Rebranding the company

Stone Bridge Biomedical BV was founded in 2009 in Maastricht as a medical software developer for global markets.  I had some ideas for improving tools for remote patient monitoring, simplifying the task of aggregating, analyzing, and visualizing data from many patients.

My original business plan was to partner with a company making a sensing unit for cardiac problems, first aiding in fundraising and business development, then coming alongside to co-develop.

We pulled a $12 million deal together with a funding group, but it had too many conditions and took to long to complete, and so it died.  Fortunately, I had two other startup opportunities got funded in allied medical fields, so Stone Bridge became a hub to manage those ventures.

While the company has been successful and profitable, it drifted a bit, becoming a consultancy instead of a developer.  When Microsoft dumped the Stone Bridge web site last fall as they divested their small business unit, I used the website rewrite as a chance to redefine the business.

It’s hard to do.  What business am I in?  Who is my customer?  For what problems am I the best solution?  My web-site developer quickly grounded against the problem of writing content when I didn’t have a clear product or single vision. 

“Anything-for-a-buck, Inc” is not a business plan.

I was approached by a friend on Facebook, asking whether our businesses were looking for help with branding and messaging.   We’ve started a very fruitful collaboration that has enabled me to focus and direct my thinking about what I want to do and become, what messages the business has to project and to whom, what who values what I can bring.

• We build bridges from concept to commercialization.
• We understand the medical development process.
• We tailor teams to solve problems, from components to companies.
• We support European product development and market entry.
• We are ready to execute on innovative device ideas.

As I was thinking  about how to define and represent my business, I found a link to a wonderful video about Microsoft’s “re-imagining” of their own business and brand.  This is a conference presentation by two of the key people behind the effort and shows a perspective and thought process for understanding and marketing a business.