KidsX Accelerator

Eligibility Criteria:

• Pre-seed through Series A
• Solution must address one or more of the 2024 areas of interest:
  • Hospital at Home technologies to support early discharge and/or acute care pediatric patients
  • Care Journey Navigation and Triaging solutions for pediatric hospitals and emergency departments to support patient and caregiver experience
  • Health Literacy tools to address social determinants of health for pediatric patients
  • Pediatric Mental & Behavioral Health planning, monitoring, and wraparound services
  • AI Automation solutions that support workforce optimization including data entry and documentation, clinical decision making, hospital operations, and patient insights extraction for pediatric hospitals
• Solution must be applicable to a pediatric healthcare organization
• Must currently have or be open to building business model that sells to provider organizations 
• Must be a software solution
• Must meet or be working towards standard health system security/compliance regulations
• Must have 2 employees able to participate in the Accelerator program, one of whom is the CEO/Co-founder
• Must be able to offer 90-day free pilot(s) to the KidsX member hospitals
• Must be available during key accelerator dates

The ideal applicant is eager to learn and receive help from various business and healthcare experts and stakeholders in order to refine and test product-market fit. Applicants must be willing to work collaboratively with health systems to conduct research, co-develop products, or pilot test existing products based on mutually agreed upon use cases. We prefer early stage companies, especially seed stage companies with 12-18 months of runway. 

We require that companies have full-time founders and at least an MVP or functional product. We will not accept idea-stage companies. We expect that founders will be actively engaged in the activities of the Accelerator, typically 5-12 hours per week.

Companies do not need to be exclusively focused on pediatrics. However, they must have a deep desire to serve the pediatric market in some way.

To create an application , complete the following steps:

1. Review the eligibility requirements to see if you can apply.
2. If eligible, create an account on the application portal. 
3. Once logged in, click “Post Application” to start and complete your KidsX application.
4. Be sure to click “Save Draft” along the way to save any progress.
5. Once all required fields are complete, click the blue “Post Application” button.
6. You will receive a notification in your Ideawake account confirming your application submission.

You are able to submit applications online from February through March 2025. The KidsX team will review all applications and notify the companies in April. 

The process consists of application screening, interviews, reference checks, diligence, and pitch days to a panel of judges comprised of the KidsX team and KidsX Hospital Members. These application interviews will take place throughout March 2025. Due to the volume of applicants, we will not be able to provide individualized feedback to all that apply. The final cohort will be selected in early April.

KidsX member hospitals are all actively involved in interviewing and selecting the companies that will participate in the Accelerator. KidsX focuses on selecting strong founders, especially those who are willing to learn, incorporate feedback and work collaboratively.

KidsX also evaluates the product, the technical team, the potential business model(s), alignment with the problems on the KidsX focus areas, diversity of solution types, and overall traction in the market.

Time commitment differs per week based on programming and can be split amongst team members, but expect anywhere from 5-12 hours per week for curriculum, mentorship, stakeholder meetings, and pilot planning.

Additionally, startups will be asked to travel to 1-2 children’s hospitals to meet in person with key stakeholders to help push the piloting process along. More details will be shared when the final cohort is onboarded. 

• Week 0: Please block early May off for KidsX Accelerator virtual onboarding 
• Accelerator Program: The 10-week virtual program runs from May-August. Programming will typically take place 3 days a week. In person meetings may take place.
• Demo Day Showcase: October 2025

KidsX does not take any equity from participating companies and asks that participating companies offer a 90-day demonstration project to KidsX hospitals at no cost.

The 10-week accelerator is a blend of asynchronous activities and live virtual programming. Founders can expect to participate in required events, office hours, workshops, pitch days, networking opportunities, mentorship, and pilot planning sessions. In addition, a series of optional asynchronous content will also be made available to companies. On average, founders can expect to spend 5-12 hours per week, engaging with KidsX Accelerator activities during the multi-week program.

KidsX member hospitals participate with the desire to find a product that will help solve a strategically important problem for their hospital. However, pilots, trials, demonstration projects are not guaranteed for all participating companies. These projects are agreed upon during the Accelerator if the company and hospital mutually decide to work together. 

• Have a product/solution that is ready for implementation and already validated in its target use case
• Are not pursuing publication of pilot results beyond use for marketing purposes
• Are expected to provide a no cost 90 day pilot for KidsX hospital members as a mechanism to determine if there is an interest for a further commercial relationship.

• Have conducted initial validation studies in pediatrics but their product/solution needs further validation in the target use case prior to implementation
• Are pursuing publication of pilot results and/or patient or provider data collection activities
• Are expected to fund the study unless mutually agreed upon with hospital member to pursue alternative grant or philanthropic support.

For any questions about this accelerator, future programs, or how you can get involved, contact our Programs Lead – Bianca Riello at briello@chla.usc.edu.