A Decade of VeloSano

Podcast Transcript

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: Cancer Advances, a Cleveland Clinic podcast for medical professionals exploring the latest innovative research and clinical advances in the field of oncology. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Cancer Advances. I'm your host, Dr. Dale Shepherd, a medical oncologist here at Cleveland Clinic directing the Taussig Early Cancer Therapeutics program and co-directing the Cleveland Clinic Sarcoma Program. Today I'm very happy to be joined by Mr. Stewart Kohl. Stewart is the co-CEO of the Riverside Company and has had many roles at Cleveland Clinic, including being a member of the board of directors. He's the founder of VeloSano, a very important fundraising initiative for cancer research at Cleveland Clinic, and he is here today to talk about VeloSano, which is celebrating its 10th year. So welcome, Stewart.

Stewart Kohl: Hey, thanks Dale. And let me also thank you for being outstanding medical director for VeloSano. You've been with us all 10 years and we wouldn't be where we are today without you.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: Let's jump in and talk a little bit about VeloSano. Before we do, just give us a little bit of an idea. What's your relationship with Cleveland Clinic?

Stewart Kohl: Sure. Obviously, you can't deliver work in Cleveland without having a relationship, starting at just a patient from time to time, hopefully not too often. Then started to get involved from a fundraising perspective and ultimately being invited to join the board of trustees and then the board of directors, and ultimately to co-chair really under the leadership of my friend Larry Pollock, the 2.6 billion fundraising capital campaign that we had and then along the way 10 years ago with a village because it took a village to found VeloSano.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: Excellent. So VeloSano is certainly something that's well known to most here in Cleveland. We have people who might be listening in from a variety of places that may not be familiar. What exactly is VeloSano?

Stewart Kohl: Let me start with the literal translation. Those are Latin words, and they mean swift cure. And the word velo, of course, is a word that's commonly used by cyclists, velodrome, velocycle and the likes so it's familiar to us. But what it is a movement, it's a cause. And the cause is to find cures for cancer. Now we understand that cures don't come in one big swoop, we wish they would. They come sometimes in tiny steps and drips and drabs and pieces, and it always comes at a cost. And the cost is the incredibly hard efforts of brilliant doctors and scientists like yourself who are taking risks and trying to find new approaches. And we want more of that sooner, quicker. And the purpose of VeloSano is to create a machine to raise money to fund research principally here in Cleveland, principally by doctors and scientists at the Cleveland Clinic.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: And so, what was the inspiration? What led you to start this whole initiative?

Stewart Kohl: Well, there was a dose of selfishness, as there often is. I'm a cyclist and with a good excuse to ride some more. But importantly, I had done something similar to this for the prior 16 years that was outside of Boston. And every year as I loaded up my bike to go there, I said, "Why can't we have something like this in Cleveland?" And when I was invited to join the board of directors of the Cleveland Clinic, I wanted to make a meaningful contribution. And not just in governance, but beyond that. And given the scale and sophistication of the Cleveland Clinic, I said to myself, "Maybe I can create something that is going to really be transformative and really make a difference over an extended period of time." And I was familiar with this model. The event outside of Boston is called the Pan-Mass Challenge. And it's been going now for almost 50 years. And fortunately, there were a group of folks at the clinic that were familiar with this model and who were willing along with me to take a risk and give it a try.

And we really placed a bet that the Cleveland community would rally around something like this, and they have. I'm very proud of Cleveland for that. So, we launched it. A lot of people when they hear about, you're going to have a bike ride to raise money for cancer research, they kind of maybe think it's going to be a big bake sale or something. And as you know, we have much greater aspirations than that. And I think now we're really seeing that.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: And I guess maybe lt's just talk about that a little bit now. So how it started as a weekend event and kind of where it's going at this point.

Stewart Kohl: Yeah, please. So, it did start really focusing on that weekend-long bicycle event. And fortunately, the first year we got almost a thousand riders, and we raised a couple million dollars, and we were off and running. And it's grown almost every year since then, even though Covid was obviously a very challenging period for all of us and including for VeloSano. And last year, the ninth one, we had our largest and most successful event, raising 6.9 million dollars that year. Along the way, we've broadened it. So, it's not just what we now call the Bike to Cure weekend. It includes a series of events for children called Trike and Bike and includes some year-round events and efforts to raise money for cancer research. And I feel like we're well along in a transition from maybe VeloSano being understood as a weekend or an event to being really, as I said, a cause, a movement, something that literally everyone, whether they want to get on a bike or not can participate in, can contribute to and become a part of.

