The world of medical sales is undergoing a seismic shift and at the heart of this transformation is Paul Hoffschmidt, the brains behind Alpha Sophia.
Pull up a chair as we chat with this trailblazing entrepreneur about how his commercial intelligence software is equipping sales reps with the kind of data-driven insights that are nothing short of revolutionary.
Picture a tool that does more than just scratch the surface; we’re talking about a deep dive into healthcare practitioner’s activities, from the operating room to prescription trends. And it’s not just about the numbers—Paul and I tackle the ethical considerations and privacy implications that come with wielding such a powerful platform in the medical field.
Shifting gears, Paul takes us on a journey through his entrepreneurial ventures in healthcare tech, drawing a vivid parallel between the grit demanded by an Ironman race and the tenacity it takes to excel in medical sales.
This episode isn’t just a behind-the-scenes look at innovative technology; it’s about the human story of ambition, the strategy behind success, and the unique satisfaction derived from bringing state-of-the-art medical products to the marketplace.
We’ll debunk myths about transatlantic business relations and celebrate the thrill of turning a fledgling idea into a game-changing resource.
Join us for a conversation that’s as rich in personal anecdotes as it is in industry insights.
Meet the guest:
Paul-Lukas Hoffschmidt is the Founder and CEO of Alpha Sophia, the leading healthcare intelligence platform for MedTech startups and SMBs. The defining line in Paul’s path has been his passion for bringing a data-driven approach to various industries. Over the past decade, he has been a regular angel investor and company builder, typically focusing on data-driven topics. As a long-time consultant at Oliver
Wyman, he worked with manufacturers and retailers to improve processes and unlock efficiencies in the consumer goods industry. Alpha Sophia serves as a similar enabler for the MedTech sector, making it affordable and easy for innovative companies to strategize and execute their go-to-market activities.
Connect with Paul on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hoffschmidt/
Learn more about Alpha Sophia at www.alphasophia.com
Best Book Read – The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway; Also titled “Fiesta” when published in London.
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Episode Transcript
00:00 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, Samuel, founder of a revolutionary medical sales training and mentorship program called the Medical Sales Career Builder, and I’m also host of the Medical Sales Podcast. In this podcast, I interview top medical sales reps and leading medical sales executives across the entire world. It doesn’t matter what medical sales industry from medical device to pharmaceutical, to genetic testing and diagnostic lab you name it you will learn how to either break into the industry, be a top 10% performer within your role or climb the corporate ladder. Welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast and remember, I am a medical sales expert, sharing my own opinion about this amazing industry and how it can change your life. Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, Samuel, and today we have with us another special guest, and he goes by the name of Paul Hoffschmidt. So what makes Paul Hoffschmidt special? Well, he’s an entrepreneur that’s created an amazing product that allows medical sales reps to find the exact positions they need within their territories to go get more business. And when I say find, I’m not talking about a LinkedIn search. I’m talking about understanding the type of procedures they do, the hospitals they’re contracted with. I mean down to the granular detail on exactly what that potential provider can offer. It’s impressive stuff, and this doesn’t only work for medical sales reps offer. It’s impressive stuff, and this doesn’t only work for medical sales reps. This works for doctors, too, when they’re trying to find where they should be, where they want to practice and future things for their own practice in the territories they operate in.
01:32
It’s an episode that you absolutely don’t want to miss. It’s innovation, it’s technology. It’s the reason why we’re here. As always, we do our best to bring you guests that are doing things differently in the medical sales space, so I really do hope you enjoy this interview. Hey, Paul, how are we doing today? Pretty good, had a nice day already. I’ll take it. I’ll take it. So why don’t you tell everybody who you are and what?
01:54 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
you do so. My name is Paul and I’m the founder of Alpha Sophia, which is a healthcare commercial intelligence software company where we build software and data solutions for medical device sales people to better market and position their products in the market.
02:13 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So wait a minute. So you guys have a service that helps medical sales reps better position their products to providers and administrators, and whoever there is they need to talk to, regardless of what industry they’re in as far as its medical sales.
02:28 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
Exactly, yeah, and it starts. Actually it starts one step further. So our platform you have to imagine it a little bit like using LinkedIn, for example. It’s a big database in the back end on any active healthcare practitioner in the country, and then this database is attributed with a lot of different filtering dimensions so you can go in there and say you can really narrow down the list of everyone who’s an active healthcare practitioner in the country and then say, okay, I’m actually only interested in a certain type of specialty and of those people in that specialty I only want to talk to, I don’t know, let’s say, orthopedic surgeons who are doing a certain amount of total hip replacements a year in a certain territory. And then you narrow that down and you end up with a target list of people who could be a good fit for your product, for example.
