Oct 12, 2017
I talk with Scott Barclay today. Scott is a partner at Data Collective (DCVC), an early-stage fund that makes venture capital investments in data scientists and entrepreneurs working on hard big data problems. We discuss what it takes for an entrepreneur to succeed in the healthcare ecosystem today, including an essential ingredient: Empathy.
Data
Collective is a $1bn+ venture capital firm focused on early-stage
investing in deep tech and data compute, based in Palo Alto and San
Francisco but investing globally. Scott focuses on health and data
and leads the firm's practice in Computational Care, envisioning
and funding the future of special early-stage teams working on
hugely ambitious problems in how health care is provided and
applied with data and empathy. Current board or investment roles
include Karius, Element. AI, Unity Medical, Enzyme, Medical
Informatics, Noteworth, SafelyYou, PatientBank, BlueTalon, InnaMed
and Subtle Medical.
By background, Scott is a serial
angel investor and adviser in health and data
start-ups. Scott helped create and scale the first massive digital
health platform (Surescripts) and
served CVS Health as a GM and innovation leader across the
company's health care and retail assets. Previous stints include
the Boston Consulting Group, starting a capital markets desk in
London for Banc of America Securities, and an MBA from Insead.
Scott grew up in rural Virginia and worked many summers in a
manufacturing plant, and graduated from the University of
Virginia where he was militantly liberal arts and math and
science.
00:00 What Data Collective is.
01:30 Scott’s time as Director of Strategy at Surescripts.
03:45 E-Prescribing.
07:30 Identifying problems and asking why we can’t handle those
problems differently.
08:05 “There is no innovation without execution.”
09:00 Having empathy for the problem.
10:00 Why this isn’t a place for incrementalism.
12:30 “We don’t have an Elon Musk of how we provide
healthcare.”
15:00 Why we need empathy when solving problems in the provision of
care.
16:00 Three business models that work, and where empathy sits in
each one.
25:25 Virta Health as an example for modeling successful healthcare
provision.
26:30 Carrum Health and Bundled Health Care.
29:40 The problems Scott is ready to see solved and invest in.
30:15 “None of us can see the whole forest and also experienced all
of the nooks and crannies of that forest floor.”
33:00 “The lever that we believe in is the spirit of the
entrepreneur.”
35:50 You can learn more at dcvc.com or by emailing
scott@dcvc.com.