Category Archives: Healthcare

How These Two Founders Are Upgrading Maternal Health Through Cultural Competence and Remote Monitoring

April 27, 2023Business, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, StartupsAnish Sebastian, babyscripts, Childrens Health, cultural competence, Health, health equity, Health Moonshots, Health Transformers, Healthcare, Jade Kearney, Logan Plaster, maternal health, remote patient monitoring, She Matters, womens healthNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:52 — 21.9MB)

Today in the United States, we do an entirely poor job of taking care of our pregnant mothers. If you look at statistics like maternal morbidity and mortality, it’s been going up. And, through the pandemic, it’s only gone downhill. We’re one of the worst – actually the worst – of any advanced country.

Welcome back to StartUp Health NOW, the podcast where we celebrate the entrepreneurs and innovators who are transforming health.

Today we’ve got two very special guests on the show talking about one extremely important topic: maternal health. This is a topic that has been front and center in health news lately and not for good reasons. In spite of all our progress in healthtech, the US has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the developed world.

The World Health Organization reports that a maternal death occurred almost every two minutes in 2020.

What’s worse, maternal health brings to light racial health inequities in a stark and disturbing way. According to the CDC, Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women.

But we’re not here just to talk about the problem. Our guests are two Health Transformers who have dedicated their lives to changing the maternal health story.

First, you’ll get to hear from Jade Kearney, CEO & Founder of She Matters, a new platform that trains doctors in culturally-competent care so that – among other things – Black women are heard and understood during childbirth. They also created a virtual community for moms to get support and improve the health outcomes for Black mothers.

Next, we’ll have a conversation with Anish Sebastian, CEO & Co-founder of Babyscripts. Babyscripts is a long-time member of our community that is bringing virtual care and remote monitoring into the pregnancy and postpartum journey so that more women get the care they need when and where they need it most.

Listen in for their stories and solutions for upgrading maternal health.

Founders: Health Transformer University fuels your health moonshot

Funders: Become a Health Moonshot Champion
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
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Looking to break down health barriers? If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, contact us to learn how you can join our Health Equity Moonshot.
Passionate about Type 1 diabetes? If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, contact us to learn how you can join our T1D Moonshot.

Raising My First Million: The Health Moonshot Mindsets & Tactics That Helped Perceiv AI Close $1.5M During a Down Market

February 2, 2023Business, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, Insights, StartupsChristian Dansereau, Funding, Health Mindsets, Health Moonshots, Health Transformers, Insights, Logan Plaster, Mindsets, Perceiv AI, WisdomNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:35 — 19.8MB)

Welcome to StartUp Health NOW, the podcast where we celebrate the entrepreneurs and innovators who are transforming health.

It’s no secret that 2022 was a down year for health innovation funding. Earlier this month we published our Year-End Insights Report, which showed a 50% drop-off in digital health funding compared with 2021. Of course, you have to take those numbers in context. For one, 2021 was a crazy, exuberant year for funding, fueled by a COVID-induced rush to virtual healthcare. Second, when you look at health innovation funding over 10 years, we’re still on a dramatic upward growth curve.

That said, 2022 was a scary year for startups that needed to raise funds, so we called up a founder in the StartUp Health portfolio who’d made it happen. Christian Dansereau, PhD, CEO and Co-founder of Perceiv AI, closed his first round, $1.5M, in November 2022, while many other companies were experiencing down rounds, acquisitions, and or even closing their doors.

So, how’d they raise their first million plus in spite of rocky market conditions? What strategies and mindsets did they use that other founders can learn from? In this podcast episode, we get tactical about lead gen, decks, and nailing your first meeting, and also talk about the importance of aligning with partners at a health moonshot level.

Learn more and connect with Health Transformers like Perceiv AI.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Investors: Contact us to learn how to invest in Health Moonshots
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Passionate about Type 1 diabetes? If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, contact us to learn how you can join our T1D Moonshot.

Looking to break down health barriers? If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, contact us to learn how you can join our Health Equity Moonshot.

Sue Siegel, Former CEO of GE Ventures and Chief Innovation Officer at GE, Joins StartUp Health’s Impact Board to Advance Health Moonshots

November 1, 2022Business, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, StartupsGE, GE Ventures, health equity, Health Moonshots, Healthymagination, Logan Plaster, StartUp Health, Sue SiegelNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:26 — 22.3MB)

In this week’s StartUp Health NOW episode, we continue a series we’ve been running where we sit down with members of StartUp Health’s Impact Board to learn a bit about their stories and why they’re so passionate about this health moonshot model of supporting founders at scale.

