University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Technology Transfer is entering a new phase by adding mobile apps to its technology portfolio. That includes mhealth apps conceived by students and faculty at its Perelman School of Medicine and nursing school. Its inaugural app challenge AppITUP is tonight.
It also represents the start of a new program within UpStart advising students on how to start a business — UP Advisors.
It’s a not a gigantic leap from health IT to mobile health, but the model that’s been developed to kick off that initiative is interesting. Karina Sotnik of UpStart developed the program with colleagues and the tech transfer office. She said she wanted investors who review this technology every day to be involved along with industry leaders to help develop it. The idea is to advance apps that are commercially viable and to that she sought widespread participation across the university.
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“We want to get ideas from a wide variety of people from doctors to poets. Who knows who may have the next industry shattering idea?”
Participants were asked to submit an app in one of three different categories: consumer, specialized, and an app for social good — the Noble Mobile. Sotnik said she was pleased to get Good Company involved to support apps in that category. Other investment groups involved include Mentortech, Robin Hood Ventures, Genacast Ventures, Innovation Garden, Osage University Partners, Safeguard Scientifics, Gabriel Investments, and New Spring Capital.
Having a group of investors that can offer an informed perspective on what mobile apps offer an innovative solution could make all the difference in improving the commercial outlook for those devices.
Sotnik said it whittled its 185 app submissions to 10 based on feedback from the venture groups. It got submissions across the colleges at the university with a lot of submissions from the nursing and med school community. The entrepreneurs behind the apps will present them at the forum.
Five development partners will bid against each other at the forum to build a functional prototype of their favorite idea. They include Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Chariot Solutions, Excellis Corp, Valex Consulting, Kanda Software, and SemperCon. Wharton MBA students and other entrepreneurs will pitch themselves as potential CEOs for these startups.
There are three potential paths for winners. Entrepreneurs can choose to raise money to advance their app or can assign their rights to the university and still reap the benefits if it successfully commercializes the app.
Student groups who are interested can work with UPAdvisors to form their startup. Faculty members can work with UpStart to get help matching them with entrepreneurs to run their company.
Once the prototype is ready, the team can pitch the product and strategy for the company to all the investor and capital provider partners to seek seed funds for further growth.
Mobile health startups have generated some 40,000 apps in the iTunes app store alone, although about half actually qualify as healthcare apps by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics’ reckoning.
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