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Contact

Epicenter
Jessica Taveau
jessica@epicentermemphis.org

Start Co.
Katie Milligan
katie@neverstop.co 

Sixteen tech startups participating in Memphis accelerator

Entrepreneurial partners pivot to virtual summer experience

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (July 8, 2020) – In the fifth year of their partnership, Epicenter and Start Co. are serving 16 early-stage tech startup companies through a virtual pre-accelerator program this summer. 

The partners are offering a five-week “on-ramp” to future accelerator programs, focused on various aspects of intensive customer discovery, or proving that the businesses are viable and marketable prior to full accelerator participation. While the partners’ typical Summer of Acceleration programming was not safe or practical due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 16 companies are logging on from Memphis and markets around the United States to take advantage of the expertise in startup building.

“Access to mentors, startups, investors, and facilities is helpful when starting up, but are typical of most programs,” said Ryan Ramkhelawan, director of acceleration at Start Co. ”The reason founders place their trust in us in specific verticals of excellence is because we know that turning great ideas into great opportunities takes a relentless process, which we have mastered for over 10 years.” 

Start Co. is leading the business planning and customer discovery curriculum, and the ZeroTo510 Medical Device Accelerator, operated by Epicenter, is offering health care industry-specific expertise in FDA compliance, market introduction, and reimbursement strategies. Memphis early-stage investment firm Innova is advising the teams on venture capital fundraising, and Epicenter is connecting the teams to a larger ecosystem of support, including Experts in Residence, capital, and customers. The experience will culminate in a virtual Demo Day on July 24.

“Even in a crisis, entrepreneurs continue to invent and build businesses, including solutions for problems we’re experiencing during this pandemic,” said Leslie Lynn Smith, president and CEO of Epicenter. “Leveraging our long-standing partnership to offer virtual accelerator programming allows us to identify early-stage technologies in our region’s areas of strength that can ultimately build a presence and hire in Memphis. It’s important that, even in these uncertain times, we support entrepreneurship and tech innovation with programming for all stages of growth, venture and angel investments, and expertise.”

 The participating companies represent technologies in medical devices and health care, logistics and supply chain, and property construction and management. They are:

• Apothewell (Little Rock, Ark.) is a proprietary system that integrates a mobile app and a custom-designed smart pill device in order to close the gaps left by existing solutions. The patent pending system couples smart alerts and refill management technology with multi-layered caregiver support to reduce medication adherence issues.

• BlyncSync Technologies (Oklahoma City, Okla.) is an IOT platform that helps drivers and companies avoid accidents behind the wheel, stemming from human error like fatigue, distraction, non-attentiveness, etc. BlyncSync is leveraging biometric capable smart wearable devices to create predictive behavioral analytics on the end user. This provides a whole new level of insight into accident causation and understanding on end users’ poor behaviors. The solution is designed for a commercial setting with workers who have long, inconsistent work hours and work in high-demand environments. While the company has begun servicing the trucking industry, it plans on expanding into other industries such as rail, aviation, oil and gas, mining, and everyday drivers.  

• Cedars Health (St. Louis, Mo.) is developing an implantable device that treats benign prostatic hyperplasia. Its minimally invasive solution aims to be cost-effective, avoid complications, and encourage patients to consider surgery instead of relying on medications. 

• Duct (Albany, N.Y.) is the premier subcontract management platform built on a construction first payment system. It helps general contractors and subcontractors find projects, manage their projects, and get paid all in one place.

• eBoxchain (Madison, Miss.) is a flexible and cost-efficient delivery network focused on providing last-mile delivery services to small businesses in Raleigh, N.C., and Jackson, Miss. eBoxchain enables small businesses to be competitive by retaining and expanding their customer base. The company offers fixed price delivery options that won't hurt the bottom line. 

• Gardner’s Reconstructed Medical Devices (Memphis, Tenn.) is a medical device implant manufacturing company that aims to improve the quality of medical device implants by creating a device that is of much lighter weight. The company combines materials that are durable, allowing some flexibility with movement and biocompatibility. 

• Hubly Surgical (Chicago, Ill.) is developing advanced medical devices to slash the 20% lethal complication rate of the most common neurosurgery. Its Hubly Drilling System includes safety features of drilling guidance, catheter guidance, drill bit auto-retraction, and battery power to make intracranial access, among many other procedures, safe. 

• IntuScope (Memphis, Tenn.) is an oral intubation device designed to increase the success rate of oral intubation while reducing the difficulty of the intubation procedure and the risk of injury in both adult and pediatric patients. Simply stated, IntuScope takes a tedious procedure that requires extensive training, experience, strength, and frequent practice and streamlines it into a safe and simple procedure to perform.

