Leaderpreneurship involves providing vision and inspiration to physician entrepreneurs. Physician entrepreneurs have an entrepreneurial mindset alongside their clinical mindset. They have different risk profiles, generational personas, decision-making styles, and values compared to non-entrepreneur physicians. Healthcare entrepreneurial roles include technopreneur, intrapreneur, social entrepreneur, edupreneur, medical practice entrepreneur, and more. Important lessons for physician entrepreneurs include knowing when to hold on or let go of ideas, building credibility, getting feedback from an advisory board, relentlessly testing ideas, and learning crisis management.

1. Leaderpreneurship Lessons
Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA
University of Colorado School of
Medicine and Business School
President and CEO, Society of Physician
Entrepreneurs

2. What is leaderpreneurship?
•Providing vision, direction
and inspiration to
physician entrepreneurs

4. Physician
entrepreneurs
are different
• Entrepreneurial mindset supplementing clinical
mindset
• Risk profile
• Generational personas
• Good rebels v bad rebels- the “disruptive
physician”
• Specialty personality
• Different decision making, bedside manner and
technical KSAs
• Varying entrepreneurial competencies
• Culture of conformity v culture of creativity
• Values

5. Healthcare
entrepreneurial
roles
• Technopreneur: drugs, devices, digital
health, care delivery/infrastructure/policy
• Intrapreneur
• Social entrepreneur
• Edupreneur
• Medical practice entrepreneur
• Entrepreneurial financial entrepreneur
• Service provider

6. Lessons
learned
• Know when to hold ‘em, fold ‘em, walk away
or run
• Make it personal but don’t take it personally
• Figure out how to herd cats
• Create a personal brand and build street
cred
• Pick your spot: front, back, from a distance
• Find your blind spots
• Have a personal advisory board
• Relentlessly test your ideas
• Know when to trust your gut

7. Lessons
learned
• Listen, learn, leave
• Make yourself obsolete as quickly as
possible
• Assume the role the circumstances require:
coach, guide on the side?
• Get rid of bad apples as quickly as possible
• Celebrate the heros (HINT: You are not one
of them)
• Learn crisis management: ACT: acknowledge,
contrition, try to make it right
• You can never communicate too much, only
the wrong ways