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Every healthcare founder dreams of the perfect scenario: a polished product, proven case studies, and clear ROI metrics that make sales conversations easy. But here's the reality—waiting for that perfect moment often means missing critical opportunities and burning through precious runway.
At Redesign Health, we've watched countless founders struggle with this chicken-and-egg problem. The most successful ones learn to flip the script: they sell the vision, secure early partners, and use that momentum to build something customers actually want to buy.
The difference isn't just philosophical—it's financial. Founders who master pre-product sales often save 6-12 months of development time and tens (or hundreds) of thousands in cash burn by building with committed customers, rather than waiting for customers to materialize later.
The Healthcare Sales Reality Check
Healthcare moves differently than other B2B markets. Decision cycles are longer, stakeholders are more complex, and the bar for trust is higher. But these same characteristics create unique advantages for pre-product founders:
- Healthcare buyers are problem-aware: They live with broken workflows daily and hear feedback from stakeholders (patients, caregivers, providers) that care is siloed and navigation is difficult.
- Risk tolerance varies by urgency: Burning platforms create openings for solutions in progress
- Regulatory tailwinds produce mandatory change: Every year, healthcare policy changes catalyze innovation, and founders can be ahead of these tailwinds with early concepts that solve requirements of healthcare providers.
- Relationship-driven decisions: Strong relationships beat out flawless products
Finding Early Champions
Your earliest customers will fall into three categories, each requiring different approaches:
- Champions who experience the problem as a “burning platform” (high dissatisfaction, high importance)
- Champions that are within the founders’ close network
- Champions that are innovators: Passionate and empathetic about healthcare struggles, and communicate effectively to influence their colleagues.
In these cases, founders will need to find a partner that is forgiving of unresolved workflows, glitches and manual tasks. In exchange, the partner may receive tailor-made solutions – a key benefit in an industry with significant workflow variation. Additionally they typically enjoy discounted pricing, published accolades, and personal satisfaction in co-building industry solutions.
1. Burning Platform Champions
These are healthcare organizations where your problem creates daily pain—not just inconvenience, but measurable business impact. Examples may include:
Revenue leakage:
- Missed patient appointments due to scheduling friction
- Denied claims from documentation gaps
- Patient churn from poor care coordination
- Delayed diagnoses affecting treatment outcomes
- Poor clinical outcomes or events that become reputational concerns
- Gaps in care addressed by competitors
Cost burden:
- Manual processes consuming clinical FTE time
- Redundant vendor relationships solving adjacent problems
- Compliance violations creating financial exposure
- Staffing inefficiencies in high-turnover departments
Pro tip: A financial stakeholder is usually consulted (if not the buyer themselves), so quantify the value and ROI of your offering. If you're solving physician burnout, frame it as "physician retention saves $[X]K per prevented departure of a provider." If you're improving patient flow, lead with "reducing ED wait times by [Y] minutes increases patient satisfaction scores and CAHPS reimbursement."
2. Network Champions
These are contacts within your professional circle—former colleagues, medical school classmates, or industry connections who trust your judgment. The advantage here isn't just access; it's honest feedback.
Leverage these relationships by:
- Being transparent about your stage and limitations
- Asking for brutal honesty about workflows and features
- Using their insights to refine your approach before scaling
- Requesting introductions to other potential champions
Important: Don't exploit these relationships. Deliver exceptional value even with an imperfect product, and always honor their feedback in your development process.
3. Innovators & Design Thinkers
These are leaders in healthcare that look to disrupt the status quo. Pulling them in as early advisors allows for them to co-develop with you, putting their fingerprints on the founder’s offering, which opens the reality of first customer traction.
Leverage and source these relationships by:
- Joining communities and list serves
- Solicit strategic advisory in early development, through “expert networks”
- Seek out customers that do not fall into the traps of the Innovators Dilemma.
The Pre-Product Sales Framework
Your Pitch Structure
You’ve identified your buyer and the internal champion within - now it’s time to cultivate their interest. Healthcare buyers need to understand not just what you do, but why you're the right partner for their organization's unique challenges. A simple structure for these discussions includes:
1. Title + Hook
- Company name + tagline that speaks to outcomes
- Reference specific market trends or regulations driving urgency
2. Problem Articulation
- 1-2 relatable pain stories from similar healthcare organizations
- Quantified impact using metrics (patient outcomes, provider satisfaction, operational efficiency)
- Quote from a persona they recognize (Chief Medical Officer, Director of Nursing, etc.)
