Overview & Mission

StartUp Health is a new model for helping innovation succeed in the health sector. Part community, part Academy, and 1,000% passion, we provide health and wellness innovators with a structured curriculum designed to help navigate the unique challenges of building a sustainable growth business. StartUp Health was founded in 2011 by health tech entrepreneurs Steven Krein and Unity Stoakes and is Chaired by former Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin.

Inspiration, Education, and Access

StartUp Health is based on a simple premise: the best way to improve healthcare in America is to provide health and wellness entrepreneurs with inspiration, education, and access to customers, capital, and other critical resources so that startups can innovate more quickly and build new solutions that will improve care and reduce out of control healthcare costs.

Help Build 1,000 Sustainable Businesses in 10 Years

* Infographic courtesy of West Health

Our goal is to ultimately help 1,000 “Healthcare Transformers” build sustainable growth businesses over the coming decade. We plan to do this by providing the community with access to a structured curriculum, support from coaches, subject matter experts, and peer networks, and by continuing to connect the community to customers, investors, and strategic partners.

The Booming Health and Wellness Ecosystem

Since launching StartUp Health in Washington DC with the help of US CTO Aneesh Chopra, and the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, we have had the opportunity to meet and work with hundreds of entrepreneurs, developers, health professionals, researchers, and key stakeholders who are passionate about transforming healthcare.

We have never experienced the kind of organic momentum and interest currently taking shape in the health and wellness innovation ecosystem as we are seeing today. Nor have we experienced such a diverse set of stakeholders beginning to work together; these range from entrepreneurs to patient communities and health professionals, investors to foundations to academics, federal, state, and local governments, and even the world’s largest companies.

Helping to Transform the Medical Industry

Community and Collaboration

The first phase of StartUp Health was focused on hosting a series of community-based programs around the country, which included StartUp Health Roundtables, StartUp Heatlh Pavillions, and StartUp Office Hours. Several thousand people have already become members of the StartUp Health community:

More than 4,000 people have taken the StartUp Health Pledge.
Over 100 StartUps have demoed their companies at StartUp Health Pavilions and Demo Halls in conjunction with conferences like the HIMSS mHealth Summit in Washington, DC, and the NYeC Digital Health Conference in NYC.
Thousands of people have attended StartUp Health Roundtables either in person or online.
Hundreds of scholarships have been made available so hundreds of entrepreneurs could attend important health conferences like TEDMED, mHealth Summit, New York Venture Capital Association’s Ingenuity Conference, Health 2.0, and the NYeC Digital Health Conference.
StartUp Health has partnered with GE, Amazon, AT&T, Morgan Lewis, and other Perk Partners to provide Healthcare Transformers with discounts on hosting, HIPAA compliant developer platforms, and legal services.
Over 600 companies have applied to the StartUp Health Academy.
We’ve held Office Hours with more than 100 companies and met with hundreds of entrepreneurs.
Partners including StartUp America Partnership, US Department of HHS, Foundation for the National Institute of Health, GE, AT&T, Amazon, California HealthCare Foundation, TEDMED, Gerson Lehrman Group, Morgan Lewis, and Health 2.0 have collaborated and continue to contribute amazing resources to help support the ecosystem.
Dozens of the world’s top subject matter experts in healthcare have committed to being StartUp Health Coaches and to contribute their wisdom to the StartUp Health Curriculum for entrepreneurs.
And this is just the beginning…

A Long-Term Plan for Helping You Build a Sustainable Growth Business

StartUp Health selected 24 Healthcare Transformers to participate in the StartUp Health Academy in 2012 and we will be accepting approximately 75 companies in 2013. Thanks to the generous support of our investors and a growing list of StartUp Health Partners like GE, AT&T, California Healthcare Foundation, Amazon, and Morgan Lewis, StartUp Health is able to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in each class of Healthcare Transformers to help support and grow their business. This includes access to customers, investors, peer-networks, coaching, structured curriculum, online tools, office hours, and negotiated discounts for resources and services to help with technology, legal, accounting, and HR.

One of the key things that makes StartUp Health Academy unique is that we have a long-term focus on connecting health and wellness companies with customers, pilot programs, strategic capital partners, and the critical resources needed to succeed as they transition through each of the key stages of being a growth company in this sector.

StartUp Health Academy is “stage” agnostic, meaning we encourage health and wellness innovators at every stage of development to apply. Many Healthcare Transformers participating are experienced entrepreneurs or executives who have built and sold other companies. Others are doctors and innovators who are inventing game-changing technologies. All are passionate and on a mission to improve care.

Apply to Startup Health Academy