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Five principles for qualifying medtech suppliers at pre-Series A. Practical guidance for founders who need to get it right the first time.
Supplier selection has two layers. The technical layer you can buy through credentials and audits. The adaptive layer (can we work together as things change?) you have to build through interaction. Most founders never evaluate it.
Your product has a roadmap. Your supplier network should too. Why the right supplier at prototype is often the wrong supplier at commercial, and how to plan the transitions before they become crises.
China's supplier base is deep and accessible for generic process categories, but only with bridge capability in the loop. Without it, the same things that make China attractive become the source of costly misunderstandings.
Most medtech founders qualify suppliers like big medtech does: plan it once, lock it in. That's the Cathedral approach, and it breaks early-stage companies. Not because founders pick badly. Because they pick with the wrong frame.