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Over the past six posts, we’ve explored the realities of being a Non-Executive Director (NED) in a diagnostics start-up.
The common thread? The challenges are as much about capital discipline and people strategy as they are about assay design and regulatory approval.

Here’s the distilled view from the board seat:

1. Understand the True Market Need
The best science fails if it solves the wrong problem or a problem buyers won’t pay for.
Boards must challenge management to validate demand early, whether that’s through health economics data, reimbursement feasibility, or end-user trials.

2. Make Finance Part of Every Strategic Conversation
Funding isn’t just about “keeping the lights on.”
Every capital raise changes your valuation, ownership, and timeline.
Boards need a clear line of sight on cash runway, investor appetite, and the company’s ability to hit value-inflection milestones on time.

3. Invest in People Who Can Scale the Business
The team that can innovate in the lab isn’t always the team that can navigate procurement departments, tenders, and global distribution.
Boards must anticipate these shifts and resource accordingly.

4. Build Resilience into Operations
Supplier diversity, regulatory readiness, and cash reserves aren’t nice-to-haves they’re survival tools.
In diagnostics, a single-point failure can halt your market entry for months.

5. Align Governance with Growth Stage
A pre-clinical R&D start-up needs a different governance approach from a post-market scale-up.
Boards must evolve committee structures, reporting, and KPIs as the business matures without suffocating agility.

6. Engage with Regulation Proactively
IVDR, FDA, CAP/CLIA, the rulebook changes faster than many anticipate.
Boards should ensure regulatory monitoring is active, not reactive, and that the company has a voice in industry forums shaping the landscape.

7. Protect the Long Game
Diagnostics markets are competitive, and exits are rarely quick.
Boards must safeguard strategic focus, avoid panic pivots, and remember that valuation is built on cumulative trust with investors, customers, and regulators alike.

Final Thought:
In diagnostics, the path from bench to bedside is short on straight lines.
Boards that keep finance, talent, resilience, and market reality in balance give their companies the best chance of not just launching a product but building a lasting business.

References
Deloitte (2024) Diagnostics Growth: The Board’s Role in Commercialisation. [Online] Available at: https://www.deloitte.com (Accessed: 9 August 2025).
KPMG (2023) Medtech Boardroom Insights. [Online] Available at: https://home.kpmg (Accessed: 9 August 2025).