Louisville, Kentucky

Headquartered in Louisville, KY a national hub of healthcare heritage, knowledge and innovation. It is the birthplace and growing ground of healthcare behemoths such as Humana to successful startups such as Apellis and is home to a multitude of top-tier aging care organizations and research universities.

The startup ecosystem in Louisville is a supportive environment for entrepreneurs to launch in a system rich in resources for support and mentorship, all in a centrally located geography where living is affordable.

Important Dates

Bootcamp Dates: Jul 11, 2024 – Sept. 27, 2024

Demo Day: September 26, 2024

Location: Virtual via Zoom

Apply Now here!

Coaches

Greg Langdon

Greg’s background is in corporate and product strategy for technology businesses. He has experience in executive management, business development, marketing and public relations, acquisitions, product management, software architecture and development, project management and digital electronics design.

Jacqueline L. Wood

Jacqueline is a visionary and strategic forward healthcare executive. She has a strong background in business development, strategic planning and increasing efficiencies throughout the healthcare continuum. Her ability to challenge the status quo gives her a unique approach to today’s healthcare issues. Jacqueline is a proven leader and has an affinity to bring teams together to maximize collaboration. Her strong clinical and business background helps her to assist others in operations, entrepreneur ventures, business development or consumer engagement.
jakemiller

Jake Miller

Jake has over 18 years experience designing, developing, and implementing new products, services, and business models. Professional focus is on making entrepreneurial endeavors a reality for enterprises of all sizes. Recent professional highlights include introducing a first-of-its-kind retail-health clinical trial model and leading the cross-functional launch of 11 new products in less than 18 months in a highly-matrixed organization.

Bob Saunders

Bob is a General Partner of OCA Ventures (Chicago), a Founding Partner of Saunders Murdoch and Associates (Louisville/Boston), and is an active investor in many healthcare startups. Bob was a Managing Director and General Partner at Chrysalis Ventures from 1997 to 2009. Bob was a founding board member of MetaCyte Business Lab, the University of Louisville’s life science incubator. Over the last 30 years, he has invested in several dozen startup companies and has mentored 100+ startups. Bob received a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and an M.A. from Harvard University. He was both a Fulbright Scholar and a Marshall Scholar

Jackie Willmot

Jackie has 30+ years of experience in the healthcare industry including 13 years as a clinician and 15 years as an executive at Humana in the Innovation Center including 3 years working for a Humana Startup in the United Kingdom. Since leaving Humana in 2009 Jackie was trained by Steve Blank in his ‘Lean Launchpad Educators Class’ at Stanford University, has worked with 300+ startups, and serves as a business coach in a variety of capacities. She was a founding member and on the Board of Directors of the Network for Entrepreneurial Women and has worked with healthcare startups via the LaunchIt program where she works closely with Coulter, ExCITE, and I-Corps funded companies. Jackie is a Principal Investigator (PI) on an NIH funded initiative to create the XLeratorNetwork in the Southeast IDeA States and also sits on the External Review Board (ERB) for the NIH funded KYNETIC program, the University of Kentucky’s External Advisory Committee (EAC) for the NIH funded CCTS program, and the Review Panel for the Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust’s BioTech Accelerator Program “EnTRUST”. She is a Master’s prepared Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist and holds an MBA from the University of Louisville’s entrepreneurship program, a Master’s of Science from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Baccalaureate Nursing degree from Villa Maria College.

Eugene Krentsel

Prior to joining XLerateHealth, Dr. Krentsel served as Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation and Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Louisville. He was responsible for the full range of activities in the discovery-innovation-translation-commercialization spectrum at UofL, including working with external groups in the public and private sectors to promote commercialization of university technologies and advancing industry engagement and entrepreneurship. Prior to being recruited to UofL in 2013, he served as Assistant Vice President for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships at Binghamton University in New York, where he helped develop and protect faculty intellectual property, paired researchers’ expertise with pressing market needs, and offered guidance to faculty and students interested in starting their own business. Eugene is a member of the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Committee on SBIR.

Sebastian Alvim

Prior to stepping into the role of Managing Director, Sebastian joined the XLH team in Flint as Program Director and was instrumental in launching XLH’s 2nd location in Flint — which included collaborating with multiple healthcare stakeholders and investors in the region, building out and enhancing the programming, and creating technology tools that have improved the efficiencies and effectiveness of running the accelerator.   Sebastian has extensive experience with evaluation of business strategy, commercial viability, and market analysis. He has advised 50+ healthcare startup companies successfully applying Lean Startup Methodology to help them develop, grow, and scale up their businesses.   Sebastian also serves as a startup judge for the Michigan startup competition Invest360.  Prior to XLH, he was a Co-founder of MyNurse, a home healthcare marketplace for caregivers and patients. Sebastian began his career at a British consultancy multinational firm, where he was responsible for human resource operations and strategic corporate advisory work (including change management, restructuring, and organizational assessment).