Latest / StartUp Health NOW Podcast / New Hubs for Health Innovation: Why These Health Transformers Are Building Their Startups in Columbus, Pittsburgh & Baltimore

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New Hubs for Health Innovation: Why These Health Transformers Are Building Their Startups in Columbus, Pittsburgh & Baltimore · StartUp Health NOW Podcast

• 0:00
  Columbus is becoming the silicon heartland. Intel has a plant going in on the east side of Columbus, and, and maybe people don't know that Columbus, Ohio, is a real tech hub for the country.
• 0:12
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Startup Health Now, the podcast where we celebrate the entrepreneurs and innovators who are transforming health. I'm your host, Logan Plaster.
• 0:23
  Every quarter, we publish something called the Startup Health Insights Report. It's all about health innovation funding. But one of the data points we track is where in the world health innovation funding is landing.
• 0:34
  We call these health innovation hubs, and the same three to four cities always seem to dominate the list.
• 0:40
  Companies in San Francisco, New York, Boston, London, they account for the vast majority of dollars raised in healthcare.
• 0:48
  However, at Startup Health, we know it takes a global village to transform health, and there is so much inspiring work happening outside of these cities.
• 0:57
  Steve Case, former CEO of AOL and an early investor in Startup Health, famously launched his Rise of the Rest campaign, which was aimed at showcasing the innovation happening in so-called flyover cities, places like St.
• 1:09
  Louis, Detroit, Omaha. We agree with Case that it's imperative that we back entrepreneurs in more places in order to benefit from their diversity of thought and experience.
• 1:20
  Here at Startup Health, we've invested in companies from twenty-nine countries, so I wanted to take an episode of the podcast and dedicate it to a few of these stories.
• 1:28
  Great startups being built in, let's call them less conspicuous cities. Today, you'll hear interviews with health transformers who have chosen to build their companies near Columbus, Baltimore, Pittsburgh.
• 1:41
  And not because they couldn't pay San Francisco rent, but because these environments held hidden gems and opportunities for their businesses, from local talent to affordable workspaces to engaged professional networks.
• 1:53
  To start us off, here's my conversation with Beth Sanders about how she's building her company, LifeBio, in Columbus, Ohio.
• 2:00
  [upbeat music] Start by telling our audience who you are, your name, your position, and your company. I'm Beth Sanders. I'm the founder and CEO of LifeBio. What does LifeBio do?
• 2:15
  If, if-- wh-when you're at a, um, you know, a picnic, when you're at a, a cocktail party and someone says, "What, what do you, what do you do?" What, what do you tell them?
• 2:24
  I say we capture people's life stories, and we use the story in their care. Okay. What kind of response do they typically give you? D-does that resonate with them, or do they need to have more information?
• 2:35
  Yeah, usually they, they wanna know more about that. So we're voice recording people's stories in, in healthcare and senior care.
• 2:43
  We are, um, we have a, a tech-powered, uh, phone-based method called My Hello that's rolling out like crazy right now, so that's going really well.
• 2:55
  Um, so anyway, LifeBio is age tech and, and actually telehealth solutions, um, that are used widely in the, across the US. You said it's going like crazy right now. Uh, w-what do you mean? Yeah.
• 3:08
  Is it a, a certain project you're working on? Yeah. We have health plans that are really interested in My Hello.
• 3:16
  Uh, coming out of the pandemic, it was a, a way that we could, uh, reduce loneliness and social isolation and, uh, actually pair seniors with other seniors, so they could reduce each other's loneliness by talking to each other.
• 3:29
  So it's like a social support. And, and we've learned that we have to provide a lot of backend systems and reporting, and, uh, AI is, is used across, uh, everything we develop.
• 3:44
  So the age tech we're developing- Yeah... is widely used and has AI powering it in everything we do now. Uh, and so, you know, really there's three things going on. We have software that tells people's life stories.
• 4:02
  We have My Hello that does, uh, this loneliness intervention, social support stuff just by using any phone. And actually, we even have something with cognitive screening for people with dementia. So everything we do
• 4:17
  is es-especially helping older people. Got it. Well, appreciate that flyover. Part of why we're having this conversation is to not just talk about what you're building, but where you're building it.
• 4:28
  So tell me where you are right now, both, um, the region, the city, but also, you know, uh, where exactly you're working from right now. Okay. I'm in Marysville, Ohio, which is outside of Columbus, Ohio.
