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INVOForward Digital Health

Building a Business Model | Summer 2022 | Evan Norton, SPRIG Equity

INVOForward Digital Health: Building a Business Model is a mentorship program geared towards Northwestern faculty and clinicians who are interested in translating their digital health innovation into a commercial opportunity. The objective of this program is to equip teams with an improved understanding of the elements necessary for creating a compelling business model and to help make projects competitive for accelerator/incubator opportunities as well as attract potential external partners or investors.  INVOForward Digital Health is a collaboration between INVO and NUCATS.

Program Details

Program Overview

INVOForward Digital Health is a 7-week virtual program (June 24 – August 12, 2022) that will feature a series of weekly presentations from leaders in industry and the investment community, who will discuss key components of building a business model for digital health and will offer individualized feedback to each team.  Through the program, teams will work with an assigned facilitator who will provide ongoing support to strengthen each aspect of their business model. The program will culminate in presentations to a panel of representatives from digital health companies and venture capital, enabling further useful advice and networking for the teams. 

Weekly Sessions

Teams will meet on Friday mornings via Zoom sessions over the course of 7 weeks. The first 5 sessions will be 2 hours and focus on developing a specific component of the business model. A guest speaker with subject-matter expertise from the corporate and investment communities will provide topic-focused advice and real-world examples. The final two weeks will be reserved for practicing and delivering final presentations.

Session Topics:   The following program lectures are open to the entire Northwestern community from 10-11am.  The remainder of the session from 11am-12pm will be open to participating INVOForward teams ONLY.

Session 1:  Differentiating your business
Friday, Jun2 24, 2022, 10am-noon
Katie Arnold, SPRIG Consulting

  • Establishing novelty
  • Differentiating from competitors
  • Building brand awareness

Session 2: Developing your business rationale
Friday, July 8, 2022, 10am-noon
Lee Shapiro, 7wire Ventures

  • Understanding the unmet need
  • Identifying key stakeholders
  • Identifying product-market fit

Session 3:  Finding the business model that works
Friday, July 15, 2022, 10am-noon

Jodi Akin, Hawthorne Effect
  • Overview of various models in digital health
  • How to choose best model
  • Translating your model to revenue

Session 4: Defining the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Friday, July 22, 2022, 10am-noon
Mert Iseri, MATH Venture Partners

  • Identifying key issues and desired functionalities for viability
  • Identifying initial customer beta-sites
  • Building your MVP

Session 5: Sources of Funding
Friday, July 29, 2022, 10am-noon
Evan Norton, SPRIG Equity

  • Establishing the required funding amount
  • Understanding types of investors
  • Building a pitch deck

Session 6: Practice Presentations
Friday, August 5, 2022, 10am-noon

Session 7: Final Presentations
Friday, August 12, 2022, 10am-noon

Mentorship

For the duration of the program, each team will be partnered with facilitator who will help faculty/clinician teams flesh out and bolster their approach to their business strategy. Facilitators will meet one-on-one with their teams on a weekly basis (1 hour/week) to discuss specific tasks, overall progress, and next steps.  The teams will be responsible for creating their own slides.

Final Presentations

In the final week of the program, each team will present their compiled package via Zoom to a panel of venture capital and industry representatives. During this final session, teams will have the opportunity to engage with members of the investment community and industry and receive useful feedback on their projects to help inform next steps. 

Participation Criteria

Eligibility

  • Teams must be anchored by a faculty or clinician PI and include 1-2 additional members (e.g. graduate student, post-doc, or research staff member)

Team Requirements

  • Participating teams will be expected to attend all components of the program, including:
    • Friday morning sessions
    • Weekly office hours with assigned facilitators (1 hr/wk), Dates & Times TBD
    • Practice Session
    • Final presentation session
  • In addition to assembling and presenting an initial business model for their digital health innovation , participating teams will be expected to provide weekly updates on Friday sessions through informal peer presentations.

** APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED **