Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2017: Liz Rockett

Coming out of advising foundations and endowments how to invest in companies that aligned with mission interests – impact or values-based venturing – Liz Rockett, director with Kaiser Permanente Ventures (KPV), the corporate venturing unit of the US-based healthcare system, has found a platform to continue this work while still going with the flow of what works.

She said: “I joined KPV [in March 2015] because I believe we can make the smartest bets in healthcare venture if we use our platform well.

“Kaiser Permanente has been a leading light for the healthcare industry in value-based care and technology-enabled care. That position allows us to see opportunity and potential ahead of others, but also to keep our feet on the ground – focused on products and services that have tangible value.

“Beyond that, this is a team that likes to think big – our work is about more than maximising returns, we share a vision of how to transform the US healthcare system.”

Before joining KPV, Rockett through both her own firm and Imprint Capital Advisors, had spent nearly four years advising clients, such as Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, WK Kellogg Foundation, Packard Foundation and impact investor Acumen Fund, on how to improve healthcare through their investments.

Earlier, she been at companies, such as TriZetto Group, Advisory Board Company, Outcome and Siemens, on applying healthcare best practices.

But she has been made welcome at KPV. Sam Brasch, senior managing director at Kaiser Permanente Ventures, said: “Since joining Kaiser Permanente Ventures in 2015, Liz has quickly established herself as a thoughtful and insightful leader within KP and the external entrepreneurial community around the opportunity and challenges for innovative companies addressing major unmet needs in the healthcare system.

“In recognition of her strengths and great early work at KPV, Liz was promoted to director within her first year. She has since gone on to lead investments in two leading digital therapeutics companies, BigHealth and Chrono Therapeutics. We are thrilled and lucky to have Liz as part of our team and excited for the role she is going to play at KPV going forward.”

Big Health’s $12m series B round closed in July and Chrono Therapeutics’ $47.6m B round for the smoking cessation wearable was made in September.

Rockett said: “As I joined to kick off the fourth fund, I am partial to some of our newest investments, including Big Health, Chrono Therapeutics, Vidyo and Hometeam. They represent the breadth of the portfolio we are trying to build (in sector and stage), and some of the most exciting leadership teams and innovations we have encountered.

“We are proud of our recent exits with iRhythm in its recent IPO [for $107m] and Transcend, acquired by Alcon [a subsidiary of Novartis, in February], and are excited about the strength of the companies in our third fund’s portfolio.”

The fundraising came at a period of change for both KPV and its parent, as Dave Schulte left for peer McKesson Ventures. Rockett said: “Our team has gone through substantial transition since I joined, both within our investment team and in the KP executive structure around us.

“This change has created opportunity. The newly re-formed team has taken the clean slate to sharpen our mission and vision, and hone new tools to better achieve our goals. However, it has also presented the challenges that any team in transition must weather.

“That perspective has me thinking a lot about the impact of change on the teams that we invest in, and how we can be better partners to executive teams as they go through periods of rapid expansion, contraction, or transition.”

In order to do that, Rockett said the industry as a whole had to get better at “listening.

“I do not think we can do it enough. To the entrepreneurs – our work is in service to what they need to succeed, including the needs they identify and what we can uniquely see that they need.

“To our ‘corporates,’ the entites for whom we invest – the insights of an operating entity are essential to help the venture community make smarter bets on needed products and services with the best chance to succeed.

“To ourselves – to figure out how to do more and better with the platforms we have.”

Rockett makes space for these voices to be heard and recognised as she said: “In my life outside of work, I am big on the ocean, yoga, and family, not always in that order. Perhaps more interesting to this crowd is my exploration into culture and career development.

“I am a big believer in the non-linear career path. While I started my career building teams and navigating interpersonal dynamics at all levels in the early days of health IT, I came up through product and business line management. In moving over to the investing side, I am looking to build a high-potential portfolio of changemakers at KPV. Where I go from here, time will tell.”