The Tiger Dashboard – July 2026
I’m sharing this month’s DASHBOARD—the same intelligence I use to track new startups currently punching above their weight, M&A and […]
The Great Unbundling of Orthopedics Has Begun
For decades, the dominant orthopedic corporate strategy was portfolio consolidation—creating “one-stop-shop” conglomerates that could bundle joints, spine, trauma, and sports
The Brutal 10-Year Verdict: How Shaving the Meniscus Actually Ruins the Knee
Article Summary The orthopedic industry just got handed a 10-year bill it can’t ignore. For decades, arthroscopic partial meniscectomy was
🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week – French startup simplifying ACJ stabilization with synthetic ligament.
I believe that we are entering the Sports Med wave with accelerating innovation in this space. Here is my scoring
[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – VB Spine’s acquisition, Movmedix’s FDA clearance, and Miach’s clinical data.
Most of the industry is reading self-serving press releases, but here is your intel on what really happened last week.
The Reverse Total Hip — Promise, Perils, and the Data That Will Decide
We’ve all heard the drumbeat: total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a mature, commodity market. Implants are reliable, survival curves flatline
When the Race to the Bottom Lands You in the Power Tool Aisle
We often talk about implant “commoditization” in orthopedics. It’s that spooky campfire story that consultants use to scare medical sales
A quick dive into the 3 types of publicly traded Orthopedic companies.
Something different today. The orthopedic sector continues to showcase a fascinating divide of financial health. When looking at the public
Why Ortho innovation works better inside a Venture Studio
The traditional playbook for taking an idea to commercialization is broken. Historically, a surgeon has a great new product idea
Making sense of the ZB acquisition of iovera°
Tiger’s Strategic Summary ZB knows that implants are becoming commodities with an inevitable race to the bottom. ZB also knows
🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week – Startup simplifying biceps tenodesis with sutureless anchor.
I believe that we are entering the Sports Med wave with accelerating innovation in this space. Below is my scoring of
[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – Niche M&A, Startup Fundings, Pivots to AI Workflow and Localized Post-Surgical Pain Management.
Most of the industry is reading silly press releases, but here is your 7-day market update. Now that 2026 H1
Insights into the venture “bottom” for ortho innovators.
It’s been a rough few years for orthopedic innovators needed capital. My short summary of the capital allocators during this
Death of the Ortho Sales Rep (or how we lost our autonomy & our surgeons).
If you’ve been in the orthopedics game long enough, you remember the Golden Era. Thirty years ago, being an ortho
Why Ortho Startups Fail the Reimbursement Reality Test
What this article will teach you. Reimbursement isn’t a math problem; it’s a structural maze. Stop building your commercial strategy
The Equity Percentage Trap
You are looking at your offer letter from an early-stage orthopedic company. You can understand the base salary, the bonus
🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week – Startup enhancing anchor outcomes with real-time AI Intelligence during surgery.
For decades, the sports medicine market has been defined by the same frustrating tradeoffs: mechanical weaknesses in repair setups, clunky
[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – Mini-Tech, Micro-M&A, and Non-Invasive Interventions Disrupting Orthopedics
Most of the industry is reading silly press releases, but here is your 7-day market update. The shift continues. Ortho
How Silver Bullet is Weaponizing Healthcare Economics Against SSIs
We all know that surgical site infections (SSIs) are the ultimate nightmare in orthopedics. A flawlessly executed procedure can be
Inside the Quiet Ortho Revolution Happening North of the Border
For decades, the global orthopedic community has looked to the usual suspects for groundbreaking innovation: Warsaw, Indiana; Memphis, Tennessee; or
Before you sign: How to find hidden financial red flags at the company.
Joining a new orthopedic company is an exciting career move, but the medical device world carries unique financial risks. Long
Why independence won’t save DePuy Synthes
Johnson & Johnson will sell or spinout its $20B DePuy Synthes orthopedics business, and that tell-all number tells you absolutely
Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week – Startup runs 30,000 digital simulations per patient to find the absolute perfect joint match.
Every Monday I share a startup that I really. I call it the Red-Hot Innovator of the Week. I am
[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] 👀 Big Ortho’s Broken R&D, $650M Cash Drops, and the Threat to the Legacy Robotics Footprint
Most of the industry is reading silly press releases, but here is your 7-day unredacted market update. The mega-trend in
Wearables Are About to Explode in Orthopedics
We all know that orthopedics lags other medical areas in real-time patient data collection. But that’s about to change. The
We all make bad hires. Learn the 5 reasons why we settle for B-players.
