Blog
In a Time of COVID, Dealmakers Take a Shine to Diagnostics and Vaccines
If you had an inkling that more money went to vaccine and diagnostic companies in 2020, you were right. Diagnostics and vaccines have long been the red-headed stepchildren of life sciences investments. Detecting and treating life threatening diseases is the...
Digital Therapeutic Deals Make Steady Progress in 2020
After starting off 2020 with a 35 percent drop in the number of deals from the previous quarter, digital therapeutic deal-making steadily climbed over the course of 2020 to total 71 deals for the year. With 25 deals in the fourth quarter of 2020, the index was up 44...
Counting Deals Instead of Votes
Tired from a long week of parsing electoral college votes? How about focusing on digital therapeutic deals for a change of pace? The third quarter brought a record number of digital therapeutic deals with a total of 19. That’s up from 16 in the previous quarter. The...
What’s in a Name II
With the selection of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's running mate, it was time for Biden campaign (Biden/Harris that is) to role out a new brand. A while back I took a look at the logos of the various Democratic candidates and noted that many of the logos (although...
Mask Messaging
As a communication project, the campaign to spread the word about mask wearing during the pandemic has been an example of how to do everything wrong. Let’s put aside the early missteps on the subject as well as the political overtones it has taken on. Let’s just...
Acquisitions Fuel Digital Therapeutic Dealmaking in Q2
Digital therapeutic dealmaking bounced back to Q4 2019 levels in the second quarter of the year. After a first quarter where deal-making was stymied in by the onslaught of COVID-19, buyers came back big-time in the second quarter once the reality of the "new normal"...
Digital Therapeutic Deals in a Time of COVID-19
First quarter digital therapeutic deal data provided by DealForma shows a drop quarter-over-quarter from 16 transactions in the last quarter of 2019 to 11 in the first quarter of 2020. But year-over-year, the first quarter of 2020 is on par with the first quarter of...
Tracking Digital Therapeutics
When I started following the digital health sector in earnest about ten years ago, I was intrigued with the potential of digital technology to treat disease – the so-called digital therapeutics. Instead, the sector produced an almost infinite variety of activity...
Six Ways to Manage Web Design Costs
I’ve often felt I should warn clients that design projects can end up like bathroom remodels, costing twice as much and taking twice as long. But like your bathroom, you can control costs if you make the right decisions at the right times. Let’s take the example of a...
The Value of Making a Long-Term Commitment to Your Brand
Last spring, I wrote about how it is important to stick with your brand identity – even when you are bored with it. Back then I noted that while you might tire of your brand in a year or two, it may take a decade before your clients or customers even begin...
What’s in a Name?
I happened on this fun story the other day where graphic artists critique the campaign logos for the top eleven Democratic contenders in the 2020 presidential campaign. Back when the world was young, I worked in politics, so I find this kind of minutia...
50 Shades of Blue
Working in a creative role amidst folks who have been trained to believe that every problem can be quantified has provided me with moments self-enlightenment, entertainment and, yes, frustration. The frustration arises when I am paired with teammates are not on a...
Your Customers Don’t See Your Brand Like You Do
Whenever I think about a customer’s relationship to a client’s brand, I remember a conversation I had with an executive at a company my firm was wooing. In our business, we got new clients through an RFP process. We always branded the cover of our proposal with the...
How to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Your Brand
One of the perennial battles I have with clients involves their urge to rebrand too often. You put a lot of time into creating your brand, but you live with it every day. It doesn’t take long for you to notice snazzier colors, slicker fonts or zippier taglines that...
If You Want to Persuade, Stop Talking and Listen
Watching the current state of political discourse, I’m reminded of a time when I, as a student debater, was in the library cramming to prep for my next debate. My debate coach stopped by and, picking up on my state of panic, suggested that when you are short of time,...
Mastering Your Own Domain
It’s good to have some basic technical skills related to your profession.
Elon Musk Talks Like a 7th Grader — And So Should You
Awhile back I read a blurb from CB Insights – they produce a fun, data-driven, daily email blast – titled, “Elon Musk talks like a 7th grader.” They came to this conclusion after analyzing 28 quarters of earnings call transcripts. They explained that this...
Typing to the Sound of Bagpipes
Early in my career, I worked for a man who played bagpipe music on a boom box when he was writing. He also would post a sign with a skull and crossbones on his door. I took the sign as a warning not to complain about the bagpipe music. Gary was actually a very...