Paul:
Hello, and welcome to What the Tech from Boast AI, where we talk with some of the brilliant minds behind new and exciting tech initiatives to learn what it takes to tackle technological uncertainty and eventually change the world.
Today, I am thrilled to be joined by two guests as part of our Founder and Friend series. For these shows, we encourage a member of our network to extend the invitation to a new friend to hop on the mic and chat about their founder stories and get their take on building a successful startup. Joining us is our friend Andrew Gaudry, a business development associate at Broderick Capital, where he helps Canadian entrepreneurs scale their rapidly growing businesses by connecting them with the strategic capital and advisory services they need to really take off.
Along with having built across industry network that spans the country, Broderick Capital has also established a strong relationship with Green Acre Capital, Canada's first cannabis venture capital fund, which is working with Andrew's team at Broderick to expedite the growth of fast-moving startups in this field.
Now, joining Andrew and I is Venky Weylagro, a founder and CEO of MD Connected, where he's seeking to revolutionize the healthcare industry by offering telehealthcare services to citizens across Canada. MD Connected's telemedicine clinics reduce wait times from days to minutes. All of this is done without ever sacrificing quality of care while actually working to improve health quality across the country. The work Venky is doing and Andrew is helping support are not just noble efforts, but they're often steeped in the latest technology and are rife with R&D. I'm excited to pick both of their brains about the state of startups and healthcare, their approach to building a new business in 2023 and their plans for the future. Without further ado, welcome to the show.
Andrew Gaudry:
Thanks, Paul. Thanks for having us. We're really looking forward to speaking today.
Venky Weylagro:
Yeah. Thank you, Paul.
Paul:
Awesome. No, I'm so thrilled to have you both on here. To kick off, let's tell the listeners a little about yourselves. Andy, I'm going to point it to you first, but let me know where are you based, what are your passions, and how you got into the VC space, to begin with.
Andrew Gaudry:
I live in the St. Lawrence Market. Broderick's office is in Yorkville. I started my career, actually, at a private wine club just for Bay Street. I built that business up to 40% of revenue in 2017. They're all deal makers on Bay Street, partisan law firms, investment bankers, hedge fund managers, the whole gamut. As I was developing those relationships, they were doing all the canvas deals back in 2017. They were dealing in large dollar figures. I'm like, "I'm in the wrong business. I have to get into cannabis." I started networking my way into the business. From there, I connected with a company based out of Australia called Cannvalate. At the time, they were the largest distributor in the country. We ended up closing the biggest deal in cannabis history. We brought the Fallon's Company to Australia, which was super... Very proud about that deal.
From there, I transitioned into pharma for a bit, a contract manufacturer. Then, after that, it's always been a goal of mine to break into investment banking. I cold-called my boss here at Broderick. Got an interview. Four interviews later, I got the job, and the rest is history. That was 11 months ago. My one-year is coming up in November. I'll give you a brief background about the firm.
Broderick Capital was founded in 2019. We work in the same office as Green Acre Capital. Green Acre Capital was a cannabis venture fund. They've deployed 100 million in the space globally. I'd say they're the finance vehicle. We're the advisory side of the business. We do a lot of M&A. Our biggest deal to date happened to be a health tech deal.
Alliance Pharmacy got bought out by Telus Health for 62 and a half million dollars. We were the exclusive financial advisor for Alliance Pharmacy. Then, from there, our investor base are ultra-high net-worth family offices, venture funds, private equity firms on the buy side for agnostic, AI, health, tech, organic waste, alternative protein, real estate development, manufacturing. There's a few more: esports as well.
The firm was founded in 2019. The reason why we pivoted is because cannabis took a bit of a nosedive in 2020. Since then, my job as business development associate is to bring in new clients either for a capital raise or for advisory services. The firm has advised over $200 million to date both in financings and M&A transactions, which is super exciting. We're a very small, nimble team. We're all young/hungry, and we like to do deals. That's a bit of a background about myself. I'll let Venky take over
Paul:
Before you dive in, Venky, I just want to comment real quick. Andy, I love the energy that you brought to that. Also, I love that you mentioned that your team... They're young. They're scrappy. They're hungry. That's really something that I feel is one-to-one with us here at Boast. I'm amazed at how much we're able to do with a team that's as small as ours. It's awesome to hear that that's just like a hunger that's shared across the Canadian ecosystem.
