John Thornborrow

Delivering compelling returns and impact through category creation in health care

Austin, Texas Metropolitan Area

Work Experience

  • Managing Partner & Co-Founder

    2021

    Cura Health Fund leads and co-invests in promising new ventures that bring health solutions to everyone, starting with our most vulnerable communities. Our team is led by industry veterans from venture, healthcare, and human-centered design. We deliver market-rate returns alongside impact by recognizing the value and potential of frontline health care innovators, who are part of the largest workforce in America – Nurses and Allied Health Workers.

  • Chief Venture Officer & Co-Founder

    2019

    Design Run Group is a venture studio (pursuing Certified B Corp status) that partners with health organizations to create new companies that build innovative human-centered solutions to serve the health & wellness needs of vulnerable communities, and beyond.

  • Board Member / Investor

    2021

    We Are Here ensures that all people impacted by cancer have equitable and efficient access to resources, guidance, everyday services, and ways to give back.

  • Board Member / Investor

    2020

  • Founder

    2015

    Our most pressing challenges are social, dependent on human desire and commitment. And they have solutions. Austin Impact Capital provides an innovative model for bringing financial resources to those solutions, through new financial vehicles powered by the relationship between social entrepreneurs and investors.

  • Investor and Partner

    2012

    Providence Partners helps leading companies, and start-ups alike, build and bring to market innovative human capital solutions and strategic staffing/recruitment plans based on a careful assessment of business needs and goals.

  • Adjunct Professor -- Social Entrepreneurship

    2017 - 2023

    I provide students with an environment to learn and practice the skills of social entrepreneurship. Complex and often intractable social issues can benefit from new and innovative solutions. We explore how social entrepreneurs evaluate social issues, develop a theory of change, launch solutions, fund raise, develop teams, and grow impact at scale. Social Entrepreneurship Course RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs The University of Texas at Austin

2012 - 2020

  • Investor and Board Member

    2012 - 2020

    Charity Dynamics provides comprehensive online marketing and fundraising solutions for nonprofit organizations. The company’s expert consulting services enable nonprofits to create and implement results-driven fundraising strategies through online programs, live and virtual events, social media and mobile solutions. Organizations using Charity Dynamics’ innovative Boundless Fundraising® solution have raised more than $350 million directly through the suite of applications since it launched in late 2008. Charity Dynamics’ clients include The ALS Association, American Cancer Society, National Multiple Sclerosis Society and The Salvation Army.

  • Managing Partner

    2011 - 2020

    Vitesse Capital Partners, LLC was founded in 2012 with the strategy of acquiring and growing a portfolio of technology solutions providers. Vitesse has assembled a highly capable and proven management team with decades of experience and success in investments, mergers and acquisitions, integrations, financing transactions, operations, turnarounds, and divestitures. Vitesse Capital seeks to invest in and participate operationally in companies where the addition of strong managerial talent and renewed strategic and operational focus can reenergize a fundamentally sound business. The Firm is privately owned by its principals and located in Austin, Texas and is partnered with a leading U.S.-based Private Equity Firm making joint investments.

2009 - 2014

  • CFO

    2009 - 2014

    Hart InterCivic is a leading national provider of voting systems, election management products and services. Hart delivers a deep-rooted level of credibility across the electoral process with field-proven products, services and support that successfully, dependably meet the rigorous demands of today’s election procedures. Millions of votes are cast each year using Hart’s eScan™ and eSlate® polling place voting systems and Ballot Now central scanning / by-mail solution. Hart’s latest products, Verity™ and ePollBook™ have triggered dramatic growth in the market.