Podcast with B.A. Sillah (WG ’17) | Militia Hill Ventures

The hot take: B.A. is a double Penn graduate (M.D. and MBA in 2017) and has had a variety of roles in both hospital systems and venture capital. Currently he is at Militia Hill Ventures (MHV), a Philadelphia-based life science venture capital firm. The company uses an “active model” venture mentality to truly piece together the right ideas, with the right people at the right time. Militia Hill Ventures is actively bringing on MBA interns and has deep connections to the Penn community.

In this episode, B.A. provides an overview of the Philadelphia healthcare VC/PE markets, insights into how Militia Hill operates in deals and some takeaways from his experience with for the C-suite of Einstein hospital system.

https://soundcloud.com/whartondigitalhealth

Outlined below are the different sections of the 35 min podcast with summary bullets.

How B.A. got to Militia Hill Ventures (0:00–3:00):

• Undergrad from Harvard, then straight to Penn Med + MBA program
• Projects during med school: Public health in Sierra Leone, early stage investing and hospital management programs (Penn and Einstein)
• The current head of global health at Penn, Glen Gaulton, put B.A. in touch with Militia Hill
• He’s been there for 1.5 years (been in Philly for 7 years)

Overview of the healthcare venture and PE space, in Philly (3:00–9:15):

• “Philly has historically been under-ventured…compared to Boston, SF, there are very few firms in the area, especially given the amount of academic, pharma and manufacturing strength in the city”
• Current players: MHV, Ben Franklin Tech Partners, NewSpring, Rittenhouse Ventures, BioAdvance, LLR, 1315 Capital (has two Wharton HCM alumns, Michael Koby and Ed Chan)…no longer actively investing: Safeguard and Quaker
• Trend: University and corp’s are investing…PENN just put aside $50M for Penn spinouts…CHOP, IBC, and Jefferson are rolling out venture arms
• The relationship between academia and investing is improving…e.g., Spark Therapeutics was built and spun out by CHOP. PENN has invested with MHV into a CAR-T therapy spinout.

Militia Hill Ventures differentiated model of investing (9:15–19:30):

• “Active build model” similar to Third Rock…start early stage with strong connections to industry and academia. Identify unmet therapeutic needs, scan the market, put a team together and bring to market with the entrepreneur.
• Ben Franklin Tech Partners: Invests across the healthcare landscape. Their mandate: they want to invest in local community, supposed to build jobs in Philly and retain talent here…smaller checks generally
• “Active build model” firms perform better than others in the space…less down-the-line restructuring, more up-front de-risking, get to know the science better
• Example deal to highlight: TaleeBio. A PENN alumn had a rare form of Cystic Fibrosis, approached MHV to build a company to tackle these rare mutations. MHV team discovered tech at the University of Iowa, CHOP (on the manuf. side) and built a team using the Executives in Residence program. Now in the process of closing a Series A.

B.A.’s experience working for the CEO’s office at Einstein (19:30–28:00)

• “Philadelphia area has gone through a huge round of consolidation, such that there is now really just PENN and Jefferson”
• Challenges: 1) What role did Einstein play and how could it maintain name and reputation in the area, given the consolidation? 2) 80–85% Medicare/Medicaid mix at Einstein, local competition was 40% at most
• Einstein recently signed an agreement to merge with Jefferson and is crafting a strategy to maintain it’s identity especially with its patient population
• How he uses his M.D. versus his MBA: “Using the MD to understand a framework on…how patients interact with the system and how to create solutions…the MBA gives a sense of how to finance those solutions. Having the two allows me to work between those two groups.”

How to break into VC/PE in Philly and Hiring at Militia Hill Ventures, for Wharton folks specifically (28:00–33:00)

• Key: need to understand the nuances between the firms. Investment thesis, group dynamics and deal processes.
• Know why you want to work in Philly vs a similar fund in New York of Boston
• MHV has an internship program (during the school year and summer), Osage University Partners one as well, other firms are likely doing the same
• “No matter where you are looking in Venture/PE, you will find a local Wharton Alums at firms”
• MHV specifically: “Get to know us first, don’t worry about coming up with an entire investment thesis. We are different from most venture firms.”

His parting words of advice (33:00-end):

• “As you are making connections, make sure to stay in touch and touch base every couple of months. Showing that you still maintained your interest in them as a person, not just a possible connection to a job. Maintain those relationships over time.”