What Happened to Early-Stage Capital?

Heath Naquin oversees all Science Center entrepreneurial support activities including commercialization programs and capital deployment. He is active in the investment space as an accredited investor, a participant in the Angel Capital Association, as well as other TBED organizations.

He has been a part of large scale national and international technology transfer, commercialization, and fund creation efforts for nearly 20 years. Recent work includes serving on the NIH RADx Initiative on the External Commercial Partnerships team. Heath served as Executive Director in the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Texas at Austin, managing the National Science Foundation SW I-Corps Node at The University of Texas at Austin as well as a managing the Next Generation PV NSF IUCRC.

Joanna Nathan is an investor turned entrepreneur on a mission to improve outcomes for lung cancer patients as the CEO of Prana Thoracic. Prana's technology is the first minimally invasive medical device to enable early intervention in lung cancer.

Prior to this role, Joanna was New Ventures Manager at the J&J Center for Device Innovation, Venture Fellow at Mercury Fund, as well as Director of Product Development at Saranas. These experiences taught her what it takes to bring innovative technologies from idea to reality.

Joanna is invested in growing Houston’s life science community. She has mentored countless founders, students, and aspiring entrepreneurs, as co-founder of Enventure. Joanna earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Bioengineering, as well as her MBA at Rice University.
 

Juliana Garaizer is a Board Member of the Angel Capital Association, a Lead Investor of the Portfolia Rising America Fund, Consumer Fund and Rising Tide Fund and the Launch Director for Greentown Labs Houston.  Juliana is the President of the Business Angel Minority Association and an Advisory Board Member of the Cougar Venture Fund and the Houston Diversity Fund.  Julia was the Director of the Texas Medical Center Venture Fund and the Managing Director of the Houston Angel Network.

Juliana is also a Kauffman Fellow in Class 20, a prestigious two-year, Silicon Valley-based leadership program for venture capitalists. More than 470 Kauffman Fellows have collectively deployed nearly $200B in capital and created more than 750,000 jobs worldwide.

Jessica Karr is passionate about innovation that drives positive change in human health, equality, and our relationship to the earth. She worked for 6+ years designing and launching the Impossible burger as the 12th employee. Moreover, Jessica has advised and consulted over a dozen companies internationally on product strategies. Jessica is an angel investor, LP, Venture Partner at Republic, and formerly worked as Principal at a celebrity’s venture fund. She launched Coyote Ventures in 2021 to address the $1T opportunity in women’s health and wellness that has been historically marginalized. She can often be found swimming in the SF Bay and walking her Pom rescue.