I was speaking with Mayra Hurtado, CEO of Prelude Health, about her journey building a home saliva testing solution for perimenopause. For three years, she's been pitching her healthtech startup that has already expanded from Singapore to Mexico, Japan, and Europe.

"I've been meeting with angel groups," she told me, exhaustion evident in her voice. "Half the time, both sides are confused. They keep asking for additional documents, but it feels like we're speaking different languages."

Her story isn't unique. It's a pattern I've witnessed repeatedly in my work with women entrepreneurs in healthcare—especially female founders facing the healthcare funding gap.

Here's the cold, hard truth: less than 2% of venture capital dollars go to women-led companies. When you narrow it to women's health solutions, that number becomes microscopic. But if you're a founder facing these odds, I don't need to tell you this. You're living it.

1 The System Isn't Broken—It Was Built This Way

What many founders don't realize is that waiting for the funding table to welcome you is like waiting for an invitation that was never sent. The system wasn't designed with you in mind. 

Recently, ARPA-H announced a $110M sprint for health innovation, showing there's public appetite for change. But here's what most founders miss: money isn't just sitting there waiting for good ideas. It flows to those who position themselves strategically within existing power structures.

I see this play out daily with the healthcare innovators I work with. They're brilliant at creating solutions but struggle with positioning themselves to attract capital. They're told to "network more" or "perfect their pitch," when the real issue is much deeper.

Let me share another story that illustrates this perfectly.

Just last week, I spoke with another founder who developed an end-of-life solution. She considered herself skilled at pitching—and on the surface, she was. She had two investment groups interested and was certain she would close her $2 million round last month. Yet despite her polished presentation skills, she still hasn't secured the funding. The agreements keep falling through at the final stages.

The hard truth? Being good at delivering a pitch doesn't equal being good at closing deals. Everything in business is a pitch—from the initial meeting to the final negotiation. If you haven't closed, you haven't mastered the complete pitching process.

"What am I doing wrong?" she asked me during our strategy session.

After reviewing her approach, the answer became clear: she was playing a game designed for her to lose. She was pitching without strategic advisors who understood both healthcare and investment landscapes. She was focusing on the technology without adequately addressing the business model. And critically, she was approaching investors who hadn't been properly prepared to understand the unique value of her solution.

2 The Hidden Roadblocks You're Facing

If you're an underrepresented founder in healthcare, you're facing challenges that go far beyond a tough market:

1. The NIH funding cuts hit you hardest. When public funding shrinks, it disproportionately impacts founders who can't afford private capital consultants or strategic advisors.
2. You're likely to underhire and overextend. I've seen countless women founders trying to be CEO, COO, CMO, and CFO simultaneously—not because they want to, but because they've internalized the investor bias that scrutinizes their spending more harshly.
3. You're caught in endless pitch cycles. You're pitching, getting feedback, revising, and pitching again—without realizing you haven't aligned the right co-founders or advisors behind you who can open doors.
4. You're told to "try harder" instead of "try differently." When the odds are stacked against you, working harder within the same broken system won't change the outcome.

This pattern of struggle persists even for founders with promising solutions and impressive early traction. I've worked with numerous women-led companies who've built remarkable products, secured initial customers, and even expanded internationally—yet still face insurmountable barriers when seeking institutional funding.

What these founders often don't realize is that the system isn't designed to recognize their value. The metrics investors use, the networks they trust, and the patterns they look for all evolved in environments that historically excluded women and underrepresented groups.

This reminds me of countless conversations I've had with women healthcare founders. One told me, "I don't understand. My male colleague with a similar concept raised $8M pre-revenue. I have customers, revenue, and validation from major health systems—and I can't raise a seed round."

The difference? Her male colleague had a former tech executive on his advisory board, went to the same school as two of his investors, and was building in a traditionally male-dominated space. She was building a solution that integrated lifestyle factors traditionally associated with "soft" medicine—despite its clinical validation.

This pattern repeats itself across the healthcare innovation landscape, where brilliant solutions languish not because they lack value, but because they lack the right strategic positioning.

3 The GPS You Need for Uncharted Territory

Pitching without strategic alignment is like driving without a GPS in unfamiliar territory. You might eventually reach your destination through trial and error, but the journey will be longer, more frustrating, and potentially devastating to your company's survival.

