Latest / StartUp Health NOW Podcast / Sue Siegel, Former CEO of GE Ventures and Chief Innovation Officer at GE, Joins StartUp Health’s Impact Board to Advance Health Moonshots

Transcript

Sue Siegel, Former CEO of GE Ventures and Chief Innovation Officer at GE, Joins StartUp Health’s Impact Board to Advance Health Moonshots · StartUp Health NOW Podcast

• 0:00
  [ on-hold music] A great mentor is one that understands how to listen, listen carefully to what the person that they have the privilege to actually be helping in whatever way.
• 0:18
  [upbeat music] Welcome back to StartUp Health NOW, the podcast where we celebrate the entrepreneurs and innovators transforming health. I'm your host, Logan Plaster.
• 0:28
  Today, we're continuing a series we've been running where we sit down with members of StartUp Health's Impact Board to learn a bit about their stories, their journey, why they're so passionate about this health moon shot model of ours of supporting entrepreneurs at scale.
• 0:41
  Today, we're talking to the venerable Sue Siegel, former CEO at GE Ventures, and at Healthymagination, an initiative GE launched in order to invest billions of dollars into helping deliver better healthcare to more people at lower costs.
• 0:55
  Today, Sue is leveraging all that experience to help StartUp Health scale its mission of inspiring, educating, and investing in a global army of health transformers.
• 1:04
  In our interview, we get to hear Sue's wisdom about what it's really gonna take to move the needle on health.
• 1:09
  She also shares why she's so passionate about professional mentorship, and gives a few rules of the road for would-be mentors and mentees.
• 1:17
  As you'll hear in the interview, in addition to being a wealth of knowledge, Sue brings an enormous level of empathy and humility to her work.
• 1:24
  I was inspired talking to her and am excited to share this conversation with you today. Enjoy. [upbeat music] Sue Siegel, thank you so much for joining me today for this episode on StartUp Health.
• 1:38
  Um, you've had an amazing career as the head of GE Ventures and the chief innovation officer at, uh, GE.
• 1:45
  And now you're part of StartUp Health's Impact Board, so I wanted to get you on a call and just learn about your journey, learn about where your emphasis is now, and I'm just excited to have this conversation.
• 1:57
  Well, thank you, Logan. You're so good to actually make the time to spend, uh, actually learning about me. And, you know, I, I have to say, joining the Impact Board when, when,
• 2:10
  um, Unity and when Steve invited me to do so, I was like, "Okay, what does that mean? What are all the responsibilities?" But I knew that I would do this because I have supported them since they started.
• 2:24
  [laughs] Actually since when they were in academy and they had this incredible vision of this army of entrepreneurs tackling the types of problems, big problems that we have in the healthcare arena.
• 2:36
  So I'm just delighted to actually be on this journey with them. Now, I mentioned your, your work with General Electric, um, in different aspects. Uh, what, what, what is your current title?
• 2:48
  What are you currently working on? [laughs] Yes, thank you. So, uh, you know, GE and GE Ventures, um, was actually after 30-some years being in the workforce.
• 3:02
  So amongst that activity that I did with General Electric, I was also head of Affymetrix, which was a startup company way back when, which was one of the companies that really helped drive the genomics industry.
• 3:17
  Um, and then I was part of a number of different companies, including Bio-Rad and Amersham and, um, DuPont.
• 3:24
  So I've had a pretty great level of experiences, uh, learning along the way with regards to the corporate world, and then went into ventures.
• 3:34
  I was a general partner in the venture world here in Silicon Valley, at a firm here in Silicon Valley, and then went into GE, GE after that to, to start GE Ventures. Um, my current title is that I'm a board director
• 3:49
  currently at a number of different public companies. I serve on the board of Illumina. I serve on the board of Align Technology, which makes the Invisalign, um, technologies. Nice. Yeah.
• 4:01
  And I'm also on the board of Nevro, um, which is a company that's, uh, does neuromodulation for pain relief. Um, and in addition to that, I serve on the board of Kaiser Family Foundation.
• 4:12
  I am the chairman of The Engine, which is an incubator accelerator out of MIT. And then I'm also on the board of B- Baker Botten Juvenile Hub.
