Payroll pro pulls plug on employer

Martin Companies leads Moontoast round

Martin Cos. exec goes to construction firm

Of course they did

Vanguard Health Systems signed a deal with Care Team Connect to use the Illinois company's care coordination technology platform. No real surprise here, given that the investment firm run by Vanguard Chairman and CEO Charlie Martin co-led a $2.7 million investment in Care Team Connect last month. To start, Care Team Connect will interface with Vanguard's Meditech information system at one of its hospitals in Massachusetts.

Nashville investment lures Boston firm

The Martin Cos. part of $2.7M investment

Some comic relief with your VC talk

Hal Andrews is the moat to Charlie Martin’s castle. At least, that’s how The Martin Cos. director described part of his role at the respected health care entrepreneur’s investment company on a health care venture capital panel yesterday. “Charlie likes ideas,” Andrews said. “One of my jobs is to be the moat around the castle and keep people away from the king.” Though drawing laughs from the 200-person crowd, Andrews was referring to the company’s idea vetting process as he described what makes his firm different from some of the others represented on the stage — Council Ventures, TriStar Technology Ventures, and Pfizer Venture Investments. Martin Cos. are most interested in health care ideas — particularly in the hospital space, where industry veteran Martin has much experience through Vanguard Health Systems, Andrews said. And the firm is looking for ideas that can solve an industry problem without altering established work flows. “I do what Charlie tells me to,” Andrews said. “I’m interested in what Charlie’s interested in, and that’s health care.”

'Group think' among local VCs?

It was perhaps the most compelling question posed by moderator Nancy Falls to a panel of health care venture capitalists yesterday at an event sponsored by the Nashville Health Care Council and Nashville Capital Network. The Tatum managing partner — having heard one panelist’s anecdote about an entrepreneur’s off-handed comments getting cycled quickly through the local venture capital community — asked whether Nashville’s close-knit nature could create a group think environment that would make it difficult for an entrepreneur to secure funding if one or two VCs first turned him down. Of course, the unanimous response was “no.” Local panelists Grant Jackson of Council Ventures, Hal Andrews of The Martin Cos. and Harry Jacobson of TriStar Technology Ventures all agreed that group think isn’t a real danger for any VC firm that's really doing its job. If one company turns down an idea, that creates an opportunity for another VC, Jackson said, not only a chance to see something in the deal that others haven’t, but also to get a better valuation. Andrews explained that the differences among local companies' expertise and investment strategies mean that when one VC turns down a deal, it may be because it's simply better suited for another firm, and that local firms often refer deals back and forth. Jacobson was most succinct: “I think there’s a finite risk in that. Any finance group that’s using group think is not going to have a next fund.”

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