Andrew Gaudry:
Yeah. Absolutely.
Paul:
Yeah. I'm based here in Boston. I've been learning a lot about Canada and just what's happening in the startup space. I was telling you before the call. I was up in Vancouver earlier this week with my marketing team. Had no idea how much the cannabis industry had taken off, but also, to your point, took a nosedive in 2020. Exploring those different avenues for business... It's awesome that you're able to, again, keep your passions at the forefront. But again, explore all these other areas. Awesome to hear.I love that, too. It brings connections like the one you've made with Venky over to us. Venky, dive in. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Venky Weylagro:
Yeah, for sure. All right. Formal training is actually in finance and accounting. Worked for a firm called KPMG. Did that for a while. But I've come to find that I really enjoy challenges and problem-solving, which leads right into why I enjoy the entrepreneurship route. You get the best of all of that. That's where I've been in probably the last 10 years, I would say, at least.
After I left finance and so forth, I started my own sales organization at the time. I always just look for opportunities, things that I feel are broken, or that just could be better, or areas that are just in high need. That led me into the insurtech space as well. Then, from there, I moved into healthcare. As I mentioned previously, I started sales organizers, which took me on a lot of travel across the province and across the country. I really got a glimpse of healthcare outside of the GTA, which is... You take for granted being from Toronto. When you go out and you're in some of these rural communities and some of these rural areas, you're like, "Whoa!" It's a big difference in terms of how they access care, how they deal with that, and how far they have to commute and things like that. That's how MD Connected was born, basically through the identification of these challenges and how we could potentially solve that with the use of virtual care.
Paul:
That's so cool. A couple of questions to build off of that. Not to dive straight into the nitty-gritty, but could you tell me a little bit about what some of those acute challenges are that you notice and what the solutions that you're trying to bring to the table with MD connected are?
Venky Weylagro:
Okay. The biggest challenge is always going to be that supply/demand. There's only so many doctors, and there's X amount of patients. Unfortunately, not everybody wants to uproot their family and move to some of these more rural communities. If you're from Toronto or if you're from Mississauga, to leave and go somewhere else, that's your biggest challenge right now, is that it's the idea of, "Okay. Well, how do we get physicians or care or access to care to these communities," call it on a one-to-one basis, if you will.
I think that was the major challenge that you would see: long wait times in these communities, which is obviously an extension of what I just said. Those are the other ones. Even when I was in some of these rural communities, it's like you talk to somebody, and they need something basic. They can't get into their doctor for three/four weeks just because of the backlog of patients. Those are the main challenges. But then, as an extension of that now, you looking... "Well, what are the opportunities?" That's where tech comes in. You can use tech to facilitate filling that gap. That's exactly what we did by setting up telemedicine sites where we have a physical location where patients can visit. They then connect with a doctor remotely. But there's also a care coordinator, either a nurse or an international medical graduate that triages these patients and assists them with their virtual visit. That's how we brought it together.
Paul:
I think you touched on something earlier, too, when you were saying that relocating isn't really an option for a lot of people. I think one of the learnings from the pandemic is that a lot of people want to be flexible, too, with where they're logging in from work. I know I referenced earlier that we're a fully remote team here on the boast side. I'm in Boston. Most of my colleagues are spread out far. I found out Vancouver is a lot bigger than I thought it was in terms of just the reach. Just even bridging that gap, I think beyond the healthcare spectrum, leveraging technology to bring together different resources like you're doing... It's invaluable. It's something that I think has a huge growth trajectory. I think you'd mentioned you were in the insurtech space beforehand. What are some of the big differences between insurtech versus working in telehealth or telemedicine?
