Steven Krein
Co-founder and CEO
StartUp Health
Helping Entrepreneurs Transform Health
One of the most important lessons Steven Krein learned from his time as an entrepreneur was the need to build a proper support system. This goes beyond finding the right people for “your dream team,” as Steven calls them. He says entrepreneurial coaching changed his view of entrepreneurship while building his first and second companies. Additionally, he joined the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), a global peer network that allowed him to leverage even more relationships to provide further help. Now, Steven’s latest company, StartUp Health is leading the global transformation of health, with a unique platform for entrepreneurs in the digital health space.
Five years ago, Steven and Unity Stoakes, StartUp Health’s co-founder, noticed several macro conditions converging. Among them: How healthcare reform would shift business models; the acceleration of chronic diseases and aging changing the urgency of care; and the development of new devices and a tower of data analytics emerging in the health marketplace. Combine this with the fact that we are currently living in the golden age of entrepreneurship and they saw the need for the same kind of guidance that helped them build their own companies.
Together, they founded StartUp Health, offering entrepreneurs the StartUp Health Academy for long-term coaching and guidance as well as access to a global network of 30,000+ like-minded innovators, industry leaders and investors that they can lean on. Even better, in Steven’s view, the transformation of healthcare will occur over the next 25 years, so entrepreneurs are given a lifetime membership. This explains why Steven likes to say, “We’re only five years into a 25-year journey and are on the global hunt for the next generation of ‘Healthcare Transformers.’”
StartUp Health currently has over 145 companies in its portfolio from 12 countries and more than 55 cities. That number is growing fast, as they are able to select and onboard one to two companies a week.
“The individual entrepreneurs and companies inside of Startup Health are really doing incredible and inspiring work,” Steven says. “I believe there is an opportunity to help build thousands of game-changing companies over the next several decades.”
