From Flybridge to Foundation: Michael Greeley Talks VC Transition

Seismic shifts are occurring in the venture capital world. Here in Boston, the tectonic plates of healthcare and software/IT funds just moved a little farther apart.

Longtime healthcare technology VC Michael Greeley is leaving Flybridge Capital Partners, the firm he co-founded in 2001 (as IDG Ventures Atlantic), to join Foundation Medical Partners, a Connecticut-based venture firm that is opening a Boston office.

Also joining Foundation as a general partner is Bill Geary, another prominent health-IT VC who has left North Bridge Venture Partners after 20 years there. Geary has companies like Humedica, SynapDx, and Valence Health to his name. (More on both partners and their fundraising status from Dan Primack at Fortune.)

Greeley (pictured below) is known for his investments in companies such as Taris Biomedical, MicroCHIPs, Predictive Biosciences, and T2 Biosystems. Before Flybridge/IDG, he worked at Polaris Venture Partners and GCC Investments.

I reached Greeley (who’s an Xconomist) by e-mail this morning.

Michael GreeleyXconomy: Can you talk about leaving your baby, Flybridge, and the reasons for your move?

Michael Greeley: My decision to work with the Foundation team was driven by my desire to continue to invest in healthcare technology as well as to help scale another venture fund. I have already started two firms and given the dramatic and profound changes in early stage healthcare technology, I’m really excited to help build the premier healthcare partnership backing some of the greatest healthcare entrepreneurs. The Flybridge partners are some of my best friends and that won’t change.

X: Is the news of your and Bill Geary’s transition to Foundation part of a broader theme of VC firms becoming more specialized in health vs. IT (rather than having cross-sector funds)?

MG: Absolutely, early stage VCs have to be experts in fewer sectors, especially in a complex and nuanced industry like healthcare. The Foundation go-to-market strategy with executive partners, strategic LPs [limited partners], and great general partners all focused on the same industry is a differentiated one, and one that I think will be powerfully successful over the next ten years as we build the most innovative healthcare solutions to solve so many obvious problems in the current system.

X: Have you and Bill Geary worked together much before?

MG: Of Flybridge’s nearly 70 portfolio companies, North Bridge is one of our preferred co-investors. For many years Bill and I have shared the same passion for healthcare technology, and it seemed like a natural fit to work side by side.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.