Service 01 · Startups

Strategic advice for healthcare startups.Including the advice you won’t like.

We work with the founder, the executive team, and the board: one strategic area, several, or all seven.

Book your working session → See the seven areas
Advisory clients incl. eVideon Protoqual MedSetGo
141Years combined across the team
15Exits achieved across the team
●Active investor · HIP.fund
Years and exits counted across the full advisory bench, operated and advised.
Who this is for

Who we work with, and who we don’t.

We work with
✓Digital health, health tech & health AIProvider-facing, payer-facing, patient and consumer engagement.
✓Medical devices, diagnostics & screeningIncluding early-detection technologies.
✓Clinical quality, throughput & the continuum of careThe full spectrum of how care gets delivered and paid for.
✓Beyond the idea stageA product, a service, or at minimum a defined direction, from first capital raised through growth, plus established companies launching something new.
Not for
×Drug discovery & core biotechWe don’t have domain expertise to fake here. We’ll refer you to someone who has it.
×Still at the idea stageCome back when there’s something real to advise on. We’ll still take the call.

Seven areas, one engagement.

One area, several, or all of them over time, based on what your company needs.

Pick what you need.
Every engagement is built by combining these seven areas around what matters most right now.
01Founder & Leadership AdvisoryStrategic direction at every milestone, including the calls founders have not had to make before. We help you see six months and three years out, and stay in it as one decision leads to the next.
02Team BuildingOrg design, hiring sequence, role definition, plus vetted advisors, fractional execs, and full-time talent through our network.
03Product Strategy & Product-Market FitWhat product-market fit actually means for your business, how close you are to it, and the specific next move that gets you there.
04Go-to-Market & Sales StrategyWho you sell to, how they actually buy, and the cadence that fits: provider, payer, pharma, or consumer, validated by direct relationships we have in each.
05Brand & Market PositioningThe category you define and how the industry comes to understand you, carried through your website, conferences, speaking, and social presence.
06Board & Advisory Board FormationThe board and advisory board your next stage requires: who you need in the room, when to add them, and how to make the seats earn their keep.
07Strategic Network ActivationKey insights and feedback from our provider, payer, and broader healthcare relationships, to help refine and perfect your positioning in the market. That access can lead to meetings. The bigger value is pressure-testing your business with the people you are trying to sell to.
The background

Where the advice comes from.

Three kinds of experience sit behind every recommendation. All of it firsthand.

The insider
We know how care actually gets delivered and paid for.
The receipt141 years combined inside every environment of healthcare, including health systems, hospitals, and payers, with direct operating roles and a former hospital system CEO on the bench.
The operator
We’ve built and run healthcare companies ourselves.
The receiptCompanies built and run, and companies advised through exit. Eight across the team, including a private equity acquisition, a strategic acquisition, and an ASX listing.
The active investor
We see what’s getting funded right now.
The receiptLive deal flow and market signal through HIP.fund, an active healthcare venture fund. BAHA advisors are LPs and investors in the fund. We deploy our own capital in this market, we don’t watch it from the sidelines.
Why BAHA

A boutique team. Not a single consultant.

01
Led by senior people, every time.
Every engagement is led by senior operators and advisors who have done this before. Founders and investors, not career consultants.
02
A bench, not a solo act.
Specialists from our healthcare ecosystem: operators who’ve led hospital systems, built and sold health tech, and driven payer and provider go-to-market.
03
One relationship.
One point of contact, one team built around your specific challenges, with a network and experiences that actually open doors.
The HIP.fund relationship
Related entities. Same standards as everyone else.
HIP.fund ↗

BAHA Advisory and HIP.fund are related entities, built on the same operating philosophy: real experience building and investing in healthcare companies, applied directly to help founders succeed.

That relationship means BAHA’s guidance is informed by an active investor’s read on what’s working in the market today. It does not mean preferential treatment. Advisory and investing run as two separate businesses with a firewall between them, and every company that approaches HIP.fund, BAHA client or not, is evaluated on the same basis and by the same standards.

Client story

Protoqual, in detail.

