Brent VaughanFounder

United States - Portola Valley, California

As a leader and builder of innovative healthcare companies like Cognito Therapeutics, Cognoa, and WellnessFx as well as being a part of the healthcare venture investment team at Morningside, I have worked with teams to build therapeutic and device companies that develop novel medicines or Digital Therapeutics (DTx) to address unmet medical needs. I am most interested in companies who I feel can leverage novel approaches to address unmet medical needs and underserved patient populations.

Previously, I was CEO & co-founder of Cognoa, Inc., an AI/ML based behavioral health company that we built into a leader in the DTx and Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) space. At Cognoa, we were awarded FDA Breakthrough Designations for two DTx products and successfully completed multiple multi-clinic and decentralized clinical studies for the company's 2 lead products - the first SaMD products developed to be FDA cleared and intended for routine use by pediatricians to diagnose and treat autism.

Prior to Cognoa, I was fortunate enough to co-found and help lead WellnessFx, a first generation digital/tele-health company where we built a HIPAA compliant national platform for direct-to-consumer diagnostics and telemedicine.

I enjoy building and leading high performance teams to successfully bring disruptive new products to market that can meaningfully change people's lives. I have experience developing and implementing innovative business models, paths to FDA approval/clearance and commercialization for novel healthcare products, strategies and deal structures to enable development and commercialization of new technologies in the healthcare and biotechnology sectors. I have enjoyed working across multiple therapeutic areas including: behavioral health, personalized medicine, cognition, cardiovascular disease, lipid metabolism, metabolic disease, fibrotic diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and oncology.

I have over 20 years’ experience in leading product vision, business strategy, business development and marketing with large and small companies and have completed transactions in venture funding, M&A, licensing, and co-development partnerships with leading research institutions, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Specialties: Operational execution, healthcare technology, product vision & strategy, building high performance teams, business development, corporate strategy, licensing, and fundraising for innovative platform technologies leveraging biotechnology and medical science.