By Liudmila

In the current fight against COVID-19, as we are furiously trying to expedite the development of a vaccine, I start to hear from my startup friends: I wish I worked in healthcare to really make an impact or I wish I could apply my start-up mentality to speed up the process. As a startuper at heart, I strongly resonate with them. 

However, then I realize that perhaps for once, in drug discovery or technology applied to human lives, there is a reason for why it is good to have red tape and long processes, namely to protect lives.

This recalls a story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, a blood-testing start-up that overpromised and later turned fraudulent. She was a gifted entrepreneur, so mesmerizing indeed that she may have overapplied some of the standard start-up principles below and prolonged a HealthTech start-up life that should have never survived 7 years:  

Fake it 'til you have it - She was incredibly capable to sell her vision of one tiny drop that changes everything and not only secured $700M funding from influential investors but also closed major deals with Safeway and Walgreens - adding pressure for faster product development

A half-working MVP is good enough for market testing - MVPs are great for testing, however, when lives depend on the accuracy of the test, then no shortcuts should be taken

High-profile board that heavily invested into the startup - For better or worse, Elizabeth was capable of assembling a formidable board with veterans such as Henry Kissinger - which lent Theranos credibility, even though the board sucked at supervision and only extended the fraudulent activities of this company.

In a very ironic and twisted way, Holmes excelled in all of these start-up abilities, however, in my view, she applied it to the wrong industry sector: It reminds us that without proper board supervision, investor scrutiny and adherence to health regulations, results may be disastrous. 

Having said that though, I do believe that there are health-related areas where we can make a difference without the tedious wait and testing process, to name a few:

• Preventive “medicine” - lifestyle apps 
• Telemedicine -  ie. Babylon health, Poland’s Nestmedic  
• Health tracking and medical services marketplaces -  ie Flo and Adia health
• Go-to-market exectuion: Help established health businesses that already have a commercial product to grow in developed countries - ie make blood tests cheaper through smarter supply chain 
• Give access to established medical treatments to poorest communities in developing countries - Lifeline Express and Project Vision that cure cataract in remote villages in China as an example but there are hundreds more
• Or simply volunteer to support your local community now :)