Ortho Companies die in two ways: acute failure or chronic decay.
Heart attack or cancer.
1/ A Heart Attack is financial.
You run out of leverage, liquidity, and time. The runway vanishes in an instant. Examples: Surgalign, Conformis.
2/ Cancer is structural.
You have the wrong business model, a bad reimbursement strategy, or a friction-filled distribution loop. You survive, but you do not grow. Decay is a slow bleed. Examples: Integrum, Implanet.
The heart attack is loud and dramatic, but it is merely the final symptom.
Cancer is the silent killer. It is the invisible accumulation of bad architecture, tolerated for years because the company can still work with the cancer.
In the orthopedic innovation game, don't just check your daily pulse. Look at your cellular structure.
If the underlying economics don't compound, time is your enemy, not your friend....
