Oncology Ventures: Announcing Strategic Collaboration with Texas Oncology + Investment in CancerNavigator + Tipping Culture Comedy
Oncology Ventures & Texas Oncology are Scaling Oncology Innovation
Texas Oncology is the largest physician-led oncology network in America. They operate more than 300 care locations across Texas and beyond, caring for 71,000 new cancer patients each year. Their scale is unmatched in community oncology.
Why this strategic collaboration matters:
The gap between oncology breakthroughs and oncology delivery has never been wider. Billions of dollars pour into new therapeutics. Thousands of clinical trials launch annually. AI promises to transform diagnosis and treatment planning.
And yet, 42% of cancer patients still exhaust their life savings paying for care. Care coordination remains fragmented. Clinicians spend more time navigating administrative burden than treating their patients.
The issue isn’t a lack of innovation or data. It’s that most innovation never reaches the 85% of cancer patients treated in community settings, where care is delivered every day.
This is a huge step towards closing that gap - embedding cancer start-ups directly in the delivery layer of care.
For Oncology Ventures’ portfolio companies, Texas Oncology brings the opportunity for real-world validation from day one, built alongside leading clinicians and shaped by the operational realities of community oncology.
Together, we’re creating a repeatable path from idea to impact, ensuring technological progress reaches patients at scale.
Oncology Ventures is proud to announce this joint initiative with Texas Oncology and even more excited about what this collaboration makes possible.
Oncology Ventures Invests in CancerNavigator
The most important decision in a cancer journey often happens immediately: where a patient gets seen first. That decision shapes outcomes, experience and cost for years. Yet, for all the sophistication in oncology therapeutics, that routing decision is still largely left to chance, local referral patterns, or whoever answers the phone first.
CancerNavigator is the first company we’ve seen that treats this problem with the level of rigor cancer care demands. Determining the right expert for each unique cancer scenario requires a depth of clinical, geographic and provider-level insight that has historically been unavailable, even to plans with robust care management infrastructure.
CancerNavigator built a platform that combines real-time claims detection, a proprietary evidence-based research engine mapping 200,000+ cancer-specific scenarios, and a national provider suitability database with high-touch oncology nursing.
The Company is creating the operating system for oncology routing. This leads to proactive navigation that delivers education and guidance before patients are locked into suboptimal paths.
As we have covered, cancer is now the top priority for self-funded health plans – it is the #1 cost and the #1 cause of death for commercially insured Americans. CancerNavigator is addressing these challenges head on – the company has established strong leadership in the Taft-Hartley (union health plan) market and has recent wins across employer and public sector groups.
One million Americans now have access to CancerNavigator at no cost through their plan.
At Oncology Ventures, we spend a lot of time thinking about where infrastructure actually changes outcomes. We are excited to partner with Adam Bradley and Spencer Bradley (co-founders and brothers) and the team at CancerNavigator as they build what could become the default routing layer for cancer care, with the clinical depth, data assets and operational precision that cancer care deserves.
Comedy!
Let’s get into tipping culture. Talk about something that lost the plot. There used to be tipping. Now, there’s pressure.
Every time you tap your card somewhere a screen flips around like it’s hosting a tribunal. “Before you leave… let’s talk about who you are as a person.”
I was just in a self-serve frozen yogurt place. Their whole business model is “you do it.” Tip options still popped up.
I don’t know what’s worse - when the person turning the screen stares directly at me while I choose my option or when they do the dramatic head tilt away, to “give you some privacy,” which is kind of like a physician turning their head during a prostate exam.
20% used to be for great service. Now it’s the far left button - like they are saying, yeah this is technically still allowed, but is this the type of person you want to be remembered as?
There’s no easy way out. If you want to leave without giving a tip, you have to answer six riddles. And someone’s always standing behind you in line, watching. The buttons are like 72-point font. Everyone can see. It’s designed for public shaming.
The fees are stacking up. There’s now a service charge and a living wage fee. So I have to pay you and pay for the fact that you don’t pay them? That feels like I’m doing someone else’s homework. I’d rather you raise the prices than make me your HR department.
Delivery apps are the final boss of tipping. Service fees, convenience fees - it adds up. It’s like a Russian nesting doll of guilt. I ordered a $12 burger the other day. By the time I checked out, I’d funded someone’s student loans.
I don’t like this whole tip when you order experience - the service hasn’t happened yet. That’s not a tip, that’s a hostage negotiation. “Tip well and maybe your food arrives warm.” I’m not anti-tipping. I just miss when it was a reward, not a plea deal.
Asks
We are heading to India for a diligence trip. Is there one person we should meet while we are there? Any restaurant / activity recommendations are also welcome.
We have a few portfolio companies hiring 1) head of sales, 2) head of finance, 3) chief of staff. If you are interested in learning more about these roles (or know someone who may be a fit), please reach out.