Tag Archives: entrepreneurship

From the Archives: A Look at How Andreessen Horowitz Invests in the Future of Health

July 27, 2023Business, Health, Innovation, Insights, Startupsa16z, Andreessen Horowitz, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, Health Startup, Healthcare, HealthTech, investing, Investors, Julie Yoo, Logan Plaster, Startup, WisdomNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:41 — 45.4MB)

On this week’s StartUp Health NOW, we look back at one of our most-popular podcast episodes: a chat with Julie Yoo, a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz – where she leads investments in healthcare technology, with a focus on companies that are modernizing how we access, pay for, and experience the healthcare system. During this chat in front of a live audience of founders from the StartUp Health community, Yoo talked about the growth of home health, fintech for healthcare, and her personal passions around solving for provider shortage issues and the mismatch of supply and demand.

Listen in for insights that are just as relevant today as in November 2021, such as Yoo’s tip that top investors like a16z are less interested in startups who have all the answers – because they don’t – than in entrepreneurs who can identify and overcome obstacles and can communicate that journey with clarity.

We will be back with fresh episodes after Labor Day!

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Scaling Your Health Tech Business to $100 Million, Featuring Sofia Guerra of Bessemer Venture Partners

July 21, 2023Business, Health, Innovation, Insights, StartupsBessemer Venture Partners, Entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Funding, Health Startup, health startups, investor, Investors, Jamey Edwards, Logan Plaster, Sofia Guerra, StartUp Health, startups, WisdomNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:56 — 33.6MB)

On our episode today we are getting down into the details, deep the weeds, in order to understand what it takes to scale a healthcare business to $100M.

For that wisdom we turned to Sofia Guerra, an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners. We recently had her on our Health Transformer University Masterclass series to share top takeaways from a recent benchmarks report published by her firm. She distilled their very detailed work into five key takeaways and then hung around to answer questions from our audience of StartUp Health founders.

In this session, which was hosted by Jamey Edwards, Chief Platform Officer here at StartUp Health, Sofia gets into all the critical operational, financial, and clinical performance metrics that health tech companies need to care about if they’re going to thrive and scale.

For the purpose of this podcast, we’ll drop right into the middle of the conversation between Jamey and Sofia, focusing on her advice for founders.

Enjoy!

Founders: Health Transformer University fuels your health moonshot

How Avanlee Care Is Teaming Up with Retailers to Address the Caregiver Crisis

July 14, 2023Business, Health, Innovation, Startups, UncategorizedAccess to care, Access to Care Moonshot, Avanlee Care, Avanlee Christine, Caregiver, Caregiving, Digital Health, Entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, health innovation, Health Moonshot, Health Moonshots, Health Transformer, Health Transformers, Healthcare, Healthy Longevity, Innovation, Logan Plaster, LongevityNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:45 — 21.4MB)

Our podcast guest this week is Avanlee Christine, CEO and Co-founder of Avanlee Care, a company that joined StartUp Health in 2022. A few years ago Avanlee found herself helping to coordinate care for her grandmother. Everyone in the family wanted to help, but she lived far away, and there just wasn’t a good way to check in on her health and be the kind of support that Avanlee and her family wanted to be.

As many entrepreneurs do, Avanlee said to herself: There must be a better way. So She raised some funds (that’s a story in itself), built a team, and set out to design a platform that eases the burden on unpaid caregivers. And she did all while having her first child.

Listen in as she explains the details of the Avanlee Care product as it stands today and about how she’s finding eager partners in some of the country’s largest retailers and employers. Turns out easing the caregiver burden isn’t just a moral good, it’s also good for a company’s bottom line.

Founders: Health Transformer University fuels your health moonshot

Two Top Health Investors Share Their 2023 Tips for Founders

July 6, 2023Business, Health, Innovation, Insights, Startups7wireVentures, Digital Health, Distributed Ventures, Entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Funding, fundraising, health innovation, Health Tech, impact investing, investing, Lee Shapiro, Logan Plaster, raising funds, Shawn Ellis, WisdomNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:15 — 29.2MB)

Whether they like it or not – and they probably don’t – every health tech founder needs to think about money. How much they need, and how to get it. For many founders, raising outside funds becomes a whole new full time job that they have to take on. This year, funding in the sector has dipped sharply, making that job even harder and more stressful.

On our podcast this week, we hear from the other side of the table. We sat down with the heads of two major health tech investment firms and got their advice for health innovation entrepreneurs in 2023.

First up is Lee Shapiro, managing partner at 7wireVentures and long-time collaborator with StartUp Health. Shapiro is a luminary in digital health investing so we asked him for his macro view of the industry and got a few practical tips for founders raising funds today.

Then we hear from Shawn Ellis, managing partner at Distributed Ventures, a $100M fund that invests in Seed and Series A deals and has a strong health tech focus. In our chat Ellis broke down where his firm has found success recently and exactly what he looks for in a pitch.

