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Category Archives: Venture Capital
Striving for Obsolescence!
Sorry to those who saw this already; the post didn’t make it to most of my readers so I am reposting…
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 … (read the rest)
Bono, Summers, Suennen-seriously?
Funny to see my name on a tag list alongside Bono and Larry Summers…but a fun article by PE Hub’s Larry Aragon on a topic I find interesting: celebrity and venture capital investing. Click here for the story which also nicely mentions one of my others.
Striving for Obsolescence
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)
Mad Libs: Venture Capital Edition
Today it was announced that the inventor of Mad Libs, Leonard B. Stern, has died. I hope you remember Mad Libs, the bound tablets that feature stories with key words strategically removed, left to be filled by silly adjectives, nouns, verbs and adverbs by willing kids and adults alike. If you are around my age (don’t ask) you may remember gleefully filling these in with dirty words when your parents weren’t around and laughing with your friends until you fell off the bed. Hopefully you don’t remember that because it happened last weekend.
Anyway, according to his obituary, Leonard Stern invented Mad Libs when he was writing a script for the Honeymooners and was casting around for an adjective to complete a sentence. His colleague offered up “naked” and “clumsy,” making Stern laugh and setting off a cascade of events that may lead to Congressman Weiner’s undoing. So far, Mad Libs has sold over 150 million copies of it’s various versions and it’s still going strong more than 50 years after its invention. Now that’s a business.
Stern’s obituary really jumped out at me because literally two days ago … (read the rest)
Next Best Thing to Sliced Bread?
It is an oft-stated piece of conventional wisdom in venture capital that most investment firms will get 1 deal right and make a big return on it for every 4 or more they get wrong. In other words, you are lucky to see 20% of your investments make enough money to pay for the 80% of mistakes you made picking the others, plus a profit. If that is true it means, of course, that the risk venture capitalists take by investing in seemingly wacky ideas needs to be covered by the sure bets (the things you can’t possibly lose money on) plus the little bluebirds that come from the wacky ideas you fund because well, who the hell knows, it just might work.
As I consider the announcement made this week about Sequoia Capital’s investment of approximately $10 million in a new start-up called The Melt, I note that it is tough to figure out which side of the risk profile ledger they are putting this one on.
The Melt is a new restaurant idea based on the idea that people just love themselves a good grilled cheese sandwich. The … (read the rest)
Healthcare: When Innovation is Not Enough
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of attending an event put together by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a branch of the US Department Of Health and Human Services whose mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. AHRQ has established an Innovations Exchange designed to speed the implementation of new and better ways of delivering health care. This particular event was called Scale Up and Spread and was designed to let several of the innovations brought to light through the Innovation Exchange be reviewed by a panel of industry people, Shark Tank style.
If you have seen the show Shark Tank, which I wrote about recently, you can appreciate that they called this a Fish Tank event, as the goal was for the panel to provide pointed feedback to the “innovators” but in a constructive and less confrontational manner than you might find in the TV show. Not a shark fin in sight, unless you count the one I had to hide with my cardigan since I was the only private equity person in the … (read the rest)
Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
Tagged ahrq, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, healthcare, healthcare IT, healthcare private equity, healthcare reform, healthcare venture capital, innovation, psilos, shark tank, venture capital
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Your Returns Are Lifting Me Higher…
I have often joked with friends that I have gone into the wrong area of investing as the perks are lame. As a healthcare investor, I can get a free hearing aid or diabetes test whenever I want one, but who the hell wants something that just proves you’re old? It’s the guys who invest in entertainment, media, even technology that get all the good stuff: free iPads, concert tickets, meetings with celebrities. But lo and behold, there is a brave new world of venture investing out there where the perk possibilities are really unique.
In an article entitled Medical Marijuana Companies Chase Investors, Eye IPOs, Dow Jones’ reporters write one of the best opening sentences I have seen in recent financial services reportage, “In what was once a pipe dream, medical-marijuana companies are courting private investors and even planning public stock sales.” I will confess, I am listening to Van Morrison’s “And it Stoned Me” while I write this piece, which my daughter suggests cannot be coincidence.
