Partnerships & Integrations for HealthTech at Series B
A step-by-step playbook for implementing partnerships at a Series B-stage HealthTech company. This guide covers everything from initial setup and team requirements to execution, measurement, and optimization — tailored specifically for HealthTech companies with significant budget for scaling proven channels and dedicated growth team with functional specialists. Includes specific KPIs, recommended tools, common pitfalls to avoid, and expert insights from Ehsan Jahandarpour.
Timeline: 2-3 months
Prerequisites
- ✓ Established product with proven product-market fit
- ✓ Analytics infrastructure capturing key user events
- ✓ HIPAA, FDA, and healthcare-specific regulations require specialized compliance infrastructure — ensure compliance before scaling
- ✓ Product API or integration capability exists
- ✓ Partnership value proposition clearly defined
Step-by-Step Guide
Map your integration ecosystem
Identify the tools your customers already use alongside your product. These are your highest-potential integration and partnership targets. For HealthTech companies at the Series B stage, this step is particularly important given scaling what works and expanding to new segments.
Pro tip: Survey your top 50 customers about their tech stack — patterns will emerge quickly. In the HealthTech context, also consider: HIPAA compliance complexity.
Build a partnership scorecard
Evaluate potential partners on audience overlap, brand alignment, technical feasibility, and mutual value. Score each on a 1-5 scale. For HealthTech companies at the Series B stage, this step is particularly important given scaling what works and expanding to new segments.
Pro tip: The best partnerships create value neither company could create alone. In the HealthTech context, also consider: slow adoption by medical professionals.
Develop the integration or co-offering
Build the technical integration, co-branded content, or joint solution. Ensure the user experience is seamless across both products. For HealthTech companies at the Series B stage, this step is particularly important given scaling what works and expanding to new segments.
Pro tip: Start with a lightweight integration (Zapier, webhooks) before building a native one. In the HealthTech context, also consider: long procurement cycles.
Create a co-marketing plan
Plan joint webinars, case studies, blog posts, and email campaigns. Both partners should commit equal effort to promotion. For HealthTech companies at the Series B stage, this step is particularly important given scaling what works and expanding to new segments.
Pro tip: Create a shared tracking system so both sides can see the pipeline impact. In the HealthTech context, also consider: clinical validation requirements.
Launch and enable sales teams
Train both sales teams on the joint value proposition. Create battle cards, demo scripts, and referral incentives. For HealthTech companies at the Series B stage, this step is particularly important given scaling what works and expanding to new segments.
Pro tip: Assign a dedicated partner manager — partnerships without an owner die. In the HealthTech context, also consider: HIPAA compliance complexity.
Measure partnership ROI
Track referred leads, co-sell opportunities, integration adoption rates, and mutual revenue impact. Review quarterly with partner stakeholders. For HealthTech companies at the Series B stage, this step is particularly important given scaling what works and expanding to new segments.
Pro tip: The best metric is mutual customer retention — do shared customers churn less? In the HealthTech context, also consider: slow adoption by medical professionals.
Expected Outcomes
- ✓ 3-5 active HealthTech partnerships generating qualified referrals
- ✓ Partner-referred leads converting at 2x the rate of cold leads
- ✓ 15-25% of new pipeline sourced through partner channels
- ✓ Integration adoption rate above 30% among shared customers
KPIs to Track
- ● Marketplace listing traffic
- ● Partner-referred leads
- ● Integration adoption rate
- ● Co-sell pipeline
- ● Partner-influenced revenue
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Ehsan's Growth Commentary
HealthTech partnerships determine market access. Without an EHR integration partner (Epic, Cerner/Oracle Health, Allscripts), a healthtech startup cannot enter 80% of hospital systems. Epic's App Orchard marketplace is the Salesforce AppExchange of healthcare — listing there is a prerequisite, not a nice-to-have. The healthtech partnership playbook: build your Epic integration first (6-12 months), then expand to other EHR platforms. Hospital systems will not consider a product without EHR integration because it adds clinical workflow burden. Beyond EHR partnerships, the growth-driving healthtech partnership is with payers (insurance companies). A payer partnership means your product is covered by insurance, removing the cost barrier for patients. This single partnership type — payer coverage — can 10x your addressable market overnight. Omada Health grew from startup to $500M+ valuation primarily through payer partnerships that made its diabetes prevention program free to insured patients.
The best partnerships are asymmetric — each side brings something the other cannot easily build. In HealthTech, integration partnerships drive stickier customers. Shared customers churn 30-40% less than single-product customers. Start with a pilot program of 90 days with clear success metrics before signing a multi-year deal.
Ehsan Jahandarpour
AI Growth Strategist & Fractional CMO
Forbes Top 20 Growth Hacker · TEDx Speaker · 716 Academic Citations · Ex-Microsoft · CMO at FirstWave (ASX:FCT) · Forbes Communications Council