Starlings

What Starlings does

Starlings is a privately held, founder-owned healthcare startup advisory firm founded in 2014 by Rania Nasis, MD, MBA, and headquartered in the Powerhouse Arts District of Jersey City, New Jersey. The firm employs between 1 and 10 people and bills itself as a services business rather than a technology company, with no proprietary platform, APIs, or patents disclosed.

The core offering consists of intensive 3-5 day sprint engagements (Strategy Sprints built on a Jobs to be Done framework, "FF" focus sprints, and Google Ventures Design Sprints modified for healthcare), alongside ongoing advisory services and a venture creation practice that launches 1-2 companies per year from ideation through execution. Services are organized under a strategy, innovation, venture creation, and talent taxonomy, and are delivered through direct, relationship-driven engagement with healthcare startups (pre-seed to Series A), corporations seeking market-opportunity insights, investors supporting portfolio companies, and accelerator/incubator programs.

Starlings generates revenue through quote-based advisory and consulting engagements with multi-year contract cadences; pricing is not publicly disclosed. Go-to-market is sales-led and consultative, relying on direct outreach, accelerator/incubator partnerships, and founder-led thought leadership across the company blog, Medium, LinkedIn, Substack ("Grossly Normal"), and Twitter. The firm has no disclosed institutional funding and operates as a bootstrapped entity with Rania Nasis serving as Founder & CEO.

Name

Starlings

Legal name

Starlings

Website

https://starlings.co

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Starlings is a founder-owned, Jersey City-based healthcare startup advisory firm (1-10 employees, founded 2014) that delivers intensive 3-5 day strategy, focus, and design sprints, ongoing advisory, and venture creation services to pre-seed through Series A healthcare startups, corporations, and investors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Jersey City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Advisory and Consulting Services: Starlings generates revenue through advisory and consulting engagements with healthcare startups, corporations, and investors. Services include strategy sprints, advisory engagements, and venture creation support. They charge for their expertise, guidance, and operational support in helping companies move from ideation to execution.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Starlings is a healthcare-focused startup advisory firm that helps companies move from ideation to execution. It delivers intensive 3-5 day strategy, focus, and design sprints; ongoing advisory engagements for pre-seed to Series A startups, corporations, and investors; and end-to-end venture creation services that launch 1-2 new healthcare companies per year.

Product overview

Starlings is a healthcare startup advisory firm that builds companies from ideation to execution. Their service offering consists of intensive 3-5 day sprints (Strategy Sprints, FF Sprints for focus, and Design Sprints following Google Ventures methodology), Advisory Services for pre-seed to Series A startups, and Venture Creation services. They also offer Strategy, Innovation, and Talent services. The portfolio is organized as a unified advisory service rather than a software platform, with sprints serving as the primary engagement vehicle complemented by ongoing advisory and full venture creation capabilities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Strategy Sprints Intensive 3-5 day strategy sprints following a Jobs to be Done (JTDB) framework, designed for key inflection points in a company's evolution to jumpstart the next phase, set strategy, get teams up to speed, and evaluate product-market fit. For healthcare startups and corporate innovation teams.
• FF Sprints (F*cking Focus Sprints) Intensive focus sprints designed for situations with too many options where teams need alignment on where to focus, evaluating pros and cons of strategies, uncovering insights, and creating alignment on the path forward. For healthcare startup leadership teams.
• Design Sprints Sprints following a Google Ventures Design Sprint Model modified for healthcare startups, ideal for testing messaging, product design and user experience before investing large capital in a buildout. For healthcare startup product teams.
• Advisory Services Ongoing advisory services for pre-seed to Series A startups, corporations, and investors on strategy. For startups, Starlings serves as confidants, advisors, and sounding board for strategic decisions; for larger companies, they provide insights into new market opportunities and work with internal teams to develop business models and test ideas quickly.
• Venture Creation End-to-end company building from ideation, market evaluation, product design and testing to launch, working with entrepreneurs to create new healthcare companies from scratch. Starlings launches 1-2 companies a year and stress tests many more concepts.
• Innovation Services Service offering focused on finding new ways and opportunities for healthcare innovation, providing actionable insights to help innovation take flight. For healthcare corporations and startups.
• Talent Services Service offering providing depth and breadth of expertise to support amazing teams and entrepreneurs in the healthcare startup ecosystem.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• IQVIA: Large healthcare and life sciences advisory and data services firm providing strategy, R&D, and commercial consulting — overlaps with Starlings' corporate and investor advisory engagements at much larger scale.
• McKinsey & Company (Healthcare Practice): Global management consultancy with a dedicated healthcare practice serving payers, providers, and health tech companies — represents the high-end enterprise alternative for healthcare strategy mandates.
• Bain & Company (Healthcare Practice): Global strategy consulting firm with a healthcare and life sciences practice advising payers, providers, and pharma on growth and innovation — competes for larger healthcare strategy engagements.
• ZS Associates: Global consulting firm with a large healthcare and life sciences practice advising pharma, medtech, and health tech companies on strategy, launch, and commercialization — a broader-scale alternative for the same buyer cohort.
• The Chartis Group: Large healthcare-focused consulting firm serving providers, payers, and health tech with strategy and transformation advisory — competes for the corporate and investor advisory dollars that Starlings targets.
• Boston Consulting Group (Healthcare Practice): Global management consultancy with healthcare industry practice providing strategy, M&A, and innovation advisory to payers, providers, and digital health companies — broader-scale alternative for Starlings' corporate and investor segment.

Direct peers

• AVIA Health Innovation: Digital health advisory firm that works with health systems, corporations, and startups on strategy, innovation, and venture building — closely overlapping Starlings' healthcare startup and corporate innovation segments.
• Healthbox (a HIMSS solution): Healthcare innovation advisory and venture studio historically focused on launching and advising early-stage healthcare companies, with overlapping accelerator and corporate innovation services to Starlings.
• Redesign Health: Healthcare venture studio that launches and builds new healthcare companies from ideation through execution, mirroring Starlings' venture creation practice and serving similar founder, corporate, and investor stakeholders in digital health.

Emerging players

• Springboard Enterprises: Accelerator and advisory platform supporting entrepreneurs (with a healthcare/life sciences track) through curated programs, mentorship, and investor connections — adjacent to Starlings' accelerator and pre-seed startup segment.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/ranianasis
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/starlingsco

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Starlings