Cleveland-founded Nirvana Healthcare Ventures is targeting Midwest startups

Crew describes Nirvana’s advisory board as its greatest asset, one that “separates it from the pack.” And there are certainly big names involved.

Of course, it all begins with Crew and Harris at the helm.

Crew is the founder and managing director for Nirvana Analytics, a registered investment adviser in Pepper Pike with approximately $7.6 million in regulatory assets under management as of its last public filing in May 2022.

Prior to establishing his asset management business, Crew was an investment banker for many years at firms including McDonald & Co. and KeyBanc Capital Markets (KeyCorp acquired McDonald in 1998) as well as a relationship manager with KeyBank.

It was while Crew worked to raise money in the health care space under a Regulation D model that he saw an opportunity for a venture fund focused on startups in that industry that need support at the Series A stage.

The vision for a venture fund took shape as he connected with other experts, investors and physicians across the market.

That includes Marc Byrnes, the former CEO and chairman emeritus for Oswald Cos., who is now serving as chair of the Nirvana advisory board.

“I’ve been frustrated by the fact that we’ve lost so much in the way of opportunities here,” Byrnes said, “and I thought, maybe we should create our own VC health care fund and support our great teams of biomed engineers, including people like Toby Cosgrove.”

Cosgrove, president and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic from 2004 to 2017 and an executive adviser to the hospital today, joined the Nirvana advisory board in January in a high-profile get for the fund.

“My work as a surgeon sparked a pursuit of innovation to improve outcomes for patients, and my time as an executive solidified a desire to harness this innovation to build better health care companies,” Cosgrove said in a statement. “Now, I am proud to be working with the NHCV team — a team with all the necessary experience, talent and relationships to accomplish both of these goals, while also delivering strong returns for investors.”

Byrnes has played a key role in helping recruit others to the fund, including Harris, who led JumpStart’s seed and Series A venture funds and led investments in more than 100 companies during his 13 years with the organization.

Others on the Nirvana advisory board include: Stephen McHale, founder and CEO of UnifyWork and former CEO and chairman of Explorys; William Seelbach, a senior adviser at The Riverside Co.; and Ira Kaplan, executive chairman and former managing partner for the Benesch law firm.

The combined networks and expertise of these people mean “we’ve got a lot of ideas flowing to us not just in Cleveland, but across the Midwest,” Byrnes said.

It’s also worth noting that the Nirvana venture fund stands out among peers for its leadership under Crew, who is Black.

According to the book “Post Corona” by Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, a staggering 93% of VC dollars are managed by white men.

And according to a 2019 report by the James L. Knight Foundation, African Americans comprise less than 1% of all senior venture capitalists.

The fact Crew is Black is an incidental detail.

At the same time, the diverse leadership of the Nirvana fund is notable.

“We are here to make a statement, not just about the Midwest but about the expertise embedded in the Midwest,” Crew said. “Our knowledge. Our team. Our experience. That is what differentiates us.”

“Investors are looking for competent management and good valuation,” he added. “That is what we see. And I think that in the Midwest, disproportionately, there is great value. We need to cultivate that and make it pay off not just for our community but our investors as well.”