Imagine if I told you that there was a pool of close to 600,000 individuals in New York City who were ripe for innovative health technology integration. You probably wouldn’t believe me and say that it sounded too good to be true. This said pool does in fact exist and can be found concentrated within the city’s public housing.
While entrepreneurs, governmental leaders, and healthcare officials constantly speak of innovation and disruption, there seems to be a major disconnect between these words and actual creativity. This large, untapped pool of individuals who fall under the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) umbrella is one example of the lack of creative, and truly disruptive practices, that I see in today’s early stage ecosystem.
In health tech, we have all too readily accepted the Silicon Valley model of startups and attempted to force healthcare to fit within this mold. Startup mythology has encouraged us to look at disruption as a four step model:
- Develop a pitch deck and product
- Raise Money
- Experience success, a TechCrunch article, and wealth
- Exit out with acclaim and glamour