• Lasso (Fremont, Calif.) is a premium 7-hour delivery service for high-end eCommerce brands. The company aims to connect eager customers with a faster, more personalized delivery option, maximizing their satisfaction and brand loyalty. The company plans to operate throughout San Francisco after launching. 

• LynxRx (Memphis, Tenn.) is a pharmaceutical logistics platform that links a network of proprietary apps, utilizing the smart devices already in the hands of patients, medical professionals, and Rx providers to track and trace prescribed medications through the time-sensitive and costly complexities of the healthcare spectrum. Enhancing value at the point of prescribing, this blockchain-secured data management solution incorporates wireless, geospatial, and helix tag technology to exceed regulatory and compliance requirements. LynxRx advances adherence, promotes persistence, and enhances wellness for consumers, increases efficiency and lowers costs for healthcare providers, and improves revenues for pharmaceutical companies.

• MedLock (Charlottesville, Va.) improves retention-in-care for patients recovering from Opioid Use Disorder. The at-home monitoring device tracks medication adherence and symptom data to individualize in-clinic care and inform an SMS service that delivers preventative messaging to the patient.

• Plaquectomy (Memphis, Tenn.) is a device intended to upend a faulty and expensive angioplasty/stenting industry by safely removing arterial plaque as opposed to compressing it into the arterial walls. Utilizing many novel innovations, but built on years of pre-existing surgical models, Plaquectomy aims to dramatically reduce or altogether eliminate repeat hospitalizations and improve the lives of millions.

• Project Beat (Nashville, Tenn.) is a mobile AED medical device company converting normal AED with its functional capabilities to an app and cell phone. The AED will be just like a phone cover, which will house the battery and necessary voltage to deliver competent shocks to restore the heart’s regular rate and rhythm. The AED phone cover will also house the AED defibrillator pads, which can be plugged into the cover before they are placed on the patient. The app portion of the device will give instructions to the person using the AED on how to use it, where to place the pads, analyze whether the patient has a shockable arrhythmia, and adjust how much voltage to deliver in each shock. 

• Reveal Ag and Timber (Olive Branch, Miss.) provides sustainable turnkey silviculture operations to Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Timber Investment Management Organizations (TIMOs) that manage timber assets throughout the Southeast USA. We enable asset managers to guarantee their budget is applied in a way that provides the greatest ROI while minimizing the environmental impact of misplaced fertilizers.

• Scopi (San Francisco Bay Area, Calif.) is an affordable, reliable, and portable nasoendoscope. When compared to existing technologies, Scopi allows for more efficient and comfortable procedures at less than 10% of the price. The company’s aim is to make accurate diagnosis of speech impediments a global truth.

• Surface Medical Solutions LLC (Memphis, Tenn.) is a third-party vendor that focuses on refurbishing and resurfacing implants and surgical instruments. Through the process of metal finishing, the company will improve the appearance and quality of implants and instrumentation. Surface Medical has the ability to bring a refinishing and shiny look to all parts with the use of lasers, buffers, and polishing lathes. 

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About Start Co.:

Start Co. is a nationally recognized venture development organization based in Memphis, Tennessee that relentlessly builds founders and sustainable innovation while promoting entrepreneurship for everyone. Start Co. is a member of GAN, a highly curated global community of the top venture studios, accelerators, corporations, and investors innovating to build the future. Corporations to industry associations to high tech startups to turn Start Co. to advance their growth through innovation and entrepreneurship.  More information can be found at neverstop.co.

About Epicenter:

As a nonprofit hub organization, Epicenter leads the Memphis region's connected and collaborative entrepreneurship movement. Using a systems approach, Epicenter drives strategy and measures impact among a network of economic development, academic, corporate, and government partners to increase support to new and existing tech startups, creative and community-based businesses, student entrepreneurs, and others across multiple industries and stages of growth. Epicenter and its partners connect these entrepreneurs and their innovative ideas to programming, capital, customers, and talent in order to create a just, inclusive, and growing economy that accrues to all Memphians. More information is at epicentermemphis.org.

Epicenter operates the ZeroTo510 Medical Device Accelerator, which specializes in commercializing medical devices that typically utilize the FDA’s 510k regulatory pathway. Now in its 9th year, ZeroTo510 is recognized as the nation’s premier accelerator for entrepreneurs pursuing FDA approvals and business development in the medical device category. More information is at zeroto510.com.