Empowered to Serve Business Accelerator™: National
Supporting Health Innovators on the Path to Real-World Impact
Info Session:
Health-Tech Enabled Products & Services Track
April 14 | 12–1 p.m. CDT
Find out more about the health-tech enabled products and services track and application process.
Bringing a great health solution to life can be challenging. Many promising innovations never reach the communities that could benefit from them most. In fact, it often takes years for new approaches to become widely adopted and some never scale at all.
We believe there’s a better way forward.
The Empowered to Serve Business Accelerator is designed for founders who are building health-focused businesses and navigating complex systems where progress depends on real adoption. This program goes beyond polishing pitches. It helps innovators better understand how decisions are made, where barriers show up, and how meaningful change takes root.
Support for the Empowered to Serve Business Accelerator is provided by Matter.
This eight-week program offers:
- Nondiluted funding to help move your work forward
- Expert mentorship and practical training
- Real-world validation to strengthen your approach
- Narrative intelligence support to help you communicate your impact clearly and authentically
You’ll explore how language, perception, and belief shape decisions inside organizations and communities. With that understanding, you can tell your story in a way that resonates and opens doors.
With two tailored tracks, the accelerator meets innovators where they are, whether you’re refining a business model or moving toward early commercialization.
What You Can Gain as a Participant
The Empowered to Serve Business Accelerator is here to help you see new possibilities for your work and strengthen your path forward. Participants can expect:
- Clearer business and impact models shaped by design thinking and real-world adoption logic
- Stronger positioning and storytelling for partners, customers, and funders
- Access to a national network of health innovation professionals
- Long-term mentorship and guidance
- Greater readiness for pilots, partnerships, and future funding opportunities
You may also have the opportunity for:
- Up to $300,000 in nondiluted funding available at the finale showcase
- Complimentary tickets to attend the 2027 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, a premier global conference in cardiovascular science
- Participation in a Rapid Validation Lab, a focused phase to test ideas in real-world conditions and make adjustments before scaling
Who This Program is Designed For
The accelerator is a good fit for founders who have moved beyond the idea stage and are working through the real challenges of adoption and growth, especially within systems that involve multiple decision makers.
We’re looking for innovators who are ready to explore new approaches, test assumptions, and build solutions that can improve health in meaningful ways.
Two Tracks Built Around Your Journey
Health Tech-Enabled Products & Services Track
This track is designed for early-stage and growth-stage startups that are ready to build on real momentum.
It supports founders, in both nonprofit and for-profit organizations, who are developing technology-enabled products or services aimed at improving health outcomes. Many participants come in with a prototype, pilot, or early traction and want help strengthening adoption and navigating health system pathways.
This track may be a good fit if your work touches areas like women’s health, nutrition security, cardiovascular health, or other social drivers of health.
Examples include:- Health tech-enabled devices
- Digital health apps and wearables
- Community-driven solutions that use technology
- Receive a participation stipend
- Have the chance to earn $100,000 for first place and $50,000 for second place
- Strengthen go-to-market strategies
- Learn from mentors across health care, business, and technology
- Connect with health system partners and investors
- Explore thoughtful ways to use AI and data to support impact
Collegiate Track
This track is for students and professors who are turning health impact ideas into action.
It supports undergraduate and graduate innovators at the idea-to-prototype stage who are building solutions rooted in lived experience and community need. The focus is on early validation, skill-building, and exposure to the broader health innovation ecosystem.
- Receive a participation stipend
- Have the chance to earn $100,000 for first place and $50,000 for second place
- Build entrepreneurial and problem-solving skills
- Validate ideas through structured feedback
- Learn lean startup principles and storytelling for impact
- Join a supportive cohort of student innovators
This track is ideal for students who see a problem firsthand and want tools and guidance to addressing it.
Program Timeline
- March 3 – Applications open
- April 27 – Applications close
- June 1 – Applicants notified
- June 15–19 – Cohort onboarding and orientation
- June 22–Aug. 14 – Accelerator training (8 weeks)
- Aug. 17–Oct. 4 – Rapid Validation Labs (selected participants)
- Oct. 5–19 – Finale showcase preparation
- Oct. 22 – Finale showcase at Matter in Chicago
Who Can Apply
Minimum requirements include:
- Applicants must be 18 years or older
- Applicants should be the founder or CEO of a nonprofit or pre-seed, seed, or Series A startup
- Companies must be based in the U.S.
- Innovations should have a positive impact on equitable health in the U.S.
Have Questions?
During the training phase, you with be working towards increasing movement and accelerating adoption of your business through:
Identify one active opportunity or stalled system and use it as your live lab throughout the program. This accelerator is built around real movement, not hypothetical planning.
Surface the gates, constraints, and protection dynamics shaping adoption inside your target opportunity. Most founders misread resistance. Learn to read systems precisely.
Map how value is experienced, validated, and translated upward within the organization. This reduces extended proof cycles and accelerates executive alignment.
Identify operational absorption risks and structural strain points before they become objections. Adoption is operational before it is narrative.
Map formal authority, informal influence, and meaning-makers to ensure strategic alignment. Decisions move when power centers feel safe.
Refine how you communicate risk, cost of inaction, and system fit to increase executive confidence. Narrative confidence compresses time.
Throughout the six weeks, apply insights in real time with targeted feedback and system re-reads.
Get ready to apply.
Help Bring Health and Hope to Everyone, Everywhere.
Join us in advancing bold, community-rooted solutions that make a healthier life a reality for all communities. By supporting the Empowered to Serve Business Accelerator, you’re helping visionary founders build healthier futures for the communities they serve.
