Hampton Roads health care accelerator launches

A new health care accelerator supporting 24 small and growing health care-related businesses in the Hampton Roads area wraps up its 12-week program in August. Developed by nonprofit coworking space Bloom as a program of the Portsmouth Partnership, the Bloom Healthcare Accelerator is helping local entrepreneurs build relationships, scale their operations and navigate the unique challenges of the health care industry.

The program, funded by Sentara Health, LISC Hampton Roads and The Blocker Foundation, stemmed from a need for deeper support to the largely minority-owned businesses Bloom supports, according to Executive Director Michelle Wren. Of Bloom’s 200-plus entrepreneurs, about 97% are minority-owned.

“They’ve got barriers of entry that go along with minority ownership they’re trying to overcome — for example, to develop relationships with banks to access capital. We found our general programming just wasn’t fully meeting their needs,” says Wren.

With nearly a quarter of its coworking businesses being in the health care sector, Bloom decided to pilot an accelerator where members could learn from industry-specific experts and address pain points unique to health care businesses. Participants included nine home health companies, seven in behavioral health, five in women’s health or overall wellness, and three in health-care-related business services.

The accelerator program, hosted at Bloom’s Portsmouth space, included weekly deep dives on such topics as revenue models, regulatory compliance, market analysis and segmentation, and ethics, paired with mentoring and discussion sessions designed to help businesses incorporate the learning into their operations. In between sessions, participating entrepreneurs also took in presentations from Bloom partners such as the Hampton Roads Workforce Council, Old Dominion University’s Strome Entrepreneurial Center and local hospital systems.

For entrepreneurs like Tiffany Crayton, founder of Inspire. Empower. Change. Counseling & Consulting and a Bloom coworking tenant, the program has been a game changer.

“I’ve been a clinician for over 20 years, but as a new business owner, having access to a program targeted to the unique needs of my industry has been a tremendous benefit,” says Crayton, a licensed professional counselor. “The program has shifted my mindset to see what’s possible. The presenters have blown me away, and the camaraderie in the group makes me feel like I’m not alone in my business challenges.”

Bloom hopes to build on the health care accelerator’s success with other industry-specific programs as well as follow-up programs targeting the area’s health care businesses.