The problem Expert Cohorts solve
Early-stage HealthTech startups face a familiar constraint: they need specialized expertise — regulatory strategy, AI validation, investor-ready storytelling, leadership development — but rarely have the budget, or the equity, to access it.
The two existing options each solve only half the problem:
- Traditional accelerators bundle expert access into a structured program, but the scope is broad (product, GTM, fundraising, operations, all at once), the commitment runs three to six months, and the price is often equity or a five-figure fee.
- 1:1 consulting is fast, deep, and scoped to one specific problem — but priced per founder, at $150–300+ an hour, putting top-tier expertise out of reach for most early-stage teams.
Expert Cohorts are built to close that gap: one specific problem, solved in 3 to 8 weeks, in a group format, for a flat cost of a few thousand euros — with none of the equity or multi-month commitment of an accelerator, and none of the per-hour price tag of solo consulting.
How Expert Cohorts work
The model rests on a simple idea: most early-stage problems in a given domain are more similar than founders assume. Roughly 70–80% of early regulatory questions, for example, are effectively the same question asked by different companies at a similar stage of maturity. Rather than answer that question six times over in six separate 1:1 engagements, an expert answers it once, live, to a group — and everyone leaves with their own version of the deliverable.
In practice, an Expert Cohort runs on four mechanics: 1. Aggregate demand. A service provider publishes a Cohort Service on R2GConnect with a deadline and a minimum number of participating startups. Startups apply directly, or are pointed there by a provider they’re already working with. 2. Deliver in a structured, modular format. Each cohort takes on 5 to 15 startups over a 3-to-8-week program, combining live expert-led workshops with shared templates, peer feedback rounds, and individual advisory sessions — so every participant ends the program with a concrete, usable deliverable, not just notes from a call. 3. Share the cost. Because the expert delivers the core guidance once to the group rather than repeating it startup by startup, each participant pays a flat fee in the low thousands of euros — instead of an hourly consulting rate or an accelerator’s equity stake. 4. Open a path to more. Cohorts typically include one or two individual, startup-specific reviews built in, and give experts a natural way to offer premium 1:1 engagements to the startups that need to go deeper afterward.
The group format isn’t a diluted version of 1:1 advisory — it adds something 1:1 consulting can’t. Seeing how seven other founders are tackling the same regulatory question, or watching eight other pitch decks improve alongside yours, is part of the value, not a compromise on it.
Four Expert Cohorts, live now
- HealthTech Regulatory Strategy Accelerator (BMS Digital Safety, led by Tom Bradshaw) — 8 weeks, £1,995. A UK/EU/US regulatory roadmap, positioning statement, clinical evidence strategy, and investor-ready executive summary, built through four workshops and three 1:1 mentoring sessions.
- AI Validation & Deployment Accelerator (Punktum) — 6 weeks, from €5,000. Six audit-ready deliverables — deployment architecture, validation plan, MDR/EU AI Act readiness, model risk assessment, drift monitoring strategy, and a scaling roadmap — run through Punktum’s ISO 27001-aligned pipeline.
- From Confusing to Compelling : Get your pitch investor-ready & buyer-ready (Untangling Labs, led by Meenakshi Baruah) — 4 weeks, from $1,500. A complete pitch rebuild — story, slides, delivery — scored before and after, capped at 8 founders for meaningful peer feedback.
- From Expert to the Leader Your Startup Needs Next (Beandgo, led by Begoña San José) — 7 weeks, from €1,490. A personalized leadership toolkit built through two 1:1 sessions and structured peer learning, for founders moving from execution to scalable leadership.
Get involved
Founders can apply to any of the four live cohorts directly on R2GConnect — most start with a short discovery call to confirm fit before enrollment.
Service providers already running successful 1:1 offers can explore hosting their own Expert Cohort: the same expertise, restructured for a group, tends to mean less time spent per client and more startups served per program.
Find the current Expert Cohorts, or start planning one, at R2GConnect.com.