A Healthy Dose Trevor Price, Founder & CEO, Oxeon Partners
I talk to people all day long. Every day. Without exception. By Friday afternoon, I want to withdraw from the world of Oxeon and talk to no one other than my wife and three kids. That withdrawal slowly lifts over the weekend and by Sunday night, I’m ready to start talking to people again.
What is interesting, coming from the guy who turns anti-social all weekend, is that from Monday through Friday, I don’t resent my work at all. I love all the conversations and find the people – and their perspective – beyond fascinating. In many (but not ALL!) of these conversations, I find myself learning, growing and being exposed to things I had never thought about. I truly enjoy hearing people’s stories.
Through these conversations, I've learned that it’s not your average executive who wants to try to tackle healthcare. These people have something special. They bring a unique look on life and a commitment to do something bigger than themselves. Again, not ALL of them. But most of them share something that is very, very different – and worth listening to.
I feel so fortunate to be having these conversations and really just wanted to share what I experience all day. As such, I decided to collaborate to start "A Healthy Dose," the podcast series we have launched with my good friend Steve Kraus, healthcare partner at Bessemer Ventures. A Healthy Dose will share the people, the experiences, and the insights that Steve and I are exposed to on such a regular basis.
And what a segue that proves to be. Why Steve? Well, there are many reasons but the first is that he is just a fundamentally great guy. I remember my son Charlie, who decided after years (he is 12) of being focused on sports, to audition for The Music Man, the middle school musical. Steve, who also has a son named Charlie (I’m 99.99% sure he convinced his wife to select the name in honor of our Charlie) talked to my son about how much he loved playing sports and acting and singing as a kid and that he could do both and do them well. As I was never a great athlete, but by comparison my acting and singing made me look like I was #1 pitcher in the Red Sox rotation, I had little experience to share with my son Charlie. Steve’s support meant a ton to Charlie and I both.
Steve loves his job and the companies that he works with. He also really cares about the companies that he gets to know and doesn’t invest in. I know because he often advocates for them, even from the outside of a deal looking in. Steve and I have worked together on search projects, investments, product work and even creating companies from scratch; we’ve shared many experiences and our areas of interest and strengths complement each other.
We also love to laugh, and even more than that…we love to bust on each other.
So with that, we decided to bring the great stories that we are exposed to into a bi-weekly podcast format and share them with people interested in healthcare transformation, entrepreneurship and investing.
We hope to have a steady stream of guests who will share their stories of how they ended up in healthcare. Both Steve and I are political junkies so I would expect that our conversations will get into healthcare policy and the politics of healthcare. We will definitely get into the stories that led to the creation of the most interesting healthcare companies, and get rare insight from the incredible people who conceive and build them. I hope that we’ll be able to effectively share our learnings about different elements of creating companies, building products or selling into health systems or different types of go to market strategies. I know we are going to try to make the podcasts both interesting and enjoyable.
It goes without saying, Steve and I are eternally grateful for our podcast team (James, Amy and Tiffany at Oxeon and Bessemer) and to Neil Diamond for allowing us to license the classic Forever in Blue Jeans. Clearly, both Steve and I love the tune; suckers for Neil Diamond. But the lyrics speak to us as we both are involved in for-profit efforts in healthcare; driving growth and investment returns for healthcare companies as a service provider, an investor or as the founding entrepreneur. For many of the people who typically focus on these areas, Money Talks. But in healthcare, there is something more important. The people. The mission to make people healthier. The relationships. Doing something bigger than ourselves. So while money may talk, it doesn’t speak to those things.
Money talks But it don't sing and dance And it don't walk And long as I can have you here with me I'd much rather be Forever in blue jeans
Thanks for listening and let us know if you have ideas for podcast topics and/or guests.
To subscribe to the podcast visit: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a-healthy-dose/id1197975925?mt=2
Trevor, the Founder and CEO of Oxeon Holdings, is committed to helping mission-driven healthcare leaders and executives build successful companies. In his A.D.D-fueled existence as an entrepreneur, Trevor has started or turned-around 10 companies. It was only in this most recent chapter of his career, in starting Oxeon, that he fully discovered and realized the power of a Mission and Values driven organization. It is no coincidence that this chapter is the most enjoyable one to date. Trevor is based in New York, NY.