Category Archives: Startups

One Health Transformer’s Decades-Long Journey to Cure Chronic Pain

August 18, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAddiction, chronic pain, Cure Disease, Logan Plaster, mental health, neuromodulation, Richard Hanbury, Sana Health, Startup, StartUp Health, wearablesStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:30 — 25.9MB)

23 years ago a car accident left Richard Hanbury with debilitating nerve pain that was so bad he was given just five years to live. While in recovery, he realized that a film was doing something to his brain that was providing greater pain relief than the morphine he was prescribed. It was this accidental discovery that inspired Hanbury to learn how he could use external neuromodulation to hack his own brain and cure his chronic pain. In this episode, StartUp Health’s Editor-in-Chief Logan Plaster sits down with Hanbury, CEO & Founder of Sana Health, to discuss his wearable device that reproduces that same neuromodulation in an effort to end all chronic pain.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.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.

Livongo/Teladoc Merger Creates $37B Remote Health Company and Sets a New Standard for Digital Health Valuations.

August 11, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, Startups2020 StartUp Health Festival, Jennifer Schneider, Livongo, Livongo / Teladoc Health merger, Logan Plaster, merger, StartUp Health, StartUp Health Festival, Teledoc HealthStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:21 — 22.9MB)

A few months before Livongo and Teladoc Health inked a deal that valued Livongo at $18.5B, Jennifer Schneider, MD, MS, President of Livongo, took the stage at the StartUp Health Festival. Her telling of the company’s mission – to empower people with chronic conditions to live better and healthier lives – provides important context for the historic merger.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Pregnancy in the Time of COVID, With ROBYN Founder Alli Kasirer

August 4, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAccess to care, Alli Kasirer, coronavirus, Covid 19, COVID19, Health Moonshot, Logan Plaster, moonshot, Pandemic Response, ROBYN, StartUp Health, womens healthStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:17 — 16.4MB)

Today’s podcast is a throwback to one of our favorite interviews from 2020 thus far. Back in early May, we linked up with Alli Kasirer, CEO of a company called Robyn, for an interview on StartUp Health TV. Robyn – online at we are robyn.co – is a digital health company that acts as a 21st century guide for aspiring, expecting and new parents. They cover everything from fertility coaching to infant sleep training, with a modern, tech-forward sensibility. When COVID hit, demand for virtual services for expectant and new parents skyrocketed, and Kasirer and her team stepped up to the challenge. If you want to watch the full conversation, you’ll find it on the Startup Health YouTube channel, at youtube.com/startuphealth.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Surviving the Pivot: How Two Founders Re-Shaped Their Business to Thrive in a Post-COVID World

July 28, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, Startups, UncategorizedAccess to care, jennifer meller, kavita mangal, Logan Plaster, NavimizeStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:02 — 35.1MB)

When the pandemic first hit, Dr. Jennifer Meller, CEO & Founder of Navimize, and CTO Kavita Mangal knew they were going to have to work fast. How could the duo utilize their existing platform, but adapt to the new conditions brought forth by COVID-19? To do this, says Meller, the team had to shift focus and channel their platform solely around the needs of their customers. In this StartUp Health NOW episode, Dr. Meller and Mangal share what held the company together at the start of the pandemic, and how they’ve repurposed their technology for the “new normal.”

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Despite COVID-Constrained World, Digital Health Investor Predicts Promising Future in Telemedicine

July 21, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, Startups7Wire Ventures, Alyssa Jaffee, Bari Krein, Covid 19, COVID19, Digital Health, health innovation, investing, StartUp HealthStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:54 — 42.3MB)

Much has been said and written — here at StartUp Health and elsewhere — about how in healthcare there’s pre-COVID and there’s post-COVID. Regulations, reimbursements, consumer attitudes, and just basic human norms have shifted dramatically. Mass adoption of telemedicine has made headlines, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In today’s podcast, we turned to Alyssa Jaffee, industry pro and VP at 7Wire Ventures, an early-stage venture fund headquartered in Chicago, to delve deeper into understanding those shifts and opportunities in digital health from an investor’s lens. The conversation you’ll hear is between Jaffe and Bari Krein, StartUp Health’s Chief Strategy Officer. It took place during a recent Expert Office Hour session that we hosted for the Health Transformers in the StartUp Health community, but Jaffe’s advice was so spot on and honest that we couldn’t help sharing it with a wider audience on the podcast.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

