Total Orbit

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is Total Orbit?

Total Orbit offers turn-key proprietary software WITH services from engagement experts to create personalized digital learning and engagement environments. Each custom-created “orbit” leverages an organization’s existing information and educational tools to create personalized journeys and tracks that engagement down to the individual user level, with system triggers in support of desired outcomes. While the platform and process is widely applicable to various industries and use cases, the core product – CareOrbit – focuses on healthcare in support of patient engagement and education. Orbits are tailored to each patient’s diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment plan and are delivered via a responsive, device agnostic web app. It’s like a virtual mentor in the palm of their hand for the 99% of the time patients are not directly in front of their care team.

Company Leadership

Michael Margraf

CEO/President

As CEO, Michael is responsible for running all facets of the business. He has spent nearly 20 years leading successful technology startups. Mr. Margraf is an investor and currently serves on the board of a healthcare offering CaringBoost.com. He also actively participates and has served as a technology advisor on the boards of numerous educational foundations for local schools and universities. Michael holds degrees in Business Administration and Sociology from Washington University in St. Louis.

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David P. Scott

Chief Counsel/Director of Operations

David is an experienced C-level executive and attorney with Fortune 500 (DoD) and Global Law Top 50 (law firm) experience. He has co-founded several start-ups, served as CEO and COO of several businesses and serves on the boards of several privately held businesses (MedTech/Defense/Robotics/Media/CleanTech/SaaS). David has lived the entire early stage to hyper-growth experience — launched, landed, raised, crashed, survived, rebounded, grown, and exited. David also runs a high-tech accelerator.

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Jeff Coburn

Chief Strategy/Content Officer

Our engagement expert sat on the global strategy board of one of the largest marketing agencies in the world, charting the path to transforming engagement platforms and thinking, as well as running teams and engagement efforts for clients including Verizon and Microsoft, among many others. Mr. Coburn holds a degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri in Columbia.

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zPods

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is zPods?

zPods is developing a sensory-friendly bed for autistic children and other people for whom sleep is challenging. zPods is currently hiring more awesome people to achieve their mission.

Company Leadership

George Bailey

president

George was an award-winning university foreign language instructor before attending law school, where he focused on intellectual property protection. He spent five years in financial services. He sits on the board of directors for the St. Louis chapter of Autism Speaks. He has five children, two of which are diagnosed with autism and sleep soundly in zPods.

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gary kellmann

CeO

Gary is an expert in supply chain management, product development, and financing. He’s a 25-year veteran of manufacturing and wholesale distribution of consumer products. He began his career by developing his first consumer product ideas while in college. His first successful exit was in 2004 right before he moved to Asia for five years.

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jeff wade

coo

Jeff excels in relationship building and team management. He has over a decade of experience producing results for high-echelon clients in software, nonprofit work, medical services, and the mortgage industry.

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Biosense

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: Replant | Status:

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What is Biosense?

Biosense is a digital health company that creates products intended to help patients better manage their own health. Their first product is a handheld ketone testing device that uses patent-pending deep lung-lung-sampling technology to take breath acetone measurements. 

Company Leadership

Jim Howard

president & CEO

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Drugviu

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: Replant | Status: Active

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What is Drugviu?

Drugviu is a clinical-grade real-world evidence technology platform for autoimmune disease drug discovery & development. They charge pharma companies to use their clinical-grade data (sourced from underrepresented communities) so that these companies can improve their autoimmunity disease drug development.CareSignal is the developer of a remote patient monitoring platform that creates and validates disease-specific digital interventions to help care teams manage and support medically underserved patient populations. 

Company Leadership

Kwaku Owusu

CEo &Co-Founder

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CareSignal

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: Replant | Status: Acquired

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What is CareSignal?

CareSignal is the developer of a remote patient monitering platform that creates and validates disease-specific  digital inerventions to help care teams manage and support medically underserved patient populations. 

