Rockstart Health - Rockstart

About

Rockstart Health Program provides access to the healthcare ecosystem, capital, coaching and investors for entrepreneurs who are looking to change the way things are done in healthcare.

We work with all the founders to balance the team. Adjust their business model for scale and support with high-value customer and investor deals. We ensure our participating startups have access to sufficient funding. Rockstart Health will invest an additional €300k in the best performing startups to help them in their journey to scale. Thanks to our three main events; Health Partner Day, Health Summit and our Demo Day, startups get even more opportunities to close the best investor and customer deals.

We bring you a program that is designed to help startups and our health partners. Run in parallel, there is a full-year startup scale program to drive growth and more deals for our selected startups. And an all-new health leadership program to help our health partners collaborate successfully with startups. By supporting both startups and health partners, we aim to multiply our joined impact.

Online Office Hours

If you want to learn more about the Rockstart Health Program and meet the health team, register for the Online Office Hour. We will start the webinar with a 15-minute presentation and afterward, you can ask all your questions directly to the health team. The online office hour will start at 18:00 CEST on July 16. Sign up here.

View Program Overview 2019 (PDF)

Rockstart Provides Access

Market

We connect founders with the most relevant industry players and facilitate the process in order to drive partnerships and pilot customers for the startups in the Health program.
Expertise

We have brought together an impressive lineup of mentors, who bring expertise in Health, data science, product and building businesses around technologies from scratch.
Community

We give founders access to Rockstart's international community of alumni and provide access to state-of-the-art research know-how and talent.
Capital

We are matching and setting up events so startups can leverage Rockstart's network of more than 400 local and international investors. We support startup to raise capital during and after the program.

What we offer

1. FUNDING The selected startups are offered an initial cash investment of € 20.000 in exchange for 7% equity via a convertible loan with additional investment available up to €75.000. Plus in-kind investment consisting of office space and other facilities, expert workshops, international events, deals on products like AWS, Google Cloud, and 100+ more deal worth up to €600.000
2. Investor Network We have over 200+ local and international investors in our network specifically focused and experienced in investing in healthcare. This is especially important for healthcare startups, as working with investors unfamiliar to the healthcare industry and development can create issues as their expectations for development of partnerships, and product does not account for the slow progress which comes with healthcare. Our investors are capable of understanding these issues and know how to push through many barriers through their own networks. Our investors include INKEF Capital, Healthy Capital, Noaber Ventures, and Oost NL.
3. Strong Validation Opportunities Tap into the best connected and most accessible health ecosystem in the world: The Netherlands. We will help you understand how to design validation experiments, iterate results and improve your business in a structured and accelerated way. We believe in better health solutions through better design and better execution. To organize this we work together with innovative partners with direct access to different target groups (in the workplace, in the hospital, in-home care settings or elsewhere). Ecosystem Partners include Radboudumc REshape Center, Noaber Ventures, Boehringer Ingelheim, IKONE, In4Care, Sint Maartenskliniek, Siza, Pluryn, Oost NL, Health Valley, STZ and Rabobank.
4. Personal And Team Development We do not only support you in getting your financial and legal structure straight. The program includes a component focused on personal and team development. Not only your business has to grow. You and your team need to evolve and grow with the pace of your business.

5. Mentorship We have a strong network of over 100+ mentors who can help startups with investment readiness, marketing communications, product design and development, and more that are specifically tailored to the healthcare industry. Through our Core Mentorship initiative startups are matched with 2 -3 core mentors for more structured and consistent advisement throughout the program. Additionally, they can access any of our mentors for specialized support. Some of our mentors include Hicham Shatou, founder of Le Quest, a Philips investment company; Walter Balestra, founder of Zorgdomein, a digital communication platform used in the Netherlands by more than 96% of general practitioners and almost all hospitals for healthcare requests between health providers and customers; Anne-Meike Vroom, founder of IKONE, a patient-led specialist company that works with health organizations on developing patient led systems.
6. International Focus The Netherlands is one of the best connected health ecosystems in the world, the perfect place to be starting your health care business with an international focus. Our program connects you with different healthcare stakeholders everywhere in Europe, US and elsewhere. All these countries, systems and solutions have different requirements, we help you understand them and find the right fit for your company. We bring the international stage to you with our mentors, and we put you on an international stage at the end of our program.
7. Office Space We offer you full-time office space at Novio Tech Campus (offering 10,000 m² of state-of-the-art research infrastructure and accommodation) in Nijmegen. Located in the heart of Health Valley you will have access to a regional network of 700+ companies and institutions involved in healthcare. Closely located to e.g. Radboud University Medical Center and our other partners. You will also have full access to Rockstart Spaces in Amsterdam, where we will also organize regular sessions, workshops and events.
8. Alumni Support After the program, get access to our Alumni Program that includes fundraising advice, PR & marketing support, legal & administrative services and access to exclusive deals.

Our Program

1. One-Year Support After three years of offering a 6-month program, Rockstart realized that Healthcare startups need support for a longer duration to close sales, pilots, and funding. That is why we have extended our program to provide 12 months of support. The first 6 months are more intensive with specific tracks to get you ready for investment and the market. The following 6 months are focused on closing those sales, pilots, and funding.
2. Deepdive Format With over a year of support for startups, we have reformatted our program to have all of the normal elements jam-packed into one week a month rather than having workshops once or twice a week. At the start of each deep-dive week, there will be an event to showcase the work you and your team did from the previous deep-dive session, the rest of the week is focused on a specific topic - such as Team Development, Sales, Product and Validation, and more - the week entails workshops and sessions to help with your strategic thinking on the subject to create a plan to work towards over the course of the month. On the off-weeks, startups will receive one-on-one support from our program director, experts, and mentors to help them achieve the goals they set in the deep-dive week.

