Know your industry before you lead it, says healthtech entrepreneur Joan Melendez

What does it take to become an industry leader? Add in the fact that the tech industry is predominantly male-led, and you’re a woman.

Our Founder and President Joan Melendez faced and overcame this challenge, now successfully changing up healthtech and stereotypes in one go.

As part of a focus on female entrepreneurs in technology, Joan was part of an interview series run by Billion Success. 

For new entrepreneurs, Joan gave the following useful advice:

Know the ins and outs of your industry before you become a leader in it.

My mentor once said to me: “I will not work with you in building the electronic health records until you fully understand the procedure and procedural area.”

She refused to work with me until I knew how to circulate, scrub and understand a case, and understand the supply chain and sterile processing areas before I built a screen. It was the best experience I could have asked for.

My knowledge of the process has allowed me to build an application that fits into a workflow rather than redirect it. But without experience in knowledge in the field, I would never have been able to build it up the best way possible.

But improving and educating yourself doesn’t automatically lead to success. 

For that, you need a solid team behind you -- something which challenged Joan in the early stages of Xcelrate UDI:

Good talent is hard to find. You’d be surprised how many people you trust with aspects of your business, who do not have your business’s best interest at heart…and unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way. 

I made some poor talent choices at the start of my business that did more harm than good that I wish I could have avoided had I known before starting my business

Now that I’ve hired a strong and reliable team, I’m consistently amazed at how much of a difference it makes. Working with the right people, trustworthy people takes a load off my shoulders.

Now as an established business and voice in the healthtech industry, Xcelrate UDI is concentrating its power on improving patient advocacy and safety -- especially in the current chaos of the vaccine rollout.

Read our latest thought leadership to understand how we combine healthtech with data for a successful Covid-19 vaccine rollout.