Helping NZ founders build the capabilities that drive successful global healthtech products.
Expert insights • founder stories • practical capability guidance
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Practical guidance to help healthtech companies move from early traction to scalable growth. Build to Scale is the HealthTech Activator’s capability-building series for founders and teams preparing for their next stage of growth.
The series brings together expert insights, founder experiences, and practical tools to help healthtech companies navigate the real-world challenges of scaling. Explore resources across market validation, clinical validation, regulatory, and reimbursement, and apply what you learn immediately.
All content is tailored to the New Zealand healthtech context, with relevance across global markets. If you would like to talk through how this applies to your company, get in touch with HTA.
Expert-led insights focused on developing the capabilities healthtech companies need to scale.

Clinical validation builds the evidence needed to show a healthtech solution is safe, effective, and fit for use. This pillar focuses on preparing for clinical studies, designing robust evidence, and balancing scientific rigour with commercial timelines.
Why do clinical trials matter, and when should healthtech teams start planning for them?
Julie Jones explains why early thinking about clinical validation, trial design, and patient safety is critical to getting products approved and into real-world care.
|“At the end of the day, there is a patient at the centre of your trial.”
Why do so many good ideas stall in healthtech? Dan Hansen explains why early market validation is critical to building scalable solutions, and how clearly defining the problem and customer can make or break your strategy.
| “Without understanding your market, the strategy is just hopes and dreams.”

Market validation helps founders test assumptions and confirm real customer demand. This pillar covers understanding customers, validating unmet needs, and reducing riskbefore scaling or entering new markets.

Regulatory strategy guides how products are developed and brought to market. This pillar explores regulatory pathways, common pitfalls, and how early planning can support growth rather than slow it down.
Why should regulatory strategy be one of the first decisions a healthtech company makes?Anne Arndt explains why regulation is not a final hurdle, but a foundational input that shapes product development, market entry, and long-term success.
|“Regulatory strategy is your recipe.”
What is reimbursement, and when should healthtech companies start planning for it?
Abbas Al Marani explains how reimbursement strategy fits into the commercialisation journey, why expectations differ across markets, and what evidence payers need to see to support funding decisions.
| “Ultimately, where systems differ is what they are willing to pay for health technology.”

Reimbursement determines whether a product can be funded and adopted at scale. This pillar focuses on payer expectations, evidence requirements, and planning for reimbursement early across key markets.
Expert-led insights focused on developing the capabilities healthtech companies need to scale.
“HealthTech Activator gave our Founder and COO a lot of confidence that Cannulight’s product will work globally.”
Wendy Kerr, CCO
As a dentist, Dr James Stone often found the hardest part of removing wisdom teeth was administering the IV line to sedate patients.
Sedation can be a daunting concept for some patients, and failed IVs can exacerbate patient stress, as they cause delays and excess pain. This sparked an idea. What if there was a device that made the IV process easier, resulting in fewer failed procedures? Cannulight revolutionises the most performed medical procedure globally – with 1.4 billion IVs placed every year, this is a significant addressable market. The medical device company is currently at the manufacturing verification stage, ensuring all Cannulight sensors produced consistently meet industry-standard design specifications, and is developing their product for infrared and arterial applications.
Cannulight allows clinicians to know whether they have successfully entered the patient’s vein when the pressure sensor, which fits on the back of an IV needle, lights up green. Clinicians can instantly confirm IV placement, which is critical for treating patients with hard-to-find veins or in unsteady situations, such as a moving ambulance. When asked what medtech companies need to be successful, Mike Munley, Cannulight’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), identified three Rs that must be managed: research, regulation, and reimbursement.
Munley says for any medtech invention to be commercially viable, the three Rs must work together, and working with HealthTech Activator helped them build capabilities across all three areas and determine which area to focus on and when through their innovation journey.
HealthTech Activator supports medtech companies with market validation, business and strategy advice, and guidance on reimbursement, health economics, and quality management through workshops and expert resources to reduce potential risks. “What the HealthTech Activator has done is really give our Founder and COO a lot of confidence that Cannulight’s product will work globally,” says Wendy Kerr, Cannulight’s Chief Customer Officer. Dr Stone encourages other founders to work with HealthTech Activator as soon as possible to build a corporate strategy and embed health economics early. Establishing these foundations is essential to address investor questions with confidence and prove how the product could scale globally. With support from HealthTech Activator, Cannulight is now in a strong position to drive international adoption of its devices in hospitals. Read more about Cannulight at www.cannulight.com

This content will be available soon.
Build to Scale features insights from experienced healthtech founders and subject-matter experts across commercial strategy, regulation, reimbursement, and quality.
All contributors bring real-world experience and practical perspectives, grounded in the realities of building and scaling healthtech companies.
Meet the Build to Scale contributors.

Dan Hansen has over 25 years’ experience in management, sales, and commercial strategy. He’s held senior management and board roles in NZ, the UK, and the US and has first-hand commercial experience in over 35 countries, with many of the world’s most recognised companies. Dan switched from engineering to the technology sector in the early 1990s. He then founded business sales advisory firm MSM in 2009, which was later acquired by PWC. Dan has significant experience in many B2B sectors including manufacturing, engineering, technology, and food and beverage production. His experience includes growing multi-million-dollar businesses in international markets, setting up multi-national distribution channels and teams, acquisitions, company restructures, and managing intellectual property. Dan holds numerous advisory and board roles.

Anne brings over two decades of experience in regulatory affairs. Originally trained as a software developer, she worked across Europe in quality and process management before specialising in the certification of medical devices. Since 2021, she has supported New Zealand and Australian companies in preparing their products for global approval. Her work often focuses on early-stage teams, including suppliers and developers who need to align innovation with regulatory expectations.

Abbas Al-Murrani is a Health Economist with diverse experience in health and health economics, having worked for the University of Auckland as well as Waitematā, Auckland and Canterbury District Health Boards. Health Economics Consulting NZ helps organisations & health systems navigate openness and transparency in investment decisions by capturing, translating and understanding economic value.

Julie has over 20 years of experience in clinical research, conducting studies in New Zealand and internationally. With in-depth knowledge of New Zealand's clinical research regulations and quality standards, Julie's extensive experience covers various therapeutic areas, investigational products, devices, and all trial phases.

Cannulight Technology Ltd is a New Zealand medical device company focused on improving peripheral IV cannulation. Cannulight is a simple, sterile, single-use attachment for standard IV catheters that provides instant visual confirmation when the vein is entered, helping reduce failed attempts and improve both clinician confidence and patient experience.

Swallowing Technologies Ltd (SwalTech) is a New Zealand MedTech company developing digital tools to improve the assessment and rehabilitation of swallowing disorders. Their BiSSkApp platform uses biofeedback and mobile technology to support evidence-based swallowing therapy in clinical and home settings, helping patients and clinicians achieve better outcomes.
Build to Scale is the HealthTech Activator’s capability-building series designed for founders and teams who are preparing for their next stage of growth. The series focuses on real-world challenges of scaling a health tech company, with expert-led insights, founder stories, and practical tools you can apply immediately.
Build to Scale brings together guidance across four core pillars:

Generate the right evidence to support your claims

Understand your customers and validate real unmet needs early

Navigate regulatory pathways and be market-ready

Plan early for reimbursement and adoption at scale
All content is tailored to the New Zealand healthtech context, with relevance across global markets.