And of course, all of us will ultimately benefit from the amazing research that's being done, whether it's ourselves, our loved ones, God forbid, our children, our parents, in my case a brother, we're going to find cures that will benefit everybody.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: So, we're going to talk a couple of things about the event itself and the weekend, but just taking a step back again really quickly, lots of different things going on here at Cleveland Clinic. Lots of different diseases. Why cancer?

Stewart Kohl: Yeah, so cancer is, I think of it as almost as a universal condition. Almost everybody at some point in their life is affected by cancer. It's a diagnosis for yourself or as I mentioned to someone else, even if there's not a diagnosis, we hopefully take care of ourselves to try to prevent it. We in many ways live in fear of it, and it feels like we're always playing defense when someone goes for the regular checkup, when they have a mammography there. Let's face it, we're very nervous until we get those results and we're playing defense. And I feel like VeloSano is our chance to play offense. It's our chance to do something about it. It's our chance to raise money that will find cures. It is finding cures. Again, it doesn't come in one fell swoop, it comes a piece at a time, but the pieces add up much like a big jigsaw puzzle. And we're building that puzzle and we're finding those pieces faster and faster. But it takes money because that research is not free.

I want to come back to that really, because I think this is at the crux of your question, this idea of being affected by cancer. Nobody gets touched by cancer. You get clobbered by cancer, you get crushed by cancer, and we want to make it a fairer fight. We want to stop just playing defense. We want to find cures much the way diseases like polio have been cured.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: I think that's the nice thing with Velosano, we've been able to fund a variety of projects, including things like screening and looking at more cancer disparities and looking at prevention things. And not just the management of cancer itself, but how do we even maybe minimize the chance people get it?

Stewart Kohl: Absolutely. And you're wearing the white coat, as you and I have talked about. I'm not, I barely made it to organic chemistry 101, and neither myself nor any of the folks who are organizing VeloSano, if you will, are making the decisions. That's a peer root process. It's a venture capital like model. The projects you're funding, Dale, are early, risky, but if they produce promising data, then they can go to places like the NIH and try to get the really big checks. I mean, our funding might be 50, 100, 200,000 dollars, but the data can bring in millions of dollars. And the last data I saw, you may be more up to date on this than I am that is, that we may have leveraged as much as 85 million dollars and follow on funding for these research projects.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: Yeah, you're exactly right. You're spot on with the numbers. So, over the years we've brought in 37 million dollars. That has funded research that went on to bring in an additional 85 million dollars that may well have not ever been realized without the seed money from VeloSano.

Stewart Kohl: Beautiful. And my day job, I'm involved in private equity, which is kind of venture capital like. And again, I see the analogies here, venture capital, not everything works, but when it works, it can literally change the way we live. And that's exactly what we're trying to do. And I'd like to believe that when the book is written on how we cured cancer and the movie is made, I'm not sure who's going to play you in the movie, but I'd like to believe that VeloSano will have a little chapter in that book and Cleveland will rightfully be able to say, "We made a real difference in this war."

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: And I guess that whole making a difference part. You mentioned before about VeloSano continued despite Covid for instance, one of the bright spots, quite honestly, is the ability to do things like virtual fundraising. I don't know if you want to maybe mention something about that pivot, is part of that pivot from just a bike ride to being able to do other things?

Stewart Kohl: Absolutely. The key thing now is that anybody anywhere in the world, anytime of the year can make a contribution, can follow the research we're doing. If your listeners have not already taken a look at the page on our website, velosano.org, where we report each year on the research projects that we funded, the stewardship is outstanding. And also, we have a lot of people that want to come up with their own events, their own ways to organize, to fundraise, and all of that can be brought together through VeloSano. So, it is truly not just an event, it's a movement. And it's not just one weekend in September, but I have to say it is the eighth, and the eighth and ninth in September, the weekend after Labor Day. But it's not just that. It's year round.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: Again, focusing on that weekend, something that's incredibly powerful is the kickoff party the night before the ride. Tell us a little bit about that.

Stewart Kohl: Yeah, it's become such a tradition. I don't want to jinx us, but every year we've had beautiful weather. We've watched the sunset over Lake Erie, and that is a beautiful site and we've done it as a group from a couple of thousands of us last year. There's food, there's entertainment, there's education. The best analogy I've heard about is from one of my colleagues, Graham Hearns, who's been there every year and has been also instrumental in this. He described it as going to your, a reunion for your high school year of college. I see the people, I may only see him once a year at VeloSano, but we're sisters and brothers in this cause and it, there's such a warm feeling. And again, it's about playing offense, not defense. And the other thing I would like to point out about Bike to Cure weekend is, for me, it is literally one of the most fun weekends of the year.

