Tag Archives: Black Female Entrepreneurs

New VC Funds Put Women’s Health Moonshot Front and Center



In today’s venture capital world, the vast majority of decisions are made by male investors – by one recent estimate, 87% of partners at digital health venture funds are men. This imbalance has resulted in an overall lack of investment in women’s health innovations, and in female founders. That’s shifting thanks in part to investors like Maria Velissaris, our guest on this week’s episode. Maria was a successful entrepreneur and business development maven before she became a managing Partner at SteelSky Ventures. SteelSky is a VC firm with a laser focus on women’s health, and a desire to see women-run startups get the funding they deserve. Today’s conversation has been pulled from an expert office hour held by StartUp Health and attended by entrepreneurs from the StartUp Health portfolio. So in addition to Maria’s insights – on investment trends, how to pitch, and how COVID-19 has changed the game – you’ll get to hear real-life questions from founders who are working in the trenches. The session was moderated by Katya Hancock, StartUp Health’s Investor Network Director. Enjoy.

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.


MedHaul CEO & founder Erica Plybeah and Nathalie Occean, Director of Quality and Community Engagement

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



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

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.