Medical app for paramedics

[mikekob]

Well it's a great example of barriers. The amount of barriers we've had to work through and are continuing to work through have been incredible. That alone in my opinion is one of the most important parts. It's easy to throw up a site compared to hospital enterprise sales. Elephants versus deer.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Milkanic]

The server cost us $11 last month for the data being moved and stored. Issue for us is the HIPAA compliance. That's an additional fee and is set at 1500. This is not "per facility" but total for the service. Were looking at rebuilding the back end not on aws but it's a couple weeks worth of work. We've addressed that fee and the services that come with it and feel currently it's the best option.

Shouldn't you have a dev server that is not HIPAA compliant with dummy data and a prod server that is? Seems like a pretty big cash burn to be paying for this just to demo the software.

 

[ZCP]

Have you lined up your 2nd sale? Knowing others are looking will sometimes push them over the top. It also gives you a backup plan and the possibility to free trial it to one to then sell to the other.

 

[mikekob]

We are using the actual server minus the hipaa compliance paperwork. So we're burning ~$10 a month currently. Once PHI is sent we make a call and the fee changes.

I'm still working on the sales part and leveraging the interested parties. The other end of hospital movement is EMS involvement. That's a challenge itself for its use, however making it free and easy for them is a huge benefit.

I'm just ready for the holidays to be over so I can get back to work. Everyone seems to disappear during this time.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mikekob]

Update:

I've been pretty much absent from here for a while due to this business getting busy. I've been off the ambulance for a month and my overall mental health is incredible. I thought I'd be bored but I find myself working 8-10 hours a day on a more enjoyable note.

Had a few meetings this week and I have my first agency signed up as of yesterday. Their words were "wow this is amazing. And it's free for us? We will do whatever it takes to get a pilot in place." A half hour later I get an email from them to me and the hospital they go to asking to implement. So that's a plus. I have a phone meeting with a C-exec of the largest ambulance service in the world later today, and just found out I'll be presenting to a huge group of "physician entrepreneurs" next month. This is getting to be really exciting.

Couple thoughts at this point for those in an earlier stage of a business. Keep in mind we started on this project March 13 of 2014 so we haven't been at it for too long.

- Perseverance- Putting one foot in front of the other on a continual basis. Don't feel like working today? Too bad. Starting to get down on yourself for whatever reason? Stop being a bitch and keep moving.

- Look at the big picture - Many days have been a wash in my book. Sent out a bunch of emails only to have zero response? Take a step back and look at the overall journey.

I have a quote that is my all time favorite-

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”

If you aren't running your done. So run your a$$ off!!

 

[Iwokeup]

Update:

I've been pretty much absent from here for a while due to this business getting busy. I've been off the ambulance for a month and my overall mental health is incredible. I thought I'd be bored but I find myself working 8-10 hours a day on a more enjoyable note.

Had a few meetings this week and I have my first agency signed up as of yesterday. Their words were "wow this is amazing. And it's free for us? We will do whatever it takes to get a pilot in place." A half hour later I get an email from them to me and the hospital they go to asking to implement. So that's a plus. I have a phone meeting with a C-exec of the largest ambulance service in the world later today, and just found out I'll be presenting to a huge group of "physician entrepreneurs" next month. This is getting to be really exciting.

Couple thoughts at this point for those in an earlier stage of a business. Keep in mind we started on this project March 13 of 2014 so we haven't been at it for too long.

- Perseverance- Putting one foot in front of the other on a continual basis. Don't feel like working today? Too bad. Starting to get down on yourself for whatever reason? Stop being a bitch and keep moving.

- Look at the big picture - Many days have been a wash in my book. Sent out a bunch of emails only to have zero response? Take a step back and look at the overall journey.

I have a quote that is my all time favorite-

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”

If you aren't running your done. So run your a$$ off!!

Rockstar.

Aaaand, I would like to point out that you've now gotten your first sales (GOLD anyone?) and haven't been beating your chest around here about how "You're going to make your first million by XX date!"

You've just been quietly but doggedly EXECUTING.

ROCK on, man. Rock on

 

[mikekob]

Man, honestly I've been looking at the ground in front of me and have just been plowing ahead.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[LeftBench]

Just got caught back up on this thread. Awesome job man. Keep up the great work!

 

[mikekob]

Thanks man I appreciate it. Here's a little update.

I now have demo's with three more fire departments who said they think it's a great product and they want to be involved. These are super helpful to have when getting a hospital to spend money. EMS involvement is a huge barrier to these people and this puts them at ease.