Company Leadership

blake marggraff

CEO

Blake leads CareSignal in developing evidence-based healthcare technology to deliver clinical and financial returns for patients and healthcare organizations who have the most to gain. CareSignal, founded in 2015, serves dozens of large health systems and payers across the United States. The company’s technology has been recognized by the 2018 Forbes Impact Summit and Prime Healthcare Competition, and its clinical impact is evidenced by ten positive-outcome peer reviewed journal publications. Blake has experience as in hard sciences research, and previously co-founded and grew the education technology startup BetaBox Labs to cashflow positive. Blake’s vision is to create a new standard of care for United States patients across the most prevalent chronic conditions.

Blake grew up in the Bay Area of California. An Eagle Scout, his favorite merit badges were nuclear science and entrepreneurship. What began as a home-brew x-ray machine in the back of a public high school classroom led Blake to win the Intel Science and Engineering Fair in 2011 by using tin microparticles to improve cancer treatment, for which he was named top Teenage Inventor by Popular Science. Blake attended Washington University’s undergraduate Biology program, graduating in 2015. Blake serves on the board of the healthcare access nonprofit iFM Family Medicine, mentors promising student-entrepreneurs at each year at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, and enjoys backpacking and rock climbing.

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Key2enable Assistive Technology

Origin: FL | Grant Awarded: 2019 | Status: Active

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What is Key2enable Assistive Technology?

There are over 200 million people with severe motor disabilities who cannot communicate or use a computer at school or work in the contemporary world. Severe motor disabilities lead to a lack of opportunities, contributing to less development of their skills, poverty, and discrimination. However, Key2Enable now has a solution with Key-X, a multifunctional keyboard that enables anyone with severe motor or intellectual disabilities to fully access computers, tablets, and smartphones. With Key-X, anyone can learn, write, search the NET, play games, and do everything we do on a regular keyboard.

Company Leadership

William de Oliveira

President

William is originally from Brazil, graduated in Journalism and Marketing, and Entrepreneur working with technology connected to Social and Education areas for many years

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José Rubinger filho

CCO

Mission-driven serial entrepreneur. I have been working for several years in sustainable businesses that benefit the social, education and health sectors.

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Alexandre Assis

head of education

Systems Analyst, Business Management & Marketing Degree, Solution Designer, Portfolio Company of Singularity University, & Co-founder at Key2Enable, Innovation & Business Development at Actcon

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We champion extraordinary entrepreneurs to create positive change – for St. Louis and for the world. Join us by applying to our Global Startup Competition, becoming a financial supporter, volunteering your time or amplifying our message.

Phas3

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2019 | Status: Active

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What is Phas3?

phas3 is a digital health company focused on increasing participation in cardiac rehabilitation (CR), an important but extremely underutilized secondary prevention program for patients with heart disease. 80% of eligible patients never even enroll in a CR program and 95% of eligible patients don’t complete the full course of treatment despite data suggesting that completing a CR program doubles the chances of extending one’s life by five years or more. There are two main reasons why CR is a broken model within the U.S. healthcare system: 1. Patients are reluctant to participate in a CR program because it is expensive, time-consuming and inaccessible due to distance or transportation issues; and 2. Providers typically lose money because CR is expensive to operate and poorly reimbursed, and therefore they do not aggressively recruit referred patients, leading to further stagnation of the program. phas3 is fixing the CR system by removing the barriers to participation and compliance while helping providers achieve financial viability. The phas3 program makes CR viable for patients by allowing them to complete the protocol in the comfort of their own home while costing 90% less than an in-clinic program and requiring 85% fewer clinic visits, typically saving 36 hours or more in travel and work time. phas3 also helps hospitals transform their CR department into a sustainable profit center by enabling a new revenue stream via new CMS reimbursement codes, reducing staff burden by managing the patient recruitment process, and supporting the business office by developing a customized CR financial model including support during the back-end claims process. phas3’s accessible, cost-effective, and reimbursable approach to cardiac rehab can help a health system maintain the existing qualities and add a tangible value proposition based on revenue and profit improvement.

