A partnership between the Roux Institute and Maine’s premier healthcare systems to drive innovation
Designed in partnership with Northern Light Health and MaineHealth, the Roux Institute’s Future of Healthcare Founder Residency is the first-of-its-kind in Northern New England. The Residency is turbocharging Maine’s growing healthcare technology industry by bringing 30 early-stage HealthTech companies to the state over the next three years.
Applications for the Future of Healthcare Founder Residency cohort are open. Apply early today for consideration for the April 2024 cohort.

Having directors of partnerships, research, and entrepreneurship in the same space means we can solve problems and change lives. To do my work here in Maine with these industry leaders, there’s the potential to touch a huge number of Mainers.”
Rai Winslow
Director of Life Science and Medical Research, The Roux Institute
A testing ground for your innovation
Founders benefit from our exclusive access to partner healthcare systems Northern Light Health and MaineHealth, which together serve over 90% of Maine households, as well as our network of payers and investors in Healthcare. Test your innovation, talk to the right clinicians, and get connected to payers to understand your customer need, improve your technology, and create a go-to-market plan for your innovation.

Program Details
A $50,000 investment and the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with top clinicians and healthcare experts
The year-long Future of Healthcare Founder Residency is designed to support digital health, healthcare technology, biotech, and clinical innovation founders at the earliest stages of their entrepreneurial journey.
Founders will work out of the Roux Institute’s cutting-edge innovation hub in Portland and have direct access to Northern Light Health and MaineHealth clinicians for mentorship, subject-matter expertise, and to serve as testing grounds for their technologies. Maine Venture Fund, the state’s venture capital fund, also works with companies on-site and is an investor in the program.
In addition to a $50,000 investment, founders in the Residency have access to curated programming and mentorship from top experts and entrepreneurs in the field, free in-house business, design, and legal services, over $300,000 in free and discounted services, and a peer community of 35 Roux portfolio companies that have raised over $20MM in the past 24 months to accelerate their growth.
Founders who are selected and receive investment will be co-located at the Roux Institute for 12 months.
The Residency is divided into three phases throughout the year.
During the first two weeks of the Residency, founders will:
- Be introduced to potential mentors through our unique mentor-matching process;
- Assemble a team of three Lead Mentors for their venture
- Go through team-building exercises with other Residency founders;
- Familiarize yourself with all the resources Northeastern, The Roux Institute, and the Founder Residency have to offer;
- Get acquainted with your new office and maker-space facilities.
The time commitment for the first two weeks is approximately 15-20 hours per week. It’s intense but fast.
The following three months of the Residency, founders will spend time working with their mentors and attending workshops to continue iterating on their ventures. Founders can expect to:
- Meet with their mentor team for 1-hour per week;
- Attend 2-3 hours of workshops per week;
- Meet with subject-matter experts for 1 hour per week;
- Participate in other team building and program events.
The time commitment for the 3-month intensive is approximately 6-8 hours per week.
During the last nine months of the Residency, Founders will work full-time on their ventures. They will meet with their mentor team bi-weekly or monthly, and be connected to resources as needed by our Portfolio Concierge. During this time, we work with companies to raise the appropriate type of outside capital, so they can continue to grow their ventures. Often this is a seed equity round, but there are other options for financing as well.
The time commitment for the 9-month intensive is approximately 1-2 hours per week.
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Healthcare Partners
Breaking into the healthcare ecosystem is hard – we have the connections to make it easier.
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Investment
$50,000 investment in your company to help you accelerate your growth and hit your milestones.
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Peer Community
Join the Roux Institute’s network of over 26 portfolio companies to help navigate common challenges in real-time.
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Programming
Curated workshops and Founder Stories from experts and successful CEOs on everything from product-market fit to fundraising, specifically designed to help first-time founders succeed.
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Space
Work out of the Roux Institute’s cutting-edge, open-concept campus in downtown Portland, Maine, surrounded by some of the top researchers and experts in AI, Life Sciences, and Data Visualization.
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Partner Benefits
Access to over $300,000 in credits and discounts from our partners at AWS, Google, Mixpanel, Zendesk, Vanta, Apollo.io, and more.
Current Portfolio Companies
The following companies are currently participating in our inaugural Future of Healthcare Founder Residency cohort, which launched in April 2023.
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Althea Health is developing an artificial intelligence virtual healthcare assistant that aims to ease staffing and burnout faced by healthcare providers.
