This month, Babyscripts closed the first round of our Series B funding raise. While other startups were forced to shutter their doors as a result of the pandemic, we've been incredibly fortunate to experience growth, as health systems and insurance payers are increasingly seeking virtual health solutions to manage their patient and member populations.
Part of this success is due to good fortune -- to being in the right place at the right time. Our project and vision aligned with an increasing demand from consumers for virtual care solutions, and the Covid crisis accelerated that demand into hyperdrive, overcoming a lot of the traditional barriers to adoption.
But equally important to that success has been the culture of innovation that we foster here at Babyscripts, that directly affects our product and its value. Our co-founder shared his tips on how to drive a culture of innovation at an organization.
Leverage competition to fuel innovation within your own organization.
There is naturally going to be a moment of panic when you learn about a competitor— but after the initial freak out, what competition does is force you to take a hard look at your value proposition. Do you need to refine or enhance your product? How do you need to change? Innovators can get lazy — when what you’re doing is working, you get flat feet. You stop looking ahead to the next best thing and get comfortable with where you are. A competitor sends you back to your customers, to your roadmap — they motivate you to update your product or double down on it to differentiate your solution.
Competition also serves as validation that the product you’re building and the products you’re offering have real market value — you’re not a crazy, bleeding-edge entrepreneur that’s stepped way too far out ahead of the market. Others are confirming the value of what you’re doing by getting in on the game.
Understand your customers to guide product development.
At Babyscripts, we started with a focus on prenatal care, specifically prenatal hypertension. We learned from our provider clients that there was a massive need for similar solutions in the postpartum space — that the highest rates of maternal mortality and readmissions are tied to hypertension in the postpartum period. We worked with customers across the U.S. to refine protocols for the postpartum period to create a comprehensive product that offered support throughout the entire pregnancy journey, up to one year postpartum.
Work with outside partners to drive new innovation and opportunities.
In 2020 we were approached by Roche Diagnostics with a very specific opportunity — to partner with us on the development of Babyscripts’ remote patient monitoring programs to leverage data science through next gen RPM in pregnancy.
More recently, Babyscripts partnered with Xealth, a digital ordering and analytics platform, to provide a convenient option for Xealth customers to access Babyscripts program management features, and lower the barrier to entry for EMR integrations with Babyscripts.
We also recently entered into a collaboration with Nuvo Group to bring NSTs to our client base and are looking to team up with other vendors in the future.
It's counter-intuitive, but delivering best-in-class solutions to users doesn't mean being all things for all people -- it often means honing in on specific product enhancements, and having the self-awareness and humility to see where others can supplement with their own expertise.
Encourage and reward thoughtful experimentation within your organization.
At Babyscripts we have weekly product priority meetings, attended by every employee, to ensure that the entire company is up to date with our roadmap and has the opportunity to give their feedback. Many of our most successful innovations and product enhancements have sprung out of these forums, and the latitude that we give our employees to innovate and pitch prototypes. Our employees know that they play a significant role in the development of product and that their voices matter. They’re encouraged and rewarded through financial incentives, increased roles and responsibilities, promotions, and most importantly, continued encouragement to take ownership of innovation.
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