Team

Marcus Whitney is a Founding Partner of Jumpstart Health Investors (JHI), America’s most active early-stage healthcare venture capital firm. Marcus founded Jumpstart Nova, JHI’s institutional, strategic seed fund.

Marcus is also co-founder and minority owner of Major League Soccer team, Nashville Soccer Club.

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

Marcus is an Aspen Health Innovators Fellow, and a member of the board of the Healthcare Finance Management Association, Celtic Bank, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation, OZ Arts, and Scott Hamilton CARES.

Kathryne Cooper, MBA is a native Angeleno passionate about growing and funding early stage companies and creating a diverse ecosystem to support entrepreneurs.

As General Partner, Kathryne brings to Jumpstart Nova a history of operationalizing change and making astute early stage investments in the healthcare arena. Kathryne prioritizes healthcare efficacy and business outcomes and knows how to integrate them into the investment landscape.

She founded HealthTechDEI to deliver more inclusive investment strategies and solutions that optimize financial performance and capitalize on the wealth in diversity, and authored the influential report Underinvested: Strategies for Supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Health Care Venture Investment for the California Health Care Foundation. Kathryne is an Investment Advisor, Emeritus at The Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP) where from 2017-2021 she managed their $6.6M FDA-backed seed fund that invested in 150+ medical technology companies as Co-Director. Kathryne’s personal and professional journey as a Black female entrepreneur is featured in the award winning case study Kathryne Cooper and CTIP: Accelerating Diversity in Medtech, which illustrates how she transformed the accelerator’s portfolio.

Kathryne holds a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University, an MBA from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business and a Certificate in Venture Capital Finance from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. She began her career in medicine, attending medical school at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine before transitioning to the business side of healthcare. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Bertran F. Cooper, M.D. Scholarship Fund via the Howard University College of Medicine; the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Venture [Capital] Association; the Board of Directors of Plug in Ventures and formerly the Advisory Board of WiSTEM LA, a Women in Science, Technology, Engineering & Math [STEM] initiative, via the Office of the Los Angeles Mayor; in addition to serving on the boards of portfolio companies.

Kathryne nerds out connecting innovative people, products, and ideas.