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Conversation
Highlights
Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech’s most innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Justin Dearborn, Founder & CEO of Praia Health, a healthcare technology platform that has raised $20 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
- Consumer-Centric Healthcare: Justin explains how Praia Health is creating a digital journey for patients that mirrors consumer experiences outside of healthcare, aiming to enhance convenience and personalization.
- Telehealth and Digital Adoption Post-Covid: The pandemic accelerated the adoption of telehealth and digital solutions in healthcare, with patients increasingly choosing providers based on their digital experiences.
- Founding Story and Unique Incubation: Praia Health was incubated at Providence Health System’s Digital Innovation Group, which identifies technology gaps, builds solutions, and then spins them out as separate companies.
- Go-To-Market Strategy: Praia Health employs both direct and indirect strategies, targeting innovative health systems and partnering with established companies to enhance existing investments in patient engagement.
- Sales Process in Healthcare: Selling to health systems is complex and lengthy, involving numerous stakeholders and stringent security assessments, but Praia Health’s mature platform simplifies implementation and integration.
- Fundraising Challenges: Fundraising in the current climate is challenging, but Praia Health successfully secured funding from notable venture firms with healthcare system LPs, emphasizing the importance of showing a strong ROI
Actionable
Takeaways
Focus on Patient Experience:
Prioritize creating a consumer-centric digital experience in healthcare to attract and retain patients, leveraging technology to offer convenience and personalization.
Leverage Partnerships:
Collaborate with established companies to enhance your go-to-market strategy and integrate your solutions into existing infrastructures, providing a "better together" story.
Simplify Implementation:
Develop a mature, easy-to-integrate platform to streamline the implementation process for health systems, reducing the burden on IT departments and accelerating deployment.
Showcase ROI:
Clearly demonstrate the return on investment for your solutions, especially when selling to health systems, which require compelling financial justifications for new technology investments.
Be Open to Pivoting:
Stay nimble and responsive to market feedback, being prepared to pivot your strategy or product offering to better align with market needs and opportunities.
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