Flywheel Foundation

Through the SDOH Incubator Program with the support of the institutional partners, the Flywheel Foundation will apply its proven New Ventures program for the benefit of the community. The program includes an innovation challenge, accelerator programming, access to grants and investment capital, ongoing mentorship and incubation processes.  

These resources create a pipeline of startup founders focused on scalable solutions addressing SDOH, leveraging the knowledge assets and research in the region by our institutional partners. The accelerator and incubation program program will maintain a focus on underserved populations and Minority and Women Business Entrepreneurship in its administration, staffing, startup selection and community engagement. We will be hiring a MWBE coordinator to assist with this program and to engage minority and underserved populations in the community, across the state of NC, and across the Southeastern United States.

Despite being a world economic and scientific leader, the US lags behind many other countries on health-related metrics. Our life expectancy is shorter, and in a concerning turn of events, life expectancy in the US has actually dropped slightly for the past several years. We need to think beyond the overarching and systemic lagging indicators that are classified as Social Determinates of Health, to focus on impacting the leading indicators of *Health Equity and **Disparities with a focus on the targeted population in vulnerable communities specifically, African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, and those at 200% of Federal Poverty.

*Health Equity - Health equity arises from access to the social determinants of health, specifically from wealth, power, and prestige. Individuals who have consistently been deprived of these three determinants are significantly disadvantaged from health inequities and face worse health outcomes than those who are able to access certain resources. It is not equity to simply provide every individual with the same resources; that would be equality. In order to achieve health equity, resources must be allocated based on an individual need-based principle.

**Disparities - Healthcare disparities are differences in access to or availability of medical facilities and services and variation in rates of disease occurrence and disabilities between population groups defined by socioeconomic characteristics such as age, ethnicity, economic resources, or gender and populations identified geographically.

The Challenge will generate between 20-30 new startup companies creating SDOH solutions with a focus on minority and women founders.

This program addresses challenges while stimulating the community startup culture and attracting private sector capital while generating solutions to SDOH challenges facing vulnerable communities specifically, African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, and those at 200% of Federal Poverty.

Key challenges addressed include:

• Idea Pipeline – In order to feed the accelerator cohorts there must be a  mechanism that feeds the funnel with quality startup teams that are sourced locally, regionally and nationally. 
• Pre-Seed Funds – The fund design ensures the appropriate amounts of capital to attract quality teams and the level of risk distribution required to offer a viable internal rate of return.
• Follow-on Capital Access – The Fund is closely networked with other angel and VC funds. 
• Focus – To attract the best teams and compete with other pathways open to entrepreneurs, the Flywheel Accelerator leverages local and regional domain expertise. 
• Business Development Muscle – The quality and engagement level of our accelerator management, and especially the mentors and advisors, is critical.

Once accepted into the accelerator, teams will qualify for non-dilutive $5,000 starter grants and for an average investment of $50,000 from locally raised pledge investment funds. 

Teams are attracted to apply not only for the financial support, but also for the quality of accelerator’s domain experts, for its educational programs and workshops in business and product development, legal and infrastructure support, a strong mentorship network, and robust relationships.

The social determinants of health are the economic and social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health status, such as education, income, employment, housing stability, neighborhood environments, influence/power and individual behaviors. Our targeted population is vulnerable communities specifically, African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, and those at 200% of Federal Poverty.

Over the past twenty years a large body of evidence has accumulated that reveals a powerful role for social determinants – apart from medical care- in shaping health across a wide range of health indicators, settings and populations. In fact, it is now generally accepted that medical care only impacts about 20% of measures of morbidity and mortality in our country, while SDOH account for more than 60%. 

We will be hiring a MWBE coordinator who will work with community members and local leaders to closely align the challenge goals with desired outcomes, as well as to perform outreach to local and statewide MBWE entrepreneurs interested in participating in the challenge.

North Carolina, with outreach across the Southeastern United States

The Mission of the Flywheel Foundation is to support impact entrepreneurship through ecosystem development, education and investment. We accelerate home-grown economic development with diverse pathways for inception-stage and growth stage startups by partnering with an expanding network of non-profits, economic development organizations, corporations and investors.  We are committed to working with organizations who put entrepreneurs first, knowing that a resilient and inclusive economy benefits all.

The educational program that accompanies the investment and mentorship is one of the most important ways that the accelerator’s management team can positively influence startup success and also the area where Flywheel can most differentiate its model from other accelerators. The Flywheel Foundation and local New Venture Investors are fully involved at every step. Because of the pressures on founder time and founder focus, it’s critical that the education program consist of only the most important topics, covered in a concise way that is easily and immediately applicable.

One of the most important aspects of the educational program is a critical review process on an ongoing basis to ensure not only continual improvement in information and format but continual updates to the content to suit the changing landscape of business and technology.

The New Ventures accelerator uses a revolving advisory board for the program with representatives from our institutional partners. This board reviews the current content and establish the applicable value of each piece. They will also discuss what topics graduates should be familiar with that aren’t currently covered. Cohorts are debriefed to rate the value and effectiveness of each component of the education plan.

