Frequently Asked
Questions we hear most often.
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What is AEIOU?
AEIOU — the Academy of Entrepreneurial Innovation — is a structural-literacy program for healthcare founders, CEOs, boards, and institutional leaders. Sixteen evolutions (seven Core plus nine Medical Specialization) covering the structural decisions that determine who captures value at exit: cap table mechanics, term sheet design, governance, regulatory strategy as capital structure, IP architecture, and exit orchestration. See the full curriculum for the complete evolution list.
Who teaches the program?
Co-founders Christopher J. Velis (founder, Auris Health — acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $5.75 billion in 2019; founder, BOA Biomedical; managing partner, MedCap Advisors, with over $5 billion in closed strategic transactions) and Dr. Christos Kelepouris lead the program and personally facilitate every evolution — every live cohort session is run by one or both co-founders. Some evolutions are taught or co-taught by visiting instructors with deep expertise in that specific subject — clinical trial design, FDA regulatory strategy, IP and tech-transfer negotiation, cross-border M&A, and behavioral psychology in negotiation — drawn from our advisory committee of venture capitalists, M&A specialists, corporate attorneys, behavioral scientists, and strategists. See the Testimonials page for the Auris / J&J case study Chris authored and named quotes from program participants.
Who are my classmates? What makes the cohort valuable?
The seven core evolutions are deliberately multi-disciplinary. Each cohort often brings founders, operators, lawyers, physicians, engineers, and investors together across industries — and typically across multiple countries and continents. That structure surfaces universal structural mechanics instead of one industry’s vocabulary. The nine Medical Specialization evolutions narrow by design: as the curriculum moves into device, biotech, and clinical translation, the cohort concentrates on healthcare practitioners and operators. Across both, classmates are typically highly experienced, highly motivated, and actively navigating decisions tied to the frameworks being taught. Many participants tell us peer interaction accelerates their learning as much as the curriculum does — they bring their own deals, boards, and case studies into the room. Students stay in touch online between sessions, and we bring cohorts and graduates together in person on a semi-annual basis. We cannot promise the exact mix in every cohort, but international, multi-disciplinary diversity is a design goal we work hard to sustain.
Why is it called AEIOU?
The name is a metaphor, not an acronym. Try to sound entrepreneurship without its vowels — ntrprnrshp. Bone and gristle. Consonants are struck things: capital, technology, a product, a deck. Material, necessary, not yet speech. The vowel is the breath the bellows draw — clarity, ethics, vision, voice, leadership. Structure. The architecture. What the material cannot make for itself. Five of them, and that is what we teach. The About page has the long version.
Who is this program for?
Physician founders and innovators. Medical device, biotech, and diagnostics CEOs at any stage. Board members and advisors evaluating healthcare companies. If you will sign, negotiate, approve, or govern a transaction involving medical technology, AEIOU is for you. If you represent an institution — a hospital, academic medical center, research university, or federal funder — see our dedicated institutional track.
How is this different from an MBA or an accelerator?
An MBA teaches general management across every industry at once. An accelerator teaches rapid iteration of the business model. AEIOU teaches the structural mechanics — cap tables, liquidation preferences, governance, regulatory pathway consequences, IP and tech-transfer mechanics — that determine who keeps what they built when the transaction closes. Sequential, not substitutional. You can complete AEIOU alongside either.
What is "structural literacy"?
The ability to read a cap table, a term sheet, a governance document, a regulatory pathway, or a license agreement and recognize the structural consequences: who captures value at exit, who controls a decision, who bears dilution, who is paid first in a liquidation. It is the discipline that separates founders who keep what they built from founders who lose it at the transaction. Our Library contains free white papers that explain the concept through the Auris / Johnson & Johnson transaction and seven specific term-sheet mechanisms.
What is the format?
Online. Over 100 short video lectures (each under twelve minutes) plus written lessons, handouts, and quizzes that build into your structural management binder. Live cohort sessions every two weeks, personally facilitated by Chris and Christos. Live sessions are not recorded — what you ask stays in the room. Students also interact online between sessions, and we bring cohorts and graduates together in person on a semi-annual basis.
How much personal access do students have to Chris and Christos?
