Figur8’s Unconventional Market Research: How Paying to Watch Money Flow Transformed Their GTM Strategy

Most B2B tech founders start market research with customer interviews. Nan-Wei Gong started by paying to watch money move.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Figur8’s founder shared a radical approach to understanding the healthcare market – one that completely transformed their go-to-market strategy and challenged everything they thought they knew about their customers.

The Problem with Traditional Market Research

Like many tech founders, Nan-Wei initially assumed she knew who her buyers were. “It’s very easy for a technology founder like myself to think that the doctors are the buyers and they are just not,” she explains. This assumption, common among healthcare tech founders, typically leads to months of wasted time and resources.

Instead of continuing down this path, Nan-Wei took an unusual step: “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.”

The Detective Work

This wasn’t just casual observation. Nan-Wei approached it like a detective investigating a complex case. The investigation revealed layers of complexity that no customer interview could have uncovered: “I learned that there are different types of payers, I learned at different types of patients and I learned their frustration of not knowing how much they will get paid, the frustration of not being able to tell the patient what’s happening, the frustration of faxing the data to the payers.”

These insights went far beyond surface-level pain points, revealing fundamental workflow issues that would shape Figur8’s entire approach to the market.

Turning Insights into Strategy

The research revealed three distinct stakeholders – payers, providers, and patients – each with different needs and incentives. “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 led to a crucial strategic shift. Instead of positioning themselves as a hardware company, they became a solution provider. “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.”

Building the Right Commercial Team

The insights from this unconventional research also transformed how Figur8 approached hiring. Understanding the complex relationships between stakeholders helped them identify and attract the right commercial talent.

The strategy paid off when they found their commercial lead through LinkedIn. 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.”

The Broader Lesson for Tech Founders

Figur8’s approach offers a valuable lesson for tech founders entering complex markets: sometimes the most valuable market research doesn’t look like research at all. It’s about finding ways to observe the real dynamics of your market, not just what people tell you in interviews.

Today, Figur8 operates in 15 states, working with multiple physical therapy clinics. Their success stems directly from those early hours spent watching money flow through a clinic – proving that sometimes the best market research is simply paying attention to how your market really works.

For founders entering healthcare or similarly complex markets, the message is clear: don’t just talk to your users – follow the money, understand the workflows, and build your strategy around the real decision-makers, not just the most visible stakeholders.