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Garheng Kong, MD, PhD, MBA

Managing Partner at Healthquest Capital
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Garheng founded HealthQuest Capital in 2012 to improve people’s lives through improving healthcare on a significant scale. His vision was to build a best-in-class team of the highest talent and integrity to work with outstanding entrepreneurs to transform healthcare through high growth companies while generating outsized risk adjusted returns for investors.

A physician, scientist, and engineer by training, Garheng has over two decades of experience investing in innovative healthcare companies with a long list of successes (26 IPO/M&A exits). He has represented HealthQuest on the boards of Ajax I, Ajax II, Ajax III, Alcresta, Avedro, Avizia, BardyDx, Castle Biosciences, CleanSlate, Etairos, ENT Specialty Partners, Everlywell, HealthChannels, Magnolia Medical, Perspectum, Pulmonx, Spirox, TigerConnect, Trice Medical, Venus Concept, and CareMetx/VirMedica.

Some of his notable past successes include IPO’s with Alimera (ALIM), AmWell (AMWL), Applied Genetic Technology Corp. (AGTC), Avedro (AVDR), Castle Biosciences (CSTL), Cempra (CEMP), Histogenics (HSGX), Proteon (PRTO), Pulmonx (LUNG), StrongBridge (SBBP), TransEnterix (TRXC) and Venus Concept (VERO). His companies going on to successful M&A transactions include: Ajax I (Medtronic), Aldagen (Cytomedix), Athenix (Bayer), Avedro (Glaukos), Avizia (AmWell), BardyDx (Hill-Rom), Calibra Medical (J&J), CareMetx (General Atlantic), Cellective (AstraZeneca), NovaMin (GlaxoSmithKline), Salveo Specialty Pharmacy (United Health), SARCode (Shire), Serenex (Pfizer), Spirox (Stryker), and Virmedica (CareMetx).

Garheng’s interests and industry footprint are broad as he also serves on boards of LabCorp (LH), Alimera Sciences (ALIM), Xeris (XERS), Be The Match, Duke University Medical Center, and has served as Chairman on nine boards. He is an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow, Kauffman Fellows Mentor, and member of YPO.

Garheng received undergraduate degrees in both Chemical Engineering and Biological Sciences from Stanford, while on an athletic scholarship. He then earned a MD, PhD and MBA from Duke University, graduating at the top of his class in each instance. His early career included stints at GlaxoSmithKline, McKinsey and a medical device start-up, TherOx, before joining Intersouth Partners and then Sofinnova Investments. He is married to his physician wife (a board certified cardiac electrophysiologist), has 3 children, and was a nationally ranked volleyball player (and avid “foodie”).

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  • The market today is so competitive that, if you’re just now hearing about a hot startup raising capital, it’s probably too late to land the deal. That’s why one of our secrets to deal-sourcing success is something we call “passed track,” which is essentially a system for staying in touch with companies that aren’t quite at our stage of investment yet, but could be ideal for an investment in the future. We often meet companies that are at an earlier stage than where we invest, but we prove our differentiators early on, make ourselves available for advice and guidance and stay in touch in an ongoing, programmatic way.

    Devising a way to identify the winners and stay in contact not only helps to ensure promising companies don’t fall off your radar, it also allows you to continue developing your relationship with their leadership team. That way, when they do reach a stage that merits your investment and are ready for another round of funding, you’re more likely to win the deal because a) you’ll know about it sooner and b) they’ll know you. When founders already know your capabilities, your style as an investor and board member, and the value you bring, that’s half the battle.

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