Build Your Healthcare Startup
District 3 Healthcare Stream
We support early-stage medtech and healthtech startups by helping founders gain market insights, validate clinical and market needs, accelerate product development, access international networks, and navigate the journey of building a startup—all to optimize the commercial potential of your medical innovations.
What You Gain
1:1 Objectives-Based Coaching
Grow your company with guidance from experienced healthcare coaches and advisors. Develop a roadmap to reach product development milestones and define the pathway to commercialization. Individualized coaching may include team-building, securing funding, expanding to international markets, or solutions to roadblocks.
Tailored Just-in-Time Learning
Acquire industry-specific and startup-centred training, including workshops, programs, expert office hours, pitch readiness and more, to gain the competencies necessary to succeed at all stages of your healthcare startup journey.
Community & Workspace Access
Build your network, collaborate and develop strategic partnerships with clinicians, health systems, academia and industry. Access our workspaces and state-of-the-art lab.
Through D3 programs, we learned how to translate our research into a commercial enterprise. Our coach continues to guide us as we refine our business model, evolve our fundraising and acquire customers.”
Azadeh Dastmalchi, Ph.D., Co-founder of Vital Tracer
Our Programs
Validation
Designed for startup teams who have little or no customer traction for their medtech or healthtech-based solution, this three-month intensive cohort-based program will help you define your target market, develop a deep understanding of your customers’ problem and unmet needs, and design a business model to build a viable company. Offered several times a year.
Launch & Grow
Access to Biohub Lab
Dedicated to District 3 founders, the BioHub provides state-of-the-art dry and wet laboratories and co-working space to help you develop successful products based on scientific discoveries and ideas.
Lab Benches and Technical Equipment including:
Cell Culture & Molecular Biology
Analytics
Chemistry
General Instruments & Cold Storage
Healthcare Stream Team
District 3 Bio Stream Lead
Following more than a 30-year career in life-science and biotechnology; Maggie Bywater-Ekegärd now has an extensive experience in senior management positions; creating global markets; and implementing complex commercialization projects. Her knowledge of intellectual property portfolio management, quality product development and manufacturing is key to new technology introduction. She is co-founder of Inocucor Technologies now Concentric Agriculture, where she ran and coordinated the industrialization & commercialization process. Since Inocucor she has co-founded Morphocell a regenerative medicine company based in Montreal Canada. She is an adviser to the management team and a member of the Board of Directors.
Senior Coach, District 3 Healthcare Stream Lead
With a wealth of international experience in taking ideas to market—always at the dynamic intersection of where entrepreneurship and experiential learning meet—Edna Chosack, M.Sc., MBA, is the Healthcare Stream lead and Senior Coach at District 3.
As the co-founder and VP, Strategic Marketing at Simbionix Inc., Edna co-built the company into an international surgical-simulation leader, becoming internationally recognized as one of a few experts who leverage medical-simulation experiential learning into business success stories. 3D Systems acquired the company for $120M USD.
In Montreal, she established and served as Director of CAE’s surgical-simulation business line. She was a member of the advisory committee at McGill University’s Steinberg Centre for Simulation and Interactive Learning. She held her consultancy services for private internationals in the US, Europe & China, as well as for Canadian customers such as the Canadian National Research Council.
With over 10 years of combined experience in scientific research and clinical pathology laboratories, Gleice has extensive expertise in “in vitro” antimicrobial combinations against multidrug-resistant bacterias. Her work has contributed to several publications and the development of methodologies in this field.
Life Sciences Fellow & Biohub Manager, District 3
Mahzad Sharifahmadian is the Life Sciences Fellow and Biohub Manager at District 3. She empowers life sciences researchers to bring their research to market, and has built a network of research experts for collaboration and co-creation to solve societal and industry challenges.
She holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine from Université de Montréal, with expertise and publications on the design and development of novel drugs for antibiotic-resistant infections. While finishing her Ph.D., she co-founded Rubisco, a biotech company offering point-of-care diagnosis of pathogens (dissolved in 2018).
Partners
FAQ
Early-stage startups develop advanced technologies to improve patient outcomes significantly, augment the quality of care, lower healthcare costs, or reduce the risk of injury, health complications, and medical errors.
Currently, services are taking place virtually. We intend to partially revert to in-person format based on lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.
We accept startups on a rolling admissions basis throughout the year. Note that it may take up to 2 weeks after you submitted an application for us to respond. We will notify you whether your application has been accepted or rejected.
Startups stay between three months and up to three years, depending on the team’s progress and specific needs.
Check out our latest events & workshops
Join our open events to learn more about emerging technologies, innovation best practices and insights from leaders around the globe.
Work with a Startup
Check out the latest job opportunities and internships offered by District 3 startups to get involved in the innovation ecosystem.