WashU Olin’s BIG IdeaBounce: 13 Startups In The Business Of Health Compete For The $50K Top Prize

The business of health boasts a massive economic footprint on the world. Healthcare is the largest single employer in the U.S., with more than 20 million people working in biotech, pharmaceutical, insurance, health services, hospitals, and clinics. All told, spending on the business of health exceeds $4.5 trillion in the U.S., making up nearly 18% of GDP in the U.S.

So for the fourth annual BIG IdeaBounce competition, sponsored by Washington University’s Olin Business School, it was something of a no-brainer to focus on this central pillar of the world economy. Our invitation to students to pitch their health startups has been a huge success. Some 82 startup ideas flooded in, representing nearly 45 universities in 14 countries, including Algeria, Austria, Canada, Chile, China, Estonia, Ghana, India, Panama, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.

The judges narrowed down those submissions to a baker’s dozen of exceptional startup ideas, many of them powered by artificial intelligence applications. They range from wearables that monitor heart function and sleep habits to sophisticated software platforms aimed to boost efficiencies and productivity in healthcare. Carepath.AI streamlines the ordering process for home medical equipment, while Brivy automates mental health session records, saving clinicians hours by instantly generating insurance-ready notes and session insights.

‘FOUNDERS EXTENDED THEIR REACH TO ENABLE HUMAN BEINGS TO LIVE THE BEST LIVES POSSIBLE’

This group will be further narrowed down to three finalists who will be invited to St. Louis to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges at Washington University’s Olin Business School in mid-April. The top winner will walk away with a $50,000 cash prize, with smaller funding awards to the second and third-place teams. P&Q is also inviting our audience to vote for their favorite team and idea.

The breadth and depth of new thinking applied to the challenges of health is impressive. “From across the country, groups of innovators and thinkers submitted outstanding ideas designed to improve the wellness of society,” says Patrick Aguilar, managing director of health at Washington University’s Olin Business School. “Founders developed biological and technological tools that addressed the breadth of what ‘health’ means, and they created pitches that captured the urgency and importance of their work. At Olin, we are heavily focusing on how business can create this exact kind of societal impact, and it was inspiring to see the ways that the teams created solutions to problems across the health spectrum.

“Rather than limiting themselves to the treatment of disease,” adds Aguilar, “they extended their reach to enable human beings to live the best lives possible.  This is exactly the kind of thinking that we need to work through the most challenging problems of our era.  I was impressed by their curiosity, creativity, and originality, and I look forward to seeing how the judges react to the final pitches next month.”

INTERDISCIPLINARY FOUNDING TEAMS HATCHING COMPLEX SOLUTIONS IN HEALTH

Many of the ideas are so complex and intricate that they require the brainpower of interdisciplinary teams. OneHealth+ founders comprise professionals with expertise in healthcare, technology, and business, including MBAs from Wharton and Stanford, with experience in engineering and health infomatics, a physician getting his Executive MBA at the Olin Business School, all led by a CEO with degrees in human biology as well as masters in health administration from Cornell and business creation from the University of Utah.

FindMyClinicalTrial, a startup out of American University, is helping patients navigate the clinical trial landscape via an AI powered website and application which allows for patients, family members, and providers to easily search, share, and enroll in clinical trials. The startup, a collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, has engaged more than 4,000 users and post over 24k clinical trials is all 50 states. Its four-member startup team brings together expertise in computer science, machine learning, business, and communications.

A pair of MBA students at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business–Caroline Holt and Justin Ryan–joined with a third founder at the University of Texas in Austin with AI crew to create Patient Led Health. It has come up with an innovative app that enables individuals to capture, store, analyze, search, share and manage their own medical records across many patient portals.

Meantime, two PhDs from the University of California in San Diego are developing a wearable ultrasonic imager for continuous, real-time and direct visualization of cardiac function. The primary market? Patients in intensive care units who require continuous cardiac monitoring. Of the estimated 10 to 15 million patients admitted to ICUs each year, 40% to 60% require cardiac monitoring, creating a direct market of up to 7.5 million patients annually.

WATCH THE TWO-MINUTE ELEVATOR PITCHES AND VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE

WashU Olin’s BIG IdeaBounce® powered by Poets&Quants was open to all current undergraduate and graduate school students or any prospect interested in a graduate business school degree. You can watch their two-minute elevator pitches and read about their business plans in the following profiles.

Vote for the Poets&Quants People’s Choice Award

Tell us your favorite idea by voting via the buttons below.  The team with the most votes will win the Poets&Quants People’s Choice Award and receive $1,000. Voting ends  April 13, 2025.