Elemeno Health (YC S16)

People go into healthcare to help others. And the last thing they want to do is hurt patients.

It takes 17 years for new knowledge to be incorporated into clinical practice, while medical knowledge doubles every 73 days. Workflows, supplies, equipment, and meds are ever-changing. And staff are constantly turning over. (Sources: BMJ, IOM, TACCA)

Training is disjointed, consisting of hours of classes that no one remembers. Dense policy documents and manuals are buried in binders or intranets that are hard to find, let alone digest. New information is lost in emails that few even read. Desperate attempts are made to get in front of caregivers through stickers, posters, and fliers. 

It is impossible to know where to find information and which information is correct.

We make it simple. Developed by frontline doctors and nurses at UCSF, Elemeno is a user-friendly app that transforms dense, disorganized information into multimedia-accessible, actionable, bite-sized pieces. Critical best practices and communications, whether standardized across the hospital or customized for a department, are delivered just in time at the caregiver’s fingertips.

Urmila was our founder’s little sister whose life was cut short by a medical error in the operating room. She inspired him to go into medicine.

In 20+ years of leading Intensive Care Unit (ICU) teams in top US hospitals, our founder continued to see patients harmed by preventable errors. In most cases, these errors were made by smart, hard-working, well-intentioned staff who couldn’t find the information they needed when they needed it. Something had to change.

Elemeno helps healthcare institutions empower staff to deliver dramatically safer care. Our clients have demonstrated improved outcomes nationwide.

(Sources: AJMQ, PQS, ACMQ)

No matter how good a hospital is, everyone wants to improve. Our app is established in respected health systems of all sizes and types (public, private, academic) across the US.

Our land and expand business model is working.  We have spread across departments in over two-thirds of our hospitals, rapidly growing the number and types of teams we support

Our clients are continually finding new ways to apply Elemeno’s just-in-time microlearning solution to support staff outside of the hospital. They have pulled us into new markets, with the latest expansion into Clinical Trials, growing fast with a 7% CAGR (Source: Fortune Business Insights).

Clinicians built Elemeno to improve patient safety. As we proved this at one hospital after another, we learned that hospitals wanted higher quality and safety, but they struggled to fund it. 

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on new financial challenges. Staff burnout was at epidemic levels, leading to workforce shortages and rising labor costs while revenues from elective procedures had plummeted. Hospital leaders had to turn their attention to their new #1 issue.

(Source: ACHE)

Luckily, we could solve it by expanding our offering. Hospital staff turnover, lack of experience, and tenure, exacerbated by the already broken hospital training system, required a faster, more cost-effective onboarding and orientation solution to support their workforce and save them hard dollars. 

Elemeno now delivers fast, effective training, reducing “door to floor” time for new and temporary staff while saving real money. In an era of soaring labor costs, this is the budgetary ROI that hospital administrators want and need.

(Sources: Nursing Management, AWOHNN, AORN)

However, building out the workforce transformation solution required capital and time. While client benefits grew, our gross margins declined.

At a time when capital markets were tightening, our VCs led a recap of the company at a valuation attractive to them for significant upside as well as any new investors coming in. Linda Hand, an experienced CEO with deep experience in content operations, joined the company and quickly redesigned the organization and processes to position us for increased profitability. Margins went from 23% to over 60% in less than a year.

December 2024 update: With operations markedly improved, Tim Coulter has joined as our new CEO. The board has tasked him to scale the business by drawing on his deep expertise in serving and selling to hospitals and leveraging the infrastructure improvement implemented in the past year. At Medicity, Tim led healthtech sales to ~100 health systems and 1,000 hospitals, and he was a member of the team which facilitated their $500M acquisition by Aetna. The leadership team at Medicity was so impressed with Tim that they brought him in as President and COO of their next healthcare company. He has been there since 2016, most recently driving back to back Inc. 5000 listings and recognition as one of Newsweek's 2024 World's Best Digital Health Companies. SJF Ventures and our Board are thrilled to have Tim leading us to scale!

We're offering crowd investors a chance to buy into this VC-led round at a $6 million pre-money valuation ($5 million pre-money if you jump on the early-bird special). While we sold equity at a $20 million valuation three years ago, we are now more efficient and better positioned to tackle this even larger market. This is a significant opportunity for any investor looking to take advantage of the macro-cycle.

From leadership...

...to the frontlines...

to the media.

• Emergency Nurses Association: Cloud Technology Supports Emergency Nurses | Emergency Nurses of the Future
• UCSF: Engaging the Frontlines with Elemeno Health
• CBS News: Golisano Children's Hospital Implements Elemeno Technology
• American College of Emergency Physicians: Elemeno Health (2021 Innovator of the Year)
• World Economic Forum: This Web App Keeps Doctors and Nurses Up-To-Date on How to Fight COVID-19

Healthcare is a team sport. The pandemic highlighted how we are all in it together.

Elemeno is a Public Benefit Corporation, and we are here to help everyone. This year, we launched the Elemeno Resource Network, a first-in-market community-sharing network where our clients can share their best practices with other clients. This network benefits every client by accelerating the spread of best practices and democratizing access to every healthcare worker, so that they can deliver the best care possible to every life they touch. 

Doing well by doing good. Come join the movement!