Your people are your company. Not your product pipeline, your regulatory clearances, your facility, or your capital. Your people. They
Cowboys vs. Ranchers in Ortho Sales
In ortho sales, we are told that people are divided into two groups: “hunters” who chase new business and “gatherers”
🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week – Startup ushers in the Future of Joint Preservation with 3D-Printed, Lightweight Off-Loading Devices
Every Monday I share a startup that I really. I call it the Red-Hot Innovator of the Week. For decades,
👀 Caught My Eye (second week of June 2026)
Sharing a summary of orthopedic content that I consumed this week including some of the minor stories that you may
Smart startups are bypassing traditional insurance altogether.
The capture of the US healthcare system has created a devastating reality: insurance giants, pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs), and a
How Durability is your Ortho Revenue?
In the orthopedic sales, not all revenue is created equal. When strategic buyers look at an orthopedic startup or mid-tier
Chasing Data, Missing the Patient: The False Dichotomy of Remote Monitoring
The holy grail of orthopedic medicine is remarkably simple: getting a patient back to work and life, pain-free, as quickly
🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week – Startup solves the “cheese-wiring” effect in patch repair
Every Monday I share a startup that I really like. I call it the Red-Hot Innovator of the Week. For
The Ortho Founder’s Paradox: Are You an Explorer or a Mountain Guide?
Startups are like very difficult uncharted journeys. Imagine a grueling expedition into uncharted territory. You have two distinct figures standing
Why the Person Reviewing Your Class III Ortho Device Is Terrified of Saying “Yes”
The Class III pathway in orthopedics brutally slow, opaque, and unpredictable. If you ask the industry, we point to the
The Tiger Dashboard – June 2026
“Most of the our industry is reading yesterday’s news. You’re about to read where Ortho is going.” I’m sharing the
The “ASC only” customer strategy for startups will work.
Why Read? This article explores a proven “ASC-only” strategy via an 8-step playbook for entrepreneurs, covering ASC-optimized product design, partnerships,
Hiring the “Big Ortho” Resume is a Costly Blunder for a Startup
The lure of hiring a seasoned executive from a “Big Ortho” powerhouse—like Stryker, ZB, S+N, or DePuy—is a trap that
How Spine’s material “distraction” became a $4B Cardio materials play
This is an attempt to explain the MiRus pivot to my ortho/spine readers. It’s hard to get your head around
Ortho companies can die by either Heart Attack or Cancer.
Ortho Companies die in two ways: acute failure or chronic decay. Heart attack or cancer. 1/ A Heart Attack is
The SI Joint Commodity Trap in 2026
If you’ve spent any time reading OrthoStreams, you know my core philosophy: Business Model > Product. When I first wrote
Why a lean funding philosophy produces winners
I wrote about the psychologic dangers of Too Much Money ! on OrthoStreams in 2019. Today I need to explain
Startup saving Orthopedic Distributors from six-figure logistics losses
For decades, the orthopedic logistics world has treated field inventory like a necessary evil: flood the market with expensive metal,
9 Hiring Tactics for Orthopedic Startups
In an orthopedic startups, talent isn’t just an asset—it’s your ultimate commercial engine. Every hire either accelerates your time-to-market or
Who will win the Spine Endoscopy land grab?
If you have been keeping your ear to the ground in the spine world, you already know that spine endoscopy
When “Product Is King” Kills the Company: Anatomy of an real life Ortho Zombie
How can a company with a truly great product turn into a zombie public company on life support? Today I
1-Way Doors: The Silent Killer of Ortho Startups
Let’s talk about the importance of two-way doors versus one-way doors. A one-way door decision is nearly impossible to reverse
New Trend: Payers have declared war on cervical cages
I try to follow trends in ortho. Some reimbursement trends, like this one, pop up out of nowhere. Reimbursement pressure
Why You Should Stop Hiring for Experience and Start Hiring for Scars
Recently I have been helping ortho startups fix their hiring mistakes. This got me to thinking. Why do startup leaders
The Disposable Dilemma: Is the ASC “Efficiency Engine” an ESG Liability?
In the high-velocity ASCs, the single-use instrument kit has become the “easy button” for throughput. By sidestepping the logistical nightmare