Venky Weylagro:
Yeah. Good question. With insurance, it's not really actually too dissimilar. They're pretty close. I think they're both sectors that rely on really old archaic methods of doing things. Ironically, when you think of insurance, everything is based on history. If they're giving you a quote or if they're looking at how to reduce costs, it's all based on history. It's like, "Okay. Well, then, how does innovation fit into that?" If you're a startup or a company that wants to say, "Hey, look, what I can do can help you reduce X amount and can help your clients do X, Y, Z," they're going to look at it and say, "Well, where's the history on that?" I feel that is one of the bigger challenges with working in insurance and insurtech is it's so actuarial-based and so historically based that it's hard to innovate within that sector.
On the same side of things there, with healthcare... This may be controversial, but I think the public sector of healthcare also limit innovation. I find, personally, you can get a lot more innovation with private sector, mainly because you can fund differently. You can support the funding of new technology and how to approach different things a bit better that way. Whereas in the public sector, you get this finite amount of resources. That's all you can do. That's some of the challenges you have in healthcare. I also think from a challenge perspective, healthcare is a lot more regulated, too. Again, also hindrances for innovation. A lot of it is warranted. You're naturally dealing with people's livelihoods and their health. I do get that. But I think there definitely needs to be better balance.
Paul:
Yeah. Yeah. I think you hit on a great point, too, when you were talking about the legacy systems that need to be broken down for a lot of this innovation to happen. A lot of the founders who we talked to on this show... That's the biggest challenge, if not the first challenge: being a little more pliable but without taking away the safeguards that need to be in place. I think in healthcare and insurtech specifically, those safeguards are there for good reason. But you still want to try to rock the boat a little bit if you want to get to a new place.
Now, Andy, I'm going to bring it back to you now for this next set of questions. I want to learn more about... Venky, that applies to you as well, partnerships. When you're building a startup. Andy, I know that you work with not just bringing them to the capital that they need but also the advisory services that they need. Could you maybe start off with telling me a little bit about how you identify a partner in the community or a startup or a founder that you really want to work with? What's some of the criteria that makes it a good candidate in your mind, whether for Broderick or just for you personally?
Andrew Gaudry:
I think warm introductions are invaluable, especially as you're growing and scaling a business. If you're able to get a warm introduction with a founder that has a good track record, they've built a business before in the past, they've exited so on and so forth, then also what you're going to be doing is that now you're matching each other's abilities. Someone's going to be very good at finance. Someone's going to be really good at operations. Someone's going to be really good at innovation, so on and so forth. Once you are able to get the foundation together, once that's on solid footing... Then, you grow from there.
I've found that as I continue with the firm, the toughest part about my job is actually managing people's egos, especially when they're trying to... Let's say they're trying to sell their business. We need to advise them and really set expectations. We do all the modeling for them. We do all the marketing work for them. Our due diligence process/our due diligence questions... They're even more specific than an actual normal investor would be. We make sure that we have an answer for every single objection that's coming to us. We need to because these investors' time is very valuable and so is our client, too. You know what I mean? We want to make sure that when we do start reaching out to either investors or possible acquirers for a business, that everything is prepared and a simple transition into the beginning of the conversation.
Paul:
That's a great point. I think that's something, too, that has been echoed in a lot of these conversations that we've had. It is a lot about matchmaking. It is a lot about being sure that your personalities mesh because entering into a marriage with these people. It's not the same language. You got to be able to make decisions that you agree are going to be for your benefit. Venky, I'd love to hear from you. How do you find partners to build your product or to build your solution?
Venky Weylagro:
I think for me, the number one criteria is fit. There has to be a mutual win. If what I'm doing can't help you, then what's the point? Fit becomes the main thing. I've been in sales, if you will, and business development for a long time. I think the reason why people gravitate to me is because I'm genuine, and I'm honest, and I'm not trying to push something on them that can't help them or that isn't a mutual win. I think that's number one criteria. I touched on the second one, for me, which is trust, working with good people, always having transparent, honest discussions 'cause that's really how you're going to develop that really solid partnership that's not just going off on the right foot. But ultimately, build for a long-term sort of relationship.