After working with Ikram, another healthcare innovator in our Pitch Perfect workshop, she shared: "This is great. I'm very impressed. Thank you. Within a very short amount of time, you've also been able to understand very well and summarize and add more value to it. So I really appreciate that."

What's more effective than perfecting another pitch deck? Building the right foundation first.

This means:

1. Assembling advisors who understand your unique market AND have relationships with relevant funding sources
2. Creating traction that speaks directly to what investors value — not just what you think is important
3. Positioning your solution within frameworks that make sense to investors — even when those frameworks weren't built for innovations like yours

I've seen this transformation firsthand. When healthcare founders shift their approach from endless pitching to strategic positioning, their funding prospects dramatically improve. One client secured significant funding in weeks after 18 months of hearing "no." The difference wasn't a better product or even a better pitch—it was strategic alignment with the right voices that could amplify hers.

4 Building Your Own Stage

This is precisely why we created the HealthTech Showdown. It's not just another pitch event—it's a completely different approach to connecting healthcare innovators with capital.

The traditional funding pathway asks underrepresented founders to conform to a system that wasn't built for them. The HealthTech Showdown flips this dynamic, bringing decision-makers from health systems, payors, and funding sources into a space designed to spotlight innovation that might otherwise be overlooked.

Unlike typical pitch competitions that offer a prize and a handshake, winners receive ongoing board support, media exposure, and strategic connections that build lasting traction. Because one moment of visibility isn't enough—you need sustained momentum.

With NIH funding decreasing and VC selectivity increasing, traditional pathways are narrowing for everyone—and virtually disappearing for underrepresented founders. This makes building alternative routes to visibility and funding not just helpful, but essential.

5 The Cost of Waiting

Every day you spend trying to fit into a system designed to exclude you is a day your innovation isn't helping the patients who need it. It's a day your company isn't growing toward sustainability. And it's a day your competitors—who might have fewer barriers to funding—gain ground.

I think about Mayra and countless other healthcare founders I've worked with. Many eventually find paths to growth, but not before wasting precious time, resources, and emotional energy on approaches that weren't serving them.

The truth is, healthcare needs your innovation. Patients need your solution. The system needs your perspective. But waiting for recognition from gatekeepers who don't understand your value proposition is a luxury most founders—especially underrepresented ones—simply can't afford.

6 A Different Path Forward

If you're a healthcare founder—particularly a woman or underrepresented innovator—who's struggling to secure the funding your company deserves, I want you to consider a different approach:

1. **Stop trying to get a seat at tables that weren't set for you.** Instead, build relationships with advisors who already have influence at those tables.
2. **Align your team and advisors strategically**, ensuring you have the right expertise and connections for your specific market and funding needs.
3. **Position your innovation within frameworks investors already understand**, even while you're disrupting those very frameworks.
4. **Seek platforms specifically designed to spotlight underrepresented founders**, like our HealthTech Showdown.

Mayra Hurtado's feedback after our workshop demonstrates the impact of this approach: "Thank you so much for this, Sabrina. This is great. I really appreciate it. This is the hardest part, I think." She only wished for more: "Super valuable. I just wish it was longer."

The funding gap for women-led healthcare companies isn't just a statistic—it's a daily reality that delays and sometimes prevents life-changing innovations from reaching the people who need them most. But the solution isn't just pitching more or working harder—it's aligning yourself strategically within a system that wasn't built for you.

As healthcare leaders, we can't wait for the system to change on its own. We must create new pathways, new platforms, and new possibilities for founders who have been systematically overlooked.

Because your innovation deserves to be funded. Your company deserves to grow. And the patients who need your solution deserve to benefit from it—sooner rather than later.

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𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒑? 

Apply to be a contestant in our next HealthTech Showdown where we're helping innovators scale faster with the right message and connecting them with the right people who already care about their niche. Visit PulsePointPath.com/Contestant to learn more and submit your application.*

*𝓐𝓫𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓪𝓾𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓻:*

Sabrina Runbeck, MPH, MHS, PA-C, empowers healthcare innovators to streamline their businesses so they can scale effortlessly—even while taking a 4-week vacation. A former Cardiothoracic Surgery Physician Associate, she co-founded PulsePoint Path, working with an advisory board to help founders amplify their social impact and profits. A bestselling author and sought-after speaker, Sabrina hosts the "Provider's Edge" and "HealthTech Growth" podcasts, while leading Healthcare Amplified, a network focused on boosting visibility and relationships for innovative healthcare leaders.

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