 This month’s four-minute FirstMile Founder interview features Ian Koons, co-founder and CEO of Karoo Health, a FirstMile Ventures portfolio company since 2020. Ian’s career spans healthcare, finance, and media—he played college tennis, worked in post-game broadcasting for ESPN Radio, and since has become a seasoned entrepreneur and healthcare executive with a proven track record in leading high-growth companies. He previously held leadership roles at Advantia Health and Ovation Fertility, focusing on provider partnerships and expansion. Driven by the loss of a close friend to heart disease, Ian founded Karoo Health to enable the transition from Volume to Value-Based Care at the intersection of technology and wrap-around services.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a sports agent. I always played sports growing up, played in college, and then worked in them after school. I played tennis in college. After school, I worked for ESPN Radio. I did all the post-game shows for the now Commanders. Seeing the business side of sports, you learn how long it takes to move up in the world. When you are a young, competitive person, that is not the ideal path to grow. Was starting Karoo an "aha moment" or a "gradual realization"? Some combination of the two. I led growth and M&A for successful women's health companies. I also always wanted to found my own company. But it wasn't until my best friend had a heart attack and died in 2014 that I felt the push to start something. I knew I wanted to prevent it from happening to others. I knew the prevalence of heart disease and the capabilities of tech to create pathways to prevention for loved ones. If you could go back to when you first started Karoo and tell yourself something, what would it be? The mistakes I have made are over-indexing on pedigrees and logos when hiring. It is a key miss on my part, thinking stints at hot name companies directly confers to execution and skills. A couple times we were blinded by names on a resume and made the false assumption that those will translate to capabilities. What is the best constructive feedback you have gotten, and how bad did it hurt first hearing it? Sometimes, I get a tad too excited during discussions. I have heard from past managers that perhaps I should "shut up and listen" before speaking and jumping in with my ideas or opinions.I am working on letting other people in the room finish their thoughts before I share mine. Why is New Mexico a great place to start a company? New Mexico is a good place to start a company because the ecosystem here is just starting to take off. There are lots of local resources for founders that want your business to succeed - from startup funding to help with talent, and from access to local government leaders to intros to potential customers. The State of New Mexico is actively working hard to attract talent and capital to the ecosystem. Fast-pitch questions:
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