Seven GTM Lessons From Building Healthcare Technology That Takes Eight Years to Validate

Seven GTM Lessons From Building Healthcare Technology That Takes Eight Years to Validate

Most GTM advice assumes fast iteration, quick pivots, and compressed timelines. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Henry O’Connell, CEO and Founder of Canary Speech, proved the most defensible healthcare technology companies operate on opposite principles—and founders who understand this survive while others burn capital chasing wrong metrics.

Here are seven lessons from Canary Speech’s eight-year journey that challenge conventional GTM wisdom.

1. Project Revenue Is Your Bridge, Not Your Prison

When Canary Speech hit a million dollars in year two, it looked like success. “During the second year we started, in the second year, we were probably at about a million or a million won, and that would go up and down. It wasn’t recurring revenue like we have today. It was project based revenue,” Henry explains.

They worked with UnitedHealthcare on eight projects. This wasn’t SaaS recurring revenue, but it kept them alive while building defensible technology. “We actually did multiple ones with United Healthcare, probably eight of them, which really helped our company.”

The GTM principle: Accept project revenue early while protecting IP. Use it as runway to build something universities can’t replicate.

2. If Universities Can Replace You, You’re Building a Services Company

Customers started comparing Canary Speech to university programs. “At some point, we would be approached by a pharmaceutical, or we’d be approached by a healthcare company to do that kind of work. They had friends that were, or they were graduates of a university, and they would go to their university,” Henry recalls.

The realization hit hard. “We thought, you know, if a university graduate program can do what we’re hoping will be advanced technology, then we’re probably not in the right fitting situation.”

The GTM principle: If well-funded universities can replicate your work, you don’t have defensible technology—you have consulting dressed as product.

3. Intellectual Diversity Creates Defensibility That Pedigree Can’t

Canary Speech’s solution was counterintuitive: build intellectual diversity over pedigree. “In the past, we had two very bright individuals, but they were from the same graduate program,” Henry explains.

“We made the decision that we needed to elevate ourselves as a team and do something that hadn’t been done before, which changed the nature of who we brought on the team.”

They hired globally. “We now have people who graduated in the UK, in Germany, in Korea, in the US, did postdocs in different parts of the world. There was a conscious effort to recognize that as good as any individual program was, the combination of five was going to better.”

Why? “You couldn’t think within the box, but because for the last 35 years, thinking within that box had not produced a product that was commercial, that was practical enough to be important in a healthcare setting.”

The GTM principle: Where innovation has stalled for decades, intellectual monoculture is your enemy. Build teams that can’t fall back on any single academic tradition.

4. Five-Year Sales Cycles Aren’t Bugs—They’re Competitive Moats

Henry presented to a healthcare board five years before commercializing. “We’re working with one of the organizations, healthcare companies, that five years ago was the first introduction. And I spoke to their board of directors nearly five years ago, presented what we were doing. And the truth is, even then, there was a belief on their part that what we were doing was both important and quite real.”

He stayed engaged. “I stayed connected with this healthcare institution because frankly, I liked the people, I trusted them.”

The value exchange was real. “They also gave us insight into how it might impact in the organization. How would you bring it in so that it was positive and it augmented this interaction between patient and doctor.”

The institution invested three years ago, then commercialized. That relationship unlocked Microsoft partnerships worth $1.5 million in non-dilutive grants.

The GTM principle: Long sales cycles are competitive advantages. Companies that can’t survive five-year relationships exit the market. Your patience becomes your moat.

5. Healthcare Doesn’t Move Slow—It Moves Rationally

“Healthcare markets don’t change. They don’t change quickly. Their processes, their procedures, the tools they use are being used in situations and circumstances that are critical, life saving in many cases,” Henry explains.

This is rational risk management, not bureaucratic dysfunction.

The GTM principle: Structure your company—capital, burn rate, team expectations—around multi-year validation cycles. The market won’t change for you.

6. Recurring Revenue Is a Milestone, Not a Starting Point

Canary Speech spent years on project revenue before transitioning. “During the last two years, we moved into a SaaS recurring revenue mode, which has allowed us to build revenue month over month, which is a totally different phase of a company,” Henry notes.

They used project revenue to build technology, then moved into call center analytics for recurring revenue while developing clinical applications.

The GTM principle: In healthcare deep tech, recurring revenue is earned after proving value, not the model you launch with.

7. Match Your Capital to Your Timeline, Not Industry Standards

Henry’s advice is direct: “From an investment standpoint, be patient. Choose people who have the same belief and philosophy that you do.”

For Canary Speech, this meant non-dilutive grants from Microsoft and strategic investment from customers. “You’ve got to put the stake in the ground, and that stake may be three years out, it may be eight years out, it may be ten years out.”

The GTM principle: Find capital sources that match your actual timeline. If your market requires eight years, raising from five-year fund cycles creates fatal misalignment.

The Meta-Lesson

“The journey that you take to where you get that sounds ridiculous, but you never know. You just don’t,” Henry reflects.

Healthcare deep tech requires abandoning the SaaS playbook. Fast iteration becomes patient relationship building. Recurring revenue from day one becomes staged evolution. Hiring top programs becomes intellectual diversity. Compressing sales cycles becomes outlasting competitors.

Eight years later, Canary Speech has raised $26 million and built technology analyzing vocal biomarkers with 93-96% accuracy for Alzheimer’s from 40 seconds of speech.

“I believe individuals that are inspired to work together can do things that are considered impossible. And as the saying goes, it simply takes a little longer,” Henry says. In healthcare GTM, “a little longer” means eight years. The founders who understand this survive.