Google is ubiquitous in modern life.
But, one Memphis entrepreneur’s connection to the tech giant goes deeper than most — and has provided a path toward growth for her company.
Erica Plybeah, founder and CEO of med tech startup MedHaul, is currently participating in the inaugural Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders. MedHaul was one of 12 startups chosen in late July out of more than 900 applicants for the immersive program.
This is not the first Google program MedHaul has participated in. And, the startup now has a heavyweight financial firm involved, as well.
Fast start up
Plybeah’s background is in clinical informatics — building and implementing clinical software for hospitals and clinics.
A native of Greenwood, Mississippi, Plybeah returned to Memphis to be closer to family after spending several years in the Northeast. She was recruited by the Memphis Bioworks Foundation to lead a health information exchange, the Mid-South eHealth Alliance.
Her grandmother’s experiences finding and using medical-related transportation provided the genesis for MedHaul’s launch. Plybeah’s company is cloud-based tech that streamlines finding and booking transportation to health care facilities via quality providers.
She founded her company in 2017 after winning the Memphis Medical District Collaborative and Epicenter’s Operation Opportunity business plan competition, which came with $20,000 in seed funding.
Plybeah received an additional $50,000 in funding after MedHaul participated in Epicenter’s Logistics Innovation Accelerator in 2017.
But, she noted that many tech startups raise $2 million to $3 million in pre-launch funding.
“We were able to stretch that $70,000 and turn a few letters of intent into actual pilots,” Plybeah said. “We're still very early stage using our early technology, but we’ve been able to turn those pilots into contracts.”
Beyond local startup resources, MedHaul was selected in 2018 by Google for its weeklong Google for Entrepreneurs Exchange: Black Founders program in Durham, North Carolina. Plybeah said that experience was transformative.
Some of the founders from that program still go to conferences together and assist each other with the difficulties involved in a startup.
“That program definitely changed my founder life. I built the strongest relationships with the founders I went through my cohort with,” she said. “I look at them as family and talk to one of them at least every day, even now.”
Moving forward
The latest startup program with Google started virtually on Aug. 10. The 10-week program will conclude in mid-October.
At the midway point, Plybeah said the program covered the product and technology itself, including involvement from software engineers and experts in customer engagement and satisfaction.
And, Plybeah has been matched with a mentor — a physician who now is a Google product team leader — to help guide her in marrying high-tech with health care.
The second half of the program will focus on growth and sales and will finish with leadership sessions.
“They [are] helping us scale and optimize our technology. We’re looking to grow to two additional communities by the end of this year.” Plybeah said. “There is a certain way that technology needs to be built to handle 5,000 customers versus 50 customers. So, we're building our technology for scale.”
MedHaul had two staff in 2017, now has seven staff members, and Plybeah expects that to grow to nine by the end of 2020. Though mostly remote, MedHaul will look at office space for some staff in the future.
She said that while MedHaul is already using machine learning on its platform, Google is helping them make it better. And, the program has also lengthened Plybeah’s to-do list.
“It's opened our eyes to a lot, which is a little bit stressful because it's, ‘Oh, we didn't even think about that. We also have to do that,’” she said.
Innova Memphis partner Jan Bouton has been tracking Plybeah’s progress. His firm is an early stage investor and has invested in MedHaul since its Epicenter accelerator participation in 2017. He also knew Plybeah from her days at Memphis Bioworks.
“[MedHaul] can grow into a national model on how you do this,” Bouten said.
Bouton saw the potential in the idea, and he isn’t the only one.
In April 2020, MedHaul was one of nine companies — out of 450 applicants — selected for Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab.
The Morgan Stanley accelerator spans six months and includes expert business analysis and an equity investment from the billion-dollar firm. In prior cohorts, Morgan Stanley invested $200,000 in each company.
“Morgan Stanley is not just bringing the name and some money to the table, they've thrown a lot of resources at these companies in helping them. … [They are] working with her on financial models,” Bouton said. “Obviously, investment banks are better than anyone at building those.”
Plybeah said MedHaul has expanded to cities outside of Memphis and hopes to expand to two large metros by the end of the year or early next year. For competitive reasons, she declined to disclose the markets outside of Memphis, though the Southeast is a target region for the company.
And, over the next two years, Plybeah has targeted expanding to more than a dozen additional cities.
“She's really worked her way into a couple of great customers that have almost co-developed the [MedHaul] model and made sure that it's all very robust,” Bouton said. “I’m glad that we could do all that in Memphis: Getting that initial customer buy-in, getting the initial funding, and then putting it on that national [Google and Morgan Stanley] platform.”