So, the business is very serious. We're trying to save lives, but we do it in a way that is so much fun that when people come once they want to come again and again, when people come the first year, they bring their families and their friends the next year. And a lot of what we do is organize through the workplace. And again, that was more challenging with Covid when people went virtual. But we have these remarkable teams at about 150 employers around Cleveland that organize and ride together. And now it starts to become not just an event to play offense against cancer, but a way to promote employee engagement, a way to promote employee wellness. So, it has a lot of other benefits and values.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: Talk a little bit about this is an event where some fundraising events are more corporate based. This really is a kind of grassroots, last year there were 30,000 people that donated. This is much more of a community feel, everyone in it together. Tell us a little bit about that part.

Stewart Kohl: Yeah, it's very grassroots and the fundraising is capillary, so you understand better than I do, how the arteries and veins end up in these tiny capillaries. But that's what our fundraising gets out to because just focusing on the Bike to Cure aspect of it, people go to their friends and family, they use social media. They say, "I'm going to ride six miles, I'm going to ride 25 miles, I'm going to ride a hundred miles to raise money for cancer research. Will you make a contribution? It could be $10, it could be a hundred dollars, it could be a thousand dollars." And it's remarkable. Almost everybody will send you something. And that's where the 30,000 donors spread across and around the world, every state and many countries. And of course, that's in addition to not, instead of the tremendous fundraising that the Cleveland Clinic does. And when you visit the remarkable facilities across our campuses, you see the names of the people that have given big dollars, but together, VeloSano becomes a big dollar donor. And each of us who contributes and participates becomes a part of that.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: And I guess it's important to point out that of those donations, a hundred percent of those donations go to cancer research and it's really our partners that help support the event itself.

Stewart Kohl: Yeah, it's a great point. Organizations, and you can see them at velosano.org, there's many of them become, you use the right term, partners and they put their name on the event. They do it very proudly because it's such a great cause and it's such a fun event. And their own employees are participating and organizing in it. That along with the registration fee, the riders pay covers a hundred percent of the cost of the events. And then that means that when I go to my friends or any of our riders go to their friends and ask for a contribution, they can tell them that a hundred percent of what they give is going to cancer research. And interestingly, as co-chair of the capital campaign, I'm a big believer in things like endowments. I'm a big believer in things like building buildings, but that's not what we're doing here. The money we raised this year will be invested this year and next year into venture capital like research designed to find lifesaving cures now. It's a very activist approach.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: Stewart, it's been a long journey over 10 years. It's been fantastic. What are you most proud of?

Stewart Kohl: I'm really proud of the way Cleveland has turned out and embraced something new. When we launched this, nobody knew what a VeloSano was. And I feel like today when I'm out on the weekends taking my rides, I'm seeing the signs that people put up in their yards, I'm seeing riders wearing our jerseys. When I go out and speak often as I do about it it's very rare that somebody says, "Oh, I've never heard of it. Tell me what it is." We've built a brand. And the benefit of that is not just because it is nice to have a brand or ego. It's because that brand is going to allow us to continue to grow, to raise more money, to find more cures sooner. And when I talk about the community embracing VeloSano, I have to especially shout out the Cleveland Clinic because when this idea came forward, when there was a group of us that wanted to do it, the clinic said, "Yes, let's try this."

And not every organization of the scale of the professionalism of the clinic would embrace a totally unproven new idea like this one, and then play such an important role in making it successful.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: Well, Stewart, you mentioned a couple of times, I'm going to put this out again. People want to learn more about the event, they want to donate, they want to participate, velosano.org. We are exceedingly grateful that you had this vision for your commitment to this, the work you've done to grow this into an absolutely great initiative and appreciate you being with us to give us your insights.

Stewart Kohl: Right back at you, Dale. I appreciate that very much.

Dale Shepard, MD, PhD: This concludes this episode of Cancer Advances. You'll find additional podcast episodes on our website, clevelandclinic.org/canceradvancespodcast. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, SoundCloud, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And don't forget, you can access real time updates from Cleveland Clinic's Cancer Center experts on our Consult QD website, at consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/cancer.

Thank you for listening. Please join us again soon.