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Tag Archives: healthcare private equity
Vision Without Execution is Hallucination
Recently Steve Case wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post called Give Entrepreneurs Room and They Will Grow the Economy. For those not familiar with him, Case was the original founding CEO of AOL and he has been an active healthcare investor, among other things, for the past 7 years. My firm, Psilos Group, has previously co-invested with Case’s Revolution Health Fund.
Anyway, it was a very good editorial and one of the statistics within it particularly stood out to me in light of my venture capital role: firms less than five years old have produced 40 million American jobs over the past three decades — accounting for basically all of the net new jobs created in that period. That is a pretty stunning fact and also one that really makes a person scratch their head about current U.S. policy towards start-ups. It is worth watching this Kauffman Foundation 3 minute video that is very instructive about start-ups and job creation.
No where is this issue more relevant than in the healthcare industry, which conveniently happens to be the only thing I know anything about. In a world where … (read the rest)
Posted in General Business Issues, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation, Uncategorized
Tagged affordable care act, ARRA, entrepreneur, extend health, Health policy, healthcare, healthcare IT, healthcare private equity, healthcare reform, healthcare venture capital, Job creation, Medical device tax, medical technology, PPACA, psilos, StartUp Act, Steve case
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Study the Boomers! An Xconomy Report on Education
Xconomy, an extremely informative and smart web publication, today released a special Report on the Future of Education They compiled the content of the report by canvassing their Xconomists—whom they refer to as some of the world’s leading innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors—for their thoughts on what students should study to be prepared for the future. The specific question they posed was this: What should students be studying now to prepare for 10 years from now?
Twenty-two of Xconomy’s advisors, these so-called Xconomists, gave a variety of interesting responses. Fortunate to be among the esteemed list of people whose opinions were included, my answer was this: Study the Boomers! The article below was the substance of my specific response, which can also be found on the Xconomy website by clicking HERE.
Study the Boomers!
The Who once sang, “I hope I die before I get old.” Despite their best efforts to exit the planet early, most of them didn’t. They and their fellow Baby Boomers represent the greatest technology and business opportunity of the 21st Century.
It is typical for each of us to be drawn to areas for … (read the rest)
Where The Boys Are…And Not The Girls: Tales from the 2012 JP Morgan Healthcare Conference
I set off for five straight days at the annual JP Morgan healthcare conference last Monday, but on the way drove the carpool to my daughter’s high school that morning in a last ditch attempt to act like a responsible and caring parent. My poor daughter gets completely abandoned during JP Morgan week every year and, as she so aptly put it, it is a mixed blessing. When I arrived home finally yesterday afternoon she said to me that she likes that I am not there to tell her what to do, but not that I am not there to act as her personal assistant and laugh at her jokes. I must admit, she is pretty funny. Especially that part about the personal assistant.
Anyway, during my last parental act of last week, my daughter’s friend, who also happens to be a JP Morgan orphan (her dad is also a healthcare venture capitalist), asked me from the back seat, “So, are there many women at this conference?”
It was interesting to get that question from a 15 year old, as it certainly wasn’t the kind of thing I worried about … (read the rest)
Posted in Girls Rule!, Healthcare, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity
Tagged healthcare, healthcare conference, Healthcare investment banking, healthcare private equity, healthcare venture capital, JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Pfizer, psilos, Women in finance, Women in healthcare, women in private equity, women venture capital
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Come Forth into the Light of Things
Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher–William Wordsworth
So here it is, the last day of my winter vacation, and I am sitting inside watching people play ball outside at the Rose Bowl. It might not seem so crazy to those of you who either love football or live in a cold climate that one would spend January 2nd indoors; but where I live it is about 60 degrees and sunny. While I do love watching football, there is no legitimate weather-related excuse for being indoors, particularly since I have TIVO.
In addition to watching large men smash into each other on TV, I also used today to catch up on old magazines that are currently forming a looming architectural structure in my home that is getting large enough to require a light to alert approaching airplanes. The fact that I am staring into a screen (while my daughter is next to me playing Temple Run on her iPhone) and not frolicking out in nature became particularly poignant as I finally got to a November 7th Newsweek article entitled “Don’t Let the … (read the rest)
11:59 and Not a Second Later
Okay, I know it’s kind of cheating, but I am re-posting my column from New Year’s 2011 where I turned Auld Lang Syne into an ode to venture capital. Why? you ask. Because I haven’t been able to come up with another decent New Year’s song to parody and I have been drinking far too much this holiday season to come up with something entirely new. Let’s hope that some of that cell regeneration stuff that my colleagues are funding will help me out in the year to come.
As for potential alternative New Year’s songs to work with, there is an unfortunate dearth of options. Unlike Christmas, which is full of good music that everyone knows, New Year’s has been left in the dust. There is, of course, Barry Manilow’s Just Another New Year’s Eve, but I deemed that too depressing; plus it has become remarkably unhip to admit you know the words to Barry Manilow songs. There’s also Dan Fogelberg’s Just Another Auld Lang Syne; you remember–the one that starts, “I met my old lover in the grocery store…” Had to ding that one for being … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Random Thoughts of the Day, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
Tagged auld lang syne, healthcare private equity, healthcare venture capital, new year's songs, psilos, venture capital
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mHealth: Hallelujah or Bah Humbug?
