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New trend –> Enabling-technology startups are struggling.

What’s going on here? Augmedics, Proprio Vision and Think Surgical have all struggled. Augmedics proved its tech with 13,000 cases […]

Fastest and Slowest in 2026

Most of our industry is still talking about “orthopedics growing mid-single digits.” That average hides the real story. The US

What the Enovis–eCential Deal actually means for the rest of Spine

If you only skimmed the news, you probably walked away with the wrong story. The wrong story is: Spineart lost

New Zombie Company Award Recipient goes to an SI-Fusion Startup

You don’t ever want to work for a Zombie company. It’s a financial death spiral. When I find a new

🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week: Implant companies sell the parts. This startup wants the operating system.

Every Monday I share a startup that I really like. I call it the Red-Hot Innovator of the Week. It’s

[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – Where the Money Went: Outcomes Software, SI Fixation, ASC Closets

High Level Overview The themes for you this week are: 1/ US ortho funding is hunting closed-loop data, SI fixation,

Making sense of the Globus acquisition of Higgs Boson.

If you have spent any time reading my stuff, you already know my theory: Business Process > Product. Implants still

Capital is now funding the delivery system, not the device.

There is a sea change happening in ortho. (Sorry. It’s a long article – 8 minute read, but its a

Supercharge your career with AI tools – Sales, Marketing, R&D, Reg/Quality, Clinical, Fin, and Ops.

In our industry, AI is no longer speculative tech theater—it is raw leverage. Many ortho professionals today are using AI

Speed: The Overlooked Weapon for Orthopedic Startups

“Lost time is never found again.” — Benjamin Franklin Let’s talk about the ultimate unfair advantage that small Ortho companies

🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week: How a Startup’s Pocket-Sized Wearable Is Ending Spine Fusion’s Compliance Blind Spot

A new startup is targeting a classic orthopedic issue: taking a proven, non-invasive technology (bone growth stimulation) that had gone

[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – Innovation across robotics, biologics, joint preservation, and funding.

The theme running through this week’s deals, launches, and data drops is crystal clear: the entire musculoskeletal ecosystem is re-engineering

5 Reasons why companies accidentally hire B Players

Your people are your company. Not the technology. Not the building. Not the logo, inventory, or income statement. Your employees

How Ortho Device Makers Must Adapt to CMS Episode-Based Care

This is your wake up call. Most of our industry is still treating CMS payment changes like background noise. Big

How to Negotiate with Big Ortho Strategics Without Losing Control

Heads up Startup leaders! This could be the most important article that you will read this year. For an early-stage

🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week: UK startup may eliminate hip dislocations.

There isn’t a good orthopedics solution for every patient—particularly in hips. Traditional ball-and-socket implants face persistent failure modes that remain

[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – High-Growth Collisions: Bio Acquisition, Meduloc Raise, and ASC Workflow AI Takes Off

Observation The ortho venture space appears to be rewarding high-growth startup platforms that merge structural hardware with digital ecosystem integration.

The GLP-1s unlocking a new wave of total joint patients

When GLP-1 receptor agonists and those new multi-agonist weight-loss drugs started blowing up the headlines, the initial knee-jerk reaction across

Kickbacks still pay off in ortho—just not equally.

You can’t make this stuff up. It’s real. There is an unbalanced incentive and punishment scale when defrauding Medicare in

One Question That Exposes Fake Startup Value – The Disappearance Question.

Here’s a simple test that separates real startups from road kill: If your product disappeared tomorrow, would customers actively seek

There are always more than two options

Talented people in our industry often ask me for help with a big career decision. They’re usually trying to choose

🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week – UK startup tackles Joint Preservation’s hardest problem: The Knee Treatment Gap

There isn’t a good orthopedics solution for every patient. Particularly in knees. There is a massive, gaping hole in treatments.

[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – Meduloc funding, BoneSupport Reimbursement, Pediatric Expansions

This is the kind of week I like to see. No flashy billion-dollar distractions—just real companies solving real problems and

How Many Employees Do You Really Need?

One simple metric is to measure the number of W2s per $1M of revenue. So what is appropriate as an

How Startups can play and win with Strategics.

In our latest BoneChat roundtable, we I sat down with the king of strategic deals, Mike Minette. Read about Mike’s

We have entered “ortho consolidation season” driven mostly by survival.

If you’ve been tracking deal flow across orthopedics, spine, and regenerative medicine over the past few months, you’ve probably noticed

Portable > Local

If you want to predict which ortho companies will scale and which will stall out in capital committees, ignore the

The quiet $350M biologics acquisition and why it happened.

While most of the ortho world was looking the other way, MiMedx (MDXG) quietly pulled the trigger on acquiring Sanara

🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week – Michigan startup is closing the recovery gap after TKA.

“Joint replacement is one of the most successful procedures in modern medicine… until the patient walks out of the OR.“

[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – Key Regulatory Clearances, IP Acquisitions, and M&A Activity

As we close out July 2026, our industry demonstrated steady momentum. Rather than large-scale venture funding rounds, activity centered on

Why Single-Product Ortho Startups Get Trapped at the Local Maximum

Every orthopedic entrepreneur dreams of the endless upward slope. You build a strong first product, clear regulatory hurdles, win champion

The Death of the “Me-Too” Implant: 4 Startup Megatrends Dominating 2026

If you follow the venture flow in orthopedics, you already know the era of the “me-too” implant is dead. Pure

Sharing real-world playbooks from Ortho Founders

I try to be useful for the ortho entrepreneur. The goal of this blog posting is simple: pull back the

🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week – San Diego spine startup has created an integrated ecosystem for ASCs

Surgical hardware and digital intelligence are converging. In particular, we are watching ortho/spine market reach an inflection point, driven by

[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – Some Startups found progress through acquisitions, FDA clearances, capital funding, and commercial momentum.

The past week highlighted key momentum across both U.S. and international orthopedic startups, marked by big M&A acquisitions, navigation clearances,

Agency is the real prize.

Agency is the real prize. Not status. Not the title. Not the salary line that shrinks with inflation every year

How Ortho startups can break through the Hospital lockout.

Let’s face it. All the innovation in orthopedics comes from startups these days. However, your better technology and better outcomes

Founders Beware ! Funding scammers are targeting Medtech startups

This is really happening. Learn about it and beware. Let’s face it: the current capital-raising environment for early-stage orthopedic and

Financial Health: What to check before you join a new company.

This is important… and often overlooked. In orthopedics, we love to talk about clinical data, disruptive tech, and market opportunity.

The Strategy Behind the DePuy X-PAC Acquisition

DePuy Synthes announced its acquisition of Expanding Innovations (EI), officially bringing the X-PAC® expandable interbody platform under the DPY umbrella.

🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week: UK startup brings predictive real-time protection to your knee.

This week we are shifting the Sports Med innovation discussion from passive bracing —> to predictive real-time knee protection. Historically,

[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – M&A, Handheld Robotics, and 3D Biomimetic Implants Drive the Shift to ASC-Focused Outpatient Care

Most of the industry is reading self-serving press releases, but here is your intel for the week. The trend continues