Building a Healthcare Brand from the Ground Up
Episode 7, Season 3
Building a Healthcare Brand from the Ground Up
- July 6, 2023
Healthcare veteran Karey Witty, managing director of healthcare venture capital firm Valtruis and an operating partner at WCAS, talks about why he’s having the unexpected time of his life building the Valtruis brand, the meaning behind the brand, and why three of Valtruis’ seven value-based care investments so far have been ground-up builds.
Episode Description
Throughout his career in healthcare, Karey Witty has served in just about every C-suite role there is, but it’s his latest role as managing partner of value-based-care-focused investment firm Valtruis that has Karey more excited than ever, not just about his job, but about the promise of healthcare.
In this episode of How It’s Done Karey talks with us about the meaning behind the Valtruis name, the things that make up a brand that go far beyond a name or a logo, and about finding meaning in his work and in life, including his quest to “figure out what these next chapters are going to look like.”
Listen in for more, including:
- The ironic superlative Karey was lauded with in high school
- Karey’s career path to WCAS/Valtruis
- What makes Valtruis different from other healthcare investment funds
- Valtruis’ chosen Greek goddess and why what you wear, even, is an expression of your brand
- The drivers behind Valtruis’ ground-up brand builds
- Valtruis’ new Nashville office
- Karey’s current Spotify playlist and the surprising song he has on repeat
“I feel like I’m at least on my fifth, if not sixth career, so I’ve been very blessed to pick some fun horses to ride. And now, for the first time in my career, I wake up and find myself as a venture investor, which is not anything that I ever dreamed of.”
Karey Witty
Managing Director, Valtruis and Operating Partner, WCAS
More From This Episode
Show Notes
Transcript
Recommended Reading
Show Notes
(5:40) Karey gives us the inside look at the new $300 million dollar healthcare investment fund, Valtruis.
(12:35) Karey and Kriste discuss what differentiates Valtruis from other investment funds
(19:00) Karey and Kriste explore the importance of a brand name and building a brand name
(21:40) Karey and Kriste discuss how your brand goes much further than just a name and how differentiate yourself from other brands
(31:01) Karey describes the difference between building a brand from scratch and taking over a former brand and how to execute on both
Transcript
[00:00:04.610] – Kriste Goad
Hey, welcome to How It’s done. A podcast for Curious Marketers. I’m Kriste Goad. I’ll be your host and I’m really glad you’re here.
[00:00:16.050] – Kriste Goad
Hello, listeners. I’m super excited about my guest today because he is literally one of my favorite people on the planet. Today we’re talking with healthcare expert investor and my friend, Mr. Karey Witty. Welcome to the show, Karey.
[00:00:32.470] – Karey Witty
Hello, Kriste. Great to be with you again.
[00:00:34.440] – Kriste Goad
You’re a repeat guest. Thank you so much. You’re like in a special category, like the SNL hosts.
[00:00:41.050] – Karey Witty
I’m honored. Thrilled to be here.
[00:00:45.010] – Kriste Goad
Well, listen, I have a confession. As I was thinking about today’s show and introducing you, I was going to describe you as witty because you are. You’re like super witty and you have a great sense of humor. And then despite having known you all these years, despite having logged literally hundreds of miles on the bike with you, I don’t think I ever once put it together until today just how fitting your last name is for describing you.
[00:01:10.310] – Kriste Goad
Mr.Witty, I’m sure this is not new to you. You’ve probably heard this all your life.
[00:01:15.830] – Karey Witty
In fact, confession, I was voted most wittiest in high school. Right. Why not, right? Who’s more witty than some dude with a last name, witty.
[00:01:26.270] – Kriste Goad
It’s no competition.
[00:01:27.810] – Karey Witty
Somewhat of a cruel joke back then, but regardless, I survived.
[00:01:31.750] – Kriste Goad
That is fabulous. I was going to ask you at the end of the show a burning question about what’s something people don’t know about you, but should. And I think that would fall into that category.
[00:01:42.730] – Karey Witty
There you go, yeah.
[00:01:43.940] – Kriste Goad
That’s great
[00:01:45.250] – Karey Witty
Yeah wittiest. I think I burned all those yearbooks somewhere. But yeah.
[00:01:50.320] – Kriste Goad
Oh, man, that is too bad. Well, now fast forward to 2023. You’re kind of a big deal. So the fact that you agreed to come on this show and talk about brand building and brand storytelling thrills me to no end. I’m going to share with the audience a little from your official bio and then we’re going to get into the good stuff, which is your behind the scenes experience building an investment fund and a brand from scratch, really, from the ground up.
[00:02:18.370] – Kriste Goad
But as for introduction purposes, currently, Karey Witty serves as managing director of Valtruis and an operating partner at Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe, which he joined in 2020 to focus on healthcare investments. Founded on a commitment to accelerate meaningful change in healthcare, Valtruis provides a unique platform that invests in and partners with disruptive leaders whose mission is to align and transform healthcare through what is truly value based care. Put a pin in that. More on that later. Karey has over 30 years of experience across a range of senior executive roles in the healthcare industry. Prior to joining Welsh, Carson and Valtruis, Karey served as Chief Operating Officer at Envision Healthcare, CEO at Horizon Health Inc.
[00:03:06.970] – Kriste Goad
And CFO of Navi Health, CFO of HealthSpring, CFO of valitos Health Services and CFO of Centine Corporation. That is quite a career. Karey. And the cool thing for me here in Nashville, also native Tennessee, and Karey is a native Tennessean from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where he actually earned his bachelor’s degree from Middle Tennessee State University, which is so cool. There’s very few of us natives left. Karey.
[00:03:36.960] – Karey Witty
Very few, for sure. Yeah. I feel like I haven’t made it very far. I’m in Franklin, so I’m a whopping, whatever, 27 miles from my hometown.
[00:03:45.930] – Kriste Goad
I think that’s cool and admirable.
[00:03:50.650] – Karey Witty
I’m very proud of that. Yeah, I love saying that. I’m a local.
[00:03:53.500] – Kriste Goad
I know, I know. It’s a badge of honor.
[00:03:56.290] – Karey Witty
Quick aside, but I was biking fairly recently with my wife, and some gentleman rolls down the window as he passes by and screams at us, go back to California. I’m thinking, Dude, there’s no one more local than me.
[00:04:16.370] – Kriste Goad
Did you wave him on and give him a big smile?
[00:04:18.870] – Karey Witty
Yes, I did.
[00:04:20.360] – Kriste Goad
I knew you did.
[00:04:21.190] – Karey Witty
No gestures, no profanity, no nothing.
[00:04:24.170] – Kriste Goad
I guess he thought only people from California cycle.
[00:04:29.670] – Karey Witty
Kind of weird.
[00:04:32.150] – Kriste Goad
Well, but you knew. That’s what matters.
[00:04:34.290] – Karey Witty
I know. Very proud of the fact.
[00:04:37.850] – Kriste Goad
And also very proud. So you’re also super active in JDRF. Tennessee, as well as JDRF nationally and globally, and active in American Heart Association here and nationally. So I wanted to be sure to call that out. What have I missed? Karey? What else have you been doing with your life?
[00:04:57.230] – Karey Witty
That’s about it. I work, I ride a bike. We’re four kids down to one at home. So I think my wife and I are just trying to figure out what these next chapters are going to look like, and it’s kind of fun and scary and exciting and all of the above.
[00:05:16.870] – Kriste Goad
That’s awesome. I know you all will figure that out.
[00:05:22.020] – Karey Witty
We’ll figure it out.
[00:05:22.920] – Kriste Goad
Can’t wait to see. So, speaking of new chapters, Valtruis is a new chapter for you. I definitely want to talk about the Valtruis brand story, but before we really get into that, I’d love it if you would tell us about Valtruis itself. Like, what is it, how and when did it get started? What makes it different from other healthcare investment funds? I know you’ve got an interesting story there because this was kind of a new thing for you.
[00:05:49.310] – Karey Witty
Yeah, for sure. I didn’t really know how this conversation was going to go today, but it just so happened that Joni my wife, sent me something she saw on Instagram the other day, which resonated with me, that I wanted to share, just to kind of kick off and maybe ground the conversation somewhat. And it was a quote from Oscar Wilde, who is an Irish poet and playwright, I believe, and who said, if you know you want to be, then you inevitably become it. That is your punishment. But if you never know, then you can be anything. And that is so profound. And I think that honestly, encompasses my career because I feel like I’m at least on my fifth, if not 6th career, so I’ve been very blessed to pick some fun horses to ride. And now, for the first time in my career, I wake up and find myself as a venture investor, which is not anything that I ever dreamed of.
[00:06:54.870] – Kriste Goad
I love that quote that Joni sent you, too, and it kind of applies to what you’re going through in personal life too.
[00:07:03.430] – Karey Witty
It really does, again, as a dad of four and making me think about, I’m fairly driven, and therefore I press that upon my kids. And you know what? Maybe that’s the wrong approach. Maybe we’re all going to figure it out. We all figure it out somehow, some way.
[00:07:18.330] – Kriste Goad
So true. I was just having this conversation yesterday with a group of fellow entrepreneurs, and we’re like, okay, well, what do we want to be? What do we really want to do? And there was conversations about as driven people, we drive our kids, but really everybody kind of just does it themselves, right? You’re going to find your path and you’re going to figure it out, and you’re going to end up doing things five years from now you never dreamed you’d be doing five years prior.
