5 Critical Go-to-Market Lessons from Figur8’s Healthcare Tech Journey

When you’re bringing new technology to market, conventional wisdom often leads to unconventional failures. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Figur8 founder Nan-Wei Gong shared how she transformed MIT research into a thriving healthcare business – but not before unlearning almost everything she thought she knew about go-to-market strategy.

Here are the key lessons from Figur8’s journey that every tech founder should consider:

1. Your Users Aren’t Always Your Buyers

The most expensive assumption tech founders make is believing their users control the purchasing decision. As Nan-Wei discovered, “It’s very easy for a technology founder like myself to think that the doctors are the buyers and they are just not.” This misconception doesn’t just waste time – it can sink an otherwise promising company.

2. Follow the Money, Literally

Instead of making assumptions, Nan-Wei took an unusual approach to market research: “I just went to a physical therapy clinic that is friendly and said that, can I pay you whatever you make for 3 hours and just watch how money flow.” This “detective work” revealed crucial insights about payment systems, workflows, and decision-making processes that wouldn’t have been visible through traditional market research.

3. Build Solutions, Not Just Products

The difference between success and failure often lies in how you frame your offering. “I call it a solution instead of a hardware or a medical device,” Nan-Wei explains. “Because what we do is not just about here is a device that helps you measure something. After that, well, help yourself.” This shift in thinking led Figur8 to build a comprehensive system that addressed the entire workflow, not just the measurement problem.

4. Understand All Stakeholders’ Incentives

Healthcare technology requires aligning multiple stakeholders with different needs. “Everyone needs something different,” Nan-Wei notes. “And how do we align incentive and really understand how information flows and how money flows, where we stand within those three parties so that we reduce as much friction as possible.” This understanding proved crucial for both product development and sales strategy.

5. Let Industry Veterans Validate Your Problem

One of the strongest signals that you’re solving a real problem comes from who’s willing to join your team. As Nan-Wei shares, “When you build a product and then you find someone that is a sales leader in an industry for like 30 years, when they are willing to quit their jobs and join your company, that means you’re solving a big problem for their industry.”

For founders entering complex markets like healthcare, Nan-Wei suggests studying similar business models, even if they’re in different spaces: “Look for companies that doesn’t have to be in the same space, but similar in concept in terms of the model and study their model.”

The results speak for themselves. Figur8 has expanded to 15 states, working with multiple physical therapy clinics. Perhaps most tellingly, Nan-Wei no longer needs to be involved in sales calls – something their mentor identified as a sign of having “a real company.”

These lessons highlight a crucial truth about bringing technology to market: success rarely comes from having the best technology alone. It comes from deeply understanding your market’s ecosystem, aligning with existing workflows, and building solutions that address the needs of all stakeholders – not just the most visible ones.

For tech founders entering healthcare or similarly complex markets, the message is clear: invest time understanding the complete ecosystem before building your go-to-market strategy. The insights you gain might completely change how you approach the market – and that could make all the difference between success and failure.