• 4:22
  I teach at MIT at the Martin Center for Entrepreneurship at Sloane, and I do a lot of other advisory and, um, uh, m- mentorship work. Sue- So I keep myself busy. [laughs] Sue, is there anything you don't do?
• 4:36
  Uh, do you make time for sleep? [laughs] To our previous conversation, uh, sleep is something that is helped by sleep stories on Calm. That's right. Right? [laughs] What do you feel like has been...
• 4:50
  That's a very varied career. Uh, although I, I know there are very specific themes that have carried you through. But what do you feel like has been a real through line for that professional narrative? Yeah.
• 5:02
  I'd say there's two things that have been a real through line.
• 5:06
  Um, one is the pursuit and absolute love of innovation, and the second one is engaged leadership, focusing on developing people, helping them reach their potential. That has been an extraordinary joy.
• 5:19
  Both of those bring me incredible joy. Innovation, I have learned, in so many different aspects, particularly in the world of life sciences and healthcare, is something that takes both patience,
• 5:33
  a bit of risk-taking, and the understanding a bit of impatient patience. And what do I mean by that?
• 5:42
  You have to know that it takes a long time for something novel, innovative, to actually become standard of care in medicine. The going knowledge around that is somewhere around 17 to 20 years.Um, and we've...
• 5:56
  The entrepreneurs in us all say we can make that shorter. Mm. And what you learn is, yes, you can. Thank goodness for entrepreneurs.
• 6:04
  But in addition to that, you have to understand that there is, there are systems, there are regulatory [laughs] requirements, et cetera, that you must also learn along the way, and that's something that entrepreneurs, the really, really good ones, understand from the very beginning and know how to bring people along with them that truly understand what all of that means.
• 6:23
  Yeah. The s- the second line I would say to you, um, is really around leadership and mentorship.
• 6:31
  Helping people reach their full potential, being involved in that in whatever way one can be, has brought me more joy than I can possibly, you know, actually describe.
• 6:44
  Watching them grow through the toughest problems, helping think through potential solutions, and watching them pick a solution and go after it, and then be successful, oh my goodness, that's... That, that to me is, um...
• 7:00
  I just love doing that. And so helping entrepreneurs do that is, um, it- it- it's just a real joy.
• 7:08
  Let's- let's drill down into that a little bit because a lot of our audience are entrepreneurs and founders and would like to be better managers and mentors. So what makes a great mentor?
• 7:19
  Um, and I'm not trying to claim that I'm a great mentor, so please let me just put that out there, but here's my perspectives [laughs] that I will share after having- What have you learned?
• 7:28
  [laughs] What have I learned over time? I- I will say the following. A great mentor is one that understands how to listen.
• 7:35
  Listen carefully to what the person that they have the privilege to actually be helping in whatever way, understand what their issues are.
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  And sometimes they're hard to discern because there's so many things coming at an entrepreneur at any one time.
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  So listening carefully, helping them discern and prioritize what the issues are for their both personal growth and their company growth is, I think, a really good trait of- Mm... a mentor.
• 8:04
  A- a second thing I would say is good partners will tell the truth. Mm.
• 8:13
  Will say things to the recipient, the mentee, if you'd like, that a lot of people won't tell them, particularly if they're CEOs and founders. People will wanna tell them what they think they wanna hear. Mm.
• 8:28
  A true partner will say, "You know, I see it this way.
• 8:33
  Maybe you can consider this," and be able to give them a little bit of perspective with regards to the impact they might be having on somebody else, how their decisions are affecting a system, how they're positioning theirselves in front of an industry, how their presence is being felt in front of their board.
• 8:53
  All of those different aspects of being an entrepreneur, particularly when they're fundraising, et cetera, a good mentor will listen carefully and be willing to tell the truth. Mm. That's good. I love that.
• 9:07
  Something I'd like to dig into with our impact board is really what does it actually take in the real world to affect change in health?
• 9:15
  I know over your whole career you've been thinking about, okay, how can we improve health for these various populations? And there's just, there's a lot of hype in the industry. There's a lot of talk.
