For the past six weeks, forMD has been part of Blueprint Health a startup accelerator based out of NYC that focuses on health care companies.   Aptly named, accelerators focus on speeding the process of maturation for startups through critically thinking about a company’s business model, connection to mentors and investors, and helping entrepreneurs find focus.  During the first half of the program, my cofounder Sameer and I have been fortunate enough to work next to ten other great companies and talk with experienced entrepreneurs and investors.

For us, the term accelerator has been especially true.  During the first six weeks of the program, we’ve built relationships with an incredible number of smart folks and if you read my last post, then you know how valuable I think relationships are to personal and professionals success.  We’ve also expanded our list of partners to eight schools of medicine, including three of the top in the country.  When the next 6 weeks pass and the program culminates in demo day where we’ll present to hundreds in the NYC startup and health care community, we hope we will be much closer to achieving a number of our company’s milestones, including capital raising.

The first major event was our launch party, held the first Wednesday of the week.  I gave our company’s elevator pitch as Sameer and I wore our much-discussed TransforMDers t-shirts.  We even got a shout out from Alex Fair, founder of Medstartr, a crowd-funding site for health care companies, on his Twitter account.  It was a great night and the beginning of a barrage of smart people sharing their insights and feedback.

Aside: if you’re interested in joining the TransforMDers in changing the face of medicine, then we’re looking for a talented developer with expertise in PHP, java, and/or iOS as well as a general bad*ss to work directly with me.  No previous health care experience needed; hustlers please apply to greg@formd.com!

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank all the smart, busy people who took time out of their hectic schedules to share their advice and insight.  It’s incredibly important to learn from the successes and failures of others, and we’ve been lucky enough to get real candid advice.  We met with Jean-Luc Neptune of Health 2.0 who shared his unique perspective as a physician entrepreneur and executive.  During one of our emotional low points, Stephen Jackson, formerly of Plan Data Management, encouraged us to be ourselves and let our passion shine through.  Bob Stern, who founded and sold MedPage Today, admired our go-to-market strategy and has been an advocate for us.  Most recently, we talked with Steve Brotman of Alpha Venture Partners with whom we traded barbs around the UNC-Duke rivalry.  While we’ve met with a lot of great people, the most difficult part of the experience thus far has been to sift through all the advice and distill it into actionable strategy.  But through these struggles we’ve become a much stronger company and I can’t wait to share with you how things shape up with demo day only a few weeks away!