Maximilian Winter: scientific breakthroughs to enhance quality of life
This week, the TTI Interview Series covers our member Maximilian Winter. Maximilian is the founder of Harmonix, the private investment fund with 35+ early-stage companies, and an LP in 2 funds. He's a 4th generation entrepreneur from a Top 500 German family business. His personal mission (Ikigai) is to advance healthcare and life sciences, stemming from his first-hand experience with an autoimmune disease.
In this interview, Maximilian talks about investing in healthcare, life sciences and deep technology, along with the unsustainability of exorbitant costs and how they have become a barrier between patients and best treatment options. He also elaborates on his role as an investor and his long-term vision on ultimately improving human quality of life.
Working to cure diseases and enhance quality of life
Maximilian, what can you tell us about your work and how it intersects with the impact space?
We research, invest, and accelerate companies that are solving some of the world's biggest problems in healthcare, life sciences, and deep technology in order to improve the human condition. Our companies are working on cures for more than 50+ diseases, dramatically enhancing patient quality of life and outcomes, automating clinical and research workflows, improving food and critical infrastructure security, and ultimately ushering the next generation of scientific breakthroughs to improve humanity and society at large.
The ability to improve quality of life standards
How do you define Impact?
My definition of impact pertains to the ability to improve the current standards of human quality of life and positively advance our society utilizing science to drive the next generation of innovation.
Utilizing computational data-driven approaches and automation will be the key
Tell us about some of the biggest challenges in providing better solutions within the impact space?
Our fund has dedicated itself to finding companies that solve key bottlenecks within the healthcare, life sciences, and deep technology sectors. Within our investment verticals, one key hindrance is the lack of automation and redundant processes in clinical and scientific research workflows, which ultimately leads to systematic inefficiencies in accelerating novel cures for disease to market or treating patients. These inefficiencies result in negative impacts spanning the high cost of treatments to avoidable medical errors that plague our healthcare system. Our fund believes that utilizing computational data-driven approaches and automation will be key in accelerating critical processes to ultimately reduce the cost of research and development and optimize workflows to create value for all stakeholders, including patients, scientists, researchers, and society in general.
The exorbitant costs of treatment and care are unsustainable
What is the issue that needs to be addressed over the next 10 years and that you find crucial?
One pertinent issue that we believe needs to be resolved centers around that of reducing barriers to entry for healthcare access and delivery for patients. The exorbitant costs of treatment and care are unsustainable both on a systematic and patient level, and functionally preclude individuals from receiving the best treatment options available. Optimizing scientific R&D and healthcare enterprise workflows can ultimately reduce the burden of disease and associated cost structures in order to democratize access to the best treatments and care available.
Venture capital funds can make a genuine difference
Can you tell us about the long-term vision you have for your work, and how you measure & quantify impact?
The long-term vision of the fund is to be one of the driving forces behind the next generation of scientific breakthroughs that will ultimately improve human quality of life. We seek to prove that VC funds can make a genuine difference in the world while providing strong returns for investors.
Investors often forget impact is associated with healthcare
What are some of the misconceptions you’ve noticed regarding what “impact” is all about?
Impact is commonly associated with environmental or social good, but often time investors forget that impact is innately associated with healthcare and life sciences whether it be discovering novel therapeutics to treat pertinent diseases such as cancer or improving patient outcomes by utilizing artificial intelligence to reduce medical errors. Thus the “impact” element uniquely positions healthcare and life sciences with the opportunity to realize strong positive financial returns.
