How a healthcare founder in Ohio raised a pre-seed round

Illustrative composite: names, numbers and details are invented to show a pattern, not a real company.

• Start from fit: in-state investors who list both your sector and your stage.
• Paid pilots with local health systems became the warm path to investors.
• Commit two or three local angels before you apply to an angel group.
• A family office with roots in the region can fill the end of a round.
• Track every ask in one pipeline sheet so nothing goes cold.

This story is an illustrative composite. The founder, company, investors and round figures are invented to show a pattern; they are not a real company or person. Investor counts are real and come from the Zalarma investor database, as of 2026-11-01.

The founder and the company

Call her Dana. She spent nine years running patient-flow operations at a mid-sized hospital system in Columbus, Ohio. She watched discharge delays back up emergency departments every winter, so she built a simple discharge-coordination tool with a former colleague who writes software.

When Dana decided to raise, she had two paid pilots with regional hospitals, about $60,000 in annual recurring revenue (hypothetical), no investor contacts and no accelerator on the deck. Her goal was a hypothetical $750,000 pre-seed on a SAFE to hire two engineers and turn the pilots into multi-site contracts.

What the Ohio investor landscape looked like

Dana's starting assumption was that "nobody in Ohio does pre-seed." The data said otherwise. The Zalarma investor database, as of 2026-11-01, lists 278 startup investors based in Ohio. Of those, 67 list pre-seed as a stage they invest in and 82 list healthcare as a focus. The mix matters too: 81 are angels and 77 are family offices, alongside 133 venture firms and their partners. Cleveland (84), Columbus (67) and Cincinnati (59) hold most of them.

Source: Zalarma investor database, as of 2026-11-01. Counts are records in our database, not the whole market. See healthcare investors in Ohio and pre-seed investors in Ohio.

How she built the target list

Dana didn't start with famous funds. She filtered for three things in order: lists healthcare, lists pre-seed or seed, and is based in Ohio or a neighbouring state. That produced a long list of about 120 names (hypothetical). She then cut it to 40 using two questions: has this investor backed a company that sells to hospitals, and does their typical check fit a $750,000 round?

She split the 40 into tiers:

• Tier A (12): healthcare angels and operators in Ohio who had backed hospital-software companies.
• Tier B (15): regional angel groups and family offices with a stated health focus.
• Tier C (13): micro-VCs in the Midwest that write pre-seed checks and might lead a later seed.

Where the warm intros came from

Her pilots were the network. The chief nursing officer at one pilot hospital knew two local physician-angels. A startup lawyer Dana met at a Columbus founder event knew the screening lead at a regional angel group. Her university's alumni office ran an entrepreneur network with a monthly pitch night.

For every intro she sent a 100-word forwardable blurb: the problem in one sentence, the two pilots, her nine years in hospital operations, the raise, and why this specific investor. The connector only had to hit forward. Her template came straight from the warm intro playbook.

How she sequenced the round

1. Weeks 1–4: local angels. Two physician-angels and a former hospital executive committed a hypothetical $150,000 between them. Their names on the round made every later conversation easier.
2. Weeks 4–10: an angel group. With $150,000 committed, Dana applied to a regional angel group. Screening, a pitch meeting and diligence took about six weeks; a subset of members invested a hypothetical $275,000.
3. Weeks 8–12: a family office. A Cleveland-area family office whose wealth came from medical-device distribution took a hypothetical $250,000. The intro came through an angel group member.
4. Weeks 10–14: close. A Midwest micro-VC passed on leading but took a hypothetical $75,000 allocation and asked for monthly updates ahead of a seed round.

What didn't work

Cold emails to coastal digital-health funds produced polite passes: too early, too regional. Dana also lost three weeks pitching an investor whose profile listed healthcare but who only backed biotech. After that she read portfolio companies before every first meeting.

What you can copy

• Filter for in-state investors who list your sector and your stage before you look anywhere else.
• Cut the long list to 30–40 names by asking: have they backed a company that sells to my customer?
• Treat paying customers and pilot sponsors as your first connectors.
• Write one 100-word forwardable blurb and personalise the last two sentences.
• Commit two or three local angels before you apply to an angel group.
• Ask angel group members for family office intros once you're in diligence.
• Read every investor's portfolio before the meeting, not just their sector tags.
• Send a short monthly update to everyone who passed or said 'too early'.

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