Minneapolis startup Qualtrx is heading to New York City for three months, having been recently selected to participate in Blueprint Health’s inaugural startup accelerator program, according to CEO and co founder Rashaun Sourles.
Qualtrx is pioneering a web-based platform to move healthcare and pharmaceutical sales online, or, in the words of Sourles, “Interacting with sales people is almost universally annoying and we’re using social media to reshape the B2B healthcare marketplace.”
He describes a scenario wherein a pharmacist leverages Qualtrx’s private social networking environment to outline needs in a Q & A setting and essentially crowdsource responses designed to improve vendor relationships. The proposition is to offer providers more control over their time and spending through automation and increased competition — ultimately improving patient outcomes.
Blueprint, a member of the TechStars network, “offers $20,000 of seed capital [6% equity exchange], extensive mentorship and a shared work environment to help entrepreneurs go from idea to prototype and provide access to angel and venture capital investors,” says their website.
“The domain-specific mentorship cannot be overstated,” Sourles said, having already opened communication channels with multiple program mentors. Of the 100+ listed, several VC firms are represented, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Google Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, HLM Venture Partners, and Spark Capital.
Qualtrx is one of ten selected from an estimated 300 applicants, and Sourles will be joined in NYC January 9th – April 4th by Steve Vlaminck from Refactr, serving as a development partner for the past five months. Meanwhile, Michael Winikoff will be sticking around town to maintain a recently formed pilot with HCMC and work on re-branding as ‘NEEDL’.
“Our core team and advisors are excited about this seed investment from Blueprint Health because their focus on incubating healthcare IT startups with B2B business models fits well with our approach to innovation in the health vertical. Our foundation is in Minneapolis, but the opportunity for visibility like this is so critical for us. It’s definitely way too early to predict what will happen and where we’ll end up once we’ve made it through investor day in Union Square!” — Qualtrx CEO and co founder Rashaun Sourles.
