StartUp Health Co-Founders Want To Transform The Medical Industry

The health sector has long been left out of the fun when it comes to innovation. Sure, we see cool health and med-tech stuff launch at Disrupt here and there, but for the most part, the entire industry is stuck in the paper age. That said, StartUp Health here in NYC is focused entirely on bringing the health care and wellness industry into the future.

The accelerator has a rather unusual model, which I learned today after sitting down with founders Unity Stoakes and Steven Krein for an interview. Basically, the whole program is free to entrepreneurs, and runs for a much longer period than most accelerators since the healthcare industry is an entirely different environment for startups.

Stoakes confirmed this in the interview, noting that sales cycles are longer and that there are various regulations that need to be considered which may affect this or that company. StartUp Health also offers a structured curriculum to help educate entrepreneurs on the industry and, like other incubators, promises a community-based environment.

Speaking of community, StartUp Health recently announced its first class of Health Transformers, a total of ten different startups from both the east and west coast. You can check out what each of them is up to here.

Krein doesn’t see the health industry as a place where one specific app, or one specific startup can make a difference. Instead, he wants to inspire entrepreneurs to pick a specific problem and chip away at it.

If we have enough startups chipping away at the issues that the medical industry faces, maybe it won’t be such a pain in the butt to go to the doctor.