• 9:25
  There's a lot of ideas that go nowhere, and over the course of your career, I'm sure you've come to realize, okay, what is gonna have impact and what is going to, uh, result in a lot of red tape and spinning of wheels?
• 9:37
  So when you think about that landscape, uh, what do you feel like you've learned about the kinds of innovations that really move the needle in health? Well, l- let me just say one thing on, on that, and that is
• 9:51
  I- I think healthcare is a field where true impact takes a while. Mm. W- where, as I mentioned previously, getting it to a standard of care takes a while.
• 10:04
  So knowing that, particularly something so very, very novel, I've, I, I, I've had the privilege of actually participating in a whole new industry being created, which was the world of genomics, and I'll use that as an example.
• 10:16
  Mm. So when the human genome was being sequenced, first ones back in the late 1980s, early 1990s, and then of course the first draft of it in the 2000s, what were we gonna do with it? This was an unchartered territory.
• 10:28
  We didn't know anything really about our genome, and yet we thought immediately it was gonna cure disease because here we were, we were gonna get to know our molecular basis of what we were all about.
• 10:40
  And look now, we're in 2022,
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  and there's been a plethora of new diagnostics, and yes, some therapeutics that, that kind of have come out of it, and the world of precision health and personalized medicine are now really becoming much more reality, but it has taken that long.
• 11:02
  It is a, a 20-year cycle, and we've only just begun. Mm.
• 11:08
  So for something so new, like these moonshot entrepreneurs are attacking, if they are inventing something, if it's a new molecule, if it's a new diagnostic, if it's a new technology, there is some time and investment in order to make it happen, and it r- it's a village, as has been said, and you have to bring convergent expertise to the table, be it in the world of not only development, but also regulatory, the policy world, making sure you understand what the policies are in healthcare.
• 11:42
  Reimbursement strategies from the very beginning are very important. In fact, a lot of, a lot of entrepreneurs that I've had the privilege of, of, you know, working with
• 11:54
  think about-Reimbursement is like series B type of discussion. Mm-hmm. And the reality is, I encourage them to think about what could be their strategy in series A.
• 12:06
  How will they get the right kind of people to help them think through what a reimbursement strategy is? 'Cause people want to know, investors want to know, how are you gonna go about attacking this?
• 12:18
  So it takes a village to actually bring these to bear. Yeah. Uh, you're sort of getting to my next question, which is that you're a very busy person and, and you could be involved in any initiative.
• 12:29
  Um, why join the StartUp Health Impact Board and support this global army of entrepreneurs? Well, thank you for that question, because, um, to me it always comes down to people. And I say this all the time.
• 12:42
  I say it to my kids, I say it to folks that I work with. Because the reality is, people are what make the difference. And when I met, way back when, Steve and Unity, oh my goodness, um,
• 12:55
  I just knew they were gonna make a difference. And they had this vision, which I thought was crazy at the time, and they talked about these moon shots and whatnot.
• 13:04
  Um, and I thought, "Well, how are they gonna make this army of entrepreneurs actually come together to drive it?" And they have systematically put a foundation in place, and then have been building up these moon shots.
• 13:19
  You know, and I counseled them, start with a f- one moon shot first and s- understand and learn from it, and then expand.
• 13:26
  And, um, they've been doing that, and I've, I've watched them bring incredible people to each of these moon shots, really high quality, incredible people that, what a privilege it is to be amongst them- Yeah...
• 13:42
  um, and, and being able to participate. That's great. What do you hope that this army of entrepreneurs tackles next?
• 13:48
  Is there an area of health innovation where you feel like there's either a particular gap in innovation or where you see great opportunity? Well, let's be clear. You know, that's like asking who's your favorite kid.
• 14:01
  Um, and [laughs] the reality is, the reason why they pick them is they're all very, very important. Mm-hmm. If I had to say there is an area of extraordinary need- Mm... it is the world of mental health. Mm.
• 14:16
  And Alzheimer's in particular. With the aging population and demographics that we have, and the incidents increasing, prevalence increasing like we've never seen before.
• 14:27
  Yet there's a paucity of true R&D dollars or commercialization possibilities because of the carcass of failures that we've had before us in such a difficult field.
