. After a record-setting year of VC funding – especially in digital health – data is increasingly indicating that the market is showing signs of a slowdown. As a result, many VCs will start placing much higher scrutiny on early-stage startups’ market research, products and even founders.
Redesign Health has a different approach to innovation in healthcare than VCs, accelerators or … [+]
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Redesign Health believes its process creates more attractive companies for investors initially and as they mature. Started in 2018 by Shaheen, Redesign essentially researches, builds, brands, launches and lines up funding for all kinds of healthcare startups – in fact 30 as of now (though some are still in stealth).
Many of the ideas come from its in-house team – sparked after identifying a particular pain point in healthcare and then researching the market opportunity. And, other times it may collaborate with an outside organization on a specific issue or opportunity, engaging together to build a solution that both meets …….