3600 people and I went to the mHealth Summit earlier this week in Washington, DC and, having spent the better part of 48 hours listening, I am still not sure what to make of this emerging healthcare sector.
Given the incredible energy and high attendance at the conference, it would be easy to get caught up in the hype that surrounds mobile health and it’s many potential uses. There were an enormous number of companies present and news of many new financings (e.g. HealthTap receiving $11.5 million from Mayfield, Mohr Davidow and others).
For those of you not yet familiar with the buzz word, mHealth is basically what you get when you cross healthcare with mobile phones. It is essentially the love child of Ma Bell, Hippocrates, Dr. Oz and Steve Jobs. For the true believers, and there are a lot of them, mHealth is the answer to the healthcare systems prayers. By bringing texting and Wifi and reams of personalized data to the fingertips of the masses, healthcare will right itself, costs will decrease and angels will sing. Can I get a Hallelujah?
The entrepreneurs in the mHealth space … (read the rest)
Posted in Diagnostics and Screening, Health and Wellness, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation, Uncategorized
Tagged alivecor, asthmapois, cellscope, consumer engagement, eric topol, fooducate, healthcare IT, healthcare private equity, healthcare venture capital, mhealth, mHealth Summit, mobile health, patient safe solutions, psilos, weltel, west wireless institute
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More on “Hey, Where Is Everybody Going?”
Last week I published a post called “Hey, Where Is Everybody Going?” which was about the many venture capitalists who are leaving the practice of life sciences. It was, interestingly (to me anyway), my most popular post to date. I guess there are a lot of us healthcare VCs that are worried that the next time we open the door there will be a new guy in a black hood holding a scythe–and he’s not the same guy that usually comes to the partners’ meetings.
Anyway, the Burrill Report called me and asked me to elaborate on the topic in an interview for their weekly podcast so here is the outcome of that endeavor for those of you just dying to hear my voice (hi mom!). You can listen to the podcast by clicking HERE and following the link on the Burrill Report website.
Hey, Where Is Everybody Going?
If you are simply reading the paper or engaging in any random cocktail party conversation these days, it doesn’t take long before you are reading or talking about healthcare. Health and healthcare issues have been a dominant topic in the national media since the 2008 Presidential election and have been constantly in the news as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has taken center stage. Even if PPACA weren’t always in the headlines, stories about employers who are grasping for solutions to their healthcare cost crises would still be.
Given the massive amount of change currently underway in the U.S. healthcare economy that has resulted from PPACA, the earlier healthcare IT stimulus legislation (ARRA) and the acts of employers saying that they’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, we have bona fide industry upheaval on our hands. And where there is upheaval, there is opportunity. Today more than ever there is a tremendous opportunity to find new ways of doing business in the world of healthcare through changing delivery systems, insurance models, technology solutions, drug discovery, device innovation and just about everything else that … (read the rest)
Posted in General Business Issues, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
Tagged advanced technology ventures, cmea, fda, healthcare private equity, healthcare venture capital, highland capital partners, medical device investing, morgenthaler, nvca, PPACA, prospect ventures, psilos, scale venture partners, versant ventures
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Smoke on the Water: Fireworks in Cleveland
I spent the early part of this week attending the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit and, despite the fact that the Cleveland Clinic stubbornly insists on holding it’s conference in Cleveland (aka The Mistake on the Lake), it was well worth attending.
Cleveland is an interesting town. Once upon a time, when old white men roamed the earth in cars driven by chauffeurs, Cleveland was the nation’s fifth largest city and had the highest number of Fortune 500 headquarters of any US city. Today, the Cleveland Clinic is the largest employer in the city, which is known also for a river that used to spontaneously combust and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (the perfect song for this occasion is clearly Smoke on the Water). In a way Cleveland is the perfect place to honor aging rock stars, as they can pick up a statuette and an angioplasty on the same trip. By the way, the river doesn’t catch fire anymore I’m told. I was worried because the Clinic hosted a pretty impressive fireworks display over Lake Erie for their 1500 guests and no doubt most of us expected … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Medical Devices, Uncategorized
Tagged Catheter-Based Renal Denervation, cleveland clinic, cleveland healthcare, consumer engagement, GE Healthcare, health insurance, healthcare IT, healthcare policy, healthcare private equity, healthcare reform, healthcare venture capital, medical innovation summit, medical technology, psilos, top 10 medical innovations
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I Know What You’re Thinking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WofFb_eOxxA”>
No, seriously, I actually do know what you’re thinking. Or I would, anyway, if I subjected you to what has got to be the most alarming development in neuroscience that I have seen lately or ever.
According to a story I read in Gizmodo entitled Scientists Reconstruct Brains’ Visions Into Digital Video In Historic Experiment, “UC Berkeley scientists have developed a system to capture visual activity in human brains and reconstruct it as digital video clips. Eventually, this process will allow you to record and reconstruct your own dreams on a computer screen.”
Okay my fellow UC Berkeley colleagues, nice trick. But seriously, are you sure you want to continue with this research? I am guessing that most of us have had enough weird dreams–forget waking thoughts—to know that most should be permanently shielded from public scrutiny.
Yet according to Professor Jack Gallant, UC Berkeley neuroscientist and coauthor of the research published in the journal Current Biology, “This is a major leap toward reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the movies in our minds.“ Lead research author Shinji Nishimoto adds,”…this is the first step to … (read the rest)