[00:07:46.150] – Karey Witty
Yeah, and that’s where I sit today. So you’re right. I left Envision in the spring of 2020. Nava Health was a Welsh Carson asset, so that’s where my relationship began, with the Welsh Carson team. I joined nava health, I guess, in January of 14. So I’ve known the welsh team since 2014, and I got a call in the spring of 20 after I was kind of hanging out, trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up. Right back. In that period of who am I and what do I want to be? And get a call from my Welsh friends and said, hey, would you be interested in joining us as an operating partner? Never thought about that. Right.
[00:08:28.800] – Kriste Goad
Were you like, what? What does that look like?
[00:08:30.690] – Karey Witty
Yeah, what is that? What does that even mean? And what I did learn, it means very different things. I mean, various funds use operating partners in very different ways, and they all have their own way and their own nuance. And it was, hey, let’s find something for you to run. Let’s put you on boards, let’s you help us with diligence, whatever, and we’ll just figure it out, right? So it was kind of cool leap of faith on both sides, hey, we’ll figure it out. So I jumped in, and yes, I did help with Diligence, and yes, they did put me on a board or two. About a year into the operating partner role, one of the general partners came to myself and another operating partner and said, hey, would you all be interested in helping us launch an early stage platform that would focus exclusively on value based care assets? So this other individual is Tracy Ball, who’s a fellow managing director with myself. So the two of us, kind of former operators in that world of trying to figure it out, said, sure, let’s pull together a straw man and see if we can make this happen.
[00:09:40.480] – Karey Witty
So we pitched the idea to the general partnership at Walsh, and the feedback was not in these words, but effectively, look, we like you great haired operators, but what you’re missing here is someone who actually knows how to do venture investing, which is pretty paramount.
[00:10:02.150] – Kriste Goad
Were you like okay, that’s fair.
[00:10:03.320] – Karey Witty
Yeah, okay, that kind of makes sense. So we enter Anna Hugui, who is the third managing director of Valtruis. So it’s myself, Tracy Ball and Anna Hugui who launched an Anna quick side and had spent I believe 13 years at Sandbox which is a Blue Cross Blue Shield venture fund. So needed experience. So she comes from the venture side. Tracy and I come from the operating side, and we launched what we’re calling Valtruis in the summer of 21. So we’ve been at this just under two years.
[00:10:36.590] – Kriste Goad
You got your anniversary coming up then?
[00:10:38.770] – Karey Witty
We do. We have completed seven equity deals, one debt deal, all with a value based care mantra. And honestly, Kriste, I say this all the time to where some of my colleagues are tired of me hearing, tired of hearing say this, but I’m having more fun than I should be at this point in my career. I’m having an absolute blast.
[00:11:02.760] – Kriste Goad
That’s awesome.
[00:11:04.130] – Karey Witty
Yeah.
[00:11:04.680] – Kriste Goad
I mean, that’s the dream. That’s the goal, so good for you. I heard you say that before, too, which was very inspiring. Congratulations.
[00:11:15.370] – Karey Witty
It’s so fun. I love mentoring, and this only works quite honestly because of our style of investing, which is we want to be active participants in our companies. We definitely want board seats or at least one board seat. And I would suggest that regardless of our ownership percentage within the cap table, I think our engagement will always outweigh our ownership percentage such that we want to be contributors. We want to be involved in helping build the management team, helping build the strategy, helping with payer contracting or whatever. Right. I mean, that’s what’s going to race me out of bed. It’s not going to race me out of bed to do 40 or 50 small check deals and show up at a board meeting each quarter and say, okay, remind me what this company does now. Which there are plenty of those investors out there, but that’s definitely not going to be our style. We’re going to be more thoughtful, more methodical, more rifle shot into the companies that we invest and insert ourselves into the equation to help them be successful.
[00:12:22.290] – Kriste Goad
And is that where your operational experience, both you and Tracy, that’s where that comes into play?
[00:12:27.460] – Karey Witty
Correct, that’s right.
[00:12:29.260] – Kriste Goad
So that is a different model from a lot of investment firms out there.
[00:12:34.200] – Karey Witty
Yeah, I think so. The reality is there are probably over 15,000 private equity/venture firms.
[00:12:44.790] – Kriste Goad
I had no idea.
[00:12:46.070] – Karey Witty
No idea. I mean, there are probably over 50 just here in Nashville. Right.
[00:12:52.390] – Kriste Goad
You’re growing every day.
