Team

We’re investors, founders, engineers, marketers and researchers with one common goal – to MAKE SOMETHING BETTER® in health

Meet Our People

Doug Edwards

CEO, Jumpstart Health Investors

Jennifer Brown

Director of Business Administration, Jumpstart Health Investors

Krystin DeVita

Director of Program Management, Jumpstart Insight

Shannon Emley

Senior Director of Finance & Accounting, Jumpstart Health Investors

Kaylyn Viertel

Marketing Director, Jumpstart Health Investors

Randy Shoemaker

Operations Manager, Jumpstart Health Investors

Courteney Real

Senior Associate, JHI

Drew Pilat

Associate, Jumpstart Foundry

Jessica Goodwin

Program Coordinator, Jumpstart Insight

Meet Our Partners & Advisors

Vic Gatto

Founder & Managing Partner, Jumpstart Capital

Vic co-founded Jumpstart Foundry in 2014 to create a new type of healthcare investment platform. Vic has been an investor in healthcare and technology since 2001 and has made over 200 investments in early-stage innovation companies in the areas of healthcare services, medical devices, diagnostic tools, technology, and data analytics. He has a MBA from Vanderbilt University and a BA from Amherst College and currently lives in Nashville with his wife and two sons.

Marcus Whitney

Founder & Managing Partner, Jumpstart Nova

Marcus is a self-taught software developer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist with a track record of success in all areas.

Prior to co-founding Jumpstart Health Investors, he was the Director of Technology and Partner at Emma Email Marketing, acquired by Campaign Monitor, and Co-Founder at Clariture Health, a HIPAA compliant digital ad management platform, acquired by Trilliant Health.

Marcus is the founder and General Partner of Jumpstart Nova, the first Black healthcare venture fund in America, launched in 2020 to make seed and Series A investments in promising Black-led healthcare companies. Marcus was the founder and CEO of the Health:Further conference, which operated from 2015-2018, adding thousands of leaders in health innovation from around the country to Jumpstart Health Investors’ network. As Founding Partner of Jumpstart Health Investors, Marcus was the initial architect of the algorithm used to score over one thousand early-stage healthcare companies for consideration by Jumpstart Foundry, the firm’s pre-seed index fund.

Marcus has made his mark on the city of Nashville through a variety of avenues. Marcus brought professional soccer to the city as co-founder and minority owner of Major League Soccer team, Nashville Soccer Club. Marcus is also a member of the board of the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation, and Launch Tennessee.

Marcus is the author of the Amazon #1 best-selling book “Create and Orchestrate”, about claiming your Creative Power through entrepreneurship. Marcus has been featured by Entrepreneur, CNBC, Inc., NPR, Fast Company, and The Atlantic.

Our Philosophy

We believe in leveraging a systematic approach to successfully empower founders to launch scale and monetize impactful innovations

Repeatable. Proven. Effective.

Jennifer Brown

Director of Business Administration

Shannon Emley

Senior Director of Finance & Accounting

Doug Edwards

CEO, Jumpstart Health Investors

As CEO of Jumpstart Health Investors (JHI), Doug oversees the JHI business as well as Jumpstart Foundry. Doug has been a business executive, entrepreneur, investor, and college professor with a great track record of success. He has a MBA from Vanderbilt University and a BA from the University of Iowa, and currently lives in Franklin, TN with his wife, Holly, and two sons, Sam and Ben.

Hope Helmintoller

Content Marketing Manager, Jumpstart Health Investors

Hope enjoys crafting the communications initiatives for Jumpstart Foundry. Her main focuses include email marketing, graphic design, and social media. Hope grew up in Middle Tennessee and graduated from Austin Peay State University in 2020 with a B.S. in Professional Communication.

Drew Pilat

Associate, Jumpstart Foundry

Drew is an Associate at Jumpstart Foundry. Previously, Drew founded Wellnest, a venture-backed mental health app that uses game design, guided content, and voice journaling to combat mental health stigma and encourage students to prioritize their well-being. Drew graduated from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in 2020 and currently lives in Michigan.

Randy Shoemaker

Operations Manager, Jumpstart Health Investors

Randy plays an essential role in supporting the development of Fund Administration and Fund Management here at JHI. Randy thrives on being customer focused while building processes that maximize efficiency and scalability for our business. Randy has a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Bentley University in Waltham, MA. With more than 10 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Randy has led various teams in a leadership capacity within Portfolio Management at State Street Bank, Finance at Parallon Technology Solutions, and Finance Information Technology at Wellpath, LLC.

Jessica Goodwin

Program Coordinator, Jumpstart Insight

Jessica Goodwin has joined JHI as Program Coordinator supporting Insight. Jessica was born in Nashville, grew up outside of DC in northern Virginia, but was called back to Music City to attend Lipscomb University. She earned her BA in Business Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. Currently, Jessica is finishing her MBA and will graduate this December. Prior to JHI, she spent time working as a Project Management Assistant at HCA in its IT department. Jessica is excited to get to know founders, their businesses, and help them throughout the Insight program.

Kaylyn Viertel

Marketing Director, Jumpstart Health Investors

Kaylyn serves as the marketing leader for the firm. She oversees JHI’s marketing team and heads content and campaign initiatives across the family of funds including branding, PR, social media, and comms. She works with key stakeholders to develop and execute initiatives that contribute to Jumpstart’s firm-wide success. Originally from Orange County, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing from Cal State University, San Marcos in 2017.

Krystin DeVita

Director of Program Management, Jumpstart Insight

Krystin is the bridge between the Jumpstart Foundry community and Jumpstart Insight. She oversees the strategic direction of Insight’s product features, programming, community events, and program partnerships. Originally from New Jersey, she earned her B.A in Communications at Stockton University in 2010 and made her way to Los Angeles, CA after college before landing in Nashville, TN in 2020.

Haley “Zap” Zapolski

Managing Director, Jumpstart Foundry

Haley “Zap” Zapolski is the Managing Director of Jumpstart Foundry. In her role, she primarily focuses on fundraising and working with investors. Over the course of her business career, Haley has been dedicated to supporting innovation! She served as Manager of Employer Engagement at Nashville Software School, connecting employers to their software development and data talent. Prior to that, she managed Renew Nashville, a Covid recovery program for 500+ small business through Metro Nashville and the Nashville Entrepreneur Center.

She has a passion for supporting startups in Middle Tennessee and is the founder and community organizer of NashTech, a grassroots community on a mission to build the startup ecosystem in Nashville. NashTech hosts educational and networking events for founders and investors.

Zap lives in Bordeaux and is actively involved with her neighborhood, serving on the Participatory Budgeting Committee for North Nashville/Bordeaux. She is a board member at Mending Hearts, a non-profit that provides long-term treatment for women restoring their lives from addiction, and works to develop affordable housing projects for the organization. She has her BA in Economics from the University of Michigan where she was a D1 athlete for 4 years on the crew team. Outside of work, you can find her lifting weights, throwing dinner parties, reading, hiking, and trying Nashville’s latest restaurants and cocktail bars.

Team

Meet Our People

Doug Edwards

Jennifer Brown

Krystin DeVita

Shannon Emley

Kaylyn Viertel

Randy Shoemaker

Courteney Real

Drew Pilat

Jessica Goodwin

Meet Our Partners & Advisors

Vic Gatto

Founder & Managing Partner, Jumpstart Capital

Marcus Whitney

Founder & Managing Partner, Jumpstart Nova

Our Philosophy

Jumpstart Foundry

Resources

Jumpstart Health Ecosystem