3. Tracks Our curriculum is developed around getting your company ready for the market and investment. The first phase of the program will help you develop your 1) Communication and Branding, often times health startups have a hard time clearly explaining to their different stakeholders their value and product; 2) Product Roadmaps, you’re a startup you should be constantly looking on how to improve your product for your customers, however, it can be difficult to prioritize what should come first; 3) Finance & IP, there’s a lot to do regarding pricing and protecting your IP as you start to expand; 4) Team & Culture, as your sales and investment grows your team will need to grow and you want to be smart about who joins your team.

The second phase of the program will help with 1) Sales Acceleration; 2) Fundraising; and 3) Scaling and Closing Investment.
4. Milestone Events & Goal Setting Every month to kick off the next deep-dive week, startups will present their work from the last month to our mentors, partners, and investors. These events are to set a deadline to work towards and a way to engage with the Rockstart network by showcasing all your hard work and amazing progress. Investors and partners love to see that you can get shit done quick and efficient and mentors love to see the progress you are making and how they can support you in the following month!

FAQ

1. WHY SHOULD WE JOIN THE ROCKSTART HEALTH ACCELERATOR?
Rockstart supports you with all the necessary tools, network and guidance to grow your startup. We’ve run multiple programs since 2012, assembled an extensive mentor and partner network and developed programs that provide validation opportunities and hands-on access to the healthcare system. If your team is focused on turning your startup into a high-growth company, Rockstart Program is the right partner to take the next step forward.
2. WE ALREADY RECEIVED SOME FUNDING AND/OR ARE NOT EARLY STAGE. CAN WE APPLY?
Yes. Your investor(s) would probably like you to join our program because they know what kind of support you can get by participating. Seed investors often spend a lot of time to coach the companies they invest in to increase their survival rate but cannot organize a mentor network or provide the expertise an accelerator can. Rockstart’s Health Program will help you to bring your startup to the next level by teaching your team how to think through your business proposition, open doors that have been closed, help you with funding, marketing & PR and make sure you lay the foundation for growth plus lots more. We tailor the program to meet the needs of the 10 selected startups.
3. I AM BY MYSELF AND DON’T HAVE A TEAM. CAN I APPLY?
You need to have a team of at least two people to join the program. It is difficult enough to build and grow a business, so you should have a partner to be able to make it a success. During the selection period, we focus on team dynamics and it’s a critical component of the selection process. You and your teammates should have complementary skills and positive team dynamics to be able to make it work. However, we realize it is sometimes difficult to find the right partner. If you are very convinced that your startup should be part of the program, we recommend you apply. We might be able to connect you to the right partner. A team should be in place before we invite you for selection days.
4. HOW MUCH FUNDING DO ROCKSTART ACCELERATOR STARTUPS RECEIVE?
Startups accepted to the Rockstart Health Program receive €20.000 plus an in-kind investment consisting of office space and other facilities, expert workshops, international events, exclusive deals, and intensive hands-on (mentor) support, all in exchange for 7% equity via a convertible loan. We are willing to give our all alongside your other co-founders to make your startup work. You can call on us as a co-founder; before, during and long after the program has ended.
5. WHAT TYPE OF STARTUPS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
For our Health program, we are looking for health startups that show the potential of changing the way in which health created or delivered through technology. Our focus areas are: Prevent (e.g. in the work place), Connect (think connected patients or Quantified Self) and Communicate (patient-to-patient communication and more).
6. WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET ACCEPTED TO THE ROCKSTART ACCELERATOR?
We believe in the power of a great team. Since our program is extremely intense and requires full team dedication, it’s important that you have a strong team in place with a track record, motivation and potential. We’re also looking for innovation. It doesn’t mean that you have to come up with a totally original idea, but your execution of that idea has to be unique. We’re looking to change the world with the startups we work with. We don’t care where you’re from in the world as long as you can get here before the start of the program.
7. WE ONLY HAVE AN IDEA, IS IT TOO EARLY STAGE TO APPLY?
In order for us to help you get the most out of the program, we’re primarily looking for startups that have developed at least an MVP (minimal viable product), have customers or users and some traction.
8. WHERE IS ROCKSTART’S HEALTH ACCELERATOR BASED?
Rockstart’s Health Program is based at the Novio Tech Campus in Nijmegen. Located in the heart of Health Valley, a regional network of 700+ companies and institutions involved in healthcare, Novio Tech Campus is also home to other (digital) health startups.
9. DO I HAVE TO RELOCATE TO THE NETHERLANDS?
No, our program has been reformatted into one week intensives once a month. It is a requirement for teams to attend the majority of the deep dive weeks of the program.
10. ARE THERE GEOGRAPHICAL RESTRICTIONS IN APPLYING FOR ROCKSTART ACCELERATOR?
No. We are open for startups from all over the world. If you are from outside of the EU, we will support you in applying for the Dutch startup visa. Rockstart is one of the few accredited facilitators who can propose startups receive this visa.
11. I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS
If you have other questions, please send us an email.

Rockstart

Health

Program

About

Online Office Hours

View Program Overview 2019 (PDF)

Program Timeline

Rockstart Provides Access

What we offer

Health Alumni

MedAngel

GoClinic

Deepdee

Our Program

Our mentors

Partners

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