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XTechstars LA Names Matt Kozlov Its Next Director. Here’s What It Means for the Future of the Popular Accelerator
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.
One of Southern California's top accelerators has named Matt Kozlov its next managing director, marking a shift to jumpstarting more deep-tech startups.
Kozlov succeeds the popular Anna Barber, who departed Techstars Los Angeles Accelerator in November to become the first head of M13's venture studio and a partner at the firm.
"It's certainly big shoes that I'm filling," Kozlov said. "I'm quite humbled by it, to be perfectly honest."
Kozlov is not new to the Techstars franchise, having previously led Techstars' Starburst Space Accelerator and Healthcare Accelerator.
"I've spent the last five years working with startups that are a little bit more regulatory-based with longer sales cycles, which I think is actually a really great background to bring," Kozlov said.
Kozlov and Barber are friends and Barber said it was Kozlov who helped show her the ropes at Techstars when she joined in 2017.
"Because he's been a mentor for the L.A. program, he also knows the whole community and can seamlessly step in, although I fully expect him to define his own thesis and take the program to a whole new level," Barber said.
Both began their careers with two-year stints in management consulting, Kozlov at Bain and Barber at McKinsey. But while her background is more in consumer technology, Kozlov has roots in deep tech in addition to stints in executive roles at Sony Music Entertainment and TeleSign.
"I'm very excited about the deep-tech market here in Southern California – pharmaceutical, aerospace, defense, health care, and robotics," Kozlov said. "The industrial base in Los Angeles is so complex and so varied and my own career I think reflects that."
Kozlov says with no offense to those developing mobile video games or entertainment startups, he generally looks for founders who want to aim higher to solve big problems in areas like healthcare or aerospace.
"I'm looking for humble coachable founders who are deeply passionate about solving the problem they're going after, and ideally that problem is something that if they are successful in solving, it will actually make the world a better place," he said.
One thing he said will not change in Techstars' commitment to backing diverse founders.
"Los Angeles is a diverse community and our entrepreneurial investments should reflect that," he said.
Founders who have been mentored by Kozlov say he brings a high degree of both empathy and analytical rigor to his job.
"He is always willing to roll up his sleeves and do the work in the trenches, in the best of times and the worst," said Dante Tolbert, who graduated from the 2017 healthcare accelerator when he was CEO of Cerebro Solutions, a startup that helps hospitals manage clinicians and labor costs.
"Matt brings that rare combination of analytical rigor, a solid understanding of key KPIs (key performance indicators) and milestones for early-to mid-stage startups, and incredible people skills to build strong networks and partnerships," said Wout Brusselaers, founder and CEO at Deep 6 AI, a startup that helps hospital companies with analytics that was part of the 2016 healthcare accelerator.
A total of 40 companies have gone through the three-month Techstars Los Angeles Accelerator during the past five years. Collectively, they have gone on raise over $126 million and have a combined market cap of $328.6 million. Standouts include Slingshot Aerospace, Blue Fever, Stackin, Fernish, Liquid, Dash Systems and Finli.
However, some have questioned whether accelerators provide the necessary value to startups to justify the cut of equity, which in Techstars' case is 6%. That is especially true in the pandemic, when Zoom meetings have replaced most in-person interaction. Not surprisingly, Kozlov disagrees.
"Whether it's in person under one office building or distributed across Zoom rooms, I've learned that it doesn't really matter," Kozlov said. "It's certainly a lot more fun when you're able to grab a real meal with somebody or really just spend long nights talking about your challenges, but what I've learned is that by bringing this community together to support these ten startups at a time, magic happens. It's different than building your business out on your own."
On the plus side, Kozlov says deals have been closing faster during the pandemic and mentors have more time on their hands since they are not traveling or commuting.
"There's actually a little bit more time to pay it forward," he said.
Applications for the Techstars LA 2021 program are open now through April 11, a cohort that Kozlov expects to once again be remote with perhaps some in-person interaction by the end.
"I guess you and I are probably going to assume that it will be a virtual program unless we can hurry the pace of vaccinations," Kozlov said.
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Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.
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Greater Good Health Raises $10 Million To Fix America’s Doctor Shortage
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
The pandemic highlighted what’s been a growing trend for years: Medical students are prioritizing high-paying specialty fields over primary care, leading to a shortage of primary care doctors who take care of a patient’s day-to-day health concerns. These physicians are a cornerstone of preventative health care, which when addressed can lower health care costs for patients, insurers and the government. But there’s a massive shortage of doctors all over the country, and the pipeline for primary care physicians is even weaker.
One local startup is offering a possible answer to this supply squeeze: nurse practitioners.
On Wednesday, Manhattan Beach-based Greater Good Health unveiled a $10 million Series A funding round led by LRVHealth, which adds to the startup’s $3 million seed round last year. The company employs nurse practitioners and pairs them with doctor’s offices and medical clinics; this allows nurse practitioners to take on patients who would otherwise have to wait weeks, or even months, to see a doctor.
“This access and equity issue is just going to become more pervasive if we don't do things to help people gain more access,” Greater Good founder and CEO Sylvia Hastanan told dot.LA. “We need more providers to offer more patients appointments and access to their time to take care of their needs. And in order to do that, we really need to think about the workforce.”
