Funders and Dealmakers

  • Brigham, Kate

    Kate Brigham, Angel Investor at TBD Angels; Investor at AgeTech Investor Network; Product Leadership Advisor and Fractional CPO at Kate Brigham Consulting; Mentor at MITdesignX

    About: An experienced product leader and team builder, Kate has deep, hands-on experience in product strategy, user experience design, community development and user research as VP of Product at Instinct Science, Notarize, and ezCater. She also spent 10 years at PatientsLikeMe, where she was Senior Director of Design and responsible for fundamentally changing the structure, processes and tools used by the UX team to improve the member experience in visible, measurable ways. She holds a B.A. from Boston University and a M.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

     

     

     

  • Brzezenski, John

    John Brzezenski, MBA, Partner at MEDA Ventures; Partner at J. Locke & Company

    About: Mr. Brzezenski has a broad-based strategic marketing background spanning operating/executive management, advisory and private equity roles, helping numerous companies develop and execute successful growth strategies. Mr. Brzezenski has developed perspective from “all sides of the table,” having been a Partner with a Strategy/Mergers and Acquisition advisory firm, senior operating executive, and member of the investment committee of a venture capital firm.

    Mr. Brzezenski’s experience has spanned all stages of a company lifecycle and all aspects of business planning, strategy development, business development, marketing strategy/execution and acquisitions/financing. Industry experience includes many areas within the high-technology industry (enterprise software, communications equipment and services, semiconductor applications), medical and health-related products/services, chemicals and other process industries. Mr. Brzezenski started his career in the energy industry with Arthur D. Little, focused on natural gas, power generation and alternative energy markets and technologies. Mr. Brzezenski has also recently served as President of a Food Products company on behalf of a private investment group.

    Mr. Brzezenski competed in two Division 1 college sports (football and track, NCAA provisional qualifier), and has morphed into an avid runner (9 marathons, 150+ races) and health/wellness enthusiast. He was recently Chair of the Library Trustees in his town and is serving, or has served, on multiple nonprofit and for-profit boards, including the Board of the Launchpad Venture Group.

    Mr. Brzezenski graduated with honors from Harvard University with an AB in Economics, and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

     

     

     

  • Cho-Fertikh, Elizabeth

    Elizabeth Cho-Fertikh, PhD, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Meda Ventures

    About: Dr. Elizabeth Cho-Fertikh is a scientist-turned-angel investor. She is Cofounder of MEDA Angels, a healthcare-focused angel investor group, that has invested in health SaaS, digital health and medical device companies. As an operator at MedTech startups, she also has experience on the “other side of the table”, bringing a full circle understanding of what it takes to advance a company forward. She enjoys mentoring startups, serving as an advisor at multiple healthcare incubators & accelerators. Her passion for making educational-med tech solutions widely accessible to support adolescent mental well-being comes from knowing first-hand the needs of this population, as a parent to a teenage daughter.

    She earned a BA in English from Johns Hopkins University, an MS in Physiology & Biophysics from Georgetown University and a PhD in Developmental Biology from Thomas Jefferson University.

     

     

     

  • Chu, Jeff

    Jeff Chu, PhD, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Features Capital;
    Entrepreneur in Residence at Roux Institute, Northeastern University;
    Entrepreneur in Residence, Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth

    About: Jeff Chu is a Co-Founder and serves as a Managing Partner at Features Capital. He is a seasoned medical device developer and technologist. He is directly responsible for the creation and development of nascent technologies from ideation through transfer to manufacturing for early-stage and global medical device companies. Over 21 years as CTO and Partner of Simbex, he delivered multiple products to market based on a wide spectrum of technologies in both the medical device and consumer marketplaces, from bench to bedside. His deep experience in software, hardware, and algorithm development coupled with his biomechanical systems expertise helps realize innovative solutions that seamlessly integrate with the consumer. He has served as Principal Investigator on several federally funded research innovation programs from both the NIH and the Department of Defense in the areas of rehabilitation, blast, and impact biomechanics. He has been an active angel and LP investor. He is a Corporator of Mascoma Bank, a Founding Steering Committee Member of the MedTech Collaborative, and a Core Director for the Translational Rehab Engineering Advances and the New England Pediatric Device Consortium. His work has received national recognition from Time Magazine, Sybase, Edison Awards, and Computerworlds. Before Simbex, he worked as an advanced concepts consultant for several companies in the sporting goods industry and taught graduate courses in the areas of clinical biomechanics and computer modeling. He holds 8 patents, with 6 patents pending. He received his BS and MS in Biomechanics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

     

     

     

  • Doscher, Jim

    Jim Doscher, CEO at Digital Health Advisors; Angel Investor at Beacon Angels

    About: Jim believes digital health will revolutionize patient experiences and outcomes, while reducing cost. He is a seasoned executive, innovator, and technologist, my mission is to transform the way healthcare is delivered. He brings rich and diverse experience to the table: expertise in sensors and wearable technology, a track record of commercializing new technologies, deep knowledge of physiology and disease states, and forte in navigating the complicated healthcare ecosystem. He spent 26 years at Analog Devices, where he led internal start-ups and transformed struggling businesses. 

