Jonathan Schwartz seeks to parent some health IT startups
Social policy aside, I suspect they are talking here of leaving something behind, something you can identify as yourself. Helping the future, in other words.
Jonathan Schwartz can grok that. The former Sun CEO doesn't want to go down in history as Scott McNealy's catspaw, or as Larry Ellison's biggest victim. He wants some progress with his name on it.
So he's going into health IT.
After somehow obtaining the URL Pictureofhealth.com, he sent out a vague blog post, noting that his business partner is a former Microsoft executive, Walter Smith, whose own web design shop is called Jackson Fish Market.
Smith's recent work involves stuff for kids, and that might be a good place to start. Apps tied to EMRs that let kids compete to achieve health-related goals, like tracking exercise, is something no one has done yet.
It's probably too late for Schwartz to go after that sweet, sweet stimulus cash, but that also means he can target a global market, not just the U.S. Something that runs on older, slower cellular connections could have an immense market in Africa and Latin America.
Schwartz says he's looking to hire some people, but it seems from what he's writing that he really wants some good ideas to focus on, focused on global public health, with the Internet stripped down to its role as a transport mechanism.
Can I suggest a visit to the Gates Foundation?