Thinking of moving from Adobe (martech) to a healthcare tech startup.
I am little concerned about leaving behind ten years of experience in martech and pivoting into healthcare. And while there is tremendous opportunity for innovation in healthcare I am concerned that partnering (I do BD) will be more difficult considering the lack of openness and APIs with some of the largest players in the space. Any thoughts or advice?
Hey. I’ve done BD at startups and public cos. My exp is founders often don’t understand what BD actually is or entails. This can lead to misaligned expectations around deal cycles, the need to do a lot of post-deal enablement, the need to modify or create new product to accommodate the needs of the channel and more. If you are not highly confident that the founders “get” BD, my personal opinion is to decline the job, especially given your point around the lack of openness in healthcare.
Great take and I 100% agree. Luckily this role reports into product. The head of product was previously responsible for partnerships (which I know sounds weird, but she is sharp).
I got out of adtech awhile ago and was concerned because I’d be leaving behind 5yrs experience and all of my knowledge and contacts. Looking back, adtech/martech is considerably consolidated and I saw this coming with how everyone was getting bought out. It’s a fun industry but there’s not much left to do except displace competitors or educate new but low value customers.. I’d say go into a field that has bigger upside to learn and build new experiences
Thanks. This is encouraging feedback.
I still envy my old colleagues when I hear about their latest industry party (ie conference). But it’s quite stagnant now and many of the OGs in the industry are leaving for other industries or going quiet. Brian Okelley, the guy that founded appexus is starting a new company trading commodities.. go figure
What is martech now ?
Marketing technology. I work at Adobe, in the business unit which includes our digital marketing products.