5 Counter-Intuitive GTM Lessons from Datacubed Health’s Transformation

When Brett Kleger joined Datacubed Health as CEO in early 2020, he didn’t just face the usual startup challenges – he had to navigate a global pandemic while transforming an academic-focused product into an enterprise solution. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, Brett shared insights that challenge conventional wisdom about scaling healthcare tech companies.

1. The Counter-Intuitive Path to Brand Building

While many startups chase visibility through splashy marketing, Brett revealed a different approach: “We don’t want to be a sexy tool. We don’t want to be the shiny object that comes and goes very quickly but can’t deliver. We want to be seen as the company that knows the space and can deliver reliably.”

This focus on reliability over innovation might seem conservative, but it addresses a fundamental truth about regulated markets: trust trumps novelty. As Brett explains, “What I tell my team every day is if we can be the easiest company to work with, and we can deliver truthfully and honestly and accurately, and we can provide the clients exactly what we said, we’ll get more and more repeat business.”

2. Rethinking Market Categories

Instead of accepting broad market definitions, Brett actively works to reshape how analysts categorize their space: “What I often try to do with them is help them understand and better define the category and better define the area so that it’s more discreet and more specific, rather than just a broad based category that means too much.”

This isn’t just semantic nitpicking – it’s about aligning market definitions with buyer behavior. “The buyers aren’t looking at the $40 billion area. They’re looking at how do you solve this specific problem,” Brett notes. This insight helps focus marketing efforts on actual buyer needs rather than theoretical market sizes.

3. The Hidden ROI of Brand Marketing

Brett’s approach to measuring brand ROI offers a fresh perspective for founders struggling with this common challenge. Instead of focusing solely on lead generation metrics, he evaluates success through sales team efficiency: “The way that I would measure that is really looking at my sales team when they are coming back and meeting with customers, are they having to spend more and more time to explain to the customer this is the company, this is who we are and start from scratch or did they get in and where I call it level three, level four where the customer knows datacube tells already.”

4. The Experience-First Talent Strategy

When building his team, Brett prioritized industry experience over pure technical skill. “My focus from a personnel perspective was bringing in the experience or the knowledgeable talent to surround it with an incredible product,” he explains. This approach recognizes that in regulated industries, understanding the market context is as crucial as technical capability.

5. The Change Management Reality Check

Perhaps the most valuable insight for founders entering regulated markets is Brett’s warning about change management: “Don’t underestimate the change management required if it’s in this space… It might require the company that you’re working with, the customer working with, to change jobs of ten or twelve different people.”

This observation explains why many technically superior solutions fail to gain traction – they underestimate the organizational complexity of adoption in regulated industries. Having great technology isn’t enough when your solution requires fundamental changes to how people work.

The story of Datacubed Health’s transformation offers a masterclass in navigating regulated markets. It suggests that success in healthcare tech isn’t about being the most innovative or having the biggest marketing budget – it’s about understanding the complex web of relationships, regulations, and organizational dynamics that govern how decisions are really made.

For founders building in regulated markets, these lessons challenge the conventional startup playbook. They suggest that sometimes, the path to market leadership isn’t about disruption – it’s about becoming the trusted, reliable choice that makes change management feel less risky. As Brett puts it, “We want to be seen as the company that knows the space and can deliver reliably.”