03:14 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, so hold on, hold on, hold on. So let’s go back to LinkedIn. Okay, Because LinkedIn? One of the reasons it’s so popular is because it kind of gives us some of that capability, right. One of the reasons it’s so popular is because it kind of gives us some of that capability, right? I want to find surgeons in this area and I want them to be in orthopedics and you know, let me find if they’re this, that and the other based on the LinkedIn features. Yeah, and Sales Navigator I mean, from what I remember and what I understand and use of it is that’s kind of what it does. How is this service that you guys have different than what Sales Navigator does?
03:46 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
That’s a super good question and Sales Navigator is a powerful tool as well, and I recommend everyone using LinkedIn extensively for getting in touch with healthcare providers and researching them, engaging with them and so on. But LinkedIn doesn’t have all the medical information or therapeutic information on those providers included. So you can search for someone who’s an orthopedic surgeon, but you couldn’t search. Is it rather someone who’s doing a lot of foot and ankle or rather, I don’t know a rotator cuff repair, for example? If they don’t mention that in their job title, it’s quite hard to isolate that.
04:25
With LinkedIn, sales Navigator and with our solution, we not only have the information on every provider in the country, but we also have the information on what they actually do day in, day out what are they prescribing, what procedures are they performing, which diagnoses are they conducting? But also stuff like with which other medical device companies are they prescribing, what procedures are they performing, which diagnoses are they conducting? But also stuff like with which other medical device companies are they working with. So you could, for example, say who’s already working with Stryker? And then you look at all the people who I don’t know went to dinner with Stryker and did that multiple times, and so on. So there’s so many different dimensions of slicing and dicing that cube.
05:04 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, so this is fascinating. So let me think of a company. Right, and I’m assuming, correct me, but I’m assuming that as an organization, for us to get access to the data you’re talking about, there has to be some level of certification. But you guys are saying that with this service, any rep out there right now can sign up for this service, pay for the service and get this data. How is there certifications or things that allow that? Could anything get in the way as far as legal or gray hippa, anything like that you know, getting access to this data for any old rep that that’s in the country right now?
05:42 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
no, actually, like anyone can just sign up with us, um, uh, and we do have all sorts of customers we have, uh, we work um um with medical device companies of all sizes, uh, with startups, with SMBs, but also with larger companies, and, um, we sometimes sell to the whole sales organization. Sometimes only one regional sales manager uh implements a solution for his or her team in a certain area, then sometimes we only sell it to a certain product team, I don’t know. Only the robotics division is using our solution and sometimes also just individual reps who want to level up their game, use our solution to get an edge against competitive companies and have a more direct approach towards the best targets in their territory.
06:29 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Amazing. Okay, so I have to ask and indulge us what’s the biggest, the most impressive win you’ve seen with any one of your customers using this service?
06:42 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
Yeah, I mean, the nice thing is, the point where we step in is usually the point where companies just have started a new product to market or about to launch it, and we’ve already supported a couple of product launches. That’s always exciting. When you then get the feedback of people saying you see, a few weeks ago I started using your platform. Now, actually, one of the first people we identified are now early adapters of our platform, are in contact with us and having a look at our product, and that’s quite exciting.
07:19
And then also, what I often love in demos, to be honest, if I show the product to potential customers, to potential partners, and we pull it up and we do something in the therapeutic area where I have never had a touch point with Completely new territory, new therapeutic area, I don’t know, and I do a little bit of magic just with setting a few filters, and then a list is being pulled up and they are like I know this guy, I know this guy, I know this guy, I know this guy and I’m like I don’t know them, but I can still show them to you. That’s always quite a special moment in any demo, which I personally find really exciting that you’ve built this system, which in itself is so powerful that even I, without particular knowledge about each of those domains, can produce outcomes which are super powerful and relevant.
08:13 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Oh my gosh. So right now there are a number of people listening to this and they’re thinking, wow, this is huge. Where can the medical sales rep that listens to this right now? Where can they go and find you guys?
08:25 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
Yeah, so you can find us. You can just go to alphasophiacom and book a demo with us. But you can also just go to my LinkedIn profile, Paul Lucas Hoffschmidt on LinkedIn, and you can directly book a meeting with me. Send me a message. We’re basically available on all channels all day.