[00:12:53.960] – Karey Witty
Growing every day, for sure. So how do you go about differentiating yourself? You can differentiate yourself by overpaying, right? That’s one way. Okay. I’m going to value your company at higher value than anyone else. That’s going to be probably a short run. We all seen that movie. At the end of the day, you’re talking about cash. Cash can be plentiful. There are lots of funds out there that have a lot of cash. So how do you differentiate? And we think what we are doing and what we have done is differentiating in the fact that we have wicked smart venture investors and we have trusty old operators that have kind of been there, done that and have seen most of what all of these early stage entrepreneurs are going to see in their Gestation of their company. And you couple that with the value based care mantra. Again, we’re only interested in companies that are going to bend the curve and therefore provide better patient care and save money for the system as a result.
[00:13:54.570] – Kriste Goad
That’s definitely a differentiator among investment funds, I would think.
[00:13:58.810] – Karey Witty
And we get inbounds all the time from entrepreneurs who have done a seed round or a Series a round, and they’ve done it with investors who really don’t know healthcare. Right? I mean, there are plenty of investors out there that focus exclusively on healthcare. So, yes, of course that’s what we’re doing. But I’m amazed at the inbounds we get from entrepreneurs who have done deals with other firms that really just don’t even get their business. So they can’t be value additive to the team. Right. So they look for healthcare specific investors who actually can bring some intellectual property, if you will, to the table.
[00:14:37.170] – Kriste Goad
And you know what value based care means.
[00:14:41.050] – Karey Witty
Let’s start with that. Yes.
[00:14:43.050] – Kriste Goad
Now, the fund, if I remember correctly, you started as a $250,000,000 fund, is that right?
[00:14:49.850] – Karey Witty
We launched in the summer of 20. There was a splash from Wells Carson. There’s a press release that lives out there that says, hey, we’re launching Valtruis with these three managing directors with a commitment of 300 million. So it was an initial 300 million out of then fund 13. We have fully committed those initial dollars. So we’re now investing out of fund 14, kind of on a soft circled number. So technically we are identified as a portfolio company of Wells Carson Fund 13, but with some crossover investments from fund 14. So not to get too technical on you.
[00:15:28.920] – Kriste Goad
Yeah, I’m like, okay, all right, you’re losing me.
[00:15:31.640] – Karey Witty
Yeah, sorry.
[00:15:33.370] – Kriste Goad
No, just kidding. I’m really joking. What’s your sweet spot in terms of company size, deal size? What part of the market are you focused on?
[00:15:43.380] – Karey Witty
Yeah, good question. So at the outset, with the initial tranche of capital committed. Tracy, Anna and myself kind of said, hey, look, we’re going to do five to seven deals, kind of hinting that we were going to do larger checks, $50 to $60 million checks. Contrary. We have funded something as small as 2 million and something as large as 80 million. So it’s really run the gamut
[00:16:11.580] – Karey Witty
Interesting, okay.
[00:16:13.050] – Karey Witty
Up to and including, which is not something that we ever contemplated in formulating our thoughts on this, doing a de novo, doing a ground up build. Right. Never entered our equation.
[00:16:25.700] – Kriste Goad
I want to talk about that a little bit, too. And that was what you just announced.
[00:16:34.750] – Karey Witty
That’s right.
[00:16:35.310] – Kriste Goad
June 1. Taylor care.
[00:16:36.830] – Karey Witty
Taylor care for sure. That’s not something that we ever contemplated. Yet here we are. Three of the seven deals that I mentioned, those are ground up builds.
[00:16:48.190] – Kriste Goad
Oh, wow.
[00:16:49.090] – Karey Witty
Very different style of investing, but so much fun. So we’re having a blast.
[00:16:55.050] – Kriste Goad
I want to talk about those ground up builds here in a minute, but let’s go back to Valtruis. When you started the fund, you had to come up with a name, you had to come up with a brand, you had to build a website, do all the things. Tell us about that process, because I’m guessing maybe that was something new for you, too. You’ve been in these other C suite roles, but had you been a part of an actual brand process in that way ever before?
[00:17:24.770] – Karey Witty
No, not that I can recall, to be honest. So, look, all of this is new to me, which is, again, so exciting, so invigorating, and races me out of bed every day because I’m learning so much, which is fascinating.
[00:17:42.140] – Kriste Goad
That’s the key, right, is you’re constantly learning and growing and changing and doesn’t matter how old you get. Right?
[00:17:48.040] – Karey Witty
Yeah. And I think I would get bored. Look, I love my sister to death. She graduated from college and went to work for a company and is still at that company today. And she graduated from college in 1982.
[00:18:06.350] – Kriste Goad
Wow, that never happens.
[00:18:08.780] – Karey Witty
Right. And she’s still at the same company. I’m thinking, oh, my gosh, that was so there’s probably not anything. I think she’s beyond the learning point, perhaps.
[00:18:17.930] – Kriste Goad
Yeah, that wouldn’t work for you.
