Buzz Benson
Managing Director
Co-founder of 10K Lakes Capital
Co-founder of Sightline Partners
Buzz@sightlinepartners.com
Buzz has been an active investor and advisor in the healthcare industry for over 35 years. Buzz is a founding member of 10K Lakes Capital (2020) and Sightline Partners (2004). He led the effort to establish Sightline as an independent firm in 2004 by acquiring the healthcare venture capital operations from Piper Jaffray Companies. In 2008, Buzz initiated Sightline's strategy to focus on secondary transactions across multiple healthcare segments. Since 2009, the team has successfully raised five dedicated secondary funds.
Prior to Sightline, Buzz established Piper Jaffray's dedicated venture investing in 1992, serving as President and Managing Director of Piper Jaffray Ventures from 1992-2004. In 1986, he founded and co-headed Piper Jaffray's healthcare-focused Investment Banking activities for six years. In addition to over 35 years of venture capital and private equity experience, Buzz has been actively involved in a broad range of transactions for healthcare companies including mergers and acquisitions, corporate partner agreements, public offerings and private placements of equity and debt.
Josh Baltzell
Venture Partner
Josh has spent over 25 years in the healthcare industry working across a broad range of responsibilities and companies ranging from early stage product development and innovation, all the way up to public offerings, mergers and acquisitions for mature companies. Josh serves as a Venture Partner of 10K Lakes Capital and Sightline Partners where he focuses on sourcing and managing investments in the healthcare industry.
Prior to Sightline, Josh was a Managing Director at Split Rock Partners. He has been a lead investor and board member in companies with an aggregate, realized value of over $2 billion.
Kunal Paymaster
Managing Director
Kunal has been actively involved in the healthcare industry for over 16 years. He joined Sightline in 2012 and has since been a core part of the investment team, helping manage four secondary direct funds in the healthcare space. Kunal has played a key role in the acquisition and management of healthcare portfolios from leading institutional and corporate investors.
Prior to joining Sightline, Kunal spent seven years in various operating roles at Boston Scientific’s Cardiac Rhythm Management business unit where he developed and helped bring to market cutting-edge medical devices in the cardiovascular space.
Andrea Crooks
Vice President of Finance
Andrea started her career in the healthcare industry when she joined Sightline Partners in 2012. Since then, she has served many administrative & accounting roles at Sightline and is currently the Vice President of Finance.
Andrea has spent 36 years in the accounting & administrative roles in various locations within the states of Iowa, Ohio and Minnesota.
Nick joined Sightline Partners/10K Lakes Capital in 2020 as a member of the investment team. Prior to joining SLP/10K, Nick had experience in Portfolio Management and Equity Research. He participated in The Bulldog Fund LLC, an advanced S&P 500 strategy portfolio at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Nick graduated with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Financial Markets Finance from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Nick is currently pursuing the CFA Charter and has passed the Level I examination.