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  So the fact that we're bringing entrepreneurs to this, innovations which y- you know, they so believe in, we need that kind of portfolio of risk-taking, very innovative ideas to stand a chance against this incredible disease.
• 15:00
  So I'm just very, very thankful that, you know, the StartUp Health crew, Steve and Unity, have really picked it as, as an area of focus. Yeah.
• 15:09
  You have the benefit of a, you know, a real global view, and you've been in these different positions, um, uh, for, for many years. A lot of our entrepreneurs are really in the weeds week to week. They're fundraising.
• 15:22
  They... It can be very challenging to look at the, uh, public markets and look at investment trends on a quarterly basis.
• 15:30
  I wonder what your words of wisdom would be to some of them who are having trouble thinking long term and kind of, you know, pulling back from the crisis of the week. Yeah, and, and I have to say, I've been there.
• 15:43
  I understand it, having run [laughs] companies and different, you know, divisions and whatnot. And you are just buried in making sure you can get through the week in terms of the, the, the, the problem du jour.
• 15:55
  But I'd say one of the things that you should welcome is finding a couple of partners that you can entrust in to help them think through the longer term with you on a routine basis.
• 16:09
  And invite them over a cup of coffee and just spend time saying, "What are you seeing in the industry? What trends do you think I should be really aware of?
• 16:18
  What trends in other industries do you think are gonna pervade mine?
• 16:22
  As I think about my company, how do I think of how it's gonna fit in the universe in terms of either healthcare delivery or a technology that could potentially be very beneficial?
• 16:33
  And w- what am I not thinking about, because I am deep down trying to do what I need to do to get my week done, my goals done. Can you help me think through those?"
• 16:45
  Just being very open with a couple of partners that you know that's what they do. And by the way, a lot of venture capitalists, that's what they do all the time. Mm.
• 16:53
  Find those that wanna partner with you to help you think about that over time. Yeah. I- I- Is that how you stay fresh? I mean, I'm, I'm sure that you're always dealing with, uh- [laughs]...
• 17:02
  challenges cropping up and fires, but you have to kind of keep that fresh perspective. Uh, how do you make sure you s- stay grounded? Honestly, the fresh perspective is something that you've just gotta do all the time.
• 17:15
  I tend... I'm a, a news hound. I, I read as much as I possibly can.
• 17:20
  Anything from technology review to modern healthcare to, you know, futur- ism, whatever it might be, to just sort of keep me up to speed with regards to some of the most current trends. But I also attend conferences.
• 17:35
  I try to, particularly with, with, um, Zoom and some of the virtual things, you can do much more of that. I also try to keep in touch, like I had just mentioned, with folks that have a pulse on what's going on.
• 17:50
  And I just ask them, "What's going on? What do you see?"
• 17:52
  And of course, because I'm involved with The Engine and I'm involved with Baker BioIngenuity, how both entrepreneurial effort and StartUp Health, it gives me a little bit of a window, um, into the world of innovation, into the world of new trends, which I have found, um...
• 18:11
  I just drink it up, 'cause it's just so useful to, to see what might be coming. And boy, is there a lot of new stuff coming. [laughs] I love it. I love it, Sue. Well, that's a nice note to end on.
• 18:21
  Sue Siegel, uh, we are proud to have you on our, uh, StartUp Health Impact Board. You've been a supporter from the beginning, and, um, you've had an amazing career.
• 18:32
  I know you're gonna speak wisdom into, uh, whatever comes next at this o- organization and in your own s- uh, so it's exciting to get to, to hear your thoughts today.
• 18:41
  Well, you're kind to say that, and it is my pleasure and my privilege to be able to actually be a partner in StartUp Health, so thank you. All right. Take care. Be well.
• 18:50
  [upbeat music] Thanks for listening to StartUp Health NOW. StartUp Health invest in health transformers around the world who are dedicated to achieving audacious health moon shots.
• 19:02
  If you wanna learn how you can join this community of entrepreneurs, or if you wanna connect with one of our 400 companies, go to startuphealth.com.
• 19:09
  If you'd like to learn how you can invest in our Health Moon Shot Impact Fund, go to healthmoonshots.com. Thanks for listening to StartUp Health NOW. We'll be back again with another episode next week. [upbeat music]