We are hearing a lot in the women’s health space about “longevity” being the next big category, meanwhile, all of us who have been on that beat for a while are trying to call it anything but that. First, because the age-old argument that longevity means “Healthspan” vs ‘Life Extension” is far from being resolved. Throw in wellness and biohacking, and things get even muddier.
We all got used to “evidence-based”, “data says”, “published papers” as expert speak to insinuate there is real science. Now everyone is an N-of-1 and you can be your own doctor with peptides, add AI hallucinating scientific papers and as Gen Z say: “we are cooked.” It is truly harder than ever to tell what is good science, or actually possible.
No matter, biology is truly the next big frontier, both OpenAI and Anthropic have made huge moves in the life sciences, and the success of GLP-1s is going to get Pharma looking for the next “consumer” blockbuster.
I will die on this hill: the next biggest opportunity in drug discovery is something to treat menopause (beyond symptoms), the business case for it is huge. If you want to talk more about this my DMs are always open, as this is part of our thesis at AthenaBIO.
For this reason I do think that a source of good information will be in-person curated events that strike the right balance between healthcare and lifestyle and that expose you to not only startups or products, but also to biotech and researchers.
And I got no one better to endorse than my friends at Vitalist Bay. The founders, Nathan Cheng and Adam Gries, are on the quest to fund, promote, and expose everyone to “longevity”; Aging Less and More Life (look out for the T-shirts design I donated for the cause).
If you are in the Bay Area, this is a must-do, and Let’s Talk Ovarian Health!
Laura Minquini
“We are living in an age where aging is becoming optional.”
The key longevity event is happening in the Bay Area this May again, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it! Vitalist Bay (May 14–17) is a 4-day longevity festival with 100+ leading longevity speakers, 50+ hands-on workshops, 40+ activations to level up your health.
Over 200 biotech pioneers in the scene are already attending.
DISCOUNT CODE
The first 15 AthenaBIO members to book get a 30% discount + complimentary DEXA scan with the code ATHENABIO
START-UP PITCH COMPETITION
Vitalist Bay is holding a pitch competition to put you in front of a network of longevity biotech investors. We encourage anyone working on solutions that could impact women’s healthspan or herald the new age of reproductive tools to please apply!
On the section “Please briefly describe what your company does?” add that you were referred by the AthenaBIO newsletter.
OUR TALKS AND WORKSHOPS
AthenaBIO founder Laura Minquini will be at Vitalist Bay talking the future of women’s health:
Thursday, May 14th at 9:40 AM: The Ovary Stack: Acceleration Roadmap for Women’s Healthspan
Thursday, May 14th from 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM: Women’s Health Biotech Investing: The Landscape Ahead
Join to get the inside scoop on what’s next in women’s health and biotech.
The women’s health space is interested in “longevity” now. What do you recommend women getting into the space do or learn?
Nathan: Stop thinking of them as separate fields. Aging is the single biggest risk factor for nearly every disease women face — cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis. Women live longer than men but spend more years in poor health. That gap alone is a massive unsolved problem. Start with the biology. Learn the hallmarks of aging. You don’t need a PhD. Follow the work of people like Joshua Johnson and Amy Killen on fertility clocks and hormone interventions. There are awesome people doing category-defining work right now. We have chapters, programs, and a network of scientists, founders, and investors all working on this. The field has overlooked women’s health for decades. It needs women who see that gap and want to build into it.
Adam: Jump in. The longevity space has a massive talent gap and women’s health has been severely under-researched in aging biology. If you’re already working in women’s health, you understand a set of problems such as hormonal aging, menopause, bone density, autoimmune disease. These are things that the longevity field is only now starting to take seriously. You’re not behind, you’re ahead. My practical advice: start connecting with the people doing the work. Follow the researchers, join the Vitalist community, go to the events. This space moves fast and relationships matter more than credentials. Some of the most impactful people I know in longevity came from completely different backgrounds - they just showed up, stayed curious, and found their angle. And if you’re a founder or thinking about building something, there’s capital looking for you. Investors in this space are actively searching for women’s health meets longevity. That intersection is wide open.
What should they expect at Vitalist Bay?
Nathan: Honestly, the density. Many hundreds of people who are all-in on longevity. You’re not just listening to talks, you’re meeting the people actually doing the work and figuring out where you fit in. There’s real programming across longevity science, AI and bio, investing, and more. But the magic is really what happens between sessions. The person you’re sitting next to at lunch might end up being someone you collaborate with for years. That happened last year and it keeps compounding. For women coming from the health space, it’s probably the fastest way to build a network in longevity that would otherwise take you a couple of years to piece together on your own.
Adam: Vitalist Bay compresses years of networking into four days. You’ll meet the scientists, the founders, the funders. Basically everyone who matters in longevity, all in one place. We built it specifically for that kind of collision. For someone coming from women’s health, I’d say expect to have your world expanded pretty quickly. You’ll hear talks that connect directly to what you care about, but you’ll also get exposed to things you didn’t know were relevant such as AI-driven drug discovery, biological age measurement, regenerative medicine. And then you’ll realize it all connects back. It’s not a sit-and-listen conference. People come to do things, find co-founders, close deals, start collaborations. Come with an open calendar and a willingness to talk to strangers.
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