The Journey Venture Studio is accepting applications for its inaugural founder-in-residence cohort slated to launch in September.
The studio, a nonprofit that supports aspiring entrepreneurs launching health care-related companies, is accepting applications through May 5 for the cohort.
“Unlike an accelerator or incubator, a venture studio doesn’t fund existing startups. It’s a company that creates multiple startups in house, then partners with entrepreneurs to grow them,” Justin Bayless, president of The Journey Venture Studio, said in a statement. “Our goal with the founder-in-residence program is to identify, inspire, educate, and empower diverse entrepreneurs in our tailored six-month venture program to increase their odds of success and give them a real chance to swing for the fences."
The Journey Venture Studio is seeking aspiring entrepreneurs that represent health care focus areas, including mental health, sports medicine, women’s health, aging and adult care, chronic disease management and packaging and supply chain. Categories were chosen based on market opportunity and need to fill innovation and investment gaps, said Mark Moeremans, managing director of the Journey Venture Studio.
“We are looking for those with passionate connections to those health care areas," Moeremans said. "We are really trying to find individuals that have traits we associate with being a great entrepreneur: grit and overcoming adversity."
Entrepreneurs must be prepared to move to Phoenix for the six-month program, which provides $100,000 toward relocation as well as building prototypes and testing venture concepts.
Participants in the cohort will be responsible for bringing an idea from concept to prototype as well as doing market research and customer interviews and utilizing the venture studio’s resources to develop startups ready for pre-seed funding.
Journey Venture Studio will provide support, investment, mentorship and programming that allows founders to develop and scale their startups. At the end of the six-month residence program, founders will pitch their startups in front of the Journey Venture Studio's board, sponsors and partners for a chance to secure funding.
Designed to increase diversity
Bayless and Moeremans founded Journey Venture Studio to close racial and gender opportunity gaps by providing support to diverse founders wanting to pursue entrepreneurship.
“Entrepreneurship is a critical pathway for closing the wealth gap and central to opportunity in our country, yet many of our best and brightest aren’t pursuing that path because of a host of systemic barriers; lack of access to capital, mentorship, and training being just a few of them" said Moeremans, who is former senior vice president of entrepreneurship and venture development for the Arizona Commerce Authority. “That is what the Journey Venture Studio is here to do. We are here to remove the obstacles that have historically prevented the success of diverse entrepreneurs.”
Bayless was formerly CEO of Bayless Integrated Healthcare, a family business that he helped scale from six to 600 employees and nine locations prior to selling a majority stake to a Fortune 25 health care company, according to a company release.
The Journey Venture Studio will occupy a building at 3620 N. Third St., which is also the home of Ten Figures, a consulting and venture capital firm founded by Bayless.
The Journey Venture Studio has received a number of applications already, and interviews are now underway with the final cohort to be decided in June, Moeremans said.
“We’re excited to bring world class talent — whether it’s in our backyard or all over the country — to Phoenix to launch companies with us,” Moeremans said. "The ability to continue to infuse diverse talent in our ecosystem is going to be a real boon to the state.”
