Healthcare Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition

Seeking early-stage healthcare companies

Supported by the McNerney Healthcare Entrepreneurship Fund, this annual competition is open to early-stage healthcare companies, with a strong affiliation with Kellogg: at least one active founder or key management team member must be currently seeking a Kellogg degree or have been awarded a Kellogg degree in the past three years.

Applications for the 2025 business plan competition will open in March, 2025.

Competition Structure
Four finalists for each category where selected by forum organizers and assigned a time to present the morning of April 27, 2024. Judges were Kellogg alumni with successful track records as investors or entrepreneurs in healthcare.

Competition Requirements
Industry focus: Healthcare
Company: Formed with proper legal structure
Stage: Early stage
Kellogg Affiliation: Founder, CEO or COO. Must be currently seeking a Kellogg MBA degree (including EMBA) or have been awarded one in the past three years.

Two Categories
– Life Sciences: BioPharma, medical devices, diagnostics, etc.
– Health Care Services: Digital health, software, payer/provider services, consumer health, etc.

$70,000 of cash Prizes
Each Category:
– 1st $25,000
– 2nd $10,000

2024 prize winners included:
Eight finalists (four in each category) were selected by faculty to present in person. A total of $70,000 in prize money was awarded, the winners are:

Life Sciences:

1^st Place—Opera Biosciences (Gerry Sapienza, ’01 MBA & Julie Ming Liang, ’23 PhD, Northwestern)

2nd Place—Nspire (Wadsworth Williams, ’22 MD, Feinberg)

Healthcare Services:

1^st Place—NO8 (Forrest Yeakley, ’23 MBA)

2^nd Place—Sub22 Technologies (Caleb Baltes, ’22 MBA)