     He is particularly passionate about the promise of closed loop chronic disease management and point of care diagnostics. Improving care and reducing cost of the most complex chronic diseases will require applying the ‘right’ remote monitoring of patients to provide the information needed to enable real time interventions. Jim has a A.B. degree in engineering from Dartmouth.

     

     

     

  • Hong, Winn

    Winn Hong, MBA, MS, North America Venture Manager at Nokia Ventures; Cofounder, President, and CEO at Mesencyte Inc.

    About: Mr Hong was the Deputy Executive Director at the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering, at the University of Southern California (USC-AMI). He has over 18 years of experience in high-tech product development and high-tech start-up successes and leadership. Prior to  USC-AMI, Winn was a senior technology strategist for the Institute for Technology Advancement (ITA) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) focusing on biotechnology, alternative fuel, medical device, and internet, media, and related software technologies.

    Winn began his career as a researcher at the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1996 to 1999 where he was involved in the design, fabrication, and testing of sensors for military, medical, commercial, and space exploration applications.

    Mr Hong was the COO of Sega.com, Inc. and Sega.com, Ltd. (publicly traded on the HKSE) and has been involved in company formation, funding, and management. Since then, companies include alternative fuel, green chemicals, medical devices, and material sciences and held various executive level positions in each of these companies.

    From June 2005 to December 2007, Winn worked as a principal for Convergent Ventures, LLC, a venture capital firm that invests seed capital, management, and operational participation in early-stage life science and technology investment opportunities in Southern California.

    Mr Hong obtained a MBA degree from the University of Chicago in 2005. He also received a MS in Mechanical Engineering and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from UCLA in 1996 and 1993, respectively. Winn is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

     

     

     

  • Hueston, James

    James Hueston, Senior Associate, Primetime Partners

    About: James joined the Primetime team in 2022 and was previously an investor at NTTVC, the single LP fund formed in partnership with NTT. At NTTVC, James spent two years focused on early-stage digital health and B2B enterprise investments. He was also previously on the CEO’s advisory board at Cinemark Movie Theaters where he focused on implementing programs to further engage audiences of all ages. He received his undergraduate degree in Economics with minors in Mathematics and Physics from Vassar College while also playing DIII varsity lacrosse.

     

     

     

  • MacIntosh, Alan

    Alan MacIntosh, Founding Partner, AgeTech Capital; Founder, AgeTech Investor Network

    About: Alan has been building, operating and investing in businesses at the intersection of wireless and the internet since the 1990s. After cofounding a number of notable venture funds including GSM Capital and Acta Wireless, he joined with John and JS to cofound Real Ventures in 2007, which is Canada’s most active venture fund with more than 100 investments in mobile and web tech start-ups. In 2022, he cofounded AgeTech Capital, a Montreal based venture capital firm focused on funding innovative solutions and affordable technology that empower older adults to flourish in North America. A dedicated mentor, Alan sees himself as a demanding yet empathetic coach: helping on important issues, highlighting strategic opportunities, and looking for possibilities for his portfolio companies to exit. He works primarily with startups using emerging software technologies (mobile, digital media, deep learning, preventative healthcare), and is also interested in creating new markets with connected devices. A native of Scotland, Alan is a keen cyclist and lifelong skier, and is also committed to improving the quality of life in the community, through his work as President of the OSMO Foundation and as a board director of the McCord Museum, the Quartier de l’Innovation (QI) and the Mobile Giving Foundation Canada.

     

     

     

  • Saltojanes, Denise

    Denise Saltojanes, MBA, Managing Director, Golden Seeds; Business Coach, SBA T.H.R.I.V.E.; Investor, NuFund Venture Group; Investor, Beacon Angels

    About: Denise Saltojanes is managing director and deal flow lead with Golden Seeds-Boston and an early stage investor with NuFund Venture Group. With a broad background in medical and technology development and financial analysis, she holds a multifaceted skill set from her engineering-based finance career of 25-plus years. As ops research chief with the U.S. Air Force, Saltojanes successfully modeled and defended $6 billion of congressionally approved appropriations and was responsible for numerous financial agreements regarding technology transactions with America’s foreign allies. While working as vice president of investment banking at Medical Capital Advisors, she was an integral part of the firm’s merger and acquisition team and led the valuation process. As a member of the founding team for Cambridge Polymer Group, she led marketing, financial strategy, new business development and licensing agreements. Saltojanes has a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA in finance from Babson College.

     

     

     

  • Werth, Ted

    Ted Werth, MBA, Angel Investor at Launchpad Venture Group; Executive in Residence at Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things at Northeastern University; Mentor at MassChallenge

    About: Ted brings a wealth of innovative experience to Northeastern. As a serial entrepreneur, CEO and board member, he has an extensive background in leading and growing businesses such as PlumChoice, a leading national remote services company. As a mentor, he has worked with over 40 companies spanning IOT, digital health, and services industries, through mentoring services at MIT, BU and Northeastern. He worked for the MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) as part of their entrepreneurial ecosystem, matching ventures with mentors. As an investor, Ted has been active in area investment groups through Launchpad and Hub Angels.

    Prior to his position at NEU Ted served as an adjunct professor for Questrom School of Business at Boston University, teaching Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship to engineers.

    Ted received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University, and an MBA from Northeastern University.