There has been a growing movement in the medical industry to use nurse practitioners in place of increasingly scarce primary care physicians. California passed a law in 2020 that will widen the scope of nurse practitioners and allow them to operate without a supervising physician by 2023. Amid a shortage of doctors, there’s also the question of what will become of the largest and longest-living elderly population in recent history, Baby Boomers. Public health officials are already scrambling for ways to take care of this aging demographic’s myriad health needs while also addressing the general population.
“By the time you and I get old enough where we need primary care providers to help us with our ailments and chronic conditions, there aren't [going to be] enough of them,” Hastanan said. “And/or there just isn't going to be enough support for those nurse practitioners to really thrive in that way. And I worry about what our system will look like.”
Nurse practitioners function much like doctors do—they can monitor vitals, diagnose patients, and, in some cases, prescribe medication (though usually under the supervision of a doctor). Nurse practitioners need to get either a master’s degree or higher in nursing and complete thousands of hours of work in a clinical setting. All told, it usually takes six-to-eight years to become a nurse practitioner, compared to 10-to-15 years to become a practicing physician.
Greater Good Health’s platform puts nurse practitioners in often years-long care settings where they manage patients—most of whom are chronically ill, high-risk patients that need to be seen regularly and thoroughly. This allows them to follow up more carefully on patients they have managed for years, instead of catching up on a new patient’s history and treating them in the moment. Patients, meanwhile, don’t have to see a rotating door of clinicians and can talk to a provider they already have an established rapport with.
The one-year-old startup will use the funding to provide learning and development opportunities for its nurse practitioners and also connect them with each other through virtual support groups. Burnout has been an issue across health care during the pandemic, spurring an exodus of nursing and support staff and leaving health care facilities woefully understaffed. Greater Good hopes that keeping nurse practitioners in more stable, years-long care situations and offering them career development opportunities will help retain them and keep them in the workforce longer.
“We want them to be well-rounded and balanced both in work and life, and we see that returns us healthier, more engaged and ready nurse practitioners,” Hastanan said.
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
Plus Capital Partner Amanda Groves on Celebrity Equity Investments
On this episode of the L.A. Venture podcast, Amanda Groves talks about how PLUS Capital advises celebrity investors and why more high-profile individuals are choosing to invest instead of endorse.
As a partner at PLUS, Groves works with over 70 artists and athletes, helping to guide their investment strategies. PLUS advises their talent roster to combine their financial capital with their social capital and focus on five investment areas: the future of work, future of education, health and wellness, the conscious consumer and sustainability.
“The idea is if we can leverage these people who have incredible audiences—and influence over that audience—in the world of venture capital, you'd be able to help make those businesses move forward faster,” Groves said.
PLUS works to create celebrity partnerships by identifying each client’s passions and finding companies that align with them, Groves said. From there, the venture firm can reach out to prospective partners from its many contacts and can help evaluate businesses that approach its clients. Recently, PLUS paired actress Nina Dobrev with the candy company SmartSweets after she had told them about her love for its snacks.
Celebrity entrepreneurship has shifted quite a bit in recent years, Groves said. While celebrities are paid for endorsements, Groves said investing allows them to gain equity from the growth of companies that benefit from their work.
“Like in movies, for example, where they're earning a residual along the way, they thought, ‘You know, if we're going to partner with these brands and create a tremendous amount of enterprise value, we should be able to capture some of the upside that we're generating, too’,” she said.
Partnering in this way also allows her clients to work with a wider range of brands, including small brands that often can’t afford to spend millions on endorsements. Investing allows high-profile individuals to represent brands they care about, Groves said.
“The last piece of the puzzle was a drive towards authenticity,” Groves said. “A lot of these high-profile artists and athletes are not interested, once they've achieved some sort of level of success, in partnering with brands that they don't personally align with.”
Hear the full episode by clicking on the playhead above, and listen to LA Venture on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
dot.LA Editorial Intern Kristin Snyder contributed to this post.
Rivian Stock Roller Coaster Continues as Amazon Van Delivery Faces Delays
David Shultz is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside and Nautilus, among other publications.
Rivian’s stock lost 7% yesterday on the back of news that the company could face delays in fulfilling Amazon’s order for a fleet of electric delivery vans due to legal issues with a supplier. The electric vehicle maker is suing Commercial Vehicle Group (CVG) over a pricing dispute related to the seats that the supplier promised, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The legal issue could mean that Amazon may not receive their electric vans on time. The dispute hinges on whether or not Commercial Vehicle Group is allowed to raise the prices of its seats after Rivian made engineering and design changes to the original version. Rivian says the price hike from CVG violates the supply contract. CVG denies the claim.
Regardless, the dispute could hamper Rivian’s ability to deliver electric vans to Amazon on time. The ecommerce/streaming/cloud computing/AI megacorporation controls an 18% stake in Rivian as one of the company’s largest early investors. Amazon has previously said it hopes to buy 100,000 delivery vehicles from Rivian by 2030.
The stock plunge marked another wild turn for the EV manufacturer. Last week, Rivian shares dropped 21% on Monday after Ford, another early investor, announced its intent to sell 8 million shares. The next few days saw even further declines as virtually the entire market saw massive losses, but then Rivian rallied partially on the back of their earnings report on Wednesday, gaining 28% back by Friday. Then came yesterday’s 7% slide. Today the stock is up another 10%.
Hold on tight, who knows where we’re going next.
David Shultz is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside and Nautilus, among other publications.