Philip Sanger, MD

As an active investor and the founder of multiple ventures, including a publicly traded Medicare-Advantage Health Plan, Dr. Sanger understands what it takes to build a successful healthcare company.  After working for more than 25 years as a pulmonary and critical care specialist, he also understands firsthand the complexities and challenges of the healthcare system.  He now leverages this knowledge to provide both capital and collaboration as a Managing Partner of TEXO Ventures.

Dr. Sanger has dedicated his career to patients and the entrepreneurial endeavors that would better serve them.  In the early 1980s, he served as the Chief of Pulmonary Medicine at the Texas Tech School of Medicine in Lubbock, Texas.  By 1990, he had founded and sold a home health durable medical equipment company, launched and grew a profitable Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) to over 50K subscribers, and built a 54K square-foot multi-specialty surgical center, imaging facility, and laboratory that was acquired by a publically traded company.  In 1996, he founded Intercede Health and developed it from a 3-person hospitalist company into a leader in comprehensive medical management impacting care for over 1 million patients.  He went on to help launch and serve on the Board of HealthSpring through a successful IPO in 2006.

While Dr. Sanger’s vision for hospitalist medicine and medical management strategies can be found in national publications like Managed Healthcare Executive, Health Insurance Underwriters, The Hospitalist Magazine, and Disease Management Advisor, he is most proud of his work with entrepreneurs.  Many healthcare startups fail because they don’t understand the regulatory process or they lack the network of industry professionals who will not only validate their product or service, but also drive market traction.

Dr. Sanger currently serves on the Board of Intercede Health, Televero Health and Wenzel Spine.  He is also an advisor to Santé Ventures.

Jerry DeVries

Jerry has over 20 years of experience leading, operating, and investing in innovative healthcare startups, so he knows what it takes to launch and build a company. He provides the kind of guidance that only comes from many lessons learned as a seasoned entrepreneur and investor. As an investor, he doesn’t expect entrepreneurs to have all the answers but rather the prudence to realize when they don’t. He collaborates with TEXO’s entrepreneurs on all tasks critical to commercializing innovative healthcare technologies — from navigating the regulatory approval process to designing and implementing complex marketing initiatives.

Jerry focuses on Medical Devices & Diagnostics, Health IT and Technology-Enabled Health Services.  He currently sits on the board of TEXO portfolio companies Wenzel Spine, OrthoKinematics, Alafair and IsoStem.  Jerry also sits on the board of the Busby Foundation, an organization focused on helping Central Texas ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or “Lou Gehrig’s disease”) patients and their families as they fight this disease.

Jerry began his career in healthcare working at Centerpulse Orthopedics, a subsidiary of Centerpulse (formerly, Sulzer Medica), where he served in a variety of executive roles focused on operations, global business development, strategic planning and change management.  In 2001, Centerpulse Orthopedics issued one of the largest recalls in history due to defects found in its line of total joint replacement systems.  As the Vice President of Marketing, Jerry led worldwide marketing efforts during this tumultuous time and played a crucial role in the company’s turnaround and subsequent acquisition by  Zimmer Holdings (NYSE: ZMH) for $3.2 billion in 2003.  In partnership with Austin Ventures, Jerry went on to found Path4 Ventures where he helped identify, fund and build Spinal Restoration and LDR Spine.  In 2007, he was recruited to PTV Sciences, an Austin-based healthcare venture firm, where he served as an Operating Venture Partner for two years and led the investment in and commercialization of Ortho Kinematics which is now a TEXO portfolio company.

Randall Crowder Adviser

Randall is passionate about new venture creation and the innovative spirit that fuels entrepreneurs. As an active investor and entrepreneur, he understands what it takes to successful launch and grow a new business.  He regularly publishes articles on entrepreneurship, venture capital and healthcare, which can be found under News & Events.  Randall is also a member of The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only membership organization comprised of the world’s most elite and successful young entrepreneurs.

Randall focuses on Health IT, Technology-Enabled Health Services and Personalized Medicine Technology.  He currently sits on the Board of TEXO portfolio companies SwipeSense, OpenMarkets, Sensentia and BetterDoctor.

Prior to TEXO, Randall worked to expand the entrepreneurial eco-system in Texas. As Executive Director of the Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN), he increased CTAN’s investment activity by 6x and led it to becoming the 4th most active angel network in the country according to the Angel Capital Association (ACA). Like many angel networks, however, CTAN lacked the proper resources to effectively scale its operations. Leveraging his relationships within the University of Texas at Austin, Randall conceived and co-founded Texas Venture Labs (TVL) to not only support the local investor community with valuable graduate student resources, but also provide the mentoring, team-building, market and business plan validation, technology commercialization and domain knowledge needed to start and grow innovative ventures.

Entrepreneurs rarely lack passion or vision, but often fail to properly prepare and execute. This level of planning and attention to detail is something Randall internalized as an officer in the United States Army. After Airborne and Ranger School, Randall went on to receive two Bronze Stars for actions during two separate combat deployments to Iraq, where no playbook or historical precedent existed. In the absence of clear guidance and with lives on the line, innovation and execution were paramount to success.