3 Live Sessions
Learn the fundamentals of selling to payers in 3 one-hour sessions
Experience Level
Designed for early-stage founding teams planning to sell to payers in 6-12 months
Community
Connect with other HealthTech innovators through a shared cohort Slack channel.
Investment
$1250. Reach out with inquiries on group discounts.
About This Program
Entering the U.S. healthcare market requires more than a strong product. It requires understanding how payers evaluate value, how decisions actually get made, and why so many solutions stall before they reach scale.
This live master class combines two foundational areas — U.S. healthcare market orientation and payer-focused go-to-market execution — into a single, cohort-based program. Led by Akros CEO Demi Radeva, who has direct payer-side and commercial leadership experience, each session builds on the last.
Across three weeks, you will learn how to:
Read the market accurately
Understand how payers, providers, employers, and regulators interact — and where your solution realistically fits.
Design a repeatable GTM approach
Leave with a structured plan for outreach, pilots, pricing, and long-term payer engagement.
Build a buyer-aligned value story
Frame your solution's value in terms buyers recognize, not just terms your team finds compelling.
Avoid the most common missteps
Understand where early-stage teams consistently misalign on evidence, messaging, and commercial strategy.
Program Curriculum
Each live session combines expert instruction, real case examples, and structured Q&A. Session recordings are provided to all enrolled participants.
Session I: Understanding the U.S. Healthcare Ecosystem
Before you can sell into the U.S. healthcare market, you need to see it clearly. This session builds a practical map of who holds power, how decisions are made, and where digital health solutions realistically enter the picture.
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How payers, providers, employers, and regulators interact — and how incentives differ across each
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The difference between payer types and what they each care about (commercial health plans, Medicaid MCOs, employer self-insured, platform partners)
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Regulatory essentials — HIPAA, FDA pathways, and compliance realities that affect commercialization
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Market entry case examples: what differentiated companies that achieved early U.S. traction
Pre-work: Competitive landscape worksheet
Session deliverable: Stakeholder and buyer mapping exercise
Session II: Building Your Go-To-Market Strategy
With a clearer view of the ecosystem, this session focuses on how to develop a GTM approach that is grounded in payer priorities rather than assumptions about what they should value.
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Defining your ideal customer profile — target organization, buyer persona, and payer segment
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How to frame your solution's value in payer terms: ROI, risk, and outcomes that move decisions
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Outreach and engagement strategies that build credibility early in the sales cycle
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Where teams most often misalign on evidence, pricing, and messaging — and how to self-diagnose
Pre-work: Draft ICP and value framing
Session deliverable: Strategic sales plan outline
Session I: Pilots, Positioning, and Scaling Engagement
Winning a pilot is not the goal. Designing one that leads to a durable contract is. This session covers how to structure pilots for success, position your solution for long-term payer fit, and build a foundation for repeatable commercial growth.
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How to structure pilots so they produce the evidence payers need to move forward
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Common reasons pilots stall — and how to get ahead of them before they start
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Pricing, reimbursement pathways, and how to determine rates in an opaque market
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Forecasting and strategic planning: building toward repeatable, scalable payer engagement
Pre-work: Pilot design draft
Session deliverable: One-page positioning summary
Why This Master Class Exists
Many digital health solutions struggle in the U.S. market — not because they lack clinical value, but because that value is never translated into terms that payers recognize or act on. Misalignment around evidence, incentives, and stakeholder priorities consistently produces stalled pilots and prolonged sales cycles.
This program gives founding teams the orientation and tools to enter payer conversations with greater clarity, credibility, and commercial discipline.
I
Diagnose
Reduce stalled pilots and unproductive cycles.
II
Strategize
Enter payer conversations better prepared.
III
Execute
Build credibility earlier in the payer process.
IV
Scale
Create a foundation for repeatable payer engagement.
"The experts have turned their decades of experience into an enlightening course that saved me months, if not years, of stumbling my way to success."
Andrew DeLeeuw IV, MBA, President & CEO of DOCSI
Meet The Expert
Demi Radeva, MSc
Former Director of Strategy & Business Development, UnitedHealthcare
Demi brings a decade of payer-side experience across strategy, innovation, and commercialization. Her work focuses on helping digital health companies align with real payer decision criteria and navigate complex GTM pathways.
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Decade in Strategy, Innovation, Consulting and Business Development
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Mentor of the Year, Techstars
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UnitedHealthcare Accelerator
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Adjunct Professor, Medical Industry Leadership Institute
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Business Advisor, University of Minnesota Venture Center
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Mentor, Minnesota Cup (MN Cup), Former Co-Founder, Digital Health Tech Company (Social Care + Onco)
BSc, Finance & International Business
MSc, International Health Policy, London School of Economics
Executive Education, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Stanford