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Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Project Zygote shout-out

A very interesting initiative,


"Many early stage founders and technologists with healthcare ideas want to contribute to the field’s disruptive innovation but lack domain expertise.

"Likewise, many healthcare providers want to enter into the digital health field but lack the technology know-how make the shift.


"Project Zygote brings these two groups together, plus go-to-market professionals, to form teams that develop, vet, and validate new digital health solutions.
 

"As an idea conceived and run by members of the Health 2.0 San Francisco Chapter, we are leveraging local talent to ensure the next wave of digital health products holistically solve meaningful healthcare problems.  Our goal is to broker relationships, educate participants, and vet new concepts.  Ultimately, we nurture teams to the point where they are ready to credibly approach healthcare accelerators and investors to take flight."
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I just reached out to the Health 2.0 SF group, and a link to the above stuff quickly showed in in my LinkedIn email feed. I'll be watching and reporting on developments with great interest.

apropos of the foregoing:
What Is Causing Startups to Go Bankrupt?
Shellye Archambeau
December 20th, 2016


Many startups have a great product that’s viable, marketable, and ripe with potential. But if that was the only indicator of success, then nine out of 10 startups wouldn’t fail. The annals of startup history wouldn’t be littered with instances of companies like Friendster or Color that had fantastic products, but eventually sank.

The truth is that startups often go bankrupt for reasons that extend beyond the viability of their products. Many of them fall prey to missteps that ultimately dry up their cash flow, and cause the company to fold. So what are some of these pitfalls to avoid?...
Good article. I would also commend to you again my citation of Steve Tobak's highly relevant new book, cited in a recent post.

...Given all the hype, we should be seeing the mother of all business creation movements, but we’re not. What we are seeing is a massive long-term decline in new startups and small businesses across all demographics and geographies. We’ll get into this in more detail later, but for now, suffice to say that new business creation has dropped a whopping 28 percent from 1977 to 2011, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The greatest irony of all is that the steepest declines are coming from those aged 20 to 34, who created just 22 percent of all new companies in 2013, down from 34 percent in 1996. That’s right. The entrepreneurial generation is nothing of the kind. It’s just a media fabrication. (Not to mention that unemployment and underemployment rates among Millennials are almost twice that of the general population.) 

With new business creation and workforce participation rates at multidecade lows across the board— especially among young people— the truth is inescapable: Instead of enabling and empowering a new generation of successful innovators and business leaders, this mythical movement and all the virtual content it generates is leading countless would-be entrepreneurs down a utopian path toward a dream that simply doesn’t exist. 

Why all the gloom and doom? For starters, you can’t fix a problem until you identify it...
Nobody ever changed the world by doing what everyone else is doing. That’s not just common sense— it’s biology. Species evolve when beneficial genetic mutations arise out of competitive ecosystems and take over. Likewise, civilization advances when unique individuals who think and act differently shatter the status quo and forever change how we do things. Leaders lead. Followers follow. You can’t be both. Real leaders don’t follow, and neither do real entrepreneurs...

Tobak, Steve (2015-10-19). Real Leaders Don't Follow: Being Extraordinary in the Age of the Entrepreneur (Kindle Locations 550-575). Entrepreneur Press. Kindle Edition.
I'd like to see Steve present to Project Zygote participants. Really enjoyed and learned from his book. He should also be on a WinterTech Panel.

Also pertinent, my Sept. 2015 post, What exactly is "Leadership," anyway? And, go all the way back to 2012 and my thoughts on "Effectuation."

Then there's my April 2016 post On Disruption: "OMG! Awesome!! Dan Lyons for President!!!
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More to come...

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