Growth Advisory
Health Tech Go-to-Market Consulting for the Payor Market
Upward Growth is a strategic growth consulting firm founded by Ryan Peterson that helps health tech and digital health companies build and execute go-to-market strategies for selling to health plans. The firm also advises management consulting firms and private equity and venture capital investors on payor market growth strategy, commercial due diligence, and portfolio company growth execution. Our focus is simple: helping health tech companies win with health plans.
The firm’s perspective comes from nearly 15 years of direct experience selling to health plans, including Medicare Advantage plans and national carriers, as well as regional Medicaid MCOs, Blues plans, and commercial health plans. We’ve helped companies at every stage, from early-revenue vendors closing their first plan contracts to established platforms scaling past $200M in ARR, build growth strategies that hold up under real market pressure.
📩 To explore working together, reach out to us at: info@upwardgrowth.com.
🟦 Connect on LinkedIn: Upward Growth | Ryan Peterson
Go-to-Market Strategy for Health Tech Vendors
We work with health tech CEOs and CROs to pressure-test their go-to-market approach, find the blind spots they can’t see from inside their own organization, and build a growth strategy that reflects how health plans actually evaluate, buy, and implement technology.
That includes competitive positioning, pricing strategy, sales organization design, health plan buyer mapping, and market entry planning. Whether the challenge is breaking into new plan segments, rebuilding a sales motion that isn’t converting, or preparing a growth strategy for a board or investor audience, we help leadership teams get to the root of what’s slowing growth down and build the commercial path forward.
Payor Market Subject Matter Expertise for Management Consulting Firms
We serve as an embedded subject matter resource on payor market strategy for management consulting firms advising clients in or around the health plan ecosystem. That includes health plan buyer dynamics, market sizing and segmentation, competitive landscape analysis, vendor positioning, and commercial due diligence.
We embed directly into engagement teams, joining working sessions and client calls as a resource your team can lean on throughout the project. When your team needs someone who has actually sold into the health plan market, negotiated contracts with plans, and understands how purchasing decisions get made inside health plan organizations, that’s where we come in.
Health Tech Commercial Due Diligence and Growth Strategy for PE/VC Firms
Before close: We help investors pressure-test the commercial story behind health tech investments in the payor market. That means evaluating pipeline quality, buyer concentration, competitive positioning, pricing sustainability, and whether the growth trajectory holds up under the scrutiny of an investment committee. We help investors get past the deck and understand whether a company’s payor market traction is real, repeatable, and defensible.
After close: We work with portfolio company leadership on the strategic and commercial adjustments that turn a good investment thesis into actual growth. That includes go-to-market execution, sales organization design, competitive messaging, and market expansion planning for health plan segments including Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and commercial lines of business.
About Ryan Peterson, Principal & Founder
Ryan Peterson is the founder and principal of Upward Growth. He has spent nearly 15 years in health tech sales and growth leadership, holding senior roles at companies including Advantmed, Reveleer, NantHealth, and Quantum Health. Across those roles, he has led sales organizations, built go-to-market strategies, negotiated enterprise contracts with health plans, and helped companies scale from early revenue through nine-figure ARR, across both software and services.
Ryan also publishes Upward Growth, a weekly newsletter covering payor market trends, health tech go-to-market strategy, and CMS regulatory developments. The newsletter reaches more than 3,000 subscribers, including health tech CEOs, CROs, VPs of Sales, and PE/VC investors, and has become one of the most widely read independent publications focused on health tech growth strategy in the payor market.