I have been watching ortho startups for 30 years. This simple grid is surprisingly predictive of outcomes. In the grid, I am putting aside all the usual success factors — funding, technology, regulatory pathway, reimbursement, patents, strategic partners, board, leadership experience, product-market-fit — and pitting Leadership aggressiveness against Market tailwinds. I believe that ALL orthopedic startups fall into one of these success quadrants.

The Great Resignation is effecting the US med device companies. This movement is real. Resignation rates are highest among highly trained, mid-career employees. Talking with orthopedic and spine candidates, I have noticed that there is something going on here. In the recruiting world today, candidates seem to have more clout, more sway and more audacity. Why… Let me try to unpack this and give employers some advice.

Most companies don’t like their digital marketing content… but they don’t know why. Others like their online content… but are baffled by the lack of results. The fundamental problem is that most medical device companies are using online marketing techniques from 10 years ago. It’s safe. There is always a 10-year lag in digital marketing “knowhow” in med device companies. Marketing departments tend to gravitate towards sophisticated, stilted, and scripted content.

It’s time to stand up! Hey, we’re all working from home and you can do this now. Odds are, you are probably sitting while reading this and you know that sitting most of your day is not healthy. We have all heard that “sitting is the new smoking”. You may have read the NY Times article, “Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?” Sitting down is unnatural. Excessive sitting increases your chances for cancer, heart disease, obesity, type-2 diabetes and depression. I don’t have to preach to my orthopedic friends about sitting.

The same way that moths are attracted to light, Engineers are attracted to cool technology. That’s just how we are built. I’m a trained Engineer too. We are all attracted to cool technology. It’s tempting to always seek out a new company with interesting technology. When I started out in orthopedics, engineering was 100% mechanical. Today, the combination tech in orthopedics can be a mixture of many engineering disciplines — Mechanical + Electrical + Software + Optics + Mechatronics + Haptics + Robotics. There is some really cool tech out there now.

Today, I am sharing 30 lessons for emerging orthopedic companies. I love to help my friends in the smaller ortho cultures, so I collected these 30 lessons over 30 years of experience. These lessons are timeless. For easy digestion, I have broken the lessons into a categories: At the Beginning — Lessons #1–5 Business Execution — Lessons #6–20 People — Lessons #21–27 Money — Lessons #28–30 Enjoy and share the link with your ortho friends — https://orthostreams.com/30lessons

Today I am sharing five red flags to avoid for your next key hire in your growing Orthopedics company. I have seen all five of these mistakes. Send me a note if you have seen this also. #1 — Don’t hire the person running away from a bad situation, a bad boss, an ethical disagreement, etc. #2 — Don’t hire the person who thinks he/she is vastly underpaid. #3 — Don’t hire the person just because he/she wants to live in your city because of family or a boyfriend/girlfriend there.

A “Sacred Cow” is a firmly held belief that is rarely questioned and is exempt from criticism or opposition in an industry. Every industry has its “Sacred Cows”. Sacred Cows create blind spots that can kill companies. Example: In the photography world, we all watched the market leader in photography fall victim to the Sacred Cow mindset.

I hear this request often. Ortho executives call and say… “I need an Engineer”. This is the wrong question… an Engineer is not an Engineer. Many Ortho leaders have a tendency to jump to the solution. This is completely normal. We all do it. We have a budget slot for an Engineer so you want someone with that title. Think about it differently… What problem are you trying to solve? Instead of filling a on Engineering chair, you may actually need…