Some local groups are planning a relaunch of MedStart, a networking and support group for medical, pharmaceutical and device companies in the region.
Startup Folsom will give the nascent program a home, website and set up some events and discussions, said Rich Foreman, founder of Startup Folsom.
“It’s an experiment. We don’t know what it’s going to look like yet,” Foreman said. “But we know there is a definite need.”
Almost immediately after floating the idea of a renewed MedStart, it got the nod of support from The Carlsen Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at California State University Sacramento.
"We need a node to be the center for medical technology and health technology companies," said Cameron Law, executive director of the Carlsen Center.
“I do think there is a need. There is a hole in the support system for these startup companies,” said Laura Good, CEO of StartupSac.
MedStart was one of the industry verticals launched out of the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance, a local nonprofit startup support group that supported companies in agriculture, clean technology, general technology and medicine.
Some of the other SARTA verticals are still around locally, including CleanStart in Sacramento and AgStart in Woodland.
SARTA itself ran from 2001 until it closed in 2015, after going through a rapid series of executive changes in a year’s time that also saw its supporters fall away.
Good was the program director in SARTA for MedStart for its first three years. Of all the SARTA verticals, “MedStart had the most companies,” she said.
After SARTA's demise, CleanStart and AgStart had supporters, program managers and board members willing to take on the considerable effort to launch those efforts on their own. The MedStart effort got some support from the city of Sacramento, but the effort fizzled away without leadership.
Foreman said he’s putting together forums to see what the interest and need is locally, and he’s planning its first event in May, which will include speaker Jordan Plews, the CEO of Elevai Labs Inc., a startup that makes stem-cell derived-cosmetics for skin surgery patients.
The region is filled with startups related to medicine, devices and therapies, but there isn’t any group to bring them together yet, Foreman said.
“One thing I’m good at is getting people together,” he said. He’s looking for sponsors and event spaces.
"I like that he is asking the medical community what the right offerings will be," Law said. "It's not 'build it and they will come.' He wants to know what they want."
The effort is timely, Law said, because there is a growing interest in life sciences and medical technology locally.
He anticipates the number of local companies in the MedStart universe will grow locally as ReadyStart Clean Rooms in Rancho Cordova, which opened in October, and Aggie Square gain traction. ReadyStart is a shared clean-room and wet-lab space for lease to medical science companies. Aggie Square is a $1.1 billion, 1.2 million-square-foot medical and biotechnology center being developed by the University of California Davis just south of UC Davis’ hospital campus in Sacramento. It is set to open its first buildings in 2025.
Carlsen Center is willing to host events and get the word out, Law added
Foreman is CEO of application development company Apptology. He is also the local director of Startup Grind and a board member of StartupSac, both of which are networking and support groups for entrepreneurs.
