Fly out today to the Health 2.0 conference which begins tomorrow.
With some 1,000+ attendees, this event will certainly be buzzing, but what we are most interested to learn is what is really working, both pre and post financial bust. One look at the agenda and you can clearly see that there is a tremendous amount of overlap in the solutions currently in the market, or coming to market. Obviously, not all will survive.
So questions we hope to answer include:
- Is there anyone truly doing something different that really hits one out of the proverbial park? Yes, everyone claims to be different, have some unique advantage, but by and large we found most solutions are simply “me too’s” with a healthcare spin.
- Who is actually seeing traction? Plenty of interesting solutions, but are consumers actually using them/getting some value that is creating a viral effect in the market leading to accelerated growth? In essence, what is their go-to-market strategy? This is where so many stumble.
- What is the revenue model and is it/will it be sufficient to foster long-term growth? Ok, so you have nice growth in users, now how do you plan to make a profit? Is it just another ad-supported model where you will barrage your visitors with mindless clutter or do you plan something more strategic via a given class of supporting partners?
And finally…
- How has the recent turmoil in the market affected your strategy? What are you doing right now to insure you will be there tomorrow seeing as your ability to access the credit market will likely be compromised? At the recent Northeast Health 2.0 evening event, many of the companies we spoke to readily volunteered that they were either making a profit and/or trimming expenses to live within means. Expect much the same in SF, but will look to dig deeper than just these common responses.
In addition to seeking answers to the above, we will of course be on the look-out for surprises and the usual host of announcements from the vendors (already received a couple of announcements that we have to sit-on till formal release date/time) so stay tuned.