• 4:41
  And, uh, it's a, it's a beautiful little town that is, uh... Actually, Honda of America is in Marysville too, so high tech, LifeBio is here, and, um, and, uh, anyway, Columbus is becoming the silicon heartland.
• 4:57
  Intel has a plant going in on the east side of Columbus, and, and maybe people don't know that Columbus, Ohio, is a real tech hub for the country right now. That is-- That's what we're gonna talk about. Yeah.
• 5:09
  Yeah, that's what we're gonna talk about right now. I, I don't think most people do know that. Um, there's a lot of awesome things happening in the heartland that people on the coasts, uh, are unaware of.
• 5:18
  And, a-and Columbus, uh, Columbus's rise in this fashion might be one of those. So just let's talk, let's talk about it. What makes Columbus, Ohio, the silicon heartland? Well, it's a, a young, vibrant city.
• 5:33
  There's lots of tech talent here, uh, and, and it's been, you know, a hub for banking and insurance and that kind of thing.
• 5:41
  And, and I think we've been discovered now by Facebook, Google, and, and Intel, the Intel plant going in and all that.
• 5:50
  So there's a lot of activity in the heart of Columbus, but then the, you know, that's the hub, and then the spokes are the, all the smallUh, cities around that big city of Columbus, Ohio.
• 6:04
  So it's a incredible place to be growing a company. It's an affordable place to live. People wanna live here, and so finding good talent and finding...
• 6:15
  You know, you got Ohio State University, other universities in, in your backyard where you've got great tech talent here too. Mm-hmm.
• 6:22
  So that's all good stuff, and it's affordable to have office space here, for one thing. Okay. And good, you know, just good solid work ethic folks live here. Yeah. So- I love my staff...
• 6:34
  so you, you've mentioned affordability, low cost of living, you mentioned the proximity to universities for talent, um, work ethic, you know, the, the, the Ohio, uh, state of mind.
• 6:45
  What are some of the other ingredients that you've, you've witnessed that makes this a great place to start and run your business? Well, it's interesting that Ohio was the home of the Wright brothers- Mm...
• 6:55
  and, uh, eight presidents and other innovations that- Why, why is that? Uh-huh. You know, as someone who was born in Akron, Ohio, I, I have quoted those facts myself. Um- Sure... what's, what's in the water, Beth?
• 7:08
  What is it about the Ohio mentality, the mindset, um- Yeah... that has bor- has, uh, bred this, um- Mm... type of individual? I think that people are willing to ask for help and reach out.
• 7:25
  I think that it's a family-friendly place. You know- Mm... people, um... And, and that hard work ethic. I don't... I just think that's part of the DNA here.
• 7:36
  Hey, maybe it's because our weather isn't as perfect as some parts of the country, right? So, and on a, a day that's gray, cold, the snow's coming down at the moment day- Yeah... why not work hard here? Yeah. Why not?
• 7:52
  You know? You- Yeah. There's a lot of hope and optimism here for me... mm. Hope and optimism.
• 7:58
  You mentioned the characteristic of being willing to ask for help, which to me says humility, uh, which is, uh, it may be a characteristic that I would associate with, with Ohio.
• 8:08
  Um, folks who live in Ohio, they're, they're not so high on themselves. You know, they're not, uh, that, "Hey, I live in LA, I live in New York City."
• 8:16
  Um, the place that they live doesn't give them their sense of identity. Does that ring true? Not a lot of glamour there. Not a lot of glamour. It's not.
• 8:24
  It's not glamorous, and, and how does that feed into the ethos of a startup? Oh, here it is. Here it is. I think I got it for you, is that is not a distraction here. Mm. Okay? So I... That is so important.
• 8:43
  Yeah, we have space. [laughs] I think that you have head space. You aren't so overwhelmed by, you know, the five million people around you or something. Can I s- can I just say I'm outside in the city, and I'm...
• 8:58
  I live outside of even our small city, right? And- Yeah... so I can work at... My home office is looking out on, uh, on fields. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not even that close.
• 9:10
  My nearest neighbors are wonderful neighbors, but I don't have to be distracted- Yeah... by things like that. So can I just say that I think entrepreneurs need a low distraction environment- Mm... for best results.
• 9:25
  Well, I think it's interesting, you're talking about physical distractions, like being in a place that's just buzzing, and then also the distraction of chasing after, um, the, the limelight, if you will.
