Accelerating Enterprise-Ready HealthTech Startups with Fuel (part 1)

Summary

In this special two-part series of The Bentonville Beacon, host James Bell is joined by several founders in the inaugural Fuel for Your Health Accelerator cohort, plus Tom Douglass, Fuel’s Entrepreneur In Residence. Fuel operates a family of accelerators in Bentonville that are operationally focused. The program provides growth-stage companies with knowledge and opportunities to interact with enterprise-size entities to further accelerate their success. Fuel for Your Health features innovative growth-stage healthtech startups from around the world with a diverse range of solutions that are transforming the healthcare industry. In this episode, James speaks with a few members of the 2023 Fuel for Your Health cohort, including Sarah Buechner, Product Manager with Lineus Medical; Francisco Nogueira, Co-Founder and CEO at Glooma; and Vinicio Vargas, Co-Founder and CEO of Ainnova Tech. Throughout the episode, James and his guests discuss what inspired them to start their companies, what solutions they provide and their experiences with Fuel, Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas.

Thanks for tuning in!

Show Notes

Timestamps in this blog are for the audio-only version of the podcast; video timing differs.

(0:37) Introduction to Tom Douglass

(1:46) About Fuel

(4:55) Tom’s #BecauseBentonville Story

(6:49) Introduction to Sarah Buechner

(8:20) About Lineus Medical

(9:57) How Fuel Has Helped Lineus Medical

(11:21) Sarah’s #BecauseBentonville Story

(12:25) Introduction to Francisco Nogueira

(15:53) About Glooma

(18:56) How Fuel Has Helped Glooma

(26:00) Introduction to Venicio Vargas

(26:52) About Ainnova Tech

(28:55) How Fuel Has Helped Ainnova Tech

(33:19) Venicio’s #BecauseBentonville Story

(37:41) Closing Thoughts

‍Links

James Bell 

Bentonville Economic Development 

Tom Douglass

Fuel

Catapult Consulting LLC

Sarah Buechner

Lineus Medical

Francisco Nogueira

Glooma

Vinicio Vargas

Ainnova Tech

Quotes

“The way this town operates and this region operates is really about handshakes over an experience…those types of things are where relationships are built and people become successful because it’s a handshake, it’s a support. And that’s what made my business successful, and that’s what made others’ successful. That’s really what the essence of Bentonville is, meeting somebody and having them bring you along on the journey.” - Tom Douglass, (5:57)

“Fuel for Your Health has been awesome for our company. We are a Northwest Arkansas company and we want to be in Northwest Arkansas hospitals. We want this to be a place where we can say we’re in hospitals in our hometown. So this has been a great opportunity to be introduced to all the large hospitals, to talk to nurses, to have those connections.” - Sarah Buechner, (9:57)

“It has been really amazing with all the mentors. We came here with three well-defined goals, but we understand that our opportunity is in the US. So we came here to Fuel to start our journey in the United States.” - Francisco Nogueira, (18:56)

“The feeling that I have is that Bentonville will be a healthtech hub in the country. That’s the most interesting part for us, and the biggest benefit we have at this moment is the connections.” - Vinicio Vargas, (29:40)