By the numbers: A look at Healthbox Nashville innovation day
The Nashville Business Journal
Nashville’s health care, technology and investor communities convened yesterday at the Music City Center to hear pitches by entrepreneurs graduating from Healthbox Nashville, a health care technology accelerator.
If you weren’t able to make it down, here’s a recap of the program, by the numbers:
7 – Number of companies graduating from the inaugural class. A full list of the companies canbe found here. They range from a cloud-based, HIPAA-compliant data platform to a virtual communication platform for doctors and patients.
16 – Number of weeks the accelerator program ran.
5 – Number of Healthbox cities, including Nashville.
“Nashville is now one of a select group of cities to have this,” said Nashville Health Care Council President Caroline Young. “Healthbox has added a tremendous momentum and validation to Nashville’s thriving entrepreneurial community.”
4 – Number of local partners that signed on to support Healthbox Nashville, including anchor partner BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, strategic sponsor HCA Holdings, and community partners, the health care council and the Nashville Entrepreneur Center.
“Large companies recognize we haven’t got all the great ideas. We don’t own all the best ideas out there,” said BlueCross CFO John Giblin. “There’s a freshness here. … Some of the ideas I’ve heard from these groups I would’ve never thought of.”
60 – Number of Nashville mentors who contributed time and advice to the entrepreneurs, including 30 senior level executives from BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and more than 20 from HCA.
100(+) – Number of hours donated by local mentors to the entrepreneurs.
3 – Number of events the health care council hosted for members to preview the Healthbox companies and meet the entrepreneurs. Young said all three were at near capacity, signaling a strong interest from the established health care community in the program. HCA held its own private event last week to check out the companies.
$20,000 – Amount of a convertible note awarded to company Gema Touch, which won the Innovation Day Award challenge, as voted on by the audience through text messaging. The Nashville Business Journal wrote about Raleigh-based GemaTouch last week here.
1 – Singer-songwriter who entertained the crowd with an original song about the Healthbox companies. You guys, it’s hard to rhyme gastroenterology. Major kudos to you, mystery singer-songwriter.
55 – Active Healthbox portfolio companies across the country.
140(+) – Number of pilots Healthbox portfolio companies have entered into across the country.
1,000,000 – Number of lives touched by Healthbox portfolio companies.
Healthbox’s Nashville director Amy Len, who MC’d the event, touted the last group of numbers as the best way to measure the success and validation of Healthbox, run out of Chicago. Neither she nor BlueCross confirmed whether Healthbox Nashville would return for a second class.
E.J. Boyer covers Nashville’s health care industry.