[00:18:19.410] – Karey Witty
That wouldn’t work for me. We’re built very differently. But regardless no, I think you’re right. We can’t take credit for coming up with a name ourselves. We actually engaged some third party help and we landed on Valtruis because it’s somewhat although no one is ever going to put this together, I think it’s maybe this kind of inside secret, so to speak, but it was the concept, the derivation of putting the words value and altruism together. Right. So since you squished it together and you came up with Valtruis.
[00:18:59.410] – Kriste Goad
I like it.
[00:19:00.530] – Karey Witty
So that’s kind of the derivation of the name. So we wanted to be kind of obviously value based care centric and altruistic in the sense that we’re not just out in playing in the healthcare world to make the almighty dollar. We’re legitimately trying to improve patient care. I think we all know that the healthcare system is broken and there are fragmented ways to approach this fix, and there’s no big bang theory that’s going to fix this. So we’re trying to, in our own incremental way, improve patient care, improve outcomes, and lower the cost of total cost of care for all involved. So hence the altruism aspect of our name.
[00:19:44.670] – Kriste Goad
Cool.
[00:19:45.770] – Karey Witty
We had fun naming it.
[00:19:47.640] – Kriste Goad
Yeah. How long did everybody was around the table? Did you guys have like, a big debate on this name?
[00:19:56.850] – Karey Witty
At the time it was just the three of us, and it’s kind of like, I like this. What do you think? Yeah, I could live with that. Or what about this? It was just kind of the three of us. I think we honestly landed in a 1 hour conversation and, hey, let’s sleep on it. And we all woke up the next day and said, yes, feels good. Let’s go with that.
[00:20:13.320] – Kriste Goad
I love that. And that’s how it works. A lot of times, I think it’s like a bunch of options get put on the table. Brand agencies spend a whole lot of work getting real heady and putting the rationale behind it. But at the end of the day, in my experience, you kind of go with what feels right. You kind of go with your gut.
[00:20:32.800] – Karey Witty
Yes. And trust me, specifically when you’re trying to name healthcare companies. Now I feel like every name out there is taken. Now we’ve moved on to, I don’t know, olive or Evergreen or whatever. It’s what’s in the name, right? Some people think. But ours was very purposeful and with intent. And in addition to the name, we adopted the Greek goddess of health, which happens to be Hygia. So you will occasionally see a profile of a Greek goddess, and that is Hygia, which is, again, the goddess of health. So she’s cool.
[00:21:17.610] – Kriste Goad
She’s on your website.
[00:21:18.940] – Karey Witty
She’s on her website, yes.
[00:21:21.210] – Kriste Goad
I love it. It’s a good brand. I think it looks nice and clean and cool. Kind of stands out. Well done.
[00:21:30.800] – Karey Witty
Yeah, we’ve had fun with it. Like, so many made up words, right? People mispronounce it, and that’s just part of it.
[00:21:41.470] – Kriste Goad
Try having a name like Fuoco.
[00:21:43.540] – Karey Witty
Yeah. Well, there you go.
[00:21:47.330] – Kriste Goad
Okay, well, so you’re opening a Nashville office. Is that right? Or is that already opened? Like is already open and branded or tell us more about that.
[00:21:56.390] – Karey Witty
Yeah, look, you’re a brand expert. I’m still learning this stuff because I’ve never had to deal with this stuff. But you’re absolutely right. I mean, your brand obviously goes far beyond a name. Honestly, our office location could be identified as a part of our brand because I probably would have done the old and easy button and gone to Brentwood. Right? Gone to one of the office parks here in Brentwood or one of the office parks in Green Hills. And that only means something to your local listeners.
[00:22:27.170] – Kriste Goad
Those are a little bit more, for listeners that might not be familiar. So those locations there’s a lot of healthcare companies in both Green Hills and Brentwood, and it’s more Burton Hill. Yeah. Sort of traditional, right. A lot more sort of expected. Oh, yeah. That’s where we’re going to put our headquarters.
[00:22:47.490] – Karey Witty
Exactly and it’s close to my home, so that would be easy. Right?
[00:22:52.120] – Kriste Goad
Convenient.
[00:22:52.770] – Karey Witty
Yeah, convenient, but for the fact that we call him our godfather, Dave Calorie, who this was really his concept at Welsh, basically said, look, no, that’s not the vibe we want. You need to be downtown. You need to be in the hip, cool vibe area. And he’s right. Right. I mean, that is that is the brand that we’re going for. So lo and behold, where we will be at 333 11th, which is in the Gulch in the hipster place here in Nashville.
[00:23:25.170] – Kriste Goad
That’s by the W, or no, where is that?
[00:23:28.240] – Karey Witty
It’s correct. It is right behind the W and right across the street from the Thompson.
