A physician in the venture capital world [PODCAST]

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“Most physicians have spent decades training for the day that they see their first patient or perform their first surgery. This extended time involved to become a physician does not leave a lot of spare time in college or medical school for most physicians to take any significant coursework in economics, finance, or investing. Yet, physicians have a tremendous amount of knowledge with regards to all aspects of health care, including patient evaluation and physiology, medical technology, and electronic health records. We recognize the relevant positives and negatives and the benefits and shortcomings of current medical technology and computer-based patient care platforms.

Most physicians have keen insight into what is currently working for them and their patients, and what might be done to improve the status quo. This knowledge and insight is a major reason why startup companies with new technology, and venture capital investors, often look to partner with physicians and bring them on as investors and advisers. There is a growing desire and need for physicians to be more actively involved in venture capital funds and physician networks for this purpose.”

Chris Kager is a neurosurgeon.

He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, “A physician in the venture capital world.”

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Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from.

Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show, where we share the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. My name is Kevin Pho, founder and editor of KevinMD. Today on the show we have Chris Kager. He is a full-time neurosurgeon but also a venture capitalist, so I’m certainly interested in hearing his story. Chris, welcome to the show.

Chris Kager: Thanks for having me.

Kevin Pho: So Chris wrote the KevinMD article “A physician in the venture capital world,” and we’re going to get into that in a bit. But first, please share your story with my audience and your journey to where you are today.

Chris Kager: Sure. The always impressive. I grew up in a small town. I grew up in the town of Coxsackie, New York, famous for Coxsackie virus, and ended up going to Penn for undergraduate and stayed there for medical school. I went on to neurosurgery training in Ohio at the University of Cincinnati and Mayfield Clinic, and then did a complex spine fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic.

During my time there, there were a couple of my mentors who were very interested in the business side of things, including one of my neurosurgery or orthopedic spine mentors, who was finishing an MBA while I was at the Cleveland Clinic. So I think that the seeds were already planted, but I got to work with some people who had a lot of interest and experience in that world.

I ended up coming to my current practice in Pennsylvania in 2001 and started to connect with people in the community. I had some opportunities to look at companies on the private investment side, and then joined an angel investment network about four or five years ago and saw some very interesting companies in that group. But I wanted a little bit more, so I talked to some friends of mine in the investment and venture capital world, and all signs pointed me to talk to some of the folks I knew out in the Bay Area. I ended up joining the Global Health Impact Fund as a general principal and their chief medical officer 18 months ago.

Kevin Pho: Well, that’s a wonderful story. Has being a physician helped or hurt you as you made that transition into the venture capital world?

Chris Kager: I definitely think it has helped. Our focus is on digital health and medical technology, so the bent of the article that I wrote for your site talked about that juncture. On the flip side, I think there are some things that physicians, or most physicians, probably don’t have a ton of experience or knowledge about. On the financial end, there probably were some things that I still, to this day, continue to learn. But I think as physicians we’re hyper-focused on the clinical care, and in our world, in digital health and medical technology, I think that’s been a bonus.

Kevin Pho: Wonderful. I think one of the things that I’ve always said, from reading private Facebook physician groups and articles on my site, is that physicians are certainly sorely lacking when it comes to the business side of medicine, and that’s certainly something that’s not often taught. Now, what are some of the skills that physicians have that can translate over to the business world or the venture capital world?

Chris Kager: I think most physicians, and most surgeons, by nature are somewhat meticulous, type A people. When you’re talking about evaluating companies from A to Z, what’s their idea, what’s their product, what’s their team, what do the financials and projections look like, does it all make sense? I think physicians have that innate ability to filter out the fluff, so to speak. I think to do it in an organized and consistent way comes either with training or with time, but I think that drive, that personality, fits very well in the venture capital world, for sure.

And I think most physicians are perfectionists. You might not have all the answers, but you’re not going to stop trying to get them. So I think that persistence also helps a lot. You have to be very persistent to make it through the undergraduate application process, through four years of medical school, and then, depending on what you’re going to do after that, anywhere from three to seven or eight years of residency and fellowship.

Kevin Pho: I know a lot of my listeners who are listening to this are interested in getting started. Now, if someone was interested in getting started in the venture capital world, where do they start? What kind of training do they need?

