This says it all for startups and early stage companies in the healthcare tech field. We feature today Haverin Consulting’s Stuart Miller, continuing his analysis of the signs that a health tech company, no matter how hot it may seem, is on its way to failure. All four, from startup to spinoff, were name companies that at one point were valued at over $3 to over $4 billion. All failed to deliver their main value propositions while having excellent ‘cover’ for a time. All were either parted out (assets sold) or were total hull losses.
Mr. Miller has drawn out 10 factors from the success, then failure of four companies: Olive AI, IBM Watson Health, Carbon Health, and Babylon Health–this last, one that TTA chronicled as far back as 2014, through the palmy Matt Hancock days, their questionable SPAC, and right to their near-complete dissolution. Back in February, we featured his article analyzing the Carbon Health failure. But all four have been profiled in impressive deep dives, available for subscribers on his Substack account. He does feature extensive free material and definitely is worth the follow.
This is not a long cuppa but very much worth your time and pondering. All This Has Happened Before
Thank you for the recommendation. The six patterns of failure that are consistent across all four case studies was shocking to see. Inherently I knew there would be consistent learning, but I didnt expect them to literally jump off the page like they did.
However!
None of these four failed on their own.
Each had a board stuffed with investor representation.
Each had industry analysts acting as ‘fan boys’ writing them up.
Each had a trade press happily soaking up the marketing messages to amplify the story.
Each had institutional customers who signed the contracts, and in some cases, even regulators and government agencies who nodded things through.
All of them had the opportunity to review the same information that the journalists eventually used to take the companies apart. They just chose not to look at it, motivated by their own agendas