Category Archives: Healthcare Venture Capital

We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision

Posted on September 27, 2011 by
It takes a vision

“We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.”–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Xconomy (a great web publication of life science and technology news and analysis that targets the “innovation community”) asked me to serve as their roving correspondent to provide a view from the MedTechVision Conference, held September 15-16 at the Rosewood Hotel in Menlo Park, CA.  Here is my report:

“I hadn’t given any thought to the fact that it was theoretically a ‘women’s conference before I walked into the room. I’d just promised the organizer, a friend, that I would come,” said Vance Vanier, CEO of Navigenics. “But walking into the room full of women had quite an impact; I realized how much I stood out and it was worth noting. It made me realize what women experience when they go to events like this.”

Vanier was commenting on his experience as a male attendee at the conference, which was intended to provide a platform for the many women executives in the medical technology field to wield the microphone. Some 200 women and 3 intrepid men spent two days in a room hearing … (read the rest)

Posted in Girls Rule!, Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Medical Devices, Uncategorized, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Innovating for More Affordable Healthcare

Posted on August 18, 2011 by
Healthcare services can make your head explode

Yesterday the Stanford Social Innovation Review published a 24-page supplemental section in its journal that was sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) and entitled Innovating for More Affordable Healthcare.  As a fervent UC Berkeley supporter it pains me to promote anything out of Stanford, but I admit this is some very interesting reading  (it helps that a few of us Cal Bears snuck some editorial influence into the supplement, right Will?).

The supplement says it’s about “new ways for social investors to spur innovations that create better, stronger, faster, and less expensive healthcare in the US.”  But if you read the piece as a whole, the 24-page supplement is really about how challenging it can be to bring about impactful innovation in the delivery of healthcare services and how very similar the issues are whether you are looking through a social or financial investor lens.

There are many articles in this document but a few items really stood out to me.  Authors Stefanos Zenios and Lynn Denend underscore Mark Smith’s (CHCF) and Barbara Lubash’s (Versant Ventures) opening comments about how hard it is to get from a successful … (read the rest)

Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Living on the (Health) Edge

Posted on August 6, 2011 by
It's good to stay outside the lion

 

Can you imagine if every day you went to work and 20% of the time you screwed up?   I realize that this is how baseball players live their lives, with a batting average around .300 or less, but I’m talking about other people.  Say you’re Beyonce and 20% of the time, when you step up to the microphone, your voice cracks uncontrollably.  Or you’re a race car driver and 20% of the time you finish your day upside down with the wheels spinning.  Maybe you’re a lion tamer and in 1 out of every 5 circus performances you end up inside the lion. I’m guessing you would not be in business for long.  Or maybe you’re just a regular person, say a mailman, and you deliver 20% of the mail to the wrong address, or a Starbucks Barista and 20% of the time you make a latte when the customer asked for a Frappuccino, which is really bad when said customer needs their coffee STAT.

Now imagine you’re in a job that fundamentally affects other people’s lives, like say healthcare.  What if people in the healthcare field made … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Donuts–Is There Anything They Can’t Do?

Posted on July 31, 2011 by
Dunkin-Donuts-Logo

Donuts. Is there anything they can’t do? –Homer Simpson

Does anybody else think it’s weird that one of the most successful recent IPOs is  Dunkin’ Donuts?  When I saw it was going public I thought, “Well, Homer Simpson might love this but as an investor I am experiencing a certain sense of donut deja vu.”

I seem to remember that one of the last IPOs out of the gate before the market exploded in the early 2000′s was from Krispy Kreme.  The stock opened high in 2001 and rose like puff pastry, reaching serious heights among its Internet high flying peers.  It was touted as the investor “antidote” to those companies that were still viewed suspiciously back in the year 2001 when the Internet’s business models were still very much a work in progress.  Then the Krispy Kreme stock crashed to the ground, leaving investors up to their muffin-tops in crumbs.  Today it trades at a market cap of $555 million (down from it’s max at over $2.5 billion).

So fast forward 10 years and the hottest IPO du jour is Dunkin Donuts. Cops everywhere are psyched.  Donuts are back, … (read the rest)

Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Random Thoughts of the Day, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

CHCF: Proud Sponsor of Our Friday Medical Comedy

Posted on July 29, 2011 by
vet

I was fortunate enough to be invited to spend a morning last week with the management and investment team of the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF).  For those of you unfamiliar with CHCF, it is a non-profit grantmaking philanthropic enterprise based in Oakland, California. Founded in 1996 as a result of the transformation from the old Blue Cross of California to the for-profit Wellpoint Networks, the staff of about 50 people issues around $40 million in grants each year from an endowment of approximately $700 million. CHCF focuses its energies around these four healthcare initiatives:

  • Improving clinical outcomes and quality of life for Californians with chronic disease
  • Reducing barriers to efficient, affordable health care for the underserved
  • Promoting greater transparency and accountability in California’s health care system
  • Supporting the implementation of health reform and advancing the effectiveness of California’s public coverage programs

It is a really wonderful organization full of smart people who are dedicated to improving the delivery, quality and financing of healthcare within the State of California, and particularly to improving access to and delivery of care within underserved communities.

