28 Sep StartUp Health, with boosts from Mark Cuban and Steve Case, wants to remake health care
StartUp Health is on a mission to help 1,000 new businesses “re-imagine and transform” the delivery of health care by 2021.
In the four years since its inception, the entrepreneurship development company has assembled a portfolio of 105 companies from 10 countries and attracted $20 million in investments from a diverse group of investors that includes Internet mogul and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and AOL co-founder Steve Case.
Among the entrepreneurs participating in the program is Adam J. Simon of Yardley who founded a company developing technology to better diagnose concussions.
“The people here are similar,” Simon said, during a break at a recent StartUp Health event in New York. “We are all high energy. [StartUp Health CEO] Steve Krein describes us as people who come with batteries included. We learn from each other. You learn about planning and strategic thinking, you share information and benefit from the lessons other people have already learned.”
Although based in New York, StartUp Health — which is in the process of raising another $30 million in a round led by Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care — would not have gotten off the ground without its strong Philadelphia region connections.
Consider:
- The company’s management team features three siblings who grew up in Cherry Hill, two of whom still live in the area. Steven Krein co-founded StartUp Health with a friend named Unity Stoakes. Dr. Howard D. Krein, a Thomas Jefferson University Hospital physician, is the company’s chief medical officer. Bari Krein, a Philadelphia lawyer, is StartUp Health’s chief strategy officer. The family affectionately refers to Stoakes as their fourth sibling:“Ira Krein.”
- Conshohocken-based SeventySix Capital in Conshohocken was StartUp Health’s first, and remains its only, venture capital firm investor. Wayne Kimmel, the firm’s managing partner, serves on StartUp Health’s board of directors.
- Philadelphia native Jerry Levin, the former CEO of Time Warner, serves as StartUp Health’s chairman.
- The company’s investors also include about a dozen doctors from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
StartUp Health differs from traditional business accelerators, which typically work with fledgling companies for a few months. StartUp Health operates a long-term coaching program that includes a variety of programming to educate entrepreneurs and connect them with potential investors and customers. The members of the StartUp Health Academy also interact with each other through an Internet portal where budding and veteran entrepreneurs can discuss and seek answers for common problems and issues.