Doug Hayes
I help healthcare founders sell into enterprises and raise the next round
I specialize in
“I've been the health system buyer, the VC writing the memo, and the founder.”
Background & Highlights
Most founders book me with a version of the same problem. Something commercial is stuck, and the people around them are either too junior to know or too invested to say it. Usually it's one of four: Who actually buys this? How to sell into an enterprise that moves slower than the plan assumed? Whether to hire a sales leader yet, and what it costs if you get it wrong. When to raise, and what gets said about you in the room you're not in? I've sat on the other side of all four. I ran the venture studio at Atlantic Health System, a $40M+ evergreen fund investing in eight VC funds and directly into early-stage companies, co-developing alongside 5,500 clinicians and reporting to the CEO and the board. I wrote every investment memo we decided from. Before that I founded Junto Health, a digital health studio that worked with more than 60 organizations including Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Pfizer, and helped launch around 75 venture-backed companies at Blueprint Health, eight of which exited to acquirers like UnitedHealth and Flatiron. Earlier: JPMorgan's first ESG portfolios and nearly $1B investing sleeve at Mousse Partners. Roughly half the founders I work with were clinicians first. If that's you, the business side isn't harder than what you've already learned. Nobody handed you the curriculum. What a call looks like. Bring the actual problem, not the polished version. I'll ask you things you probably haven't been asked, tell you what I'd do, and be direct about what I don't know. I'm an expert in commercializing healthcare, not in your product. You'll leave with a next step. ✅ "I don't know who actually buys this inside a health system" ✅ "Our enterprise deals stall after the demo" ✅ "My board wants me to hire a sales leader and I'm not sure" ✅ "I need to raise and I don't know if my traction story holds up" ✅ "I'm a clinician and the commercial side is a language I don't speak"
You'll get advice on
- Selling into health systems and enterprises
- Early-stage fundraising and investor readiness
- Go-to-market for healthcare startups
- When and who to hire in sales
- How healthcare investors actually decide