The Medical Alley Association announced Friday a new initiative to support Minnesota's health care startups. The initiative, called Medical Alley Starts, will launch on Monday.
Medical Alley Starts will be led by Frank Jaskulke, Medical Alley's vice president of information. The program intends to connect local startups with global investors, give them access to suppliers and talent, and connect them with Medical Alley's branding.
The program won't be like an accelerator or incubator but will instead be a "community-wide infrastructure" for health startups, Jaskulke said.
Helping startups isn't new for Medical Alley; it collaborated with 301 different growing companies in 2020, he said. But Medical Alley Starts will create a more systemic approach for working with startups, creating better results and allowing the organization to take on an even bigger load.
"Our goal is to provide a broader set of services to a broader set of companies. If we do it right, I'd hope we work with 600 different startups in a year," he said.
Its primary goal is to create a reliable network of investors and other partners that companies throughout Minnesota will have access to. It also hopes to increase the clout of the region. In the same way that "Silicon Valley" has become a mark of quality for software companies, which are usually either based in the region or have close ties to it, Jaskulke hopes "Medical Alley" can be similar for health tech companies.
Health tech startups in Minnesota have momentum, he said. In 2020, those companies raised $1.4 billion in total venture capital dollars, $220 million more than the previous year.
Medical Alley Starts will be supported by an advisory board featuring some of the local health tech economy's largest names, such as Bind Benefits President Jodi Hubler, Bright Health and Definity Health co-founder Kyle Rolfing, and Visana Health CEO Joe Connolly.
The Golden Valley-based Medical Alley Association is a non-profit group that supports Minnesota's health care technology economy. With 535 dues-paying members in 2020, Medical Alley is Minnesota's 20th largest business advocacy group, according to Business Journal research.