Founders: Health Transformer University fuels your health moonshot

Maximizing Your Impact: Building and Leading a Strategic Board

June 30, 2023Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsEntrepreneur, entrepreneurship, health startups, Logan Plaster, Matt Blumberg, WisdomNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:29 — 29.2MB)

Our guest this week is Matt Blumberg, CEO and Co-founder at Bolster. He’s the author of the books “Startup CEO,” “Startup CXO,” and most recently “Startup Boards.”

That last one was why we wanted to have him in for a special masterclass with the founders from the StartUp Health community. As you’ll hear, Blumberg has developed a detailed strategy for maximizing your startup’s board. It’s a time-tested framework for making sure your board is an asset to your business not a tax.

Drawing on his own experiences as a CEO and board member, Matt discusses the importance of diversity in leadership and decision-making and provides practical tips and strategies for building a board that represents the full range of perspectives and experiences of your stakeholders. As a startup leader looking to build or scale your board, this chat will provide valuable insights and actionable advice to help you grow.

This conversation was held in front of a live audience of entrepreneurs, so you’ll get to hear some very practical questions on board management during our Q&A.

Founders: Health Transformer University fuels your health moonshot

How Health Innovation Startups Can Partner with Anthem

June 7, 2022Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAnthem, Digital Health, Entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Health, Innovation, Logan Plaster, Mindsets, Moonshot Mindset, Omid Toloui, StartUp Health, startups, WisdomNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:01 — 26.3MB)

In health innovation, you can have the most amazing idea and a rock-solid business plan, but in order to scale, you might still need to find the right enterprise partner. Topping this list for many entrepreneurs is Anthem, which serves 40 million people and is ranked #57 on the Fortune 500 list. It’s safe to say that if your startup can get distribution through this network, it’s going to put you on a whole new trajectory.

In order to find out how Anthem works with startups, we invited Omid Toloui, Anthem’s Vice President of Innovation, to join us for a chat. Anthem has had a range of programs in recent years aimed at collaborating with nimble, forward-thinking startups, like their Innovation Studio in Atlanta and their Digital Incubator Program. But we wanted Omid to pull back the curtain on exactly how Anthem thinks about innovation, and how startups can partner with them.

This StartUp Health NOW episode was excerpted from a Fireside Chat held in front of a live audience of Health Transformers from the StartUp Health portfolio. 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.

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

May 3, 2022Business, Health, Innovation, Insights, Startups, UncategorizedDigital 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

Live From the Conflict Zone: How David Sarabia of inRecovery Is Supporting His Team in Ukraine

April 19, 2022Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAddiction, David Sarabia, end addiction, entrepreneurship, Health Moonshots, Health Transformer, Health Transformers, InRecovery, Moonshots, UkraineNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:25 — 44.5MB)

This week, we talk with David Sarabia, the CEO and Founder of inRecovery, a StartUp Health-backed company that brings digital health tools to the addiction recovery market.

David was on vacation in Mexico when he saw the headlines: Ukraine was under attack and Russian forces were moving in on the capital. After the initial shock of the news wore off, David snapped into action. He’d spent a good deal of time in Ukraine, cultivating a development team there for his startup. And now his team was in trouble. So instead of taking his flight back to California, he booked a ticket to Poland. He had no plan and few connections, just a desire to help.

David has been on the ground in Krakow now for more than month, organizing supply runs into Ukraine while still running his company. When we heard about the important work he was doing we tracked him down for an interview. Exhausted but encouraged by the strength of the Ukrainian people, he shares a bit about the work he’s doing and how others can help.

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Connect with the team at inRecovery via email.

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

Vinod Khosla: Investing in the Future of Healthcare & Moonshot Thinking

January 19, 2021Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsEntrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Khosla Ventures, Pandemic Response, Startup, StartUp Health, Steven Krein, Unity Stoakes, Vinod KhoslaStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:45 — 77.9MB)

The global pandemic ushered in a new era of health innovation. StartUp Health founders Steven Krein and Unity Stoakes sat down for an interactive Fireside Chat with Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures to discuss the future of health innovation in a post-pandemic world, why moonshot thinking is more important than ever, and to dig deep into topics like the power of mindset and collaboration.

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.

Venus Williams Gets Candid About Entrepreneurship, Wellness and Bouncing Back From COVID-19

October 27, 2020Business, Health, Innovation, Startups, UncategorizedAlison Harmelin, Covid 19, COVID19, entrepreneurship, Health, health innovation, invest, investing, Logan Plaster, Longevity, massage, Startup, StartUp Health, Tennis, Venus Williams, ZeelStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:23 — 28.0MB)

Tennis icon and Olympian Venus Williams has built on her success on the court to become a savvy and successful investor, advisor and entrepreneur. Now she’s making her mark on health innovation. Venus Williams has partnered with Zeel, the wellness company that invented the idea of massage-on-demand. Now, Zeel has expanded to a tech-platform that offers a range of wellness on the go services. Recently, Zeel Co-founder Alison Harmelin sat down with the iconic tennis star to get her candid thoughts about health, entrepreneurship, and how startups can bounce back from COVID-19 even stronger than they started.

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