Why Are We Here?
We believe that the United States is the healthcare innovation engine of the world, and that while the U.S. healthcare system is expensive and in many ways flawed, we have a moral responsibility to innovate – the world depends on it. No other country spends as much money on healthcare research (either federally funded or from industry), no other country has a comparable system of public and private research universities, and no other country has the capital markets we enjoy. These conditions explain the fact that while the United States makes up only 4% of the world’s population, and produces 25% of global GDP, it is responsible for the vast majority of global healthcare innovation (as much as 75% in the pharmaceutical industry, for instance [Goldman 2018]).
If you work in healthcare long enough, as we have, you notice a few things. You see companies attract funding, based on a novel idea that makes perfect scientific sense but for one reason or another (usually practical), will never see the light of day. You see companies with amazing ideas that don’t get funded but probably should, because they haven’t built the right team, or they haven’t been able to effectively communicate, from the perspective of the patient and provider, why this really matters. Or maybe they don’t have access to capital, which is concentrated on the coasts. You see badly designed, industry-funded clinical trials go sideways, which is a shame because it wastes a lot of time and money, slows down progress, and unnecessarily exposes patients to risk. And more than anything, you see a lot of trend-following.
What does all this have in common?
A disconnect between entrepreneurs, investors, and healthcare providers. We understand that the bulk of the innovation work is going to be performed by people who devote their lives to either starting and running companies, or identifying and investing in those which are most promising. But we know, based on our own experience, that there is a need to close the gap between these two, and that is what we have set out to do.
To solve this problem,
We have slowly, but methodically, built up a network of top-tier physician-scientists and healthcare leaders that have achieved success in their own domains, but who also understand that the bloated, multibillion dollar health systems eking out low single digit margins (in a good year) are not going to be solving our healthcare problems on their own.
We want to help.
We do this by helping investors quickly understand the value (or lack thereof) of the latest and greatest healthcare widget (as of this writing, basically everything AI). We do this by pointing promising companies, which solve real problems, in your direction, and by pointing them out to you so that you can engage them earlier. We do this by helping fledgling companies put hard-working, trusted “key opinion leaders” (KOLs) on their boards.
While many of our network have achieved fantastic professional success, have completed formal business training, and interact at a high level with established businesses as KOLs in addition to their institutional C-suites, at the end of the day we are healthcare providers first. We are on the ground, in the trenches, and can give you insight that no one else can.
We are Hoplites.
