As readers of this blog are already well aware, QDS Capital believes first and foremost in supporting great founders and entrepreneurs, and that the way to do that is to surround them with experienced executives with a range of operational expertise. With that in mind, we are excited to share the budding relationship between Luminoah and QDS Capital Operational Partner Marty Weiner.
Neal Piper is an entrepreneur committed to advancing healthcare technology and improving communities globally. He began his career at Pfizer in their Neuroscience Division and went on to a career in global health through Pfizer’s Global Health Fellows Program, an international corporate social responsibility program that strengthens basic healthcare delivery and infrastructure worldwide. He was appointed President of the Global Health Fellows Alumni Business Network, bringing together 300 Pfizer leaders from research, supply chain, sales, and market analytics to share their expertise with partner organizations. Neal later worked for Population Services International (PSI), expanding its sales and distribution program to improve the quality of healthcare services in 18 countries across Africa and Asia. In 2013, Neal moved to Charlottesville to help launch the Presidential Precinct, a non-profit investing in leaders that are leading government, startups, and civic organizations, impacting the lives of millions of citizens.
Neal is the founder and CEO of Luminoah, an exciting medical device company bringing an innovative enteral nutrition delivery system to those patients who need it — a company born out of the experience that Neal had with his son. During QDS Launch week, we introduced Neal to Marty Weiner, the founding architect of Pinterest and first CTO of Reddit, and QDS Capital Operational Partner. The two began discussing the challenges that Neal was facing in the development of Luminoah’s software platform, something right in Marty’s wheelhouse. Marty was immediately drawn to the idea of bringing hardware and software together to improve patient lives.
Fast forward to just a few short weeks later, Marty has engaged as an Advisor to Luminoah as Neal builds out his software platform and engineering team and will work hand in hand with Neal to build and streamline the development process and to accelerate Luminoah’s engineering efforts and build scale. Congratulations to Luminoah, and we will be excited to watch the team and the product development evolve.