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Apriqot is creating a “community magnifying glass” that produces dynamic population health estimates to help highlight the factors behind inequities in health outcomes and, ultimately, inform policy.
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Empallo is an MIT spinoff that is creating machine learning models that will ultimately produce more personalized treatment plans for patients with cardiovascular diseases and improve clinical trials.
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EmTech Care Labs is developing a digital platform, Care-Wallet, to assist families in managing home-based long-term care.
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Mother of Fact is a digital health platform provided to women’s health clinics that connect their patients with registered dieticians.
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PragmaClin is a cloud-based patient monitoring and assessment tool to help neurologists assess the progression of Parkinson’s Disease in their patients.
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Radiolife is a startup developing a medical device called Cube Scan that can detect the presence of viruses, bacteria and even cancer cells in under 20 seconds.
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Stratos Medical is an early stage company that is working on its first product, TrackSmart, a device that aims to make vascular access easier and less damaging during hemodialysis sessions.
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119 is a communication tool designed to guide bystanders through the appropriate response in emergency situations.
Key People
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Elena Brondolo, MBA, MPH
Innovation Manager, MaineHealth
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Nancy Brown, MBA
General Partner, Oak HC/FT
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Jonathan Bush
CEO, Zus Health
Founder, athenahealth -
Ben Chesler
Director of Venture Creation and Acceleration, The Roux Institute
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Lori Dunivan, MS, RN, BSN
Vice President, Regional Nursing Informatics Officer, Northern Light Health
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Todd Haedrich
CEO, Optimize Health
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Hugh Jones, MBA
SVP & Chief Strategy Officer, Northern Light Health
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Philip Licari, MBA
Former Vice President, Operations, Mass General Brigham Innovation Group
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Catharine McLaren, PhD, LCSW
Vice President, Talent and Diversity, Northern Light Health
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Jennifer Monti, MD
Health Tech, Meta
Cardiothoracic Surgeon -
Tom Torre
CEO, Bend HSA
Serial HealthTech Entrepreneur -
Rai Winslow, PhD
Director of Life Science and Medical Research; Professor of Bioengineering, The Roux Institute
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David Wennberg, MD, MPH
Serial Health Tech Entrepreneur
Former CEO, Quartet Health -
Chris Wolfel
Associate Vice President, Entrepreneurship & Venture Creation, Northeastern University
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Susan Woods, MD MPH
Founder and CEO, Generated Health
Program Partners
The Roux Institute at Northeastern University’s Future of Healthcare Founder Residency is made possible by:
FAQs
We focus on what matters most to early-stage companies.
In addition to a $50,000 investment, founders in the Residency have access to curated programming and mentorship from top experts and entrepreneurs in the field, free in-house business, design, and legal services, over $300,000 in free and discounted services, and a peer community of over 36 Roux portfolio companies that have raised over $20MM in the past 24 months to accelerate their growth.
We provide hands-on, individualized support to help your company find product-market fit and hit the milestones you need to raise your next round of funding. Furthermore, we have an extensive network of mentors, subject-matter experts, payers, and investors in the healthcare space that we leverage for your benefit. We also have deep connections with the largest healthcare systems in Maine, which provides you the opportunity to pilot your innovation, engage with clinicians, and explore research collaborations and clinical trial opportunities.
Companies submit an initial application online. We review those applications and schedule due diligence interviews with the most promising companies. Once we have narrowed down applications, we engage subject-matter experts in a comprehensive process to identify finalists, who then pitch in front of our Advisory Committee for a spot in the program. We typically have an acceptance rate of ~10%.
We take a 5% common equity stake in each company (the same type of equity you have as a Founder). This is in exchange for a range of services and program benefits we provide, including the $50,000.
No, we do not. Whatever IP you bring to the program, you continue to own outright. In the event your company conducts research with Roux faculty or any of our partners, the terms of the IP would be dictated by a separate agreement.
We believe that healthcare is a specialized sector that requires a tailored approach to company growth. As opposed to a three-month sprint, we provide a full year to ensure the progress you need to grow your venture. We work hand-in-hand with you every day as an extension of your team, along with the in-house Business, Design, and Legal services we provide. We integrate deeply with our founding partners in the healthcare space to give you access to their networks and systems as well as ours.
Get in Touch
Interested in the Roux Institute Founder Residency? Please complete this form and our team will contact you with more information.