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Monday, March 21, 2016

HHS Idea Labs program awards $400,000 to ‘shark-tank’ survivors

While most agencies try to imitate advances in the private sector, the Department of Health and Human Services instead is emulating the process that fuels many recent innovations: startup accelerators.

A startup accelerator is a company that invests in businesses in their earliest stages, funding innovative ideas and offering mentorship to help them get off the ground.

The HHS Idea Lab, the agency’s internal startup accelerator, has two stages: the Ignite Accelerator and the Secretary’s Ventures. The Ignite Accelerator provides employees with funding and mentorship over 6 months to pitch, develop and demonstrate their innovation in a shark-tank-style process. The projects must improve their office, agency or department’s ability to function.

The Secretary’s Ventures is the second stage of the program, where a council made up of HHS leadership selects a limited number of teams who graduated from the Ignite Accelerator and provides increased funding, improved resources and an extended time frame to implement their project on a larger scale.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess the rest of Moochelle's college friends are getting on the gravy train after her roommate made out so well with the Ocare exchange projects.

Anonymous said...

Did they happen to mention it is an election year in the article?