[00:23:33.020] – Kriste Goad
You are in hip central then.
[00:23:37.500] – Karey Witty
Yeah, for sure. It’s a brand new building that was built to look old. So it’s brick, which is odd for a downtown Nashville building. It’s only five stories. It has exposed rafters and the ceilings and
[00:23:52.170] – Kriste Goad
Cool.
[00:23:53.020] – Karey Witty
It looks old, and I’m super excited about this. So that became a part of our brand, which I’m so excited. So technically, I think we are handed the keys July 12.
[00:24:07.630] – Kriste Goad
Are you going to have a big sort of, like, open house party or what are you planning there?
[00:24:12.930] – Karey Witty
Planning something in October. Yeah. It’s going to take a while for the I think the furnishings are not going to be in until the end of July, and so let’s get some kinks out. But yeah, we’re going to do kind of we’re here kind of already in October, so looking forward to that.
[00:24:26.870] – Kriste Goad
So stay tuned. How do you get on that invite list?
[00:24:29.740] – Karey Witty
I don’t know, but you’re definitely on it.
[00:24:33.910] – Kriste Goad
Okay, cool. I’ll be there. Okay, well, that’s exciting. That’s cool. And does Valtruis have other offices, or is Nashville going to be it?
[00:24:43.960] – Karey Witty
We do have an office in Chicago. We have a small sort of WeWork type office in New York as well as Miami.
[00:24:54.270] – Kriste Goad
Miami.
[00:24:55.870] – Karey Witty
Tracy lives in Miami.
[00:24:57.880] – Kriste Goad
Okay.
[00:24:58.530] – Karey Witty
He’s got a huge office whereby he can stretch out his arms and touch either side of his wall.
[00:25:09.570] – Kriste Goad
Okay. You guys got it covered?
[00:25:11.750] – Karey Witty
We got it covered, yeah.
[00:25:13.440] – Kriste Goad
So would you say you’re really like the face of the fund? I see you making the rounds as a speaker. I’ve seen you at a number of healthcare conferences. I know you were at the Vive panel. Earlier this year here in Nashville. I know you were at JPMorgan Healthcare event here in Nashville a couple of months ago.
[00:25:28.750] – Karey Witty
Yeah, I’d say the short answer is no. I think I’m one of right.
[00:25:34.520] – Kriste Goad
Okay.
[00:25:35.080] – Karey Witty
With three managing directors. I think there’s equal dispersion of FaceTime.
[00:25:39.910] – Kriste Goad
And all equally well known, right?
[00:25:43.280] – Karey Witty
Yeah, I think so. In part. I have the blessing of living here in the Nashville area. And as you identify, so many things are coming here to Nashville. So many conferences, so many companies, so many funds, whatever right. Are moving here to Nashville. So I have the blessing and or curse of living here in the community. And therefore, if there’s a national event, generally I get picked for those events. But Anna will always handle the Chicago events. Tracy, there are a handful of events that are in Miami that he will do. But I think the reality is we all travel and we all I was.
[00:26:23.960] – Kriste Goad
Going to say you flip coins for the West Coast.
[00:26:25.950] – Karey Witty
Exactly.
[00:26:29.050] – Kriste Goad
And then Welsh is in New York.
[00:26:31.940] – Karey Witty
New York.
[00:26:32.500] – Kriste Goad
Yeah. Okay, well so in terms of when you’re going out and telling your story, like your brand story, and what you’re out there talking about is also a huge part of that. Right. So what do you focus on when you’re out there on the speaking circuit? What’s the story of the brand that you’re telling? Is it much like what we’ve been talking about today? Or I guess maybe it also depends on the audience a little bit.
[00:26:58.120] – Karey Witty
Yeah. It is about value based care. That’s kind of our lead in every scenario. And I love that because, look, we all hate telling people no, right? We all hate saying, hey, your baby is ugly and we don’t want to invest. Right. I mean, that’s obviously not how we say it, but I love the screening point of if you’re not on the way to value based care or already in value based care, then you’re probably not the right investment for us. Right. And I think that’s just an amazingly easy way to say no. I love that screening criteria and maybe not answering your question, but just with the mindset of brand and not really something that I have really focused on much in my career as much as I am now. So thank you for kind of bringing this to even my attention. But things that I didn’t think about. But just attire, right? What are we going to wear when it comes to putting our pictures on our websites? Are we wearing ties? Are we wearing jackets, wearing polo shirts? What are we doing? Right? I mean, all of that encompasses your, “brand”
[00:28:12.120] – Karey Witty
So there was a point in my career where I slept in a tie, so I feel like getting me out of a tie was a huge thing, and now sudden I’m down to polo shirts, and vests, and that’s all a part of our brand. So even like, what are you going to wear at this conference? Are you wearing a sport code or are you wearing jeans and tennis shoes?