Company Leadership

Lucas Rydberg

CEO

Before starting his entrepreneurial journey, he studied Biomedical Engineering at SLU. During his time as a student, he designed and taught a Signals and Systems lab course that included projects such as building an ECG circuit and building a guitar tuner out of an Arduino. In his free time he loves playing music (guitar, mandolin, ukulele and more) and making mobile apps.

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Dan Ebeling

COO

Dan is a St. Louis native and graduate of biomedical engineering from St. Louis University. During his time there, he developed a strong interest in wearable devices, electronics, and smartphone-connected medical devices. After undergoing an ACL surgery and the accompanying physical therapy during his junior year of college, he began to consider how smartphones and novel wearable devices could potentially assist in the recovery process. His interest on this topic inspired him to join a professor’s research lab with Lucas to investigate smartphone-based medical devices. The work Dan and Lucas did in this lab convinced them that innovations in this area will continue to shape the future of healthcare, and ultimately led them to where they are now. Within phas3, Dan’s current area of focus is healthcare economics, business strategy, and customer acquisition.

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TCARE

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2019 | Status: Active

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What is TCARE?

TCARE reduces long-term-care claims for Medicaid & Life/LTC insurance carriers by providing an evidence-based family caregiver support program thus delaying/preventing nursing home placement. TCARE’s clients include State Government, Medicaid Payers and Life/LTC Carriers.

Company Leadership

Ali Ahmadi

Founder & CEO

Ali Ahmadi is a 3-time venture-backed tech startup veteran with $20M+ raised in institutional capital. He has extensive experience in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business models and has a proven track record in establishing strategic partnerships across vertical & horizontal integrations including BlueCross BlueShield, Microsoft, SAP, PwC, Salesforce & Northwestern Mutual. He has over 14 years of business development experience in various industries including Power/Energy, Aerospace, and Military/Government. After serving in the U.S. Navy as an aviator flying autonomous drone systems, he earned a B.S. & M.S. degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and graduated from Washington University -Olin Business School Executive MBA program (EMBA 44). Ali & his wife (Sara) are proud parents to a son (Ethan).

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Digital Medical Arts

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2018 | Status: Active

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What is Digital Medical Arts?

Working side by side with IT and regulatory specialists, our team of physicians have created MAX. MAX is the ultimate mobile application that physicians use daily to explain to patients their condition and treatment options using imagery that can be personalized, videos, predictive tools and much more. Our clinical studies document that by using MAX patients feel empowered and are more confident in in their treatment decisions and physicians are able to use their time more efficiently. This win-win results in first class treatment. What’s more, the encounter is fully traced. MAX is revolutionizing doctor-patient consultations and creating a new standard of care.

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Company Leadership

Barbara Pozzi, J.D.

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Barbara Pozzi, J.D., is an experienced entrepreneur with a corporate law background. She leads the team that will take MAX to physicians.

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Salim Hawatmeh, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Founder & Chief Medical Officer

Salim Hawatmeh, M.D. F.A.C.S., a graduate of Stanford University and St. Louis University School of Medicine, he trained in Urology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He is currently in private practice with his father, Abe. Together they developed the content and workflow of MAX.

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Abe Hawatmeh, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Founder & President

Abe Hawatmeh, M.D. F.A.C.S., is our President and Co-Founder, a Urologic Surgeon with over 40 years of experience. He had the idea of creating a touch screen App that could help Urologists explain conditions and treatments, then print at the end. His idea evolved and became MAX.

Seth Krauss

Founder & Chief Technology Officer

For over 20 years, Seth has overseen engineering, IT operations, and product strategy for software and technology applications that have delivered over $1B in value.

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We champion extraordinary entrepreneurs to create positive change – for St. Louis and for the world. Join us by applying to our Global Startup Competition, becoming a financial supporter, volunteering your time or amplifying our message.