What a start to 2021! This is our first Catalyst installment of the year, due to both the remarkable workload in Q1, and the time we spent pulling together our First Annual Digital Health Compensation Study, which we’re pleased share with you below. It’s safe to say that this is the most competitive talent market in our industry in a decade. A tremendous amount of capital flowed into Digital Health in Q3 and Q4 of last year, and it’s not hard to see why many think our industry will lead the recovery. Plain and simple, there are more great jobs than great execs to fill them, and that’s not showing signs of changing. This quarter, we spent some time with the Partners at Seae Ventures, a crew that has been generous and kind with their time in recent months as we think through our internal DEI initiatives. Polina sat down with them to better understand the mandate behind their fund, what drives them, and where they see the potential for lasting change. As mentioned above, we’re also launching publicly the results of our First Annual Digital Health Compensation Study for your reading pleasure, and are very excited to announce the addition of Stephanie Sutsko as a Principal here with Aequitas Partners. You can read a little about her below as well. We’re also adding more folks to the team in NYC and PHL, so if you’re interested apply here. Q1 felt like a whole year in all the best possible ways. We’re excited to take the rest of the ride with you.
— Tim Gordon, Founder & Managing Partner

An Interview With the Co-Founders
of Seae Ventures

In 2019, Tuoyo Louis, Jason Robart and Pete Sally founded Seae Ventures, a fund dedicated to building and investing in early-stage healthcare technology and services companies primarily founded by Women and people who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color. Prior to starting Seae, Jason was Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ Chief Strategy Officer as well as the President and CEO of Zaffre Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of BCBSMA. He also served as the organization’s Senior Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness and Chief Human Resources Officer. Tuoyo helped found Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ adjacency growth strategy, which included acting as the Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Zaffre Investments. Following a successful career on Capitol Hill where he focused on the ACA and the HITECH Act, Pete joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ Government Affairs group, and soon thereafter joined the founding team of Zaffre Investments.

After they each left Zaffre over a 12 month period, Pete, Tuoyo and Jason recognized that there was more to be done, and more that they could do, to move the diversity agenda forward, so they regrouped and founded Seae Ventures.

As 2020 opened up the industry’s collective consciousness of underfunded founders, together, they’re building a community of other like-minded investors and founders who push the traditional boundaries of what it means to be an entrepreneur in healthcare.

Polina: What led you to start Seae Ventures?

Tuoyo: A lot of this is born out of frustration. Over the course of a decade, we interacted with a lot of venture funds and I think a few things happened. One, I didn’t see anybody who looked like me at the Managing Partner level. I also didn’t see a lot of women at the Managing Partner level. When you don’t really see a lot of familiar faces, sometimes you question, ‘do I belong? Should I be here?’ And then as you also know, the industry invests billions annually and the majority of those dollars are invested in white, male-founded companies. So I didn’t want to continue to watch that. We don’t pretend to solve the problem, but we’re a part of the solution. And so that is really why we started this fund because we’re passionate about helping people and the rest is history.

The First Annual Digital Health
Executive Compensation Study

We are extremely excited to share the results of our First Annual Digital Health Executive Compensation Study. If I had a dollar for every time we had a conversation with a client or candidate about market compensation for a role, I might already be retired. It’s also the most common call I get from executives looking for guidance in their searches, even when the opportunities aren’t with our clients. Towards the end of 2020, we launched a survey of the market across all functions, focused on executives at the Director level and above. We didn’t just want to get better data to answer the basic questions. We were also curious about the other variables that affect compensation – gender, race, negotiating, etc. We wanted to know how much of a driver compensation is for executives to make career moves. We wanted to understand the impact that Covid had on executive compensation last year. And we wanted to know, at baseline, how people felt. It’s fascinating to see how often (or not) sentiment lines up with reality.

WELCOMING OUR NEWEST PRINCIPAL:
STEPHANIE SUTSKO

As Q4 rolled right into Q1, and the pace of growth and hiring in Digital Health showed exactly zero signs of slowing, we knew it was time to grow our team again. This is something we’ve done deliberately over the years in response to client demand, and that we take very seriously, seeing as we’re in the business of hiring. As we searched for a senior leader to join our team, we couldn’t have been more thrilled to find Stephanie Sutsko. In her, we found someone with extensive experience leading executive searches for some of the most recognized companies in the world, coupled with a passion for healthcare. We thought she’d be a great addition to our team, and she’s already making a huge impact. She and I traded a few questions in the hopes you can get to know her the way we have. I’d encourage you to reach out and get acquainted.