In addition, the education program is different from those of other accelerators through its inclusion of content for improving personal effectiveness and coaching high-performance team practices in the startups. The short length of the program means that one of the most effective things we can do to improve the success rate of our graduates is to improve their ability to perform both individually and within their team long after their graduation.

We launch more productive, better performing, and emotionally healthier and more diverse teams as a result. We also include more traditional startup education topics, including business practices, software engineering best practices, working with employees and contractors, performing market research, product development for market fit, and marketing.

Within our overall program, we are currently serving 60 businesses per year, with a goal of 90 within one year and 240 total by year 5. We have coached over 380 startups with over 625 students enrolled in curriculum since our founding in 2015.

The SDOH Accelerator and Incubator Challenge is a  joint effort administered by the Flywheel Foundation and we soon hope to have a confirmed and committed collaboration with Atrium Health and Cabarrus College of Health Sciences, Cabarrus Health Alliance, and the North Carolina Research Campus. The strategy is driven by the largest community employers (health care) and local economic development leaders interested in job creation and business development.  Additional partners include educational institutions, local governments, and members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem as well as our mentor pool, of which most are small business owners.

We recognize that a healthy startup ecosystem has multiple program partners who serve specific groups and provide mentorship and capital access. We collaborate to eliminate gaps, reduce risk and optimize chances for success with a continuum of developmental resources and funding from inception to growth stage.

In addition, we host and support programming of member non-profits aligned with our mission through donations and fiscal sponsorship. Examples include the Center for Creative Economy and their Velocity Accelerator, and Hustle — a non-profit focused on supporting minority- and woman-owned businesses

Flywheel’s decision to establish one of their innovative, active coworking spaces in Concord is the primary driving force behind the creation of the Cabarrus Center. We welcome all small businesses to join us, through outreach and through connections with our partners: Barber Scotia College, Cabarrus Economic Development Corporation, Concord Downtown Development Corporation, Flywheel, Gibson Mill, North Carolina Biotechnology Center, North Carolina Food Innovation Lab, North Carolina Research Campus, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College/Small Business Center, Small Business Development and Technology Center, The Chamber, Leading Business in Cabarrus, and Women’s Business Center of Charlotte.

The Flywheel New Ventures program was started in 2016 as a way to stimulate regional entrepreneurship around the intersection of innovative technology applications with market verticals in which the region has demonstrated expertise. 

Once accepted into the accelerator, teams will qualify for non-dilutive $5,000 starter grants and for an average investment of $50,000 from the locally raised pledge investment fund. The selection process is competitive with an anticipated 20 to 1 applicant to acceptance ratio for each startup cohort. Teams are attracted to apply not only for the financial support in the form of initial equity investment, but also for the quality of accelerator’s domain experts, for its educational programs in business and product development, legal and infrastructure support, a strong mentorship network, and robust relationships with investors.

These resources create a pipeline of startup founders focused on scalable solutions addressing SDOH, leveraging the knowledge assets and research in the region. We will be releasing a challenge for which businesses will compete to identify solutions addressing the following:

Hospital readmissions in African American Patients  

Diabetes - (A1c Control) and Blood Pressure Control in African American Patients

Prevention - Colorectal Cancer screening in Hispanic/Latino Patients

Maternal and Child Health in African American Patients

Plant-based nutrition

Exercise physiology/human performance

Health Disparities

Agricultural advances for health improvement

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)

Health Behavior Change

Engagement of Marginalized Populations

Evidence-Based Assessment of SDOH and LM efforts

Health Care Systems Level Change for Population Health Improvement 

The project team has over eight years of experience running accelerator programs. To date, 23 companies have gone through Flywheel’s New Ventures Accelerator program, with 21 companies receiving over $1,000,000 in private investment as part of the program. Those companies have gone on to raise an additional $45,000,000, with several companies establishing major clients and partners like the Department of Defense, major hospital systems, and IBM Watson.

Flywheel Foundation works with various Entrepreneurial Support Organizations (ESOs) to ensure entrepreneurs have access to resources regardless of their business type, size, or stage of development. The Foundation is committed to equity and works with many organizations to create funding opportunities and programs specifically for underserved populations. Creating structured entrepreneurial ecosystems is vital to the success of regional new business formation. The Flywheel Foundation is an active leader in the Forsyth County Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and has taken that model to new markets, like Cabarrus County. We have led the creation of the Cabarrus Entrepreneurial Council, with 14 regional organizations that are each committed to seeing entrepreneurship flourish.

Flywheel Foundation also provides robust programming through the www. Flywheel.courses Learning Management System, where entrepreneurs can enroll in early- and growth-stage entrepreneurship courses led by experienced subject matter experts and startup “operators.”

This program offers a significant opportunity to spread the word about our efforts and reach entrepreneurs that we might not otherwise reach. The additional awareness will also help with increasing the pool of potential sponsors and funders.

The Flywheel Foundation does extensive work with ecosystem partners in Winston-Salem and Cabarrus County, North Carolina and in Greenville, South Carolina.  

We are a leader within each ecosystem we serve but want to expand our reach. We would like to connect with similar organizations across the US and world to learn about their areas of success and influence.

We would be interested in connecting with other entrepreneurial service organizations across the US reaching diverse entrepreneurs and communities.