The article describes a rapidly growing (pun intended) trend for investors to make seed and venture investments (or maybe it’s venture … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity
Tagged alternative medicine, ArcView Group, general cannibis, GrowOp, healthcare, healthcare venture capital, hedge funds, investing medical marijuana, kaneabis, medical dispensing systems, private equity, psilos, venture capital
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How Health Insurers Can Avoid Being Blockbuster in a Netflix World
Talking about health insurance is a good way to clear a room. It is a rare person who is excited to interact with their insurance company or who can understand the explanation of benefits they receive in the mail detailing all of the things that the insurance carrier has decided not to pay on their behalf. According to JD Power and Associates, only four out of ten people fully understand their health benefit plan. No doubt those four are also able to read the Dead Sea Scrolls in their original text.
JD Power also found that consumers rank health insurers at 710 on a 1000-point scale, a number heading downhill faster than Lindsey Vonn. In contrast, consumers rank homeowners insurance carriers at 750 on a 1000-point scale and auto insurers at 837. Nothing like being last place in the league: just ask the Minnesota Twins.
“So what am I supposed to do about it?” you might say. “My employer gives me whatever insurance they want to give me and I have little say in it.” We as consumers have become accustomed to paying (through paycheck deductions and lower wages) … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Patient Safety, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
Tagged ACA, ACO, Click4Care, consumer engagement, extend health, health insurance, healthcare, healthcare IT, healthcare reform, healthcare services, healthcare venture capital, healthedge, medical errors, patient safety, PPACA, psilos, venture capital
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Sound and Fury Signifying Quite a Lot, Actually
This last week I attended Health Evolution Partners’ Leadership Summit in Laguna Niguel. If you have to leave home for work, Laguna Niguel is the place you want to go. I had a moment during the closing dinner where, on the lawn just beyond my ocean cliff-side table, there were six little bunnies hopping around and in the water behind them dolphins were swimming. You would have sworn this was a Disney production, except everyone at my dinner table worked in the healthcare industry. While there is a lot of Mickey Mouse behavior in healthcare, these were some pretty great people with whom to have dinner.
Anyway, at the kick-off event of the conference there was a panel of four health insurance executives representing some of the largest companies in that field (Aetna, United Healthcare, Humana). Jeff Margolis, CEO of Trizetto, which makes its money selling IT systems to these guys, was the moderator. One of the questions he started with was, “Do health plans need to repudiate their heritage and do things differently [to survive]?”
While they did it in different ways, the members of this health insurance … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
Tagged ACA, ACO, affordable care act, consumer engagement, extend health, guaranteed issue, health insurance, healthcare, healthcare IT, healthcare reform, healthcare services, healthcare venture capital, healthedge, PPACA, psilos, seechange health
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MC VC
I am definitely intrigued by collisions between pop culture and venture capital. It’s pretty weird to see your profession turned into entertainment, particularly when the average board meeting is about as entertaining as watching paint dry. Despite that, there have been numerous forays into the field by athletes and entertainers, who apparently have secret market research demonstrating that term sheets are sexy enough to attract a prime time audience.
As one example, there has been a recent parade of reality TV shows where entrepreneurs pitch their deals to panels of venture capitalists and wealthy angel investors. These shows include American Inventor, Shark Tank, Dragon’s Den (aired in the UK and Canada, among other places) and Money Tigers (aired in Japan), which may well have been the first. Amazingly, a variant of these shows runs in countries all over the world, including such non-obvious places as Afghanistan (combo pork product/burkah anyone?), Turkey, the Ukraine and Nigeria. I’m guessing the Nigerian deals arrive by email and involve wire-transferring $10 million dollars to a wealthy ex-royal who promises a hefty profit later.
Of these venture reality shows (as if reality ever enters … (read the rest)