Chris Kager: I think there are a lot of good resources out there. There are a lot of very basic websites and books regarding venture capital investing. I follow many sites online that have excellent articles. I think that you cannot underestimate working with good people and finding a good team to get involved with.

One of the things that our Global Health Impact Fund is doing is putting together a group of people, and a lot of them are actually MD/MBAs who have approached us. Our CEO, who also is an MD/MBA, is going to have a group that he’s going to basically lead through the basics of the process. How do we look at companies? How do we evaluate companies? What’s important as far as their P&L statements and their plan going forward, their pro formas, their deck? I think it’s really exciting for people who want to get in and learn the basics, almost like another internship, so to speak.

Kevin Pho: So you still practice full time, and I was wondering how you manage your clinical side versus what you do with the fund.

Chris Kager: It can be a little complicated, fitting things in here and there. Again, we have a great team, and we have people on the team who certainly have a little more flexibility, who are not full-time practicing neurosurgeons. I tend to work more early in the morning, or between things, or after hours, but I probably do put in an extra 15 to 20 hours a week.

There are a lot of people who reach out to me on LinkedIn. Amazingly, there was a very large response from the article; they tracked me down on LinkedIn after the article on your website came out. So my job is to network and communicate with those people who have an interest in learning more about our fund, or learning more about the network, or what opportunities are out there. I think a lot of it is, again, just paying attention to your schedule and certainly also making time for yourself outside of all that.

Kevin Pho: How long have you been involved with the fund?

Chris Kager: With Global Health Impact Fund, I’ve been a partner for about 18 months.

Kevin Pho: OK. So if there’s something that you know now that you wish you knew back then, before you started on this venture capital journey, what would that be?

Chris Kager: I think that it goes back to one of your first questions: You do not have to be an MBA. I think any physician who has an interest and a desire to learn more about the venture capital or investment world can do this. There are certainly things you can pick up along the way, but I think, again, physicians are in that unique spot where they have such a better understanding of the clinical application of something than somebody who’s only been sitting at a desk for 20 years. So I think the opportunities are there, and people are looking for people who have that expertise, for being either an investor or an advisor. So I would say, don’t wait. If you have an interest, there are people out there who are interested in having you.

Kevin Pho: All right, let’s take a step back. I was wondering if you could share with my audience something that you’ve been curious about recently, or something that you’ve been passionate about.

Chris Kager: I think the COVID thing has reoriented a lot of people. I would say I’m definitely curious, on a general level, about how we emerge with the resurgence from COVID, and what the economic world looks like after that.

I’m very, very lucky. My full-time job is still neurosurgery, and I still love it, so I’m very passionate about being a neurosurgeon. I’m the chief of neurosurgery at our hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and we’re also part of the Penn system. So I really love that aspect still.

Also, with the whole COVID thing, it’s also been interesting because we have six kids, and we now have all six kids home. We went from having two, an eighth grader and a 10th grader, to having people home who are 26 down to 13. So it’s been an opportunity for them to reconnect, and that’s been great. That’s been my passion for the last month or two, having lots of good family time.

From a venture capital perspective, it’s been really interesting, and I’ve been very curious to see how these companies have responded. We’re focused on the digital health and medical technology world, and it was amazing to see how those companies pivoted a bit and really took advantage of a situation that was almost meant for them to start. So we have a telemedicine company, and we have a lot of technology companies that fit into that. That’s been great. And I think as we get to the point where we’re almost complete with our first fund, moving on to start a second fund, which might be an institutional-level fund, will be really interesting as well.

Kevin Pho: Well, you’ve given us so many nuggets of advice during this interview. So in my final question, I’m just going to ask: What’s your overall take-home message for the KevinMD audience?

Chris Kager: I think if you’re interested in doing something like this, if you have any interest in the finance world or the intersection of business and medicine, reach out. Reach out to me, reach out to other people. There are resources out there. You’re in a great position. If you have an interest, don’t wait, just do it.

Kevin Pho: Fantastic. On the show is Chris Kager. He’s a neurosurgeon and a venture capitalist. He wrote the KevinMD article “A physician in the venture capital world.” Chris, thank you for joining us on the show.

Chris Kager: Thank you very much for having me.

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