[00:28:33.740] – Kriste Goad
Right. I love that you’re having that conversation.
[00:28:37.090] – Karey Witty
It’s unbelievable. I hate it. For the guy that I used to buy all my suits from, I feel guilty because I haven’t bought a suit in I don’t know how long. Right.
[00:28:49.440] – Kriste Goad
Isn’t that awesome, though?
[00:28:50.990] – Karey Witty
Yeah, isn’t that awesome? Now it’s like, no leather loafers, and it’s only whatever, the new form of kind of dressy, tennis shoes and jeans.
[00:29:00.870] – Kriste Goad
Yeah. I’m sure it has a name for whatever that new thing is. And, like, COVID really helped. But your brand really is everything, right? How are you showing up?
[00:29:14.850] – Karey Witty
Yeah, absolutely. It’s amazing how much time I spend thinking about myself as a brand, Valtruis, as a brand. How do we want to convey ourselves? We don’t want to be these stodgy venture investors. I mean, by definition, Venture sounds hip and cool, and therefore you got to present yourself as hip and cool. And I’m not very cool, Kriste, but. I’m trying to.
[00:29:39.320] – Kriste Goad
You’re pretty cool.
[00:29:40.080] – Kriste Goad
Joni does a good job of keeping you cool, too, let’s be honest. And your girls. But this is a great point because I do think when you’re developing your brand and your core values come into play, too, it really is a way of also people can self select out, right. Like the people that work for you and with you as well as the companies. Okay. If what we stand for doesn’t really resonate with you, this is probably not a place for you, and it’s a mutual thing. And so being able to define your brand like that, especially from the very beginning, and that it’s really something that’s really true to who you are, it serves a huge purpose.
[00:30:23.740] – Karey Witty
Yeah. And I think, honestly, as you pointed out in the intro, generally speaking, I have inherited a brand, inherited a logo, inherited a dress code, whatever, right. So for the first time in my career ever, we get to create, hey, who do we really want to be? Who are we? How do we identify who’s going to seek us out to participate in their fundraise? So it’s been really fun and exciting to even think about ourselves as a brand, our firm as a brand, and how it has evolved. It’s been fun.
[00:31:01.480] – Kriste Goad
So cool. Well, so we mentioned Tailor Care earlier because you guys officially went public with this new company, this new brand, Tailor Care, and you said you’ve done, I think you said three so far, three startups. Can you talk about that process a little bit and how launching a new code is different from investing or acquiring existing company in an existing brand? And what have you learned along the way?
[00:31:31.020] – Karey Witty
Yeah, well, obviously, it’s much more difficult to do something from ground up, basically, as. I said it was never by design that we were going to head down this path. I mean, there are investment firms out there and that’s all they do, right? They incubate ideas and companies and set them free and launch them kind of thing. That was never our go to market strategy, but for the fact that we are a very thesis driven investor group. And there have been now at least three scenarios where we have fallen in love with a thesis. And when you pan the universe looking for a deal, maybe there’s nothing in the market or maybe valuations are too high or whatever. And the conclusion has been at least now three times. And honestly, there’s a fourth in the queue of, well, let’s just go build it. What we want in the marketplace either doesn’t exist or is not actionable, so let’s just go build it. And we’ve done it now three times. As I say, a fourth in the queue. Super excited about these companies. I think in every scenario we’re not doing them alone, so we’re doing them with a strategic partner.
[00:32:49.180] – Karey Witty
It may be a payer, it may be a provider or whomever.
[00:32:52.800] – Kriste Goad
Okay?
[00:32:54.950] – Karey Witty
It’s kind of in a partnership with a third party that’s going to help us get to market. And maybe they’re going to provide a commercial contract out of the gate to help us launch. Or maybe they’re going to, as I say, be the provider backbone to help us launch whatever. But we’re not just hanging a shingle with a fancy logo and saying, hey, we’re here and we’re in business. But it’s been more thoughtful to do it with a strategic partner to help us get to market sooner rather than later. So super excited about TailorCare. This company is focused on Musculoskeletal. We’ve launched with our first market in the Atlanta MSA and we are on a path to take total cost of care for any individual with an MSK issue. And this is far beyond. I mean, it’s easy to talk about joints, right? Hey, I have a shoulder replacement or a knee replacement or hip replacement, but this is far beyond and includes PT and spine and pain and many more aspects of both MSK that not a lot of people think about. But the harsh reality is the total healthcare dollar, about 20%, is identified as Musculoskeletal in that broad category.
[00:34:06.250] – Karey Witty
So it’s a huge problem for the US healthcare system, certainly for the payers. Costs continue to increase and we see an amazing opportunity to help bend the curve in Musculoskeletal.
