2012 Application Process  

Innov8 for Health Startup Accelerator

Deadline to submit applications is April 30, 2012.  Click here to apply.

What is the Innov8 for Health Accelerator?

• Innov8 for Health turns great ideas into businesses in a 12-week program of concentrated mentoring, business planning and startup funding.  Modeled after the most successful business accelerators in the country, Innov8 for Health provides critical resources for eight start-up companies per class.  Resources include seed funding and, more importantly, access to experts and potential customers in your target market.
• Many of the companies we work with will need investment from Angel investors and potentially venture capital rounds.  We help you develop and execute a plan to determine how much funding you’ll need and help attract investors to get the funding your company needs to grow.

The money

• We provide a small amount of seed cash - $20,000 per company.  In return, we take a up to 6% ownership interest in your company. 

Better than the money

• While $20,000 is helpful and necessary, by itself it won’t get you where you need to go.  More important than the cash are the people we involve in your company and the people we connect you with. 
• Our expert advisors will mentor your team and provide insight on all aspects of your business: company structure, technology and operations, sales and marketing, branding, regulatory, financial and just about anything else you can think of.   The mentoring team will be adjunct team members and a sounding board to help get your company off the ground.  Many of the mentors are health care and IT entrepreneurs that have built successful companies.
• The founding group of the Accelerator – our core team - have built successful companies, developed and launched products and services used in a wide range of health care settings, raised money for start-ups and negotiated successful exits from companies they’ve built and invested in. The practical advice and boot strapping mentality they bring will help you build a strong, nimble and resourceful company that can solve problems for your customers.
• No company can be successful without customers.  We will get you immediately plugged-in to regional healthcare companies and potential commercialization partners.  We’ve recruited a customer advisory panel that includes health care providers, insurers, consumer health companies and other customer businesses.  These people will help you validate and refine your product and service ideas to make them attractive to the market.  Our Customer Advisory Panel includes: Tri Health, Linkage, Ethicon Endosurgery, LDM Group, HealthBridge, Healthcare Regional Marketing, Employers Health Coalition, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Anthem BCBS, General Electric, and Sanofi Aventis
• We help you find additional capital.  This includes not only introductions, but prepping you for the process, getting your company in the best position possible to attract investors and helping you negotiate the terms of the deal.  Because we align ourselves with the founding team we want the best deal too, just like you.
• Bottom line, we help you refine your ideas, get them ready, get them launched and get them funded.

Why Health IT?  Why Cincinnati?

• Cincinnati is a national focal point for health IT.  We have one of the most developed Health Information Exchanges in the country. Cincinnati is both a Beacon Community (established under the HITECH Act) and the recipient of an Aligning Forces for Quality grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In all, more than $40 million has been invested in the last couple of years to connect health data between providers and patients.  Where Cincinnati is now is where the rest of the country will be going in the next few years. 
• Given the robust health IT infrastructure in town, the next step is to build companies that use that information and technology to provide better care, improve health and reduce health care costs. That’s what we focus on at Innov8 for Health.

The program

• We run a twelve week program.  Teams come to Cincinnati and work out of our facility for the duration of the program.
• While here, you will meet with mentors, investors and potential customers while you develop your products and services. Each week there will be a dinner where the teams show off their progress and get help to solve roadblocks.  We bring in successful entrepreneurs who give you the real, unvarnished stories of their companies – off the record so you can learn from their mistakes.
• We have weekly talks from experts on particular issues that you will need to address.  These follow the progression that most companies face:  legal structure, problem definition, market research, solution creation, finance and fundraising,  marketing and branding,  operational planning and sales.
• There are three milestone dates in the program: Prototype Day, Angel Day and our end of program Showcase Day.
• On Prototype Day at the end of week 4, each team presents its product to the other teams.  Prototype day allows you to assess your progress early on, identify gaps and weaknesses and get feedback on the presentation in a low-risk environment.
• In week six, the teams present to a group of angel investors (hence the name Angel Day).  The angels will critique the pitch and give you a first “dry run” for the main event.   Between Angel Day and the Showcase you will work with a tandem of Angels to perfect your investor pitch.
• At the end of the program, we hold our “Showcase Day” where we invite regional venture capitalists, angel investors and potential customers.  Each team makes a 10-15 minute presentation explaining their product, the problem it solves and the investment opportunity that the company provides.  We also build in some time for small groups of interested investors/customers to meet with your team directly.

Interested?  Apply now!

• Applying for funding from Innov8 for Health is super easy.  You just download and fill out the application form. We invite the most promising groups to meet us in person, and we make funding decisions immediately afterward.  
• Summer 2012 Important Dates

         Applications Open: March 7

         Last Day to Submit Applications:  April 30

         Finalists notified:  May 4

         Finalist Interviews: May 5 – May 10

         Award Notifications:  May 14

         Accelerator Starts:  June 11

Click here for the application