Mark Rausch

Dr. Mark Rausch is a Richmond, Virginia-based physician, entrepreneur, operator, advisor, and investor. He earned his medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School in 1997, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, and completed an emergency medicine residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Education program from 1997 to 2000. He is board-certified in emergency medicine and has practiced as an emergency physician for more than two decades.

Rausch co-founded BetterMed Urgent Care and served as its CEO and Medical Director. Blue Heron Capital states that he helped grow BetterMed from inception to eight clinics within six years, adding operational systems including EHR integrations, card-on-file billing, telemedicine, and an in-house high-complexity PCR lab; the company reached about 200,000 annual patient visits. During COVID-19, he was quoted as BetterMed’s co-founder explaining the company’s rapid rollout of curbside testing sites in Central Virginia.

He also co-founded SecureHealth, a mobile testing company serving government agencies, universities, film productions, and essential businesses during the pandemic, and co-founded and serves on the board of Skin Surgery Center of Virginia / Elevate Dermatology-related operations. Blue Heron credits him with helping navigate legislative approval, accreditation, and construction of an ambulatory surgery center and with leading the acquisition of a six-physician dermatology practice.

Alongside Trolley Ventures, Rausch is Managing Director of Business Development at Merritt Healthcare Advisors, where he helps healthcare services owners evaluate strategic options including partnerships, acquisitions, funding opportunities, and sales. In October 2025, Perfusion Medical announced that Rausch joined its board of directors and described him as both a Merritt Healthcare Advisors managing director and a managing director of Virginia-based venture capital firm Trolley Ventures.

• Trolley Ventures’ stated focus is “Providing Capital to Central Virginia's Most Promising Early-Stage Companies,” and its firm profile on LinkedIn describes it as providing “Seed-stage funding for startups with a meaningful presence in central Virginia.”
• The firm’s motivation is regional capital formation: Trolley says Central Virginia startups often seek funding out of state and that it offers startups “a single relationship and a streamlined application process.”
• Rausch’s individual focus is most clearly healthcare-led. Blue Heron states that he is an “active early seed investor” in Healthcare IT, specialty practices, outpatient care, MedTech, and life sciences.
• Signal ranks him in BioTech Seed, Consumer Health Seed, Health IT Seed, and Health & Hospital Services Seed categories, with a reported investment range of $100K-$5.0M and $1.5M sweet spot.
• His operator lens appears central: he brings direct experience building healthcare delivery businesses across urgent care, ambulatory surgery, diagnostics, mobile testing, telemedicine, and healthcare M&A.