The primary reason for my visit there was to … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Second Coming of Healthcare IT

Posted on July 26, 2011 by
black

Once upon a time there was “ehealth.” That time was the late 1990’s and there was a temporary ripple in The Force when anything that combined healthcare and the Internet had a suddenly popularity in the venture capital investment community. Companies like the original WebMD, the original Medscape, Mediconsult.com, DrKoop.com, Medibuy, Adam.com, PlanetRx, and a host of other online pharmacies, healthcare group purchasing entities and online health portals were born and sought after by investors looking to capitalize on the collision of the Internet and the healthcare industry. The theory at the time was that you could take any traditional industry, add a soupcon of Internet, and “voila!” instant value creation.

Unfortunately, it turned out not to be so easy and by the early 2000’s, the ehealth industry died a painful death, leaving behind a few bedraggled companies, a mountain of cashed checks with venture capital firms’ signatures on them and thousands of vacant Aeron chairs. Healthcare technology became the Mike Tyson of venture capital investment: wistfully remembered for what it might have been but shunned for how it had behaved towards its fans. “Never again,” the VCs muttered, “never … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Board Games

Posted on July 21, 2011 by
Okay Board Members, Stroke! Stroke!

As a venture/private equity investor, I have one of those jobs that is somewhat nebulous to most people.  They ask questions like, “What the heck do you actually DO?”  “How do you spend your time on an average day?” and “Do you actually, you know, work?”

For those of you who think that the life of the venture capital or private equity investor looks like a walk in the park and that all of us are sitting around eating pre-peeled grapes while getting neck rubs and rolling naked in cash, all I can say is, “I wish.”

It’s actually a pretty intense job, much more complex and nuanced than I expected when I first started at it 13 years ago.  So much of it is about working in partnership with people in an environment where you personally have little control or direct authority to make things happen and yet where you feel you know the right thing to do (“so why aren’t they just doing it already?!”).  You have to drink from a magical cocktail of knowledge, experience, guessing, and luck to figure out what needs to get done.  … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Go Bryce!

Posted on July 2, 2011 by
Who doesn't love a rainbow-colored unicorn?

You know how they always say that in venture capital and private equity investing, great management is even more important than a great idea?  Well, when you get both together, it’s like finding a rainbow-colored unicorn.

So please meet our unicorn du jour, Bryce Williams, CEO of ExtendHealth.  Bryce is the poster child for dedicated, performance-oriented CEOs and has the unusual attribute of also being a pretty great guy.  And for all that, Bryce has just quite deservedly been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2011 Northern California award winner in the category of business services. Williams and other category winners (a parade of stars that includes the Chairman of Linked In, and the CEOs of PayPal and Cepheid, among a few others) were honored at a gala event on Saturday, June 25 in San Jose.  I know that “gala in San Jose” seems like an oxymoron, but hey, you eat your rubber chicken where it’s served.

 

 

Extend Health, which operates the largest private Medicare health insurance exchange in the country, is a Psilos portfolio company, natch, and is knocking it out of … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Striving for Obsolescence

Posted on June 30, 2011 by
retro

Well thank goodness. I have recently learned that I can be replaced by a piece of software.  Work has been pretty taxing lately, so this is quite a relief, as long as they keep paying me. Apparently there is a new data analysis product called Quid that is able to detect what sectors in a given industry are ripe for innovation and direct venture capital investors towards the best opportunities.   Since that is a key function of those in the venture capital biz, it is a relief to think that I can outsource it to someone (something?) who won’t bring their personal issues to the office or drink the last of the coffee without replacing the pot.

According to a recent article in Venture Capital Journal (excerpted in PE Hub), you can visualize Quid as follows:

But imagine plugging data into a computer, such as hiring trends and past rounds of funding for thousands of companies in a sector, and then having software that crunches the numbers and predicts what areas are untapped by startups and ripe for investment opportunities. That way, when a gung-ho entrepreneur walks in a … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

TMI, Dude!

Posted on June 26, 2011 by
Hopefully the tracking technology is improving!

If you are a baseball fan like I am, it is not unusual for you to spend time with your fellow sports fanatics comparing statistics.  A player’s batting average, on base percentage, runs batted in, earned  run average, home run stats and how those compare to their team mates’ stats–all fair game for friendly conversation.  The personal analysis of players’ worth doesn’t stop there, as each of them has their height, weight, age and home town displayed on the screen as they step up to bat.  Can you imagine if every time you went to work a big Jumbotron screen with all your vital statistics followed you around for all to see.  “Look, there’s Lisa on deck.  Man, she really is that short.”

Well, you might be horrified to think that the intimate descriptive details of your being might be published and used to compare your value to others, but there is a growing cadre of people who willingly do exactly that despite the complete impossibility that they will ever be found sliding into home plate. In case you have missed it, there is a burgeoning movement built around “self-knowledge … (read the rest)

Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Preventive Health, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment