Startups Stack Exchange Archive

Finding a new market to an existing product

• posted by: Warwick on 2016-04-13
• tagged: market-research, idea, saas, target-market, product-market-fit
• score: 4

We built a SaaS for healthcare providers. This is a small bootstrapped business of two people.

The core tech of the service is file transfer and task routing. The software transfers digital medical studies (e.g. ECG, MRI) between a clinic and a remote reading physician (or radiologist.) The system is entirely web-based but includes a file uploader application for Windows.

We have a handful of small private clinics as paying clients. After a year of intensive sales, we’ve found out that return on effort is very low. It’s very challenging to scale in the highly regulated medical field, especially without strong connections.

We think of shifting to a different market and explore other niches (photo retouching, noise reduction in audio). However we lack domain knowledge. It also seems that the market size isn’t large enough to sustain a business.

How do you research a new niche to already existing product?

Answer 8970

• posted by: Marcus D on 2016-04-13
• score: 3

First up, I wouldn’t discount your product-vertical niche just yet. Staying in your existing vertical would be ideal, since you have the experience and the case studies

• Perhaps getting in with one or more of the CROs, though they likely have established links with pharma companies already. CROs are always looking for ways to improve efficiency and with increased levels of diagnostics recorded for clinical trials, this could be worthwhile.
• Contact one of the smaller health insurance companies. They might be interested in efficiency savings in terms of workflow and ‘data/document’ handling (sorry to be vague about what you do)
• Contact one of the smaller private hospital networks (I’m thinking here of someone like Benenden, though they are also an insurer) who may not have good systems and will be interested in improving their technology.
• Find some niche medical facilities that you can establish a presence in, especially ones that might have a high margin - fertility, occupational health, …

Look to establish partnerships with related businesses, that might enable you to scale your business. Ultimately you want to increase automation so you can handle larger clients.

You mention ‘without strong connections’, I suspect you won’t readily have connections in other verticals, so these will take time to create.

A few ideas on other verticals or routes to market …

• Search the internet for things that are similar to what you do that are in a market that has some space or margin in a different vertical. You would end up as their competitors, but that is OK. If you consider the ‘wealth’ of the vertical as well - e.g. banking, investments, insurance, telecoms tend to be wealthy and have higher margins, as compared to charities, retail and real estate.
• Look for a partner company who can bundle your software up within their product/service, then take a cut of their T/O, effectively they will be doing sales for you.

It’s complicated, but I think to break into another vertical will be challenging, especially since you don’t have an established network in the other vertical. Plus there is the added work of modifying your product for another vertical.

I’m not sure I’ve answered your question in the way it was intended, but best of luck!

---

All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.