• 9:40
  You know, chasing after the things that New York City, San Francisco, LA, um, are trying to offer you in terms of, you know, the level of life that you're leading. Yes. Interesting.
• 9:52
  I'm not feeling that I have to keep up with the Joneses much, okay? Yeah. Yeah. Or even the entrepreneurs, I, I, I love going to places like New York and California.
• 10:03
  I always said, "Hey," it's like for me as an entrepreneur going to, like, summer camp, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Let me go out there. I love to absorb the energy of Chicago, New York, Boston, um, LA, San Francisco, Seattle.
• 10:18
  Bring it home. Yeah. Just bring it home and now get back to nest, Grindstone. Get back to work. Yeah.
• 10:26
  Can you think of a situation there in Columbus that kinda epitomized, uh, some of these things that we've been talking about?
• 10:33
  Whether it was a gathering of entrepreneurs or that, that Ohio spirit, uh, a time when you thought, you know, "This is, this is it. This is my community here in Ohio."
• 10:45
  I would say, you know, there's certainly many gatherings and, like, pitch events and things that you can go to here and, and so whenever you want that kind of environment where you're surrounded by a room of 50 or 100 entrepreneurs, it can happen, right?
• 10:59
  Yeah. Um, let's see. But I, I think, uh, you know, we have basically bootstrapped this company. We have some angels here in the Columbus, Ohio area. Uh-huh.
• 11:14
  And, you know, we're, we're, uh, we're... We have customers though, you know, and, and we're selling, and we have- Yeah... you know, sales. And, um, I guess I, I... Let's see.
• 11:28
  I'm not sure I can probably give the answer to this. Um- [laughs] Uh, you know, I would say that, th- yeah, the bigger cities probably offer
• 11:38
  more face-to-face meetings with seed or VC kind of people we sh- you know, we should probably know right now. Yeah.
• 11:46
  And maybe as we live here, access to capital has been more difficult, but, um, but we're also able to be, um, laser focused on, well, if that, now if we, uh... What are other alternatives?
• 12:03
  Pick up and move to San Francisco and lose all those things you just described as being positives for the company.Right. Right. And think about us in a healthcare setting. Yeah.
• 12:12
  You know, our work in healthcare, what's that all about? That's family focused. That's um, in the trench work to make people, you know, healthier, feel better. Uh, all people face- Yeah...
• 12:26
  caregiving challenges and a- and older adults in their life that need cared for. That is something people in Ohio understand.
• 12:37
  [upbeat music] We move now from Ohio to Columbia, Maryland, a community that sits halfway between Baltimore and Washington, DC.
• 12:47
  This is where we find Shamit Luhar, the CEO and co-founder of Veta Health, which is using technology to help population health companies improve care for complex patients.
• 12:57
  Why would you wanna run your thriving health tech business out of a Baltimore suburb? Luhar shares a few good reasons. [upbeat music] Hey, how you doing? Doing good. Yeah. Yeah.
• 13:10
  We're here to talk about, uh, Columbia and Baltimore and Maryland, and why your company has thrived in this location. How would you describe the kind of city that I'm g- going after here?
• 13:26
  So Columbia, Maryland, the nice thing about Columbia, Maryland is it's, it's halfway between Washington DC and, and Baltimore. So it, it's really a, a, an amazing hub for an healthcare. I'll tell you why.
• 13:41
  More than or- you know, as an organization that's focused on, uh, virtual health engagement, right? From Medicaid and Medicare, this is right down the road from us in Woodlawn, CMS. Mm. So whenever we wanna,
• 13:54
  uh, when and if we wanna take a meeting with them, it's a 20-minute drive. That, that's really interesting because, gosh, I feel like a lot of companies just don't look into that. [laughs] They just don't think about it.
• 14:07
  So they're like, "Oh, I should be in New York," or, "I should be in San Francisco. I should be near this university."
• 14:13
  But like co-locating with, uh, agencies in DC, if you wanna work with Medicare and Medicaid, it makes so much sense. So what was the situation where you're able to do something in person
• 14:24
  that 99% of startups would have to do virtually in terms of Medicaid and Medicare? Yeah. Well, you know, just going back to, you know, that, the use case of CMS, you know, they are always looking for, um,
• 14:40
  healthcare innovation, right? How are we improving the lives of our Medicaid or Medicare members, right? From a chronic condition perspective, how are we engaging with them?
• 14:48
  How are we providing them the tools to, to live their best life? And so what, um, we were able to do is to actually coordinate a discussion with a, uh, with the director of CMS.
