🔴 Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week: New Open AR Spine Guidance without a Lock-In
Every Monday I share a startup that I really like. I call it the Red-Hot Innovator of the Week. Spine
[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – Strategics Bought Robots and Cuff Fixation; Specialists Stacked SKUs, Registries, and First Cases.
Consolidation cycles are about survival, not brand theater. What cleared a term sheet or a 510(k) this week had a
Apparently, Some Startups Can Still Fool Capital Allocators
Stack the right buzzwords and you can still raise capital—even twelve years after founding. Every deck needs a villain and
Hire the Smart Outlier Who Doesn’t Fit. That’s the Hire That Saves You.
In orthopedic startups, many founders get hypnotized by the implant, the regenerative platform, the AI planning software, the 510(k) path.
Hospitals Want a Faster Tuesday, Not New Gadgets
Your customer is not shopping for titanium, polyethylene or another console that looks impressive. They are shopping for a faster
Making sense of the Stryker/ZuriMED acquisition – it’s the Needle, not the Suture
Big Ortho rarely acquires early startups with limited commercial success. However, Stryker just acquired ZuriMED Technologies and its FiberLocker system.
Tiger’s Red-Hot Innovator of the Week: Dutch startup brings us a new knee shock absorber
Every Monday I share a startup that I really like. I call it the Red-Hot Innovator of the Week. I
[Tiger’s Weekly Intel] – Strategics bought fixation and robots; startups advanced FIM and software.
This last week the orthopedic market did not roar. It sorted. Stryker agreed to buy Zurich’s ZuriMED and its FiberLocker
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