Panelists

Natasha DeLong

Venture Capital Portfolio Manager at Rex Health Ventures

Natasha is a Healthcare VC investor and Portfolio Manager at Rex Health Ventures (RHV), an innovative venture firm established by UNC REX in 2012 to accelerate access to new healthcare products and improve patient care. She works closely with RHV-supported entrepreneurs to achieve their goals while advancing health and patient care. Previously, Natasha was part of UNC Health’s Strategic Planning team. She is also a Volunteer and Pet Foster Parent with the Animal Protection Society of Durham. Natasha earned her BS in Business Administration from NC State's Poole College of Management and is currently pursuing her MBA at Duke's Fuqua School of Business.

Daniel Estay

Founder & CEO at SonoVascular

Dan brings over 30 years of healthcare leadership to his role as Founder & CEO of SonoVascular, an early-stage company developing a multi-mechanism thrombectomy system for the endovascular treatment of arterial and venous diseases. He is also on the board of Transverse Medical and serves as a Mentor-inresidence with Duke Health Ventures. Previously, Dan held senior leadership positions at Abbott and Johnson & Johnson and was a partner with OneMedTech Advisors and President of Verathon. Dan received his BS in Business Administration from Syracuse University and his MBA from the University of Miami Herbert Business School.

Nikin Shah

Founder/General Partner at Front Porch Venture Partners and co-CEO at Polyzen

Nikin is a General Partner & Founder of Front Porch Ventures, a hybrid venture fund focused on investing in startups and venture funds across the Southeast. Nikin leads Front Porch's healthcare-focused fund and direct investments. As coCEO at Polyzen, he scaled their medical device contract development and manufacturing platform and recently led the full sale of the business to Solesis. Nikin began his career at Deloitte and previously worked at Medtronic, where he supported strategic investments and acquisitions. Nikin was names "40 Under 40" by the Triangle Business Journal in 2020. He holds a BS from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MBA from Duke (Fuqua).