Healthcare Angel Investing
Dr. Duffy made his first investment in a healthcare startup company ten years ago. He saw the potential in this company and admired the entrepreneurial spirit of the leadership team. Several years ago he and his wife, Dr. Wendy Whittington, became more involved with angel investing and began using their experience to better evaluate companies for angel and seed investments. They have invested in a number of early stage companies and enjoy lending their expertise to help those companies succeed. They also collaborate with other venture capitalists in Dallas and around the country to evaluate and occasionally invest together in companies they have an interest in. Angel investing is an exciting, albeit risky, way to help catalyze and hopefully improve care in our complicated health care system.
Dr. Duffy and his spouse (also a physician who now spends most of her time on the business side of medicine) continue to see firsthand the inefficiencies and difficulties of our present health care system. Billions, possibly trillions, of dollars are wasted each year on unnecessary care, inefficient delivery of that care, and on approaches to care delivery that are outdated and do not align with evidence-based care. They see firsthand what many who invest in healthcare cannot see because they do not have a ringside seat.
Dr. Duffy and Dr. Whittington believe in impact investing; they want to see their dollars spent wisely to help improve our complicated system of healthcare delivery. They want to support the entrepreneurs who are risking all to build a better device or develop a better drug that can improve healthcare and patient outcomes. They want to see patient’s lives improve because of the care they received as a result of one of their portfolio company’s work. Sure they want a return on their investment but this angel world is so much more than that. They want to improve the lives of patients while using their experience to make better business decisions. “Angel” is the perfect word for this type of investing. They have built a portfolio of companies that include pharma, medical devices and digital health and they look forward to seeing many of these companies succeed.
