How to Take down Epic
Who said world domination is easy?
The most amazing thing about children is they never think they can’t do something. They approach tasks without the fear of failure. They don’t care about the odds against them. Who cares that they have zero hand-eye coordination dammit! They are going to climb that coffee table! Somewhere along the way most of us lost that.
People that know me know that I love crazy ideas. The crazier the better. I love to dream about the impossible. I even had a crazy idea many years ago of taking down Goliath. I was building a Mobile EHR that was going to eventually take down EPIC and Cerner. It did not work out due to unforeseen circumstances. But I, like every founder, believed with every fiber of my being that I was going to do it because if you don’t believe it, how do you expect others to believe?
This is how I would take down EPIC
You can really use this for any company, but I am using Epic as an example because they have the most market share with 33%.
I am not saying that you’re just going to make a great application and everyone will just switch to it. It can happen but that is the exception, not the rule.
Find your niche and attack!
It is important to find a niche and just dive deep into it. Do one thing and do that thing amazingly! Join the Epic app orchard. Integrate seamlessly and gain customers. If there are issues keep fixing them until there are no more issues to fix. It is best to pick a niche that they can’t build overnight. I know easier said than done.
Gain trust and Increase offering
Because you have a great product you will start gaining trust and with that trust, you can add more features and start to create an ecosystem. Slowly start migrating customers over to your services. Give them the most amazing experience they’ve ever had.
Take over
One thing to remember is that these systems have in some cases spent a billion dollars to implement Epic. Not all of that is for the software. Some of it is to build up their infrastructure.
But, like everything all contracts have an expiration, and this is what you have to use to your advantage. If you have done everything right and gained the trust of the system(s) this is when you pounce. A couple of years before the contract is going to expire. You start showing them your EHR and what you have to offer. Build in public!
Things you will have to figure out are:
How to onboard as easily as possible. If it is too difficult they aren't going to bite.
Provide a MUCH better experience. Not marginal but so compelling that they would be dumb not to switch when they have the chance. This is where past trust comes in.
Do you have to be crazy to attempt this? Yes
But to make a big change you have to be a little crazy.
Dare to dream
I grew up in a time when I saw massive companies go by the wayside not because they didn’t have enough money but because they couldn’t or refused to innovate. The very thing that made them was the same thing that ultimately destroyed them!
I saw Google go from a search engine with a weird name to a juggernaut. I saw Apple go from the brink of extinction to one of the most valuable companies in the world. Amazon went from selling books online to the largest online marketplace and killing countless businesses in its wake.
They all started with humble beginnings, built trust, slowly brought people into their ecosystem, and kept them there.
The EHR market was 29.3 billion dollars in 2021 and is estimated to be close to 48 billion dollars by 2030! But to take advantage of it you have to start putting the groundwork in now. Being a small fish in a big pond can still be very lucrative.
Obviously, it is more complicated than I made it out to be. But, the basic principles do hold true, and most importantly it is all about execution!
So what is your crazy idea?
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