It has become undeniably easier in recent years to bring a product or service to market,
with a huge number of businesses springing up focused on the likes of consumer apps,
fintech platforms and SaaS. While the returns on investment are huge for the companies who succeed, the odds of doing so become slimmer in such crowded marketplaces. Durable differentiation becomes more difficult to sustain, with new companies seemingly popping up overnight, and that means many ideas – even if they look good on paper – simply never succeed. It’s one of the reasons we are seeing increasing numbers of experienced founders turning to medical technology as the industry of choice for their second or third business venture.
Rather than being driven by trends, this shift is driven by perspective – with seasoned founders seeking durability over the rapid iteration, early traction and shortest possible path to market prioritised by many first-time founders. Having lived through competitive cycles, market corrections and the painful realisation that many fast-growing businesses lack true defensibility, these founders are refocusing, seeking substance over speed – and finding it within the med tech market.

With that shift comes a fresh perspective about the regulatory approval, clinical validation and reimbursement pathways which may once have been considered barriers but can now be seen as structural advantages once crossed, offering a depth of protection that simply is not available in other industries where software features, for example, can be copied overnight. Rather than slowing down value creation, the depth of regulation actually protects it – meaning competitors often lag months or even years behind the pioneers of a new approach. The value of developing healthcare technologies such as functional precision oncology is defined not in its speed to market, but in biological relevance, evidence generation and alignment with healthcare and pharma R&D incentives: precisely the kind of challenge seasoned founders gravitate towards.

Why now?
For years, many entrepreneurs avoided healthcare because the enabling technology simply was not ready, with clinical environments resistant to change and data fragmented. But the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence means deployment is now realistic in many areas where it simply would not have been a decade ago, such as the 3D tumour modelling and drug response profiling which now enable med tech companies to generate a wealth of data. These insights are used by oncologists to pinpoint specific effective treatments for individual cancer patients, eradicating the need for ‘trial and error’ when finding the right chemotherapy medications for each person. While these new technologies make investment feasible, the long-term and non-cyclical nature of demand from the healthcare market make it sustainable. Ageing populations
mean increasing cancer diagnoses, oncology drug pipelines continue to expand in complexity, high clinical trial failure rates remain a systemic problem, and health systems and pharma companies face relentless cost pressure – all meaning technologies which improve drug development efficiency and enable better treatment decisions are not optional, they are essential.
Credibility not noise

In a world of hype cycles and aggressive growth hacks, healthcare represents a market
where credibility is valued over this noise: outcomes, safety and trust are paramount –
and experienced founders understand how to operate in this environment. By building
credibility over time through validation studies, advisory boards and careful stakeholder
engagement, it might take years to build a solid reputation, but the end result is
powerful. Having already learned the limits of purely narrative-driven growth, experienced
founders are more likely to appreciate the sentiment of substance over spectacle,
focusing on taking the steps towards a mature, valuable company rather than how long
that path will take to navigate. Importantly, med tech is not always a ‘winner takes all’ arena: multiple companies can succeed by addressing different indications, technologies, or stages of the care and development pathway. Market dominance is not necessarily the goal, but rather a
reputable, credible business which produces clinically-valuable outcomes – especially
key when it comes to an eventual exit plan.

The bigger picture
Healthcare is a deeply personal sector for many, especially those who have been
exposed to the industry through illness or caregiving, for example. Mature founders may
have a deeper understanding of why innovation within med tech truly matters – and
have learned the virtue of patience, meaning a decade-long journey may feel less
daunting because the motivation is impact and durability, not speed.

At its heart, med tech is not around optimising already working systems, ironing out
inefficiencies, or meeting KPIs around clicks or engagement metrics. It is about predictive, preventative decision-making. It has real meaning. And it is undeniably consequential to the lives of every single person on the planet. The industry offers a rare combination: commercial opportunity combined with tangible human impact. Improving drug development success rates, reducing ineffective treatments, and enabling more precise cancer care are not just ethically compelling: they are economically significant too.

A lasting impact
Med tech is not the fastest route to liquidity. It demands rigour, resilience and respect
for complexity. But that is precisely why it is attracting seasoned founders. In a start-up ecosystem crowded with incremental ideas, med tech rewards depth over speed, evidence over noise, and patience over shortcuts. And that is why founders are turning towards the industry to apply the lessons they have learned, building businesses which are not only defensible and scalable, but genuinely transformative. For entrepreneurs who have already run the sprint and have little desire to do so again, med tech offers something rarer: the chance to build ventures that last, and matter.