Along with these departments, I got a meeting with a 3 hospital group who are probably the most excited to put this in place. March is gonna be a good month for us.

We'll see how things shake out over the next few weeks. I'll see you then.

 

[Dreamer99]

Hey awesome work but I just had one question the info being sent I dont see how it makes much of a difference... If the patient is critical they go straight the the ER where the doctor is waiting and you register them afterwards so no time is wasted in legal things and minor details because the yaptient gets treatment regardless of payment insurance stuff.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mikekob]

Uh.. No not exactly. "Legal things and minor details" These minor details entail registration which allows the hospital to charge for the treatments provided. Not registered? No charges. No consent form with the correct info means lost revenue. This has huge impacts on them financially and is actually the number one reason hospitals want our product.

On the flip side, if I call the hospital from the field and say you're having a heart attack, about 10k is spent taking me at my word. If you can send that EKG to the hospital and the medic is wrong(this happens all the time actually) they just saved 10k per false call.

Try this, Wreck your car and lay there in misery while all these "minor details" are getting ironed out. Next go wreck your car and have the responder send your info ahead of you. Much more efficient process to get you your pain meds, x-rays, etc.

I've been on an ambulance for 13 years. This is a huge problem.

Good luck with your vending machines.

 

[mikekob]

Well I've had quite the week, so here's some progress.

Over the last week I've met and demo'd our product for 5 hospitals. Some of these hospitals are part of larger organizations locally as well as nationally. We have a potential of about 20+ hospitals based off the demos and their networks. Of those 5 demos, we now as of tonight, have three hospitals on board. We are meeting more to get the contracts and all that shit in place over the next couple weeks. One will go live this month, the other two are aiming at May 1.

To make things even cooler, one of the docs we've met along the way has asked us to present to his class to be part of their Capstone project. We presented to about a dozen MBA students all looking to help. As far as our product is concerned they were all amazed, and that we built it and brought to market in a year. This will be invaluable as I have ZERO business experience.

This was a F*cking awesome week. Back to work.

 

[mikekob]

Here's something tasty for ya,

Just got off the phone and have our first sale!!! We go live in the hospital July 1 for a trial, then have a one year contract once it's done. Now that sale number 1 is in the books, time to get moving!

I also have a meeting in two weeks with the other hospital we've been talking with and have been through procurement and have to settle on a price and sign the contract. Hopefully #2 won't be far behind.

Very cool to be at this point. I sold an iOS app to my first hospital. Talk about an uphill battle!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[TedM]

great news!

 

[Kevin Peter]

Mike, I feel the fast growing technology is a boon with many apps on smartphone which are free that will help the paramedics. Hope your app does all the good deed that saves people!

 

[mikekob]

I had another meeting this morning with the "Elephant". Made it through procurement and have a go live date of Oct 1. This was a much longer and painful process than the smaller organization. I think the worst part was negotiating the price with two non-clinical people that have zero idea how we will benefit the hospital in many ways. Literally they're sitting there trying to nickle and dime the F*ck out of us. But at the end of the day, I can say I sold to the largest hospital organization in the US which is nice.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[throttleforward]

Congrats man! Is this a pilot at one location or will they roll this out regionally/nationally?

 

[mikekob]

Thanks!! This is a pilot, although I have a sales call next week with another one of their facilities. So my guess/goal is to add them until they make it a division standard.

 

[throttleforward]

Do you already have approval from a surrounding/feeding EMS agency, or are you building a network of hospitals first?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mikekob]

I have about 7-8 agencies between the two hospitals on board. Since the hospital is the one that pays, they're the initial barrier. It's free for the agency so getting agency buy in is much easier. The hospitals are helping with agencies so that's helpful too.

 

[throttleforward]

IMHO this should be a gold thread - @mikekob has successfully cracked one of the hardest sales cycles/markets, and created a product that will both save money and save lives (by ensuring hospitals don't waste precious resources on patients who don't need specialized care). Awesome job!

 

[mikekob]

Things are definitely starting to pan out. I had a meeting this morning with the second largest ambulance service in the US to basically get their support with sending info to the hospital. This turned into a long bitch session about how they are loosing EKG's(much more important than one would think), and also patient demographics. I showed them how versatile our product is and how it can fix that exact problem that's causing them to hemorrhage money daily, by using it in a similar but not initially intended fashion. That alone opens up an entire niche within the niche that we've been targeting. Good things are coming. Stay tuned.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mikekob]

Some shit news for those following along. July 1 came and went and we didn't go live with number 1. Waiting on legal to review the contract for whatever reason. I was given the contract two weeks ago and when I sent it back I was met with "I'm gonna have legal take a look due to the nature of the product". I'm 90% sure this woman is completely over thinking this and taking forever. At this point I have a conf call with her and the two lawyers next Wednesday. So I'll tack another week til the call, and another week or two to get the contract in place. Maybe July 1 is metric for Aug 1...

