About
The best healthcare technology disappears into the workflow. We build for that.
I'm David Schärf. North Star Labs is what I do.
After years of consulting — pharma, telco, media — I started a digital health company. Built it for four years, scaled it internationally, learned what taking a regulated product to market actually costs in time, energy, and assumptions you discover were wrong.
When I came back to consulting in 2019, I came back differently. I wanted to work close to the actual work, with founders and operators who care about whether the product actually reaches people. North Star Labs is built around that: small, expert-network-based, and accountable for outcomes — not slide decks.
The thing I want to spend the next decade on is digital health that works. The industry is full of strategies that never become products and products that never become outcomes. The gap between strategic intent and working software in a regulated market is the most interesting problem in this sector. It's where we live.
What we believe
01
Most digital health is built for a world that no longer exists.
The assumptions from 2015 — distribute through app stores, build dashboards, centre everything on the EHR — were right for their time. They aren't right anymore. The infrastructure has caught up. The thinking hasn't.
02
The best healthcare technology disappears into the workflow.
The 96% of health apps abandoned within six months don't fail because they're badly built. They fail because they ask too much of people who already have too much to manage. The right answer is usually less, not more.
03
The bottleneck is rarely the technology.
It's almost always the organisation. Strategy without organisational redesign is theatre. AI without governance is an accident waiting to happen. We work on both at the same time, because the rest doesn't survive contact with reality.
04
Reimbursement is a product problem.
In a regulated market, reimbursement strategy and product design are the same conversation. Treating them as separate work streams — strategy first, then regulatory affairs — is how good products fail to get paid for.
How we work
Small, named, accountable.
North Star Labs is not a firm with employees. It's me at the centre, working with a network of experts and partner agencies that scale up around the work. You always know who you're working with. The named person on the project is the one delivering it.
Hands-on, not advisory.
Most projects include sitting inside the work — as interim CPO, embedded PM, working alongside the engineering team. The work isn't done when the strategy is written. It's done when something goes live.
Transparent about the model.
Solo plus network keeps us senior, fast, and free of the layered overhead that turns most consultancies into sales operations. You pay for the people doing the work.
Background
Operating
Founder & CEO, ONELIFE Health (2014–18) — Built and scaled a certified digital health platform from zero to reimbursement, with international market entries in the US and Middle East, and a team up to 20 FTE.
Consulting
Founder, North Star Labs (2019–today) · Manager, Reply (2012–13) · Manager Business Consulting, SapientNitro (2007–12) · Consultant, CGI (2005–07) · Twenty years across pharma, telco, media, and healthcare.
Education
Stanford University · Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare. International School of Management Dortmund · Diplom-Kaufmann (FH). International University in Germany · B.Sc. Information Technology.
Languages
German (native) · English (fluent) · Spanish (professional working).
Two cities
Hamburg is home. San Francisco is where the ideas come from.
The practice is based in Hamburg — close to the German healthcare market, the payers, the operators, the regulatory landscape. But the thinking is shaped by years in the Bay Area, where the next wave of health technology is conceived before it reaches European shores.
On stage
Speaking and showing up.
Selected appearances and conference moments — from keynote stages on digital health to standing in line at WWDC. Going where the next thing gets made.
Our Delivery Model
We don't staff engagements from a bench — we build teams around the work. David Schärf leads every engagement directly, supported by a trusted network of senior specialists: strategists, product leads, engineers, clinical experts, and coaches who have worked together on real projects and know how to move fast without the coordination overhead of a large firm.
You get the depth and track record of a senior team, assembled specifically for your problem, with the flexibility to scale up or down as the engagement requires. No layers, no junior resources hidden in the delivery, no overhead built for headcount.
Tell us what you're building.
Whether you need a strategy, a product leader, a reimbursement path, or all three — the first conversation costs nothing and usually clarifies more than a formal brief.