Startups Speaking Pharma: The 10-Week Bootcamp Making Real Deals Happen in Rare Disease Tech

Twelve digital health founders claim the PharmStars ‘PharmaU’ bootcamp did more than offer exposure – it helped reframe their offer for sceptical pharma buyers and land serious one-on-one meetings. The Spring 2025 graduates completed a 10-week programme that culminated with over 70 private meetings with pharmaceutical companies, a stark contrast to the typical accelerator demo day where startups pitch to rooms full of investors but rarely close deals.

Most health tech accelerators focus on securing funding rounds rather than commercial partnerships. PharmStars positions itself differently as a US-based accelerator prioritising practical business fit over demo day showmanship. Anna Chukaeva, CEO of Intercellular and a Spring 2025 graduate, highlighted the difference: ‘With most accelerators, the value is signalling: you got accepted into the accelerator and exposure at demo day, but that’s it. PharmStars does way more.’

Learning to Speak Pharma

The programme’s 10-week mentoring and education helps startups learn pharma’s decision process, language and pain points. This focus on sales skills matters because tech-savvy health entrepreneurs often struggle at sales, with inadequate sales strategy and lack of sales experience among founders being common failure points.

Jan-Willem Hoste, CEO of Meep, saw immediate results: ‘After putting into practice the mentoring and education we received from PharmStars, we noticed the difference in how our value proposition was received during our sales discussions – we could get to the essence quicker as we spoke their language and understood pharma’s challenges in a deeper way.’

This addresses a fundamental problem in health tech. Most founders excel at building technology but trip up on the ‘why buy now’ question when facing pharma buyers who operate on different timescales and have complex approval processes. Many health tech startups fail by targeting the wrong customer segments and lacking the credibility needed for adoption in complex healthcare systems.

Face-to-Face Meetings, Not Stage Pitches

The programme ends with face-to-face meetings with pharma buyers rather than a traditional demo day presentation. Over 70 private, one-on-one meetings took place over two days in Boston, giving startups direct access to potential customers rather than investors looking for the next funding round.

Amanda Clark, CEO of PulManage, explained how the groundwork from ‘fireside chats’ led to real relationship-building: ‘The fireside chats helped us understand the pharma members. When we got to see them at the Showcase, the groundwork had already been laid so we could start conversations, continue them in the one-on-one meetings, and build relationships.’

This approach matters because success rates of digital health partnerships with pharma are low, with failure rates around 60-80%. Industry experts point to unrealistic and mismatched expectations as reasons partnerships fail early.

Tools for Rare Disease Detection and Management

The selected startups offer diverse solutions for rare disease challenges, from diagnostics and biomarkers for patient identification to clinical trial management tools. The 12 companies include Meep’s clinical-grade, at-home biomarker minilab, Intercellular’s AI-enabled miRNA platform for cancer monitoring, and PulManage’s platform for real-time, remote spirometry.

Other graduates focus on different aspects of the rare disease pipeline: EXOSYSTEMS provides AI digital biomarker platforms for motor function assessment, while Comend operates a marketplace connecting rare disease patient advocacy groups with researchers. LivAi transforms routine imaging into 3D, quantitative tumour biomarkers, and Preview Health offers metabolic-profiling AI for precision medicine.

These tools address specific pain points in rare disease management where traditional pharma approaches fall short. Unlike flashy consumer health apps designed to impress investors, these solutions target operational challenges that pharma companies face daily.

Beyond the Badge

The contrast between PharmStars and traditional accelerators reflects how health tech companies approach pharma partnerships. Pharma partnerships with digital health startups face significant challenges including cultural differences and learning curves, with experienced pharma partners who have made prior mistakes being more likely to succeed in future partnerships.

Anna Chukaeva’s distinction between ‘signalling’ accelerators and programmes that deliver practical value highlights what investors and corporate buyers might look for when evaluating founders. Rather than accelerator credentials, they want evidence of founders who understand their market and can articulate clear value propositions.

The question for founders becomes whether they need another badge or actual sales skills. Only 0.061% of startups scale beyond $50 million, problems that traditional accelerator programmes don’t address. Healthcare startups frequently fail due to lack of deep market knowledge and inadequate understanding of customer needs.

What Actually Works

For founders wanting to sell in pharma today, the PharmStars model suggests focusing on buyer education rather than investor pitches. Understanding pharma’s decision-making process, regulatory constraints and cultural differences matters more than perfecting slide decks.

The programme’s emphasis on relationship-building through structured conversations rather than one-way presentations also indicates how successful health tech companies approach partnership development. Rather than hoping for lightning-in-a-bottle moments at demo days, PharmStars aims to increase partnership success through measurable benefits over other accelerators.

Unlike traditional accelerator programmes that focus primarily on fundraising, PharmStars is now accepting applications for its Fall 2025 cohort focused on ‘Digital Innovations in Data Management and Insights’. The programme continues to target startups that can demonstrate real solutions to pharma challenges rather than technology looking for a problem to solve.

The real advantage for founders remains the same: they need genuine sales skills and a buyer’s mindset, not just another credential. The companies that succeed in pharma partnerships understand their customers’ problems deeply and can communicate solutions clearly – skills that matter more than demo day performance.