Hospital 2 is still moving along slowly and I have a third within the org interested. So that's at least good for validation. Last week was pretty rough. AAAhhhh the ups and downs accossiated with a start-up.

 

[mikekob]

Well F@ck yeah. Today was our first day live in the ER. We have a little bit of a slow start and most agencies didn't know we were live today. Got that straightened out and have one message go through so far. This is one of the most amazing things I've ever been able to take part in, to go from idea, to shitty prototype, to stable build, no one buying, then the interest/rejection, and now we are finally in a hospital. For anyone interested in hospital sales, they are a real bitch. I have zero sales experience so I can't really base it on anything else but it's long and frustrating.

 

[Vidar]

This thread has been amazingly inspiring to read through!

Large hospital systems are ridiculously bloated with upper management and headed by non-clinical CEO's, and they love to run everything by legal four or five times before they ever even think about making a decision, even on the smallest of minutia.

Unless it's to take away something that the Doc's really like using... and then it's BAM! Done. I've never seen the powers that be move as fast as when one of their bean counters decides that they can cut costs by taking a product out of the OR.

Anyway!

Congratulations on taking on the Moby Dick of businesses! I'm honestly amazed at your progress and so excited for what's next for you. Keep us updated and don't get too frustrated!

I'm sure you already know this, but if they keep haggling on the prices with you, I'd bring up any sort of stat you can find that shows the wasted money from false emergencies in a month/year/etc and compare it to the price your app costs. That way they can't dispute that you are saving them TONS of money if they use your product, cause it's right there in their faces.

And if you ever sell out here in Utah (which I hope you do, your app would be amazing to have functional out our way!) the keywords when speaking with Intermountain Healthcare (the biggest name out here) are:

"So you can pass the savings onto the customer..."

yes, I've been in a few brainwashing sessions... er... meetings...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mikekob]

Thanks Vidar. It's been quite a trip and just getting started. I have a few really cool things coning down the pipeline including some decent looking sales. Keeping the momentum going at this point is golden for me and really giving me the motivation to keep pushing through.

 

[mikekob]

Nothing like hearing staff bitch about people not using our product. We've been live for just over 72 hours and the staff couldn't be happier. I've been in beast mode and have a handful of potential hospitals lined up now that we have some good traction. I'm very excited for the next few months especially as we start to grow. Today we were mentioned in the AHA newsletter aimed towards tons of cardiac contacts that are looking for a product like ours to help with inefficiencies in the ER and hospital process.

 

[Equilibrium]

make sure your network has a good SSL cert.. you will be in the doghouse if its data becomes published, or SQL injections are possible.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mikekob]

Our SSL is just the start of our securities. We can't actually sell outside of the US cause of the levels we are incorporating in our securities.

 

[mikekob]

It's been a bit so I think I might as well give an update. I'm sitting here working at 11:30 on a Monday so I must be doing something right.

We've been live for about 6 weeks and have had about 100 patients registered with our product. Not the most incredible adoption rate, but a great first customer and way to develop/refine/validate our product. We're continually working on the adoption aspect. Overall I think I realized not all customers are the ideal customer.

I've had several meetings with neighboring hospitals regarding their use of our app, and have another meeting tomorrow with the biggest hospital and EMS agency in Boulder County. This will pretty much lock us in geographically and give us plenty of expansion with various hospital organizations in the Denver Metro area. Currently we are live in one hospital of an 11 hospital org, and have 4 EMS agencies using our app. That's pretty F*cking awesome in my book.

We also signed up for a Digital Health Challenge pretty whimsically about three months ago. Out of the 24 companies that applied, we are one of 8 finalists. We win a good amount of cash, a pilot with one of several hospital org's, and get to present at Denver Start-up Week in front of at least 550 people. They are anticipating 750, so it should be interesting.

Things have certainly picked up, and are progressing at an exponential rate. We have 3 geographical and 10 organizational hospitals on the cusp. Now I get to deal with growing pains.

The next two weeks will have some incredible opportunity for us, I'll be sure to post as I remember and see fit.

Mike