Heads up Startup leaders!
This could be the most important article that you will read this year.
For an early-stage ortho startup, courting large strategics for financing, distribution, or licensing is often a necessity—but it is also a minefield. Without established leverage, founders frequently find themselves outmaneuvered by corporate business development teams using standard corporate playbooks designed to extract value, stall timelines, and strip control.
To break down how these deals actually work behind closed doors, we sat down on BoneChat 138, with veteran medtech dealmaker Mike Minette (150+ completed transactions across Medtech). We pulled back the curtain on how Big Ortho thinks, why strategic partnerships fall apart, and how orthopedic entrepreneurs can protect their leverage and preserve their upside.
7 best practices for navigating Strategics.
1/ Always Preserve the Right to Control Your Own Destiny
Never sign away your ability to make sovereign decisions. Strategics often insert restrictive provisions—such as aggressive Rights of First Refusal (ROFR), exclusivity clauses lacking performance minimums, or lopsided downside liabilities. If the proposed terms pre...