08:46
So, yeah, happy to show that solution to anyone and what we usually do we, I mean we are a startup company ourselves and I will say we want to make every customer successful. We also want to make every person who comes in to do a demo successful, even if they decide not to buy or whether maybe their territory is so small at the moment that it doesn’t make sense to build a nationwide buy, a nationwide solution at that point. But I’m still going to sit down with everyone and try to find a few target needs within that session to add some value and to that person so we can start helping them propel their sales right from the start. And it’s quite interesting I just today, for example, had a call with an orthopedic surgeon and he was interested in our platform and to see because he wanted to relocate and he wanted to look at other areas in the country where the procedures he’s most proficient in and wants to perform are performed a lot, yeah, but where, in comparison to those numbers of procedures, not too many surgeons are already active.
09:54
So we looked into different areas and actually cities where he was ideating to move to, and this was quite interesting.
10:00 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And then we were looking at with which manufacturers his peers are working with and wow I didn’t know he’s working with this company yeah, yeah, yeah, man, so you know he was like Paul.
10:11 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
You need to launch a physician version of that target towards vision.
10:15 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Like I, have that on my list I’m gonna do that someday, but and it was not a sales meeting.
10:21 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
I was not, I was not, I was not even trying to sell him the solution, right, right.
10:25 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It was selling itself. You know there’s so many applications. I mean, like you said, it can be for the rep, it can be for the physician and it’s much more.
10:33 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
I mean we have some customers who are using it as a recruiting tool. So we have customers where hospitals are using our system to find, like a good fit for an open role. Because you them to find like, um, the, a good fit for an open role? Yeah, because you have to imagine, you have to fill a role. You exactly know which types of procedures you usually perform, or the person who’s?
10:50
left and you can look for other people who are similar and you can even see, okay, out of the people who are good fit, who’s already licensed in my state, who’s lived here before, who’s likely to move here again, and so on. So it’s uh, it’s super comprehensive.
11:04 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Do you hear this, folks? You got it. You got to go visit Alpha Sophia. It has to happen. So this is fantastic, Paul, but let’s you know I’m sure people are wondering well, why did you, how did you stumble upon this, why are you on this journey to discover this service, and how are you connected to the medical sales space? That’s an interesting question.
11:36 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
So actually I mean going way back to college. I studied philosophy back in the day and then I originally wanted to become a journalist but then ended up working for a consulting firm for a New York-based company. During that time I worked for major consumer goods and retail companies, so not in the medical sector. But there was one common theme On all my projects I helped those retailers so the Walmarts of the world and the like to use their data to develop better commercial strategies.
12:11
So, for example, we help build promotion software so to estimate on which day when the sun is shining, which products are you promoting at which price point, so that you have the highest revenue uplift and highest additional income on that day. And you can imagine those retailers are generating a lot of data. So that was quite sophisticated and I always took away that experience. And when building my current company this was one of the input factors I brought with me.
12:47
And then, secondly, a few years ago, I helped some friends of mine start a consumer medical device company here in Germany where I’m based, as you might hear from my accent and back then we tried to acquire some data on the potential customers, on the patients and and providers who are in touch with them for the German market, from one of the dinosaurs in the healthcare data market, and we went to them and when they quoted us for that Excel sheet, I was almost falling off my share because it was like we could have bought a brand new car for that and that was definitely not feasible for our startup budget back then.
13:30
So I took a note in my notebook of problems to solve one day to build a healthcare data commercial intelligence platform for sales and marketing people in the healthcare sector which is really powerful on the one hand side, which is easy to use where you don’t have to use clumsy Excel sheets or have to navigate through 1990 software products. Which feels like being on social media but which, at the same time, is is is not super expensive, where startups, smbs, but also individual reps who want to step up their game, can get a license and have an have a positive return on investment on that software quite quickly. And that’s what we set out to do when we started our journey back in 2022.
14:18 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, very cool, wow. And so now I mean, this is just the beginning, but I’m sure you think about the future and you think about where you want to take things. Do you find yourself saying I might be in the medical space for a while? I hope you’re enjoying today’s episode and I want to let you know our programs cover the entire career of a medical sales professional, from getting into the medical sales industry to training on how to be a top performer in the medical sales industry to masterfully navigate your career to executive level leadership. These programs are personalized and customized for your specific career and background and trained by over 50 experts, including surgeons.
14:59
Our results speak for ourselves and we’re landing positions for our candidates in less than 120 days in top medical technology companies like Stryker, medtronic, merck, abbott you name it. Would you run an Ironman race without training and a strategy? You wouldn’t. So why are you trying to do the same with the medical sales position? You need training, you need a strategy and you need to visit evolveyoursuccesscom, fill out the application schedule some time with one of our account executives and let’s get you into the position that you’ve always dreamed of, definitely.
15:29 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
I mean I find it, to be honest, I find it’s a super interesting space. I mean it’s a little bit like looking into the future, right? Because?
