Strategic Advice is Not a Therapy Session
Therapy costs money. Strategy makes money.
Photo by cotton bro studios
I want to invite you to my podcast -
I interview founders and CEOs changing the way we develop, validate and deploy treatments. I take a business perspective and a close look at their value proposition, value creation and value capture of the company.
Last week I hosted Dr. Lior Shaltiel, Founder and CEO at NurExone. NurExone chose to base its ultimate drug delivery platform on exosomes-nanosized extracellular vesicles-due to their natural ability to reach inflamed or damaged tissue. By loading exosomes with therapeutic compounds, nanodrugs are created having natural regenerative properties and therapeutic impact.
I asked him what was hardest day as a founder and he replied - “every day”.
Lior’s answer inspired me to write today’s essay on my substack.
The long and winding road of a life science business
Let me tell you a dirty little secret about life science executives.
You don’t need a mirror. You need a weapon - it’s called revenue.
There is nothing like revenue from customers to make you feel good.
Building a life science company is a long haul — 10 years or more.
I know, I’ve been there.
There are all kinds of surprises; like COVID-19 and wars.
Your co-founders may not live up to your expectations.
When we started Flask Data, we were three co-founders — a dream team on paper:
A tech guy (me)
A PhD biostatistician
A PhD neuroscientist — both with deep clinical trial experience.
We set out to radically improve study monitoring.
I knew how to build and run tech teams. They knew how to run and submit trials.
We spent the summer meeting with sponsors. Great vibe.
It felt like destiny.
By September, the neuroscientist got a dream job offer and left. A year later, the biostatistician and I parted ways. I bought out their share.
I rebuilt the team.
We acquired customers, grew revenue, and became cash-flow positive.
The long road of a life science founder
Being a CEO-founder of a medtech/biotech/healthtech/drugtech company demands the mental clarity of a monk and the physical stamina of a triathlete.
Three years into the journey, I gave myself a birthday present: I did the Eilat triathlon.
Two years later, I started training in Qi-gong.
People tell you: Get a coach to help you get your sh*t together.
Here’s what they mean:
A guide
A motivator
A sounding board
A goal setter and accountability partner
A coach may make you feel better about yourself, but -
A coach can’t tell you to focus your platform on neurology and gastro indications.
A coach can’t set your product positioning, eliminate bad customers.
A coach can’t build a team and a quality system that passes vendor audits from Fortune 50 companies.
We did all three.
Six years later, I sold the platform.
Solution by inversion
Instead of assuming success, I assumed failure.
After I sold my company, I spent 900 hours analyzing what worked — and what didn’t.
I discovered 22 anti-design patterns that kill companies. I recently added No. 23 (“You’re not in Kansas anymore”).
Each anti-pattern has a solution.
A design pattern is a blueprint for building — like an IKEA table with instructions. An anti-design pattern is a blueprint for failure — like tossing out the tools and ignoring the instructions.
Solve the anti-patterns, and you’ll scale your business to the next level.
Get my free ebook of anti-patterns
Strategy is boots on the ground
Executives in life sciences don’t need someone to reflect back their thoughts.
They need someone who embeds into their operations — and fixes anti-patterns in the team, product, sales cycle, positioning, operations, customer support,
That’s what I do.
My customers said it better than I ever could:
“We run our trials internally and coordinate with sites without CROs. That dramatically lowers costs. But it requires people who move proactively across operations to plug gaps fast.”
“We save operating costs because we’re cost-efficient from the beginning. Honestly, I don't understand why pharma spends so much per patient and gets so little usable data.”
“Our protocol compliance is extremely high. That's the ballgame. We get near-real-time alerts and close the loop with subjects fast.”
“This short-loop feedback is the difference between a futile study and a successful one.”
— Alon Ironi, CEO, Theranica Therapeutics
👊 Ready to scale smarter?
I work hands-on with life sciences leaders to eliminate bottlenecks, sharpen positioning, and unlock growth.
➔ Book a Strategic Inversion Call — I’ll show you exactly where you’re stuck and how to fix it.
(Limited May slots available.)
Or, if you’re not ready yet, join my list for weekly behind-the-scenes strategies to scale your business with clarity and confidence.
A few words of thanks
❤️ To my readers, my love and gratitude for reading my work. If you’re not a subscriber, now would be a great time to support my work.
I want to invite you to be a guest on my new podcast - “Life Sciences Today”.
If this piece got you thinking, you’ll love my new podcast.
👉If you’d like to be a guest on the show - let’s talk!
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