Fractional product leadership · Health tech & AI

Most startups don't die from running out of money.
They die from building the wrong thing.

VZN Designs brings a decade of MedTech product leadership — and hands-on AI building — to founders who can't afford an expensive wrong turn. Strategy, roadmap, and regulatory-aware product development, fractionally.

43% of failed VC-backed startups cite poor product-market fit — second only to running out of cash CB INSIGHTS · 431 SHUTDOWNS · SINCE 2023
74% of high-growth startups fail by scaling before validating the core model STARTUP GENOME
93% of premature scalers never break $100K in monthly revenue STARTUP GENOME
01 · Diagnosis

"Ran out of capital" is the symptom. The disease starts earlier.

When CB Insights analyzed 431 venture-backed shutdowns, 70% listed running out of cash. But cash runs out because the product missed: poor product-market fit, bad timing, unit economics that never closed.

The information needed to avoid most of these failures existed before the product was built. It lives in customer conversations that never happened, scope that never got cut, and validation that got skipped because building felt like progress.

In health tech, the stakes compound: regulatory pathways, evidence requirements, and clinical workflows punish teams that discover them late.

Working hypothesis

The most expensive mistake in your startup's life is building the wrong thing. It's also the most preventable — if product discipline shows up before the code does. That's the job I do.

02 · Intervention

Four ways to engage. Every one ends in an artifact you can show investors.

No decks that gather dust. Each engagement produces concrete deliverables — the roadmap, the scope, the audit, the prototype — that your team executes against and your investors can evaluate.

Protocol A · 2 weeks · from $4,500

Product Clarity Sprint

For founders pre-build or mid-pivot who need to know what to build — and what to skip.

You walk away with
  • Validation readout: customer signal + market & competitive scan
  • Problem statement & ideal customer profile
  • Prioritized MVP scope — including what not to build
  • 90-day roadmap & build-strategy recommendation

Outcome: you attack the 43% failure mode before it eats six months of runway.

Protocol B · Monthly · from $5K/mo

Fractional Product Lead

For funded founders with engineers but no product leadership.

You walk away with
  • An owned, prioritized roadmap tied to your goals
  • Sprint planning, backlog, and written specs
  • User feedback loops that actually reach the roadmap
  • Monthly metrics readout for you and your investors

Outcome: senior product leadership at a fraction of a $200K+ full-time hire.

Protocol C · 3–4 weeks · from $7,500

MedTech Readiness Audit

For health tech founders heading toward FDA territory — before it heads toward you.

You walk away with
  • Design-control gap analysis
  • Regulatory pathway map for your product class
  • Usability / human-factors testing plan
  • Evidence & claims strategy + prioritized remediation roadmap

Outcome: a failed submission costs 10–100x this audit. Find the gaps while they're cheap.

Protocol D · 3–4 weeks · from $6,000

AI Product Jumpstart

For founders who want an AI product but can't scope one — or vet the people building it.

You walk away with
  • AI MVP architecture & scope
  • Agentic development pipeline, configured for your build
  • Working prototype or clickable specification
  • Cost model for build + run, and a hiring roadmap

Outcome: skip months of agency roulette. Leave with something real.

Prices are starting points — final scope is set on a 30-minute call. Not sure which protocol fits? Start with the 2-day Product Diagnostic — $1,500 flat: a founder deep-dive, your product risks ranked, and a recommended path. The fee credits toward any sprint booked within 30 days. Book a consult to start.

03 · Evidence

Built products for surgeons. Now building with the tools reshaping software.

[ HEADSHOT ]

4:5 portrait
drops in here

Nuvi Njinimbam

MBA, UC BERKELEY HAAS · B.S. BIOENGINEERING · 10 YRS MEDTECH

I've spent a decade taking medical technology from unmet clinical need to global commercialization — surgical robotics, implantable-device software, digital learning platforms. Requirements, design control, usability testing, evidence strategy, go-to-market — the full arc, at companies where a product mistake isn't a pivot, it's a recall.

And I build. Through VZN Designs I ship AI-powered products end-to-end with agentic development pipelines — the same tools your future engineering team will use, run solo. That means when I scope your product, I'm not guessing what's buildable. I've built it.

INTUITIVE SURGICALACCENTURELIVANOVAW.L. GORE
[ FIGHTR CASE STUDY MEDIA ]

app screens / pipeline diagram
drop in here
Case report · Fightr

An AI boxing coach, shipped by a team of one (plus agents)

Fightr is a mobile boxing training app with an AI coach — real-time audio callouts, personality-driven coaching, subscription monetization. Built end-to-end on an agentic pipeline: five specialized AI agents handling build, QA, research, documentation, and debugging.

It's the working proof behind every engagement: modern AI tooling collapses the cost of building — which makes building the right thing the entire game.

1human on the team
5AI agent roles
βlive beta program
04 · Build Log

Proof, not promises. Things I've actually shipped.

I don't just advise on AI products — I build them, solo, on agentic pipelines. This is the working evidence behind the strategy: when I scope your product, I've already built with the tools your team will use.

Consumer · Mobile AI ● Live beta

Fightr

An AI boxing coach in your pocket — real-time audio callouts, personality-driven coaching, and subscription monetization. Shipped end-to-end by a team of one plus five specialized agents. Full case study above.

Mobile appReal-time audio AISubscriptions
Agentic system · Ops ● In production

VZN Automation

An autonomous career & consulting engine that runs headless on a server and is driven entirely from a phone: daily opportunity scans scored against a strategy file, AI-tailored application packages, one-tap publishing, and a full CRM with a cold-lead radar and email follow-ups. A working demonstration of multi-agent systems doing real, daily work.

Multi-agentLLM + toolsAPIs + automationInstallable app
Methodology · Process ● Battle-tested

The 5-Agent Pipeline

The development method behind the builds: five specialized AI agents — build, QA, research, documentation, and debugging — orchestrated so a single operator ships production software. It's the same pipeline I stand up inside an AI Product Jumpstart, tuned to a founder's stack.

Agent orchestrationSolo → productionReusable pipeline
05 · Insights

Field notes from the intersection.

Digital health, AI product craft, and health equity — how AI can scale high-quality, low-cost care in the US and across Africa. New notes weekly on LinkedIn.

06 · Consult

Thirty minutes. No pitch. Just product.

Tell me what you're building. I'll tell you what I see — where the risk is hiding, what I'd validate first, and whether one of my protocols fits. If it's not a match, you still leave with a sharper picture.

Book a consult

Pick a time that works. Calls run on video, 30 minutes, founder-to-builder.

Choose a time →
Founder office hours: two free 30-minute slots every week for early-stage founders. Grab an office-hours slot →