@JoshuaBaer @BobMetcalfe @ScottKirsner @MITSloan we have more than just CB data but we want accuracy which is why we ask for it (under NDA!)
— Yael Hochberg (@yaelhochberg) March 10, 2014
MIT professor Yael V. Hochberg revealed the most effective startup accelerators in the country Tuesday at SXSW in Austin. DreamIt Health showed up in slot No. 15 and was the only health-focused accelerator on the list.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Hochberg is a professor of finance at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She and professor Susan Cohen of the University of Richmond and the Batten Institute at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, used original research and data from CrunchBase to rank the 15 accelerators. This list is from the TechCrunch article about the ranking:
- Y Combinator (Gold)
- TechStars (Gold)
- AngelPad (Gold)
- Launchpad LA (Silver)
- MuckerLab (Silver)
- AlphaLab (Silver)
- Capital Innovators (Silver)
- Tech Wildcatters (Silver)
- Surge Accelerator (Silver)
- The Brandery (Silver)
- Betaspring (Bronze)
- BoomStartup (Bronze)
- Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (Bronze)
- JumpStart Foundry (Bronze)
- DreamIt Ventures (Bronze)
DreamIt does not only work with health companies. The organization describes its mission this way:
We are interested in any idea that can be developed into a product in three months. While we anticipate that most of these ideas will be web, software and/or IT, we hope also to receive applications in physical sciences, medical devices and anything else where a product can be developed in three months.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
DreamIt Health program participants receive up to $50,000 in seed funding per company — $10,000 plus $10,000 for each founding team member (up to four) who will be onsite for the program.
Jumpstart Foundry in Nashville does not focus exclusively on health either, but does have several health companies in its portfolio, including dVisit, Utilize Health, Invision Heart and Next Gx Dx.
TechStars invested in Pill Pack in February of this year. Capital Innovators invested in MedSocket, which provides a clinical decision support system with a patented 1-Click Decision Support (1-CDS) system and a patented medical search engine (1-Search).
Hochberg plans to release more detailed data about the rankings on seedranking.com and on her website this week. This annual list is aimed to start a broader conversation about what makes a great accelerator and inform entrepreneurs who are choosing between programs to apply to.
As soon as the list was released, the bickering started on Twitter, as you can see from the tweet at the start of this article. Hochberg asks accelerators and startups to provide investment data under a non-disclosure agreement. Not all accelerators are willing to do this, so they are not included in the ranking.
The gold, silver and bronze categories reflect how each organization performed in a series of categories. To be considered for the list, accelerators had to have graduated at least one cohort by 2013, be based in the U.S. and have at least 10 graduates in their class. Ranking criteria included:
- Valuations their portfolio companies achieved in the years after graduation
- Number of exits an accelerator has had
- Ability of companies to receive additional financing after they left an accelerator
- Percentage of an accelerator’s portfolio that was still in operation
- Opinion venture investors have of the accelerator program
- Opinion that graduating entrepreneurs had of their experience