• 15:01
  He and I were on a panel together where I shared the work that we were doing, and, um, that discussion led to a meeting where we were able to share our work with CMS, so they know who we are. Nice. Nice.
• 15:14
  Uh, and what's nice about this is that you can do it in person when you're only 20 minutes away, and you have as much easier time getting all the key stakeholders together. Yeah.
• 15:23
  Y- you bring up a really interesting point, which is ex- um, you know, capitalizing on being in a smaller ecosystem. Obviously, this is a big ecosystem. Maryland and- Yeah... and DC, it's huge.
• 15:35
  Um, and yet by saying, "Hey, I'm a Maryland company, and let's get to know other Maryland, uh, champions of health innovation," you co-located with this, uh, individual on a panel, and you looked at each other, you said, "Hey, we're both in Maryland.
• 15:48
  Let's get together." Yeah. And there was just a sense of, I don't know, just being co-located, just like, "Hey, like I, I'm taking advantage of being in this state with you." Yeah. That's ab- that's absolutely right.
• 16:00
  And I think Maryland is a hidden gem- Mm... in my, in my op- in my humble opinion.
• 16:07
  And I'm not just saying that just because I've lived here all [laughs] my life, but, um, we're fairly humbled to live where we, where we do.
• 16:17
  And there is, uh, nothing sh- there's, um, so much innovation here in terms of healthcare, biotechnology.
• 16:26
  I mean, a lot of people don't know this, but the state of Maryland actually has, you know, one of the highest per capita, uh, biotechnology companies in the United States, and they're all in, uh, they're all in Maryland.
• 16:37
  Uh, there's also a substantial amount of capital, right?
• 16:41
  That is available for organizations, you know, such as us, whether you're at the startup stage, whether you're at a growth stage, or even looking to excel towards, towards an IPO.
• 16:51
  And then, you know, going back to, you know, our organization, right? Because we work with populations that are, quote, unquote, "funded" by both national or federal and state governments,
• 17:05
  this provides an avenue where we go to state legislator in, uh, uh, in Maryland and talk about, you know, why the work that we do is so impactful to the Medicaid population here. But then wanna take a step down to, to
• 17:19
  DC is a short car r- uh, car ride away, where we could talk to legislators at the national level to say, "Hey, here's the impact that we're having at a national level, and think about what you could do if you broadened, uh, broadened the work, um, that we're doing at, at an individual state level and took it national."
• 17:37
  Yeah. No, it makes perfect sense. You know, I leaped into the questioning about Columbia, Maryland, and I wanna give you a chance to say who you are and give me the flyover of what Veta Health is doing right now.
• 17:49
  Veta Health is a virtual health engagement company, and what we do is we focus on serving, uh, underserved populations, particularly in, uh, Medicaid and SNIP.
• 18:02
  And our mission at the organization is to empower people with chronic conditions
• 18:06
  to live their best life, and what we provide is a technology enabledService that is focused on helping increasing real-time access to care for our members, increasing chronic condition compliance, and ultimately lowering the medical cost of our program participants.
• 18:25
  And on average, across all of our entire populations, we see a twenty percent medical savings, which is driven by our ability to engage eighty-four percent of members on our platform across our various programs on a monthly basis.
• 18:43
  Got it. Let's go back to the, uh, to something you said about, um, raising capital. You said there are investors in Maryland.
• 18:51
  When I talk to folks from other heartland cities, other places that aren't top two or three cities in the, in the US, they say that access to capital is probably one of the trickier bits of being in Ohio or Pennsylvania, et cetera.
• 19:04
  Yeah. So how-- what's, what has your strategy been for tapping into those, those pools here in Maryland? Sure. So I'll give you an example.
• 19:13
  When we started our company, we-- our first offices were located at the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship. Mm-hmm. And they are an incubator for companies in, in Howard County.
• 19:26
  And so through that, you know, it gave us access to not only, quote, unquote, "pitch," you know, what we do as an organization, but also get to know the who's who in the area.
• 19:39
  And so what that ultimately evol-- uh, what that ultimately led to is, you know, nice press releases about, you know, companies or individuals who, um, starting companies in Maryland and, you know, mostly driven by, you know, the locale of where, where we were, but then we were also residents, right?
• 19:57
  So that, that's also, that's also an added plus. And so what that does, that drives attention or audience or eyes, you know, to our organization.