3. Cost of Inaction
- Competitive disadvantages in value-based care contracts
- Physician or staff retention challenges
- Patient experience impacts affecting reputation
- Regulatory risks or compliance gaps
4. Solution Positioning
- One-line value proposition tied to healthcare outcomes
- Future-state workflow that addresses their specific pain points
- Integration considerations with existing healthcare IT systems
5. Value Quantification
- ROI projections using their patient volumes, staffing costs, or revenue streams
- Benchmarks from similar healthcare organizations
- Timeline to value realization
6. Team Credibility
- Healthcare domain expertise and clinical backgrounds
- Advisory board including respected healthcare leaders
The Demonstration Plan: Your Secret Weapon
This is where pre-product founders differentiate themselves. These slides turn a founder’s intangible idea into concrete and measurable next steps. The goal is not perfection or detail - the goal is to enable the customer to react to a concrete partnership opportunity. Refinement often leads to engagement and a vested interest for collaboration.
Structure your pilot plan around healthcare-specific elements:
Partnership Positioning:
- Frame as "Clinical Innovation Partnership" or "Launch Partner Program"
- Emphasize their role in shaping a solution for the broader healthcare market
- Reference their potential to influence industry best practices
- Highlight the opportunity to amplify and commercialize their “hidden IP assets” within their organization.
Pilot Objectives: 3-4 goals maximum
- Primary clinical outcome (patient satisfaction, care quality, provider efficiency)
- Operational metric (cost reduction, time savings, workflow improvement)
- Strategic goal (competitive differentiation, regulatory compliance)
- Data/insights objective (benchmarking, best practice development)
Phased Implementation: For each phase, specify
- Clinical milestones: What patient or provider outcomes you'll measure (if applicable)
- Technical deliverables: What functionality will be available
- Success metrics: KPIs relevant to priorities
- Resource commitments: Champion time, IT support, data access
Pricing for Early Customers
Launching with a discounted “launch partner” is the fastest way to secure a marquee logo and real-world proof without over-stretching your product. Price the 3–6-month demonstration project well below list (think 30-70% off), keep scope laser-focused on a single high-value workflow, and brand the offer as an exclusive partnership rather than a demonstration project. The discount lowers financial friction, accelerates deployment of your minimum viable product, and earns NewCo the data results, testimonial, and logo you’ll need to win customers #2-5.
At the same time, lock in commercial terms from day one to avoid post-demonstration project sticker shock. As an example, you can build a “conversion clause” into the Statement of Work that (a) defines a clear success KPI, (b) specifies the future price that kicks in automatically if that KPI is met, and (c) lays out a step-up path to full list price over 1–2 years. Include a short mutual action plan (can reference the demonstration project above), reference-rights language, and an agreed data-sharing cadence so you can prove ROI.
Alignment among early partners can be further sweetened through the use of equity. Milestone based warrants incentivize mutual investment into a commercial agreement by allowing the early partner to gain from future upside. In short:
- Do: Invoice something to establish vendor status; time-box both discount and scope; evaluate deeper alignment through equity; get an exec sponsor on the buyer side.
- Don’t: Offer a free and open-ended demonstration project, over-build the MSP, or leave pricing for later
Treat the discount as a wedge, the pre-agreed pricing as your safety harness and the potential equity as strategic alignment — so when the demonstration project works, the deal converts quickly and at sustainable economics.
Your First Healthcare Customer Changes Everything
Landing that initial healthcare customer creates a domino effect that accelerates everything else:
- Product validation: Real workflows inform better development decisions
- Reference credibility: Healthcare buyers trust peer recommendations above all else
- Investor confidence: Committed customers de-risk your fundraising story
- Talent attraction: Clinical advisors and employees want to join proven solutions
- Market feedback: Early users guide feature prioritization and positioning
The founders who master this pre-product sales process don't just win their first customer—they build the foundation for sustainable healthcare market entry and de-risk engagement for future customers. In a sector where trust, outcomes, and relationships matter more than perfect products, your ability to sell the vision may be your most valuable competitive advantage.
Build With Us
Building a healthcare company is hard enough—you don’t have to navigate the complexities of healthcare stakeholders, incentives and timelines alone. At Redesign Health, our Venture Traction team has helped dozens of healthcare founders turn innovative ideas into thriving businesses. We've seen a host of challenges you're facing: from validating product-market fit in complex healthcare environments to crafting pricing strategies that work across different buyer personas and budget cycles.
Interested in collaborating? Reach out to us at buildwithus@redesignhealth.com
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