[00:34:19.750] – Kriste Goad
So cool. I can’t wait to see where that goes. I can’t wait to see some of the sports deal you’re talking about. That’ll be fun. I’ll keep an eye out for that.
[00:34:29.580] – Karey Witty
Yeah. So your firm helped us brand that one.
[00:34:36.250] – Kriste Goad
We did. And that was so fun. And how many names did we go through before? I feel like it was like 50.
[00:34:44.970] – Karey Witty
A lot. Much more painful than getting to Valtruis name.
[00:34:48.630] – Kriste Goad
It’s painful. It’s harder when you’re doing it from scratch because everybody like, you don’t know what you want, but then you know what you don’t want when you see it. So it’s like, okay, how about this? How about this? And then everybody has different opinions. And then you’re building your team, the leadership team at the same time, different people coming into the equation as you go.
[00:35:09.330] – Karey Witty
Yeah. Then we’ve brought in a rock star team. Super excited about this company.
[00:35:16.320] – Kriste Goad
Well, all right. Well, Karey, I really appreciate you coming on today, and hopefully you’ll come back again. I can’t wait to come to the grand opening of the Nashville Valtruis office this fall. I look forward to that.
[00:35:28.910] – Karey Witty
Be fun. Can’t wait.
[00:35:30.640] – Kriste Goad
I know. I do have one final burning question for you. We’re here in Music City. I know you’re a music guy. You play the drums.
[00:35:42.430] – Karey Witty
Played past tense, but yes.
[00:35:43.940] – Kriste Goad
Played the drums. I want to know, and more importantly, our listeners want to know, Karey, what band or song or genre are you listening to? What’s on repeat these days? The Karey witty spotify or whatever platform you use out there.
[00:36:03.250] – Karey Witty
You’re going to laugh. You’re right. I’ve been a country dude for a long, long time. Hard not to be growing up here in the Nashville area, right? Yeah. I travel a lot, and I’m also blessed with the ability to sleep anywhere, including an airplane. And Joni cannot sleep on an airplane, which is a terrible curse, but I can sleep anywhere. But of late, you will laugh. I have been popping in my earbuds and firing up a jazz mix.
[00:36:33.080] – Kriste Goad
Wow.
[00:36:33.860] – Karey Witty
My favorite song right now that is on repeat, and my kids are like, oh, my gosh, do we have to listen to that again? Is Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon? Believe it or not.
[00:36:45.180] – Kriste Goad
Oh, it seems apropos Karey.
[00:36:48.030] – Karey Witty
Fly me to the moon.
[00:36:50.130] – Kriste Goad
I love it. Oh. Have you been to the new Sinatra place here in town?
[00:36:54.040] – Karey Witty
I have not been, no but I’ve seen
[00:36:56.280] – Kriste Goad
I have a brother in law who’s everywhere all the time, and he’s been and he sends me, like, a picture. He’s like, we got to go. So it looks cool.
[00:37:05.300] – Karey Witty
Makes me want to drink a martini or something. I don’t know.
[00:37:09.680] – Kriste Goad
Yeah, I can see that. Well, Karey, this has been amazing. Thank you so much. Before we sign off, I would love it if you would share with listeners who might want to get in touch with you the best way to do that.
[00:37:22.340] – Karey Witty
Sure. Simple. Karey@Valtruis.com, Karey@Valtruis.com.
[00:37:29.570] – Kriste Goad
I love it.
[00:37:30.210] – Karey Witty
You have small number of employees. You can do it. First name at. That’s what we’ve done.
[00:37:35.990] – Kriste Goad
Brilliant. I’ll include that in the show notes. All right, well, that wraps up this episode of how it’s done. My guest today has been Karey Witty, managing director of Valtruis. Like, I said we’ll include links and background and more in our show notes, so be sure to check those out on our website growwithfuoco.com How It’s Done or wherever you get your podcast. Thank you, Karey. It’s been a real pleasure having you on the show.
[00:38:04.040] – Karey Witty
Thank you, Kriste. It’s been fun. Talk to you soon.
[00:38:06.490] – Kriste Goad
That’s it for now. Thanks so much for listening. We’re looking forward to keeping great conversations coming your way as we grow this podcast. There’s even more great content from our conversations on our blog. Be sure to check it out at growwithfuoco.com. That’s growwithfuoco.com stay tuned until next time, and no matter what, stay curious.
Recommended Reading
- Connect with Karey Witty on LinkedIn
- Learn more about Valtruis
- As of 2021, there are over 30 Venture Capitalist firms in Nashville and as of 2023 over 50 reported
- WCAS press release announcing the Valtruis formation
People & Companies Mentioned
- Tracy L. Bahl, Managing Director, Valtruis
- Anna Haghgooie, Managing Director, Valtruis
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