Today we’re talking to the venerable Sue Siegel, former Chief Innovation Officer at GE and CEO at GE Ventures and at Healthymagination, an initiative GE launched in order to invest billions of dollars into helping deliver better healthcare to more people at a lower cost.

Now, Siegel is leveraging all of that experience to help StartUp Health scale our mission of inspiring, educating, and investing in a global army of Health Transformers. In our interview, we get to hear Siegel’s wisdom about what it’s really going to take to move the needle on health. She also shares why she’s so passionate about professional mentorship and gives a few rules for the road for would-be mentors.

As you’ll hear in the interview, in addition to be a wealth of knowledge, Siegel brings an enormous level of empathy and humility to her work. We were inspired talking to her and are excited to share the conversation here.

Join us at the StartUp Health Festival @ HLTH, Nov 13-16, 2022, in Las Vegas, to learn more and get involved with our health moonshots.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Passionate about Type 1 diabetes? If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, contact us to learn how you can join our T1D Moonshot.

Looking to break down health barriers? If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, contact us to learn how you can join our Health Equity Moonshot.

Affectifi’s ThinkHuman Platform Uses Streaming TV to Make Emotional Regulation Easy, Fun, and Accessible

August 30, 2022Business, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, StartupsAffectifi, Health Moonshot, Health Transformers, Ilya Lyashevsky, Logan Plaster, Melissa Cesarano, mental health, Mental Health & Happiness, ThinkHumanNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:47 — 49.2MB)

Emotional regulation. It’s a fancy term for something very simple, and something we often take for granted. Emotional regulation is a person’s ability to effectively manage and respond to an emotional experience. We do this work unconsciously all day long, deciding how to respond when we’re cut off in traffic or when we see something we disagree with on social media.

How we respond to emotional situations can have massive ramifications for our lives, yet we don’t typically spend much time thinking about it or trying to improve.

Our guests this week, Melissa Cesarano and Ilya Lyashevsky, got their PhDs at Columbia University studying the science of this field, called social-emotional learning. Now, they’ve poured their academic work into a startup called Affectifi, which StartUp Health backed last year.

In this conversation, we’ll hear from Mel and Ilya about their unique methodology for teaching emotional regulation to young people. It’s a platform called ThinkHuman and it actually piggy-backs training modules on top of popular content on streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+.

Listen in to hear how it works.

Learn more and connect with the team at Affectifi.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Passionate about Type 1 diabetes? If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, contact us to learn how you can join our T1D Moonshot.

At Trusty.care, Joseph Schneier Is Building a Better Infrastructure for Medicaid and Medicare Benefits

August 23, 2022Business, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, StartupsHealth Transformer, Health Transformers, Joseph Schneier, Logan Plaster, Medicaid, Medicare, StartUp Health, StartUp Health Now, Trusty.careNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:55 — 30.1MB)

This week on StartUp Health NOW we’re talking to Joseph Schneier, the CEO and Co-founder of Trusty.care, a company that joined StartUp Health in 2018. Joseph holds a special place here at StartUp Health because not only is he a four-time serial entrepreneur, but he’s heading up his second StartUp Health-backed company.

Joseph’s latest endeavor, Trusty.care, is a platform that makes sense out of the byzantine world of Medicaid and Medicare benefits. It’s not flashy work – which Joseph is the first to admit – but therein lies the opportunity for impact. The chance to build a better infrastructure for health, the pipes and roads that make health insurance a more palatable, patient-centric experience.

Trusty.care is making waves in the Medicaid/Medicare benefits market, and in this interview we pull back the curtain on that success and get a glimpse of what Joseph is planning next.

Learn more and connect with the team at Trusty-care.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Passionate about Type 1 diabetes? If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, contact us to learn how you can join our T1D Moonshot.

From the Archives: Practical Tips and Wisdom From the Gates Foundation

July 5, 2022Business, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, StartupsAnnie Ye, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates Foundation, Health Tech, Innovation, Logan Plaster, Partnerships, StartUp Health, startupsNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:02 — 64.6MB)

One year ago, we chatted with Annie Ye, the Program Manager of Digital Health Innovation at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation during a StartUp Health Fireside Chat in front of an audience of Health Transformers from the StartUp Health portfolio. Ye has experience in technology and analytics strategy and joined the Foundation at the outset of the pandemic to refine and connect a number of technological initiatives and strategy teams. In this episode Ye discusses foundation priorities and best practices for startups seeking to partner on health projects.

