Philip Sanger

Philip Sanger, MD is a physician-turned-investor who spent more than 25 years as a pulmonary and critical care specialist before becoming a full-time healthcare entrepreneur and investor. In the early 1980s he served as Chief of Pulmonary Medicine at the Texas Tech University School of Medicine in Lubbock, Texas. Over the following years he built and exited a series of healthcare businesses: he founded and sold a home-health durable medical equipment company, launched and grew a profitable Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) to more than 50,000 subscribers, and developed a 54,000-square-foot multi-specialty surgical center, imaging facility, and laboratory that was ultimately acquired by a publicly traded company.

In the mid-1990s, Sanger founded Intercede Health, growing it from a three-person hospitalist company into a comprehensive medical-management organization that impacted care for more than one million patients. He was also one of the original founders, an initial investor, board member, and chief institutional medical officer of HealthSpring, a Medicare Advantage health plan that went public through a successful IPO in 2006 — the "publicly traded Medicare-Advantage Health Plan" referenced in his firm bio.

Today Sanger is Managing Partner of TEXO Ventures, the Austin-based healthcare venture firm he co-leads with fellow Managing Partner Jerry DeVries (with Randall Crowder as an adviser). Founded in 2009, TEXO takes its name from the Latin for "to build with great care" and applies more than 60 years of combined operating experience through an active, hands-on investing model rather than passive capital deployment. Sanger has served on the boards of multiple TEXO portfolio companies, including Televero Health (where he has also served as CEO), Intercede Health, Wenzel Spine, Precedent Health, and Employer Direct.

• Invests in the "business" of healthcare, not the "science" — companies at the convergence of Health IT and health services that use recurring-revenue models, are highly scalable, require less capital to commercialize, and face fewer regulatory hurdles.
• Seeks solutions that "decrease utilization, increase access, improve quality and reduce the cost of care."
• Sanger personally focuses on Managed Care & Benefit Design and Technology-Enabled Health Services, reflecting his operating background in Medicare Advantage, PPOs, and medical management.
• Prioritizes the entrepreneur — TEXO states it invests in innovative healthcare companies "but more importantly they invest in passionate entrepreneurs."
• Prefers capital-efficient businesses with sustainable revenue; targets early-stage companies at roughly $3–10M pre-money (up to $20M).
• Will consider medical devices & diagnostics only when uniquely differentiated with a clear (e.g., 510(k)-style) regulatory path.