Leveraging leading-edge technologies to influence healthcare decisions

December 2017 until Present

An early stage investment and growth accelerator based in Orange County, Brian co-founded Profound Ventures with several partners to create and fund for-profit businesses and non-profit organizations using innovative technology, supporting growth, providing management support, and attracting partners. Portfolio companies include:

• Ascellus to help support the millions of injured workers with mental health coping skills;
• FlintRehab to help support patients with at-home rehabilitation suffering from many conditions, including stroke
• Tasso to revolutionize patient self-collection of biological and data specimens to expand access to life-saving diagnostic tests across the globe
• Neuraura Biotech to dramatically change access and precision in neuromodulation, neurostimulation, and brain mapping
• Monj to engage award-winning chefs and a technology platform to provide better care for people with chronic conditions influenced by diet and eating behaviors

January 2020 until Present

Working with mission-driven executives to utilize technology to improve healthcare and life sciences, the Stratyss team helps team turn their companies into "rocketships" of growth by gaining access to capital, commercialization, and clinical development efforts. 

Clients have included:

• The IMCS Group (now Ascellus)
• Revnostics
• Amada Home Care
• Flint Rehab
• Tasso
• Neuraura Biotech
• Monj Health
• BlueStar Senior Tech
• Fruit Street Health

December 2009 -  August 2017

Previously, Brian was the founder and CEO of Proove Biosciences, a molecular diagnostic company focused on chronic pain. The company transferred technology from UNC Chapel Hill, the University of Utah, McGill University, and developed its own products. By the end of 2016, the company employed over 270 employees across the nation, achieved over $28 million in cash-collected revenue, achieved profitability in all but one year of its 5 years of commercial activity, and had tested over 200,000 patients. 

With awards from numerous medical societies for its research, over 100 scientific posters accepted and presented at major medical society meetings, and 10 papers accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals, Proove was looking forward to a 2017 whereby major medical societies would include its technology into guidelines as a standard of care, the C-level executives of CMS in Baltimore had supported creating a national coverage determination to provide payment for all of its profiles, and the company would file an S-1 to go public. Proove was one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America, selected to be on the Inc. 500 (#373) in 2016 and #724) in 2017, as well as the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 (#69) in 2016. Out of 28 million businesses in the United States, Proove was in the top 100th of 1%.

However, a handful of disgruntled, fired employees failed to get the government to accept their weak, whistleblower lawsuit filed back in 2015 so they went to an online reporter for STAT News who was willing to maliciously ignore the primary sources, recklessly disregard the evidence and circulate fraudulent documents to experts to gain misinformed quotes, and support these disgruntled employees’ desire for revenge. These horrible accusations resulted in a governmental inquiry, including an OIG subpoena delivered by the FBI in June 2017 – very similar to OIG subpoenas delivered to many other genetic testing companies. Over the past two years, many genetic testing companies have been served OIG subpoenas by the FBI to investigate business practices, such as Myriad Genetics (MYGN), Invitae (NVTA), Natera (NTRA), Pathway Genomics, Genomic Health (GHDX) and others. Unlike Proove, all of these companies paid hefty fines. The government didn’t find any wrongdoing in Proove’s Medicare billing or other business practices deserving of a fine or charge. In 2020, a former sales distributor plead guilty to wrongdoing and then in 2021, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of California obtained an indictment against four leading doctors from National Spine & Pain Centers, a large client of Proove, as well as four employees from Proove, including Brian. In a unified defense, Brian and the other 8 defendants stood on principle, told the truth, and had the facts on their side.  After challenging the indictment that lacked any credible evidence, the prosecution's exhibits that lacked any evidence of wrongdoing, and the government's behavior involving prosecurtoail misconduct in a bunch of different ways, the Department of Justice submitted a motion to dismiss all charges "in the interests of justice." The following day the U.S. District Court ordered the dismissal at the end of December 2021. 

What was once considered a strength of the company – the fact that it was “built the old-fashioned way” not relying upon outside capital to start and grow, became a weakness in 2017. Back in 2009 through 2013, Brian started Proove growing the business from its humble beginnings in the midst of the Great Recession in 2009. Since Proove was not heavily financed by outside investors, it didn’t have a “safety net” to withstand a 90% downturn in revenue in less than 90 days which occurred in mid-2017. As a result, the Board of the company agreed to put the company into a Receivership, and despite Brian’s objections, the Receiver ultimately liquidated the assets and shut down the operations at the end of 2017. 

Now that Brian's name has been cleared, his reputation restored, and Proove's business practices vindicated, Brian is currently prayefully evaluating the next steps.