• 20:09
  You know, with us, with Maryland being a healthcare hub, you know, it invites individuals to learn more about our company and, you know, through, through the interaction with the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship, I mean, we were able to raise our first, um, five hundred thousand dollars of our company.
• 20:27
  Nice. Really nice. Describe a situation to me that you think is sort of quintessential of running a startup in Columbia, Maryland.
• 20:35
  I think people have a mental picture of, oh, you know, being a bootstrap company in New York or in San Francisco.
• 20:41
  Like, take me there to a place that kind of epitomizes it for you, whether it's a place where you work or get coffee and you take the team for lunch, et cetera. Mm. That is a, uh... That's a good question.
• 20:55
  So Columbia was founded by a gentleman named James Rouse,
• 21:03
  and what he-- it was one of the first planned communities in the, in the United States, and he, he had this vision of creating an environment where people from various,
• 21:18
  various ethnicities, various economic, so, you know, socioeconomics backgrounds, could all come together and live. And, you know, that's why I- it's hard for me to just pick one example because the whole town- Mm...
• 21:33
  is, is, is built upon, uh, is really built upon that. Yeah. And so,
• 21:37
  you know, when I think about, there's a lot of talent in, in Columbia, so that's why-- that's one of the reasons why we're so humbled and excited to have our company here because, because of the vision that, uh, James Rouse first laid out, uh, for Columbia.
• 21:54
  And, you know, that, and that l- helps us drive a lot of our, our vision and mission for, for the company because, you know, we work with populations that, you know, like you and I, Logan, are sometimes not as fortunate, but we can ensure through our services that they are.
• 22:12
  [upbeat music] To close out this episode, we move back to the West to Pittsburgh. The City of Bridges has been building its reputation as a hub for entrepreneurship for more than a decade.
• 22:23
  So we wanted to catch up with a health startup there and hear what it's like on the ground. Max Sims and Brad Mann from MindTrace offer their perspective. [upbeat music] Brad, Max, thanks for joining me today.
• 22:38
  I appreciate you taking time for this interview. Glad to be here. Thanks, Logan. Pleasure to be here.
• 22:43
  You know, you guys, uh, occupy interesting space within the startup health portfolio because you are innovating within brain surgery.
• 22:52
  Uh, you know, a lot of folks, uh, you know, they sort of nibble at the edges of the, the kinds of software that can help us be a little faster in what we do or be more organized.
• 23:02
  But, uh, but you guys are going straight towards improving one of the most complex procedures, uh, complex issues in healthcare. Tell me what MindTrace does and kind of what you've built. Give me a, give me a flyover.
• 23:15
  Sure. Thank you for that. I think it's not lost on Brad or myself that what we're doing is, is, is not easy, and the only way you build these types of technologies is with great clinical partners.
• 23:24
  And so at MindTrace, uh, we're really trying to push the frontier of, of, of neurosurgery, uh, and allow surgical teams to understand the, the cognitive implications of taking a surgical plan for a given brain tumor or drug-resistant epilepsy patient and how, how removing healthy brain tissue on the way to the tumor or to the tissue causing those seizures is actually going to impact that person's ability to walk and talk after surgery.
• 23:49
  So that's really the, the guiding, uh, star for us as a-a-at what we're doing here at MindTrace. I love it. I love it.
• 23:55
  Well, we could have a whole episode about brain surgery and the work that you're doing, and I hope we, we do a follow-up on that in the future.
• 24:02
  But we're actually here to talk about Pittsburgh, the fact that you are, are building your, your company in Pittsburgh. There are these thriving ecosystems for startups and for health innovation around the world.
• 24:15
  Um, and you've chosen to, to put MindTrace there in Pittsburgh, and so I wanna talk about that. Just to start me offWhat's a physical scene unique to Pittsburgh startups?
• 24:25
  It could be a coffee shop, a co-working space, a-an outdoor spot you like to take a, a walking meeting. Brett, take us there. Well, I'll say, you know, I'll answer that question.
• 24:34
  I'll offer one answer to that question by way of describing something that I think that's very special about Pittsburgh, which is that there's a very strong connection between very high-powered research universities and internationally known medical centers with a very strong entrepreneurial culture.
• 24:55
  So what does it look like for an early-stage startup in Pittsburgh?
• 24:59
  Uh, I think it looks like you are interacting with incredibly talented trainees at various levels, you know, really from, uh, undergraduates who are graduating up through PhD level trainees and medical students and residents who are also interested in both startups and/or in business development.
