You’re an Important Part of Your Company…but the Customer is More Important
Gloria Kolb, medical device serial entrepreneur, has had successful start-ups, but she’s also had failed start-ups. In this second installment, Gloria discusses one of the key components to making sure your company is a success — and it’s all about the customers.
I’m a female entrepreneur in medical devices. I’ve worked in large companies, such as Johnson and Johnson, and start-ups. I’ve raised money from friends, family as well as venture capitalists. I have a technical engineering degree from MIT, and also an MBA in entrepreneurship. Although I have this expertise, one thing remains true: the customer’s input is one of the most important parts of the entire commercialization process. You can have a great product, but if it doesn’t really fit the customer’s needs, chances of profitability and success diminish.
1. Talk to your Potential Customers Early. Assuming you are set on your entrepreneurial path, there is no getting around that life science has a long development cycle. Even still, it is never too early to talk to potential customers! That doesn’t just mean you, the entrepreneur, need to talk to customers — everyone in the start-up needs to talk to customers. But don’t stop there. In my first company, we talked to a lot of customers, but then went into our hole for a few years. Unfortunately, the end product worked well, but had too many hurdles still in place, from perception to hospital contracts. We didn’t realize that the urologist would put in our ureteral stent, but it was often the young residents who would take it out and not be prepared for stone removal with the stent. Like many scientists or engineers, I thought I understood the problem. But problems are often complex and nuanced. We didn’t talk to enough end users, and when we received some negative feedback, we often dismissed it. Talking to enough customers also means talking to the support staff, purchasers and all the players. It means talking about understanding the hierarchy, gatekeepers, budget, payers, agenda and showstoppers. I didn’t make that mistake again with my new company.
2. Keep Connected. I was always miffed about why the marketing and sales people made so much more money than engineers. Now that our current product is for sale, I realize that just because you have a good product, it doesn’t sell itself. Sales and marketing is hard! So I will say it again, keep talking to your customers so you keep meeting their needs, answer their questions, understand their concerns, and learn how to best relay the benefits of your product to them. One of the best ways to do this is A/B Testing (give them a choice, or give different options to different people.) We learned (not as quickly as we should have) that our main picture on our website didn’t resonate with our customers (the picture was deemed too young and excited for our older frustrated customer.) The good news is with today’s technology and online tools, we can keep connected to our customers, learn and iterate quickly.
3. Everything is comparative to them. Your customers have a choice even if you think there is no competition. I heard the saying in business school, but I didn’t think it would apply to life science and a medical need. I see now that our biggest competition is ‘doing nothing’ to treat. Basically, the biggest hurdle is getting our customers to take any change of action! The customers also don’t see the long-term costs of managing symptoms, but focus on short-term costs. Prevention is great, but rarely do people spend money on prevention because they have mouths to feed and bills to pay now. Similarly, when I’m raising money, my customers are the investors I’m trying to entice to invest. Acknowledge that your customers have a choice and work with that to move them forward.
You can’t be an entrepreneur if you don’t love a good challenge, but you can preemptively mitigate that challenge and make your life easier by understanding your customers really well.
Gloria Kolb is the Co-Founder and CEO of Elidah, Inc, maker of ELITONE which is a non-invasive wearable treatment for the millions of women with incontinence. ELITONE was developed almost entirely on grant funding and launched in 2019 to win best New Product of the Year by the leading aesthetics industry. Ms. Kolb is an inventor with more than 20 patents, and an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in product development and commercialization of medical devices. She has won prestigious awards including Boston’s “40 under 40”, MIT Technology Review’s “World’s Top Innovators under 35”, and Fortune Small Business’ 14 Hot Startups.
Ms. Kolb earned Mechanical Engineering degrees from MIT and Stanford University, and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson College. While at Babson, she won or was a finalist in the Douglass, Carrot Capital, Moot Corp and MIT business plan competitions. Ms. Kolb also earned Kauffman Foundation and Babson fellowships, and is a proud Springboard alumna.