Paul:
Yeah. No, I think that's a fantastic point, too. Now, broadening the question out a little bit. I know we've talked specifically about matchmaking, but now, when it comes to even funding or even just getting the capital that you need to get your product off the ground, what's not strictly advice, but maybe tips you'd give to people who have been watching the headlines and are maybe getting the perception that there isn't funding right now, if you have an early stage company.
Andrew Gaudry:
For me, personally, since November, I've spoken to hundreds, hundreds of investors if they're high net worth or VC funds. It's tough right now, especially with where interest rates are right now. Everyone's hoarding cash. They're scared. They don't want to have it in the market out too long, or they're not diversified enough, or they have too much debt, and those debt covenants are coming up because that's five years. You have to be as prepared as humanly possible. If you are a startup, at seed stage, you have to make sure that your model is more on the conservative side. You have to really prove to these investors that you're going to be able to hit your targets in that timeframe that you've given out because if you don't, then you just lost their trust. These are the people that you need to have their trust the most because you want them to get in on your next round, and so on and so forth. Being very focused and making sure that there's a moat... All this preparation needs to be done beforehand to even think about speaking to an investor.
Paul:
I think that's invaluable tips. It's more than just due diligence, too. Sure, you have to have your table stakes house in order, but you have to be able to make the case. You have to really make it an appealing case, especially given all the odds today, because great businesses will come out even when funding is tight. That's when some of the biggest unicorns in history have come about. It's when the problems are very evident, and you need those innovative thinkers to make that case when they're put to the test.
Andrew Gaudry:
Yeah.
Paul:
Absolutely. That's really cool.
Andrew Gaudry:
It also helps, too, if you have some customers. You know what I mean?
Paul:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Easier said than done, but yeah. Venky, clearly, you've done a good job making your case. I think that MD Connected is doing some great stuff. I'd love to know what's on the roadmap for you and the company going forward, whether for the rest of 2023 or even beyond that.
Venky Weylagro:
Yeah. For us, we're in this sector where it's always fun... I say this sarcastically, navigating the changes that the ministry and the government imposes. We're doing that. We're trying to create a model that is sustainable, long-term, and it's a really enjoyable environment for physicians to want to work in. I strongly believe that if you can build that, the rest of it becomes... I don't want to say easy, but it becomes easier. Look, there's no shortage of patients that need a doctor in Canada right now. I think the most recent report was 5 million or something like that, I think, was the number that one that-
Andrew Gaudry:
One in four Ontarians. Yeah.
Venky Weylagro:
There's no shortage of that. Build something that you can attract and gravitate great people and good physicians. That's what we're doing. Through that, some of the strategies that we're implementing is in more than just being a telemedicine provider. We've also pivoted into providing in-person physicians and locations and family practices as well now too. We've launched four family practices across Ontario. More than just dealing with episodic walk-in type care, now, we're also looking at that continuity of care and following patients a bit more. That's one of the big pivots that we're doing. We've also moved pretty big into some of the travel sector and specialty areas as well because one of the big areas or needs as well, in addition to your standard family doctor, is there's also huge wait times for specialists. We're growing a pretty good fleet of specialists where we're able to cut wait times down for specialists from months and years to weeks. That's a big area that we're also focusing on at the moment.
Paul:
That's awesome because it goes back to that ethos that you have behind the whole company. It's not just about expediting care. It's about actually improving the quality of care, and, by getting involved in all these different kinds of specialties and even just the family practices, by actually getting professionals where they can be used, that's how you actually improve health across the entire country, which is so cool.
Venky Weylagro:
Agreed.
Paul:
I love it.
Venky Weylagro:
I believe the future of healthcare is... It's hybrid. You're never going to be 100% virtual. It's just impossible. But I do think as technology evolves, you can do more and more virtually. But that's what healthcare is. It's a hybrid model. That's ultimately where we're going.