StartUp Health’s 2020 Midyear Insights Report: A Conversation With Jonah Comstock

July 14, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsCovid 19, COVID19, Digital Health, health innovation, HIMMS, investing, Jonah Comstock, Logan Plaster, StartUp Health, Unity StoakesStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:06 — 58.4MB)

StartUp Health co-founder Unity Stoakes and editor in chief Logan Plaster talk health innovation funding trends with HIMSS Media editor-in-chief Jonah Comstock, a health tech journalist who has been covering the health innovation funding landscape for more than a decade. StartUp Health released its quarterly Insights report on July 1, 2020. The report confirmed that health innovation funding has remained on a strong upward trajectory despite of the market uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, with $4.2B raised in Q2 2020, we find ourselves closing out the most-funded six-month period on record. In this episode, Comstock, Stoakes and Plaster discuss the market forces behind this apparent optimism, the importance of a global perspective on health innovation, and whether the current positive trend is likely to continue through the rest of 2020.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

How Joint Academy CEO Jakob Dahlberg Is Transforming Osteoarthritis Care

July 7, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAccess to care, arthritis, Cure Disease, Digital Health, digital therapy, health innovation, Jacob Dahlberg, Joint Academy, Joint pain, Nicole Clark, StartUp HealthStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:29 — 10.5MB)

According to the Arthritis Foundation, one in four Americans will develop hip or knee osteoarthritis in their lifetime. Experts suggest we have yet to reach a maximum fixed lifespan, creating an overwhelming demand for accessing treatment options that address joint pain and immobility.

One of StartUp Health’s rising stars. Jakob Dahlberg, Co-founder and CEO of the Swedish based telemedicine company Joint Academy, has created an interactive digital treatment program for arthritis. In this episode of StartUp Health NOW, Dahlberg talks about the companies mission, response to the current pandemic, and how creating a digital joint therapy platform is addressing a gap in healthcare.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Dr. Sandro Galea: Changing the Conversation Around Health

June 30, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, Startups, UncategorizedBoston University, Cure Disease, Digital Health, future of health, health equity, health innovation, Healthcare, Nicole Clark, sandro galeaStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:04 — 29.4MB)

To improve health, not just healthcare, we have to do the hard work of building a healthier world. And that, says Sandro Galea, MD, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, starts with investing in preventative care infrastructures, not just in treatments. In this episode of StartUp Health NOW, Galea shares the inspiration for his book Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health and urges us to think more deeply about the interconnected forces around us—from money and power to love and hate, compassion, fairness, and justice—and how they can lead to sustainable health.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

MedHaul’s Leaders Break Down What’s Needed to Create Racial Equity in Silicon Valley and Beyond

June 19, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAccess to care, Black Female Entrepreneurs, Innovation, medical transportation, Memphis, Nicole Clark, SDoH, social determinants of healthStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:42 — 34.5MB)

At MedHaul, CEO & founder Erica Plybeah and Director of Quality and Community Engagement Nathalie Occean are solving one of the oldest challenges in health: transportation. Each year, nearly four million adults and children with chronic conditions miss or delay medical appointments because they don’t have a ride. At MedHaul, the Memphis-based entrepreneurs have developed an Uber-like platform that books non-emergency transportation for people with special needs in low-income communities across 10 U.S. cities, and counting. In this StartUp Health NOW podcast episode, Plybeah and Occean share how they’ve continued to scale during COVID-19 and break down the core challenges that ultimately set the stage for why Black founders receive less than 1% of venture capital.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Hiring in Health: Aequitas Partners Launch the Health Talent Exchange

May 15, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, Startups, Uncategorizedc-suite, Covid 19, entrepreneurship, executive search firm, health innovation, hiring, Nicole ClarkStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:49 — 33.7MB)

Executive search firm Aequitas Partners has been building teams for high growth health innovation companies since 2014. Now, with their Health Talent Exchange they’re helping top candidates and companies accelerate the hiring process during COVID-19.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com