Passionate about Type 1 diabetes? If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, contact us to learn how you can join our T1D Moonshot.
Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

KP Yelpaala of InOn Health: Health Equity Isn’t Just the Right Thing to Do, It’s Also Good for Business

May 10, 2022Business, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, Startups2022 StartUp Health Festival, Access to care, Health Moonshot, Health Transformer, Health Transformers, InOn Health, Katya Hancock, KP Yelpaala, StartUp Health @ ViVE, StartUp Health Festival, ViVE, ViVE 2022Nicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:50 — 43.1MB)

Today’s guest is Kaakpema “KP” Yelpaala, the CEO and Co-founder of InOn Health, a StartUp Health portfolio company that delivers patient engagement solutions with an emphasis on cross-cultural communication. This conversation you’ll hear is pulled from a Fireside Chat at the StartUp Health Festival @ ViVE and is hosted by Katya Hancock, a partner at StartUp Health. The two discuss KP’s work at InOn Health, which centers around health literacy and patient communication. And they also dig into health equity – an area of particular passion and focus for KP – to try to get beyond the hype and the buzzwords. They tackle the question: what is it going to take to break down barriers and open up access to care for all people? For one thing, he says, we have to realize that health equity isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also good for business.

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Learn more and connect with the team at InOn Health.

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Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Does Teladoc’s Stock Drop Matter? Jamey Edwards on Achieving Health Moonshots in the Face of Rocky Public Markets

May 3, 2022Business, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, Insights, StartupsDigital Health, Entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Innovation, Jamey Edwards, Logan Plaster, mindset, Mindsets, StartUp Health, Teledoc, Telehealth, telemedicine, WisdomNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:40 — 26.3MB)

This week’s episode of StartUp Health NOW is a conversation with Jamey Edwards, Chief Operating Officer at StartUp Health. Jamey has been working in the telemedicine space for more than a decade, and his last company, Cloudbreak, went public via SPAC last year. So when we saw the headlines that Teladoc’s stock dropped 40% – alongside other dips in the telemedicine public market – we called him up for a dose of perspective. In this conversation with host Logan Plaster, Edwards breaks down the news from Wall Street and gives startups some health moonshot wisdom. Bottom line: stay focused on the mission because improving global health is a marathon, not a sprint.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Alyssa Jaffee of 7wireVentures on Finding Balance, Authenticity, and Founder-Market Fit

April 26, 2022Business, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, Insights, Startups7Wire Ventures, 7wireVentures, Alyssa Jaffee, HealthTech Investor, impact investing, investing, investment, Logan Plaster, Moonshot MindsetNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:06 — 51.4MB)

This week’s episode of StartUp Health NOW is pulled from a recent Fireside Chat we held with investor Alyssa Jaffee, a partner at 7wireVentures who focuses on digital health. Jaffee sits on the board of Ayogo Health and works with five health companies as a board observer, so she’s got a very hands-on understanding of what’s working and what’s not.

In the interview, Jaffee shares some best practices for breaking through the noise and landing a meeting with an investor. She talks through the importance of founder-market fit – why passion is particularly important in healthcare – and why she’s so bullish on the health innovation market as a whole.

We hold these candid conversations in front of a live audience of founders from the StartUp Health portfolio, so you’ll get to learn from their questions as well.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

How Nightingale Is Redefining Preventative Health

February 8, 2022Business, Health, Healthcare, Innovation, Insights, StartupsAI, Blood Testing, Cure Disease, diabetes, Finland, Health Moonshot Update, Health Moonshots, Health Tech, Heart Disease, Logan Plaster, Longevity, Moonshots, Nightingale, Teemu Suna, TelehealthNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:50 — 36.5MB)

Join us in Miami Beach in March for StartUp Health @ ViVE 2022: startuphealth.com/vive

Nightingale Health, a Finnish company that StartUp Health backed in 2016, uses a new kind of blood testing to predict future disease risk so that people can change the course of their health before it’s too late. They’ve designed a way to analyze blood samples that pulls 250 times more data from that sample than a typical test. They use artificial intelligence and machine learning to correlate that data with future disease risk, like diabetes and heart disease. Then they put the result in simple terms so that patients can see trends and take action.

This year, Nightingale took three big strides forward. They went public on the Finnish Nasdaq, which gave them capital to scale globally. They rolled out at-home testing kits so more people can benefit from Nightingale’s disease prediction. And they acquired a genomics company that will allow them to bake genetic information into their app and provide people with even more personalized health assessments.

We sat down with Nightingale CEO and Co-founder Teemu Suna to hear more about their blood testing technology and how it could change preventative health globally by getting patients to see their potential future and then change the course of their health.

Join us in Miami Beach in March at StartUp Health @ ViVE 2022 to meet Health Transformers: startuphealth.com/vive

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Learn more and connect with the team at Nightingale.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com