Morgenthaler Ventures, a venture capital firm, announced Wednesday a nationwide contest called "DC to VC: HIT Startup Showcase" to find the best startup ideas in health IT.

The competition is open to any United States entrepreneur seeking seed or Series-A funding for startups that are applying cutting-edge technology to improve the quality and delivery of healthcare.

Held at Microsoft's auditorium in Mountain View, the HIT Startup Showcase will include presentations by Washington, DC policymakers as well as leading VCs and angel investors. Last year's "DC to VC" summit featured keynotes from Aneesh Chopra, chief technology officer of the United States and Todd Park, chief technology officer of the Department of Health and Human Services.


[See also: VC opportunities for an 'explosion of bright young companies'.]

"This is an incredibly exciting time to be in health IT," said Rebecca Lynn, partner at Morgenthaler Ventures. "We have the technology, government programs and popular support to change what's broken. We need smart entrepreneurs and engineers to think big: tackle the most intractable problems, create robust platforms and not just features, and take on large organizations that are not innovating. This is the perfect time to answer the call to improve our healthcare system and make good money at the same time."


The second annual event is being organized by Morgenthaler Ventures, with co-organizers Health 2.0, Practice Fusion and Silicon Valley Bank; and sponsors, Gunderson Dettmer and Microsoft.


Partners include leading health IT incubators, angel investors, VCs and entrepreneurial groups at top universities- including Rock Health, Blueprint Healthcare IT, Band of Angels, Medstars, SD Forum, Health 2.0 Accelerator, Stanford BASES, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley Entrepreneurs Association, Harvard University, Princeton University, Olin University and Carnegie Mellon.


Judges include Jeff Tangney, founder of Epocrates and Doximity; Ryan Howard, founder of Practice Fusion; Brian Ascher, partner at Venrock; Alex de Winter, partner at MDV; and Rebecca Lynn, partner at Morgenthaler Ventures.


[See also: Venture capital event brings healthcare IT firms and investors together.]

Contestants need to be legal residents of the US or employees of privately-held companies based in the US. The judges will select five finalists in two categories – making it ten finalists in total.

Categories are:

• Very early-stage companies – under 2 years old and have received less than $500K in funding
• Series A-ready companies – under 3 years old and have received less than $1.5M in funding

Applications will be evaluated based on the promise of the venture, addressable market size, founding teams, and use of innovative technology and business models. For Series-A ready companies, customer traction will be an additional factor.


Contestants are invited to submit an online application by August 9, 2011. Ten finalists will be announced by August 15, 2011. Each finalist will be paired with a mentor, including top VCs and HIT startup founders, to help them prepare for their on-stage presentations on September 22, 2011.

Finalists will present to a panel of judges in two groups (five in the very early-stage group and five in the Series-A ready group). With judges offering commentary, the winners of the two groups will be selected by the audience via instant-voting technology.

Learn more at www.dctovc.com.