Direct and continuous. Chris and Christos personally facilitate every evolution — each live cohort session is led by one or both co-founders, not a TA or stand-in. Facilitation is where the curriculum meets your company, your term sheet, your board dynamic, your decision in motion. Visiting instructors contribute specialized expertise on specific evolutions — FDA regulatory strategy, IP and tech-transfer negotiation, clinical trial design, behavioral psychology in negotiation, cross-border M&A — but Chris and Christos remain the continuous thread across all sixteen evolutions.
How long does the program take to complete?
The curriculum is sixteen evolutions: seven Core and nine Medical Specialization. The seven Core evolutions run over roughly four months; the nine Medical Specialization evolutions run over the following four months. Full program: about eight months. Each evolution is a complete course with between 14 and 37 items. See the program page for the complete evolution list and items per evolution.
I already have a lawyer reviewing my term sheets. Why do I need this?
Lawyers negotiate what you instruct them to negotiate. If you do not know which terms compound to your detriment across successive rounds — liquidation preferences, anti-dilution, pay-to-play, board composition, drag-along — your lawyer cannot protect you from them. AEIOU teaches you what to instruct. Our free white paper "The Seven Terms That Destroy Founder Value" walks through specific mechanics.
Does AEIOU cover specific healthcare verticals?
Yes. The nine Medical Specialization evolutions cover ownership and assignment (Who Owns What, IP as Architecture), funding and valuation (Pre-Revenue Valuation, Capital & Value), regulatory as capital structure (FDA pathway consequences for cap table and dilution), engineering and production (Bench to Production — split into Medical Devices (H7a) and Therapeutics (H7b)), and counterparty strategy (The Counterparty’s Playbook). Device, biotech, and diagnostics founders are all explicitly covered.
What is the tuition?
Tuition for individual founders, operators, and teams ranges from $12,000 to $48,000 across four enrollment tiers — see the program page for the full tier breakdown and what each includes. For institutional engagements (hospitals, academic medical centers, research universities, federal funders), tuition is structured per cohort and scope; see the For Institutions page or email info@aeiouacademy.org. The investment is sized against what structural illiteracy costs over a single deal: dilution from a mispriced term sheet, ownership lost in a mishandled exit, or capability that never reaches a patient because the translational path was misjudged.
When does the next cohort begin?
Cohorts launch on a rolling basis. The founding cohort launched February 2026. Email info@aeiouacademy.org for the next available start date.
Can my hospital, university, or agency enroll a cohort?
Yes. AEIOU runs dedicated institutional tracks for three distinct audiences, each with its own structural challenge:
Hospitals and academic medical centers. Your faculty, residents, and physician-innovators generate intellectual property that the institution wants to commercialize, retain, or translate into patient-facing products. The AEIOU track gives your tech-transfer office, innovation center, and clinician-founders a shared vocabulary for what commercialization actually requires — so commercialization is no longer a parallel track to clinical excellence but a compatible one.
Research universities. Bayh-Dole, tech-transfer policy, and spin-out decisions determine whether federal research dollars produce deployed capability or sit on a shelf. Universities use AEIOU to train both the tech-transfer staff who negotiate license agreements AND the faculty inventors who sign them.
Federal funders and agencies. DARPA, BARDA, the Defense Health Agency, JPEO-CBRND, NASA. Translational capability is measured by the gap between research investment and fielded product. Structural literacy is how that gap closes.
Three specific outcomes institutional partners pursue with AEIOU:
- Grant pipeline advancement — getting from research grant to commercial product requires capital-structure decisions most PIs have never been trained to make.
- Technology commercialization — beyond licensing vs. spin-out, structural choices determine whether your institution captures the value its research creates.
- Physician and faculty retention — clinicians and researchers who can innovate inside your system do not leave. Structural literacy is a retention strategy, not just an education program.
See the For Institutions page for detail on each track, or email info@aeiouacademy.org to discuss a custom engagement.
How do I apply or get more information?
Email info@aeiouacademy.org. No pitch deck required. The first step is a conversation about whether AEIOU is the right fit for you, your company, or your institution. For institutional inquiries (hospitals, universities, agencies), see the For Institutions page first.
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