• 25:20
  So there's a very strong culture there. I think one is interacting with local business development, uh, groups who very much are interconnected with the universities and the medical centers.
• 25:33
  And so a lot of the conversations that we've had with Pittsburgh have been with individuals who re-- who come from these different parts of the broader Pittsburgh ecosystem.
• 25:43
  Pittsburgh has been very successful in creating the infrastructure to bring all these different voices together in support of de-risking early-stage startup companies.
• 25:52
  Do you think of an example of a time when you had access to a business leader or a researcher, um, or even a provider that, that you think maybe I wouldn't have had that access somewhere else?
• 26:05
  Yeah, I think for us, you know, kind of Pittsburgh is such a roll up your sleeves kinda city, and that's something that we love about Pittsburgh, and it's what
• 26:15
  we're very proud that Mindtrace is based in Pittsburgh because that attitude of, let me try to pay it forward when I can to the comp-- to the next startup that's maybe a little younger than me, or there's companies that are ahead of us, and they're willing to pay it forward to us and learn from their experience how not to step on a landmine that they might've stepped on.
• 26:34
  You know, it all comes back to people.
• 26:36
  And I think a great example of that is whenever our accelerator programs or incubator programs have events, uh, the turnout for these is, is off the charts, I think, relative to what you would see in other cities.
• 26:48
  And it's because Pittsburgh is, is oftentimes you're one degree away from pretty much everyone, uh, in the life science community, but even outside the life science community.
• 26:57
  And so there's a real sense of camaraderie and responsibility for trying to help Pittsburgh kind of reinvent itself.
• 27:05
  And you've seen Pittsburgh be successful in robotics and AI machine learning, and there's a real sense in the city right now that life science is, is not very far behind those other two sort of, uh, you know, industry focuses.
• 27:17
  So for us to be part of that sort of burgeoning life science community, uh, and look to the companies that have been successful and now see that there's really this critical mass of life science companies coming out of Pittsburgh, um, I think it's a really exciting time for Pittsburgh.
• 27:30
  And so I, I can't point to one place that you would find all of us because a lot of these events are shared across the community, uh, to kinda spread the wealth, uh, if you will.
• 27:39
  So that's one of the things that makes Pittsburgh very unique, um, and very exciting for us. The, the pay it forward piece makes sense to me. You, you want Pittsburgh to thrive. I live in Baltimore.
• 27:50
  I, I feel that same, uh, sort of ethos. Um, it's all about the people trying to invest in their home. You also mentioned rolling up your sleeves. Is there something about the work ethic, uh, of the place? Yeah.
• 28:03
  I, I would, uh, I absolutely would describe it just like that.
• 28:06
  I-- Our experience has been here in Pittsburgh that every time we've reached out to connect with somebody, uh, there is this culture of exactly that, rolling up our sleeves to figure out what a solution looks like to the problem, um, and, uh, to push aside, uh, maybe some of the things that get in the way of progress, um, um, if one doesn't have that attitude.
• 28:27
  And, uh, so that has been something I think that is ingrained.
• 28:30
  It seems to be part of what Pittsburgh is, who Pittsburgh is, uh, and it's, it's, it's great to see that that is also reflected in the entrepreneurial and startup scene.
• 28:40
  We've only talked about positives and why Pittsburgh's amazing for startups. In the spirit of telling it like it is, there have to be some challenges to, to building your company anywhere.
• 28:50
  Uh, a-a-anything challenging about this, uh, this environment you're in? Yeah. I think a co-- two things come to mind.
• 28:55
  I, I don't know if either of them are unique to Pittsburgh per se, but are sort of common amongst sort of those smaller, uh, smaller major cities, which is, uh, funding gaps, right?
• 29:06
  The-- oftentimes, a lot of programs, accelerator funds, uh, can, can put in a hundred, two hundred, up to three hundred K checks at a time, uh, but if you're raising sort of a, a multimillion-dollar pre-seed, you're, you're, you're unlikely to be able to raise all that inside of Pittsburgh.
• 29:21
  Whereas, you know, in a Boston or New York or a San Francisco, you could probably put your entire round together, you know, within three miles o-of where your headquarters are.