15:36
I mean you’re working with so many companies, even the ones who are still pre-commercial, who are developing stuff which will impact all our lives in the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and I think that’s one aspect which I find really interesting intellectually. And then, secondly, because it’s such a complex domain, it requires, I mean, really skilled sales and marketing people to bring those products to market and it requires a high degree of sophistication which just brings, in my opinion, really interesting people together. And I’ve told you that when we talked before, I mean entering the US healthcare market out of Europe. I mean, some people called us crazy in the beginning, especially in Europe, to be honest, but I’ve only experienced the best of experiences since then. I’ve met so many people who have been really open to look at our solution, to give us feedback, to even discuss with us features before we’ve built them, and that has really helped us to accelerate really quickly, have a lot of partners in that space for supporting us and, yeah, I’m looking forward to just continue working in that space and helping the community.
17:00 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love to hear it. So you said that the sentiment is crazy to work with Americans. Why does that sentiment exist? Where does that come from?
17:07 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
It’s not crazy to work with Americans. Why does that sentiment exist? Where does that come from? It’s not crazy to work with Americans, it’s just really. It’s actually an amazing experience if you come from Europe, where traditionally everyone is a bit more skeptical, it’s just the openness to try out new stuff which can change the game is much higher.
17:30 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And that’s what you need.
17:37 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
You need to have an early adapter mindset where more people are open to trying out new stuff and are just constantly trying to develop themselves further Absolutely.
17:49 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Absolutely, absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. So, Paul, how do you do it, man? You’re a charging entrepreneur. You got a family. Are you your own man just waking up every day? And this is your family, right here, the service. Talk to us. How do you make it all work?
18:06 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
Yeah, so at the moment, it really is my family Working on this all day. But it’s a great family, to be honest. I mean we are a really strong team of motivated people where it’s just a lot of fun working together every day. Everyone is bringing in their best skill set in a complimentary manner so that we can basically develop our product further every day. So I mean every other week, we are launching new features and rolling all that out to every customer and getting feedback from customers and convincing new people to join our platform. So just the excitement level is really high and, yeah, so that’s a lot of fun, to be honest, to be in that point in time.
18:57 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love it. So let me ask you this then what is it that grounds you and kind of gives you your reason to work so hard to make stuff like this happen? Is it a spiritual, spiritual thing? Is it some kind of promise to someone? Is it just how you’ve always been talk to us a little bit about what, what. What creates your motivation?
19:18 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
yeah, I think it’s. I think it’s actually something which I’ve always had. Like I love building stuff, yeah, and you know that it’s uh, it’s just such a great feeling if you conceptualize something in your mind and you start with nothing. You have a blank sheet of paper and you develop an idea. Then you, uh, you are initially was my co-founder and I with were two people. Then we developed that idea. Then we started talking to customers before we ever started building anything.
19:45
So I was actually cold messaging medical device salespeople on LinkedIn. I was like, we are currently building this. Do you want to be a better user? We had nothing back then at that point in time. So I was talking to them and telling them yeah, we are currently developing this. Those would be the features. What do you think about them? Would that help you? What kind of use cases do you have? And you would use all that feedback to to then actually build the product at the same time and build it really close to the actual user.
20:12
Yeah, so I I think it’s always. It can sometimes work if you just make something up and build it, but it’s much better building it together with the people who actually use it every day. Uh, and for whom? Uh, that is conceptualized. And then having that moment where you start with nothing and then suddenly you wake up a year, one and a half years later and you see, in the locks of your software, people are using that product every day and being successful with that. It’s always also fun when people start using the name of your company, which you made up at some point. You’re like, okay, this was an idea we had back in the day and now people speak about it as if it’s like an actual institution.
20:59 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It breaks your frame a little bit.
21:01 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
For other people it’s totally natural, but for yourself it’s like that just happened.
21:05 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So that motivates me quite a lot. Paul man, what a beautiful thing to hear from you and I couldn’t agree more, I think bringing something to fruition that came from the abscesses of your mind and required enrolling people that believe in the vision and want to help the end user. It’s probably one of the best feelings in the world, so I love that, Paul, this is fantastic. We’re going to bring this to a close. With that being said, we have a lightning round. I’m going to ask you four questions and you have less than 10 seconds to answer. Are you ready?
21:40 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
Yes.
21:41 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
All right, all right. First question. So, Paul, what is the best book you’ve read in the last six months?
21:49 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
Oh, the best book I’ve read in the last six months was Fiesta. From what’s his name? Again, Sorry, I forgot the author name, but Fiesta.
