Hi everyone,
If you don’t know me, I’m James. I’m a doctor by background, I now run a company called SomX helping the best healthtech and biotech companies with communications, I have a podcast called The Healthtech Podcast, news brands called Healthtech Pigeon and Biotech Dodo and I just made my first angel investment into a women’s health biotech company.
I also get a lot of satisfaction from spotting problems in our industry and doing my absolute best to sort them out.
In doing that, I’ve learned that the best ideas are the ones where you go “why on earth hasn’t this been done before?” This next-generation community one of those.
YPNs (young professional networks) exist all over the world. And they work. They give community and a voice to people early in their careers. Industries are then kept fresh with the ideas that flow out of them. And we haven’t had one… until now.
Enter NXGN: The next-generation network for healthtech and biotech.
So what is it? And… why?
NXGN (pronounced “next gen”) is a community that gives a voice to the next generation in healthtech and biotech. We serve and champion the rising leaders shaping healthcare.
NXGN is your platform to be heard, supported, and inspired.
I’ve been sat on this idea for a while.
The problem to solve:
if you’re early in your career, the ‘good’ events price you out
it’s incredibly difficult to build a personal brand from scratch to have a voice
you see the same people saying the same things over and over again and their points don’t matter to you, or you disagree yet can’t enter that conversation
the issues you see and feel never get talked about
you’re struggling to plotting a path to getting the skills, knowledge or network to becoming a leader in your industry beyond going from one role to the next
you think that there must be a way to becoming an industry leader but you don’t know where to showcase your talent
the industry, in parts, feels stale to you
The Solution
I drew this a while ago. Here’s how I see it.
We build a next-generation collective. A huge body of young-professional members (in the first 7 years of their career) that can run a community that THEY want.
There is a committee of 5-10 people that runs fresh, new, interesting, innovative and experimental community events and programmes. Members elect them and there is also a council of experienced industry leaders that gives advice, connections and other resources to the committee.
All positions are voluntary. And no entity owns this. We all own this together.
*Update: Having seen everyone interested, I’m open to setting up committees and councils in the UK, US, Australia (and others in future). You’ll be able to select your country when applying.
The Roles
Committee - an annually elected committee of up to 10 young professionals run a programme of activity with the goal of educating, entertaining, inspiring and platforming the next generation of leaders in healthtech and biotech, profitably (sustainably). Any money made goes straight back into funding more programmes. There are up to 10 positions on the committee, 5 officers:
Chair
Treasurer
Operations
Marketing
Sponsorships
And up to 5 junior committee members
Council - the seasoned, the experienced, the connected. An advisory group to the committee that are willing to use their connections, office space, time and any other resources to enable the advancement of the entire venture.
Membership - for any young professional who wants to be part of the community and have a voice. You have voting rights on issues and topics and free access to the newsletter for all the content and learning from events and programmes. And, of course, first refusal on attending all the events and programmes.
Apply for these roles below.
How is it funded
SomX (my company) is putting in £5k in cash in year 1 for the committee to run with and we’ll be giving space on our social channels, newsletters and podcasts to promote the NXGN events to make sure the community gets the best possible start. We’re also (for now) happy to be brand guardians and to run the website. And for as long as I’m chair of the council, we’ll keep doing that.
I’ll chair the council and I’ll hold meetings with the committee through the year, providing accountability and giving guidance, support and a bridge to the rest of the council members.
The committee decides how they are going to break even / become profitable beyond year one.
So what next?
Become a member
Founding Membership is £1 for the whole year, which gives you voting rights and a voice. It opens up the members section of this newsletter where you’ll be able to make your voice heard on issues. The £1 will go towards covering website hosting costs. If more than 135 of you join, the rest will go to the committee to spend on your community programmes.
Hit the button at the bottom of this newsletter to become a NGXN member.
Become a committee member
This isn’t something everyone should apply to. This is for the entrepreneurial, those willing to give their time, who want to run this as a business, to create the biggest community and voice for the next generation of healthtech and biotech in the UK. You need to really want to do this.
Crucially, you can’t apply if you’re currently a startup founder - if you’re a founder you should have zero time for this and your members will want people who want to really commit to it.
This isn’t for the CV-bashers, it’s for the ones who will love it.
If you want to apply, there are roles at two levels:
Officer:
You must have at least 3 years in industry, excluding study
You can’t be a startup founder currently
You must have a clear vision of what you want to achieve with NXGN, and how. Your vision is the one that will be executed.
Rank your preferred positions in order when applying. Your final ranking will be determined by your score, and you will be assigned the highest-ranked role on your list for which your score qualifies.
Committee member
You must have less than 3 years in industry, excluding study. Students also very welcome.
You can’t be a startup founder currently
Become a council member
I’d love to select a proactive council that really wants to help the next generation - a group of leaders in industry known for giving way more than they get and have a clear track record of helping out young professionals and enjoying it.
We’ll meet once a year and you can expect to be contacted to help someone on the committee a few times per year (you should want to). And as council, you can attend the next-gen events.
The first event
Before this group meets for the first time, founding members will have the power to elect their committee. At the event, the officers will come up on stage and explain their vision for NXGN.
Then a big social.
Sponsors
If any companies want to sponsor our first event with food, drinks, a venue, merch… or cash… then let us know. This is a collection of the best talent in the industry and I’m already chatting to some of the big tech companies.
Next steps
Subscribe to this newsletter for all the info
Check out the new website - https://nxgn.health - we’ll add events, the committee contact details etc.
Become a fully fledged Founding Member to access the Member’s section of this newsletter for £1 (below)
Follow the brand new NXGN Linkedin company page for updates and feel free to add Founding Member at NXGN to your Linkedin - it’s actually pretty helpful to increase reach and to help the group make impact.
If you want to be on the committee, apply here
If you want to support NXGN and be on the council, apply here
If you’d like to sponsor NXGN in some way, tell us how here (the first ask is for an event space for our first event, but we’re open to all offers).
You do the above, I’ll put the council together and we’ll make this happen.
Exciting times... This either becomes a very public guide of how-to, or how-not-to put an industry next-generation committee together in a few weeks 😂
I do like a challenge…
James
🫡
And if you want to become a member for £1 and cast your first vote… (spoiler, this one’s only polls) go for it 👇🏼
