8. If I Were You: The Next 90 Days
Date: 30 Sept 2026 · Back to WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md
Day 0: the go/no-go question
Do you, a co-founder or a paid advisor have hands-on DME/HME warehouse, operations or accreditation experience?
- No: stop. Pick a stronger idea from the catalog or the portfolio (../../README.md). This plan assumes the answer is yes.
- Yes: go on. Sign the advisor within 14 days (0.5–2% equity or a monthly retainer).
The single most important thing
Get 5 small DME suppliers paying ≥$99/month for a hands-on fleet log and survey binder by day 30, before writing product code.
- Buyer: accredited DME/HME suppliers with 1–5 locations that rent serialised equipment, in one or two states.
- Job: "Every unit's cleaning, maintenance and recall record, ready for the surveyor."
- How: a concierge version in Airtable or a spreadsheet, plus QR labels and a paper-to-digital import you do yourself. Automate only what you've done by hand at least 20 times.
Week-by-week (fits ~15 hrs/week; full-time moves faster, not differently)
| Weeks | Goal | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Discovery. 20 calls with owners, compliance leads and warehouse managers, plus 3 accreditation consultants. Ask about: their last survey, equipment findings, how cleaning is logged today, their billing suite and whether its asset module is used, recalls in the last 2 years. | You can name the top 3 equipment-record pains in their words, and how many callers don't use a suite module. |
| 3–4 | Concierge pilot. Offer 5–8 suppliers a paid setup: serial register built from their records, QR labels, cleaning and PM schedules, and a mock survey export. Charge $99/month (founding price, locked for 12 months). | 5 paying by day 30. Fewer than 3: stop. 3–4: one more fortnight with consultant referrals, then decide. |
| 5–8 | Thin v1 (web plus an offline-capable driver app): serial register with CSV import, state machine, driver scan, photo and signature, PM due list, survey export. BAA-capable hosting and BAAs signed before real patient data. | Pilots move off the spreadsheet. ≥75% of deliveries and pickups logged in the app. |
| 9–10 | Channel. 10 survey-prep pages and free cleaning-log and PM templates. Pitch 5 accreditation consultants a free consultant view. | 1 consultant agrees to refer. |
| 11–12 | Measure and decide. | 8+ paying, ≥75% of deliveries logged in the app, 0 security incidents. Hit it: keep going. Miss it: stop, or run the single pivot (a white-label tool for consultants). |
Kill criteria (write these down now)
- Day 30: fewer than 3 paying suppliers. Stop.
- Day 90: fewer than 8 paying, or drivers log under 50% of deliveries. The workflow is wrong. Don't add features.
- Any time: a pilot won't sign a BAA, or asks you to store diagnoses or insurance data. Walk away from that pilot.
The one thing to stop doing
Stop considering party, bike, camera or construction-tool rental. Those markets are already served by tools rated 4.3–4.9 at $19–59 a month (10). It feels safer, because there's no HIPAA and the buyers are friendly, but that comfort is the reason the incumbents are already there.
A close second: stop thinking about billing. Every hour spent on claims logic is an hour spent competing with Brightree on its home ground.
What stays on the long-term roadmap (only after proof)
- Recall matching automated against FDA and manufacturer notices.
- Consultant multi-client view and referral fees.
- Read-only import from the billing suite most customers use.
- Multi-location roll-up for the $199 and $399 plans.