Startup · Digital health ·
The vision was never the constraint. The commercial engine was.
ChallengeA physician-founded company with a clinically credible product in a category it helped define. What it needed was a commercial engine to turn that vision into something that could scale.
ApproachStrategic partner to the founding team for three years, embedded with the CEO, COO, and Head of Product through the decisions that shaped the company’s growth.
SolutionFoundational work, not a tune-up: product and development strategy, the sales narrative and investor story, a first-ever voice-of-customer program, marketing, and customer success.
The advisory partFew functions were left as they were. The leadership team came out of it operating differently than it went in.
Result
A company built to scale: commercially sharper, operationally sound, led by a team that can carry it forward on its own.

Over two years as a trusted advisor to Protoqual, Samir Batra of BAHA played an instrumental role in shaping our organizational development, connecting us with prominent leaders in patient experience, and helping us secure new clients. His healthcare expertise, extensive relationships, and strategic guidance made him an exceptionally valuable partner to our company.

Dr. Alan Altman
Founder & CEO, Protoqual
The team

Senior advisors. Specialists brought in as needed.

Samir Batra
Samir Batra
Founder & Managing Partner · 25 years, operator, advisor and general partner of a venture fund
Joe Badalian
Joe Badalian
Advisor · 23 years, hospital and health system CEO, COO and EVP, M&A and turnarounds
Margit Chapman
Margit Chapman
Advisor · 50+ years, oncology nurse turned health IT leader, clinical strategy and value-based care
Amit Malhotra
Amit Malhotra
Advisor · 18 years, operator across healthcare, product, technology and AI transformation
Nick Scharlatt
Nick Scharlatt
Advisor · 25 years, health IT co-founder, building sales, marketing and operations from the ground up
We bring in specialists when the work calls for it.

We match you with the right advisors from our team, under one engagement and one point of accountability.

Ex–hospital-system operators Health tech builders & sellers Payer & provider GTM leaders Clinical & KOL advisors Fractional executives M&A and deal advisors Digital health product leaders
You have one relationship, one point of contact, and one team built around your specific challenges.

Fair questions.

Are you a consulting firm? +

No. BAHA is an advisory firm. We don’t hand you a deck and leave. We sit alongside you as an embedded strategic advisor and stay accountable to what happens next.

What stage do you work with? +

Beyond the idea, there’s a product, a service, or at minimum a defined direction. From first capital raised through growth, plus established companies launching something new.

Do you only work in certain parts of healthcare? +

Digital health, health tech, health AI, medical devices, diagnostics, and screening, across provider, payer, patient engagement, and the continuum of care. Not drug discovery or core biotech; we refer those out to people with real domain expertise.

Can I engage on just one area? +

Yes. One of the seven strategic areas, several, or, over time, all of them. The work is built around what matters most right now.

Do you invest as well as advise? +

Yes. Our team are active healthcare investors through HIP.fund. Advisory and investing run as two separate businesses with a firewall between them. Being a BAHA client earns you no special treatment in HIP.fund’s process, every company is evaluated the same way, and we’re transparent about that up front.

What does working together actually look like? +

Working sessions most weeks early on, settling into a steadier cadence as you execute. A long-term partnership, not a single deliverable.

The first call

Get unstuck.

Bring one decision you’re stuck on. In 45 minutes, you’ll have a straight answer: what we’d do if it were our company, and why. In writing, within 48 hours.

This isn’t a sales call. It’s not a pitch. It’s a working session on the actual problem, not on introducing ourselves.

What we’ll cover

Real questions past sessions have started with.

  • We have 9 months of runway left. Do we raise a bridge now, or push to hit our next milestone first?
  • Do I hire a VP of Sales now, or stay founder led another year? A wrong hire could kill us.
  • We’re building for both providers and payers, and our roadmap keeps getting pulled in two directions.
  • We look like every other digital health company at the conference. How do we actually stand out?
  • Investors keep asking who’s on our board, and we don’t have a good answer yet.
  • Our clinical champion loves us, but procurement is a black box. We don’t know what’s actually stalling.

Rough is fine. Sharpening it into the real question is our job, not yours.

What you get
Before we talk We review what you shared with us. We show up with a point of view, not a blank page.
What you keep A one-page written summary: what we’d do and why, within 48 hours.
How it ends With a recommendation, not a proposal. If working together makes sense after that, let’s talk.
Pick a time 45 min · Zoom · With Samir