HHCIB 005 Steve Kraus & What Next In Healthcare

How Hard Can It Be?

This week my guest is Steve Kraus, the general Partner who leads healthcare investing activities as Bessemer Venture Partners a storied century-old VC firm headquartered right here in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. Steve has been recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the top healthcare investors in the industry, having led or actively participated in investments in Ovascience, Sirtis Pharmaceuticals, Affymax, Aveo, Transave, Verastem, Acceleron, Restore Medical and Flex Pharma… and those are just the ones who made it onto the NASDAQ. Today he serves on the boards of Welltok, Bright Health, Health Essentials, Docent Health, Allena Pharmaceuticals, Alcresta, and Docutap. Steve graduated summa cum laude from Yale was a Baker Scholar at the Harvard Business School. Before joining Bessemer he worked in private-equity and as a management consultant at Bain & Company. He worked on a couple of big political campaigns throughout his career, and serves with me on the board of the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA,) and on that of the Achievement Network, on the investment committees of BCBS Massachusetts and Rock Health, and as an innovation advisor to Boston Children’s Hospital. ? In today’s second segment we’ll talk about how healthcare is changing in the shadow of our new President-Elect, where it is and where it’s headed for us as Americans, New Englanders and plain old patients of a system in a pretty dramatic state of flux.