International companies know the U.S. healthcare market opportunity. They rarely know the way in.
LIGHT connects international healthcare companies with the people, places, and relationships in Nashville needed to successfully enter and scale in the U.S. healthcare market. An open-ended landing program in the city where U.S. healthcare decisions actually get made.
The Silicon Valley of healthcare services.
Nashville is widely recognized as one of the most influential healthcare hubs in the United States — particularly for healthcare operations, services, and adoption at scale. This isn't where the U.S. studies healthcare. This is where it operates it.
HCA Healthcare. Ardent Health Services. The country's largest senior living provider. One of the largest behavioral health organizations. The leading operators of ambulatory surgery centers. They are headquartered in Nashville. Collectively, Nashville healthcare companies employ more than 500,000 people globally.
Anchored by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, and three university-based medical schools. Host to HLTH, ViVE, ABHI, and the global health innovation circuit. The decisions about what U.S. healthcare buys, adopts, and scales — they are influenced from this city.
If you want into the U.S. market, this is the room you want to be in.
Where Nashville's healthcare ecosystem already gathers.
The Nashville Entrepreneur Center is the hub for the city's founder economy — and through Project Healthcare, the launchpad for healthcare companies entering the Nashville network. LIGHT plants growth-stage international healthcare companies inside that same building.
An open-ended landing — bespoke, relationship-driven, designed around where you are.
Two ways in.
Three ways into the U.S. healthcare market.
Most international healthcare companies pick the first option by default — usually because they don't know there's a third.
$175K–$235K. 18 months. Mostly in airports.
Cold outreach into health systems that don't open it. Legal fees. Travel. Executive time. Most companies don't make it. Many go home having decided the U.S. market "wasn't right for them" — when the real problem was they never got in front of the right people.
5 days. A binder. A couple of LinkedIn connections.
Useful orientation. Not a relationship. You leave with a clearer picture of the system and a notebook full of names — and no one in Nashville you can call next week when you actually need a meeting.
A desk in Nashville. The relationships you came for. An open-ended landing.
A landing program — not a classroom. Dedicated workspace, full EC membership, and the curated introductions that turn into pilots, partnerships, and traction. We are not offering convenience. We are collapsing years of friction into months.
LIGHT is not Project Healthcare. It's built on the same access.
Project Healthcare is the EC's domestic healthcare accelerator. These are founders who walked into the same Nashville rooms LIGHT member companies will walk into — the same health systems, the same mentors, the same operators.
This has been a transformational experience for us coming to the healthcare capital of the country. There's no place like this.Kareem Elfoulie · Founder, Senior Shield Technologies · Project Healthcare graduate
Had some really good meetings with Vanderbilt — which was our #1 goal for the program.Laura Epstein · Founder, Pulse Charter Connect · Project Healthcare graduate
We're going to use this to accelerate development and build better business relationships that accelerate our path to market.Mark Norton · Founder & CEO, Adele Health
The accelerator helped us refine our business model and gain a clearer understanding of the healthcare landscape. The mentorship and guidance have been game-changing.Andrea Shields · Co-founder, Varda 5 · Project Healthcare graduate
Don't wait for the ribbon cutting.
Founded by a coalition of Nashville's leading health and business institutions.
The Nashville Entrepreneur Center and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce are co-founding partners of LIGHT, with anchor partnership from Global Health Connector and academic engagement from Vanderbilt, Belmont, and Meharry. The Chamber is also LIGHT's economic development lead — driving international recruitment, global market positioning, and alignment with Nashville's broader business and healthcare ecosystem so that participating companies can establish operations and scale here.
Tell us where you are. We'll send the rest.
Four short emails over two weeks: what LIGHT is, what member companies actually get, the cost of the alternative, and whether now is the right time. No deck. No pitch. Reply directly to Sam if you have questions.
Quick answers before you apply.
International companies know the opportunity. They rarely know the way in. LIGHT turns the lights on.
If you're ready, apply. If you're still figuring out whether Nashville is the right move, get the four-email walk-through and decide from there.