Disruptive Products Require a Different Sales Process

·36 min·2 clips

Chris says brain networks are a druggable target for schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, and epilepsy.

1. cc: Life Science Podcast centers on the sales process for disruptive products, using Diagnostic Biochips as the example. 2. Chris Morrison of Via Veris is the host-guide on commercialization, and Brian Jamison is the founder-CEO of Diagnostic Biochips, which develops neural probes. 3. The episode asks how to sell a product that is completely new when no one knows what to compare it to. 4. Brian explains that his team studies how the brain gets wired together to form a useful circuit. 5. He says the platform records action potentials, which he describes as the electrical output of single neurons. 6. Brian compares the data stream to a network analyzer on an Ethernet connection, because both show sequences of ones and zeros. 7. Chris says incremental products can use history and sales data, while disruptive products need a discovery-based sales model. 8. He contrasts an execution model with a process that has to be discovered for the first time. 9. Chris says the company started with one big pharma account and then had to test whether that space was truly repeatable. 10. He says the team moved toward translational drug development, between academic labs and big pharma, after customer discovery in pharma did not scale. 11. Brian says organoids, which he calls programmable stem cell cultures, created a scaling path for the business. 12. He says the sensors once required surgery in an animal model for each measurement. 13. Brian names schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, and epilepsy as examples of network malfunction. 14. Chris says the company is trying to identify a market entry point, the right buyer, and the right use case. 15. He says the team is testing messaging with existing contacts, pilot sites, and customers before launching at SFN in October. 16. Chris warns about the “innovation death spiral,” where startups mistake one signal for a market and keep doubling down. 17. Brian describes the work as a balance between urgency and patience. 18. Chris says the process is difficult because disruptive technology often needs 10 to 20 customers before patterns become repeatable. 19. People interested in biotech commercialization and early-stage life science tools would likely get the most from this conversation. 20. Listeners wanting a narrative arc or a finished product announcement may find it too early-stage.

As heard by us

A practical look at selling science when the market has no category yet.

Chris Conner talks with Brian Jamison and Chris Morrison about a basic problem in disruptive tech: how to sell something when there is no familiar category to point to.

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Why you'd press play

You want a clear way to sell something the market does not yet understand.

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