Enhance Readability
Peter Ueda, co-founder of Evotech
Photo by Danny Askew, Unreasonable Media
Evolving Technologies created an endoscopy system for the needs of developing markets for less than 4% of the market price. Their main product today is a light, portable endoscopy system for women’s health, the EvoCam. They also have the EvoLight, a light, portable, LED-based medical light-source powered by a USB.
Peter Uedo of EvoTech reflects on what he has learned so far at sea.
Simplifying medical devices to make them affordable and accessible in more settings thrills me. By introducing simple solutions there is a huge potential to get rid of unnecessary inefficiencies, increase health care availability and the number of patients treated.
For me, that is the story I have in mind while working with this project, but it is arguably not a compelling story for someone who has not spent time at a hospital and experienced the use of modern medical devices.
Through the workshops, we have learnt our business pitch should be sticky, personal, emotional, unexpected, human and most of all simple. Reshaping the way we talk about our project and the product is essential.
Being loyal to evidence based medicine and scientific carefulness for many years, this has been a challenge. The insights from last week‘s workshop are that you have to boil your message down to the purpose of the story : a pitch is not supposed to give a full and nuanced picture of your mission and product to a knowledgeable audience that is listening carefully. Rather the purpose of a pitch is to engage people and interest them enough to have the opportunity to give them the full picture at a later stage.
Possibly, focusing on the patient that is treated and whose life may be positively impacted is a stickier message than the business-technical pitch we have been using until this point.
For the latest presentations we have tested this approach by telling presenting stories about women affected by fistulas (an obstetric complication that makes you lose causes the loss of control over your urinary flow) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The NGO that is partnering with us have used the device effectively to treat certain complicated cases in Uganda. This is a tangible story an audience can empathise with, and helps us show how our business can change lives.
Providing appropriate medical devices is only one of several needed necessary measures to address the problems associated with fistulas. Others include health care funding, more physicians and community awareness about the condition. Most of all prevention through appropriate obstetric care is a must.
When telling the story about the fistulas, my brain craves for giving more to the story. I crave a more multifaceted picture, elaborating on a holistic approach. But we have to keep it simple and emphasize that we are working to be part of the solution to this problem. Iterating the stories and modifying them wil,l hopefully, lead us to create a sticky and engaging story that can harbor both a nuanced and moderate approach to selling what we do at Evotech and why.
