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Not mentioned in the video is that Philips Ventures is effectively buying up MedTech companies with proven tech, and hovering up the IP into their portfolio as

Not mentioned in the video is that Philips Ventures is effectively buying up MedTech companies with proven tech, and hovering up the IP into their portfolio as an 'innovation' strategy. Effectively it's a zero risk venture for big corp companies that depend on innovation, they don't have to sink money in research projects in their own R&D labs. Just find someone with something interesting which has already been de-risked, with proven feasibility, buy them out and develop for manufacturing. For clarity all big MedTech companies are doing this not just Philips.

tetrep 4y ago
> Not mentioned in the video is that Philips Ventures is effectively buying up MedTech companies with proven tech, and hovering up the IP into their portfolio as an 'innovation' strategy. Why is that bad? Unless there's something underhanded about the sale, it sounds like it's exactly what a lot of startup founders want: make an MVP, get noticed, get bought, take your pile of money and make another business or go sit on a beach or whatever you want to do.
- DoingIsLearning 4y ago
  I think the issue is that companies like Philips aren't just buying a rising star, they are also buying out fractions of early startups or creating 'accelerators' for early startups. They are reaching out and grabbing earlier and earlier in the pipeline. To me this is bad from two angles. For startups, they start to get influenced and stiffled by big corp 'this is the right way' too soon, which stiffles innovation. For big companies it gives suits an easy cost down to defund internal R&D and externalize that cost, this means that all the deep pocket research you had in the golden days of Bell Labs cannot be replicated, which again stiffles innovation.
esel2k 4y ago
I agree all big MedTechs do this and I wonder what other (better way exist)? Typically these giants have more cash and heavy process instead of small nimble engineers who can freely use their potential. PS: I work directly with two ex-venture Philipps people, thats why I ask.
- DoingIsLearning 4y ago
  I mean there probably isn't much of a way out. It all comes down to funding. It is very rare for MedTech startups to have funding to actually establish themselves in mature market, most of them will have funding to get pass regulator hurdles or just create an IP moat around the business, then the VC's expectation is that another giant will buy them out who will then have the purse to take products to market at scale. My worry is that more and more the bigger companies are buying or owning parts of startups sooner and sooner in the technology readiness pipeline. That will probably limit how much we actually innovate, both from the startup side that now has oversight and from the internal R&D ranks at big corp, that become glorified PMs and strategists rather than researchers. The only way forward is for VC's to stay for longer horizons, but specially in MedTech if you are selling something that involves a widget or hardware it will probably never scale in a way that would make it an interesting business for VC's. Perhaps the exception now is MedTech with SaaS type business models or cloud based services.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    > Perhaps the exception now is MedTech with SaaS type business models or cloud based services. This should pan out because the body has to (at least with current technology) do a variety of things periodically with high frequency to survive.

tetrep 4y ago

> Not mentioned in the video is that Philips Ventures is effectively buying up MedTech companies with proven tech, and hovering up the IP into their portfolio as an 'innovation' strategy. Why is that bad? Unless there's something underhanded about the sale, it sounds like it's exactly what a lot of startup founders want: make an MVP, get noticed, get bought, take your pile of money and make another business or go sit on a beach or whatever you want to do.

DoingIsLearning 4y ago
I think the issue is that companies like Philips aren't just buying a rising star, they are also buying out fractions of early startups or creating 'accelerators' for early startups. They are reaching out and grabbing earlier and earlier in the pipeline. To me this is bad from two angles. For startups, they start to get influenced and stiffled by big corp 'this is the right way' too soon, which stiffles innovation. For big companies it gives suits an easy cost down to defund internal R&D and externalize that cost, this means that all the deep pocket research you had in the golden days of Bell Labs cannot be replicated, which again stiffles innovation.

esel2k 4y ago

I agree all big MedTechs do this and I wonder what other (better way exist)? Typically these giants have more cash and heavy process instead of small nimble engineers who can freely use their potential. PS: I work directly with two ex-venture Philipps people, thats why I ask.

DoingIsLearning 4y ago
I mean there probably isn't much of a way out. It all comes down to funding. It is very rare for MedTech startups to have funding to actually establish themselves in mature market, most of them will have funding to get pass regulator hurdles or just create an IP moat around the business, then the VC's expectation is that another giant will buy them out who will then have the purse to take products to market at scale. My worry is that more and more the bigger companies are buying or owning parts of startups sooner and sooner in the technology readiness pipeline. That will probably limit how much we actually innovate, both from the startup side that now has oversight and from the internal R&D ranks at big corp, that become glorified PMs and strategists rather than researchers. The only way forward is for VC's to stay for longer horizons, but specially in MedTech if you are selling something that involves a widget or hardware it will probably never scale in a way that would make it an interesting business for VC's. Perhaps the exception now is MedTech with SaaS type business models or cloud based services.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  > Perhaps the exception now is MedTech with SaaS type business models or cloud based services. This should pan out because the body has to (at least with current technology) do a variety of things periodically with high frequency to survive.