S8 E5 - Dr. Dinakar Golla | A Plastic Surgeon's Take on Investing

In this episode of Real Returns, hosts Andrew Reichert and Dan Croce sit down with Dr. Dinakar Golla, a Pittsburgh-based plastic surgeon, entrepreneur, and venture investor. Dinakar shares how a pivotal mentor in medical school redirected his career, how he transitioned from practicing medicine to building a diversified investment portfolio, and why he believes aligning incentives is the key to fixing American healthcare.

Timestamps: 00:00 Opening segment 00:40 Welcome back; NFL Draft in Pittsburgh 00:57 Meet Dr. Dinakar Golla 01:48 Growing up in Pittsburgh 02:22 The plan to become a cardiac surgeon 03:36 A mentor changes everything 04:32 His mentor passes two days after matching 05:11 Mentorship reflections from Andrew and Dan 06:52 Leaving the university to build his own practice 08:33 The thrill of building from scratch 09:25 Transition from success to significance 10:04 Getting into alternative investing 11:38 Investment philosophy and LP lessons 13:38 Healthcare technology and the impact opportunity 14:13 America's most expensive healthcare system 14:45 Rewarding outcomes, not usage 16:11 Patients must own their care 17:05 Andrew's cancer story; misaligned incentives 17:46 The dialysis example 19:21 Next five years; venture and legacy 20:48 Launching a Pittsburgh healthcare venture fund 21:34 Involving his kids in investing 22:09 Dan and Andrew's closing takeaways 23:21 Where to connect with Dr. Golla 23:37 Outro

"I think the key to [fixing healthcare] is that it has to be value-based. If it's getting to be 20% of GDP and we're just not getting really good outcomes, that's a bad thing." — Dr. Dinakar Golla

Connect with Dr. Golla: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinakar-golla-27b2151b Website: gollaplasticsurgery.com

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