• 29:30
  For us and for, for companies that are in Pittsburgh that are trying to sort of solve some of these early-stage funding gaps, it's been a concerted effort to really sort of lock down the funding available in Pittsburgh and really get that Pittsburgh community banner, uh, behind you, but then also make sure that you're strategic looking outside of Pittsburgh to other sort of nationally, uh, reputable accelerator and incubator programs to sort of build out that, that foundation because you're gonna need that as a med tech company, uh, and you're gonna need introductions to other clinical networks.
• 29:58
  So I think that's something where, uh, Pittsburgh is, is, is actively trying to, to improve its ability to do pre-seed funding and seed funding to startups, but it's something that the city knows i-it needs to help, uh, early-stage companies with.
• 30:11
  Emotionally, you've been in Pittsburgh for five years now. Do you see yourself putting down roots there? Did it draw you in, uh, emotionally? Well, my roots are down.
• 30:21
  My, uh, my roots are, are already quite deep in, in the sense that I, I moved here with my wife, uh, who's also a faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, and our two daughters who are now nine and twelve.And, you know, we're very much plugged in.
• 30:33
  We love the community. We moved here, Betty, you know, a little over, little over a year before COVID descended, and so obviously it's been a different experience moving into a city in that context.
• 30:43
  Pittsburgh has, uh, just been an amazing, uh, experience to sort of peel back the layers and understand the really amazing cultural institutions that the city has, I think on par with a lot of, uh, much larger cities.
• 30:56
  So it's been great as, as a place to, uh, to raise a family.
• 31:00
  I'll say the, the quality of life in Pittsburgh is, is very high and, and part of that I think is because the cost of living is more modest than it is on the coast, but the salaries are, are more equivalent.
• 31:12
  So overall, it's, it's been great, I mean, in life and in work and, and I think that, and this is something that we really embody very much at Mindtrace, if you're gonna be successful in work, you have to be successful in life.
• 31:23
  You have to be happy. You have to be engaged. Your family has to be happy. Your partner has to be happy.
• 31:28
  Your children have to be happy and engaged with their lives because if that's not in place, you're not gonna be able to do the best work that you can do.
• 31:34
  So, and that also for us is part of the calculus of deciding that Pittsburgh is really a place to headquarter a company like Mindtrace. Just to close us out, I want you to take us somewhere in Pittsburgh physically.
• 31:45
  If I was in town, you were gonna take me to lunch or we're gonna have a meeting and have coffee.
• 31:48
  Is there, is there a place that really is quintessential for you, um, as sort of tied into your, your journey with Mindtrace?
• 31:56
  Well, you know, if we ever have the good fortune of, of having you in our city, I think we would definitely take a walk down by the Strip District because you've got such great food, uh, you got great drinks, and you're very convenient to downtown.
• 32:07
  So we'd probably grab a Penguins game or a Pirates game and, and just have a, an opportunity to, to meet other people.
• 32:14
  That's the other thing is if you're walking in downtown Pittsburgh and you came out of sort of this life science community environment, university environment, people are-- If you're gonna walk by somebody who recognizes you, I guarantee they're gonna say hi, right?
• 32:25
  Yeah.
• 32:25
  And so I think that small town feel, um, in a large city is not lost on Pittsburgh, and that's something that I think, uh, Pittsburgh wants to hold onto and does hold onto very nicely and, and makes it a really great place to start a company, to, to hopefully build a family one day, uh, and to put down some roots because, um, we're, we're really optimistic about the future of Pittsburgh, especially in MedTech.
• 32:46
  [upbeat music] That's our show this week. Thanks for joining me.
• 32:50
  But you know, I think we've only scratched the surface on this topic, and in future episodes, we'll introduce you to founders in places like The Gambia and Brazil and see how new hubs of health innovation are forming around the globe.
• 33:02
  I can't wait. This episode was produced by Solomon Collins, Maxime de Hougbe, and myself. You can find hundreds of back episodes of Startup Health NOW wherever you get your podcasts.
• 33:12
  And if you found today's conversations valuable, I invite you to subscribe to the feed. If you've got an idea for a future episode, drop me a line. I'm at logan@startuphealth.com.
• 33:23
  [upbeat music] Thanks for listening to Startup Health NOW. Startup Health invests in health transformers around the world who are dedicated to achieving audacious health moonshots.
• 33:35
  If you wanna learn how you can join this community of entrepreneurs, or if you wanna connect with one of our four hundred and fifty companies, go to startuphealth.com.
• 33:43
  If you'd like to learn how you can invest in our Health Moonshot 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]