22:02 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Oh, good Fiesta. So everyone, not only will, of course, Paul information, company and contact information be on the show notes, we will also have this Fiesta book, whatever it is, and whoever wrote it will also be in the show notes. We will also have this Fiesta book, whatever it is and whoever wrote it will also be in the show notes.
22:16 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
I’ve never heard an author quite like this We’ll find it, don’t you?
22:20 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
worry, we will find it. We will find it. And then, when it comes to viewing pleasure, okay, best TV show or movie that you’ve seen in the last six months.
22:30 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
So I watched. It’s actually fun On the plane last six months so I watched um, uh, it’s actually fun. On the on a plane I watched barbie, but I didn’t actually watch it. My neighbor was watching it and I was watching it without, without any sound, but it was quite fun, so I’m gonna go for that you know, I’ve never.
22:44 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I’ve never seen it, but gosh, I can’t believe how popular it became and how much money that movie actually made insane. I haven’t, I haven’t seen it, but hey, hey, whatever works works, especially in America. And then the last question, actually no two more questions what is the best meal you’ve had in the last six months? We want the restaurant and we want the item.
23:06 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
Best meal we had. So I actually had. Okay, I’m going to go for something else. So I was sailing in October which is maybe direction 6 months, let’s do the math and we were sailing and then one morning the skipper woke me up and he was like Paul, we have a tuna, I’m catching a tuna, and I had to go out and we caught the tuna together and then we had sashimi like 20 minutes later, oh wow. I mean, it’s not a real restaurant, but that sashimi was great.
23:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You ate on like 20 minutes later oh, wow, I mean it’s not a real restaurant, but uh, uh on the boat and and so the skipper made it, or he had a chef, or what no?
23:41 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
no, we, we did it together, yeah, so I mean, oh, wow.
23:45 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So we can’t recreate that meal.
23:46 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
But if you ever feel like putting the recipe online, let us know, let us know quite simple just go to greece, go sailing and catch a tuna, bit of soy sauce and you’re done that is fantastic.
24:01 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And then, last but not least, what is the best experience you’ve had in the last six months?
24:07 – Paul Hoffschmidt (Guest)
um, the best experience is, I think we went on a um on a trip with the whole team recently and that whole trip really levelled up our team spirit even to a higher level. Everyone afterwards was like again a step closer, much, even more aligned with the vision, and that just I mean for me personally, that was really, really inspiring to see. Everyone else we’ve brought together build connections also across departments, from tech to the commercial side and so on, so this was just amazing to see.
24:47 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That is fantastic, Paul. It was a true pleasure spending time with you today and learning all about the amazing things happening at Alpha Sophia. We will definitely be going there Everybody. Once again, the website, Paul contact on LinkedIn will all be on the website and, of course, some of the references to the answers he gave us with the lightning round questions. Paul, look, you’re an entrepreneur. You’re the kind of people that we root for as you go out into the medical sales world and continue to make innovations and add value. So keep doing what you’re doing and we can’t wait to hear more of what you’re up to. Thank you, Samuel. Thanks for having me on the pod fantastic stuff. What I love about that entire interview is he’s a young person that found something that offers a ton of value and he’s hard charging with bringing it to as many people as possible, and it’s things like this that allow us to get to places where we’re just doing things in the medical sales space that we never thought we could do before. I love the content here and, again, I hope you learn some things, and if you’re a medical sales rep out there that’s looking for business, you better give him a call and reach out either by LinkedIn or directly on the website.
26:01
Some of you listen to this and thinking you know, this is fantastic. I learned so much, but I’m not even a medical sales rep and I want to be. What do I do and how do I even get into a position where I can benefit from a service like this? And to do that, you go to evolveyoursuccesscom, click on the application, fill it out, submit it, schedule some time with one of our account executives and let’s get you into the position you were destined to be in and for you. Medical sales reps out there that are looking for ways to improve that performance, especially through hard-to then again visit Evolver Success, fill out an application, let’s have a conversation and get you into a program that can have you doing your entire territory with stuff like what you heard today in today’s episode.
26:47
As always, we’re going to do our best to bring you guests that are doing things differently in the medical sales space, so make sure you tune in next week for another episode of the Medical Sales Podcast. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and remember I have a customized and personalized program that gets you into the medical technology industry as a sales professional or any type of role for that matter. Become a top performer in your position and masterfully navigate your career to executive level leadership. Check out these programs and learn more at EvolvesSuccesscom by visiting our site, dealing on an application schedule some time with one of our account executives and allowing us to get you where you need to be. Stay tuned for more awesome content with amazing interviews on the Medical Sales Podcast.