The intersection of purpose and opportunity
At Compound we spend a large amount of time going deep in the industries we not only care deeply about, but also believe will generate venture scale returns over the coming decade. We do this by focusing our time and passion for emerging technologies towards research and building theses across given categories.
Often we build strong enough conviction in a given industry and concept that we go out looking for very specific types of companies. In most cases, we know we are not the best people to start these companies despite our specific viewpoints and expertise; however, as we’ve matured as a fund we’ve built greater confidence in our ability to co-found and incubate companies in certain areas.
One of the areas we’ve spent a lot of time in over the years has been healthcare. We’ve invested across the entire spectrum of healthcare from digital health to computational biology to biotech, resulting in our investments in companies like Talkspace, Tia, Clear Genetics, Juvena Therapeutics, and Bionaut, among others.
With all of this in mind, it is with great pleasure today that we announce that one of our partners, Josh Nussbaum, is leading our latest incubation and shifting to an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) role in order to focus on the early stages of starting a company in the healthcare space.
More specifics surrounding Josh’s company will follow in the future, but for now we just wanted to be clear about what this does, and does not mean.
What this does mean
Josh’s shift to EIR will see him splitting his time largely between his new company, and continually serving the founders, boards, and portfolio that he has been heavily involved with over the past 8 years. Josh will continue to be a resource to our investment process but will be considerably slowing his new investment pace as he properly dedicates his time to the early stages of company formation.
What this doesn’t mean
Increasingly in venture we’re seeing shuffling of teams and partners that make the venture community whisper and speculate about what happened internally. Team changes often come due to a variety of structural difficulties such as generational transitions, unfair economics, or worse.
Josh has been an integral part of building both Metamorphic Ventures and Compound since the beginning and continues to be one of our closest friends and partners.
While we will miss his day-to-day involvement as an investor and General Partner, we realize there are certain things in our lives that we must do. When personal purpose and opportunity intersect, we recognize the importance of taking a leap and not risking looking back and wondering “what if?”
Josh is the type of founder we always get excited about backing. He is determined and knows wholeheartedly that this is the area he needs to be working in and the company that he needs to start.
We’re incredibly excited to back Josh significantly in his next endeavor with both capital and time, and couldn’t be more happy for him as he spends the foreseeable future as an EIR with Compound. We have no doubt that Josh will be a successful founder that finds a way to impact many people for many years to come.
