Meharry Medical College has a new opportunity for startups.
The Nashville-based school is launching a social determinants of health innovations challenge, open to diverse entrepreneurs and startups in Middle Tennessee, said Bryan Heckman, director of the Meharry Center for the Study of Social Determinants of Health.
Selected applicants will receive a year-long residency in Meharry’s business incubator ResilienSeed and a package of services worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Interested entrepreneurs and businesses have until Nov. 30 to apply for the challenge, which is being funded through a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Hickman said the program hopes to get at least 100 applicants.
Founded in 1876, Meharry — the nation’s largest private, historically Black academic health sciences school — has gained increased national attention for its work to improve health equity in Nashville and beyond during the Covid-19 pandemic. Heckman said the innovation challenge is aimed at finding solutions for communities that have been disproportionately impacted by social determinants of health, specifically health-tech businesses that can influence socioeconomic and physical environments and health behaviors.
“In this first year, we are really customizing [the program] to where [entrepreneurs and startups] are at, and building mentorship and research teams around a personalized assessment,” Heckman said. “We are sort of a runway in providing resources to people who otherwise wouldn’t of had them. Access to capital and networking is the major hurdle for minority business owners that is causing the major gap in success rates. We want to help close that business gap but also the overarching economic disparities that minorities have been experiencing for centuries.”
The challenge’s launch comes as Nashville’s health-tech industry is awash in cash, with several high-dollar rounds of funding hitting Nashville-area startups’ bank accounts this year, including a $160 million capital raise by Monogram Health and a $100 million raise by Relatient Inc.
Heckman said Meharry’s selected startups will be provided business courses, discounted services and mentorship from industry leaders, including Meharry alums. Interested entrepreneurs can apply here. “The ultimate goal is longevity and wealth creation in minority populations,” Heckman said. “We want to be a launching point to get someone faster and further than they otherwise would have gotten.”
