Expert Tips for Building Health Tech Teams That Share Your Mission

After dozens of intimate conversations with brilliant women reshaping the future of healthtech and thought leaders who’ve joined me on RedefineHER, one powerful truth keeps rising to the surface: the best teams don’t come together by accident. The best teams are built through alignment, intention, and often, obsession with the problem at hand.

In my conversation with Colette Courtion, founder of Joylux, she alluded to how alignment was more important than experience. And one of my clients shared, “We didn’t just want people with experience, we wanted people with conviction. People who cared enough about women’s health to push through the discomfort, the taboo, the unknown.”

That deep commitment is something no resume can capture. But it shows up in conversation, in energy, in a candidate's curiosity and personal connection to the mission.

● Let Them Self-Select

Many founders shared that the most aligned hires didn’t come through traditional sourcing. They resonated with the company; they weren’t just seeking their next job. Why? Because the mission was clear, compelling, and unapologetically visible.

In my interview with Dr. Georgia Gaveras, co-founder of Talkiatry, she spoke of how powerful lived experience was in hiring: “Our early hires were often patients themselves or people who had family members affected by mental health issues. That lived experience created instant alignment.”

Similarly, Sara Naseri of Qvin, who is building diagnostics from menstrual blood, emphasized how vocalizing their mission invited bold thinkers: “We’re doing something that hasn’t been done before. We needed people who weren’t afraid of 'taboo' science.”

● When Mission Isn’t Enough

But what happens when the perfect candidates don’t know your company exists? That’s where reach becomes strategy.

In one conversation, a client noted the importance of expanding sourcing efforts. You can't assume the most passionate person will just stumble on your job post. In women's health, where diverse perspectives matter, you have to go find them or work with someone who can.

This is where working with a niche recruitment partner like ITEOM, or an RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) service can be transformative. For early-stage teams without in-house recruiting infrastructure, a partner that understands the nuances of both healthcare and tech can extend your voice into the places your ideal candidates already live and work.

One of my clients recently shared, "We thought our job descriptions were clear, but candidates kept applying who didn’t understand the healthcare context. Partnering with ITEOM - who translated our mission into language that attracted the right talent -made all the difference."

● Designing an Inclusive, Strategic Hiring Process

The real work begins before you even start promoting your opportunity. A mission-driven team isn’t built through charisma alone, it requires structure, clarity, and intention.

Rachael Jones and Emily Walker, co-founders of Syntax, described how they built slowly. They needed to grow strategically to keep people inspired and aligned and, equally not overburdened, which can lead to burnout. SWOT analysis and scorecards are a great way to begin designing your employee operating system. 

Scorecards, when used well, help reduce bias and ensure every candidate is evaluated on the qualities that matter most for the stage you’re in. For many of the women on RedefineHER, those qualities were grit, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and mission resonance.

“We didn’t want to hire the loudest voice in the room. We needed a framework that valued curiosity, resilience, and clarity of thinking, especially when working in ambiguous spaces like clinical data,” a thought leader of a stealth health data company. Reiterating the fact that building inclusive companies requires all voices to be heard.

And the interview process itself? That needs to be designed as thoughtfully as the product. In my interview with Sara Adler of Wave, she shared how her mental wellness product is inclusive and engaging. The same can apply to your interview and assessment process: using inclusive working sessions in your process allows candidates to show how they think, not just what they've done. It can level the playing field for people who may not have the 'perfect' resume but bring immense value and can be a great indicator of how they might engage as a team member.

● From Seed to Scale: How Hiring Evolves

In the early days, every hire is foundational. You're choosing teammates who will influence culture, strategy, and trajectory. What happens at Series B and C and beyond, when hiring accelerates?

That’s when things get riskier and more important.

You’re now hiring not just builders, but managers of builders.  People who can scale teams, operationalize vision, and maintain mission integrity as you grow. But that doesn’t mean abandoning alignment. If anything, it becomes more essential.

Founders shared how the danger at this stage is "filling seats" too quickly and losing the signal of what made their early team special. This is where strategic recruiting partnerships become crucial again. RPO teams like ours at ITEOM provide process discipline, pipeline scale, and operational efficiency without losing sight of your values.

As Georgia said in our interview, “You need partners who get your pace and your purpose.” Partners who can move fast, but not loose.

● So, what does it take to hire well in Healthtech?

Here’s what I’ve learned from these visionary leaders:

❍ Lead with mission.  Make your purpose loud and impossible to miss.

❍ Let values filter the pipeline.  Self-selection is powerful.

❍ Work with partners who understand your space.  Especially when your internal team can’t scale alone.

❍ Design processes that include, not exclude.  Bias creeps in through vague criteria.

❍ Invest in scorecards.  Get clear on what success  looks like.

❍ Don’t sacrifice alignment for speed.  Not even in a Series C sprint.

If you’re building in women’s health or digital health more broadly, and struggling to find candidates who live at the intersection of product and purpose, I can help. We offer founder-friendly recruiting support, from early discovery to strategic scale.

Because the future of healthcare isn’t just what we build... It’s who we build it with.

🧠 #TLDR:

The most powerful healthtech teams aren’t built by chance. They are shaped by clarity, conviction, and culture. From early hires to Series C scale, aligning your hiring practices with your mission, and expanding your reach with the right partners can be the difference between filling roles and building a movement.

Brenda Armstrong is the host of RedefineHER, a podcast uncovering transformative stories in women’s health and wellness. She’s also the founder of ITEOM, a talent consultancy that helps healthtech companies hire values-aligned professionals at the intersection of technology and purpose. To learn more about how ITEOM supports founders from early discovery to Series C scale, visit ITEOMTALENT.COM or connect with Brenda directly.

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