ABSTRACT
Despite increasing funding available for startups in general, many entrepreneurs and their startups in the healthcare sector do not have sufficient financing, resources, or expertise to transform their innovative ideas and solutions into successful businesses. Recently, the growth in available healthcare-related accelerators has provided healthcare entrepreneurs with a solution to these problems. Accelerators form part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the healthcare industry and act as intermediaries between startups and established healthcare organizations. The benefits for entrepreneurs are the access to experienced business people, infrastructure, and funding to help them succeed in the early stages of venture life. For established healthcare organizations, accelerators and access to startups may be a way to drive corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. This chapter provides an overview of different types of accelerators available to healthcare organizations and startups. We then highlight the variety of ways in which they seek to revolutionize the healthcare industry. We use a number of practical examples to illustrate the different approaches that can be used.
