Healthtech Founders: Don’t Hire for Busywork. Hire for a Success System.

In healthtech, one bad commercial hire doesn’t just slow you down - it can quietly erase 6–12 months of runway. I’ve seen it across multiple startups, hiring everyone from marketers and SDRs to content specialists and publicists.

The pattern was clear:

• Candidates came in unprepared and too casual for enterprise sales.
• Resumes checked maybe half the boxes of what was actually needed.
• Answers felt scripted; prospect pools were thin.

When I asked the only question that matters, “What is your process?” the answers were checklists:

“I clear emails, search for prospects, update the CRM, then make calls…”

That is not a process. That is activity. And activity burns runway.

The Question That Separates Pros From Pretenders

A real sales or marketing leader can walk you through their system for creating a predictable pipeline and accurate forecasts. If they cannot, you will be stuck coaching them while your timeline to scale disappears.

Here's the two hard truths:

1. You cannot hire your way to market fit.
2. Sales and marketing running in silos will never produce predictable ARR.

What a Real Success System Looks Like

Here is what I expect when someone explains their process:

• ICP Precision + One Story: A single ICP, one narrative, and persona-specific messaging used across SDR, AE, and marketing.
  
• Evidence Early: Clinical outcomes, ROI, and security/IT proof before the first meeting, not after.
  
• Stage-Gated Commercialization: Clear exit criteria from interest → evidence → consensus → procurement → signature → expansion.
  
• Operating Cadence: Weekly pipeline hygiene, leading indicators (meetings by persona, conversion rates, cycle time), not vanity MQLs.
  
• Forecast Discipline: Bottom-up commitment based on buyer consensus, not seller hope.
  
• Rules of Engagement: SDR/BDR orchestrated with AEs. Marketing drives demand creation and enablement.
  
• Conference ROI Guardrails: No $50k booths without meeting SLAs and post-show follow-through.

Bottom Line: If a candidate cannot describe specifics like this, especially with experience in a health system environment, move on.

Why ARRive Growth Partners Exists

These failures are exactly why I built ARRive Growth Partners. We bring fractional sales and marketing leadership into healthtech startups and install a structured, stage-gated commercialization system called the Healthtech ARR Flywheel.

Our model:

• Diagnose: Analyze ICP, deal history, and workflows to uncover breakdowns and stalled cycles.
  
• Align: Establish one story across SDRs, AEs, and Marketing with mapped persona touchpoints.
• Package Evidence: Build proof packs by persona (clinical, ROI, security/IT).
• Orchestrate: Run stage-gated plays with exit criteria and meeting SLAs.
• Compress Timelines: Map procurement steps (BAA/MSA/InfoSec) upfront to avoid surprises.
• Predict + Expand: Drive disciplined forecasting and land-and-expand motions.

The Outcome: founders protect runway, investors regain confidence, and ARR becomes forecastable, not accidental.

A Quick Scorecard You Can Use Tomorrow

Ask every candidate, full-time or fractional:

• Walk me through your stage-gated commercialization model for health systems.
  
• Show your persona-specific evidence pack (clinical, ROI, security).
  
• How do you prove ICP fit and avoid opportunistic detours?
  
• What exit criteria must be met before moving a deal forward?
  
• How do you structure SDR/AE/Marketing handoffs?
  
• What leading indicators predict your quarter?
  
• How do you shorten BAA/MSA/InfoSec cycles?
  
• Share a forecast miss and the process change that followed.
• What are your conference ROI rules?
• Show enablement examples that actually shortened cycles.

If they cannot answer these clearly, they do not have a system.



Bottom Line

Do not hire for activity. Do not hire for “busywork.” Hire for a success system, or install one first. That is where ARRive Growth Partners starts.