TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | m a r c h 2 0 1 6 7 In my experience, the TMCx accelerator is the most closely relevant to what we're doing as a com- pany, […] This program, specifically, is centered around helping health care entrepreneurs build their businesses. —ADAM ODESSKY Co-founder and CEO of Sense.ly work—it's all invaluable. That window into the whole workflow has been instrumental in shaping how we could position our product to better serve their needs." Fellow TMCx classmate Katherine Chambers, co-founder and chief executive officer of The Right Place— a Houston-based company that provides tools to nursing homes and helps hospitals identify where to send patients who need nursing home care— is also looking to the future, especially as the field of digital health innovation continues to blossom. "There's such a tremendous oppor- tunity within the digital health spec- trum to enable workflow efficiency, so that these highly trained people aren't stuck spending their time on administrative tasks around coordi- nating where a patient should go for nursing home care," Chambers said. "That's where technology can really serve these care teams. Solutions like The Right Place can enable physicians and nurses to spend more of their time actually assisting patients, assessing them and administrating care." The future of digital health is also shining brightly for Alexander Izaguirre, Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of Aprenda Systems, which provides organizations with accurate and timely directory data through access to its Signature software. "As a platform technology, I see us leveraging the creativity, work and efforts of all of these different compa- nies that no other organization has," he said. "By the end of the program, I'd love to see that up to 5,000 physi- cians are using Signature, aggregating great, curative data, developing pro- files and sharing that information with health plans and systems. I want us to demonstrate to the world that it's much easier to get things done when you can share your data as a currency." Finding the most effective ways to engage with hospital leadership and cater to potential customers was a pivotal focus of the program's first two weeks. That emphasis culmi- nated in a curriculum session led by Todd Dunn, director of innovation for Intermountain Healthcare, on avoid- ing common pitfalls and creating value for customers. "If you're an entrepreneur, always remember that in an early stage company, you have assumptions that you need to test and get evidence for," he said. "Whether you validate or invalidate your assumptions, it doesn't matter—you need to do both. It's crucial to spend time from an empathetic mindset and be mindful of your customer, what they struggle with and what they hope to do. Make sure you really understand them before you diagnose what you believe their problems are." Last year's lessons informed more than just the current structure and focus. Weaving connective threads between TMCx alumni and current cohort members, Niko Skievaski, co-founder of Redox and a participant in last year's class, provided some insight into how to best leverage the resources available and dispensed a healthy dose of perspective. "By investing in innovation, bringing in the best companies from across the country and putting them on stage in front of all these health systems, the Texas Medical Center is making Houston a national hub for innovation," said Skievaski. "A lot of accelerator programs will own a piece of your company, and the point of them will be to launch you out at the other side at a $20 million valuation, so that the equity they bought three months earlier can now be valued higher. Whereas, the motive here is to simply help you. That's how I looked at the program when I was here." The responses from the companies have so far been overwhelmingly posi- tive. Based on feedback collected from the first several weeks of the program, 126 out of 150 responses demonstrated that a session either "exceeded expec- tations" or "far exceeded expectations." If that's any indication, the next four and a half months are likely to contain even more pleasant surprises. "In my experience, the TMCx accelerator is the most closely relevant to what we're doing as a company," Odessky said. "Other business accel- erators have either been too high-level, helping companies run their busi- nesses from a financial or corporate governance perspective, while others have been focused on a technology leadership perspective. But this pro- gram, specifically, is centered around helping health care entrepreneurs build their businesses. "That's tremendously helpful, and is allowing us to shape our business around some of our biggest custom- ers—which could be, in fact, places like Texas Children's and MD Anderson," he added. "That's crucial because it helps us align what we do, how we work and our overall value to be much closer to the people we serve."

• Cover